Challenge or Caricature: Recognizing Our Faith and Who We Are

Now that the dust has settled on the Rony Tan controversy, here are some of my thoughts on it:

As Christians, we need to recognize the difference between challenge and caricature. I have not watched the video yet, but I was told by friends that it caricatured the Buddhist faith in a extremely poor and demeaning light. To use a Biblical parallel, the Apostle Paul, in his sermon at the Areopagus, did not trivialize the beliefs of the Athenians, but rather he made used of their texts to challenge the Athenians' beliefs and in proclaiming the truth of the Christian message.

Pastor Rony's recanting of his mistake in public is interesting, considering the kind of absolutist spirit and rhetoric in which charismatic pastors are wont to articulate their faith in. I am not sure how the members of Lighthouse Evangelism will react; though i suspect that most of them will forgive Pastor Rony for it. To what extent they will continue to trust Pastor ROny's teachings in the future though, is open to question. One can only hope members do not start leaving in droves.

As members of the Body of Christ, let us pray that God will grant us his mercy, forgiveness and wisdom as we seek to live rightly in His world.