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Chairperson's Remarks
Learning Institute
When HK Christian Institute held its flag day in July, we were asked, What is HKCI? What kind of work it does? Why the Chinese name is ‘learning club’? Is it an educational institution?
I have never given thought as to why HKCI's Chinese name specifies it's a learning institute instead of a club, a front, a union, a commune, a fellowship, or a forum.
Alan M. Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School wrote the book The Genesis of Justice: 10 Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to the 10 Commandments and Modern Morality and Law (NY: Warner Books, 2000). He pointed out from a modern legal perspective that Genesis was full of unfair records. Even God's orders were no exception. There was not sufficient warning prior to punishment. Punishment was not proportional to the harm caused. One mistake led to eternal damnation. The innocent were not protected. The whole humankind punished for one person's sin. Dershowitz thought God had shown us that God is a learning God. God learned from mistakes. God turned back. God regretted. God no longer issued arbitrary orders. God initiated making covenants with human. God was willing to be bound by the clauses of the covenant. God issued commandments in black and white. With the experience of Genesis, we had the laws of Exodus.
We believe in a learning God. We have to learn constantly. HKCI is a learning community. Facing the bleak situation of Hong Kong, even the government who owns most power and resources is getting nowhere. We don’t have crystal balls or secret weapons to help Hong Kong out of the pit. We are the Hong Kong people. We live among the crowd. We feel and listen to the laments of our neighbor and ourselves. We are willing to learn, to struggle with conviction in order to respond to the call of our God in this time and place, to be the light and salt of Hong Kong.
Joseph KAUNG
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