Maid in Singapore: Christian perspective

12 March 2012 11 Comments

She will get rotten

“If she is allowed out every Sunday she will get ‘corrupted’ by other maids”, said a member to me when I shared my view that God cares for maids too and wants them to have a weekly rest. She would learn tricks and be emboldened to resist “mam”. She would compare pay and conditions with other maids and come home with a sour attitude. She’ll spend more money, and worse, get involved with a man outside. What if she gets pregnant? I’d lose my deposit. Which of course I knew were all possible consequences.

Stressed out

Singaporeans are busy people and having a maid costs quite a tidy monthly sum. They want to maximize every cent. They  are a tired lot, what with both husband and wife working in normally stressful jobs, and having to tutor the children in their school work. Having a maid around the house was a great help. When the weekend comes the couple is deadbeat and they often are tempted to keep the maid home so that they can snatch some quality rest amidst ferrying the children to all kinds of activities.

The maid needs a rest day

Somehow employers find it hard to look at the positives of maids having a weekly day of rest. The maid needs physical and emotional rest from the grind and stress they face  all day and night, six days a week, serving a family of a different culture. maids at Orchard resting and with friendsAdded to that the maid comes from a family she left back home and she may have problems of her own: loneliness, debts, problems back home, and plain tiredness from endless tasks, if not having any problems with her “mam” (which is highly unlikely – even with a Christian “mam”).

Day of rest refreshes

The day of rest gives her time to connect with her own kind, de-stress by talking about her problems, gain practical advice on how to cope with the Singapore family expectations and cross-cultural difficulties. The maid may even by her own initiative get enriched through training courses. She returns home refreshed after eating comfort food from home and just being with friends and acquaintances who are going through the same hardships, problems and joys. Employers who look at the positives of letting the maid have a day off are rare. They are mainly “angmohs” and the more enlightened Singaporeans.

Law to make rest day mandatory

Finally after 10 years of appeals by the The Archdiocesan Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants & Itinerant People (ACMI) and the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home), and other groups like Transit Workers Count Too (TWC2) and the Singapore Committee for United Nations Women, such a day of rest is finally going to be reality. Hong Kong and Taiwan already has such laws. So beginning 1 January 2013, all maids given contracts will by law have a weekly day of rest. However all 206,000 maids in Singapore already under contract will not benefit from the force of this law. Since Christians are a good 15% of the population of Singapore and most of the families with young children would hire a maid we are talking about a good number of maids employed for Christian families. As family is one of the key areas of transformation that Love Singapore churches are seeking to influence with kingdom values, what is the ideal stance towards this day of rest issue? A look at a bit of ancient legislation in a tiny Middle East nation may offer wisdom:

12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (Deut 5).

God’s compassionate heart for maids

Interestingly the concern of God for his creatures to rest goes beyond the family and the children at home: it included the servants. And the foreigner. And even the animals that work the farm. Note that in the verses above Israel’s law code revealed God’s heart for the powerless: “male and female servants” was a repeated phrase, as though to underline the most vulnerable. Secondly, the rationale was that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and never had a rest day, and should of all peoples, understand the need of rest of those in their own community, both the foreigners and servants (just as they were foreign workers/servants in Egypt). It does remind one of Jesus saying, Do to others as you want others to do to you. Lastly, that little phrase “as you do” at the end of verse 14 is telling. Just as the employers need rest, so do the servants.

Walk in the Spirit

Of course, Christians are no longer under the civil law code of ancient Israel. However, the spirit of the law is what Jesus would have today’s believers discern and exercise. It invites us to treat animals, foreigners, and in particular, servants (or maids) with due concern for their their physical welfare, one that mirrors our concern for adequate rest for our own sons and daughters. A believer of radical grace would go even farther. And this farther does not mean coercing them to go to church on Sundays with the family, so that they get “saved”! The intention may be pure and noble, but if the means to the end is morally wrong, it is wrong. On the other hand the intention may just be a pretext and excuse to have the maid relieve the family of child care burdens. There are of course maids who prefer to go with the employer out of love, for economic and other reasons, and there is no quarrel with that. There are also those employers who give them a choice and even paid them more for the extra day of work, as suggested by a panel that $15 be paid for making Sunday an additional workday(with the maid’s consent). One way the second mile can be walked by Christians transformed by grace is to not wait till the law is enforced in Jan 2013. Grant them the day off or option to work with pay, not later in 1 Jan 2013, but with immediate effect. My hope is that this is not necessary because you have been doing so all along, in which case you have been walking in the Spirit!

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A review of Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard

9 November 2011 4 Comments

renovation of the heart

Vision of spiritual formation

The author wants the church to hold to a vision of spiritual formation of all believers into the likeness of Jesus Christ. This is rooted in the Great Commission, and the church that fails to do this simply has failed. Dallas Willard is a professor of Philosophy in U.S.C. and a widely read author. His writing is cogent, and patiently builds up air-tight arguments to prove his thesis. His extensive reading and research is evidenced in his references. But his background also explains why his definitions of various elements of the human, like soul, spirit, and heart betray a lack of biblical theology.

Dallas begins by painting a grim picture of the gap between what is professed and what is lived out by the church. Many have severely fallen short of the standard of Christ’s holy life. He then pinpoints the church’s problem: majoring on the minors. The cure: a fresh, intentional focus on spiritual formation. A vision of change and hope is outlined and then in detail he goes on to show how every element of the human person can be transformed. The thought life and the feelings; the will and the body; the social and soul, all need to come under the transforming work of Spirit and man’s intentional and habitual response.

Biblical theology gap

The definitions and explanations and practical applications about what Christians can do to predispose themselves to God’s grace in transformation are clear and the arguments almost airtight. However I would have been more convinced if he had brought in more biblical theology with word studies, of biblical terms like the heart, or spirit and soul. It sounded more psychological than biblical. Perhaps in targeting the lay Christian reader, he has deliberately avoided technical discussion on such matters, but I wished that at least it could have been included in an appendix.

He could have filled a gap in terms of biblical theology of how Christ’s finished work, our union with Christ, the sacraments, and sanctification relates to spiritual formation. Perhaps he was overeager to avoid theological jargon but we readers would like to be able to relate what we read in his book to the epistles of St Paul in Romans 6-8 and other great passages. For example, he made some insightful observations about how “ideas, sensations and emotions”, both positive and negative, can by habit become “settled attitudes” that become like tendencies that can trigger automatically without conscious thought in reaction to life situations. It would have been wonderful if he discussed that in relation to the “old man” or “the flesh” or “body of sin” or “ indwelling sin”.

Community applications needed

His suggestions were practical. For instance, memorization and meditation of the Scriptures to renovate the mind so that it comes fully under Christ’s rule. However, it is noticeable that most of his applications were directed to the individual Christian. There were a few directed to the community and leaders of the community in the social dimension but it would have been better if all the application were viewed from a community and relational viewpoint. Thus the applications for mind renewal could have been the reading and preaching of Scriptures in the worship service, the role of hymns, the family’s role in encouraging thinking from God’s viewpoint, the study and discussion and application of truth to life in small groups etc. Frankly, most individual Christians will not memorize scriptures or study over the long haul. The only hope of such actions becoming habits must be for a community practice to be established and for them to participate in them faithfully.

An Asian way?

The approach of breaking down all the human elements that need transformation is also a very Western and scientific approach. It helps me to understand each particular part and how it functions together and deepens my understanding, but it also overwhelms the individual with too much applications, and it feels quite cumbersome. It may be better if he had taken a more Asian or holistic and biblical approach and viewed the human being as a whole and demonstrated how Christ’s death and resurrection has provided a basis for the renewal of my whole being and how the church needs to provide a conducive context where all its members can better predispose themselves to the ongoing grace of sanctification.

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Book review of Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster

13 October 2011 Leave a comment

streams of living waterA mature faith

One of the marks of a mature faith is that it is sufficiently secure to explore other Christian traditions and discover in them good which they can incorporate into their life without losing their roots in the essentials of faith in Christ. One of the early steps we can take to hop out of our wells and widen our appreciation of the larger body of Christ is to read this interesting book. It is substantial without being too academic. It will give you food for thought, and stimulate desire for holistic growth.

General content and development

The author identifies six traditions from the various movements in church history and categorizes them according to their unique emphasis in faith and practice. They are the contemplative, the holiness, the charismatic, social justice, the evangelical, and the incarnational. He argues that the essence of these major traditions find their embodiment in the person of Jesus, and since we are called to follow Him, these traditions and practices are to be nurtured in the life of the believer and the church. He unpacks each tradition by using 3 persons as illustrations: a historical figure; a Bible character; and a contemporary person. The he describes the tradition and lists its strengths and perils and suggest practical applications.

One example of how he develops his subject is the charismatic tradition where he first uses St Francis of Assisi as the historical figure that epitomizes this stream; and then St Paul the apostle as the biblical example of the charismatic; and finally, James Seymour, the leader in the Azusa Street outpouring, as a contemporary example. Next he shows how the tradition is supported by scripture. Moving from this base, he lists charismatic strengths, one of which is empowering to serve; and a list of perils, one of which is rejecting the rational and intellectual. Finally he gives practical suggestions of how to be more open to follow the promptings of the Spirit.

Debatable choices and Third World absence

Naturally it is debatable who would be the best candidate to represent each stream. For example, the use of St Francis to illustrate the charismatic tradition could just as well, or even better represent the social justice tradition. Dietrich Bonhoeffer could be a candidate for social justice instead of holiness. I would have thought someone like bishop Oscar Romero should not be left out of the book completely. He should at least appear in the list of notable figures and significant movements in appendix B. Sadly sterling Asian men of God like Watchman Nee, John Sung, Bakht Singh and Wang Ming Dao were conspicuously absent.

The book does not sufficiently argue the how and why he arrived at the six traditions and not one less, or one more? Could there have been an additional tradition that did not make the list and why not. It would have been enlightening and more convincing if the reader had some access to the arguments, even if only in an appendix.

An incomplete end?

The conclusion was too abrupt. He could have debated about whether the Bible posits an ideal of every Christian having all these six traditions in full mature expression, or whether what is seen of the six traditions, and in Jesus is meant to be expressed not through the individual, but through the corporate or community expression of the Body of Christ, whether in its local expression, or in the universal expression. It would have been good for the author to identify the contemporary situation: are all streams represented in today’s church? Which denomination is displaying which tradition best? And discuss if what God intended is actually having different members or “tribes” of his worldwide church displaying these streams in varying strengths so that together they present the fullness and the ideal.

A good and important read

However what I like about the book are many. This book has broadened my perspective and understanding. The natural tendency is to be entrenched in our own tradition and to denigrate those of others. Reading this has deepened my appreciation of the richness of the faith that the Lord of history has deposited into the life of the church over centuries, a treasure not to be despised.

Another asset is how the author shows that the various strands are inter-related to each other. Out of a rich contemplative life would flow a life of holiness and the charismata of the Holy Spirit. Logically too such a person would have power to be and to live compassionately. Justice and compassion cannot go without the evangelical witness of the Gospel message. And all these traditions must be embodied in people who live ordinary everyday lives and this is the incarnational tradition. What a joyful dance the inter-relationships point to!

richard j fosterRichard J Foster is a well known author of best selling books like “Celebration of Discipline”, “Prayer” and other books on spirituality and spiritual disciplines. The tradition that nourished him is the social justice tradition of the Quakers. There are Quakers of the more liberal sort, and those that are very evangelical, and he belongs to the latter.

This is also one book where I read all the appendices. The summary of church history from the lens of the six traditions and the list of notable persons and movements in history was a different approach I liked. And though they were not as exhaustive as I would prefer it to be with respect to Asian and African representation, they helped to strengthen the author’s thesis. I have benefited much from reading this book and will explore further its proper application to life.

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DUMC raid: it’s about what’s right for the marginalized

15 August 2011 2 Comments

Shock at DUMC raid by Jais

Already there had been issues that had risen in the recent decade with rights of Muslim converts to Christianity to change their designation on their ID, the Alkitab issue, and the accompanying bomb blast at a Kuala Lumpur church. Last week, with shock I read that the Damansara Utama Methodist Church(DUMC) was raided by 20-30 Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) officers. Just June, last year, I had been at dumcthe Petaling Jaya megachurch. The church’s community arm, Harapan Komuniti was holding a dinner event to thank its donors, leaders, volunteers and the beneficiaries of the NGO that assists the poor and the needy, including women, children, and victims of HIV/AIDS and natural disasters, regardless of race or religion. Most governments would be happy to see volunteer organizations raise funds and mobilize volunteers to help needy citizens. But reportedly, having received a complaint, the religious officers had gone to the Aug 3 event at 9.45pm to check if there were Muslims present which is not allowed under the Syariah Criminal Enactment (Selangor) 1995.

The Singapore way

Without patronising or saying that we have a better way of managing such matters in Singapore, or that I endorse it, inter religious harmony legislation has been accompanied by comprehensive pre-emptive monitoring of the relations between the religions. It is common knowledge among pastors of megachurches and mullahs of popular mosques that in their audience there may be plainclothes intelligence  officers taping and listening for speeches that may incite inter-religious trouble. Complaints from the public are followed through judiciously. Phone calls and appointments have been made to give caution. Hands have been slapped before, public warnings have been issued, but never an intrusion of such expression nor proportion.

Searching for political capital instead of the capital’s marginalized

When the politicians came into the picture to squeeze some capital out of it, the issue seemed to have developed a life of its own . It is certainly fascinating for a Singaporean like me to follow the ongoing news reports, though for a Malaysian it would probably be viewed with consternation and frustration. To have an idea of how different parasites are feeding off this situation, read Wyngman’s obsevations in his blog post of how six “blinded” parties “see” the raid: The DUMC raid: are we forgetting someone?

He concludes with a poignant appeal for everyone to focus on the real issue, and he is right:

In a word, the politically motivated see only what they want to see. But what they can’t see is that segment which they must be most responsible for i.e. the least of ‘the people’. I’m talking about the homeless, the AIDS victim, the drug addict, the retarded, the orphan, the widow, the handi-capped i.e. the very people for whom the DUMC dinner was thrown – who sees them? Only, it seems, DUMC and Harapan Komuniti.

The drug addicts and homeless are those which society doesn’t enjoy seeing, so all the more reason why our leaders must take a good hard look at how they came to be. The orphans are the ones for whom GE13 will make hardly a whiff of difference, so it’s critical that voters make a difference at GE13 bearing these children in mind. The handicapped are the ones who will continue to suffer after the media shit’s been cleaned (off the fans and the surrounding ‘areas’), so we need to bring them to the top of our political priorities lest it makes our talk of justice and a ‘high-income society’ full of shit.

A Muslim cleric who sees more clearly

Blogger James Lim in a blogpost cited a report by the Malaysian Insider that Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, an influential Muslim cleric and former Perlis mufti said it was not a sin for Muslims to receive aid from non-Muslims and questioned the efficiency of the distribution of zakat(alms) to the poor. He is reported to have said:

“Where have all our wang zakat (alms) gone? Collections of hundreds of millions of ringgit are announced every year,” said Asri in an essay sent to The Malaysian Insider today.

“Is it not enough to help the poor get out of their poverty without them having to ask others for help?” he questioned.

“Why is there so much red tape blocking the poor from getting alms? There is so much red tape just to get even RM100 to RM200. This is despite the zakat offices looking opulent, the high salaries for officers and bosses, and advanced equipment,” Asri lamented.

“Is the high cost meant only to find donors, but without sufficient willpower to find suitable recipients?” he asked.

“It is the right of anyone to help whomever they want. As long as rules and laws are followed, one can help another regardless of race or religion,” said Asri.

“There are many questions that Muslims must ask themselves before blaming others,” said Asri.

True religion

The tragic fact is that after all have been said and done about this issue, people are going to assert that they are in the right and others are wrong, and the marginalized will continue to be the neglected marginalized. But it’s not about who is in the right, but it’s all about what’s the right, compassionate thing that Malaysian society are going to do about the marginalized. Will all currently interested parties step in to contribute their abundant gifts of energy, time and money to help them?

Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (Galatians 1:10)

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to9 keep oneself unstained from the world.(James 1:27)

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The pursuit of true happiness

8 June 2011 3 Comments

pleasurable experiences often have social dimension If owning more and newer and better things does not make a person happy, then what does? In an article in the Straits Times, Tobias Chen and Ang Swee Hoon, a student and associate professor of NUS Business School, suggested that experiences have a greater effect of augmenting happiness than does the accumulation of possessions. “Increases in material possessions may well be accompanied by a decrease in happiness. This phenomenon, termed the “hedonic treadmill” says that as possessions increase, so do people’s expectations. Over time, people become less sensitised towards their possessions and require even more new possessions just to sustain the same level of happiness as before.”

They say research shows people gain more happiness by accumulating experiences. Going to the spa, attending a concert, playing golf, going on a holiday, and other pleasurable experiences: these does more for our personal happiness index than a new watch or house or car. The reason they theorize is that “experiences are more central to one’s self identity than material goods” as “people tend to describe themselves by the activities they engage in; rarely do they define themselves by the houses they live in, the cars they drive, or the watches they wear, even though these items convey certain characteristics about them”. The authors are on to something when they mentioned that part of the pleasurable experiences that give happiness had a “social” element, some relational factor which gave rise to this happiness.

Solomon, the son of David and Israel’s king of its golden age, had said that the accumulation of great wealth and possessions and experiencing of all kinds of conceivable pleasures does not give sustainable happiness. He added that neither does great works and accomplishments.

I said to myself, “Let’s go for it—experiment with pleasure, have a good time!” But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.

What do I think of the fun-filled life? Insane! Inane!
My verdict on the pursuit of happiness? Who needs it?
With the help of a bottle of wine
and all the wisdom I could muster,
I tried my level best
to penetrate the absurdity of life.
I wanted to get a handle on anything useful we mortals might do
during the years we spend on this earth.

4-8 Oh, I did great things: built houses,
planted vineyards,
designed gardens and parks
and planted a variety of fruit trees in them,
made pools of water
to irrigate the groves of trees.
I bought slaves, male and female,
who had children, giving me even more slaves;
then I acquired large herds and flocks,
larger than any before me in Jerusalem.
I piled up silver and gold,
loot from kings and kingdoms.
I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song,
and—most exquisite of all pleasures—
voluptuous maidens for my bed.

9-10 Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What’s more, I kept a clear head through it all. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work!

11 Then I took a good look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.

12-14 And then I took a hard look at what’s smart and what’s stupid. What’s left to do after you’ve been king? That’s a hard act to follow. You just do what you can, and that’s it. But I did see that it’s better to be smart than stupid, just as light is better than darkness. Even so, though the smart ones see where they’re going and the stupid ones grope in the dark, they’re all the same in the end. One fate for all—and that’s it.

15-16 When I realized that my fate’s the same as the fool’s, I had to ask myself, “So why bother being wise?” It’s all smoke, nothing but smoke. The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight. In a day or two they’re both forgotten. Yes, both the smart and the stupid die, and that’s it.

17 I hate life. As far as I can see, what happens on earth is a bad business. It’s smoke—and spitting into the wind.

18-19 And I hated everything I’d accomplished and accumulated on this earth. I can’t take it with me—no, I have to leave it to whoever comes after me. Whether they’re worthy or worthless—and who’s to tell?—they’ll take over the earthly results of my intense thinking and hard work. Smoke.

20-23 That’s when I called it quits, gave up on anything that could be hoped for on this earth. What’s the point of working your fingers to the bone if you hand over what you worked for to someone who never lifted a finger for it? Smoke, that’s what it is. A bad business from start to finish. So what do you get from a life of hard labor? Pain and grief from dawn to dusk. Never a decent night’s rest. Nothing but smoke.(Ecclesiastes 2, the Message)

As Solomon concluded from his experience, this pursuit of happiness is “bad business”, “nothing but smoke”. The possibility of lasting and true happiness came only with the death and resurrection of Jesus. With that sinful human beings can enter into a living relationship with the Triune God in the Person of Jesus. And beyond this vertical relationship, human beings can choose to relate to one another in a redemptive way. There is this new Eden where the Triune God in the person of Jesus is in fellowship with all His people, a people empowered by His redemptive work, to relate in authentic Christian community. This is where people find their self identity: in Christ and in Christian community. This is where true happiness is.

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