Hyeonseo Lee - Escaping From North Korea

Hyeonseo Lee grew up in North Korea but escaped to China in 1997. In 2008, after more than 10 years there, she came to Seoul, South Korea, where she struggled to adjust to life in the bustling city. North Korean defectors often have a hard time in South Korea, she noted in the Wall Street Journal: "We defectors have to start from scratch. Prejudice against North Koreans and icy stares were other obstacles that were hard to cope with."

Now a student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, she has become an advocate for fellow refugees, even helping close relatives leave North Korea after they were targeted. Her dream? As she told the Korea Times, she'd like to work at the UN or an NGO that advocates for the human rights of North Koreans, including their right to be treated as political refugees.

She has written a more detailed account of her defection in a very moving essay that you can read here.

Discussion Questions:

Recent history is full of stories of nations that have been divided; Germany after World War II, Vietnam during the conflict there and now Korea.  Does it seem this has been a wise choice to achieve peace?

North Korea remains the last closed Communist Society after the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening of China with its accompanying economic boom.  What, if anything, can we do to change both the political regime and improve the lives of people in North Korea?

The secrecy of North Korean Society makes even offering aid difficult.  Should offers of food be tied to military and strategic goals or offered without strings?  What would Jesus do? (a terrible cliché, but fitting in this situation)

Elyn Saks: A tale of mental illness -- from the inside

"Is it okay if I totally trash your office?" It's a question Elyn Saks once asked her doctor, and it wasn't a joke. A legal scholar, in 2007 Saks came forward with her own story of schizophrenia in her autobiography, The Center Cannot Hold.  Her  illness is controlled by drugs and therapy but ever-present. In this powerful talk, she asks us to see people with mental illness clearly, honestly and compassionately.

As a law scholar and writer,  she speaks for the rights of mentally ill people. It's a gray area: Too often, society's first impulse is to make decisions on their behalf. But it's a slippery slope from in loco parentis to a denial of basic human rights. Saks has brilliantly argued for more autonomy -- and in many cases for a restoration of basic human dignity.

Discussion Questions (Some of these will be addressed by our guest, Kathy Grossen):

For our guest Kathy: Do you have any sense of how our community’s care for the mentally ill compares to other areas?

Do we treat mentally ill people differently than we do people with other illnesses?  Why?

Obviously treating mental illness has great costs, both financial and otherwise.  What are some of the costs of NOT treating mental illness?

For our guest Kathy: Is there anything new in treatment of mental illness that you can talk about?

Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce

Malcolm Gladwell is a detective of fads and emerging subcultures and a chronicler of jobs you never knew existed. His work is toppling the popular understanding of bias, crime, food, marketing, race, consumers and intelligence  His writing is engaging, eloquent and challenging.  To learn more you can read his full biography or visit his outstanding blog.

In this week's TED Talk he uses the illustration of the food industry’s search for the perfect spaghetti sauce to illustrate a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.  He debunks our most closely held notion about how we find out what people want.

Discussion Questions:

Applying what we learned today from research in the food industry, is there ONE thing we can do to grow our church and fulfill our mission to share the Good News?

When one thinks of diversity, race is the first characteristic that comes to mind.  What other kinds of diversity should we be prepared to embrace to become a church and a people for the 21st Century?

If we can’t find out what people are looking for just by asking, what do we do to become a place they want to be?

Dan Pallotta: The way we think about charity is dead wrong

If you were in church yesterday you will remember Terry White beginning the conversation we have each year about stewardship, our church and our part in its finances and its future.  I thought this was a good time of year to explore how some of the money we give away can be used.  Can our donations really make a difference in the world?  Are today's non-profits equipped to change the world?

Probably all of us have given money to charity.  In fact our Church has given money to non-profits serving needs as diverse as homelessness, illiteracy, education and domestic violence.  How effective was our donation?  How do we judge the agencies and organizations that we give our hard earned dollars to support?

Activist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta calls out the double standard that drives our broken relationship to charities. Too many nonprofits, he says, are rewarded for how little they spend -- not for what they get done. Instead of equating frugality with morality, he asks us to start rewarding charities for their big goals and big accomplishments (even if that comes with big expenses). In this bold talk, he says: Let's change the way we think about changing the world.

Questions to consider while watching:

Do you use any criteria to evaluate a charity before you make a decision to donate?

The way we rate the effectiveness of a charity and its finances is different than the way we would evaluate a business.   Should this be the case?

Some would say that instead of charities changing the way they do business, individuals should change the way they donate.  People should just give more.  Is this realistic?

Is it reasonable for an executive to expect to be paid a comparable amount at a charity to what they might be paid in the corporate world? 

How should we hold charity executives accountable?

The Danger of A Single Story

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

A native of Nigeria, Chimamanda came to study in the United States at the age of 19.  From that time she recalls “[My college roommate] asked if she could listen to what she called my ‘tribal music,’ and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey.”

She speaks of the danger of stereotypes and viewing others in context of a “single story.”  Her inspiring talk is below:

Discussion questions to consider as you watch:

Can you name a group of people or a single person who you think has recently been negatively affected by the “Single Story” people think they know about them?

Can you remember a time when you thought you knew someone because of a stereotype or a “single story” and learned that you were wrong?

Many of the people we revere or revile from the Bible actually have very little written about them.  Do you think sometimes we consider only a “single story” in our own history?  Could this be true when we study American history?

What can we do to make sure we know “whole stories” about people?

New Adult Education Series - Introduction to TED

Our adult education series that went along with Pastor Ivan’s Lenten Sermon Series has come to an end.  We had some lively and informative discussions and got to know each other a little better.

Beginning April 7th, the Sunday after Easter, I want to build on the theme of timely and topical discussions of issues that we face as Christians in the 21st Century.  We will begin a series where each week we will view and have a guided discussion of a different TED Talk.  

For those of you who are not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief introduction:

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you're an important part of it.

On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 1400 TED Talks are now available, with more added each week.

Each week I will post, and send a link in email, the video we will be viewing and discussing in class.  On Sunday during our regular Adult Education time (9:30am in the Woodside Room) we will all watch the video together and discuss and address the questions included with the video.  The videos are typically 15-20 minutes long, so as our time is limited I will be starting them pretty promptly at 9:30 so we can have as much discussion time as possible.

I will do my best to send an email each week on Monday with the video link and discussion questions for the following Sunday.  In the mean time, take some time to explore the TED website on your own or watch the sample video below.  You may be surprised what you can learn about the world around you or within you.

 Please feel free to call me at 815-742-9197 or email me at bobinrkfd@yahoo.com if you have any questions or suggestions.  You should get an email on Monday April 1 with a link to the first video and some discussion questions to ponder.

This series will run through Memorial Day and after that plans are underway for a study that Pastor Ivan will lead, that will probably meet on a weekday.  Please let me know if you have suggestions or would like to be part of planning that series.