Why the "Pagan Origins" of Christmas... Don't Matter

Disclaimer: This post is, naturally, entirely my own perspective. I say things which some raised in a fundamentalist background may take offense to, but having been raised in a semi-fundamentalist background myself, I submit that might be a little too natural of a reflex for us. Hear me out to the end first, then I'm happy to hear any objections.

Also, for those of you who say "but Christmas is over," the 12 days of Christmas are still very much underway. We're not even to the seven shrimp a swimming yet...

1. "Folk" Religious Practice

One of my favorite professors in seminary brought up an issue which I'd noticed but not had a good name for until then, the concept of "Folk Theology." Any major religion with established doctrines and practices can have a "folk" version, which is what happens when one gets far away from those who keep things orthodox, and superstitions and traditions begin creeping in, influence from the surrounding culture which rises from background culture to mix with religious conviction, etc.

Scripture is quite clear that we have a direct relationship to God. Because of Christ's atonement, we can boldly approach the throne of grace, a staggering concept that I am still trying to wrap my mind around. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He did so by speaking to the Father directly, not angels, His mother, or anyone else.

Folk theology happens when the natural ways of fallen human thinking start to mix with "theology proper," and people start doing what comes more naturally. Interposing saints or angels between oneself and God to get more "influence," would be one example, though sadly one that has become fairly established practice within large portions of the Roman Catholic Church. (I still pray that the divided church in the future may become one, as the body of Christ ought to be united)

Much of the Islamic world practices not "proper" Islam, but some version of Folk Islam, with local deities still worshipped in some form under Allah, or people wearing talismans to ward off the evil eye, etc. Many of the Islamic terror movements claim legitimacy as reformers, initially coming in to banish these non-acceptable practices and preach a more Qur'an-centric Islamic message, naturally with their own interpretation emphasizing Jihad, etc. (then start recruiting...)

Other milder examples might be putting a Jesus fish on your car, not just as an expression of belief, but because "I'm not saying it will keep me from having car wrecks, but it can't hurt," or carrying one of those angel pennies. Doing these things is not necessarily wrong, but when we start turning to any physical things, rituals, or routines for the blessing and protection that come from God alone, we are walking away from scripture, down the road of folk theology that leads eventually to heresy and superstition.

It's an easy and natural trap to fall into. It could start as people copying a respected and godly leader in their church regarding a particular practice and teaching others to do so, without a total understanding of why he chose that way or that he himself would say it's purely his preference. It could start with someone wanting a tangible expression of the blessing and protection God provides, then more and more identifying that tangible object or symbol with the blessing and protection itself.

It's not like a minefield to be avoided, it's more like rust: It's always gradually appearing, some environments are more conducive to it than others, and it can be prevented with maintenance and care, in this case by always using Scripture as our foundation. (Scripture doesn't say whether you should have a cross on the wall behind the pulpit or not, or even whether you should have a pulpit, but one can easily understand from Scriptural principles that people should not be going up and kneeling before the cross because they think they are more likely to receive God's forgiveness that way)

I saw a severe case of this problem in Mexico, where historical fusion and syncretism with local pagan religions has led to a muddled situation where Mary is worshipped as a goddess (with the moon behind her and all, just like the moon goddess she replaced), and superstition is totally rampant, with little understanding of actual scriptural doctrine in many cases. I appreciate the missionaries and local believers I have met there who labor against this infernal confusion; they need and deserve our prayers. (OMF has a good page on how something similar happened in the Philippines)

The question we need to answer in this blog is, is that what's happened to Christmas? Have we allowed superstitions, influences from pagan/pre-Christian European cultures, to mix together with a straightforward remembrance and celebration of Christ's incarnation? 

2. The Dangers of Witch-Hunting

At least this guy wasn't trying to say Santa is Satan with the letters re-arranged...

I grew up in a fairly fundamentalist evangelical setting. (Apologies to older readers; I recognize the term was not originally negative and the motives of the original movement were good, but I'm using it in the more recent sense) We didn't burn any books, but we did throw away some Disney movies, and we weren't allowed to listen to secular music, or Christian music that "sounded like" secular music (Christian pop rock danced on the margin). I confess that I did not always adhere to this rule (I wonder if my parents are reading this? Well, they didn't adhere to it 100% either, haha), but I did learn the important lesson that what we put into our minds is important. Discernment is strangely unpopular, but I'm a big fan, as you will see.

Growing up in that setting, I have experience with fundamentalism ranging from the cloistering reflex only partially influenced by a legalistic way of thinking to crazy, pharisaical demagoguery.

What I observed was this:

A culture can easily develop in which the Biblical concept of "the world" that is our field of ministry becomes eclipsed by the Biblical concept of "the world" that is this corrupt world system full of distractions and temptations, and instead of engaging it as salt and light, Christians began to withdraw from it.

Having circled the wagons (formed a outward-facing defensive perimeter protecting what's inside, if you're unfamiliar with the more colorful Old West expression), they then begin to "purge" worldly influences from their midst. This often begins as a genuine attempt to pursue godliness and remove sin, but sadly rarely stops there, becoming a sort of contest: who can find the devil where no one had noticed him before?

I can remember in my childhood, Christian magazines breathlessly explaining how non-Christians were making movies or TV shows that had values that undermined biblical principles, and that good parents should keep their children from watching those things (or to be safe, anything from the same company), lest they be unconsciously corrupted or tainted somehow.

Now, I don't blame the parents. It did sound pretty terrifying, and typically we kids agreed with our parents that if a show or movie was "bad," then we shouldn't watch it. And I think it's instinctive for a loving parent to shield their child from harmful influences if they can. In retrospect I also think it had a lot to do with movements within the Church in America of that decade, with the Moral Majority and other attempts to steer the moral climate of the nation from the top-down, away from the cliff towards which it was hurtling, since that still seemed possible at the time. (Despite the deplorable state of our culture as 2015 approaches, I am strangely optimistic; the Church has always done poorly when it dabbled in politics, but shone brightly when times are dark)

But my point is, a church, or portions of the Church, can sometimes get into a witch-hunting mindset, forgetting that from Eden onward the world has always been the world, fallen, and full of people who don't live by Biblical principles. Instead of going out to be salt and light, they become focused on avoiding and purging bad influences. This embattled mentality can turn into a kind of deep-seated fear, which leads to even more urgent searching to uncover hidden evil influences. (Soon everything is suspect, everything is guilty until proven innocent, not even explicitly conservative and evangelical sources cleave closely enough to whatever fine line is judged to be truly safe.) It's a fear which feeds on itself, and it can become like a prison that locks from the inside.

3. The Church Never Existed in a Culture-less Vacuum

Claims that the Church has been contaminated by the surrounding culture go all the way back to the Gospel writers, with some scholars accusing the Apostle John, for example, of having been too influenced by Greek philosophy. It's actually quite a common accusation that Greek thought and gnostic influences warped Christian doctrine from the very beginning of the Church. Does that mean we throw out all the early Church fathers as "tainted"? Of course not. For one, the Early Church Fathers are excellent sources for us, but we do not regard them as infallible to begin with. Two, it is they who wrestled with the heresies and hammered out doctrinal statements from which we benefit today. There is great value in studying them as wise and godly examples, not in subjecting them to an ideological litmus test. Three, "Biblical scholars" will think up every kind of possible accusation to throw at something that hasn't been tried yet. Not all of them actually believe the Bible, but they all need to write dissertations.

I love G.K.Chesterton's illustration of orthodoxy as a horse or chariot rider who can handle shocks and bumps without losing his balance precisely because he is always moving. And I think his picture is accurate.

The Church is not a delicate glass of water we strive to keep perfectly clear and undisturbed, it is the Body of Christ that reaches out to this world and lives in it, beset by strange circumstances and local confusions, always "in crisis" but never destroyed, always under attack but never defeated, always purifying itself from heresies and finding new ones popping up wherever the church spreads rapidly. It would be impossible if sustained by men, but it is sustained by God.

When the Church goes into a new culture, or develops and spreads in any culture, it can express unchanging, transcendent truths through each culture in contextually appropriate ways. This is a huge difference between a global religion like Christianity and a culture-bound one like Hinduism. Even with a massive number of adherents, due to India's population, and even with some principles of Hindu philosophy having spread around the world, very popular at various times, monkey temples and sacred cows never really caught on in a global context, and aren't going to. Those things can't really escape the culture they developed. If they exist outside of India, they do so directly in proportion to the prevalence of that culture in a specific area.

Christianity is unique among religions (it's not merely a religion, but I'm speaking in comparative terms) in being the least dependent on culture. Local religions, based on un-exportable cultural values or concepts, typically cannot ever hold out against global ones which are based on more universal principles and can thus cross cultures with varying degrees of success, and are often attractive to younger generations who have begun to lose their traditional values but recognize it as a link to a wider world, both geographically and conceptually.

But Christianity stands out clearly even among global religions..
Islam, the second-most exportable religion, is heavily influenced by Bedouin cultural values at its core, and tends to "Arabicize" cultures where it gains influence to bring them in line with Qur'anic principles. Hinduism, as mentioned above, has a very large number of adherents but I would argue it is not truly a global religion in the sense that it can traverse dissimilar cultures. Buddhism, with its roots in Hinduism, is more like a complex series of related world views, ranging from polytheistic/animist religion to atheistic philosophy, yet it is only in the philosophical realm, like Hinduism, that it has found a real following in the West. It's easy to find fans of Zen in America, but non-Asian Tibetan Buddhists are a bit sparser.

Christianity, by contrast, has an meta-cultural message (it is represented in many cultures but the message itself transcends culture and is distinct from any of the particular cultures in which it is represented). Certainly, one could claim that it has a close association with the West, but one then has to define "West." Tens of thousands of Korean missionaries certainly would not agree with you, and the Russian Orthodox church with over one hundred million members might object as well. The global Church has had a very Western feeling over the past two centuries because, for reasons of both church and secular/economic history, that's where the vast majority of missionaries had been coming from. That is changing in the 21st century, to the extent that there may come a day when the Church in Europe and even America is revitalized by African, Asian, and South America missionaries. The process has already begun. A dear sister from Ghana I met at seminary considers herself a missionary to America, to bring God's truth back to the land which blessed so many nations with the gospel but is now itself in dire need of revival.

When people repeat the oft-quoted phrase "it's not a religion, it's a relationship," though it is a bit hyperbolic (Christianity certainly is a religion, but one which is founded on a relationship to God not found or attempted in any other religion) they are getting at this truth: Christianity is a belief in God as He has revealed Himself to us through Scripture (comprising the Bible), and faith that Jesus Christ is God, as He claimed to be, and that we can have a relationship with God, through Christ, that allows us to receive a different kind of life from Him, an eternal life which is holy and can be lived in His presence both on earth and in heaven. That message may be more readily received or more easily communicated in certain cultures, but it's all on a higher level of abstraction than any particular culture. Any cultural clashes will occur in the attempted working out of these truths in reality. Then indeed, there may be clashes all the way to martyrdom, but one then finds local groups of believers rapidly follow.

And from the 1st Century AD until now, all those believers have come from a particular culture or another, and have not magically been transported out of it when they believed. They have had to express the truths of Christianity in their own culture, either by adapting existing cultural practices and ways of thinking, creating new practices and ways of thinking to express Christian truth within the context of their culture, or borrowing practices and ways of thinking from outside their own culture.

Nearly any Christian in the 21st century who has been trained to work in a cross-cultural context would agree that the first two are superior, and I agree both in the abstract and from experience. The last thing you want is for your local church to be copying foreign ways of doing things which confuse and repel locals and train them to think Christianity is therefore a foreign religion which has nothing to do with them. Sadly, this did occur in Taiwan to some extent, though often it happened despite the missionaries' best efforts to avoid it.

4. What's All This Got to Do with Christmas?

So far I've set out a few points:
1. We must be careful to avoid folk religious ways of thinking.
2. We must remember we are to be light to the world, and not fall into an embattled mentality of fear-based "witch-hunting," choosing to disqualify instead of using discernment
3. Christianity is neither culture-bound nor culture-less, but is meta-cultural, and finds its best and most authentic expression when believers live out Christian truth in ways that make sense within their own culture.

Those are important to our discussion because they all have to do with how many people perceive Christmas to be a pagan holiday.

Europe has a long history of Christianity, the "Christendom" of times gone by, where for centuries a European Church both changed Europe and was changed by it. The particular expression of Christianity in Europe looked very different in different places, of course, but in much of Europe it first clashed with, then supplanted, local pagan religions. We don't have a lot of accurate information about these (neopagan practices are almost totally made up, based on guesses of how people might have done things), but we have enough information to know that some Christmas traditions may have some roots in what were originally pagan practices. Plus, the date itself seems to coincide with various pagan festivals centered around the Winter Solstice. A quick google search will reveal all you ever wanted to know about those associations, with many facts both legitimate and worthy of consideration and hilariously wrong. But it doesn't matter.

Here's why:

The Bible, and the history of God's dealings with men that we read in it, is a beautiful expression of God's truth in reality. Reality echoes this divine truth in innumerable ways, and therefore so does human culture. Pagan religions from Egypt to Scandinavia have the story of a dying and rising god, some long before Jesus came to earth. It would be foolish at best to suggest that those stories in any way taint or diminish the story of the Resurrection. They are merely faint and confused echoes of a grand eternal truth. For some, such as the former atheist C.S.Lewis, God used them to point the way towards that truth.

More pointedly, does the fact that the cross was a brutal piece of execution equipment used by the pagan, polytheistic Romans, a symbol of the consequences of rebellion against supposedly all-powerful Rome, make the cross a pagan symbol?

I imagine (and hope) you are saying to yourself "of course not," but I encourage you to follow that logic. Why not? What transformed the cross into an acceptable symbol for the church to use, from early in its history until today, and even by which to identify itself? The answer is, what happened on it; an event that forever changed the meaning of that symbol. A symbol of suffering and shame became a symbol of hope and faith and God's love. So symbols and images can be repurposed; they can be transformed from whatever their original meaning was into something else, including something charged with gospel significance.

Of course it's not something one can do randomly; the transformational event must totally dominate the original meaning so that the symbol is now instinctively understood to refer now to this new meaning. A notable negative example: the swastika. Once a symbol of peace (still a common Buddhist symbol here in Asia), cannot now to Westerner's minds convey anything other than nazism, violent racism, and the holocaust.

Now we arrive at my point about folk religion. We know, as scripturally-educated believers, that it is not religious symbols and pictures that have power (in the spiritual sense). They are nothing in themselves; all authority on heaven and earth has been given to Christ, and He does not lend that authority to an idol of any kind. Therefore an idol is nothing, as Paul said. An empty symbol, an image of supposed authority that cannot reference any true authority. Some measure of power, yes, while darkness still remains on this earth, but even that darkness is subject to the authority of Christ, and soon will be put under His feet. (and ours, with and through Him)

Therefore, while obviously we do not and should not wish to associate ourselves with darkness, we need not fear pagan symbols as pagans do, because we know they are empty, and the darkness they point to has been defeated, even mocked, by Christ on the cross.

So we need not irrationally fear a pagan symbol as something that can hurt us somehow, give us "bad mojo," or somehow remove authority from Christ. That is a folk religious way of thinking, like people in medieval Europe who supposedly said "God bless you" when you sneezed, for fear part of your soul had escaped temporarily and you were in spiritual danger.

But this means if a Christmas tree, for example, is not now a symbol of paganism, it doesn't matter if it was one 500 years ago. The original meaning has been lost, beyond anything but guesses and conjectures, and it is now irrevocably globally identified with a celebration of Christ's birth. And that Christ's birth is celebrated on a date close to the Winter Solstice doesn't matter, because God made the winter solstice. Through Christ all things were created. It's His, not theirs.

Light cancels out darkness, not the other way around. God wins. That is the most fundamental thing I can say about this entire topic, Christmas, Easter, etc. Finding a tenuous or potential historical link back to something pagan does not cancel out that symbol, that event, that celebration. It means the light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness is not overcoming it. God is winning. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light... for unto us a child is born. The symbols of that former darkness are stripped from the enemy one at a time, and they are laid at Christ's feet. The Winter Solstice may have recently passed, but we marked it by joyfully celebrating the birth of our Lord, our Savior, and our King.
And soon it shall be Spring.

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
(Isaiah 9:6-7)

12 Days of Christmas - Taiwan Version

Just for fun...

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Taiwan 2014 Version

On the first day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
1. A blue magpie in a flame tree.

Taiwan Blue Magpie (borrowed from wikipedia- someday I'll get a shot this good..)

On the second day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

Hub is one of those words that starts sounding weird if you say it a lot

On the third day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

The bones are black too

On the fourth day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:

4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

Also borrowed from wikipedia. I need to get Taiwan traditional market pictures

On the fifth day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
5. Fiiiiive mangguo biiiings
4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

Mang-guo Bing (Mango shaved ice)

On the sixth day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
6. Six weeks a raining
5. Fiiiiive mangguo biiiings
4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

There's a rainy season in late Spring. Endless rain...

On the seventh day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
7. Seven shrimp a swimming
6. Six weeks a raining
5. Fiiiiive mangguo biiiings
4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

These shrimp were swimming only shortly before they became part of this delicious seafood porridge

On the eight day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
8. Eight maids a trilling
7. Seven shrimp a swimming
6. Six weeks a raining
5. Fiiiiive mangguo biiiings
4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

If not trilling then at least making a joyful Christmas noise

On the ninth day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
9. Nine aunties dancing
8. Eight maids a trilling
7. Seven shrimp a swimming
6. Six weeks a raining
5. Fiiiiive mangguo biiiings
4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

Dance off! Aunties vs. Highschoolers

On the tenth day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
10. Ten toddlers squeaking
9. Nine aunties dancing
8. Eight maids a trilling
7. Seven shrimp a swimming
6. Six weeks a raining
5. Fiiiiive mangguo biiiings
4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

In Taiwan, toddlers wear shoes that squeak every time they take a step
so their parents can keep track of them. I don't have pictures of toddlers
so this picture of an adorable child in scuba gear will have to suffice.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
11. Eleven bikers biking
10. Ten toddlers squeaking
9. Nine aunties dancing
8. Eight maids a trilling
7. Seven shrimp a swimming
6. Six weeks a raining
5. Fiiiiive mangguo biiiings
4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

Ok, I know these are less like "bikers" and more like "cyclists" but the giant rubber duck has to count for something...

On the twelfth day of Christmas, in Taiwan I did see:
12. Twelve drummers drumming
11. Eleven bikers biking
10. Ten toddlers squeaking
9. Nine aunties dancing
8. Eight maids a trilling
7. Seven shrimp a swimming
6. Six weeks a raining
5. Fiiiiive mangguo biiiings
4. Four uncommon herbs
3. Three black hens
2. Two metro hubs
1. And a blue magpie in a flame tree

Students drumming in a Daoist parade

Merry Christmas from Taiwan!

Not-so-paradoxical: A Rock too Heavy for Himself to Lift...

This rock is from a hiking trip in the US, not Taiwan. But I like it because it looks like a turtle.
Looking at a rock, it's pretty clear that this version of the omnipotence paradox is silly on the face of it.
(The turtle boulder seems to find it amusing as well)

I was recently watching a show that, in a philosophical moment, brought up the so-called Omnipotence paradox, frequently expressed in the "If God is all-powerful, can He create a rock too heavy for Himself to lift?" question, and used to suggest that the concept of omnipotence is logically invalid in some inherent way. Thus, the God of Scripture would be a logical impossibility, as we see from scripture that God is able to do all things, and nothing is too difficult for Him. In that episode I saw, the paradox was treated with all due seriousness, and there was much chin stroking and pondering over possible resolutions, though the actual existence of God as God was not the focus of their inquiry (that would have been more interesting).

If you want to read all about the Omnipotence paradox, its wikipedia page does mention the objection that I'm going to raise in today's entry, along with lots more information. Several pages of it, actually. I found it a bit dry, however. This blog should be more fun.

Most people have heard of unanswerable questions like "have you stopped beating your wife yet," where a yes or no answer both imply you have been habitually beating your wife, and you are only able to say whether you still do or not.

The question about God and rocks is a similar but different sort of unanswerable question.
We will look at why it's a meaningless question that should never be used seriously again below.

First, if the question really is presented to you, you have to decide which way to answer it.

When presented with questions like this, which I'll restate:

"If God is all-powerful, can He create a rock too heavy for Himself to lift?"

I believe the best reply is, in the tradition of Jesus, to answer the question with a question:

"Can the greatest chef in the world make the square root of 3 crunchier?"

If they answer "that doesn't make any sense," or "huh?" they are absolutely correct. But it makes just as much sense as the previous question. You can't just string words together and then demand I give them paradoxical meaning to serve your purposes.

Note: Also, it's a scientifically illiterate question...
A rock has mass, and weight is actually a question of contextual gravitational forces; you have not succeeded in questioning God here, only gravity. Bazinga.

(This may be sufficient to end the conversation entirely. Unless they actually said "too big" or "too large" for himself to lift, then that is a mass question and you will look stupid, though that's actually an easier example to disqualify because as long as there is any space in the universe other than that rock it can be lifted/moved if the issue is size. If they say "fine, then it's exactly the same size as the universe" then you ask "then where is God?" and if they say "oh," then you're probably in good shape, and if they look smug and say "exactly," then they are only interested in scoring rhetorical points, and the proper answer is to say "sorry, I don't support the legalization of marijuana." They will probably not know what you mean, then you say "didn't you just say the whole universe was stoned?" and even though this means the conversation has at this point devolved to childish humor, bystanders will almost certainly laugh, they might too, and you have gotten your rhetorical points back and demonstrated that you are someone with a clever sense of humor, which is not a bad start if you're attempting to talk about truth and reality with that kind of person. But I digress...)

The Linguistic Problem

Somewhat more seriously, a question isn't valid just because it doesn't violate laws of grammar. One could think of endless examples. ("What is the difference between a duck?... one leg's the same." was my favorite response to the God-rock question for a long time. Ask a meaningless question, I can too.)

I studied linguistics as part of my master's degree, and it was fascinating to realize how much we focus on what is communicated and take for granted the means of communication. If you were watching a video online and your internet was very slow, would you say "man, this director is terrible, all these random pauses and slow parts"? No, you would clearly realize the problem was not with the content but with how it was being sent to you. The paradox with the God-rock question is not found in what the question is communicating, as alleged, it's actually in the question itself.


Imagine if in reply to that question, instead of the crunchy square root of three you asked this question instead:

"Could the President of the United States murder someone, be removed from office, and then use his Presidential powers to pardon himself?"

"Of course not," the other person would hopefully say, "because once he's been removed from office he's not president anymore, so he doesn't have those powers." You can then point out: "Right, and if [Presidential pardon of an ex-President] is a self-contradictory idea, then [rock omnipotence can create but not lift] is also a self-contradictory idea.

Granted, they might then reply "if God is omnipotent, He could make contradictory ideas to be non-contradictory," then you might ask if the President could be the President and not the President at the same time. If they say "no, but the President isn't God," then you are in the perfect situation to share the story of God who became both fully divine and fully human at the same time to save us from our sins. They've just expressed that they have no problem with that concept, so they can hardly protest that this isn't possible.

My personal favorite rock. I suppose it's a hill, but it looks like one giant rock to me...
(Orchid Island, Taiwan, a ridiculously beautiful place)

In Summary

The question implicitly presupposes that omnipotence is impossible by establishing a condition [rock that omnipotence cannot lift = possible] which is logically impossible if omnipotence exists.

So if you instead presuppose that omnipotence is possible, then [rock that omnipotence cannot lift] is itself a logical impossibility and you wouldn't ever bother sticking it into a question any more than a crunchy square root of three.

There are lots of ways to demonstrate the logical impossibility of that question, and I've only outlined a few above. More are in the wikipedia article I linked to above. Essentially, I hope this question can be something you welcome as an opportunity if it ever comes up, because you're prepared to deal with it.

Note: I personally avoid going the route of talking about how God is spirit not body, and doesn't do things like lift rocks, or arguing about what "lift" means in this context, because that's tacitly accepting the impossible premise, arguing out the details of a logically indefensible hypothetical, as if one could demonstrate the wife beating question is nonsensical by explaining you are in the process of moving so your house doesn't have anything in it you could hit her with. It's probably not going to get you anywhere because you're not actually addressing the fundamental problem with the question.

Of course, explaining that God is transcendent and not like a supernaturally-strong-but-limited Greek god reigning on the cloudy, harp-filled version of Olympus somewhere is always important if you find that fundamental concept is not being understood. Pre-evangelism is becoming increasingly necessary where it didn't used to be, and you never know where people have gotten their ideas of God from.


There are lots of other supposedly other unanswerable paradoxes out there that explain God away. But like the joke equations that prove 1 = 2, they're always hiding an invalid step somewhere. What are others you've seen that you have questions about? Let me know!

10 Things I Miss about America: After a Year in Taiwan

I wrote, before leaving America, things I expected to miss about the place. I then checked again 6 months later, to see how accurate my original guesses were. Now, a year later, as I am getting more fully adjusted and settled in for the medium-term, I will take another look.

 

Original List (not in any particular order) of things I expected to miss:

1. Driving                                                     (6 months later: confirmed)
2. Spring and Autumn                                   (6 months later: partially confirmed)
3. Wardrobe flexibility due to summer heat    (6 months later: busted, it was fine)
4. Being able to make jokes people get         (6 months later: partially confirmed)
5. Real southern food and Tex-Mex               (6 months later: confirmed)
6. Pop culture/movie references                    (6 months later: confirmed)
7. Political discussions                                 (6 months later: busted, did anyway, heh)
8. No garbage cans                                      (6 months later: confirmed)
9. Not having to worry about water quality     (6 months later: busted, a very small issue)
10. Blending in                                            (6 months later: confirmed, of course)
11. Added in the 6 month post: Being able to flush toilet paper!

Updated List: Things I Miss After One Year

It turns out I did a pretty good job of guessing, overall. (I don't blame myself for the talking-about-politics one, too many interesting political things happen in Taiwan not to at least discuss them. And I discovered refusing to participate in that kind of discussion irritated some people more than simply expressing an opinion.)

A year later, a few of the original list deserve a second look:

2. Spring and Autumn (Yes I still miss them, but keep reading)

My impression of Taiwan last time I lived here was that there was winter, a rainy period in late Spring, then a typhoon-filled summer and a nice few weeks of Autumn (hard to call it Fall when very few leaves do) before it got cold again.

That's not far off, but what I think has happened this time around is that I've begun to accept that Taiwan, for geographical reasons, simply doesn't have 4 seasons. America might not either, really. If you watched the weather patterns closely for a few years, then set about to define your own local seasons, I bet you wouldn't come up with 4, and they wouldn't be all the same length. People who have lived in the same place for decades/have family roots there often know the ins and outs of the yearly weather patterns.

So I do still miss Spring and Autumn, especially early Spring and the warm days/frosty nights part of Autumn, but I think we should embrace the richness of our local climates which never line up with the astronomical seasons anyway. (Where is it not summer weather until June 21? Alaska?)

This was about as close to Autumn leaves as I got this year. They didn't really crunch...
I hear there's a bit of leaf change in the mountains though, something to check out next year

5. Southern food and Tex-Mex

I think I mentioned in the 6 month update that this was true but not a problem because of all the good local food. And Taiwanese food is -amazing- so that's not wrong. But I think it's seasonal too. Over the summer I was fine (I think if it came down to a contest, Taiwan would beat America for warm-weather food), but as the holidays have arrived, I've begun to miss some of the tastes of home. Fried catfish, BBQ baked potatoes, etc. I think maybe it's not so much the taste itself, as enjoying that taste with other people who also know the same food and are anticipating enjoying it just like you are. Then there are the little rituals of "ok, it's cold enough, we can start drinking hot cocoa and making neiman marcus brownies," that sort of thing.

Then the Tex-Mex is just a personal preference. We had some great Tex Mex restaurants in Alabama, and even better ones in Dallas, and from time to time, I am really in the mood for some good tacos de lengua, pollo loco, or steak quesadilla. I have yet to find a good Mexican restaurant in Taiwan. I went to the one that was supposedly the best, and it was very "meh." They had some of the basic dishes, but they were bland, mild, and lacked any piquancy. Maybe they were worried about people not being used to the stronger flavors and heat; I might go back and ask them if they can spice it up a little.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Go to your favorite Tex-Mex place (Or mine, for those of you who know what that is) and enjoy a meal there (pray for Taiwan when you bless the food, if you please), and take a picture, and send it to me or tag me in it. I won't be mad that I can't eat the food, I will enjoy the experience vicariously that way.

Like I said, Taiwanese food is amazing, so I cannot complain whatsoever. I think my revelation over the past  6 months has been the thing about sharing familiar food (family recipes, seasonal dishes) with people who know and anticipate them like you do. I expect that might change over the long-term in Taiwan as I also begin to recognize seasonal dishes here and look forward to them, and share them with friends.

For now, I am both loving Taiwanese food and also really want a good taco. I might go looking for some ground beef and spices later... (I think an international store might have corn tortillas...hmm...)


6. Pop Culture/Movie References

This is very slowly changing. Your Chinese has to be pretty amazing to really 'get' pop culture in Taiwan and know what's going on and what's popular. (Obviously, not everyone keeps up with that sort of thing in their own culture; I certainly didn't in America. But you catch things by osmosis, by articles you don't bother clicking on, that sort of thing. My Chinese is not good enough to do that yet)  So Facebook is my best source of that kind of information for now, but I've seen at least a couple movies here now and when I reference them, people can at least figure out what movies I'm talking about. (It's a start!) Watching a couple Taiwanese TV series has been interesting and helpful as well, though it's incredibly slow if I really want to try to pause it and figure out everything everyone is saying.


8. (+ 11.) No garbage cans, no flushing toilet paper

This is still occasionally frustrating, but I've noticed that as I get used to the lifestyle here, I start remedying the lack of trash cans in various ways. A lot of the trash I need to take out of my house is recyclable, so the old lady down the street gets it. I've gotten better about throwing things away outside the house when I get the chance, and not bringing trash home with me so I don't have to deal with it later. The no flushing toilet paper thing is still weird, though it's instinctive at this point. (I'm definitely going to need to hardcode that switch in my brain and switch it off next time I'm in the US, heh) The biggest result of it overall is that bathrooms are generally much less pleasant places than they are in the US. Though, ironically, it's partially a result of having adopted western toilets. You don't normally need as much paper after using a squatty. (They're all around more efficient... I'll leave it at that)



10. Blending In

"One of these things is not like the others..."
(The bags are me helping someone carry their stuff, I think it was houseplants, oddly enough)

I will never blend in here, barring some kind of historically unprecedented situation where tens of thousands of Westerners want to come live permanently in Taiwan and Taiwan lets them do so. So it's deceptive to even say I 'miss' this, because it's so obviously impossible. It does get tiring to be permanently treated as an outsider and according to different rules, though in Taiwan at least this is both polite and obvious. (Taiwanese people who don't know you are typically either shy or warm and effusive; there are far worse places to be an outsider)

I'm thankful for a few contexts where due to my previous experiences in Taiwan I've been around long enough to be an "old friend" or "familiar face." The attempt to eliminate discrimination in America may be a praiseworthy goal, but personally I don't think discrimination itself is wrong; it's simply recognizing difference. I am different here. I do stand out. To be treated differently is not anything to be offended about. To me the question is not whether we discriminate, which is natural/instinctive behavior, but whether we are loving or not towards those we treat differently because we perceive them to be different.

So now...

Would I add anything to this list? After a year, I could add maybe two or three things I miss:

A. Literacy

I often get polite compliments on my Chinese (that's not bragging, you will get those at any level of Chinese, and they taper off when you're really good), but I'm only conversational, and barely that after missing a lot of sleep. But even being conversationally fluent, which I should be able to achieve some time next year, is not the same as being fully literate. This is where being highly literate in English actually hurts me. I'm used to the written word being something I utterly take for granted, like shapes or colors, not something I have to stare at for a moment and actively think about before I get it. It's humbling in a good way, but I'm hoping there comes a day when I can be sort of aware of what's written around me without having to focus on each thing.

B. Not Feeling Guilty for Leisure Time

This is not so much a Taiwan thing as a missionary thing. Taiwanese work very hard, usually, and I find that work ethic inspiring. The hard part is working the weird hours of a missionary, when there's no clear "at the office/at home but on call/on vacation" distinctions. In my previous incipient career as a computer engineer, I would work 40+ hours a week, attend a couple Bible studies and Sunday morning and evening services at church, and (being single) no one criticized how I used the rest of my time. Saturdays were mine, and I enjoyed them. I don't really get criticism from anyone here (I'm staying quite busy with ministry as it is), but what I miss is that "off the clock" feeling. But I really wonder now, is that right? If I really am a believer, called to the Great Commission by Christ as the whole Church is, isn't it true that I'm always "on duty" for the gospel, and wrong for me to have thought before that my secular employment set the hours? I'm still thinking about this. Another aspect of it is that, as a missionary, you always wonder, if I spent a little more time working on that ministry, making more contacts at that school, etc., would I see more fruit? I did not wonder this as an engineer, as my company was pretty adamant about not paying me for more hours than they'd asked me to work. But as a missionary, my hours are the 24 that come with each day. What does "free time" even mean anymore?

A resulting problem is that I end up needing rest and recreation time and taking it anyway, but feeling vaguely guilty about it. Or, I don't "rest hard/play hard" when I have the chance, and so my working times start suffering, and I fall into the trap of time-wasting activities that aren't all that fun but don't make me feel guilty like "having fun" would. I'd be curious to hear people's thoughts on this; I have a feeling there are lots of books and articles addressing this exact phenomenon. (I know part of it is resulting from something I discussed in my look back at this past year, not having the friendship networks I thought I would.)

The problem is, though, that even resolving it for myself, it's nearly impossible to explain to my (much older) Taiwanese coworkers, who have expressed their appreciation for missionaries in the good old days who didn't play around but were serious about the work. (Not aiming that at me, as far as I could tell, just reminiscing)

And I can't really imagine The Apostle Paul deciding to sink a few weekend hours into a TV series he missed, or go visit a nearby town "just for fun,"... so I don't know. Maybe it's me that is immature, or confused by an immature culture (Americans all are to some extent, that's for sure), and I should simply apply myself more diligently. I would appreciate any reflective thoughts on the subject.

A Year of Missions in Taiwan - Part 3 (Dec to June Photos)

Funny thing, I just checked the dates and I'd forgotten I didn't spend a whole year in Taiwan last time, I was there exactly 50 weeks. So I have actually already been here over a week longer than I was here that year. And here I was going to do a whole Samwise Gamgee from the movie analogy with the "one step further and I'll be farther from home than I've ever been," thing. Ah well. I'm still celebrating the actual one year mark.

This post will be a sort of photo journal of my work here from last December until June, then we'll continue on from June and catch up to now in the next photo post.

Two apologies: 
1. A lot of the pics are not super high quality, I only have my phone (HTC One) to take photos...
2. I don't have those great close up pictures of interesting-looking people's faces. Since I don't have a camera with a good lens, I can't focus from far away, and getting up in someone's face to take a picture of them because they are picturesque may be acceptable for tourists far from home, but not when you live here!

Winter 2013-Early 2014

The first non-rainy day, over two weeks after I arrived
(Shot of our Community Activity Center)

Exploring our neighborhood - the old part

Exploring our neighborhood - the new part

Christmas/Baptism Service 2013

Delicious snacks... (I won't put many food pics in here, there are too many to even start trying to choose between them)

Christmas, 2013 - Went to look at the place on Lishui where I lived last time. A bit sad...
Already blocked off and slated for demolition, the area is being redeveloped

With a team that visited to do Christmas outreach ministry, great group

Firework show at the Taipei 101 for New Year's Eve

The Taipei 101 building was the world's tallest from 2004 to 2010

Inside the metro station, at whatever the opposite of rush hour is

This is a newer Metro station in Taipei, but they are all very clean and efficient

Also, this happened

Yes, there is a giant inflatable rubber ducky in Keelung harbor

I climbed Yangminshan (Mt. Yangmin) with some old and new friends...

Highest point

The view was worth the climb

Looking back over Taipei

It's a dormant volcano - here's a sulfur vent

Chinese New Year Time!

Our Chinese New Year spread

Man burns paper money as offering to ancestors

Red envelopes! Happy Year of the Horse
(Gifts of money for CNY or any time traditionally are given in red envelopes)

"People mountain, people sea" (huge crowds) at Danshui, north of Taipei

Kite flying at sunset

Winter VBS! This kid really loves his french fries...

Winter VBS - Making invitation cards

Winter VBS - An attending middle schooler made the smallest paper crane I've ever seen

Winter VBS - Playing in the community center park

Winter VBS - Preparing for our recital for parents

Someone's blurry pic of our winter VBS finale
Often you only get a few quick, blurry shots of actually important moments

Pingxi - home of the lantern festival

Our sky lantern!

And up it goes

You really have to be there to experience it

Someone borrowed this tradition for a movie or something

The river that forms the northern boundary of our target area

It's a working class industrial neighborhood with some renovated areas along main roads

Having a good time in our weekly bible study

We live near a famous spot called Bitan, "Jade Green Pool"

"I said I wanted a 'nice' massage!"

A noodle turtle with the blessing for a long life

Spring 2014

So many pandas... and in the background, a protest for support of traditional marriage
(They were going to change Taiwan's constitution to redefine marriage as a union between two partners
instead of a man and a women. Due to the protests it was delayed for now.)

Spring Comes to Taipei... This and above is Freedom Square at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.

National Theatre Hall

The Formosan Black Bear is a symbol of Taiwan to many people

Early morning trip into the city

Outside of one of the new metro stations in Taipei. Stunning fountains

I did morning devotions here once, it was pretty amazing (but too long of a trip to do often)

Meanwhile our ministries have been going on every week...
Here's our special Easter activity day

Hard at work...

Bible lesson

Coloring some eggs

"Because He died for us, to give us life"

Another week: Prodigal Son

In May we welcomed a short-term team from California for 3 weeks of service
(Figuring out what to order at what would become their favorite Taiwanese restaurant)

Great turnout for our Mother's Day event

They came prepared with gospel skits for it

Elementary school activities - we covered the entire second grade the weeks they were here

Seeing off the team - they did a great job and are welcome back anytime!

We actually do a smaller English outreach at that elementary school every week

One of our several classes

Writing carefully

They're not out there now, but this school has about 3000 kids in total

Students are required to clean the school themselves, sweeping, mopping, etc.

Noah's Ark Lesson (This is from later but I don't have a picture of me teaching in the Spring)

Wind catchers on the last day of the school year... summer "break" has arrived!

That's only scratching the surface of all the things that happened in the first six months, but hopefully you get the idea. And we got busier from here on... but the next post may be shorter because after the summer (when there were other people to take pictures), I've been too busy to take as many myself.

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