Inflation

Perhaps Inflation ranks amongst the top searches in Google recently.

Grocery costs more.
Utilities rates up.
Even house prices in USA.

Painful and relevant as it is, for now let’s set it aside.
Rather think about inflation in other areas.
Perhaps then we can see Inflation not as a spike in history but as an irreversible trend.

It used to be the top grade on an assignment was simple: A.
Gradually it morphed into A+, A++, even A+++.
Everybody became happier.

It used to be the top college GPA was 4.0
Don’t even remember when it was replaced by higher and higher numerals.
Everybody seemed happier.

Inflation didn’t stop at academia.

Years ago I was in China.
Was told that a banquet would be hosted by the mayor.
But the deputy mayor showed up and finished the dinner.
Lesson learned: inflating half a rank was the norm.
Everybody became happier.
Years later, she came to make a survey of Mai Po. I was the guide, and I also called her “mayor”.

Inflation didn’t stop at bureaucracy.
Its tentacles ensnared religion.

It’s been all over the places in HK Christendom, except one organization, to inflate D.Min. to Doctor. Unfortunately, the Chinese language in written and spoken form gives rise easily to such stealth inflation.

What caught my attention was recently even that organization was ensnarled by Leviathan Inflation.

Promotional materials of a New Testament seminar caught my eyes.

That seminar was a continuation of an annual series of lectures, alternating between OT and NT. Though the name was twitched just this year, the format remains the same. It has 8 lectures, on 8 different books, typically by 8 different speakers. It has grown to be a signature event, unlikely to be tarnished by an inexplicable name change this year.

What caught my attention was not the name change.
That was nothing.
But rather how a particular speaker, a well known Reverend (not pastor, which in Chinese would have easily given an opening to inflation) was titled: Doctor. In the English-speaking world, Doctor is Ph.D.

Records showed that this series, ever since held at CWB, although indeed had predominantly invited Doctors as speakers, three persons not possessing a Doctor’s degree, a Ph.D., KK Leung, Paul Cheung Wan Hoi, and the late Philip Yeung Sik Cheong did speak.

So substance in the grasp of the biblical book that was the key.
There was never a need to inflate to Doctors to teach in the series.

To be fair, chances are it wasn’t this Reverend insisted on being addressed as a Doctor.
Most Reverends would feel more honoured by the ecclesiastical title after all.

This Reverend speaker who was billed as a Doctor, has had tons of teaching and preaching experience.There should have been no need to opt for “Doctor”.

But the fact it was, is problematic, or more precisely, symptomatic.
It shows that even this one particular organization that had insisted all the years not to bow to Leviathan Inflation, has finally relented.

Records would again show that all the years since this series was held at CWB, all speakers, other than the three mentioned earlier, were Doctor degree holders.
In other words, except for those three, this series only invited speakers with Doctors degree!
Snobbish?
Could be.
But consistent.

What’s the fuss then?
Isn’t the one Reverend who will speak this coming summer also a Doctor?
Yes, but that’s where anomaly arises.

Previously all Doctors were Ph.D.s, Doctor of Philosophy.
This time, the promotion materials show that this particular Reverend, who has tons of experience under his belt, and would have been proudly wearing the ecclesiastical title of Reverend, does not have a Ph.D. degree, but a Doctor of Ministry, D.Min.

In this case, for the first time in this series history, a D.Min. is considered the same and therefore titled as a Doctor, just as a Ph.D. is entitled as a Doctor.
Chinese language enables fuzzy and stealth inflation.

Everybody knows that when someone is asking, “Is there a doctor on the plane?” No Ph.D. would answer, “I am!” Let alone D.Min.
And anybody in the running of the business such as this organization, would know that a Ph.D. is not a D.Min., though in Chinese a crack appears for the Serpent to sneak inflation into the Garden of Chinese Christendom: 博士（Doctor）。

Both are called Doctor (博士).

But the person who has a D.Min. knows well too that he is not a Ph.D., and in all likelihood wouldn’t insist on using that title.
For a D.Min. knows the language requirements of a D.Min. is different from that of a Ph.D.; so are the graduation requirements.
A D.Min. knows the vigor is less.
A D.Min. knows that it is a professional degree, designed for people in the pastoral and Divinity trade, not an academic one devoted to focussed and meticulous studies.

For sure Ph.D.s from shades of universities show their differences.
The point is not in debate here.
People in the trade of biblical training know perfectly well not to confuse a D.Min. with a Ph.D.
I am betting many in the trade with Ph.D. degree frowns upon such practices.

Why the fuss?
It is, because it is symptomatic,
of a disease of inflating credential to flash for acceptance.
It is symptomatic of the Church that is uncomfortable with being left behind by the world that has been bitten by leviathan inflation.
The Church wants to catch up in the race of inflation.
The Church is defending a phantom: Maybe many pastors and reverends need to have their egos smoothed by calling them Doctor.
Or the Church is creating a demon in doing so.

Never mind they never made Ph.D.
A became A+++
4.0 GPS became something bigger.
Call a Deputy Mayor Mayor.

Call a D.Min. a Doctor.
It’s easier to present, if not pretend.
Easier in Chinese circle.
Both are called Doctor (博士).

Come to think of it, rarely would a D.Min. in the English speaking culture, be addressed as Doctor, much less Ph.D.
All printed materials will in large font on page one, show Ph.D. for a Doctor, right after the name.
No confusion there.
No chance for inflation.

Sadly there is in Chinese.
More sadly, Chinese took the bait.
Chinese church circle all took it.
Except one organization, until this summer.
Check posters for the series to be held in CWB.
See the complete surrender of Chinese churches to Leviathan Inflation.
See it this summer in CWB.