Childrens Injurious Use of the Smartphone

With smartphone use so widespread, it's not surprising to hear so much talk about the digital world, and what it is doing to society. There is much good from the advances in technology and the abuses are many, and yet we need to remember the old adage: abuse does not take away use.

However, the  abuses of the smartphone are numerous, and need to acknowledge the reality society faces. Often, the very person we speak  to intimately is interrupted because of a call received. We become blind to those with whom we live and associate. The real world ceases to exist, and we become lost in the digital world. Not surprising to hear about the number of people with attention deficit disorders, and people who have difficulty distinguishing the real from the false.

A series of articles in the Catholic Times notes problems associated with the sexual culture that continues to grow with aid from the digital world. The article shows readers the many ways children and young people are being bombarded with lewd telephone calls and lewd pictures; exposed to an understanding of sex that is far from the holiness and beautiful encounter of husband and wife in the sexual embrace.

The article mentions a number of aberrations that  are pervasive in the culture. One of these are lewd telephone dating. Companies fostering this kind of interchange are springing up like mushrooms after rainfall. You are charged so much for every ten minutes of time with the person you are talking, and  not difficult to see the addictive attraction of this for some, and abuses that follow.

One of the deceptions is to have the women over the telephone suggest talking in the nude. This phishing acquires sensitive information, which is used to blackmail the person and threaten to notify parents and make known what transpired during the encounter, and asking for money. 

Young people have no way of protecting themselves from these schemes and malicious intentions of these efforts to make money from sex. The number of the young people with smart phones is close to 4 million: only 26.4 percent have the possibility of intercepting these lewd calls and pictures. Many started with the means to intercept lewd information but discontinued.

Government requires phones have the possibility of intercepting these lewd pictures and telephone calls. Companies selling these mobile phones are to notify the children and the guardians of the responsibility, and need to check to see if this is being done.

In 2015, a government survey determined 90.2 % of high-school students have smartphones, 86.6%  of  middle school children, and 59.3 % of elementary school children, Since this is the case it is easy to see how the children have access to adult content. One of the studies showed 38.3% among  children, and young people viewed sexting positively. The article concludes with hope parents will be more concerned in educating children to have a healthy understanding of sex.

Church for the World

On the opinion page of the Catholic Times, a priest recalls the speech the late Cardinal Kim gave in the Philippines. He stressed the Church should be for the world (Ecclesia pro vita mundi) one of the great teaching gifts from the Second Vatican Council. This statement to  Asians at that time came as a surprise, for many understood  the Church as concerned for itself: growth in numbers and size. (Eccleisa pro se ipsa).

Most of the organizations and groups in society are interested in preserving, and expanding their lives.   This is also true with the individual. Consequently, we have the ever-present  competition to deal with in  society, and  Pope Francis sees this unfettered competition as a social evil: success is succeeding in competition with your competitor at all costs.

Church is not immune from these market and worldly values, instead of evangelizing the world we are being changed by the world. We hear often, instead of the Church worrying about the world; the world worries about the church.

“Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.” (Pope Francis)

Church is the bride of Christ, disciples of Christ, and exists for the world. In Scripture, it is described as salt, yeast, light. In an ancient  document, a letter sent to Diognetus the Church was described as:  “What the soul is in the body,  Christians are to the world.”

Externally the Church enters the world but internally remains different from the world if it is to succeed in doing its work.  "They are not of the world, any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them by  truth- Your word is truth. As you have sent me into  the world, so I have sent them into the world...John (17: 15-17). 

This is the attitude the Church needs. Holiness of the Church is prerequisite if it is to do its mission correctly in the world, and not be compromised, and mission jeopardized.

We Can't Go Back to the Past

We can't go back into the past, writes the Peace Weekly journalist, in Word and Silence, and contemplates the beautiful picture of the earth taken from the  Apollo 17 trip to the moon that appears  like a precious jewel: blue marble. Difficult to image the wars, hunger, pain and sorrow that continue to exist on this beautiful planet earth, he laments.

Is our life that beautiful? Many look back into the past with fond memories. We forget the pain and the difficulties, for suddenly they are healed. We look back with the eyes of a poet.

The curtain has dropped on the  drama of the 1980s. Nostalgia remains for much of the styles of dress, cosmetics, songs, etc..  In 1988, we had the Olympics, also the beginning of the Peace Weekly newspaper. How did we live at that time? Was it a time we want to see returned? In recent years, we have had many movies and dramas that bring back to us those years: television series on life in those years, young peoples' dreams, romance and close family bonds.... 

The future appears  as a cold biting wind, a serious depression, and many entering a gloomy tunnel. Young people see it as 'Hell Chosun''; young people half joking, see life  being destroyed, and fathers of families are hiding their tears in being asked to voluntarily put in for early retirement.

People who are suffering from the cold are looking for the warm spot on the floor. When did we have the warm spot on the floor? Are we able to return to the times when as children, we went fishing?  No, this is impossible.  Going back to memories is no more than seeing a mirage. Nostalgia is only temporary. We have to find the answers in the present. In these barren times, we have to make the roads and dig the wells today. Tomorrow we begin Lent, a time of  renewal and living each day more fully.  

"Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert,  I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers"  (Isaiah  43:18-19).

Church Within A Consumer Society

A seminary philosophy professor writing for  the Catholic Times' opinion page recalls eating out with an older priest friend and laughing at his humorous story about a grandmother who was making it known that when she dies she wanted to have her ashes scattered from the roof of a department store.  She spent so many pleasant hours there with her friends, shopping, eating, talking, drinking coffee making many things possible for her. Sadly, he says, this thinking is a  self portrait of our present reality.

Enjoyment and happiness are so interwoven in our lives it's  difficult to distinguish between them.  It's true that enjoyment can be a part of happiness,  however, unfortunately few have little idea of what Aristotle considered necessary for happiness: virtue and contemplation is what satisfies.

Shopping is enjoyable and doesn't harm anyone and can be done alone; a way for many to unload much of the stress that comes with daily living. Consumerism is a way of exhibiting property and  values of society. He uses the words of a French philosopher who considers production of goods not as important as consumption. In our present society  consuming is a symbol. For many, what they buy is not what they need but a means of drawing attention. We need to buy brand names, expensive, but the reason to buy them. This gives one pleasure and a reason to separate oneself from others.

In the  consumer society it is not the use of the product but its symbolic value determining  our place in society and the standard of happiness.  When  others have that sign in their possession and we don't we feel like outcasts; not able to  follow the crowd we feel downcast.

Possessing these symbols we provoke the envy of others, moreover, with these symbols we have the illusion that we are happy, and have joined the class of the elite and are now the envy of all.

Koreans up until a few years ago, more than material wealth  considered  sharing of  affection, warmth  with neighbors and family in society of great value. Sacrifice was not considered an aberration; tenderness was not considered foolishness. To fight for truth was considered noble. We remember these times in the recent past but now only a nostalgic longing.

Devotion arising from our religious feelings is no longer common. True happiness is not related to contemplation, and  the propensity to have it slide in the direction of enjoyment and consumerism is only natural. Members of society are raising up temples with department stores. He concludes the article asking the readers to again recall the true values that God has given us, and begin following them in the new year. Happy Lunar New Year.

Superstition In the Life of Christians

Even among Catholics we still have about one out of  four who have  participated in some superstitious  practice, and close to one of three who have no problem with fortune telling. President of a Catholic College writes in the Kyeongyang magazine on the way he sees the issue and what has to be done.

In the Catechism of the Church #2116: "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse  to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices  falsely supposed to 'unveil' the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots,  the phenomena of clairvoyance and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict  the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone."

'Begging for blessings' is a type of religious faith that those who indulge in superstitious practices find attractive. Many who have studied the issue have made known the problems and reasons for them.

First, we have little Christian understanding, lack of  trust and reliance on God, and no identity and confidence.  Secondly, the feeling of loss in an insecure society, Church's failure to present mercy and consolation, and to speak about the the harm of superstitious practices, are reasons for their prevalence.

Our  writer finds  reasons for the continuation of this  fortune telling culture as related to Christians' understanding of being led by the Spirit. Koreans see divination and looking for blessings as their search for elegance and elation. Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity have as their bed rock shamanism. 

Koreans in their religious feeling believe something is moving them. Theologically, we Christians, call this the Spirit. The writer feels that more than wanting to know the future those that go to fortune tellers are seeking to be led by truth and the Spirit of God.

It is not easy for a Korean Christian to  experience God and following Jesus they always feel something missing.They want to be led by the Spirit and truth and they do not find this experiencing of the Spirit so they substitute it with fortune telling and asking for blessings.

He concludes the article by suggesting the way to lessen the hold of divination and looking for blessings is to deepen the faith of the Christians in the role of the Spirit in life by prayer.

Going Against the Culture

In Korea, we have many who desire to become disciples of Jesus and are baptized, happy to be called brothers and sisters. However, once baptized  there is  a concern on how to address one another. A religious sister writing in View from the Ark column of the Catholic Times deals with the conundrum some Christians face.

She mentions that in Korean culture from the long past, calling a person by their name is not something that agrees with Korean sensibilities or ways of behaving. When we are dealing with seniors and persons with a higher position, it's  nearly impossible to call them by their given name. Consequently, a person is called by their office or position: teacher, president, director, chairmen and the like.

This very fact goes to show that we are not on equal footing, she says. Age and position are what is   important. Meeting for the first time we have to determine who is older or younger, so we will know how to address them. We find it difficult to call a person by their name alone: a sign of impoliteness and disrespect. This is true even within the church community.

She wonders if Jesus would be happy with the situation that we have in the church. Poor, and those with  difficult jobs are intimidated when they come to church. Not once in their lives have they had a job in which they would have a leadership position, or work that was respected.

We are all brothers and sisters within the church community, equal and with no highs or low, this is also  expressed in the liturgy. And yet within the community we have those who if not called by their titles think etiquette is breached, and feel diminished in the eyes of others. In Korean church beginnings, we had nobles, commoners and slaves all sitting and eating  together and calling each other brothers and sisters. We are no longer living in Chosen Dynasty  times, and yet rarely use our given and baptismal names when addressing each other, but titles of rank or work.

She concludes with a strong wish that we begin using in the community the names we were given by our parents and the baptismal name we received when baptized. She would like  priests and religious to be the first to show us by example: calling the parishioners by their baptismal name preceded by brother or sister.

Joy and Confidence With Doing Something Difficult

"You all wanted to go play in the water,  why aren't you coming in?" Words of the father of Han Pia, at water's edge. "Because it's  cold," was the children's answer."

"How do you know that without entering the water and seeing for yourself. Come on in,  if too cold you can always return to the shore." These words of her  father, she has never forgotten, and writes in  With Bible magazine that she often uses the same words with others, a valuable gift from her father.

Han Pia is  principal of the World Vision School of Global Citizenship, and writes about her experience, and what she has learned. For 6 years with a knapsack she has  traveled around the world, and experienced many difficulties. According to a Korean proverb, she recalls, when young these difficulties in old age would be worth even paying for them.

On one transcontinental train trip from Moscow to Beijing she traveled for 7 nights and 8 days. After that trip she has never complained of a  long, tiring trip. In China she was on a train that was crowded, like the subways in Korea around the New Year, and she had to stand all the way for 30 hours.

In India she was sick from food poisoning and her whole body was a rash, making matters worse,  she was attacked by mosquitoes and bedbugs which made her feel as if she was in a bee hive, her whole body smarting and swollen. On another occasion she was taking antimalarial medicine and the reaction to the medicine was nausea, and couldn't eat for two weeks.

She thought walking for 10 hours was her limit, but she did on one occasion walk for 15 hours which raised her expectations. She has extended this in  mountain climbing to 22 hours, and now wants to test her body for another longer mountain climbing experience.

Recently she met a woman who had walked a mountain trail for 30  hours. She envied the woman and made up her mind this new lunar new year to make the same trip. She doesn't know if her knees will hold up, but she will not know until she tries.

She recommends to the readers of her article to do something during  the new year which they would ordinarily consider difficult but a good, and have so far avoided. They will gain confidence, strength and  courage, helping them face the difficulties that come along in life.