Haibun is a combination of prose and haiku poetry. In this haibun, I have adapted the format into a political statement to fit the times.
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“Truth does not depart from human nature. If what is regarded as truth departs from human nature, it may not be regarded as truth.” Confucius
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“…There is religion as a sanction for moral conduct: here the Chinese and the Christian points of view differ widely. Humanist ethics (in China) is a man-centered, not a God-centered ethics. To the West, it seems hardly imaginable that the relationship between man and man (which is morality) could be maintained without reference to a Supreme Being, while to the Chinese it is equally amazing that men should not, or could not, behave toward one another as decent beings without thinking of their indirect relationship through a third party. It should seem possible to conceive that man should try to do good, simply because it is the human, decent thing to do. (My Country and My People, Lin Yutang, Halcyon House: New York. 1938. Pg. 106.)
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The Drums of Change
By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Washington Post

On or about last Friday, the world changed….

The summer of ‘08, historians will mot likely tell us, signaled the rise of a multi-power, non-Western-dominated planet….

China is something else again. If ever there was a display of affable collectivism, it was filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s opening ceremonies, which in their reduction of humans to a mass precision abstraction….

What China did last Friday was entrancing, but its cuddly capitalist-Leninism, already much beloved by our major banks and corporations for its low-wage efficiencies, poses a genuine economic challenge to the messier, unsynchronized working of democracies.
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Confucianism: Based on the teaching of Confucius and Mencius, this became the official ideology of the imperial state from the Han dynasty on. Confucian doctrine emphasized social relationships, ritual, and learning.
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Dao: Literally, a path or road and , by extension, “the Way.” The ideal of a well-ordered society, whether by human design or by natural pattern. Also used in Buddhism to signify the spiritual path.
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Christianity: The central Christian proclamation is that by the grace of God men are saved through faith in Christ, their sins are forgiven, and they receive new and eternal life in the fellowship of the CHURCH. (The New American Desk Encyclopedia. 1989)
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A spiritual home is a place where you feel you belong because you share the ideas and attitudes of that society. (Longman Advanced American Dictionary. 2001. Pg. 1400)
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haiku

Christian sins
forgiven through faith
harm China

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