A New Challenge for Christian Homeschooling Famlies
CHILDREN WHO ARE IN A STATE OF NON-ATTENDANCE
At least 130,000 children are in a state of
non-attendance in Japan with respect to elementary schools and junior high schools (1st grade to 9th grade), according to statistics published by the Ministry of Education. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The real number of children not attending schools is said to be 1 million.
Indeed this statistic includes pathological cases of "school refusal syndrome" such as school phobia and school refusal; but in most cases, bullying is the cause of the non-attendance situation. Some say that more than 80% of these cases are caused by bullying.
HOMOGENEOUS SOCIETY
Merry White, an associate professor of sociology at Boston University and a research associate at Harvard's Reischauer Institute, explains the mechanism of bullying by quoting articles from the Asahi Shimbun (or Newspaper) and the Far Eastern Economic Review.
The Asahi Shimbun, a leading national paper suggests that the children who bully are tormenting "weaker" children who are in some way"different"---and the system is responsible. Japanese children are being taught, the newspaper continues, that uniformity is necessary and prized, that deviance is to be eradicated; and so, under pressure to homogenize themselves, Japanese schoolchildren try to homogenized others. Putting it another way, the Far Eastern Economic Review(May 23, 1985, p.66) says: "If such pressure to conform is internalized unwillingly, it is bound to want release. And what could be a handier
vent than a friend or acquaintance who seems to be out of step with the group and in need of discipline."
Merry White, The Japanese Educational Challenge(New York: The Free Press
1987), pp. 138-139
The Japanese society has been a cohesive society. The Japanese have a strong group-oriented mindset. With its Shinto-nationalistic statism, the Ministry of Education imposes draconian control over schools. There, children acquire the "I believe what my society believes" mindset, which is nothing but the result of social engineering done by the Japanese government. Because of the historical geo-political insularity, the Japanese establish their identities in terms of the society they live.
On the other hand, we see an ironical situation as the Japanese society faces globalization, as seen in cases like foreigners becoming CEO’s of excellent companies such as Nissan and Sony where the English language is the official primary language. Because of this trend, raising children who can cope with globalization is a frequent topic among educators in general.
But we can quite easily understand that this is nothing but pie in the sky when we see the educrats’ manner of treating "returnee children" or "kikoku shijo" whose parents have been posted abroad by their companies. These children are usually considered handicapped because they cannot conform themselves well to the insularity and ethnocentricity of the Japanese society.
Cf. ibid. pp. 173-175
"I AM WHAT MY SOCIETY IS"—THE JAPANESE WAY OF SELF-IDENTIFICATION
As I have mentioned before, the Japanese establish their identities in terms of the society they live in.
Being an individual is a somewhat foreign idea for ordinary Japanese. Here lies the difficulty for evangelism in Japan. Man must stand before God as an individual to be brought to the conviction of sin, which is the starting point of the evangelism.
Since the Japanese, however, do not recognize themselves as individuals, they have a hard time in understanding some of the basic teachings of the Scriptures such as sin, salvation, and church government.
Why are children bullied? They are different from others. Once they are bullied and ostracized they lose their old identity defined by the Japanese society. This is a kind of identity crisis for them. This is the reason why many bullied children commit suicide. For the first time in their lives, they fail to maintain their society-based identities, and have to face the fact that they are individuals.
When Japanese live abroad, they are placed in a similar situation as the victims of bullying. They cannot maintain their own identities in terms of the society they live in. They also experience an identity crisis.
This is why many Japanese become Christians while living abroad.
We see great potential in those bullied children and their parents, because they are ostracized and cut off from the society which keeps them from realizing that they are individuals.
In other words, they are open to the message of the Gospel, the only place where they can find the reason for their lives.
CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE
Surprisingly, in Japan, even teachers join the bullying.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200610170159.html
Teacher incited bullying against boy
10/17/2006
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
CHIKUZEN, Fukuoka Prefecture--A junior high school teacher was the chief instigator of the bullying that tormented a 13-year-old student so much that he committed suicide, the principal of the school said Monday.
"The teacher's remarks created an image of the boy in the eyes of the other students," Satoshi Goya, principal of Miwa Junior High School,
told reporters. "I think this caused the bullying and led to his suicide."
The boy's former homeroom teacher branded the boy a liar, leaked personal information that led to a nickname the boy hated, and said he
bullied the boy intensively because "he was easy to make fun of," according to Goya.
After repeated bullying from the teacher and his classmates, the second-year student hanged himself in a shed at his home Wednesday.
He left behind suicide notes that said he was ending his life because he could no longer endure the bullying. After his death, his parents held several discussions with Goya and the boy's first-year homeroom teacher.
According to the parents, the boy's mother consulted with the teacher about her son's fascination with the Internet.
Later, the teacher leaked the contents of the consultations, and the boy's classmates gave him a nickname related to the personal information.
The boy detested the nickname and began begging his mother to let him stay home.
During the discussions on Saturday and Sunday, Goya explained an incident in which the boy picked up writing materials that a classmate had dropped on the floor. The teacher called the boy "a hypocrite who cannot even be a hypocrite."
When the boy advanced to the second year, the teacher told his new
homeroom teacher, "This boy lies," according to Goya.
When asked if these incidents were true, the teacher told the parents, "Yes."
The teacher also acknowledged that he had bullied the boy because he was an easy target.
Goya apologized to the parents, saying: "The (teacher's remarks) led to his suicide. Bullying by his classmates had been going on, but this became the biggest trigger and the root cause of the bullying."
After the discussions with the boy's parents, the teacher told reporters, "I will compensate (for his death) for the rest of my life."
Miwa Junior High School held a special school assembly Monday morning.
All the teachers lined up before the students, and Goya apologized for the student's suicide.
"We teachers did not do our best," Goya said. "There were some brutal words as well as presumption. I am sorry."
The school conducted a survey of the students to find out if there have
been other problematic remarks and deeds on the part of the teachers.
(IHT/Asahi: October 17,2006)
Of course, bullying exists all over the world such as "blackboard jungles" in America. White describes a difference between Japan and America concerning the attitudes of teachers and students.
One important difference between the two countries is that in America other students and teachers tend to intervene if possible; in Japan other students rarely become involved and simply observe. Japanese teachers are also afraid that if they step in, they may themselves be attacked.
Merry White, The Japanese Educational Challenge(New York: The Free Press
1987), p.138
The reason behind this difference is most probably due to the Christian influence on the society.
There is a case of a student in junior high school. She is a Christian. She tried to intervene in the situation where bullying was going on in her school. This kind of act is rare in Japanese junior high school. She did a shining witness in the school. But since then she has become a target of bullies.
HOME SCHOOLING, THE WORKABLE ALTERNATIVE
Japanese strongly believe in the myth that there is no salvation outside the public school system. This aggravates the problem of bullying and non-attendance at school(futoukou). Because of this myth, children commit suicides when they are bullied. The morals of teachers degenerate, since the Ministry of Education claims absolute authority in education. The government has succeeded in convincing the people that there is no other alternative to placing their children in the government-controlled educational system.
Some courageous parents step forward to homeschool their children. But sadly, unlike in the US, non-Christian parents are ahead of Christian parents concerning homeschooling. This is mainly because many Japanese churches trust the Ministry of Education, which leads them to "a new religion, with the state as its true church, and education as its Messiah. [1]"
The Lord calls Christian homeschoolers to reach out to bullied children and their parents. Their cry reaches the Lord.
Christian homeschoolers have the foundation set by the Lord. They have liberty in Christ. No other people can offer the solution to the problem. We pray to the Lord that He will multiply gospel-centered, missional homeschooling familes for His Kingdom.
We pray our Paideia Network will serve as a catalyst for encouraging Christian homeschooling families, to fulfill the mission for reaching out to children who are in a state of non-attendance, bullied children, and their parents.
Shu Suzuki
[1] R.J.Rushdoony, The Messianic Character of American
Education(Phillpsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company
1967) P. 32
Copyright © 2006 Shu Suzuki
28.10.
Multilingual Environment of Early Churches
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Acts 2: 1-11
And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Acts 6:1-7
Normally, we pay little attention to the language environment of early churches. Most probably, the Lord Jesus and his disciples were talking in Aramaic. Meanwhile, Koine Greek was the lingua franca(International Language). Latin was emerging as an international language as the Roman empire was expanding its domain.
Providentially, God had appointed Koine Greek for the language of New Testament.
Here we see the multilingual environment of early churches. People had at least a double language system(Aramaic/Koine Greek). They used the Septuagint(which is in Greek) for reciting the Old Testament, since few people understood Hebrew.
If we put this situation in our time period, this could be something like people using the English Bible in Japanese churches where Christians from various countries gather together.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, the apostle Paul deals with the issue of languages. The word "tongue" here does not mean unknown gibberish, but "foreign language." (Some say "unknown tongue" in verse 2 means the Hebrew language, which had become a dead language understood by few in those days.)
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.(Isaiah 28:11)
In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. (I Corinthians 14:21-22)
This multilingual environment is a sign of judgment upon the unbelieving Israel (Isaiah 28:11, I Corinthians 14:21-22), but it also manifests the beginning of God's administration through the new covenant (Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:16-18) which brings forth the kingdom of God stipulated in Revelation 7:9-10 consisting of all nations ;
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Here we see the harmony between the one and the many. Though the saints here are from all nations with all kinds of languages, they worship the only true God as one church which is the bride of Christ(Rev. 21:2)
The early churches obviously gave people the foretaste of heaven. This is a hint for the churches in Japan. In my essay "Why Japan?" I proposed that the churches in Japan should be placed in a bilingual (Japanese/English) format. What if we can establish a system that can manage trilingual formats such as Japanese/English/Korean, Japanese/English/Spanish, or Japanese/English/Chinese? Surely this can manifest the glorious foretaste of heaven in churches. This would be a shining witness of the glory of the kingdom of God.
I have already mentioned about Japan-ism in "Why Japan."
One of the main hindrances to church growth in Japan is that churches are entrapped in Japan-ism. When Japan-ism is dominant in churches, the growth of the churches stops. Japan-ism is a group-oriented mind-set. Since Japan-ism is humanistic in its origin it fails to recognize churches and familes as covenantal communities defined in the Scripture.
Surprisingly, the number of Japanese converts outside Japan has almost outnumbered the number of Japanese converts in Japan. Many Japanese young people become Christians outside Japan. This has something to do with the identity crisis which they experience after they leave Japan. Typical Japanese quite often define themselves in terms of the communities to which they belong, such as companies, schools, clubs, and families. They quite often reply to the question "What do you believe?" with something like
"I believe what my company believes."
Here we see the reason evangelism in Japan faces difficulty. Making the Japanese realize their identity as individuals is a difficult task.
When Japanese are separated from their own society by living abroad, they have to see themselves as individuals for the first time in their lives. This is the starting point of the conviction that they are sinners in front of God.
When they return to Japan, they cannot be connected to the churches in Japan, since Japanese churches tend to have a taste of Japan-ism. Since Japanese Christians have a tendency to form a closed community based on the Japan-ism mind-set, the Japanese Christian community is similar to the Jewish community in the time of the Roman empire. Just as the Gentiles could not get in the Jewish community, the 21st century Gentiles such as non-Japanese speaking people and Japanese people who become Christians outside Japan cannot belong to the "Japan-ism mindset" churches.
Now we see many churches entrapped in this subculture called Japan-ism. In the past Japan-ism paved the way toward the churches' compromise with Shinto nationalism. During World War II people in the churches paid respect (actually bowed down) to the image of the Japanese emperor and in the direction of the Imperial Palace before they began worship services. Quite often, we still see this weakness in churches in Japan. In a sense the Japanese churches' "being Japanese like" or "being indigenous" end in a risky and dangerous attempt. In this respect we need help and encouragement from Christians from all over the world.
The multilingual format enables us to overcome this weakness of Japanese churches. In this context, by taking a close look at the early churches' multilingual environment, we see a hint for solving the problem of dwindling churches in Japan.
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:12-22
Copyright © 2006 Shu Suzuki
07.10.
Why Japan?
Why Japan?
Shu Suzuki
Churches in Japan are dwindling. The number of pastors, missonaries is decreasing. Japan is called "Missionaries' grave-yard." Most of the churches in Japan failed to raise the second generation. Many children of "Chiristian familes" are leaving Christian churches. They marry non-believers, and we cannot see the third generation any more.
We are failing in making the citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Some would say, "For 150 years tremendous amount of resources such as manpower and financial aid have been invested in 4 tiny islands called 'Japan' and we see few converts, little fruit. " Even the word of the Lord "shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.(Luke 9:5)" might be applied to this situation.
Then we hear statements like "Why Japan? Why not other Asian countries?"
Not only Christian communities but also the whole population of Japan is decreasing in size by 500,000 people from the year 2005.*
*Under the Eugenic Protection Act that legalized abortion in Japan, at least 600,000 babies are murdered every year. The Japanese murdered many innocent people in the War, and after the War innocent babies. Even the churches have been indifferent about this fact. We have an aged society, through which we are receiving God's covenantal judgement.
In political scenes or economical scenes, Japan is gradually being bypassed. People's attention goes to China and other Asian countries.
Will God cast away Japan?
Why has not the evangelism in Japan been successful?
Do we have solutions?
Here I would like to try to cast a new light on these subject.
First we should focus on the 5 main causes of failure in evangelism in Japan. they are as follows:
1)Importation of the liberal theology at an early stage of church planting in Japan in the 19th century.
2)Failure in building Christian families as covenantal units in the society
3)Misapplication of "contextualization" in terms of evangelism, church planting, and academic discipline.
4)Christians' avoidance of the confrontation with pagan society.
5)Failure in Christian education.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
1)IMPORTATION OF THE LIBERAL THEOLOGY AT AN EARLY STAGE OF CHURCH PLANTING
IN JAPAN IN THE 19TH CENTURY
At the beginning of the evangelism in Japan in the 19th century, liberal theology accompanied with higher criticism was imported mainly from Germany. This type of Christianity is only another version of humanism since it denies the absolute authority of the Scripture. Purely evangelical Christianity was introduced mainly from the US, right after the World War II.
Therefore the history of evangelcal Christianity in Japan is only 60 years.(not 150 years!)
Other Asian countries such as China, Korea, and the Philippines have a longer history of evangelism. America has an even longer history, because the ancestors of the settlers have been already evangelized in their European countries since 4th century.
We have not attained a good Japanese translation of the Bible.
2)FAILURE IN BUILDING CHRISTIAN FAMILIES AS COVENANTAL UNITS IN THE SOCIETY
So far within the evangelical circles, one on one evangelism was mainstream, and this resulted in individualism in the church. In terms of evangelism, the approach towards families are weak. Theology that backs up the covenantal nature of the family(such as a father/husband is a covenantal head of a family) is not well accepted and rooted among Christians in Japan, which leads to the weakness of the Christian families in Japan. In most cases, Christian families are not well integrated for the cause of the kingdom of God. Husbands mostly spend their time with their colleagues in the company, and wives are quite often out for part-time jobs. Children are mostly taken care of by public schools. Then the distinction between the Christian and non-Christian is blurred. This disintegration makes families weak in respect of being covenantal units not only in the ecclesiastical community but also in the Japanese society as a whole. In other words, Christian families do not function properly. Thus we see the difficulties in establishing Christian families as covenantal units in the society.
This leads to the fact that we have great difficulty in having strong leadership not only in families but also in the ecclesiastical community. Children cannot have their Christian father as their role model. They cannot learn leadership from their father. Then they grow up to be leaders who are not well grounded tc the solid doctrines of the Scripture. They are moved by the humanistic, syncretic, or seclusive mind-set. The fact that we lack good leaders is one of the main causes of the failure of Japanese Christianity.
3)MISAPPLICATION OF "CONTEXTUALIZATION" IN TERMS OF EVANGELISM, CHURCH PLANTING, AND ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE
In the history of Japan we have experienced the cultural paradigm shift two times as follows:
a. Importation of Chinese/Buddhistic civilization that occurred in 8th century.
b. Importation of Western/Christian civilization that occurred in 19th century.
The first paradigm shift (importation of Chinese civilization, or in other words Buddhistic civilization) laid the foundation of "the traditional Japanese culture" as we call it. At the same time they successfully planted "Buddhism" on the soil of Japan. Buddhism became a national religion.
The second paradigm shift (the importation of the Western/Christian civilization into Japan) that started around 1850 set the foundation for modern Japan. But we find a big difference between the first paradigm shift and the second one. Concerning the second paradigm shift, the leaders of Japan meticulously and intentionally deleted the "Christian factors" from the imported western civilization. This effort was intense. The word "wakon-yosai" which means "even though we're outwardly importing western culture, inwardly our Japanese-ness (Japan-ism) won't be changed." In other words, they contextualized what they imported, on their own terms. By the end of the World War II, state Shintoism played a decisive role as the ideological backbone of Japanese society.
In both cases, the assimilation of foreign civilization took less than 100 years.
These two historical events manifest the incomparable capability of Japanese people concerning the assimilation and contextualizaion of different civilizations.
On the other hand, because the stand of Japanese mind-set is immovable(Japan-ism which is nothing but another version of humanism), this is the reason why Japanese could assimilate and contextualize what they import from all over the world.
In terms of missiology we have been overlooking this fact as we applied the "contextualizaion theory." The Japanese contextualize the Gospel in THEIR own way far better than missionaries! We shouldn't have contextualized the message of the Gospel. For example, usually Japanese Christians tend to avoid the issue of the final judgement. Rather, they choose topics like "consolation, piety, etc."
Our society is cohesive or group-oriented, and Japanese people almost always try to avoid confrontation. In return, they often become too polite to each other to protect themselves. In this situation, missionaries tend to misunderstand and think the Japanese are welcoming the Gospel message. It might be even possible that the Japanese simply consent to the content of the gospel and join churches without having complete commitment to it.
In many cases Japanese Christians accept the Gospel but are not free from Japan-ism.
They distort the message of the Gospel and to make it accommodate the pagan society.
In putting what they have learned into practice, they modify it in the Japanese way which is detrimental to the Gospel itself. We can see this unbiblical contextualization in every aspect in evangelism, church planting, and academic discipline.
4)CHRISTIANS'/CHURCHES' AVOIDANCE OF THE CONFRONTATION WITH PAGAN SOCIETY
The Japanese society is throughly pagan. Shintoism and Buddhism permeate every aspect of the society. Often Christians fail to discern subtle pagan influences on customs, mind-set, and routines. Above all, Christians fail to stand on a solid biblical worldview, and this makes it difficult for them to stand for the truth. As I have mentioned, Christians here tend to accommodate themselves to the pagan society, and gradually makes compromises with idolatry. Since Japanese are tightly bound by conventions, weak-minded Christians compromise with idolatry on occasions such as pagan funeral services of their supervisors, relatives, etc.
From the beginning of the history of Japanese churches, liberalism has influenced and pre-conditioned Christianity in Japan.
Liberalism denies the absolute authority of the word of God. Japanese Christians tend to regard the scripture as simply an authoritative document. In this context, they are allowed to bow down to idols if they do not pay respect to the them. (This is also seen in the Japanese translation of the Bible. The translation of Exodus 20:5 runs, "You shall not pay respect to them," instead of "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them.")
The Japanese language itself makes it difficult for us to understand the message of the Bible. Every word has been deeply rooted in the teachings of Buddhism and Shintoism, so we have to re-define the meaning of almost every word when we preach the Gospel. In many cases, this redefinition of the words are incomplete.
The situation here is very different from the situation in English-speaking countries. The Japanese language has not yet been Christianized, unlike English, German, and other European languages. The message of the Bible is usually dulled by using the Japanese language. This stems from the semantical and syntactical shortcomings of the Japanese language in terms of describing the Biblical worldview.
The defective nature of the Japanese language often causes the following problems in church planting.
First, missionaries come to Japan and establish churches. Then they hand over the churches to Japanese pastors. The churches decline and cannot pass on what they have received from the missionaries to their next generations. This is one of the main reasons of the decline of Japanese Christianity. We have to note that the Japanese language used by missionaries differs from that of indigenous Japanese, since they speak the Japanese language while they stand on the Christian worldview with the help of the English language. When Japanese pastors use Japanese, often they are either not well equipped with the Christian worldview, or they cannot handle the Japanese language in a Christian way. In this way, the message of the Gospel loses aggressiveness. Because of this, and the shortcomings of the Japanese language, Christian Japanese fail to convey the message of the Scripture.
This has something to do with fidelity of communication.
Here we see how the peculiar Japanese style of "Contextualization" works. Christianity goes through the process of metamorphosis and becomes "Japanized." Then churches lose the Gospel. This process has been repeated for 150 years.
Thus, in the history of modern Japan, we see little confrontation between Christianity and Japanese paganism.
5)FAILURE IN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
In most cases, the churches in Japan fail to raise the second generation. Public education plays a significant role in "de-christianizing" children of Christian families. In Japan, Christians are not well grounded on the Christian worldview and they have little interest in having their children stand on the foundation of the Biblical worldview. Here, education doesn't mean giving children a Christian worldview but only vocational training/education. Christians pursue the same objectives as those of the non-believers, such as entering into prestigious collages or getting good jobs. They mainly focus on how they can be accepeted into the Japanese Society.
The antithesis between the Christian worldview and pagan worldviews is always avoided and blurred. Here in Japan, even in the case of Christian education (as practiced in "Christian" schools* in Japan) we can see little difference between Christian education and pagan education. This problem partly stems from the fact that we lack good Christian resources such as textbooks, curriculums, teaching materials in Japanese. The size of the market for Christian books or curriculums is considerably small.
*Most of the accredited "Christian schools" are under tight control of the Japanese government. This makes those educational institutions completely pagan in their character, even though they are founded by the missonaries or mission board. In other words, they have been already Japanized. Around 150 Christian families in Japan are pursuing the homeschooling, but they are in a standstill because they lack the methodology---curriculums, textbook, good Christian resources.
The Japanese language itself contributes to this problem.
For instance the Japanese word for God "Kami" primarily refers to pagan gods. In every aspect of the Japanese language, we see the immovable influence of paganism. We have not yet achieved a good translation of the Bible. The Japanese Bibles we have now are defective. As I mentioned before, in Japanese Bible, Exodus 20:5 says "you must not pay respect to them." This dumbs the Word of God down for Japanese Christians. During World War II, the Japanese government forced Christians to bow down to the image of Emperor before they began their worship service. They did bow down to it. They had been taught by the ministers that it didn't matter because they do not pay respect to that image.
Because of this situation, we see tragic results in the Christian community. In the case of the Presbyterian Church in Japan, 46% of the covenant children left their churches in 1997. We might conclude that parents and churches don't equip them with the Biblical Worldview and Christian apologetics. We are failing to raise the citizens of the Kingdom of God
In terms of the Japanese, some peculiar characteristics must be taken into consideration.
Since we have lived in 4 tiny islands in a long history of time without being invaded or colonized, we form a strong cultural foundaton as Japanese. I call it "Japan-ism." Japan-ism can be described as a Japanese civil religion, but it covers more than that. Japan-ism is a defective worldview. It cannot offer you a systematic understanding of the world we live in. The foundation of Japan-ism is based on the mixture of Shintoistic pantheism(Original Shintoism), Manipulated Shintoism(State shintoism) which has a taste of Judeo-Christian mind set (Hirata-Shinto), confucian philosophy, and various sects of Buddhism.
Children are raised in the atomosphere of Japan-ism. This happens even in Japanese Christian families. In raising children they fail to raise citizens for the kingdom of God. Instead, they send their children to pagan public schools, and we lose the future generations of the kingdom of God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE SOLUTION
As I mentioned before, the Japanese society has experienced two paradigm shifts.
Now we pray to our Lord that He would give us the third paradigm shift to the Japanese society so that Japan would repent, both on a nation-wide scale and on an individual level. Otherwise, the nation of Japan will be judged by God and destroyed.
This third paradigm shift would be from Japan-ism (which is one of the variations of humanism) to Christian civilization.
In order to realize the third paradigm shift, we have to raise Christian leaders.
The education of our children is the key. It is imperative that we raise leaders among our children.
The assessment of "success" in transmitting Christianity to the next generation would be based on the following two causes:
1)That our children have repentance unto God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that they can glorify God and enjoy Him for ever. They should become active parts of the body of Christ.
2)That our children have the Christian worldview, with which they can manifest the glory of God in every area of their life, raising future generations so that they can contribute to the Kingdom of God and build a Christian civilization. In doing so, they would impact the world and win this world for the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the above-mentioned causes, our children must be equipped with biblical epistemology and ethics. In terms of epistemology and ethics, there is no neutral zone between Christians and Non-Christians. Quite often, non-Christians might act similarly to Christians, but their starting point and motive are completely different from those of Christians.
Robert Thoburn says in his book "The Children Trap,"
"Neutrality is a myth. Jesus said that we are either for Him or against Him. We cannot serve God and mammon. There is no middle ground or neutral zone. .... To believe in neutrality is to believe that God is confined to only part of the universe."
Robert L. Thoburn, The Children Trap (Thomas Nelson Inc., 1986), p. 82
The language we use is the most important tool for realizing the above-mentioned causes. We must admit that the Japanese language has not yet reached the level for that purpose, as I mentioned before.
Indeed, we have a problem of our language. But looking back on the history of the English language, there were almost the same problems sometime around the 11th century. In those days, Christian civilization was stored and transmitted with the help of the Latin language. Some say William Tyndale completely reshaped the English language to the
Christian way. Then came the King James Bible. English was Christianized.
Whenever a good translation of the Bible comes, the language it is translated into will be Christianized. This happened to the German language when Martin Luther translated the Scripture into German.
We should always remember that Reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox received academic discipline in Latin. They published the 95 Theses and The Institute of Christian Religion first in Latin. Then they translated those works into their people's language.
The Latin language was the language of the leaders of Christian churches during the reformation era. In this sense, the English language could be "the Latin language for the Japanese" in the 21st century.
English should be used for the academic training of Japanese children. (I propose that 80% of their academic discipline should be carried out in English. The remaining 20% should be done in Japanese, since the Japanese language is their "heart language" for their communication with their parents, relatives, friends, etc. We see this kind of double language system in many countries, such as the Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.)
This might be a strange illustration. But children are somewhat like computers. More specifically, I am talking about Operation Systems. Japanese OS's are defective. It is so easy for Japanese people to have Japanese/pagan OS's. So we first install the English OS. Then we install the Japanese plug in. What happens is that our children will have the mind-set of missionaries. Because of the "English OS" they can quite easily own the Christian worldview, and this enables them to stand on the Christian worldview even when they are using Japanese. When they speak, their Japanese is depending on the "English/Christian OS."
In this way, we can succeed in "Gospel Transplantation." Our children would be fully equipped with the Christian worldview. They would be able to make direct access to the original sources stored in the English language. They would communicate and unite with Christians all over the world. (Being united with Christians all over the world is the key to success in evangelism in Japan) And above all, they would become strong leaders in the churches in Japan. They would have a heart like that of missionaries sent to Japan. They would clarify the antithesis between the Christian worldview and the pagan indigenous worldview.
Japanese Christians must stop being Japanese. Otherwise, they cannot be Christians. We must raise "Third Culture Kids" out of Japanese children. Not only children but also parents must become "Third Culture Kids" if we do not want to compromise with the pagan Japanese society. As Christians, we have already been separated from our native culture, and at the same time we don't belong to the society from which missionaries are delegated.
"For our conversation/citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."
"But we are citizens of the state (commonwealth, homeland) which is in heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await [the coming of] the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [as] Savior,
(Amplified Bible)"
Phillipians 3:20
So far, we have been failing to evangelize the nation of Japan. The cause of our faillure is becoming gradually obvious. The attempt of "contextualization" ended in failure.
We have to do something new, something completely different from what has been done for 150 years.
I strongly believe that the Gospel should be directly imported into Japan so that we can avoid unbiblical contextualization in every aspect in evangelism, church planting, and academic discipline.
This "direct import method" would surely make the realization of the third paradigm shift possible. We should import Christianity with the English language so that children can learn the Bible using English, not Japanese. We need to transplant Christianity in Japan as we perform "skin transplantation" in the case of severe skin injuries. We also anticipate rejection from the Japanese society, so that Christians will have confrontation with pagan society. We believe that God would surely bless our confrontation with the pagan culture.
"Direct import method" or "Gospel transplantation" will give us completely new possibilities of evangelism in Japan.
In this context I strongly propose that the churches in Japan should be placed in a bilingual(English/Japanese) format where worship sevices, business meetings, Sunday school are carried out in a bilingual format.
In doing so we can destroy the language barrier. This opens the door to evangelism in Japan widely, so that we can receive more messengers of Gospel, establishing strong ties with Christians all over the world. This enables us to contribute to the kingdom of God more.
Copyright © 2006 Shu Suzuki
03.03.