Shi Meiyu (1873-1954)

My new article is up at the Colson Center. It's on Shi Meiyu, the first Chinese woman to receive a medical degree from a Western university.

Matthew Warren, Elizabeth Sunshine, and Martin Luther

My daughter Elizabeth and I have both had our struggles with depression. Matthew Warren's suicide hit her hard. Her response hit me hard. If you've ever dealt with depression or are dealing with the aftermath of suicide, these words may help.

I have seen some "Christians" who have announced their certainty that Matthew cannot be saved because of his suicide. For them, I offer this scene from the movie Luther. The events depicted didn't actually occur, but Luther's words in the first half of this clip are worth pondering before you pronounce judgment on Matthew or the Warrens.

Travels in China

It’s been a while since I’ve done a real blog post. Life’s been a bit out of control, I’m afraid. I’ll continue posting links to articles, but I thought I’d begin a series of short reports based on a trip I took recently to China.

I went under the auspices of the America China Civic Exchange (ACCE). This is an organization that fosters cooperative ventures between American and Chinese individuals and institutions. I was there through a connection with Bill Redmond, a former congressman from New Mexico and a graduate of the Centurions program. My role was to help lay the groundwork for a worldview training program in China. That was only a small part of the trip, but I was able to participate and sometimes contribute to meetings on a wide range of other subjects as well.

How wide a range? We spoke with the woman who is in charge of developing a unified e-commerce system for all of China. We negotiated with a state-run television station for the first joint US-China television series, surrounding the building of the transcontinental railroad. We did a lot of meetings surrounding various ventures of Lincoln Christian University, including talking about online courses, translating textbooks into Chinese, setting up exchanges, even looking into the possibility of a branch campus in China. We spoke to people about hospice care and special education. We met with house church leaders and Christian publishers. We spent an afternoon at a school that produces music ministers for both the government run Three Self churches and the house churches. And that’s not even everything.

It was pretty intense.

I’ll write about some of the meetings and the things I learned about China in later posts, but for now, I wanted to make two general observations about China. First, everything you’ve heard about the air pollution is true. Everywhere we went, from the Great Wall and Beijing to Guangzhou in southern China, there was dense smog. The only sunny day we had was after a rainstorm had cleared the air; the next day, though, it was back to smog. I got a cough almost from the time I arrived, and it is only going away now, a week after I got home.

Second, driving anywhere in China is like being in a slow motion action movie. I’ve seen some crazy driving before—Italy comes to mind here—but the Chinese have got them beat. Lanes are suggestions at best; even driving on the right hand side of the road is a suggestion at times. And all this is with cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycle-rickshaws, handcarts, etc., all vying for space on the road. I was in buses that did K-turns at major intersections. And despite this, there were almost no accidents that we saw, and none of them major.

Akira Kurosawa did a movie called Ran. It’s essentially King Lear set in feudal Japan. At one point, there was an enormous and graphic battle, but all the sounds were replaced by classical music. It was intentionally jarring and disturbing. In Wenzhou, where the school for music ministers was located, I was in the front seat of the car of one of the instructors there, travelling across the city to the Brandenburg Concertos. I couldn’t help but think of the battle scene in Ran.

Pandita Ramabai

My next article in the series "Christians who Changed their World" is up. This set focuses on non-Western Christians and women. Today's article features both: Pandita Ramabai was a remarkable woman who was an acknowledged Hindu scholar, but who was dissatisfied by the attitudes toward women she found within Hinduism. This led her to Christianity. She then became a major promoter of women's rights and women's education in India.

Coming Soon: Newsletter

I will begin publishing a monthly newsletter in the very near future. It will include new content, article links, upcoming events, etc., related to my work in churches and in parachurch organizations. If you would like to receive the newsletter, you can subscribe using the link on the right side of this page. Thanks!

Chiune Sugihara

This past Saturday, USA Network put on “Schindler’s List” without commercial interruption. My newest article features Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese consular official who has been described as the Japanese Schindler—only Sugihara saved many thousands more than Schindler and was not motivated by exploiting their labor as Schindler had been in the beginning. For me personally, this is one of the most moving stories I have recounted. I hope you enjoy it.

Tsuda Umeka

The next article in the series Christians who Changed their World is up. We're focusing on non-Western Christians and women for now, and this time we have one who fits both categories, Tsuda Umeka.