My Journal

The last Sunday marked the last week of the month I visited churches in the city. Churches I've been eager to visit.

I visited Harvest NYC in the morning. Harvest NYC is affiliated with Harvest Christian Fellowship, founded by Greg Laurie in 1979, Riverside, California. Although they try to be non-denominational, I find Pastor Mike Finizio's sermon that morning reformed theological oriented. He carefully brought his audience to a serious moment before he gave his sermon. I find it very good. This is an example of attitude towards sola scriptura. It is definitely better than those who do not care about all these while claiming that their belief is Bible centered. Talk is cheap.

Of course, like most western churches filled with youths, Harvest NYC's worship environment is predictable.

I supposed, it is allowed. But no doubt, if one knows how to promote the ageless quality of classic hymns, such as Rev. Stephen Tong, the impact is different. I believe it will affect more issues than meets the eyes.

Then, I did something very stupid that evening, I went to the wrong church. I wouldn't really call it a church, it belongs to a Christian cult from Taiwan, founded by someone named, 左坤. Even though I left before the service started, I still felt stupid, because I cannot visit other churches then as they have started their services an hour earlier already, which was 6pm. That whole good evening was wasted. I found this church from a pamphlet I got from a restaurant about four years ago. I would have been able to discern the truth had I read the pamphlet carefully. I was just too rush at things, in fact, I might even have realized it before...(if so, why then didn't I threw that pamphlet away?) Tim, you've done it again! Stupid Tim. You so stupid.  Further more, the church is just a big building with nice garden, no signs, no postings indicating it as a church. The "pastor" told me they don't like to "advertise" like commercials. But I think actually they don't want to advertise their perversion.

The cults these days know very well to use different names, be as inconspicuous as possible, for they know how others see them as cults, this itself, is proof that they are cults. 

Stupid Tim. Don't do this again next time. Have enough research done before you act.

[@more@]

As the Oratorio Society of New York marches into the new season, I have seriously consider pulling myself out or participate in only Handel's The Messiah piece.

In light of the new work we will be singing, Leonard Bernstein's Kaddish Symphony caught my attention. After reading the score, I find it interesting in a naive way. Nonetheless, the whole reason for me to join the oratorio society is solely because of Handel's The Messiah. It was the skilled and experienced conductor, Kent Tritle, that caused me to stay.

Bernstein is no small artist. He's been thought to be the first great American musician by Dr. Stephen Tong. He has written great musics such as the tracks for West Side Story.

Even for this piece, Kaddish Symphony, requires a second critic. From the words of Bernstein himself:

I have very good luck with my colleagues, they are all so wonderful. Miss Hendricks, my soprano in Kaddish, I think was born to sing that note, that line. It is so fine and sensitive. She has all the breaths under control to sing that very difficult lullaby, and Michael Wager who does the speaking which is no small job. It's a much bigger job than Miss Hendricks because he never stops, he never shuts up. He is, I suppose, my voice and he has a tremendous argument with God, which many people find too strong or maybe even blasphemous. But which is in the old Judaistic tradition. I mean all our great Judaistic personalities of the past including Abraham who founded Judaism, and Moses and the prophets all argued with God. They argued with God the way you argue with somebody who's so close to you that you love so much, that you can really fight. You know how the more you love someone the more you can get angry with them and when you have a reconciliation, the more close you become than ever. Something like that happens in the course of this piece and it takes a really extraordinary actor to be able to perform that. [Intv. w/ NHK TV, Hiroshima Peace Journey, 1985 TC. 24:20]

However, theologically, we know that there's something wrong with this. However naive one wishes to be entertained by it. It would appear that Bernstein was struggling to discover the commonality between God-Man and Man-Man relationships. From the reformed principle, we learn that by faith, it is useless for us to defy God in any matter. Perhaps the day for the children of Israel to return to the arms of Christ is near.

An interesting subject, but I find it futile to indulge myself in this performance.

[@more@]