What Have You Seen?

"And they came to Bethsaida. And they took a blind man to him, 

requesting him to put his hands on him. And he took the blind man 

by the hand, and went with him out of the town; and when he had 

put water from his mouth on his eyes, and put his hands on him, 

he said, Do you see anything?  And looking up, he said, I see men; 

I see them like trees, walking." (Mark 8:22-24 Bible in Basic English)

Consciously or unconsciously, believing in Jesus Christ 

has changed one's life perspective forever.  Like opening 

one's eyes for the first time. The question is like, "Do you

 see anything now that you have not seen?"

ShoKi Coe (黃彰輝 1914-1988), a son of a Taiwanese pastor.

After graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with major 

in philosophy, he spent the next ten years in Cambridge, 

England, studied theology, got ordained and married. 

In August 1947, he decided to come back to Taiwan to 

serve his own people/church.  ShoKi Coe, his wife and their

son David took the ship from Liverpool crossed Africa, India,

Sri Lanka, Indonesia and stopped at Singapore, Hong Kong. 

before arriving Taiwan in September 17, 1947.

His first job was English and Bible teacher of a Christian 

High School before took over the Tainan Theological College

as the principal. 

While being the principal of the Tainan Theological College

he sometimes commented that the ship trip crossed the 

Africa and South East Asia he could not help thinking of the

freedom and the self determination of his homeland - Taiwan.

"There are many people/countries celebrating the new found

freedom and/or independence at the end of the WWII..." 

Because of his idea, he was asked to leave Taiwan until the

ruling party Chinese KMT lost its power and a Taiwanese

president was elected then Shoki Coe along with several 

pastors/missionaries were allowed to come back to Taiwan

in 1987.  During those 22 years Shoki Coe worked around the 

world based on the WCC (World Council of Churches) helped 

the theological education especially for the third world churches

and always reminded the world churches' friends that the Taiwan

should not be forgotten.

Yes. Shoki Coe had seen the importance of being free to 

choose people's own destiny.  He was born as a Japanese,

educated as a Japanese and English.  But he wanted to be

a Taiwanese inside out. 

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Here comes a son of a French Lutheran pastor by the 

name of Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965.)

Before Albert reached the age of mid thirties, he already 

received three doctoral degrees: Theology, Philosophy

(E Kant) and Music (J S Bach/Pipe Organ).

Albert Schweitzer could have lived a very comfortable life 

teaching any university of the western world.  But after 

seeing the sufferings of the majority of the people in Africa 

he decided to be a medical missionary to help them.

So he went ahead to work on his M.D. degree. 

He then spent the rest of his life building hospital and working 

for the poor and the sick.  When he needed help, he would 

start a concert raising money and asking his audience if

there were doctors ready to spend their vacations to help

him in the hospital in Africa. 

His two important books:  

The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906)

Reverence for Life (1963)

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.

"Ethics is nothing other than Reverence for Life. Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil."
— Albert Schweitzer.

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Comments: 

Through our lives we have been blinded by fake news, brain washing, prejudice, fear and greed, etc... When we are in the presence of the divine, our mind’s eye opens. And we begin to see the universe as it truly is. -- Po Shu Hwang

Apparently it is just in the nature of life’s progress that, for most, one doesn’t begin to think of the meaning of life and clarify what is important and what is not until late in the game, and for some too late. It is fortunate for those who can see in time.  -- Hank Mandelbaum

 

Remembering C M Kao...

 

Remembering Rev. C M Kao and Rev. Dennis Thuftedal

 

I had several occasions of meeting Rev. Kao in Taiwan while I served as a fellow minister of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. My first impression was that he had a straight back as if he was holding the sky from falling with his head.  He was humble and friendly to the people around him and yet never bend his head to the pressure and the power of the evils. 

 

"Just that you know that I had to take a makeup test in order to graduate from the seminary years ago," He once told me.  He must be joking.  If Kao could not graduate from the seminary, what would the rest of us do?

 

In 1980 shortly after the news of the arrest of the Rev. C M Kao in Taiwan by the KMT arrived in USA, the Taiwan Presbyterian Church of Greater Chicago (Des Plaines) had started to prepare the demonstration under the leadership of pastor Rev. Andrew Chau(趙聰仁).  Rev. Yap(葉加興) of the RCA (Reformed Church in America) also joined the demonstration. 

 

The reason was that Rev. Kao had helped Mr. Ming T Shih hiding from the KMT's arrest.  Under the then martial law KMT thought the peaceful Formosa Incident was illegal and rebellious while in fact the reason was that the people were celebrating with the world on the World Human Rights Day.

 

We mentioned the news briefly to our friend by the name of Dennis Thuftedal who was a lawyer turned to pastor of the United Church of Christ in Country Club Hills -  a southwest suburban of Chicago.  Dennis showed much interest and decided to see for himself.

 

On a cool and cloudy day of 1980 in downtown Chicago the Daley Plaza several hundred Taiwanese people got behind a carrying sedan chair carried by Rev. Chau and Rev. Yap showing a pastor with cross and iron chains on him.   

 

The demonstration was led by Prof Chau Wu. 

 

Rev. Thuftedal was there watched the whole process. Shortly he was obviously so touched.  He quietly walked to the crowd and joined the Taiwanese friends (mostly unknown) with the demonstration process till the end.

 

Afterward Dennis did the followings:

1. Continued to post the Taiwan progress in the church bulletin and soon the congregation signed the petition to the Congress to keep an eye on the KMT movements

2. Pray for Rev. Kao

3. Asked us to keep him informed of the incident development

 

Rev. CM Kao was later released earlier.  But he still served more than four years and three months in political prison.

Rev. Dennis Thuftedal passed away in 2016. 

Just wondering what they would say to each other when Rev. Kao and Rev. Thuftedal meet in Heaven... 

 

## More website readings:

From World Council of Churches -

https://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/news/wcc-mourns-death-of-rev-c-m-kao

From Presbyterian Church in Taiwan -

http://www.pct.org.tw/article_generalsecretary.aspx?strBlockID=B00329&strContentID=C2019021800008&strDesc=Y

 

Comments:

1) Rev CM Kao was certainly a man of principle and honor.  He really had fought the good fights for Taiwan and for the Lord.  We'll miss him.  - Bernard Tsai 

2) Rev. Kao is Gandhi of Taiwan.  His meek, nonviolent resistance to KMT dictatorship encouraged countless Taiwanese Christians to follow Christ’s steps, taking up crosses and eventually culminated the democratization of the country.  Like Nelson Mandela of South Africa, they put him in prison but that consequentially brought about the collapse of the apartheid regime.

When Rev. Kao was arrested in Taiwan many American friends like Rev. Thuftedal involved in various actions protesting KMT and exerting international pressure on the regime, which eventually released Rev. Kao.  Their helping hands to Taiwanese Christians during those challenging times are to be deeply appreciated and remembered.  Kudos to Steve for bringing to light what Rev. Thuftedal did when Rev. Kao was under unjust persecution.  Like the good Samaritan, Rev. Thuftedal did not know Rev. Kao at all.  But he did not hesitate to offer his help when a “neighbor” was in grave need.  Thank you Rev. Thuftedal!  - Poshu Huang