June 4, 2005

• 'the church is our family, we have no other family here' my neighbour said.

  
  

  my dad calls my (mostly singaporean) christian church 'the early christians'. because they haven't institutionalised it, and they understand that it is not a religion, but a relationship with the people around you. they make a personal effort to understand the texts rather than accepting a given interpretation, they understand the church as a family and they practice christianity old skool style, i.e. they share their time casually rather than sharing rituals formally.

  
  

  it's harder for some westerners to believe in christianity these days. the catholics in particular mock the establishment of the church for having turned every pleasure into a sin. priests are as established as any other profession: you can find crooks among them. religion is something that they don't have an urge for, but they go through the motions anyway like a meaningless ritual. for centuries christianity in the west was bound up with the establishment and was forced upon people, whereas for these guys, who were mostly brought up in a non-christian environment, it's an idea that they've discovered and fought for themselves. it's their own, they read and practice the texts in order to become better people.

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