Tuesday, April 19, 2005
WORLD EXPOSITION IN
JAPAN:
RELIGION PLAYS A MINUTE ROLE
Major Topic of
Our Times Ignored - Only Saudi Arabia Presents Islam
By Wolfgang
Polzer
NAGOYA (ANS) -- Religion
plays only a minute role in this year’s world exposition Expo 2005 in
Japan. Visitors will look in vain for churches or temples on the Expo
grounds in the region of Aichi near Nagoya. The only exception:
Saudi-Arabia presents Islam in its pavilion.
The Christian faith is completely missing, as are other religions like
Buddhism or Hinduism. The German weekly “Die Zeit” commented:
“Religion, the major controversial issues of our times, is being
ignored in Nagoya”.
By contrast religion featured prominently at the last Expo in the year
2000 in Hanover, Germany. The Protestant Churches and the Roman
Catholic Church were present with a “Christ Pavilion”. Evangelicals
operated a “Pavilion of Hope” as an evangelistic project. Islam had its
own presentation, and Nepal’s pavilion took the form of a Hindu temple.
Expo 2005 is open for 185 days from March 25 to September 25.
Approximately 15 million spectators are expected to view the exhibits.
In all, 120 countries are represented – 33 from Europe, 33 from Africa,
18 from Asia, 15 from Latin America, 13 from Oceania, six from the
Middle East, and two from North America. Expo’s theme is “Nature’s
Wisdom”.
Martin Heisswolf, a German missionary in Japan, finds it regrettable
that whilst most scientists acknowledge nature’s wisdom they fail to
recognize “the extraordinary wisdom of the creator”. Heisswolf: “Like
no generation before us we know about the superior wisdom of nature.
And like no other generation we stubbornly deny God’s existence”.
Heisswolf – representative of the German Missionary Fellowship - quotes
the Bible verse „The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom“
(Proverbs 9:10). This should teach humankind that wisdom is not found
in a symbiotic relationship with nature but with the creator. The
danger is to turn nature into an idol and thus contribute to a
renaissance of animist religions, warns Heisswolf.
| Wolfgang Polzer (54), is senior
news editor of the Evangelical News Agency idea, Wetzlar (Germany),
which he joined in 1981. His previous work included four years in the
editorial department of the Salvation Army in Germany. In all, he has
spent 27 years in Christian media. Wolfgang can be contacted by e-mail
at: Wolfgang.Polzer@idea.de. |
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