Course Prep: What's on Deck in July

Medellín from a mall on the east side of the city. If you look at the little green hill in the middle of the picture, then go right to the next little green hill, then go behind that and up the mountain a bit, you get to where I live at the seminary.

Classes start in three and a half weeks, and I have been busy working on course prep over the past couple of weeks. My first course I'm teaching is bimestral, meaning it is three semester credits, but only goes for eight weeks. That comes out to one and a half hours a day of class, four days a week, starting July 15. Which means I need to be very on top of things before I start. 

The class is called "Religious Systems," though the name may not give a totally accurate picture of what we're covering. Basically, the course will cover the following areas:

• Introductory topics (2 classes) - reality of religious diversity today and challenges it poses
• Major world religions (11 classes) - Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, modern Judaism
• Sects (5 classes) - Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, probably a day on other minor groups
• Philosophical viewpoints challenging Christianity (5 classes) - atheism, deism, naturalistic Darwinism, existentialism
• New Age and postmodern approaches to religion (2 classes)
• Responding to pluralism in theology and ministry (5 classes) - critique of pluralist theologies, biblical approaches to theology of religions, dealing with pastoral challenges

Basically my overarching goal for the course can be summed up in the threefold pattern I'm building into how I approach each religion and worldview:

• Understand: Help students understand the viewpoints of those who hold to other religious or philosophical worldviews. I think far too many Christians try to give a response before even trying to really understand where the other person is coming from, so I'm designing assignments forcing students to interact with assigned readings (or videos) and explain these other viewpoints objectively. Many of my thoughts here have been inspired by how my philosophy professors taught at Wheaton.
• Evaluate: This is not merely a comparative religion class; the point is to equip pastors to evaluate different religious and philosophical ideas from a Christian viewpoint. In this regard, there is a component of apologetics and engagement with biblical and systematic theology that will be built in throughout the whole class. 
• Engage: Give students some basic tools and ideas for how to pastorally and evangelistically relate with people coming from these backgrounds. This is the area I know I am weakest in, but hopefully I can stimulate some creative thought in students.

Why this kind of course? Latin America is not exactly a bastion of religious diversity in the way that much of Asia is. But it's not a Catholic monolith either. For example, there is a group of about 200 Hare Krishna devotees in Medellín, there are significant pockets of Muslim immigration in parts of the country, and the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons have made substantial inroads here. While doing some research on Mormonism, for instance, I found that there are nearly 6 million Mormons in Latin America, not far below the 6.6 million in the U.S. and Canada. While Colombia is actually the least Mormon Latin American country at only 0.4% of the population, Chile tops the list at 3.4%. Most Latin American countries are in the 1-2% range. By comparison, the U.S. rate is about 1.4% Mormon outside of Utah (58%) and Idaho (23%).

Regardless of whether students ever have significant ministries reaching out to those of other viewpoints or protecting those in their churches from false doctrine, one of the best things about studying other religions and worldviews it that it can help give a deeper grasp of the truth of the gospel. Instead of wondering why there are so many intelligent people who think otherwise or, on the flip side, writing people off as stupid for not being Christian, we can see why others might hold another view, but why Jesus really does provide the answers that all of humanity needs. Interacting with Islam, JWs, and Mormonism can also help us see the absolutely foundational importance of doctrines we often assume, but don't bother knowing how to defend, like the doctrine of the Trinity.

I'm excited for the course--a little overwhelmed still with how much I have left to prepare, but glad I can give tools to students who will be making a substantial impact in the culture and direction of Colombian churches!

City street in Medellín near where I often go shopping.

P.S. For those interested, the current president, Juan Manuel Santos, won re-election on Sunday. I don't know enough to make any real judgment on whether this was the best choice, but from my limited knowledge I am glad he won. This ensures more continuity and the continuation of peace talks with the FARC guerrillas. There are huge challenges with those talks: namely, whether the cost of peace is impunity for past crimes. I won't write more on that topic for now, but just know that this is a live, burning issue for most Colombians. (Eight percent of the country's population has been uprooted from their homes and internally displaced due to the violence over the past 50+ years.)

The World Cup and Tomorrow's Election

The World Cup has started and, by God’s mercy, will end the Sunday before the coming semester starts here at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia. I love soccer and all, and I am glad to have the chance to watch some great matches, but as one of my friends recently noted, the productivity of the world will substantially drop in the next few weeks. So, I’m glad students can get this out of their system before hitting the ground running on the academic year. (My productivity, on the other hand, needs to be quite high before the semester begins, so I’m not sure how many games I’ll be able to watch.)

Colombia made their World Cup debut today by trouncing Greece 3-0. It’s the first time that the selección (national team) has made the World Cup in 16 years, and the country is proud of it. In the few taxi rides I’ve been on in the last couple of weeks, the preferred topics of conversation usually revolve around two things: prospects for the World Cup and how amazingly awesome Medellín is as a city. While patriotic spirit runs high during national soccer matches, I’ve noticed a certain level of hesitancy among those I’ve spoken with. Colombia has easier than average group stage competition, but the best player on the team, Falcao, is out with a knee injury. I’ve also heard a lot of Colombians comment on how good of a team the United States has, something I’m certainly not used to hearing. But they did do quite well in qualifying, and at least the non-so-heavy-hitters in Latin American soccer have taken note. Not that that will probably enable them to advance out of group competition, given their competition of Germany, Portugal, and Ghana.

I didn’t get to watch the Colombia-Greece game, but even if I hadn’t been following sporadically online, I could have predicted the score pretty accurately by listening to my surroundings. Three distinct uproars of applause from the neighbors with the requisite honking of horns by cars and busses alerted me to each of Colombia’s three goals. Lack of any clear wailing sounds suggested Greece had probably not been able to match that performance.

Colombia is a nation that loves to party, as is pretty much true of all of Latin America. So, I find it ironic but amusing that after such a decisive reappearance on the World Cup scene, 6:00 p.m. tonight begins a 36 hour ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol in the country. What could account for this temporary ban? Tomorrow’s presidential election runoff. In the interests of minimizing confrontations, they attempt to enforce sobriety from the evening before the election to the morning after. Not that I expect this to actually produce the intended effect, but it’s certainly not a bad idea to try to improve things.

I went shopping this afternoon at a nearby grocery store and they were repeatedly announcing the ban on liquor sales starting at 6:00. But, until then they were offering some discounts. Probably a quarter of the shoppers in the store wore Colombian national team jerseys, certainly a far greater unifying force than anything the presidential elections have had to offer. Let’s pray that whatever the outcome tomorrow, people will accept the results peacefully and that somehow Colombia will find a way to bring the armed conflict to an end through a just and reconciling peace. I don’t see any easy way for that to happen, so all I can do is pray.

Colombian Culture: Some first observations

While I wouldn't say I yet feel settled in to life in Colombia, I'm finally starting to get my bearings in navigating life here. I'm getting a sense for Medellín's geography and complicated roads and made my way around in busses, taxis, and walking for some shopping trips. I'm still living in a temporary apartment until mid-June, so hopefully can start feeling settled in once I move into my own place.

While my experience of Colombia is very limited, here are a few preliminary cultural observations: things I have found interesting, noticed in contrast to my time in Mexico, or that give a little window into the details of daily life in Colombia.

1. Hospitality: Paisas (people from Medellín) are very friendly toward foreigners. Everyone I've encountered so far has been extremely helpful and welcoming.

2. Punctuality: At least in the seminary community, punctuality is highly prized. This could be part of the academic/work environment, but even for a social gathering yesterday, other Colombians were wondering what was happening when someone was five minutes late. This is rather different from my experience in Mexico, to say the least. I probably would have shown up ten minutes late in Mexico, and then waited for everyone else...

3. Efficiency of packaging: One thing I love about Colombian supermarkets is how efficiently they package their products. Milk, yogurt, and condiments often come in plastic bag type containers, with little dispenser spouts in the case of condiments. In the case of milk, you have a dedicated milk pitcher in the fridge. Prices are considerably lower (maybe 15-35% cheaper?) for products packaged this way compared to more durable plastic containers or boxed, shelf-stable milk. I believe I've also seen bagged rather than bottled water, just as I encountered in Honduras. Works great, as long as you drink it all at once...

Mustard, mayo, ketchup, yogurt, and milk in typically efficient packaging.

4. Directness: Colombians on the whole seem to communicate more directly than Mexicans. Sometimes I have to remind myself to get to the point in answering a question, instead of worrying about hedging my answer.

5. Humor: Colombians are always cracking subtle jokes, but I still don't get them most of the time. 

6. Puentes: A three-day weekend here (as in Mexico) is called a "puente," meaning "bridge," since it extends your weekend. This Monday is a day off of work, but no one I've asked seems to know why or what's being celebrated. But they'll happily take the time off...

7. Traffic: Puentes create miserable traffic conditions, especially trying to get from downtown back uphill to the seminary, since it goes by one of the main roads out of the city. Pretty much getting back uphill to the seminary around rush hour is always a challenge. I've learned not to do much shopping around then because taxi drivers don't think it's worthwhile to battle the traffic and you get stuck waiting for quite a while.

8. Motorcycles: They're everywhere, and they often beat the worst of the traffic problems. Legally, two men cannot ride a motorcycle together because at the peak of the drug-related violence there were many armed crimes committed by motorcycle passengers. But a man and woman can go together as long as the woman is the passenger.

9. Bureaucracy: There's a lot of government involvement in life here. For example, professors must register their research projects with the government that are done as part of their work hours. Yet, I have been impressed at the relative efficiency of the paperwork both for applying for my foreigner ID card here and my visa at the consulate in the US. They're sticklers on the requirements, but if you have everything it seems to go very smoothly compared to what I've seen in Peru, for instance.

10. Money: Roughly speaking, there are a little under 2,000 pesos to the dollar. I'm still getting used to prices in the hundreds of thousands or millions of pesos.

11. Lack of spicy food: Colombian food is not spicy at all. In a few culture shock moments I've had serious cravings for Mexican food. 

12. -ico endings (for my Spanish-speaking readers): When Colombians want to add a diminutive ending to a word, they use "-ico" if the letter before the ending is "t." So, if they want to say "wait a few minutes" they say "espere unos minuticos" rather than "minutitos." Or they use "ratico" instead of "ratito." I was confused at first, but now I talk this way too...