Explaining Christmas to Chinese Friends

[StuartJ]

I have a number of Chinese friends.

They are educated and cosmopolitan.

They know very little of Christianity. It's quite foreign to them.

How can I explain the details of Jesus' nativity ...?

[Wootah]

I have a number of Chinese friends.

They are educated and cosmopolitan.

They know very little of Christianity. It's quite foreign to them.

How can I explain the details of Jesus' nativity ...?

That sounds like me explaining Islam to them. I would humbly suggest you aren't the best person for this job.

Try to be balanced.

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 2 by Wootah]

My Chinese friends are very polite.

But they have trouble keeping straight faces when I give them clinical details of the Jewish deity Yahweh impregnating the Blessed Virgin Yahweh.

How can the details best be put to educated, cosmopolitan people who know little of Christianity ...?

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 3 by StuartJ]

If they have difficulty in not sniggering at other cultures and beliefs I would suggest they take a lesson in tolerance before they launch into theology . Perhaps your friends have lead very sheltered lives ( it would indicate they have if they have arrived to adulthood without knowledge of the basics of the Christian traditions). Given the political and ideological indocrination they may have been subject to from childhood it I think important to be patient with them. There is a good chance this is their first exposure to spirituality.

Perhaps start with opening their minds to the values of ancient African and aboriginal traditions that they may find comically primitive and work up from there.


JW

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 4 by JehovahsWitness]

Educated, cosmopolitan Chinese with no more than a passing knowledge of Christian and countless other "truths" (why would they?) ...

View the Christianities in precisely the same way as Christian missionaries viewed the cultures they sought to exterminate in the name of their Lord and Saviour, the Virgin-Born, Universe-Creating, Son of Yahweh.

You used the term "comically primitive" ...

Which is worth pondering at length ....

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 5 by StuartJ]

As I said, their education seems to have been somewhat lacking if they are unfamiliar with one of the best known stories in literature and if they are still sniggering after having been familiar with it for years then I suggest their education is still lacking as it seems to have not taught them respect or tolerance. Even a good education cannot teach good sense and that might also be lackkng if they turn to a staunch atheist and anti religionist to explain christianity.


Perhaps a course in human decency, respect for world culture and the pitfalls of being closeminded would be in order; after which you might like to point them in the direction of a spiritual person that can help open their minds to spiritual matter without disdain. He or she might be able to over look a snooty, jugemental closeminded attitude and help them become more accepting of alternative worldviews.


Hope that helps,

JW


PS I have to go to work now, but I'll post some links and videos later in this thread as well as real life examples of people in similar situations that have embraced Christianity which might help.

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 1 by StuartJ]

I'd take them right to the source. The second half of Luke chapter 1 and the first half of Luke chapter 2.

If they ask you to explain why people would take this mythological tale as literally true, that's gonna be a much harder task.

I envy you to be honest. I'd love to hear their response to the story of Jesus' nativity.

[StuartJ]

respect for world culture and the pitfalls of being closeminded would be in order
JW

Great lessons for Christians ....

Especially for Christian missionaries intent on exterminating world culture ...

And making Christianity the ONLY culture ...

And then the Loving Jesus returning to exterminate remaining opposition.

[JehovahsWitness]

respect for world culture and the pitfalls of being closeminded would be in order
JW

Great lessons for Christians ....
.

Great lessons for everybody.


Videos and links to come....

[StuartJ]

Chinese people are generally very polite.

They are unlikely to snigger in the face of someone who actually believed that a possibly fictional Jewish man came down from Heaven and plonked himself into the uterus of a human virgin.

But if someone like me keeps a straight face and gives them the clinical details from Eve and the Talking Serpent to the Ethnic Cleansing of the Promised Land, and right through all the angels and virgins and talking donkeys to the Return of Jesus the Exterminator and the fire and blood and multi-headed beasts ...

Presenting not a shred of independently verifiable evidence ...

They have trouble keeping a straight face.

When Christianity is laid out ...

In clinical, emotion-free detail ...

Christianity is an embarrassment to an advanced culture.