Skip to main content

Diary of D #3: Being a Christian is...

Fascinating

No, really. I am Christian. Not my name, of course, but my faith. However, it's also notable that the faith/religion is deep rooted in Hebrew Judaism rather than appearing out of nowhere. I mean, wasn't Jesus Christ a man from Israel? As an Indonesian who gets to be a Christian, it's been sorta strange. After all, Indonesia itself has plenty of indigenous faith native to the territory. But those beliefs would just be classified as paganism, wouldn't they?

Filtered through the lens of Westernism, such as European or American approach (or both!), the experience of the Christians vary from one place to another. For this Christian, however, it really is peculiar. Knowing Indonesian relations with Israel, and Palestine, plus an awareness of how much of my life is dictated by this admittedly foreign yet not exactly pagan faith while at the same time something more native to my homeland should just be labeled as plain archaic belief...yeah. It's bad. But, hey, it's livable!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

X-Men: The Movie

An Imagining (Credit: Jim Lee) I know. What the hell is this, right? Well, I woke up today and decided that I want to make a brief general summary of an X-Men story that I've been cooking up for a while. It would begin with a scene where one of our protagonists, Jean Grey a.k.a. Marvel Girl, arrives at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester County, New York. This however is not a story of a teenage Grey arriving at the school for the first time. It's just a callback to that; she's an adult now. She goes back to the school to visit her old professor, Charles Francis Xavier a.k.a. Professor X, because why not reunion? Anyway, Grey would meet the other previous students of the school. In order of appearance: Henry "Hank" McCoy a.k.a. Beast who would answer the door for her, Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops who's currently in a heated debate with Warren Kenneth Worthington III a.k.a. Angel, and Robert "Bobby" Drake a.k.a. Iceman who jus...

"Remembering When You Were Mine" — A Mariah Carey Review Series: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, 1994 Carey's fourth studio album, released only a year after her biggest album Music Box , is a Christmas-themed album titled, well, Merry Christmas . The album is filled with classic Christmas carols and ballads, with three additional original songs completing the collection. Let's take a look. It starts with a serene take on "Silent Night," a song about the nativity story. Carey's take builds the song around the atmospheric soundscape from the production. It truly sounds as if you're listening to a biblical narrator singing about the story in the barn where Jesus Christ was born. Talk about a journey to the past. The album then continues to the next song, "All I Want for Christmas Is You." The first original composition here, this is a song that I believe so many people have already known even from the title alone. One of the most famous songs on Earth, and I can hear why. Cheerful production amidst an even more cheerful singing de...

"Hold On to the Memories" — A Mariah Carey Review Series: Music Box

Music Box, 1993 We've come to this moment. A moment to wish for a dream lover to come and save us, to cherish our heroes if we can find them within us, and to be immersed in, strangely, sorrow. Opening song, "Dreamlover," is a lovely lowkey dance number with lyrics that are far fluffier than anything Carey has ever written up to that point. Her songwriting has grown to be softer and milder. Lines like "I want a lover who knows me, who understands how I'm feeling inside" and "baby, come on, take me away" come off as a bit surprising from the same woman who has delivered biting lyrics with the likes of "Someday," "Prisoner," and "You're So Cold." The next song, "Hero," is a ballad about self-esteem. You heard it right. The composition is very ordinary but manages to be effective in conveying the message. At one point, you can literally hear the sky turns bright after a cold dark night. Her voice also goes a...