MCCC Retreat 2011

I wrote 90% of this post two weeks ago, but never really finished it. Well, here it is...

Overview

Last weekend (July 4th weekend), MCCC had it's church retreat at Sandy Cove in North East, Maryland (which to me is a horrible, horrible name for a city). It was an awesome time of relaxation, enjoyment, and development of friendships. I got a chance to spend time with people I don't normally spend much time with like Bryce, Alvin, and Jeff, and I got to see all of the church Shu-shu's and Ah-yi's that I don't see very often.


The Talks

The main reason I'm even posting about the retreat is that the speaker was very, very interesting and, in his own words, provacative. If you think you're conservative, wait until you meet this guy. Pastor Andy Tso is an extremely hilarious guy with laugh-out-loud jokes, impressions, and faces. He's an ABC that grew up in Chinatown, so he related well when it came to things like Chinese School, Asian mothers, and Chinese churches. Despite his likable personality and strong credentials (NYU undergrad majorring in economics, then went to become a lawyer) his talks were extremely strong, and for the most part, poorly accepted. If you were there, the controversy would be enormously obvious. But since you weren't, here's an overview.

Pastor Andy's Beliefs
The following is a brief summary of the various beliefs he shared. Some you may agree with, some you may not. The

• ESV is better than the NIV.
• You shouldn't use mobile devices as your Bible because the primary purpose of those devices isn't the Word of God.
• Being a godly Christian will make you smart. 75% of Nobel prizes go to Christians. 9% go to Jews. What you worship, you become. You worship idols, you become them.
• The root of the problem of the US economy is abortion and gay marriage. If abortion wasn't legalized in 1973, there would be around 65 million more people in the US, which means there would be more people pumping money into social security and the economy in general.If given a choice between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, Pastor Andy would rather have Palin as president.
• "Do you believe you have the same authority to speak about politics as you do about Scripture?" "Yes."
  
• Job 40 is proof of dinosaurs. The Behemoth refers to the "Supercroc" and the leviathan refers to the blue whale. Christianity is the only religion in the world to include dinosaurs in its holy book.
• Atheism is a prerequisite to believe in evolution. Also, the earth is very young.
• Revelation 9:1 refers to missiles, Revelation 9:7 refers to military helicopter, and Revelation 9:17-19 refers to tanks.Also, the "200 million man army" in Revelation 9:15-16 could refer to the standing army in China.
• In Isaiah 49:12, Syene (or Sinim), refers to China, indicating a specific call for believers in China to bring the gospel "Back To Jerusalem." Israel will once again become a world power, experiencing revival both spiritually and socially. This Back to Jerusalem movement is needed to bring the spiritual and economic center back to Jerusalem because Jesus will come back only after the "fig tree" (aka Israel) sprouts again.
• According to Daniel 9, Jesus' exact birthday is some day in March (though I cannot remember which day). His reasoning is that we know the exact date Daniel said the prayer, and he just does the math according to the number of years provided, and voila! We have Jesus' birthday.

My Problem with Pastor Andy's Talks

He spoke them as irrefutable truth.
I understand that if you believe something, you need to really believe it as truth. In my opinion, Pastor Andy went one step further than that. About his views on science, society, and politics, he said, "You can fight with me if you want. But you won't be fighting against me. You'll be fighting against God." This makes disagreement and discussion quite difficult - what can a mere college graduate say to a pastor who claims to hold this ultimate truth? This truth isn't even the essentials of the faith, but merely non-essential, controversial issues that aren't even held as strongly by most Christians. While Pastor Andy spoke about politics, science, and homosexuality and abortion with this in-your-face absolute certainty, (sort of to his credit) he didn't go so far as to claim his interpretations of prophecies to be absolute truth.

He was speaking to uneducated kids.
Pastor Andy was talking who "didn't know any better" when it came to the end time prophecies and much of his evolution talks. As people, when we don't really have an opinion or knowledge about something, we accept when seemingly credible people tell us what to think about them. I don't like how Pastor Andy took such a strong stand on controversial issues in front of kids who have no experience or opportunity to test and examine the things he was saying. Many of the college and post-college kids reasonably had questions or objections to many of the ideas presented, but I don't think it's possible for young middle and high school Christians who don't have any alternative answers or logical arguments against what he said, forcing them to take it for truth. I felt like he was taking advantage of their youth, and that this talk would be more suited for older Christians who can meaningfully respond to his talk.

His talks would be wildly offensive to most non-Christians.
Many of the well-intentioned things that Pastor Andy said when comparing Christianity with other religions were very condescending and insulting of other religions, making me cringe when I heard them. It isn't that what he said was false, but if I had brought a Muslim friend to the retreat, he probably would have gotten up and left and refused to listen to him anymore. Political correctness can often be a problem with modern day Christians, but perhaps my annoyance with his brazen bashing of other religions comes from the more evangelistic perspective I've gained from being in college. That said, I think that it is important to respect every individual, even if you disagree with his beliefs [Pastor Andy did an impression of Steven Hawking that I thought was quite inappropriate].

What I gained from his talks.

Despite all the things I disliked about Pastor Andy's beliefs and talks, it is our responsibility as students in the congregation to attempt to learn something from a visiting pastor. The main lesson I learned is:

I need to hate evil the way God hates evil.

In general, I think we as Christians have become tolerant to sin and evil, simply because the rest of the world doesn't see it as bad. While Pastor Andy's hatred of evil could almost be taken as over-the-top, it was a good reminder for me that I really am to be set apart for Christ. This is something that I've been thinking more and more about, and maybe I'll post more about it at some time in the future.


I often underestimate the importance of Biblical holiness to a society's health.
Currently, people hate the idea of other people "forcing" their beliefs on others and are equally cautious to not push their own religious beliefs onto others. As a result, Christianity has all of a sudden become a strictly personal decision and religion, and it's involvement in other areas of your work, such as your social, work, or political life, is greatly discouraged. I think we've forgotten that God cares about and is involved in society. God isn't merely interested in my own personal salvation, but He's interested in redeeming all aspects of culture in our society. We also know that God's laws aren't arbitrary, and that we are blessed by following them - not because God is giving us treats for doing Christian tricks, but that God's laws are inherently beneficial for those who follow them. Therefore, the more we as a society follow God's law, the more we have a chance to prosper. Unlike Pastor Andy, I don't believe that abortion and same-sex marriage is the root of our country's economic problems, but his strong stance has forced me to examine the way I view God's law in relation to society.

Nice family picture at the retreat center!