Greetings from the Kawthoolei Hope Theological Seminary in the strong name of the God of hope and the God of possibilities who champions the cause of the weak and the oppressed. God’s possibilities are experienced abundantly even amid limitations such as ours.
We dream and have been praying lift a ceiling of the Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Churches’ theological education to the next level and God has answered our prayers with the inception of KHTS through the alpha guruship of Rev. Dr. Wati Aier and in partnership with Oriental Theological Seminary. This has been a swim against the current but a holy ground experience for me. I couldn’t be more grateful.
Ted Peters, in his God - the World’s Future: Systematic Theology for a Postmodern Era, says, “One can identify the modern theologian as a person who is willing to jump off the island and attempt to swim amid the currents of modern consciousness. “He or she is aware of the risks of leaving the dry land of biblical naivete behind, but hopes that farther out at sea, another island of meaning will appear. If none does appear, then perhaps with strong faith one can simply learn to enjoy the unending swim.” For Peters, “the image of God in humans as the call forward, as the divine draw toward future reality. We are becoming. Sin and its fruit—evil—retard this becoming. We sin by trying to fixate ourselves in the present reality, thereby diverting or blocking God’s call forward toward the new creation. Evil is unbecoming.” Sin is when a leader is people pleasing and change resisting in institutions, in organizations, in countries because the spirit of the myth of Sisyphus is at play. With leaders like Sisyphus, we would have to push a rock up a mountain; upon reaching the top, the rock would roll down again, leaving us to start over again and again.
Some people see reality immediately in front of them. Some see general optimism and keep a positive attitude about present realities. This, for me, is boring. There is no adventure in it. But I see more. The ground under our feet may be shifting, in the eyes of hope and faith, the ground we can’t see is far more concrete than the ground we can touch and see. They those have no vision, no imagination for a better and desirable future, what will happen is they will seek control, they will stall things, they will find means to manage what visionaries (leaders) have set up.
Our Karen revolution is 73 years old, the longest-running revolution in the world. We keep on celebrating failures because it does not have clear vision, concrete master plans or proper goal. Like Sisyphus, we keep on spiraling between low intensity operation (negotiation) and armed conflict. As Sisyphus rolled up his own stone, we loop like a ship without navigator. We loop because we have no clear vision. Leadership is taking people from pint A to point B to point C and to the Omega point. Yes, to some point higher than last year. A good leader doesn’t loop.
Our current political ideal is inadequate. It cannot unite the factions. It cannot unite the masses behind this struggle. Right now, our nationalism is destructive, divisive, inadequate, compromising and having to put up with endless compromises over a very long period. And Albert Einstein is right: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” yes, we do the same thing over and over again for 73 years and still expecting different results. We loop and keep on looping. I am determined to break this loop. A fitting political roadmap with clear goal, a relevant geopolitical paradigm for overseas Karen, one that will unite the factions and the people behind must be chosen and implement. Unity is priority.
Again, our theological institutions, our churches are smug and complacent. We give opium to the masses and have them drink Kool-Aid. (I am referring to leaders who are complacent and too afraid to risk. They drink Kool-Aid of complacency. Complacency is a lethal drug.) Therefore, we must envisage ways and means at being academically practical in building the Karen people towards a futureWe need a new breed, new model, the game changer, for next level (Karen socio-political transformation through down to earth but in-depth theological education).
I say this in the face of skeptics and realists. I want to see KHTS lead. I wish to see KHTS internationalize the Karen Identity. It is time we let this imagination run free, undomesticated and creative. Yes, I see KHTS in the international platform, preaching, leading worships, workshops, lecturing in universities, constructively engaging in APBF and BWA circles, leading in Global Karen Baptist Fellowship, in par. Speaking to UNHCR, talking about Geneva calls, changing landscapes for refugees, this is imagination. This is called courageous hope. Because anyone who dares hope stands on a boundary line; on one side is folly and presumption on the other side is courage.
We will build a bridge for Karen unity, we will alter the conditions of the refugees, the migrants and the diaspora, we will transform our geo-socio-political landscapes, we will globalize the Karen identity, don’t tell me it is impossible… this is KHTS, this is hope community. For and with the refugees, KHTS will say: “let my people go, yes, let my people, like Moses said to Pharaoh, you gotta let my people… open the gate and let my people.” We will rebuild, renew, restore our nation’s social, political, historical heritage, educational, religious, economic spheres and ours will be a down-to-earth, holistic mission. Right now, (The Myanmar military is back on the stage as a messianic Leviathan flashing its skeleton, trying to save a nation heading toward a cliff. It is hard to imagine that the Military Government will crumble and fall but under pressure exerted within and without it is possible.
To echo Joe Biden, “Don't tell me things can't change. They can and they do. That's America… A place of hope and light and limitless possibilities…. I know these are dark times but there is always light… there is always light.” Yes, don’t tell me things can’t change. They can and they do. It is possible. KHTS, a community of hope. A place of hope and light and limitless possibilities. This is where “Hope springs eternal in human breasts, Man never is but always to be blest. The soul uneasy, and confined from home, rests and expatiates from home to come,” says an English poet, Alexander Pope.
KHTS will be, we will be the agents of Hope. This institution is not started by in an institutional mind. This in itself is a paradox. In other words, I am not an institutional guy, you must learn to cope with it and with that in mind strive forward. There is an old Karen saying, “I am not a dog that will cover the tracks of an old pig.” I am a trailblazer. I am a dreamer. I am a vision carrier. Some of you, you are more structural with more decorative mind. I wish I have that but I don’t. I understand you. I am a pilgrim; as a community of hope, we are not green card holders or permanent residents of any particular territory but an exodus community embarking on a journey. In other words, I want this this institution to be a movement. But a movement cannot sustain itself for long without some forms of an institution. Another paradox. Withing that framework, you must learn to be creative. I believe this institution is still climbing uphill. When you climb uphill, there are things you must not do. Someone told me, “No one wants to drive a car that has no break…” The statement, as true as it may sound, my limited response would be, “Don’t put a break while we are climbing.”
There are two groups of people. One is conservative, and another is progressive (none of them are evil). I think I am the latter. The conservatives will hold on to tradition. Will implement traditional values. They will insert control. When they see this progress, that progress, resources, especially when monetary resources being mobilized, it will create insecurities in them, they will create a surveillance system to control the movement of things and called it accountability. Control is born out of insecurity and fear. I fear criticism, I fear failure, I’m creating a wall for myself to protect me. Control is language of fear and insecurity. Control is an illusion. That is a fact. However, I agree with Pope Francis, “Tradition is not a museum, true religion is not a freezer, and doctrine is not static but grows and develops, like a tree that remain the same yet which gets bigger and bears ever more fruits” (Let us Dream, 57). Gustav Mahler says, “tradition is not the repository of ashes but the preservation of fire…”( Let us Dream, 57). Please don’t reposit the ashes but preserve the fire. If we reposit the ashes, this will enslave, this will restrain, this will do harm rather than doing good to community such as ours. So with that paradox in mind, let us continue to strive because I don’t want this institution to be stagnant.
A little girl said, “An optimist is a man who looks after your eyes, and a pessimist is a man who looks after your feet.” G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 65. I don’t want this institution run by fear, insecurities, narcissism and discouragement. Because, “Narcissism takes you to the mirror to look at ourself, to center everything on you so that’s all you see. You end up so in love with the image you created that you end up drowning in it. Then news is only good if its good for you personally, and if the news is bad, it’s because you are its chief victim.
“And discouragement leads you to lament and complain about everything so that you no longer see what is around you nor what others offer you, only what you think you’ve lost. Discouragement leads to sadness in the spiritual life, which is worm that gnaws away you from the inside. Eventually it closes you in on yourself and you can’t see anything beyond yourself (Let us Dream, 16). “And there’s pessimism, which is like a door you shut on the future and the new things it can hold; a door you refuse to open in case one day there’ll be something new on your door step” (Let us Dream, 16).
I want this institution to be a movement and is someone wanted it to be institutionalized and nothing ese, then, let’s make a truce. Let’s embrace a paradox. Let’s call Kawthoolei Hope Theological Seminary a Movement-Institution with a paradoxical identity. It is a movement at the same time it is an institution. This is called creative tension. That is to say, we are here in Popphra and yet we belong to the world. We exit locally and yet we also think and operate globally. We think globally, we operate Popphrally. We dream globally, we operate Kleethookloly, Maesotly until one day our local identity become internationalized. With our M.Min program, our being affiliated to IATA, accepted by BWA and APBF, being a part of APBTE, we are already being internationalized. My dream is a reality.
Finally, friends, Philippian 4:6-7 says, “Nothing to be anxious about. But everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let the requests of you be made known to God. And the peace of God surpassing all understanding will guard the hearts of you and the minds of you in Christ Jesus.”
Do not worry because there is a God, the prodigal God (Timothy Keller), to also echo Karl Bart, the God who goes to a far away country, as the prodigal son travelled off into “the far country” Luke 15:13 where he travels into the depths of depravity and sin. This crossing over into he far country is radical, risky, excessive and prodigal. It is the very nature of the incarnation. The God of hope is a prodigal God. Pope Francis, in his book, Let us Dream, he talks about three things, “A time to see, a time to choose and a time to act…”
So let us dream…
A time to see, “we can start to discern, to see new possibilities, at least in the little things that surround us…and as we commit to those small things, we start to imagine another way of living together, of serving our fellow beloved creatures. We begin to dream of real change, change that is possible…” Pope Francis, Let us Dream, 20.
A time to choose, to discern and to choose. Let us discern the signs of the time and choose the voice of God over the voice of the enemy. “The voice of God opens your horizons, whereas the enemy pins you against a wall. Where the good spirit gives you hope, the bad spirit sows suspicion, anxiety and finger pointing. The good spirit appeals to my desire to do good, to help and serve, and give me strength to go forward on the fight path. The bad spirit, conversely, closes me in on myself, and makes me rigid and intolerant. It makes me sad, fearful, and irritable.” Rather than freeing me, it enslaves me. Rather than opening me up the present and the future, it encloses me in fear and resignation. Leaning to distinguish these two kings of “voices” allows us to choose the right path forward…” Let us Dream, 61-62. A time to act… the task here is “to open doors and windows and move beyond,”( Let us Dream, 135) across and over the horizon. Pitch a tent under the volcano, explore the uncharted sea, scout the new territory, yes, let us dream. I am a dream specialist. It is safe to dream because you don’t have to pay.
Let us dream, “a time to see, a time to choose, a time to act”… a time to thrive. This is Kawthoolei Hope Theological Seminary. This is KHTS.
Rev. Dr. Wado
President KHTS
We dream and have been praying lift a ceiling of the Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Churches’ theological education to the next level and God has answered our prayers with the inception of KHTS through the alpha guruship of Rev. Dr. Wati Aier and in partnership with Oriental Theological Seminary. This has been a swim against the current but a holy ground experience for me. I couldn’t be more grateful.
Ted Peters, in his God - the World’s Future: Systematic Theology for a Postmodern Era, says, “One can identify the modern theologian as a person who is willing to jump off the island and attempt to swim amid the currents of modern consciousness. “He or she is aware of the risks of leaving the dry land of biblical naivete behind, but hopes that farther out at sea, another island of meaning will appear. If none does appear, then perhaps with strong faith one can simply learn to enjoy the unending swim.” For Peters, “the image of God in humans as the call forward, as the divine draw toward future reality. We are becoming. Sin and its fruit—evil—retard this becoming. We sin by trying to fixate ourselves in the present reality, thereby diverting or blocking God’s call forward toward the new creation. Evil is unbecoming.” Sin is when a leader is people pleasing and change resisting in institutions, in organizations, in countries because the spirit of the myth of Sisyphus is at play. With leaders like Sisyphus, we would have to push a rock up a mountain; upon reaching the top, the rock would roll down again, leaving us to start over again and again.
Some people see reality immediately in front of them. Some see general optimism and keep a positive attitude about present realities. This, for me, is boring. There is no adventure in it. But I see more. The ground under our feet may be shifting, in the eyes of hope and faith, the ground we can’t see is far more concrete than the ground we can touch and see. They those have no vision, no imagination for a better and desirable future, what will happen is they will seek control, they will stall things, they will find means to manage what visionaries (leaders) have set up.
Our Karen revolution is 73 years old, the longest-running revolution in the world. We keep on celebrating failures because it does not have clear vision, concrete master plans or proper goal. Like Sisyphus, we keep on spiraling between low intensity operation (negotiation) and armed conflict. As Sisyphus rolled up his own stone, we loop like a ship without navigator. We loop because we have no clear vision. Leadership is taking people from pint A to point B to point C and to the Omega point. Yes, to some point higher than last year. A good leader doesn’t loop.
Our current political ideal is inadequate. It cannot unite the factions. It cannot unite the masses behind this struggle. Right now, our nationalism is destructive, divisive, inadequate, compromising and having to put up with endless compromises over a very long period. And Albert Einstein is right: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” yes, we do the same thing over and over again for 73 years and still expecting different results. We loop and keep on looping. I am determined to break this loop. A fitting political roadmap with clear goal, a relevant geopolitical paradigm for overseas Karen, one that will unite the factions and the people behind must be chosen and implement. Unity is priority.
Again, our theological institutions, our churches are smug and complacent. We give opium to the masses and have them drink Kool-Aid. (I am referring to leaders who are complacent and too afraid to risk. They drink Kool-Aid of complacency. Complacency is a lethal drug.) Therefore, we must envisage ways and means at being academically practical in building the Karen people towards a futureWe need a new breed, new model, the game changer, for next level (Karen socio-political transformation through down to earth but in-depth theological education).
I say this in the face of skeptics and realists. I want to see KHTS lead. I wish to see KHTS internationalize the Karen Identity. It is time we let this imagination run free, undomesticated and creative. Yes, I see KHTS in the international platform, preaching, leading worships, workshops, lecturing in universities, constructively engaging in APBF and BWA circles, leading in Global Karen Baptist Fellowship, in par. Speaking to UNHCR, talking about Geneva calls, changing landscapes for refugees, this is imagination. This is called courageous hope. Because anyone who dares hope stands on a boundary line; on one side is folly and presumption on the other side is courage.
We will build a bridge for Karen unity, we will alter the conditions of the refugees, the migrants and the diaspora, we will transform our geo-socio-political landscapes, we will globalize the Karen identity, don’t tell me it is impossible… this is KHTS, this is hope community. For and with the refugees, KHTS will say: “let my people go, yes, let my people, like Moses said to Pharaoh, you gotta let my people… open the gate and let my people.” We will rebuild, renew, restore our nation’s social, political, historical heritage, educational, religious, economic spheres and ours will be a down-to-earth, holistic mission. Right now, (The Myanmar military is back on the stage as a messianic Leviathan flashing its skeleton, trying to save a nation heading toward a cliff. It is hard to imagine that the Military Government will crumble and fall but under pressure exerted within and without it is possible.
To echo Joe Biden, “Don't tell me things can't change. They can and they do. That's America… A place of hope and light and limitless possibilities…. I know these are dark times but there is always light… there is always light.” Yes, don’t tell me things can’t change. They can and they do. It is possible. KHTS, a community of hope. A place of hope and light and limitless possibilities. This is where “Hope springs eternal in human breasts, Man never is but always to be blest. The soul uneasy, and confined from home, rests and expatiates from home to come,” says an English poet, Alexander Pope.
KHTS will be, we will be the agents of Hope. This institution is not started by in an institutional mind. This in itself is a paradox. In other words, I am not an institutional guy, you must learn to cope with it and with that in mind strive forward. There is an old Karen saying, “I am not a dog that will cover the tracks of an old pig.” I am a trailblazer. I am a dreamer. I am a vision carrier. Some of you, you are more structural with more decorative mind. I wish I have that but I don’t. I understand you. I am a pilgrim; as a community of hope, we are not green card holders or permanent residents of any particular territory but an exodus community embarking on a journey. In other words, I want this this institution to be a movement. But a movement cannot sustain itself for long without some forms of an institution. Another paradox. Withing that framework, you must learn to be creative. I believe this institution is still climbing uphill. When you climb uphill, there are things you must not do. Someone told me, “No one wants to drive a car that has no break…” The statement, as true as it may sound, my limited response would be, “Don’t put a break while we are climbing.”
There are two groups of people. One is conservative, and another is progressive (none of them are evil). I think I am the latter. The conservatives will hold on to tradition. Will implement traditional values. They will insert control. When they see this progress, that progress, resources, especially when monetary resources being mobilized, it will create insecurities in them, they will create a surveillance system to control the movement of things and called it accountability. Control is born out of insecurity and fear. I fear criticism, I fear failure, I’m creating a wall for myself to protect me. Control is language of fear and insecurity. Control is an illusion. That is a fact. However, I agree with Pope Francis, “Tradition is not a museum, true religion is not a freezer, and doctrine is not static but grows and develops, like a tree that remain the same yet which gets bigger and bears ever more fruits” (Let us Dream, 57). Gustav Mahler says, “tradition is not the repository of ashes but the preservation of fire…”( Let us Dream, 57). Please don’t reposit the ashes but preserve the fire. If we reposit the ashes, this will enslave, this will restrain, this will do harm rather than doing good to community such as ours. So with that paradox in mind, let us continue to strive because I don’t want this institution to be stagnant.
A little girl said, “An optimist is a man who looks after your eyes, and a pessimist is a man who looks after your feet.” G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 65. I don’t want this institution run by fear, insecurities, narcissism and discouragement. Because, “Narcissism takes you to the mirror to look at ourself, to center everything on you so that’s all you see. You end up so in love with the image you created that you end up drowning in it. Then news is only good if its good for you personally, and if the news is bad, it’s because you are its chief victim.
“And discouragement leads you to lament and complain about everything so that you no longer see what is around you nor what others offer you, only what you think you’ve lost. Discouragement leads to sadness in the spiritual life, which is worm that gnaws away you from the inside. Eventually it closes you in on yourself and you can’t see anything beyond yourself (Let us Dream, 16). “And there’s pessimism, which is like a door you shut on the future and the new things it can hold; a door you refuse to open in case one day there’ll be something new on your door step” (Let us Dream, 16).
I want this institution to be a movement and is someone wanted it to be institutionalized and nothing ese, then, let’s make a truce. Let’s embrace a paradox. Let’s call Kawthoolei Hope Theological Seminary a Movement-Institution with a paradoxical identity. It is a movement at the same time it is an institution. This is called creative tension. That is to say, we are here in Popphra and yet we belong to the world. We exit locally and yet we also think and operate globally. We think globally, we operate Popphrally. We dream globally, we operate Kleethookloly, Maesotly until one day our local identity become internationalized. With our M.Min program, our being affiliated to IATA, accepted by BWA and APBF, being a part of APBTE, we are already being internationalized. My dream is a reality.
Finally, friends, Philippian 4:6-7 says, “Nothing to be anxious about. But everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let the requests of you be made known to God. And the peace of God surpassing all understanding will guard the hearts of you and the minds of you in Christ Jesus.”
Do not worry because there is a God, the prodigal God (Timothy Keller), to also echo Karl Bart, the God who goes to a far away country, as the prodigal son travelled off into “the far country” Luke 15:13 where he travels into the depths of depravity and sin. This crossing over into he far country is radical, risky, excessive and prodigal. It is the very nature of the incarnation. The God of hope is a prodigal God. Pope Francis, in his book, Let us Dream, he talks about three things, “A time to see, a time to choose and a time to act…”
So let us dream…
A time to see, “we can start to discern, to see new possibilities, at least in the little things that surround us…and as we commit to those small things, we start to imagine another way of living together, of serving our fellow beloved creatures. We begin to dream of real change, change that is possible…” Pope Francis, Let us Dream, 20.
A time to choose, to discern and to choose. Let us discern the signs of the time and choose the voice of God over the voice of the enemy. “The voice of God opens your horizons, whereas the enemy pins you against a wall. Where the good spirit gives you hope, the bad spirit sows suspicion, anxiety and finger pointing. The good spirit appeals to my desire to do good, to help and serve, and give me strength to go forward on the fight path. The bad spirit, conversely, closes me in on myself, and makes me rigid and intolerant. It makes me sad, fearful, and irritable.” Rather than freeing me, it enslaves me. Rather than opening me up the present and the future, it encloses me in fear and resignation. Leaning to distinguish these two kings of “voices” allows us to choose the right path forward…” Let us Dream, 61-62. A time to act… the task here is “to open doors and windows and move beyond,”( Let us Dream, 135) across and over the horizon. Pitch a tent under the volcano, explore the uncharted sea, scout the new territory, yes, let us dream. I am a dream specialist. It is safe to dream because you don’t have to pay.
Let us dream, “a time to see, a time to choose, a time to act”… a time to thrive. This is Kawthoolei Hope Theological Seminary. This is KHTS.
Rev. Dr. Wado
President KHTS