2022 Winter Issue 7

“The kingdom of God is like all day breakfast at McDonalds. It’s already here but it just doesn’t include the hashbrowns yet.”

— Overheard At Regent

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Unity in diversity

Sandra Park

 When I arrived in Vancouver eight months ago, I felt optimistic about how well and how quickly I would adapt to my new life here. Being born and raised in Spain, to a Korean family allowed me to embrace and move quite fluidly between different cultural settings. I also lived in Rotterdam and London for a few years but had never lived in a different continent. As a European, I was aware of some big cultural differences between Europe and North America, yet somehow, they didn’t feel like significant challenges, so I wasn’t anxious or afraid about navigating through them. It didn’t take me long to realize I was completely wrong. 

 A couple weeks after I arrived, I experienced my first cultural shock. It wasn’t the nice drivers who stopped two meters away from me so I could cross the road, or the nice passengers who thanked bus drivers when they got off – I could handle those little things. My first cultural shock came from my own behavior. One day, while at a bus stop, I found myself walking backwards, creating physical distance from other Asians. I didn’t want the other passengers to think that we were all travelling together. 

 I was born and raised in a country where differences are not very welcome, and with a long history of colonialism, racism is very embedded in the culture. One day, my nieces (also Korean Spanish) and I were having lunch at a restaurant, and soon we realized that the couple sitting next to our table was making racist comments about us, loud and clear. At first, we pretended we didn’t hear anything, but it kept going on and on. We couldn’t hold it back anymore and we told them how rude and racist they were being, but they didn’t seem ashamed and didn’t apologize either. I’ve experienced multiple times the immediate reactions from people around us (Asians) when we’re in a group. These reactions range from simple changes of facial expressions to saying racist comments directly at our faces. But these can happen when we’re on our own, too. Being Korean Spanish, I’ve had to find different ways to show myself as someone “from here” (in Spanish, “de aquí”), by behaving in a certain way and making myself heard so people would know they shouldn’t mess with me. And that’s what I was trying to do in that bus stop, here, in Vancouver. 

 This behavior didn’t stop there. As the term started at Regent and I was getting to know more people, I found myself trying to show my Spanish self to everyone, so that nobody would think I was an international student from Asia. I was doing the same things I did in Spain so people wouldn’t think I was a tourist. The problem was that I am Spanish, not North American, and not many people here know or understand Spanish culture that well. I failed at making myself known the way I wanted (some people think I’m an extrovert...!), and soon realized that it didn’t really make a difference: I was not “from here” anyway. 

 This realization became clearer when I saw there were unspoken boundaries among the students and I sensed a North American culture overriding other cultures, both in and outside the classrooms. I could feel my “fight mode” (well-built in Spain) being triggered a few times, which led to subsequent moments of anger and disappointment, but I couldn’t express it as openly as I would have if I were in Spain.

 Thankfully, those feelings of anger and disappointment dissipated after listening to Dr. Lisa Sung’s public lecture on “Race and Personhood”. As she talked about our call to be righteous and just, I recognized that I had been judging a whole group of people just because some of them did (or seemed to be doing) something wrong. Fundamentally speaking, this sin is no different to being a racist, or at least that’s how I see it. And I’ve spent all my life fighting against them - cursing back, picking on fights, or even firing someone for being a complete ignorant racist. Dr. Sung’s lecture shed a new light in my heart and provided me with a new perspective. Now I don’t walk around trying to detect supposedly racist comments or behaviors, but instead I’ve started envisioning what it would look like if those unspoken boundaries I mentioned earlier were not there anymore. 

 Inspired by the passage of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) while I was working for one of the Exegesis assignments, I pictured the following: 

 Let’s say that there are two persons with different personalities but who also come from very different cultural backgrounds – for the sake of what I want to say here, we’ll focus on the latter. One of them is a triangle and the other is a circle: 

 Because they are so different (culturally speaking), they both try to “fit in” by adopting (or pretending to adopt) the other’s cultural heritage. For example, the circle may laugh at the triangle’s jokes even though the circle doesn’t really get them, or the triangle would attempt to speak “circle-y” slang (which would probably sound very awkward, but the triangle is trying hard). 

 Although the underlying intentions are good, it feels like two balloons bouncing each other off. 

 Now let’s imagine that the triangle and the circle hide or diminish parts of itself (without letting the other one know) to avoid making the other feel uncomfortable. For example, the triangle wants to react to the circle’s joke, but it didn’t because from the circle’s cultural perspective, it could be perceived as rude. 

 Their motivations are still good, but they’re sadly being nibbled away.  

Third and last scenario: they’re unashamedly themselves but they’re intentional in how they relate to each other, which results in them becoming closer. Continuing the previous example, the circle asks what the joke meant, the triangle explains it and asks if there are similar jokes in the circle’s culture, to which the circle responds positively. Next time the triangle tells the same joke, the circle will understand it and will be able to laugh genuinely. Then the circle might feel confident telling the joke, or maybe later, the triangle might tell it in the circle’s language or with a literal translation. 

As I was writing the contemporary application on Gen 11:1-9, it dawned on me that God’s vision of unity might not be expressed through homogeneity as one would naturally think, but rather through diversity. It is within this diversity that He wants us to co-live (I think this is a better translation for the Spanish word “convivir”) with people who are different from us (in terms of culture, language, ethnicity, etc.) in harmony, acknowledging and embracing those differences without covering or diminishing who God made each one of us to be. I believe unity in diversity is possible in the body of Christ on this earth, not only eschatologically. We only need to break those boundaries by intentionally creating the space and time (both in their literal senses) with genuine love for God and one another. It’s not about creating big projects, but about changing our daily interactions. I might be an idealist, but I think Regent can become a place where such unity in diversity is practiced, nurtured, and passed on to the future generations. 

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A Curious Hymnbook

Seung Heon

It was the first day of the library book sale. As I was browsing the collection, excited about all the books that I could buy with the few dollars I had, I discovered a captivatingly orange book with a Korean title: We Are Always With Our Leader (우리는 언제나 수령과 함께). I actually did not think much about the title at first. I thought, ‘this must be a spiritual guidebook of experiencing the presence of God, or something like that.’ After all, this is a theological library in a Christian academic institution. I opened the book and found out that it was a hymnbook, with a very standard hymnbook format. But as I started reading the first hymn, I began to realize what this book really was.

The title of the first hymn read: The Song of General Kim Il-Sung. It was then I realized that the Leader from the book’s title was not Jesus; it was the Dear Leader. This was a hymnbook dedicated to worshipping the Supreme Leader of North Korea. Here is the chorus of the first hymn in the book: “O even his name we long for, our General. O even his name shines, General Kim Il-Sung” (my translation).

I was now captivated by this book. This was so much better than anything that I imagined I would find in this theological book sale! If it isn’t a miracle to be able to buy this priceless treasure for only 50 cents, then what is? (It would actually be literally impossible to buy this book in South Korea without being interrogated by the National Intelligence Service.) So, of course, I immediately bought this book and began to read it as if I was possessed.

Now, I am going to list a few of the hymns I found in this book. To be fair, there were so many fascinating hymns in this book, and selecting the best ones was an agonizing process. The originals were all in Korean, so I tried my best to be faithful to the mood of the original text. 

The first one is the ‘title track,’ if you will, of the book. The tempo reads, “Not too slowly, with a warm emotion.” Here are the lyrics:

The Dear Leader has visited our watch post,

embracing us tenderly in his bosom,

and as he poured out his love towards us,

our joy overflowed and we buried our faces in his bosom.

O, he is our father!

O, the son who is embraced by him

is happy wherever and whenever he may be!

Honestly, who could resist singing this without their ‘hearts feeling strangely warmed’?

The second song I want to share is titled, Song of the Joseon College. (Joseon is the old name for Korea, and North Korea still calls itself by this name.) The lyrics of the second verse are as follows:

The proud nationalist culture of my socialist country:

To us who learn it, it is the lighthouse of the revolutionary tradition.

To drive out our adversary, America, to achieve the unification of our nation,

and to build up a heaven on earth; our mission is lofty and grand.

Talk about a mission statement! I mean, how insignificant does Regent’s mission statement sound now after reading this? This song is actually one of many hymns with the theme of education. Here is another song, titled Child Education Song, with the following lyrics:

We honor the great will of the Supreme Leader,

who warmly cares for our children.

To raise our children as champions of communism,

we must also be armed with the communist ideology.

Well, I guess that is one way to raise your children.

Another common theme that I found in this hymnbook is violent anti-Americanism. And when I say violent, I mean violent. For example, one of the hymns is titled, Americans Are Destined For Hell. This song is to be sung with a tempo of “delightfully.” Here goes the lyrics: (These are actually really graphic, so skip these next two if you are uncomfortable with violence):

The American has crawled in, to devour my country.

Rat-at-at. Rat-at-at. I feed him with machine-gun bullets.

He holds on to the pierced skin of his belly

and says that ‘I will go to “heaven,” I will go to “heaven,”’

as he makes the sign of the cross.

Our adversary, the American! 

Why did you not know that our strength is a match for a hundred?

Why did you not know that you are destined for hell?

Wow. Imagine singing this ‘hymn’ delightfully! (The second and third verses are equally entertaining, but I could not write them here due to the lack of space.) Another song is titled, Let Us Cut the Americans Into Pieces. Interestingly, the term ‘cut into pieces’ here is the same term used in Leviticus 1:12: “And he shall cut it into pieces, with its head and its fat…” The lyrics read:

Let us f*** up our adversary. Let us f*** up the invading Americans.

Treacherous enemies, the American jackals, let us cut them into pieces.

In our blood-stained hearts, carrying burning anger,

the head, arms, and legs of the Americans, let us cut them off.

Following the ideals of anti-imperialism and anti-Americanism,

all the brothers of the world, unite!

And let us f*** up the Americans. Let us cut them into pieces!

These are only a few out of the wonderful collection of 200 hymns inside this book. Here are a few honorable mentions: Song of the Birth (basically the Christmas hymn of the North Korean communism), The First Song I Have Ever Learned (a song learned in the Supreme Leader’s bosom, no less), Rejoicing For the Agricultural Mechanization (which is of course accredited to the Supreme Leader), and General Kim Il-Sung Is Our Sun. 

As I was reading these, a question came into my mind: how did this thing ever find its way into the Regent Library? So, naturally, I did some research into the history of this book. What I discovered was that the publisher is actually located in Japan. Apparently, there is a sizeable North Korean community in Japan that is in communication with the North Korean regime, and this book is one of their propaganda tools. I even found an academic paper that claims that Kim Il-Sung, whose mother was a devout Presbyterian, repurposed the Christian hymn tradition into an effective propaganda tool. But the question still lingered: how did this book come all the way from Japan to Regent? Who donated this to the Library and why?
One clue that I found was that this book used to be categorized as a foreign language hymnbook. It might be that someone who could not read Korean thought this was a Korean church hymnbook and donated it. But where would this person have found this book in the first place? Is it possible that this was donated here purposefully as a North Korean praxis? Or perhaps there was even a North Korean spy that infiltrated Regent sometime in its history? So many questions remain… But we might never be able to solve the curious case of the hymnbook…

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[f]Ache and Pain News Investigates the Phantom Neo-Calvinist and Other Apparitions

John Davies

Discerning Etcetera readers have asked [f]Ache and Pain News to [f]ache[t] check Clarisse Plumier’s article in Issue 6. They are understandably sceptical about her claims to have witnessed paranormal activity in the library stacks: A cold breeze, a laugh with a weird cadence, moaning and a sighting of “the phantom neo-Calvinist.” However, following some in depth investigative journalism, we are now able to verify these claims. Not only have several similar sightings been reported, but also sightings of phantom neo-Arminians. On two recent occasions, the librarian was inundated with complaints about the noise caused by intermittent battles between an army of neo-Calvinists and a rival army of neo-Arminians. Other sightings have included the Ghosts of Regent College Past, Present, and Yet to Come, and the Phantom of the Regent College soap opera.

To assist our investigation, our Regileaks source has [h]ac[k]cessed secret college files documenting the activity of college ghosts. It has emerged that the most common reason cited for requesting an extension is the complaint that a syllabus poltergeist has spirited the submission deadline forward. Other students have made requests complaining that their finalised essays were snatched, minutes before the deadline, by the Hound of the Baskervilles, who promptly disappeared into the mist.

Last year I had an unexpected encounter myself. At the time of the floods, I was in the library during a thunderstorm. Someone encouraged me to go to pub night, saying there was a happy hour for spirits that evening. On my way out, I glanced at the St John’s Bible. It was turned to Acts 27, showing an illustration of Paul’s ship in the storm, with the sailors throwing the ship’s tackle overboard to lighten it. Then the lights went off but didn’t come back on again. Probably a power cut, I thought. As I looked in the half-light, another ship sailed into view on the page. When it got close to Paul’s ship, I could see its name, “The Flying Dutchman.” Meanwhile, Paul’s ship started to grow, become three dimensional and envelop its surroundings. I felt a breeze of fresh, damp salt air. The floor started to move rhythmically, sloping sharply one way, then the other. Computers were sliding off desks, books falling from the shelves. I realised that the illustration had enveloped me; I was on Paul’s ship! “The Flying Dutchman” had begun to grow just as Paul’s ship had. In a moment it was in the pond, which had become a tumultuous ocean with huge waves crashing into the library. Spray splashed in my face and intermittent surges of freezing cold water came up to my knees. I struggled to stay standing. Above the gale, the captain shouted to the sailors to throw all heavy reading overboard. So Hebrew and Greek texts, writers like Hegel and Zimmermann, and the St John’s Bible accompanied the library sofas and desks already being hurled into the sea. Once in the ocean, the Bible collided with the Flying Dutchman, which vanished. It then reopened at the previous page and swallowed Paul’s ship and the tempest back into its storyline. The lights suddenly came back on. “Closing” the librarian announced. I decided I’d had enough spirits happy hours for one evening.

Eyewitness accounts suggest that there are about three ghosts per Regent student in the stacks alone. So, the RCSA has decided to take decisive action. I’ve been promoted from RCSA floating MAL (member-at-large), to floating GAL (ghostbuster-at-large). For practical reasons, my floating will henceforth be in the same sense that ghosts float. It’s easier to follow them through windows, over roofs, etc., also to approach them silently from behind to bust them. For my new role I’ve done some training with Mulder & Scully, who will shortly be visiting to do infra-red spectre-scopy and black CAT scans. In my new capacity, some words of advice:

(1) Troubleshooting enigmatic apparitions.

If you hear me rebuking ghosts but only see my rucksack floating around the stacks about 2m above the floor, it’s probably a poor signal on the spectrenet. A sighting of the Grim Reaper with a rusty scythe or ghosts with rusty, broken chains probably means you’ve been spammed with a junk ghost.

(2) Evicting ghosts

If ghosts are annoying you, choose your words carefully. For example, telling them to “hop it” usually gets a cheeky response like “can’t, got no legs.” I usually say “RCSA. Your busted, float it,” which generally works. If it doesn’t, adding “on the count of five or I’ll call Am…” is failsafe. The name of our redoubtable president invariably makes even the most obstreperous ghosts turn a few shades paler than usual before paling into insignificance. For unresolved troubleshooting issues or difficult ghosts, email RCSAghostbusters@regent-college.edu. 

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Dad Joke of the Week*

Karl Marx is a famous philosopher but nobody talks about his sister, Onya. She invented the starting pistol.

*Et Cetera gaurantees that its Dad Jokes are authentic samples of paternal humour provided on a regular basis by the Editor’s own father

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Η ΩΔΗ ΤΩΝ ΔΥΟΙΝ ΘΥΓΑΤΡΩΝ, Α’

Jonathan Lipps

μόνον τῷ κυρίῳ προσκυνῶ
τόν λαὸν τοῦ οἰκοῦ ἀυτοῦ ἄγων
σήμερον δὲ ἀλγῶν προσέκυνον
ἔτι ἐτελεύτησεν τὸ κοράσιόν μου

φωνὴν ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς ἀκούω
ὁ γὰρ διδάσκαλος ἔρχεται
οὕπερ λέγεται πανταχοῦ
τούτο δὴ ἔσται εὐαγγελία;

τὸν μέτωπον τῆς θυγατρὸς φιλῶ
τὸν μὲν ἄνθρωπον εὑρίσκω
τοῦ δὲ λόγου ὑστερῶν
προσκυνήςας εὔχομαι

ἐλθὼν δέ ἐπίθες τὴν χεῖρά σου
καὶ ζήσεται ἡ κόρη μου

ἔρχεται οὖν ὁ διδάσκαλος
σπεύδω μὲν ἡγεῖσθαι
παύεται δὲ στραφεὶς
ἐρόμενος τίς μου ἥψατο;

ἔτη δώδεκα ἠγάπηκα
ταύτα δὲ λέπτα δώδεκα
μακρότερά ἐστιν
διὰ τί ἐπιμένει;

ἰδοὺ γυνή τις σέσωται
καίπερ μοι ἀόρατη οὖσα
νῦν γε πάλιν πορευόμεθα
τοῦ ὄχλου ιδόντος τὸ πᾶν

ἐλθὼν δέ ἐπίθες τὴν χεῖρά σου
καὶ ζήσεται ἡ κόρη μου

ἀναβαίνομεν οὖν
εἴς τὸ κοιμητήριον
τῆς χειρός αὐτοῦ ἐπικειμένης
ἐγείρεται δὲ ἡ θυγάτηρ μου
ἐγείρεται δὲ ἡ θυγάτηρ μου

κύριε ἐλθὼν ἐπίθες τήν χεῖρά σου
καὶ ή θυγάτηρ σου Ἰσραήλ
ζήσεται

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A Good End

Rachel Hart

What does it mean to have a good end? My time at Regent, like many others before and with me, is ending. My community house, likely, will end this year as well. I’ve had many endings in my life: my high school closed the year I graduated, my transience in moving my whole life kept ending ‘home’ and ‘community’ for me, friendships have ended, relationships have ended, and as has been abundantly clear in the past two years, my life as I know and experience it now will end.

To have a good end at Regent is more than the earning of your degree. You’re here, as far as the college is concerned, to cultivate intelligent, vigorous, and joyful commitment to Jesus Christ, His church, and His world. In fact, there’s a few other things that Regent tells you on their website about what it means from the school’s perspective that you have a good end.

You have had a good end at Regent if, “we see that they are passionately devoted to Christ, seeking after holiness, their lives shaped at the deepest level by prayer and Scripture, sharing in the suffering of Christ in order to bring life to others.” Chapel is a fundamental role in this. True theology is doxology.

You have had a good end at Regent if “we see that their domestic and intimate lives are rich with family and friendship, celebration, service, and a joyful stewardship of the gifts of creation.” Many of us have had to start from the ground up in creating friendships here, and learning the rhythms of life for the city of Vancouver. Getting to know all people at Regent—spouses, kids, staff members that work in a part of the building you didn’t even know existed—is one of the ways we encounter the full body of Christ here and practice stewardship to take home with us when we’re finished.

You have had a good end at Regent if “we see that they are able to discern their work in the world as God’s work and to grasp how their Christian faith calls them to live creatively, thoughtfully and redemptively as artists, teachers, politicians and public servants; doctors, lawyers and business executives; engineers, carpenters and social workers; pastors, missionaries, and youth workers; and in every other worthy vocation, paid and unpaid.” God has uniquely equipped you to be a co-creator, priest, and vice-regent with Him. Your work is good and holy because these vocations are foundational to your being. Love the Lord, love the world, love someone who does not deserve it. The world needs all the lovers it can get.

You have had a good end at Regent if, “we see them participating fully in the life of the church, leading in ministries of evangelism, discipleship, teaching, worship, and healing, and exercising their gifts to further the work of the kingdom in all its forms.” Many of us carry deep wounds from churches in the past and will need our experience of healing before we reach out. Practice reminders of Truth. Jesus rekindles hope, restores life, and brings joy. It is in his light we see light, so press into the light.

You have had a good end at Regent, if you can see glimmers of how you’ve become a more loving person through your work, worship, and relationships. To know God, is to love Him. “God saved the world not by sitting up in heaven and issuing antiseptic directives, but by becoming man, and vulnerable, in Jesus. He died, not because He despised the earth, but because He loved it as a man loves it—out of all proportion and sense.”[1] Pray to see the world with the same compassion and tenderness that Christ does. Seek to dive deeper into God and invite more people to the lavish banquet table he has set for us.

Today is about being loved by God. Today, let the truth of your belovedness pour over you. Rest in it. You have worked hard, whether you’re finishing your first or fifth year.

The ’end’ of Regent isn’t the end. As with our lives, the end is the end goal, the telos the One we are seeking to strive after. So, while I and others end our time here, we know that the end of Regent is caught up in this continuing telos of striving after Christ, as we continue to practice and cultivate intelligent, vigorous, and joyful commitment to Jesus Christ, His church, and His world.

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A Year-End Note from the Editor 

“It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine…”

Seven issues later, my first stint with Et Cetera has ended. Depending on how you feel about me as a person, you may or may not be pleased to know that I intend to continue my role as Et Cetera’s Editor in the future, and so this is only a temporary goodbye, but it is a goodbye, nonetheless.

Every issue that has been printed this term has put me in touch with the endless well of creative talent that underlies the community here at Regent. I’ve gotten to share stories, ideas, art, and voices that I’m not sure would have been shared otherwise, and I’ve had a blast doing it.

I would like to thank the RCSA, John and Katrina (my exceptional co-editors), and most importantly, the chaotically brilliant minds of Regent College which have consistently submitted amusing, inspiring, and thought-provoking content to keep this crazy diamond shining on. It’s been a great ride, and the future is looking bright. Now get out there this summer, collect some experiences, create things, upset the powers that be, and try to stay out of the library.

I’ll see you on the other side.

Dryden Demchuk, Senior Editor

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 Contact Et Cetera:

Email: etcetera@regent-college.edu

Instagram: regent_etcetera

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Senior Editor: Dryden Demchuk

Co-editor: Katrina Steckle

Co-editor: John Davies

Printed at Regent College

Published by the Regent College Student Association

Articles, fiction, artwork, and poetry are all welcome. 

Submissions must be in Word format. Maximum length for prose is 1000 words. Longer stories or articles may be serialized over multiple issues. All submissions are subject to proofreading edits and may be returned for more substantial revision.

Visual art must be submitted in digital format. No promises can be made about the quality of printing, but black and white line art will reproduce best.

Please submit all prose, poetry, and artwork to etcetera@regent-college.edu. Classifieds for the Greensheet must be submitted to greensheet@regent-college.edu. No guarantees that submissions will be printed.

Et Cetera is published on a fortnightly basis. Deadline for the upcoming issue is 11:59 PM on the Friday preceding publication on Tuesday. Submissions later than this may be considered for future issues.

Current students, faculty, staff, and spouses are preferred, but exceptions may be made. Views expressed in the Et Cetera do not necessarily represent the views of Regent College, the RCSA or the Et Cetera staff.

The Et Cetera can be viewed online at etcetera.regent-college.edu.

Email: etcetera@regent-college.edu

Instagram: regent_etcetera