Why Are Parent-Child Suicides Rising in Hong Kong?

Why Are Parent-Child Suicides Rising in Hong Kong?

Just read this article online and it struck me hard because I just heard a deep lecture given by Ravi Zacharias. Ravi is a well known Christian apologetic who has been referred to as "the present day C.S. Lewis". He was born in India and is now a professor at University of Oxford. He is remarkable keen with his words and thus is a marvelous communicator. His explanations for life's toughest questions in today's intellectual world are so awesome. The question which he is now going around the world to answer is "What does it mean to be human?"


The other day I was watching him speak on you tube because of my friend Daniel recommending me too check him out. My friend Daniel is from Austria and is studying Religion and Philosophy as an exchange student here at Hong Kong Baptist University. Anyways, he is very passionate about apologetics and its importance in today's society due to the great influence that professors have on the educating of our next generation. I really admire his heart and see much truth in the need for making sure that Christian education is emphasized more amongst the body of Christ. We need to be able to stand firm in our faith and know the Word and be able to defend ourselves against the enemy. The word is like a double-edged sword. So, I started to feel bad because I don't memorize verses enough. I do on a number of occasions, though not regularly, open my Bible for encouragement and direction. But also when I am needing spiritual nourishment - which when I go a day without opening the Bible, I tend to become hungry rather quick.

So that day I spent around 5 hours or so watching Ravi Zacharias and other speakers about apologetics and debates they would have with Atheists or Muslims. The following day, I went to my Mandarin class which I take with Daniel, and he tells me that Ravi Zacharias will be speaking at Hong Kong University on March 18 at Hong Kong University....that very night! I was like, "are you serious?" Yea, very surprised, I couldn't believe it was true because I had just watched him on you tube the day before after he recommended me to listen to him probably a month ago. Luckily, I didn't have plans and decided that I must go with Daniel to hear Ravi speak.

Low and behold, he was speaking on the question which I stated earlier and saw on you tube: "What does it mean to be Human?" (in accordance to the Christian faith). So Daniel, our non-Christian friend Billy from mainland China who is an amazing student, and myself set off for Central Hong Kong which was home to the area's most prestigious university - HKU.

Seeing him in person was crazy - his hair is white like the snow and his dark Indian toned skin makes his hair look even whiter than snow! That's not really correlated with anything other than the fact that this man had a demeanor that was up to par with the likes of Billy Graham. Anxious to hear him speak, including all other 1000 in attendance from all kinds of backgrounds, I started to feel a little giddy about where I was and couldn't wait to hear what he had to enlighten us with! He's just that smart. Before he started his lecture Daniel and I were thinking of questions to ask him because the best part is the Q&A session afterward. The one we wanted to know was how he would define evil. However, it was unnecessary to ask because he answered it in full within five minutes of his lecture!

It's really hard for me to extract his lectures and let you know in full what I got out of it because for one I can't remember it all and two it's just so highly academic! But he has made me sure of this: All humans have intrinsic value and the Declaration of Independence is the only national document that adheres to that truth for human rights with this statement: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Wow, talk about a bold statement with some rock solid truth to back it up. The only absolute in this world is found in God. Nothing is naturally absolute in man and though we as Christians believe that we are made in God's image - we are absolutely not capable of answering all life's questions. Realizing that we all have this freedom to choose, I know that Christ is our only choice for salvation - which is found through God's perfect love and grace which being what we all naturally long for.

I appreciate Ravi Zacharias and what he is doing for the defense of the Gospel and the God's Holy Word. I will be considering Oxford as he has programs for students and coincidentally Georgetown College has a partnership with the Regent's Park College in University of Oxford.