Death of Mission Schools: Towards a Christian Perspective on Education In the Era of Commoditization of Education under Neo-liberalism

 ‘Death of Mission Schools’ represents the end of an era of missionary work of Protestant missions in the field of education and the values and witness they represented in a largely non-Christian world. This sort of being in the world as a Christian has often been described as ‘Christian Presence’. While being a negligible minority, the nascent Christian community that the missionaries had nurtured, with the mission schools and hospitals at the centre, became the visible face of Christ in the public life of the equally nascent independent nation-states like India and Taiwan, and wielded disproportionate influence over the social and political life of the respective countries in Asia, at times, even shaping their understanding of nationhood. The word ‘death’ definitely implies a sense of loss and nostalgia about the past, but it is inevitable; but how do we carry forward our educational mission in a radically different political, economic and social scenario informed by neo-liberalism.

It is important that we distinguish between the missions of the early modern period, represented pre-dominantly by Catholic missions, and the missions of later centuries represented pre-dominantly by Protestant missions. The early missions, which reached out to the entire world in the 16th Century, initiated by the Spaniards and followed by the Portuguese, were adjunct to a crass materialistic project of colonization and hence, it often entailed a forceful conversion of ‘heathens’ to Christianity. Mission followed the ‘conquistadors’ and often became the ideological means for supporting and providing legitimacy for conquest, though we find certain lone voices among the missionaries who questioned such ‘missionary conquests.’ As the reading of the Bible and interpreting it were the special prerogatives of the ecclesiastics and anathema to the laity, intellectual engagement with and assent of the native population, who were considered lesser than humans, was least important for the early missions. They had other persuasive devices to deal with conversion to Christianity.

A Tribute to KC

Sermon delivered at the funeral service of Rev. Dr. K. C. Abraham in St. Mark's Cathedral, Bangalore, 14 June 2016

We are here to celebrate a life well lived for the glory of God. KC was a senior friend to me before I married his sister. He and I grew up to what we had become through the Youth Movement of the Central Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India. He was handsome, bright and full of promises in worldly terms. He was a student of Mathematics who did his Bachelor of Science with distinction. But, about 60 years ago, he accepted the commission of Christ as found in John Ch. 21 “take care of my sheep.”  KC accepted this specific call to become a shepherd.

KC may have achieved many covetable positions and laurels in life. But first and foremost, he was a good shepherd following the great shepherd of the sheep, Jesus Christ. The Bible is rich with imagery of the shepherd. Yahweh is referred to as a shepherd in Psalm 23: “God is my Shepherd, I shall not want”. Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who would lay down his life for the sheep. Jesus also narrates the parable of the lost sheep and also comments on his mission as one of leaving behind the ninety nine in the open and seeking after the lost one till he finds it. Jesus also insists on the apostolic ministry as one of taking care of the sheep. KC, the young man, never thought of positions and honors, when he accepted the call to follow Christ as a pastor in the Church of South India in the Central Kerala Diocese.

Jesus Christ is Risen! Halleluiah! Yes, He is Risen Indeed!

I read a humorous story from one of the blogs in the net about a pastor who took his pastoral responsibility so seriously that he would move around seeking his lost sheep. This pastor once entered a pub and found three men sitting at the bar. He asked the first, "Do you want to go to heaven?" The man said, “yes”. The priest said, "Then go stand against the wall." He asked the second if he wanted to go to heaven. The man said, “yes”, and the priest told him to stand against the wall. He asked the third, "And you, do you want to go to heaven?" The man said, "no." The priest was taken aback; he asked, "What? When you die, you don't want to go to heaven?" The man said, "Well, yes, when I die. But I thought you were getting a group to go right now!" Many of us are like the third person in the story. We want to go to heaven when we die, not today.

What is the resurrection of Christ all about? What is Easter all about? Has it got any significance here and now, while we live on this earth? Or is it significant only after our death? Resurrection of Christ is not about a heaven after our death, but it is about living a life victorious over sin and death today. What are the implications of Christ’s resurrection for our life in the world, here and now?

What is a world without finer expressions of love!

The essential concern is one of freedom of individuals to hold their views and pursue their life style, whether it is sexual orientation, attitude to religion, having a drink of their liking, the question of who to love and how to express ones love. Modernity with its associated cultural phenomenon of enlightenment brought a new sense of individual rights and freedom; they brought freedom from the tyranny of the church in controlling all aspects of people’s lives, including that of science and intellectual thought. It is this consciousness of individual rights that became the bedrock of modern democracy and secularism. This is being assaulted from all direction. And, this is happening in a state that touts of its literacy, development and exposure to the global community. 

Religious fundamentalism is raising its ugly head and all sorts of communal outfits are calling the shots and dictating terms to the political class both of the right and left persuasions. Both the political class and the religious obscurantists pay obeisance at the altar of mammon, the god of wealth. They cannot appreciate love, its finer manifestations, its tenderness, its giving in total self-abnegation; they only know violent intrusion with callous disregard for the other. That is what they call love; and in the dark of night they seek their illegal gratification. Since they do not know love, they become intolerant of all true and genuine expressions of it.

Justice: The Biggest Casualty on the Cross

Subversion of justice continues and many more sons of men are “crucified”. Afzal Guru is one of the recent instances of such perversion of justice and crucifixion.

The religious fundamentalists and nationalists who looked for a scapegoat to vent their malicious hatred, the law and order forces that connived with the powers that be to frame him, the judges of the highest court in India who finally made a verdict to hang Afzal to appease the “collective conscience of society”, the general public who had no qualm in hanging this man in the name of national security and patriotism, and the media that made a scoop out of this perversion of justice and celebrated his hanging and those law and order forces that clandestinely executed his hanging are condemned in the cross of Christ.

We are all implicated in the cross of Christ for our active collaboration with an unjust society, our apathy in the face of gross violations of human rights and natural justice, our opting for expediency when we should have squarely dealt with realities, bending our knees before wealth and power and indulging in religious exercise and piety that are meant to hood wink the public.

How often Christians realize that they are followers of the one who was condemned a criminal and a traitor? Our rituals associated with the Holy Week can only mask this reality of the cross and make it more aseptic.

The King who Rides on a Donkey

The stage is set for the final encounter.

The hour had arrived for the world/mankind to make the ultimate decision, (to either acknowledge Jesus the King or to renounce Him). The time had come for Jesus to fight the great battle with, Satan, sin and death...

Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem amidst the shouting of hosannas by the crowd was a meticulously planned coup, strategically choreographed to catch the Jewish authorities by surprise and to announce his kingship and his rule; one that would mock all the worldly rulers and worldly kingdoms. Jesus rides on the colt of a donkey with all humility to announce peace and justice, instead of war.

Thiruvambadi Speech

A speech I gave in October 2007 at Thiruvambadi, which remains a statement of my faith.

Corporate Globalization and the Indian Farmer

One of the most helpful descriptions of globalization is found in the Report of the Copenhagen Seminar for Social Progress in 1997. According to the report, globalization is a ‘trend’ and a ‘project’. The trend is the narrowing of physical distances between peoples and growing interdependence of countries resulting from astonishing advances in science and technology. The ‘project’ is global capitalism, or the application of the ideas and institutions of the market economy to the world as a whole. It is actively pursued by the United States and a number of other governments and implemented through such institutions as WTO, World Bank and other multilateral trade agreements.  What is under our consideration is this ‘project’. This can also be termed as corporate globalization as this ‘project’ is essentially led and directed by multinational corporations to maximize their profit. They come to have unregulated political power, exercised through multilateral trade agreements and unregulated financial markets.

Under the Shadow of the Cross

It is very important to take a step back from our highly competitive, fast-paced, over consuming, rat race and take a second look at ourselves and ponder over the meaning of life and where we are headed. Lenten season provides an occasion for that. The cross of Jesus Christ and his life that led up to it provides a frame for a proper perspective on our life and its pre-occupations.

First, during the Lenten season, fasting and abstinence from foods, provide us with an occasion to remind ourselves that life has a meaning beyond eating, drinking and satisfying our basic needs. While it is true that those basic needs are essential for life, we are reminded that 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' (Matt.4:4)

God’s Plan of Salvation (Luke 1: 39-45)

God comes to us and calls us to participate in his plan of salvation in quite embarrassing and unexpected ways.

Elizabeth and Mary were two magnificent women who were called to play their part in God’s plan of salvation. Elizabeth was not a young woman. After years and years of praying for a child, after becoming used to not having a child and after getting to the age where giving birth to a child was not a good idea, she becomes pregnant with a baby. In contrast, Mary was a very young woman. She too hoped for a child someday, when it would be appropriate, not now, not before she was married, not while she was still a virgin. So we meet two women who are pregnant. One of them is too old to be a mother and the other is too young. Scripture tells us that Elizabeth "became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion" (Lk 1:24).

മ്ലെച്ചമാക്കപെടുന്ന ഒരു വിശുദ്ധ അവകാശം

തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിക്കുക

മദ്ധ്യനൂറ്റാണ്ടിലെക്കുള്ള തിരിച്ചുപോക്ക്

Religion: a Wasteful Exercise in Futility

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—

I cannot bear your worthless assemblies...

Take your evil deeds out of my sight;

Stop doing wrong.

Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

Plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1: 13-17

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1: 27

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

Christileaks

Leaks expose the duplicity, subterfuge and the cruelty of the beast
Afraid of Truth, like Herod; “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him”
At the birth of the one who has been born the king of the Jews.

We, who know where Christ would be born, remain where we are
Condoning in complicity the horrendous acts of genocide and torture
And then, counsel the poor to remain with peaceful protests.

When, those who do not know nothing beyond the stars foretold, embarked
On a perilous and long journey, we remain in our secure hide outs
Complacent and basking in our religiosity and sharing in the spoils of the beast

Remaining incognito the little child of Bethlehem still rules to “beat
Swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks; of the increase of his
Government and of peace there will be no end.”

In faithfulness to him, Christileaks we should become, making public
The secrets in high places, and the enigma of God’s rule and its healing and ostracizing power
Subverting and turning upside down the designs of the beast.

Thomas John

A Christian Perspective on Education

“Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"(Luke Ch. 2: 49)

(The following is a sermon preached by Rev. Thomas John during the divine service at Christ Church Elamkulam on Sunday, September 5, 2010)

Referring to the Christian presence in higher education, late Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, one of the missionary stalwarts, made the following statement in a talk he had given to a gathering of the principals of Christian Colleges in 1963 at Thambaram:

A Christian college is not primarily a place where the gospel is preached and people are converted. It does not exist primarily to strengthen Christian community. It is not simply a contribution to national development. It is – or ought to be – a place where, under the impulse of the love of God, there is offered to all who desire it that kind of training of the whole person which is congruous with God’s revelation in Christ of the true nature of manhood, and is appropriate to the needs of India at this stage of world history.

What is the goal of Christian presence in education? Why do we want to start educational institutions? What do we expect to happen from education? What do we expect from our children by sending them to “good” educational institutions?

ഇടയലേഖനങ്ങളും ക്രൂശിലെ ബദല്‍ രാഷ്ട്രിയവും

പതിവ് ആവര്‍ത്തനംകൊണ്ട് അര്‍ത്ഥവും വിലയും നഷ്ടപെട്ട ഇടയലേഖനങ്ങള്‍ രാഷ്ട്രീയപ്രസ്താവനങ്ങളായി അധ:പതിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. വളരെ വിരളമായും അവധാനപൂര്‍വവും ഉപയോഗികേണ്ടവയാണ് അവ. തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിക്കുക »»

സത്യസുന്ദരമായ വചനം ജഡമായി ഈ മണ്ണില്‍

(ഒരു എം. ജെ.  അനുസ്മരണ)

വളരെ തീക്ഷ്ണവും സാഹസികവുമായ ക്രൈസ്തവവിശ്വാസം ജീവിച്ച, എന്നെപോലെ അനേകര്‍ക്ക്‌ മാര്‍ഗദര്‍ശിയായ, ഒരു മുതിര്‍ന്ന സ്നേഹിതനായിരുന്നു എം. ജെ. ജോസഫച്ചന്‍. തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിക്കുക »»

Distorting the Integrity of Creation

The Story of Genetically Engineered Seeds and Foods
(Genesis Ch. 6: 1-8, 11: 1-9)

The Problem

Some of the recent advances in genetic engineering and transgenic development of organisms are astonishing: A company called Nexia has managed to put the gene of a spider into goats. The "spider-goats" produce milk with a silk protein which is so strong and lightweight that the U.S. Army wants to make bullet proof vests out of it. Now fluorescent cats, human/pig hybrids and other exceedingly bizarre creatures are actually being created by our scientists. A genetically modified cat named Mr. Green Genes is the first fluorescent cat in the United States. If you get one of these, you will never have to turn the lights on to find your cat.

A Life Well Lived, a Life Well Loved

It has become quite common and convenient to extol the virtues of great men and women in history, write eulogies for them and idolize them, while overlooking the concerns and commitments that many of them valued. In these times when the church has been turned into an institution which is used for once self-aggrandizement, to talk of Bishop Benjamin and many others of his generation is to recover that church which once dedicated itself to serve the poor and the downtrodden.

Bishop Benjamin and other members of his family, of the same generation, embodied that which was laudable about the missionary tradition founded by missionary societies such as the CMS, that which we today would understand as the authentic identity of the church. For them, our calling as a community of Jesus Christ was essentially for mission and that too, for preaching the good news to the poor. Hence, church was not an institution that would live for itself but for others, especially those who are marginalized and poor.

പ്രണാമം