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
