The Orion Monitor
Prologue
January, 1996
e-mail:editor@orionmonitor.com
The Unanswered Letter That Launched Orion Monitor
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it."
George Santayana
An Introduction
As a result of reading the Orion Monitor, some have questioned what the politics at old LA Central Japanese was really like, and questioned whether those political battles have much relation to the present crisis. Does Santayana’s saying not apply to us? Prologue is an attempt to answer those questions.
Santayana also says "History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there." There is much to be said for that, because in my experience, there has often been quite a twisted leap from the primary documents to the actual history that is derived from it. Consider then, that Prologue consists of a primary contemporary document that was circulated in church at the time it was written. So I was there writing about events that I witnessed. It is a list of grievances that indirectly discloses the history of the battle of ideas in the Japanese church, and the competing ethics which those ideas generated.
Did the events happen as I described them? The fact that there was a long list of grievances does not make them true. But the fact that it was a public letter circulated to compel a response that never came should also be considered. The argument from silence must be interpreted with caution, however, as I am sure that there was a sentiment that the letter "should not be dignified with a response." In the end, they did what they thought was right, and so did I. Let the pieces fall where they may. The public letter in question consists of two parts: The first part is the letter itself . The second part is a table called Understanding the Budget Wars of L.A. Central Japanese SDA Church in which I attempt to put the budget wars into a theological context.
Unanswered letter, part A
Unanswered letter, part B
Back to Homepage