An interview with the president of the Korean Friendship Association of the Kingdom of Bhutan was written up in the Catholic Peace Weekly. The President gives us some background to why Bhutan has the highest Happiness index of all the countries in the world.
If the government is not able to make the citizens happy it has no reason to exist. This is a sentence from their code of law. Since The Kingdom of Bhutan has no embassy in Korea the Friendship Association is recognized as a spokesperson for the Kingdom in Korea.
Gross national happiness is what has taken the place of gross national product which was the gift of the fourth king of Bhutan in 1970. Most of the countries have made their goal economic development. Bhutan differently was concerned with the rich-poor gap, destruction of the environment, which was producing negative side effects and prompted the government to study the problem. The results are what the whole word has become interested in.
Bhutan has shown concern for economic development, care for the environment, the preservation of the culture and leaders who take initiative in working for change. Each country has a different population and conditions which will require different approaches to achieve the happiness goal for the citizens. Thailand, Dubai, and the state of California have shown a desire to follow Bhutan.
Is it possible to gauge the happiness level of a country? In Korea happiness and the condition for happiness are often confused. If you ask a Korean about happiness they will mention health and their children going to the right schools as a condition for happiness. In Bhutan it is not the conditions but happiness itself, it is not related to conditions. It is what is desired deep down in one's heart which requires some know-how to achieve this knowledge.
The national committee approves the suggestions that come in from the different sections of society. The committee selects the policies that they deem will make over 82 percent of the citizens happy. If a suggestion is not seen as fostering the happiness of the citizens it is not accepted.
Once suggestions are accepted do we see a change in the happiness level of the citizens? Here in Korea, the suicide rate is the highest of all the countries of the OECD.This is a sign that we have a great deal of anger in society and a lack of happiness. This requires efforts on the part of the government to work on these areas of pain in society.
In conclusion of the interview, the president mentions that if the suicide rate went down to number two after the effort in working on GNH, Gross National Happiness, they would know that Korea had some success.
The Catholic Peace Weekly columnist mentions a family friend who expresses her concern about the conflict between common sense and law. A niece brought some meat to celebrate her aunt's birthday. It was Friday and the aunt never even looked at the meat and was content with the seaweed soup. The friend said to the columnist that attitude goes against all common sense. ( And also a mature Christian's conscience for love, in this case, trumps the Friday discipline)
Another example comes from a forum on Justice and Reconciliation in which a participant in response to a talk said: "Is not the Church too involved in the works of society to an extreme degree?" Another participant in response: " I see the response of the Church as passive we should be more involved."
Both of these examples come from two different situations but they express the differences Christian have on religious life. Those who consider themselves Christian need to examine the God to whom they pray. He mentions a book he is reading in which the author uses five different types of understanding of God.
The first is a Vending Machine God: you put the money in and press the button and what you want comes out. I put in my prayers, money, sacrifices, and God will return in blessings. When it doesn't happen the vending machine is out of order and we shake it and complain.
Secondly, we have the Watch Maker God: He puts all of it together and lets it run on its own. We merely standby and watch.
Third the Buffet God: He has prepared many tasty dishes and according to our tastes we can pick and choose what we want. The ones we have no taste for we can ignore.
The Police God: God is always on the prowl ready to catch us in some delinquency, ready to punish.
The Life Insurance God: We don't need him now. He is necessary when we have an accident and face trouble. He will save us from the fires of hell.
The writer asks us if any of these five speak to us. He reminds us that they have nothing to do with the God that Jesus presented to us. These are the kinds of God the atheist enjoys protesting against and the mature Christian does too. Our God is the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit the God of love.
This year is the 500 anniversary of Martin Luther's religious revolution.The Catholic Church for some time has considered him a heretic but in recent years this is changing. A professor at the Catholic Medical School writes about the change in View from the Ark in the Catholic Times.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said that he was not a heretic but one who wanted to clean out the corruption within the Church. He did not want to leave the Church. Pope Francis praised him as a great intellect who wanted to reform the Church of his time.
The present Church is doing many of the things that Luther advocated many centuries ago.We have the faithful reading the Scriptures, sermons are important, we sing many hymns at the liturgy, all points that Luther stressed. The changes to the vernacular in the liturgy at the Second Vatican Council were all changes Luther wanted. His irascible personality prevented his ideas from being accepted within the community of faith and consequently his leaving the Church.
The church has to always be reforming and not be negligent in this regard. The Church when we are not taking the correct road the Holy Spirit is present ready to lead us. This is the teaching of the Church. From the very beginning of the Church community, we hear this message repeated in the Scriptures.
Karl Barth the Protestant theologian says the Church needs to be always on the road to reformation. This is not only the Church but each individual Christian needs to continually be reforming our understanding of the road we are on. We are bombarded with noise from the society in which we live which makes the path we are traveling filled with obstacles. Discernment is necessary.
The professor finds it difficult to find where we are examining the road on which we are on. We do not have the will or desire to undergo a reformation. The religious and clergy are concerned with external affairs and pass over important matters. The laity with little knowledge goes along with this understanding. They are the subjects of the community but rarely are they brought into the decision making.
Sharing, fellowship, and sending are overlooked at the Sunday Mass and we have only a passive attendance. The sermons do not address where the young people are in society and their problems which alienate them from the community and we remain only a social gathering.
We have to learn some of the things that Luther has taught us. We have to turn our eyes from the external to the internal, from the material to the spiritual. A need to reconsider the efforts that seem expended in outdoing the building programs of other dioceses. The clergy and laity need to work together. Both have to share the worries together and plan together. Not only concerned about knowing God but sharing the love we have received. This is the first step on the reformation we need to undergo.
People often take second place to material goods and money, this was
the tragedy of the Sewol Ferry: a disaster that speaks of this upside
down thinking. A professor emeritus in the humanities gives us his
thoughts on the subject in an article in the Kyeongyang magazine.
Sewol
was a passenger ferry that was carrying 476 passengers most of them
students on a field trip to Jejudo. It sank on April 16, 2014, and only
172 passengers were rescued. Nine were never found.
The
scars surrounding the sinking are not healed but we have citizens who
see the tragedy as just another accident. Some considered the whole incident
overblown; the bodies of the dead used to preach; some even made fun of
the families of the victim who were fasting as just performers; one
politician thought that three years of grieving was enough. Many tried
to stop the investigation of the causes of the disaster which eventually
did cease.
This Easter was the 3rd anniversary of
the disaster. It was at that time that the Sewol was raised from its
place on the ocean floor and brought to port. Everybody calls out for
truth and justice but it's not rare that when it affects the person's
interests all is forgotten.
When Pope Francis came
to Korea three years ago some didn't want the pope to meet
the families of the victims, and did all they could to prevent the
meeting; some of these were Catholics. Supposedly they didn't want
the pope to take sides.When it is to their advantage some
readily cry: religion needs to be neutral.
However,
the pope has made it clear that when faced with pain neutrality is not
the position of a Christian. He made it a point of being with the families of the victims and wore the yellow ribbon.
When
justice and truth are under attack silence is not an option. Preferring
material things over people we are less human: society becomes
hell. The young people in Korea use the phrase 'Hell Joseon' comparing
the country to the feudal kingdom under the Joseon dynasty where you
lived in the situation in which you were born.
All of
us have to do what we can to overcome the hellish aspects of society.This
is the calling we have as Christians from the Gospel and the
Resurrection. The Sewol, now raised and in port, reminds us of our
dullness, arrogance and hypocrisy. We need to speak loudly of what we
have learned and never sacrifice people for things.
Many are the reasons believers leave their religion. Secularization, a change in one's thinking, weariness with religion are all factors. The rapid changes in society and the gap in time to adapt are all involved.
A writer in Catholic News Here/Now who has made a study of the issue gives us the results made by the Catholic Times. He is not concerned with the theory but solely with the apathy shown by the answers given by the respondents. The survey was of 300 lapsed Catholics spread across the country.
The survey was made last year. He acknowledges that it is not a scientific study in the strict sense but gives us a good idea of the problems the Church faces.
The main reason expressed for leaving the community of faith was working for a livelihood and study 47.3%. No special reason 33.7%, religion lost its meaning 23.8%, the burden of confession 18.1%, misc. 12.7%, disappointed with the clergy and religious 9.5%, can't live the life 7.0 %, no intimate friends among the parishioners 6.7%, family tension because of religion 6.3%, Catholic teaching lacks reasonableness and conflict with Catholics both at 4.4%, all religions are the same 4.1%, Church's active participation in society not acceptable 2.2 %, money 1.3%, Church is too rich 1.0 %, converting to another religion, church not doing its job, baptized in army and doesn't believe, all 0.6 %.
The respondents were told to only select one of reasons on the list so other reason would also be factors in being tepid. They, for the most part, did not want to leave the community. However, although they were asked often to return to the community by the members, they had no intentions of returning. The average time of the respondents were a little over 9 years. The majority of those who left did have a lingering connection and a feeling of belonging to the group even though they left.
29.7 % even though they are not practicing considered themselves Catholic, while 36.6 % were fellow travelers who still sympathized with the church. 7.8 % were opposed while 3.3 % were greatly opposed to the church and what it represented.
The following away from the Church continues but fortunately, the alienation is not such that they turn completely against everything that they learned. There's no desire to return in most cases but the years as a practicing Catholic have changed the persons and they have retained a positive feeling towards the community to which they belonged.
A 78 year old grandmother was walking along a street. She caught the eye of a man on the other side who suddenly made a dash toward the woman with a piece of wood in his hand the kind used to support trees along the street. He hit the woman over the head.
After the woman fell to the ground the man brandishing the piece of wood continued walking as if nothing happened. At a crosswalk he spotted another younger woman and did the same.
This is not a scene from a movie but something that happened last year in Pusan. This man had no grudge or was not acting out of revenge; he knew neither of the victims. An article in the Kyeongyang magazine by a university psychology professor introduces the readers to the 'zombies' in our society.
He uses the word zombie, existences in our imagination which are not difficult to find in society, they live like the dead without consciousness. He connects them to crimes 'you don't talk about': crimes that have no reason, violence for violence sake. In his opinion the common element are persons who have desired work but have not found it and have been in that condition for some time.
Working is not only a means of supporting oneself and family but a way of interacting with society. We talk about going to work not only earning pay but interacting with those at the work place. Those without work are in financial difficulty but also lack the interaction of the workplace. We are social animals and one of our basic aspirations is to relate with others, for a person who needs and wants to work and doesn't have a job, this is a serious deprivation.
A person out of work feels mentally deprived of all his possessions and believes that society has ostracized him: a serious psychological shock. Members of society consider norms of society important. Those who feel excluded do not have that same feeling and the frustration that builds, often ends up with 'crimes you don't talk about'.
The so called 'zombies' are both victims and perpetrators. Lack of social concern is the making of 'zombies'. When we ignore the lack of work in society we are preparing the situation for more of these 'crimes you don't talk about'.
When you fall into difficult straits do you have family members or friends you can depend on? What are your response to a question of this type, asks the professor. Is it positive or negative? Korea has the weakest social support network in OECD.
The professor concludes the article with the statement that this situation is ripe for the making of 'zombies' and spreading the zombie virus. When the community bond disappears it's easy to become infected with the virus. Without help many will become 'zombies'. Efforts to increase the opportunities for work and strengthening the fiber of our communities will decrease the number of 'zombies' in society.
In Korea two and half million citizens are in some way disabled.
That's 5 percent of the population: one in every twenty.
Among the handicapped 10 percent were born with the handicap and the
other 90 percent acquired it after birth. 50 percent came with
sickness and the other 40 percent were due to accidents. This number
continues to grow.
An article in a diocesan bulletin
written by a handicapped person introduces the readers to a situation we
meet in every society. The care and rehabilitation of the handicap is a
big part of government welfare.
He mention the
government's efforts over many years to improve the lives of the
handicapped. Many laws promulgated to help the handicapped, but before
this we need the citizens' understanding free of prejudice and even more
important is the handicapped persons' need to free themselves
from an inferiority feeling and to attain a strong will to live a
full life.
The writer mentions his own history of
becoming a disabled person. Because of cancer he was operated on to
remove cancerous tissue and lost a great deal of his bone structure and for a period of 4 years was in and out of the hospital 30 times. He
began associating with the handicapped and ended up giving lectures on
the board game Go and teaching ping pong.
He concludes
his article with the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: 9:1-3. "As
Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His
disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him
to have been born blind? Neither he nor his parents sinned. Jesus
answered, he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed
in him."
He often meditated on this passage in the
past but never was able to get a satisfying understanding of the
meaning. It was after becoming disabled himself that he was able to have
a faint glimmer of what Jesus was saying. He was crying and laughing with the disabled and relating as friends
with them. He was their hands, and feet. Wasn't this what Jesus was
saying?
The handicapped need financial assistance but
more important is to be friends with them: liberating them from alienation and loneliness of life. They need others to share with then and to be friends with them.
When
it rains it's necessary to prepare the umbrella for them but to
foolishly walk with them in the rain is an important message and welcomed.
