wfn.org | Editorial: Sense of shame

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3039 Edition

>May 24~30, 2010

>Editorial: Sense of shame

>Translated by Lydia Ma

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and  contrite heart, O 
God, you will not

>despise,” (Psalm 51:17).

During a recent lecture in Taiwan, renowned political science  professor and 
writer Benedict

Anderson remarked: “If you feel no shame for your country,  you cannot be a 
nationalist.”

Anderson explained that genuine love for a country gives birth to  a sense of 
shame for that

country, but this sentiment doesn’t prompt a person to reject  his country. 
Instead, it forces him

to realize his country has much room for improvement. As a  citizen, a person 
partakes in a

country’s glory and shame and that’s what drives him to  call for reforms and 
improvements.

In contrast, a person who never ceases to revel in his  country’s past 
achievements and glory,

whose national pride is easily hurt by other people’s  criticisms, or who 
considers any and

every criticism about his country as a plot to conquer and divide  his people 
is the worst kind of

nationalist. He is also the kind of person who will fall for lies  uttered by 
careerists to advance their own agendas.

Our neighboring country, China, is currently hosting Expo 2010 and  this 
international event will

undoubtedly allow visitors to get a glimpse of its power and  booming economy.

In the midst of the hype, Beijing seems to have forgotten how it  had condemned 
and sought to

sweep out Chinese culture and history merely a few decades ago.  Ironically, 
Beijing has

recently begun to embrace China’s rich heritage and history  as its inheritance 
and has even

begun to tout Chinese history in film and television. Past  emperors who were 
once reviled as

violent and cruel despots are now lauded as model citizens and  heroic leaders.

As the spotlight shone on Shanghai and Expo 2010, a killing  rampage took place 
in a

kindergarten in another part of China, injuring 32 people. Days  later, a 
similar incident

happened again and claimed the lives of 7 young children. In the  span of 2 
months, 6

kindergartens across China reported stabbings that exceeded 20  fatalities in 
total.

In response to these “inopportune” tragedies just as  Expo 2010 was under way, 
Chinese

authorities put a lid on these incidents and brushed them aside,  prompting a 
blogger to

comment satirically, “Kids, you’ve rained on your old  man’s parade!” The 
blogger was no

doubt alluding that these incidents had unmasked Beijing’s  show of harmony and 
peace in China.

Many people in China live in fear and insecurity because the  Chinese 
government doesn’t

care about serious injustices happening throughout the country and  would 
rather cover them

>up or gloss over them.

Sadly, Taiwanese officials and bureaucrats in capitalist countries  don’t fare 
much better. A

while back, some employees who were laid-off illegally by their  company 
appealed to

Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs, but never heard back from  the government. 
When they

sought the help of their company’s partner firm, they were  similarly brushed 
off.

There have been a string of suicides recently among employees at  Foxconn 
Electronics’ plant

in China. As we await further details of what happened, the  general assumption 
is that

management at Foxconn failed in their capacity as managers and  employees had 
been

>subjected to unacceptable working conditions.

Incidents like these not only cast a dark shadow over a  company’s reputation 
and create

tension with members of the community, they further cement biases  Chinese 
people may

>already have about Taiwanese businessmen.

Strong-willed and powerful people sometimes have difficulty seeing  their 
mistakes and

shortcomings, but if their fellow Taiwanese would have a sense of  shame and 
call these

people’s actions to account, there might still be a glimmer  of hope.

An example of such an instance is recorded in the Bible when the  prophet 
Nathan confronted

King David after the latter murdered Uriah the Hittite and  committed adultery 
with Uriah’s wife,

Bathsheba. David’s response to Nathan’s rebuke was one  filled with shame and 
sincere repentance.

In the end, David’s repentance saved him and spared his  people from disaster 
during his

reign. David’s story teaches us that we mustn’t turn a  blind eye to sins and 
injustices

committed by powerful people and people of authority. Though very  few of them 
may come to

repentance as David did, we must still give them a chance to be  saved and 
redeemed.

>********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local  languages.

You may translate and re-use our articles online only if you  acknowledge the 
source as

"Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter and  writer.

Contact us before reprinting any of our articles for print  publications.

Direct comments and questions about this article to:  enews@pctpress.org

Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/  (English)

>http://www.pctpress.org (Chinese)

>********************

> 
>