In the parish bulletin this past week we had a list of 19 activities that will help us to return to a healthy relationship with our environment. They will lead to a simple, and minimal lifestyle for the brave of heart.
1. Use with restraint vinyl bags and plastic containers
2. Carry along a bottle of water
3. Planned shopping—carry along a bag
4. Don't use disposables
5. Knowing and practicing on how to sort the trash
6. Restraint on using home delivery services and request little packaging
7. Reduce the amount of meat and dairy products used
8. Increase the eating of vegetables
9. Eat food in season and buy locally
10. Restraint on ordering food to eat
11. Eat all the food on your plate
12. Prepare only the amount of food you need
13. Put the Frigidaire in order regularly
14. Refrain from buying bottled water
15. Taking a shower put the water waiting for the hot water to come in a pail to use on plants
16. Save the water you use in washing dishes, brushing teeth and washing
17. Walk short distances
18. Use public transportation
19. Wise use of electricity
In the US presidential election (2016), the world was shocked by the fact that fake news was viewed on the Internet more than real news. Experts in the world at that time said the number of clicks would be directly linked to money, and that fake news would never disappear because of the "confirmation bias", people are looking for news that suits their tastes. They also predicted that this would only expand with the expansion of digital capitalism. So begins the column In the Eyes of the Believer in the Catholic Times by a media expert.
The English Oxford dictionary calls this the 'post-truth' era. Pope Francis continues to point out the evils surrounding "fake news," calling for countermeasures since fake news undermines community spirit and democracy.
Over the next few years, the problems will be magnified. The digital media platform has taken its place in people's everyday life and continues rapidly to develop and 'false truth' will also spread. Fake news is a malicious variant of hate content that is harming human society.
In March, 51 people were killed in a shooting incident in Christchurch, New Zealand. At that time, the perpetrator shocked the world by broadcasting the crime scenes through the Facebook streaming service.
Extreme and violent hate speech is mainly about race, nationality, religion, and sexual identity. In India, where societal and cultural conflicts are serious, fake news and hate speech is spread in social media, assaults, and murders continue. It is no exaggeration to say that the general election in India, which took place on April 11th with the participation of 900 million voters (10% of the world's population) for six weeks, was a war against hate speech.
In Europe, anti-refugees and anti-EU right-wing extremists are raising their voices, and racial expressions of aversion are common. In Germany, foreign hate crimes and anti-Semitic crimes are increasing.
In Korea, we have the same problems. The number of requests for the correction of harmful information (hate speech, discrimination, abuse, and profanity) has increased from 1,982 in 2015 to 3,900 in 2018. When you enter YouTube, there is a lot of extreme hate speech about Yemen refugees, Chinese compatriots, social underdogs, and sexual minorities.
In this regard, YouTube is more dangerous. This is because it is tailored to 'taste and beliefs' rather than objective facts. Nowadays, media users are showing great use for YouTube, and Koreans are especially enthusiastic. In this respect, our country can not say hate and crime are not related.
The legal restrictions on the expression of hate speech don't come easy because they can violate the 'freedom of expression' ( almost sacrosanct in the United States). However, Germany, which knows the results of hate speech has enacted the Network Implementation Act and is implementing it strongly. Singapore and Australia, and a growing number of other countries are responding. In Korea, which has been dealing with defamation changes in the penal code, there are more opinions on cracking down on fake news, repulsive expression and the regulating of digital platform companies.
Above all, media literacy (education) is essential. Fake news became more and more urgent as it became a malicious variant of hate news. Like the old battle against illiteracy, media literacy education must be carried out by the government, as well as by various institutions and organizations. Reading the signs of the times we all need to confront hatred in the media. The church, which has no related programs yet, should also get involved in the work.
Until now, the world has achieved remarkable results in solving poverty. The poorest people living below $1.9 per day in 1999 accounted for 36% of the world's population. It dropped to 16% in 2010, 10% in 2015, and to 9% in 2016 and predicted to fall to 3% in 2030. Since 1990, about 1.1 billion people have moved out of poverty. Especially in East Asia, the Pacific, Europe, and Central Asia, the number of the poorest has already fallen below 3%. But is the problem so simple? So asks a professional in development finances in the Catholic Peace Weekly.
When we include education, infrastructure, health and security we increase poverty by 1.5 times. Many are the difficulties in reducing the percentage of poorest people from 9% to 3%. Many of the countries suffer from disputes, civil wars, and disasters. Consequently, in no position to do business with a development bank or other organization. And yet we can't neglect 6% of the world's population
Currently, more than half of the poorest are in sub-Saharan Africa. Development in this area is slow and the number of the poor is increasing as the population grows. According to this trend, nine out of the ten world's poorest people in 2030 will be in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these are young people under the age of 18, and most likely will not receive a proper education.
Poverty is not a problem for developing countries alone. Looking over the last 30 years the inequality in the OECD countries presently is the most severe. The top 10 percent hold half of the total wealth and the bottom 40% share is only 3%. The real income of the top 10% is 9.5 times that of the bottom 10%, compared to the 7 times in the 1980s. In these countries, children in the lower 10% of households are expected to take 150 years to earn an average income.
The situation, however, is not hopeless. It's not impossible to solve poverty in this world within a generation. First, while developing new business models through cutting-edge technological innovation, financial instruments that have not yet been tried in the developing world market should be used to improve the lives of the world's poorest 40%. In addition, development agencies need new approaches, different from the past. In particular, it is necessary to invest heavily in human beings. Between 2000 and 2011, 24% of developing economies grew in health status. Investments that include health and education become critical issues in the digital age.
The writer mentions that many still confuse the Millennium Development Goal—8 goals, with the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2015 for the year 2030. SDG has 17 goals. It's a political declaration that the world governments want to achieve by 2030. Government policies have international significance: companies, private organizations, and individuals can participate directly in global development and see great change.
Pope St. Paul VI in his 1967 Encyclical Populorum Progressio concluded that the new name for peace was development. The writer hopes that the years ahead with technical and financial support for the poorest people in place she hopes that what St. Paul VI found in Africa and South America before becoming pope will have changed.
Writing in Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Weekly a pastor reminds the readers that two of the representative indicators of Korean popular culture are the dramas and pop songs and selects the BTS (Bangtan Boys, Bulletproof Boy Scouts) and one of the popular dramas on TV: 'Fiery Priest', which recently ended. Bangtan K-Pop group has grown into one of the most famous of the superstars now on the world stage.
On the 'Love Yourself' World Tour, they were the first pop group to address the United Nations: "true love begins by loving myself" a message enthusiastically supported by young people. They are asking the young people to share their vision and be of one heart with those who are experiencing conflicts, anxieties, pain, oppression and living in uncertain and unfair circumstances; hoping their words will be a cause of healing and consolation. We share their ideals that become completed by the love of God and neighbor.
SBS TV drama 'The Fiery Priest' is an exciting hero drama, and it has recently ended with top ranking for its time spot. In the process of punishing evil and revealing the truth, the main character, the hot blood priest, is an active member of the National Intelligence Service, special team. In the drama, the background is Catholicism—priests, nuns, and church, but used only as a prop to develop the contents.
On the positive side, the drama has impact on giving a Catholic image for non-Catholic believers, and it is an opportunity for Catholics to see an image of Catholicism, however, to eliminate evil and establish justice by dependence on violence is not the Christian way.
Evangelical values pursued and practiced lead not to oppressive power and violence, but rely on the power of nonviolent resistance and love. Recently, dramas based on religion, and works based on Catholic themes have been mostly positive. There have been a number of dramas appearing on cable with positive images of the church: reflected in the fight against evil, a tempered life, self-discipline, and the conscientious clergy who live with the people in the world. There is always the real danger of using the church with distorted images of Catholicism.
Popular culture is a mixed bag, producing meaning with various behaviors and ideologies. Therefore, popular culture can provide new information, promote socialization, and play a positive role in entertainment and pleasure. On the other hand, it can play a negative and harmful role because it maximizes human desires such as money, power, and honor, and produces unethical and immoral content as a result. The church needs 'cultural evangelism' that recognizes the duality of popular culture, using the positive side, and filtering out the harmful side.
Traditionally, the church has taken a negative attitude regarding popular culture as low, decadent, and harmful to its faith: attempting to transform the culture of death into a culture of life. Consequently, a weak will to actively utilize the positive aspect of popular culture in mission or pastoral care.
Indeed, popular culture and Christianity have in common a desire to seek meaningful life experiences. Communication between popular culture and Christianity can begin from experience and meaning in life. The spirituality of popular culture can play a role in helping to experience God, and Christian spirituality found in meaning experienced through popular culture.
In conclusion, the writer would like to see a more effective use of the popular culture to revitalize the stagnant youth ministry within the church by using culture to make our teaching more contemporary and to meet the young people where they are.
What does one do if one finds a fly struggling in the cold noodle bowl just ordered in a restaurant? The Peace column in the Catholic Peace Weekly asks the readers. For many, obvious, you call the waiter to take it back. If the waiter says: take the spoon and remove the fly, why do you want to change the whole bowl? The chances are pretty high that the restaurant would be rather noisy.
The waiter was not wrong. Since the fly was struggling to get out it just happened, so the whole bowl can be seen as not contaminated. Nevertheless, we think it is reasonable to give it back to the waiter. The human mind has an instinct to avoid contamination. For example, most people find rotten food disgusting and instinctively push it aside since it can pollute both emotionally and physically.
Nowadays, politicians are manipulating the human mind in the above fashion and making politics a mess. Granted that politics requires the use of power and strength to achieve goals but does it require crude words and non-human-like behavior to achieve these goals. Recently the rude words uttered by one of the politicians was top news on portal sites, each viewer taking sides. Many take the news to the social media and amplify the conflict and hatred in their own way. The conservatives are old fools and the progressive are leftwing reds. Each sees the other as a fly in their noodles and wants to get rid of it.
The politician seeing the many 'thumbs up' response on the social network must have been pleased. He was in the big times. It spread to the other media outlets and YouTube and he must have been happy with himself with all the clicks.
Looking over the political climate which helps to rally confrontation and hatred one is saddened. Instead of criticizing this sad state of affairs, the media jumps in and helps to stir it up. The writer doesn't know how much coexistence and integration is worth to them. Ideology in society that has gone to the extremes is a responsibility of the media and the netizens who go along with it.
Did you just comment in the digital world today with unkind and rude words? If so, it is the seed of division. Have you ever poured ideological biased content—personal opinion— without deep thought into the internet? The devil is always there to encourage confrontation and to engage in violence. In fact, Korean society has not been able to get out of the 'demon trap' and two of the examples: Gwangju Uprising (5:18) the truth, and the 'environment-friendly' policy debate.
"A community is much stronger if it is cohesive and supportive, if it is animated by feelings of trust, and pursues common objectives. The community as a network of solidarity requires mutual listening and dialogue, based on the responsible use of language." These words are in the message for World Communication Day, Ascension Sunday 2019.
"What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops."(Matthew 10, 27). Public institutions should be tools for encounter and reconciliation, not of division but facilitators of peace.
Korean Catholicism has a history of martyrdom and a church that began without the help of foreign missioners. The laity spread the faith without the help of the clergy until the first priest came from China.
In 1785 began the first persecution, about one year after the establishment of the church in Korea. In the first stage, the punishment was relatively light. Only the owner of the house was punished with exile. The noble class was pressured to give up their belief.
The persecution of 1791 was among the noble class who ignored the government's decree against the Catholic faith. The faithful rejected the ancestral rites and burned the ancestral tablet. These actions were condemned by their families and society as serious violations against filial piety. The Catholics who were involved were sentenced to death immediately. This event led many believers of the noble class to leave the Church. The persecution in 1791 was relatively small but it was a significant event in many aspects.
This was followed with a more aggressive mission attitude opposing the traditional culture which provoked tougher persecutions. They are the persecution of 1801, 1839, 1846 and 1866 which led to the death of about 10,000 martyrs. The loss of one Chinese priest and 12 French of the Paris Mission Society was a big blow to the church, (Taken from the Bishops' Website)
Both Catholic Weeklies had articles on a symposium on 'apostasy, exile and witness' of the first Christians. The research on the numbers of those who gave up their newly found faith in the face of death is not complete—government numbers differ from those of the church.
Apostasy is the word that we use with those who once believed and for various reasons turn away. This situation does not only appear in times of persecution. Peter denied he knew Jesus three times but we can also call it apostasy when we distance ourselves from God by our actions because of personal circumstances, and fail to live as Christians.
At the symposium, speakers pointed out when speaking about the time of persecution we should avoid understanding it as an issue of good and evil— faith and apostasy. Emphasized was to look at the history of the times understanding the situation in which the people lived.
The records show that there were more apostates than martyrs. However, many of them such as the father of St.Andrew Kim repented and this was the case for others. In the persecution of 1801 the rate of apostates among those arrested reached 62 percent. In 1839—48% and in 1866—54%.
Despite their apostasy, many of them were not released but sent into exile. In particular, 400 people were exiled during the 1801 persecution and died in exile. Among the arrested Christians, not only did they apostate for their lives, but also others went along with the authorities to ferret out the Catholics. Three of the informants were listed who brought great harm to the church.
Believers in the time of persecution called the informants Judases. After the freedom of religion was acknowledged. Some of these informants repented of their actions and were even witnesses of the death of the martyrs for the church. The families of those who were killed during the persecution found it very difficult to accept these informers back into the community of faith even after their repentance, a very sad situation.
"I would like to go back to Pyongyang but I don't think they will allow it. In the hotel room and in restaurants they would have heard me bad mouthing the government with their wiretapping devices." Words a lawyer heard from his priest friend and with which he begins his column in the Catholic Times.
Some years ago, several groups, progressives, and conservatives from the South visited the North. One of the group was a priest who had few good words about the North from the time he got on the plane. The first night at the hotel, the priest looking at the ceiling of the room: "they know all that we are saying." The priest gradually seeing the way the North Koreans were kindly treating them he wanted to return; they were no different from us and was enjoying their sincerity. The lawyer told the priest how to make his trip back to Pyongyang easy: "Father, go into the bathroom where they have the listening devices and call out 'Long live Kim Jong Il.'
The lawyer with the guide, who was showing them around, in some light banter told him, if he had been born in the South he would have a different understanding of the North and so would the group if they were born in the North because they have been hearing for decades education on security.
Each of us has a certain way of looking at life, a position in which we interact with others and take sides—our side against the other. Young people against the old, who they see as old fogeys and the old seeing the young as irresponsible without any ethics.
Women against men. Men looking down at women and women seeing men as enemies. Liberals wanting to put the conservatives in prison and vice versa.
When the conservatives were running things, we saw those who did not go along with the government often branded as communists and sent to prison, ignoring 'due process'. Recently on reexamination, many of those who have died and those in prison have been cleared of any wrongdoing.
However, with the progressive government, we have cases justified by wanting to put things right, are in effect going against the law. Instead of due process, we have public opinion doing the judging. The 'MeToo' movement in society is an example. Those who complain about their rights are often stigmatized as assailants even the chance to prove this by 'due process' is taken away from them and their desire for justice is seen as a second attack on their victims and shameless.
In fact, it's never easy to figure out what's right. Jesus said to don't remove the weeds: "Pull up the weeds and you might take the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until the harvest..."(Matthew 13,29-30). Yes, it's not our duty to divide the wheat and the tares, but leave it up to God.
But right now, faced with our reality we must inevitably separate the right from the wrong, and the standard is different depending on where we stand—our viewpoint. That is why the 'process' of judging must be just and fair at all times. 'Due process' is the last stop to protect us, no matter on what side we stand.
South and North, progressive and conservative, rich and poor, old and young, men and women— the difference in position is a sad and grim reality of our society— extremely difficult to narrow the difference: I am the wheat; you are the weeds.
Still, the only way that different people can live together is to attempt to wear the other's shoes for a time. Selfishness and individualism is a great obstacle these days and the need to consider things from another perspective doesn't mean we agree but it should rid ourselves from demonizing the other and allow us to respect the other while disagreeing.
Jesus also taught us the golden rule: "Treat others the way you would have them treat you" (Matt. 7:12). Since we all want different things how about putting it in the negative? Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you.
