October 3-5/08, Friday to Sunday.
I got to Sokcho no problem Thursday night, at like 1:30am. I went into a little motel behind the bus terminal, luckily they were still up. It was perfectly located for me and get this: 20 000w/night (~20 CAD). The room was small but with bathroom and TV and small fridge with water and Vita 500 (vitamin C drink). It worked out SO well. I stayed there all three nights.
So on Friday I just started walking. I had had vague plans but I woke up late and laid them aside a bit. I saw some beaches, and fishing stuff. There was squid drying EVERYWHERE. I saw some squid boats with the special lights. I even came across a little squid cleaning plant. Shallow concrete vats with ajummas sitting on pails cleaning squid. They have this specialty that I didn't try, it's squid sundae (sausage). Instead of meat and stuff stuffed in an intestine, it's stuffed in a squid tube. I came across some in a market but I had already had a feed of raw fish. I really wanna try it though. I did have a squid deop bap though, just squid and veggies in a spicy sauce with rice. I had to complete the squid cycle: live squid in tanks, squid boats and fishing gear, squid cleaning, squid drying, squid packaged for sale, squid eating!
I went on this 100-year old cable ferry across one of the harbours to this village which is featured in the hit Korean TV show Autumn of My Heart. Never heard of it. Ugh what a lame title anyway. The market I saw was pretty cool. Right on the port, dry fish vendors on the land side, live fish and food venders on the water side, alongside fishing boats. I saw this little out of the way something too. Probably an old scholar's house or small shrine of something. It was deserted and locked up. It was up a little hill through some old houses and near some military "don't come in here" place. Sokcho is really likeable: pretty laid back, on the ocean, fishing-ness, Seorak nearby. Korean Newfoundland maybe. Why am I working in Daejeon again?
So I walked all along the coast and then got a bus to Naksan (part of my earlier plan) which was like 10 minutes away. I saw a very small insectarium. And, one of the best temples I've seen in Korea. Bested maybe only by that one in Songnisan with the Big Jesus Buddha (Brad's moniker for it). It's on a hill right on the ocean. It's main attraction is a big white statue of the goddess of mercy. You can see the Seorak range from Sokcho and so you can from Naksan. There's a little shrine for her just down the hill a bit dug into the hill with a window so that when you are in there venerating you can see the top part of the statue: her head and shoulders, through the window. It is SO neat. That's not all. The main hall has a big gold Kannon statue (Kannon is the Japanese name, dunno what the Koreans call it) and six other multi-limbed and multi-headed deities, and many many small statues in gold colour and wood in behind and a gold coloured embossed scene of something or other I dunno but it's stunning. I took as many pictures as I could until they told me I couldn't. I'm a bad person but it was so cool.
Next day I slept in later than I wanted but I was ready to go at 8:30 but the next bus to where I wanted wasn't til 1030. So I went to a lighthouse. There were some exposed rocks with ppl fishing and magnificent waves crashing (nothing like Cape Spear of course) so I took some pictures and chilled out. I went up the lighthouse and got some cool pics of the town and mountains. Then I got the bus to Osaek.
Lonely Planet said the quickest route to the peak of Seorak, Daecheongbong, was from Osaek. I started my hike around 11:45. I had packed fairly light except the 2L of water. My GOD the first 1.3 km was HELL. I kept doubting myself, I didn't think I was gonna make it up, I kept stopping, I was worrying I was going too slow to make it back down in time to catch a bus back to Sokcho, I was cursing myself for not being fit, I was thinking how I've let myself go physically, I was thinking that if Brad were there I woulda pushed myself harder. But that was the worst. I was fine for the rest of the way up. I was wearing my waegukin (foreigner) shirt and good lord did the Koreans ever fucking love it. Every third person I passed the other way would comment and laugh about it, give a thumbs up, joke with me about it ("Are you a foreigner?" "Yes, how did you know?"...*points at himself* "Hangukin (Korean)"), they'd say "right on," "very good!" "wonderful!" It was a riot. I felt like the whole mountain was talking about me. I think they get that the joke is the redundancy but I think they like that waeguk is wearing a hangul (Korean language) T-shirt. You don't see that everyday.
I fell in with a couple from Daegu. He spoke English well enough, is an automotive engineer. She was cheery and nice, only spoke Korean though. They shared their lunch. I didn't have much to offer. Crappy kimbap. Didn't wanna insult them.
I reached the peak in about three hours from the trailhead. It was all clouded over so there wasn't any view. It's not that spectacular a peak, if you remember, unless there was a view I think. I got the pictures, built my inukshuk and flew down the mountain. I almost ran most of the way and didn't stop til halfway. Then I stopped and refuelled. Calves were getting shakey by then. I had recalled a story my coworker Jeff told me about a man he met on the Chuseok weekend on a mountain, can't remember which one, but near Chungju Lake. He had said it's best to go down the mountain like water, follow the path of least resistance. Easier on the joints and everything. So that's what I had been doing. But then I arrived at the pitch of hell again (I went up the way I came). I went over a bit on each ankle and that scared me into snail pace. It wasn't as hard as the way up but man it was hard. 1.3km of uneven rock stairs. By that point no one was passing anyone unless they had stopped. We were all taking our time. It was almost 5 o'clock so the light was fading a bit, which added to the anxiety a little. I was so relieved when I made it to the entrance and it was still light out. I duck walked a little down the sloping road. Very slowly. I got some hydration and ramyeon and got the bus back.
The colours were out alittle, especially near the top. But this particular trail was straight to business and there were no vistas to take pictures of because of the tree cover. I didn't mind because I planned to go to the more famous part with the bare rocky bits the next day. But when I inquired about the bus to Daejeon there was only one at 1145am. I didn't wanna muck around with many kinds of transpo and it had rained the night before I probably woulda had the same cloud issue and risk of more rain, and I may not have been able to make it anywhere the state my legs were in. So I took the looooong bus ride back, which turned out to be through a gorgeous mountain river valley most of the way and through idyllic farming villages. I was so proud of myself though. I made it up and down on my own steam two hours short of the Lonely Planet estimate. I really want to go back to Seorak to see the really scenic places and a temple within the national park but I feel like that'll be easy and I can do it anytime since the mountain and I have come to terms.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Visit to an Oriental Doctor
From my journal Sept. 6, 2008 (abridged):
Joy, my boss, took me to see an oriental doctor for my back. I was having pain and restriction of movement. She had to translate on the spot and go through a diagnostic survey with questions about my toilet habits, whether I sleep and digest well, whether I like to drink cold or hot water. Very different from home; not least in the fact that this was my boss being privy to this very personal evaluation.
So the doctor, once I went into his office, poked and prodded. It didn’t bother me, but he did touch areas where Western doctors won’t touch without alerting you to it and the intention, and receiving permission. Nothing scandalous, and always professional. Just different. I noted but was not phased that my boss was present all this time. The doctor did a bit of chiropractic, but not as sort of firm and assertive as doctors I’ve seen in Canada. He also used a hand-held massage thing on my back.
I was still having pain so he brought me to a table surrounded by a curtain and left me there for 10 mintues. This table, though was a massage table with little “fingers” moving up and down my back. Cool. He came back and gave me acupuncture. He used a few needles on my back but took them out quickly. Joy had told me before that he uses “medicine” on the needles. I assume it’s a mild topical anaesthetic or something. Then he turned me over and put two needles in each of my hands, two in each of my feet, and one on each calf. He left me like that with a heat lamp directed on my feet.
Soon a woman came and rolled up my shirt to expose my belly. She put some material over it, in a donut shape, and a towel over my hips. Then she brought this smoking circular pot thing and put it over my stomach, resting it on the donut thing, over my bare belly. It had burning herbs or incense but it wasn’t sweet-smelling. She pulled down an adjustable silver vent from the ceiling and put it over the pot to catch the smoke. I guess it was meant to warm my stomach in a particular way as well as provide some sort of aromatherapy. Some of the hot ash fell on me.
After awhile she came and took everything off, cleaned up the ash and took out the needles. Then she brought this big complicated machine. Picture the pneumatic armband they use to take your blood pressure but big enough to cover you torso. One by one a lateral tube (there were maybe six) would fill up with air thus giving a sort of squeezing massage/chiropractic. Pretty cool. And that was it. They took me out of it and sent me on my way. When I walked out I was almost in tears because my back felt no better. It only cost about $33 but I had been really hoping I’d get some relief. But after about 20 minutes I started to feel better. My back hurt less. They had suggested I go back for more treatment. A couple days later, I remembered a trick that my chiropractor in St. John’s showed me. She’d put pressure on a muscle knot for 60 seconds and it would loosen. I did this on the worst knot in my back and it worked like a charm. Such a simple thing.
I had tried to be prepared for anything, and take everything in stride. I found myself analyzing everything, with my very limited medical knowledge, in Western terms and not thinking in a Korean way, not accepting the Korean way. And I thought myself to be open-minded. I suppose my impression of oriental medicine going into it was not much beyond that “witch doctor” image. I didn’t quite expect a straw hut and rooster entrails but I didn’t expect a sophisticated pneumatic machine or special sensor to measure one’s aura. “Scientific.” They were playing Western classical music the whole time. Korea is weird sometimes.
Joy, my boss, took me to see an oriental doctor for my back. I was having pain and restriction of movement. She had to translate on the spot and go through a diagnostic survey with questions about my toilet habits, whether I sleep and digest well, whether I like to drink cold or hot water. Very different from home; not least in the fact that this was my boss being privy to this very personal evaluation.
So the doctor, once I went into his office, poked and prodded. It didn’t bother me, but he did touch areas where Western doctors won’t touch without alerting you to it and the intention, and receiving permission. Nothing scandalous, and always professional. Just different. I noted but was not phased that my boss was present all this time. The doctor did a bit of chiropractic, but not as sort of firm and assertive as doctors I’ve seen in Canada. He also used a hand-held massage thing on my back.
I was still having pain so he brought me to a table surrounded by a curtain and left me there for 10 mintues. This table, though was a massage table with little “fingers” moving up and down my back. Cool. He came back and gave me acupuncture. He used a few needles on my back but took them out quickly. Joy had told me before that he uses “medicine” on the needles. I assume it’s a mild topical anaesthetic or something. Then he turned me over and put two needles in each of my hands, two in each of my feet, and one on each calf. He left me like that with a heat lamp directed on my feet.
Soon a woman came and rolled up my shirt to expose my belly. She put some material over it, in a donut shape, and a towel over my hips. Then she brought this smoking circular pot thing and put it over my stomach, resting it on the donut thing, over my bare belly. It had burning herbs or incense but it wasn’t sweet-smelling. She pulled down an adjustable silver vent from the ceiling and put it over the pot to catch the smoke. I guess it was meant to warm my stomach in a particular way as well as provide some sort of aromatherapy. Some of the hot ash fell on me.
After awhile she came and took everything off, cleaned up the ash and took out the needles. Then she brought this big complicated machine. Picture the pneumatic armband they use to take your blood pressure but big enough to cover you torso. One by one a lateral tube (there were maybe six) would fill up with air thus giving a sort of squeezing massage/chiropractic. Pretty cool. And that was it. They took me out of it and sent me on my way. When I walked out I was almost in tears because my back felt no better. It only cost about $33 but I had been really hoping I’d get some relief. But after about 20 minutes I started to feel better. My back hurt less. They had suggested I go back for more treatment. A couple days later, I remembered a trick that my chiropractor in St. John’s showed me. She’d put pressure on a muscle knot for 60 seconds and it would loosen. I did this on the worst knot in my back and it worked like a charm. Such a simple thing.
I had tried to be prepared for anything, and take everything in stride. I found myself analyzing everything, with my very limited medical knowledge, in Western terms and not thinking in a Korean way, not accepting the Korean way. And I thought myself to be open-minded. I suppose my impression of oriental medicine going into it was not much beyond that “witch doctor” image. I didn’t quite expect a straw hut and rooster entrails but I didn’t expect a sophisticated pneumatic machine or special sensor to measure one’s aura. “Scientific.” They were playing Western classical music the whole time. Korea is weird sometimes.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The Church of God
Thursday, Oct. 9/08
I didn’t want to be combative and I didn’t want to argue. I was genuinely interested. I wanted to know more without attracting unwanted attention.
There was a knock on my door on Thursday night, around 8:30 I guess. I thought it was strange, since no one at work actually knows where I live except Jamie and Joy. Maybe it was them. Maybe it was Glenn or Krista. It was a couple of women with a survey. One look at the survey and I knew why they were there and they wouldn’t just be waved away. So I answered questions about what I believed about God, Jesus, and some specific Bible citations. The last question was something like “What do you want to know more about from the Bible” and the answers were even more constricting than the previous questions: the Bible is true, the existence of God, the image of God … Heavenly Mother… so I left it blank. They questioned this.
Them: “Have you studied the Bible?”
Me: “Yes I’ve read it. I was brought up Catholic so I’m familiar with that interpretation and I studied Medieval History and so have studied a lot about Christianity.”
Them: “Then you know about Heavenly Mother.”
Me: “The Mother of God?”
Them: “No, the wife of Jesus.”
Me: “Mary Magdelen?”
Them: “No.”
Wouldn’t you be intrigued? Is this some new feminist mother-goddess cult? God as woman? Genderless divinity? I should have known…I am in Korea after all. I had heard indirect comments about coworkers and friends being accosted by these evangelists. They are called the Church of God. They snagged me with a survey, spoke perfect English. I asked for reading material, they produced a Bible. Then one asked to use my bathroom and then we were sitting on my floor and I was being shown Bible passages. But not against my will. Like I said, I was interested. They were sly and not annoyingly pushy or preachy. They didn’t say until near the end they were Church of God, perhaps knowing their reputation among foreigners. And indeed had they mentioned it first off there’d have been no conversation at all.
So most of their evidence is semantic and metaphoric, and much of it comes from the Old Testament prophecies and from Revelation. They also pick and choose from Paul and stretch some Gospel stuff a little thinly. First off they are Christian. They believe in the Trinity and the death and resurrection, and transubstantiation, the whole bit. They believe that Jesus IS God, not just the Son of God, and this is one of many ways around the mathematical magic trick that is the Trinity. But each member of the Trinity has a female counterpart, a wife. The first citation they showed me was from the end of Revelations, something spoken to John by the seventh angel about “the Lamb and his bride.” They point out Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast, how heaven is like a wedding feast and wonder how can you have a wedding without a bride? They refreshed my memory of the basic structure of social interaction is the nuclear family, mother, father, and children. Without children there is only man and woman, and how can there be a Father without a Mother? They showed my sections of Genesis and other books where pronouns and possessive pronouns referring to God are plural, in the original Hebrew they assured me. This last thing of course is usually explained in terms of the Trinity, but given the other evidence, they must conclude that God was not alone at the time of Creation.
So according to Revelation and the OT prophecies which lay everything out so cleanly and clearly, they believe that after the Second Coming of Christ, the Heavenly Mother—the wife of God or wife of Christ or whatever—will herself be made flesh and come to Earth. This will be at the end of the Seventh Age (the Age of the Holy Spirit which is heralded by the Second Coming), and of course precede the Last Judgment soon to follow. It gets better. Guess what: Jesus has been and left again. In Korea in 1948. We are living in the Age of The Holy Spirit and we didn’t even know it. And within one generation from 1948, they figure about 100 years, Heavenly Mother will come as well. And the Apocalypse. But they didn’t dwell on the Hellfire at all actually, unlike Jehovah’s Witnesses.
They have an interesting symbolic theme regarding Passover which I found very interesting, theologically. The first thing is the blood. If you know the story of Passover you know it’s bloody. They explained that how does a mother who has lost her child early on recognize her own after many years but through a DNA blood test. So how do the Heavenly Mother and Father know their own but through their own blood running through us. (Oh this sounds juicy, please tell me how we’ve got a bloodline and who’s got it!) Through the Eucharist, though they don’t call it that, we can receive God’s blood and be recognized. (Darn, that was no fun!) They only take the body and blood once a year at Passover, which for them is fittingly the anniversary of the Last Supper, what Catholics call Holy Thursday. I think they said it was the thirteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar or something like that. There is of course the prophecies of Jesus being the ultimate sacrificial Lamb of all the lambs killed in the Jewish Passover tradition, and indeed Jesus was killed during Passover. Jesus thus made void that practice among others. The Church of God says this is the “new covenant” spoken of at the Last Supper, basically the abolition of Jewish Passover.
One more thing about Passover. The first Passover happened during the Exile in Egypt, where the Jews, God’s Chosen People, were enslaved. Moses said “Let my people go,” Pharaoh said “Hell no,” and God said “I’ma plague your ass” and sent the seven plagues. The last plague was the Angel of Death and the Jews were instructed to smear lamb’s blood over the door of their houses so that the Angel of Death would “pass over” them. Now true to his word for ever more, disciples who have been marked by blood will be spared from plague and disaster. These women told me that over a million people are part of the Church of God and apparently they have never had disaster befall them. Even the ones in America during 9/11 or Hurricaine Katrina, even the ones in the 2004 Tsunami, they said they were not personally harmed. Now don’t get me started about why that’s bullshit.
There are some key ideas of Christianity that they didn’t highlight at all but maybe that’s because they understood me to be Christian. They do not have female ministers but the ministers are allowed to marry. Tell me what kind of church that believes in a Heavenly Mother wouldn’t allow for female ministers? I don’t like the emphasis on and sanctification of the heterosexual nuclear family unit. I find it difficult to believe that this has much of a following outside of Korea mostly because of the Korea-as-the-New-Jerusalem thing, and I guess it doesn’t because like they said, “over a million” people.
They stressed the importance of getting baptized quickly, first thing, and *then* learning about everything. (Ahem) When I pointed out that I had been baptized in the Catholic Church they showed me a passage in the Epistles about some Jews having been baptized by John the Baptist and how that didn’t count anymore after Jesus because they had to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. So I’d have to be baptized, they said, with the knowledge and acceptance of the Heavenly Mother. One of the women in fact said she was baptized three times in three different churches, chuckle chuckle, so it doesn’t matter how many times you are baptized, she said. (Bit of a pattern with her, is there?)
I haven’t given a whole lot of thought to my specific views on religion and spirituality in order to intone a creed for those who ask for a number of years. I like learning about religion, I like talking about it, I like experiencing it (for example attending a Baptist mass, or visiting a contemporary Buddhist temple). But I do actually steer clear of debate, with atheists especially, but also with any faithful. I ask probing questions more to to see if they can give me intelligent answers and satisfy my own curiosity, not for the purpose of their concession to any view I hold. (And I went nowhere near the issue of homosexuality and other such touchy subjects with my guests). But tonight I came to understand and be able to communicate something about how I think about spirituality. For the Church of God the way of salvation is to join the team and get others to join the team. You get on the team through baptism, and stay on the team through the Eucharist and evangelism. Lots of religions and sects and denominations are like that. This is not news. Some are more exclusionary than others. The other thing is about mindless ritual. Well, not mindless: there’s just plain too much mindfulness of it. It’s another way, along with joining teams, to convince yourself that you’re doing some good for yourself without actually doing anything. I don’t believe in life after death and I don’t believe that joining religious teams and having team meetings and performing team rituals is going to ensure any sort of benefit beyond a feeling of social belonging and, in the case of rituals, a sort of calming meditation.
Not revolutionary or particularly revealing to you; momentous for me to be able to begin to consolidate, understand, and be confident in myself. The conversation with the Church of God women was a catalyst I guess. They made offers about getting baptized and learning more (I don’t think they usual speak that long with anyone because they were almost at a loss when they finished preaching) and they invited me to a gathering next week at the church. I won’t go and I won’t answer my door for awhile unless I’m expecting someone. I feel bad for having led them to believe I was interested in becoming part of their church. I didn’t outright lie, I just didn’t show all my colours. My friend and former roommate Matt Sheedy was always talking about the importance of positive dialogue between representatives of different faiths. That was sort of the spirit I invited the women in with, but I failed because it was one sided. I assumed there would be frustration and negative feelings if I opened up about my non-belief and leftist social views. They may have been patient and reasonable if I had. They may also have spent more time on me, trying to plain old convert me to the Light of Christ.
I didn’t want to be combative and I didn’t want to argue. I was genuinely interested. I wanted to know more without attracting unwanted attention.
There was a knock on my door on Thursday night, around 8:30 I guess. I thought it was strange, since no one at work actually knows where I live except Jamie and Joy. Maybe it was them. Maybe it was Glenn or Krista. It was a couple of women with a survey. One look at the survey and I knew why they were there and they wouldn’t just be waved away. So I answered questions about what I believed about God, Jesus, and some specific Bible citations. The last question was something like “What do you want to know more about from the Bible” and the answers were even more constricting than the previous questions: the Bible is true, the existence of God, the image of God … Heavenly Mother… so I left it blank. They questioned this.
Them: “Have you studied the Bible?”
Me: “Yes I’ve read it. I was brought up Catholic so I’m familiar with that interpretation and I studied Medieval History and so have studied a lot about Christianity.”
Them: “Then you know about Heavenly Mother.”
Me: “The Mother of God?”
Them: “No, the wife of Jesus.”
Me: “Mary Magdelen?”
Them: “No.”
Wouldn’t you be intrigued? Is this some new feminist mother-goddess cult? God as woman? Genderless divinity? I should have known…I am in Korea after all. I had heard indirect comments about coworkers and friends being accosted by these evangelists. They are called the Church of God. They snagged me with a survey, spoke perfect English. I asked for reading material, they produced a Bible. Then one asked to use my bathroom and then we were sitting on my floor and I was being shown Bible passages. But not against my will. Like I said, I was interested. They were sly and not annoyingly pushy or preachy. They didn’t say until near the end they were Church of God, perhaps knowing their reputation among foreigners. And indeed had they mentioned it first off there’d have been no conversation at all.
So most of their evidence is semantic and metaphoric, and much of it comes from the Old Testament prophecies and from Revelation. They also pick and choose from Paul and stretch some Gospel stuff a little thinly. First off they are Christian. They believe in the Trinity and the death and resurrection, and transubstantiation, the whole bit. They believe that Jesus IS God, not just the Son of God, and this is one of many ways around the mathematical magic trick that is the Trinity. But each member of the Trinity has a female counterpart, a wife. The first citation they showed me was from the end of Revelations, something spoken to John by the seventh angel about “the Lamb and his bride.” They point out Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast, how heaven is like a wedding feast and wonder how can you have a wedding without a bride? They refreshed my memory of the basic structure of social interaction is the nuclear family, mother, father, and children. Without children there is only man and woman, and how can there be a Father without a Mother? They showed my sections of Genesis and other books where pronouns and possessive pronouns referring to God are plural, in the original Hebrew they assured me. This last thing of course is usually explained in terms of the Trinity, but given the other evidence, they must conclude that God was not alone at the time of Creation.
So according to Revelation and the OT prophecies which lay everything out so cleanly and clearly, they believe that after the Second Coming of Christ, the Heavenly Mother—the wife of God or wife of Christ or whatever—will herself be made flesh and come to Earth. This will be at the end of the Seventh Age (the Age of the Holy Spirit which is heralded by the Second Coming), and of course precede the Last Judgment soon to follow. It gets better. Guess what: Jesus has been and left again. In Korea in 1948. We are living in the Age of The Holy Spirit and we didn’t even know it. And within one generation from 1948, they figure about 100 years, Heavenly Mother will come as well. And the Apocalypse. But they didn’t dwell on the Hellfire at all actually, unlike Jehovah’s Witnesses.
They have an interesting symbolic theme regarding Passover which I found very interesting, theologically. The first thing is the blood. If you know the story of Passover you know it’s bloody. They explained that how does a mother who has lost her child early on recognize her own after many years but through a DNA blood test. So how do the Heavenly Mother and Father know their own but through their own blood running through us. (Oh this sounds juicy, please tell me how we’ve got a bloodline and who’s got it!) Through the Eucharist, though they don’t call it that, we can receive God’s blood and be recognized. (Darn, that was no fun!) They only take the body and blood once a year at Passover, which for them is fittingly the anniversary of the Last Supper, what Catholics call Holy Thursday. I think they said it was the thirteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar or something like that. There is of course the prophecies of Jesus being the ultimate sacrificial Lamb of all the lambs killed in the Jewish Passover tradition, and indeed Jesus was killed during Passover. Jesus thus made void that practice among others. The Church of God says this is the “new covenant” spoken of at the Last Supper, basically the abolition of Jewish Passover.
One more thing about Passover. The first Passover happened during the Exile in Egypt, where the Jews, God’s Chosen People, were enslaved. Moses said “Let my people go,” Pharaoh said “Hell no,” and God said “I’ma plague your ass” and sent the seven plagues. The last plague was the Angel of Death and the Jews were instructed to smear lamb’s blood over the door of their houses so that the Angel of Death would “pass over” them. Now true to his word for ever more, disciples who have been marked by blood will be spared from plague and disaster. These women told me that over a million people are part of the Church of God and apparently they have never had disaster befall them. Even the ones in America during 9/11 or Hurricaine Katrina, even the ones in the 2004 Tsunami, they said they were not personally harmed. Now don’t get me started about why that’s bullshit.
There are some key ideas of Christianity that they didn’t highlight at all but maybe that’s because they understood me to be Christian. They do not have female ministers but the ministers are allowed to marry. Tell me what kind of church that believes in a Heavenly Mother wouldn’t allow for female ministers? I don’t like the emphasis on and sanctification of the heterosexual nuclear family unit. I find it difficult to believe that this has much of a following outside of Korea mostly because of the Korea-as-the-New-Jerusalem thing, and I guess it doesn’t because like they said, “over a million” people.
They stressed the importance of getting baptized quickly, first thing, and *then* learning about everything. (Ahem) When I pointed out that I had been baptized in the Catholic Church they showed me a passage in the Epistles about some Jews having been baptized by John the Baptist and how that didn’t count anymore after Jesus because they had to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. So I’d have to be baptized, they said, with the knowledge and acceptance of the Heavenly Mother. One of the women in fact said she was baptized three times in three different churches, chuckle chuckle, so it doesn’t matter how many times you are baptized, she said. (Bit of a pattern with her, is there?)
I haven’t given a whole lot of thought to my specific views on religion and spirituality in order to intone a creed for those who ask for a number of years. I like learning about religion, I like talking about it, I like experiencing it (for example attending a Baptist mass, or visiting a contemporary Buddhist temple). But I do actually steer clear of debate, with atheists especially, but also with any faithful. I ask probing questions more to to see if they can give me intelligent answers and satisfy my own curiosity, not for the purpose of their concession to any view I hold. (And I went nowhere near the issue of homosexuality and other such touchy subjects with my guests). But tonight I came to understand and be able to communicate something about how I think about spirituality. For the Church of God the way of salvation is to join the team and get others to join the team. You get on the team through baptism, and stay on the team through the Eucharist and evangelism. Lots of religions and sects and denominations are like that. This is not news. Some are more exclusionary than others. The other thing is about mindless ritual. Well, not mindless: there’s just plain too much mindfulness of it. It’s another way, along with joining teams, to convince yourself that you’re doing some good for yourself without actually doing anything. I don’t believe in life after death and I don’t believe that joining religious teams and having team meetings and performing team rituals is going to ensure any sort of benefit beyond a feeling of social belonging and, in the case of rituals, a sort of calming meditation.
Not revolutionary or particularly revealing to you; momentous for me to be able to begin to consolidate, understand, and be confident in myself. The conversation with the Church of God women was a catalyst I guess. They made offers about getting baptized and learning more (I don’t think they usual speak that long with anyone because they were almost at a loss when they finished preaching) and they invited me to a gathering next week at the church. I won’t go and I won’t answer my door for awhile unless I’m expecting someone. I feel bad for having led them to believe I was interested in becoming part of their church. I didn’t outright lie, I just didn’t show all my colours. My friend and former roommate Matt Sheedy was always talking about the importance of positive dialogue between representatives of different faiths. That was sort of the spirit I invited the women in with, but I failed because it was one sided. I assumed there would be frustration and negative feelings if I opened up about my non-belief and leftist social views. They may have been patient and reasonable if I had. They may also have spent more time on me, trying to plain old convert me to the Light of Christ.
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