I am writing as a Christian with a M.Div and who served eight years in Africa as a missionary. It is of great concern that those who are working for the Journal are so shallow in their faith to not know what is the true faith and what is not.
I am not even talking about discerning a complicated issue like same- sex marriage. In fact, we cannot possibly get that right because confusion seems to exist among Journal staff as to what being a Christian is.
There is an ad in the Journal for Taoist Tai Chi Arts. Is the Journal now promoting a different gospel?
A simple Internet search would give concern in accepting this ad. If the difference between Taoism and belief in Christ is too difficult to understand, then there is no hope to understand our differences with Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and even full religious differences with other [faiths] like Buddhism or Islam.
From Wikipedia, although I do not recommend Wikipedia as an
authority on anything, it just illustrates the shallowness of Journal
thought: “The term Tao means ‘way,’ ‘path’ or ‘principle,’ and can also be found in Chinese philosophies and religions other than Taoism. In Taoism, however, Tao denotes something that is both the source of, and the force behind, everything that exists.”
Sinologists Isabelle Robinet and Livia Kohn agree that “Taoism has never been a unified religion, and has constantly consisted of a combination of teachings based on a variety of original revelations.”
And that revelation is not of Jesus Christ; the force in Taoism is not God as Christians know Him. Tao cannot be redefined to include our God unless we make our God something else.
Tai Chi is an attempt to mould an impersonal life force of the individual to an impersonal force of the universe. While a more difficult concept to grasp, it should be clear to anyone with even a little of Christian spirituality that this would be contrary to the Holy Spirit, as it involves the emptying of oneself instead of filling oneself with the Holy Spirit.
The Tai Chi and Taoist “spirit” is not the Holy Spirit-anyone with the
Holy Spirit would know this, unless they are so totally uneducated in
our faith or so spiritually shallow not to.
The Journal saddens me. Don’t be angry at my words; find out if what I say is wrong. Otherwise, you are simply tossed by the winds of the day.
Michael Milne
Pointe-du-Chêne, N.B.