Right to Hate

(Translation: "It is not an overstatement to say that the present South Korea was built by Japan." See full article at NYTimes.)

Psalm 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill .
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.
7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
"Tear it down," they cried,
"tear it down to its foundations!"
8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us-
9 he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.

Echoes of Manticore

"He was killed... by the inevitable fifth, who was the keeper of his conscience and the keeper of the stone." (1)

On the creaky wooden bed board in the corner of the old school house, one ceaselessly twisted and turned in the sweltering heat of the night. Drown in the gay laughters and merriments of the champagne-filled night, the other chattered and waltzed among high society sophisticates till dawn broke in the distant horizon. One screamed with horrid wolf-like howls till his withered throat suffocated himself, pulling on what was left of his scant thin white hair with crimson-colored digits, dreading the night yet fearful of the inevitable morning and what was to come. The other, dissolved into the latest big band Jazz numbers in vogue, flashed his characteristic faint comely smile, epitomizing his iron grip on the worldly world. In the midnight hours, two men once united by a fateful throw of stone, have since parted on admission and responsibility of sin, now separated by mere fifteen miles yet oceans apart. One lived, sinned then held firm, and slowly died by blades of a thousand guilt. The other lived, sinned then willfully neglected, and continued his amorality in blissful oblivion. Is conscience a sententious yet cantankerous Gaelic rumbling, perpetually pounding one's head like a hammer? Or rather the dreaded medieval Grim Reaper himself, swinging his fatal scythe of death at every delectable sin?

Dare we venture another alternative. Only those who are sinned against can rightfully exonerate, but in God is forgiveness vertical and horizontal (2). In Him, one finds absolutes and finality of sin, but also substitutionary repayment, reconciliation with man & God, and rebirth of self. Pity those who found no aribitrator to intercede; in misery Job cried out desperately for one (3). Cherish the gift of redemption before the eyes of the Rigthteous, and live the everlasting libration from bondage of absolute sin and true guilt.


1. "Fifth Business", Robertson Davies
2. Matthews 6:12
3. Job 9:33-34

Secret Garden

In the silence of the night, I escape the many burdens of the visible and retreat to a santuary safe and strong (1) -- a secret garden (2) hidden from vultures and thieves of the world. Deep in my soul dwells a tiny enclave where the dawning sun always warms the flower beds, the lush grass is fresh and lightly damped from morning dew, and hummingbirds are chirping delightfully from the wonders of every God's wondrous creation. Here is where I labor with exhilarating joy, dig gently into the good earth with my bare hands, and carefully bury my cherished memories: smell of the crisp cold morning wind I breathed when I unexpectedly stepped alone on the roof of my middle school dorm, scent of the beaten path while I strolled side by side with my mother across Canadian Autumn's frozen tundra. It is with naive hope that with each memory dead and buried, they will bring forth much fruits in a brighter and braver future (3). Intently I sit with patience and anticipation, waiting for each one to blossom into Benjamins, Tigerlilies and Dandelions.

When I was a child, i had a fever. My head felt just like two balloons (4). Unable even to twitch, my body, meticulously pinned down with surgical needles, was covered with a weighty blanket of rythmic piercing pain. With my mother's voice no longer audible, she hovered above me, fussed in general, and moved in slow yet definitive motion of significant artistic consequences, like black-and-white films of the cinematic twenties. In such solemn and surreal moments, for serenity, I drift mindlessly towards my soul asylum unperturbed. I pray my Maker will grant me liberation from the torturing physical cage, enable me to fly unintrusively above my secret garden, and let me feel, finally and eternally, comfortably numb.


1. "An so it goes," Storm Front, Billy Joel.
2. "Secret Garden", Bruce Springsteen.
3. John 12:24, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."
4. "Comfortably Numb", The Wall, Pink Floyd.

Case against Knowledge of Good & Evil: Part II, Miracle of Miracles

But perhaps you are right. if man found an ideology that sufficiently satisfies his innate spiritual hunger, he would indeed throw bread to the dogs and follow thee. Afterall, they are created as such, with eternity set in their hearts a priori (1). hence, it is by nature that man -- such ungrateful creatures -- unsatiable with the present, ceaselessly seeks higher ground materially, socially and spiritually. Yet in the absence of blatant divine interventions, man were left alone and confused, so he invented god himself and worshipped idols physical and symbolic. Examine the social fabrics of modern world, fueled by corporate greed and ubiquity of throbbing mass media, "enlightened" man are driven to conquer mountains after mountains, reaching to attain the ephemeral bliss of elevated plateaus. they will forsake the living God, if you only give them a pecking order and a pyramid to climb!

You, the one blessed with the power to awe and mesmerize, can cast such spells that they will follow like drones. Show them unfathomable miracles that no persuasion can deny. Give them a steady diet of awe and wonders, magic and mystery, and liberate them from their own self-inflicted meaningless pursuits of higher ground. They will fall on their knees, scream praises to thee as their rightful beloved king, and follow servilely. Overwhelmed creatures worshipping their omnipotent Creator in fear and trembling (2) -- is there a more beautiful picture in heaven and earth?


1. Ecclesiastes 3:11, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

2. Fear and Trembling, Soren Kierkaggard.

Case against Knowledge of Good & Evil: Part I, Rock of Life

Surely you remember me well. We tangled over mere fruits of paradise in the beginning. Man -- such gullible and ignorant beings right from inception! And recall our personal dialogue of give-and-take before your three-year-long ministry (and ultimately crucifying death at the hands of those you love dearly... but I am digressing). Oh, twenty centuries later, i recall the times like yesterday! There lies the conversation i implore you to return; afterall, you do have all the time in the world!

Modern man is so indulged in his daily needs and desires, taking little notice that biblical times are the times of true historical significance. After forty days of fasting in the bare wilderness, verily hunger had possessed you like a ravaging demon. Consider again my tender offer: the precious gift of turning lifeless rocks into earthly bread -- a perpetual fountain of life that promises to sustain all human till their respective despicable ends. Undoubtedly thou great impassionate love for mankind screams what saving grace it manifests! Yet, you proudly proclaimed "Man do not live on bread alone." I whisper, Art thou deeming more worth than what the filthy beings rightly deserve?? Witness the feat the feeble have accomplished twenty centuries passed. In the name of earthly bread, unceasingly they wage wars large and small, brothers murdering brothers, vast famine across the heartland, babes dying before the tastes of thy mothers' breasts! Have thou not mercy on a people abandoned, helpless and weak? And weak, they verily are and shall be, unable to grasp the promise of heavenly bread, for they die tomorrow without earthly ones! So may I tempt thee yet once more: vest thy power to feed, and supply them the means to survive in cheap happiness till their meaningless ends. Seek not for them the higher ground of decipering good and evil; they are neither capable or deserving.