Thursday, July 31, 2008
Japan's Fake Catholic Weddings
Ok. I saw this on CNN today. I'm very disturbed by it, but hopefully God is working in some mysterious way to bring these people into a full faith.
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7 comments:
I find this very disturbing as well. Not only does it not appear to be sparking interest in Christianity but also gives a bad impression (that everything is for show) to a very non-religious country.
But, what can be done? Can we do anything about people "pretending" to be Priests?
If he was Catholic....you could excommunicate him, but that's about it. Look at the women we have in this country pretending to be priests.
Thank you for posting this. We lived in Japan (2000-03), and this is true: the younger generation wants a Western ("Christian") wedding. They have Buddhist funeral ceremonies and Shinto practices for baby dedications and other rites of passage. They are greatly searching for meaning in life, and it seems like they'll pick-a-religion-any-religion for those special occasions in their lives. We attended a bilingual, multicultural church near NW Tokyo, and it changed our lives as far as reaching out to them with the love of God -- the real God, found in His Son. These concepts are so foreign to the Japanese mindset, yet they really like Western stuff and traditions. I think that when the Name of Jesus Christ is mentioned in these ceremonies (typically done in a fancy downtown hotel!) that it will not return void to those who hear. Let's pray that the Spirit moves in this spiritually-needy country. That we can do in unity. www.gracejapan.com
But yes - it's wrong to impersonate the clergy, especially for money. Jesus knocked over the money changers' tables for such marketing...
Thank you Mel! I've heard that the Catholic Church continues to grow there, I don't know for sure or the numbers though. You lived in Tokyo? I lived in Seto near Nagoya for about 3 months in 2003. Very interesting!
Yes, our hearts are broken the salvation of the Japanese. We'd go back there in a heartbeat.
We were part of a Calvary Chapel fellowship for a year and a half -- inductive Bible teaching, "very reverent" communion (for Prots huh!) and awesome testimonies of real conversions and baptisms. Real first-century stuff. We loved it and consider it home.
They need Jesus so badly; keep praying.
One of my dearest Japanese friends is a Catholic lady in her late 60s or early 70s. She gave our youngest son a white silk kimono for his baptism when we left there in '03. Very special. She loves the LORD with all her heart and sings in their parish choir.
Thanks so much for sharing that Mel! God bless you and your family.
It is sad that there's a generation so searching for meaning that they'll "borrow" someone's traditions and liturgies to make a day seem so special.
You see it here too though where people suddenly decide they need to be married in a church even though they haven't darkened the door of the church of any denomination since they were baptized--if ever.
I've tagged you for a meme, details are at my place if you're interested.
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