Editorial: More social awareness and practice needed

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

3074 Edition

January 24-30, 2011

Editorial



Editorial: More social awareness and practice needed

Translated by Lydia Ma



A while ago, about 20 children gathered in front of Taipei First Girls High 
School to plead with President Ma to protect wetlands in Changhua which 
will be destroyed if Kuokuang Petrochemical Ltd. builds a refinery nearby. 
A fourth-grader wrote on her sign: ”I hope the President can join us in 
protecting belugas and the environment, because one person’s effort isn’t 
enough to create a healthy environment and a safe country.”

In another part of the country, high-school and college students discussed 
plans for a vigil outside EPA headquarters on January 26, 2011, to raise 
awareness on the health hazards that may result from building this 
refinery. Their signs are very eye-catching and relevant to the times we 
live in.

We are relieved to see and hear that our education system can produce young 
people willing to rise up and take a stand, and challenge stereotypes about 
college students being a bunch of useless and stupid youths. It seems 
environmentalists are finally seeing a flicker of hope after trying without 
success to change government officials.

According to U.S. psychologist John B. Watson who specialized in 
behaviorism, he could make doctors, lawyers, robbers, or burglars out of a 
dozen children by simply placing them in different environments. Watson’s 
proposed that human behavior is neither innate nor inherited, but acquired 
and learnt through interaction with people and observation of surrounding 
environments.

Hence, we should be glad when we witness a decline in the median age of 
people involved in civic movements because it means the sense of social 
awareness is growing stronger and setting into young people’s minds earlier 
than before. If only students in today’s Taiwan had more “practical 
training and social awareness”, this country would be very different from 
what it is now. 

To illustrate this point, we need only look at recent headlines describing 
“crocodile judges” and “doctors-turned-pharmaceutical vendors”. One 
headline pokes fun of how out-of-touch with the real world most judges have 
become by spending so much time studying for exams, while the other 
criticizes a medical school system that produces more pharmaceutical 
vendors than skilled physicians. Both allude to professionals’ lack of 
critical judgment and social awareness – or the problem with lifeless and 
theoretic education.

In contrast, Dr. George Leslie Mackay emphasized practical training and 
social awareness when he taught his students. This edition of Taiwan Church 
News features a story about medical school students from Mackay Medical 
School getting out of ivory towers and visiting Aborigine reservations in 
rural areas to offer pro-bono services. For Mackay, a physician’s oath to 
serve others was more than paying lip-service.

In the same way, our faith needs a bit more “social awareness and practical 
training” because it’s only through practicing what we preach that we can 
learn to love others like Jesus would love them. Though we are saved by 
faith alone through a personal relationship with Christ, looking out for 
our brethren and helping one another flourish is just as important.

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