{"id":18858,"date":"2018-09-13T17:15:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T00:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=18858"},"modified":"2018-09-15T05:46:03","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T12:46:03","slug":"that-is-valid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/that-is-valid\/","title":{"rendered":"That is Valid"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Modern History of Hong Kong<\/em> was an excellent read on the issues and complexities that have contributed to making Hong Kong what it is today. Obviously there is an overwhelming amount of content to digest in this book but I kept noticing throughout Hong Kong\u2019s history a thread of oppression and superiority by outsiders. From the colonialism of the British to the brutal reign of the Japanese in the 1940s, the Chinese in Hong Kong have been under someone\u2019s thumb more than not.<\/p>\n

It would be easy to point fingers at England\u2019s expansionist strategy but as soon as I sensed the criticism rise within me I was brought back to a recent conversation and my personal struggle to not contribute to systems that perpetuate oppression. I have to continually be reminded that people make systems and people make them work. It is personal.<\/p>\n

The conversation I listened in on a few weeks ago was life-changing.<\/p>\n

I listened as black, white and Hispanic senior pastors of large churches in our denomination shared their perspective and pain on race relations in our country and in their own backyard. They shared their personal experience of being treated differently and poorly. It was honest. It was hard and heart-breaking. It was also holy.<\/p>\n

One pastor shared that the best response a white person could give a black person after listening to their story was these simple words: \u2018that is valid.\u2019 I have thought on it often the last several weeks. \u2018That is valid\u2019 does not mean we agree on everything. It does not mean we do things the same way or even vote the same way. What it means is \u2018you are a human\u2019. It means that whatever your experience is or was, matters to me. And just because my experience may be different than yours does not mean yours isn\u2019t valid.<\/p>\n

I do not know all the ways to help our current situation but I know what will not help is to dismiss one another\u2019s reality and experience. And I also know God will use people to make it better. It\u2019s personal.<\/p>\n

My favorite parts of this book were reading about various leaders throughout Hong Kong\u2019s history that moved toward rights and freedoms for Chinese. They made it personal. Clementi during the labor strike in the early 1900s listened to the Chinese more than previous leaders; Churchill from London in 1922 outlawed slavery; many others made reforms especially during the 1960s to 1980s. And no, these leaders did not change the social order overnight but each made progress. It is because social order is a human institution (and not God\u2019s) it is therefore possible to change those structures. \u2018A responsible social ethic accepts that social ordering is always a human construct and that as such human beings can change it. God wants the oppressed liberated.\u2019[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I have no conclusion to this topic. In many ways it feels like I am in the infancy stages with my awareness of race relations in my own country. I cannot wrap this topic up neatly and tie a bow on it. What I can do is continue to open myself up to others. I can assume less that I know what it is like to be in someone else\u2019s shoes. I can listen better. And when I am done listening to someone\u2019s story I can simply say, \u2018that is valid\u2019. I hope to get many chances to do that in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Giles, Kevin. The Trinity & Subordinationism: The Doctrine of God & the Contemporary Gender Debate. <\/em>IVP Academic; 2002. 211.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Modern History of Hong Kong was an excellent read on the issues and complexities that have contributed to making Hong Kong what it is today. Obviously there is an overwhelming amount of content to digest in this book but I kept noticing throughout Hong Kong\u2019s history a thread of oppression and superiority by outsiders. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1347],"class_list":["post-18858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lgp9-tsang","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18862,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18858\/revisions\/18862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}