Japanese Choose Christian Weddings

A report and comment of religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from The Mennonite Brethren Herald, June, 2000:

Christian weddings in Japan are becoming very popular: Although only 1% of Japanese are Christian.Many Japanese don’t want traditional Japanese weddings because they are not considered to be very romantic, are done according to Shinto rites, use archaic language and allow only the family to attend.Many Japanese prefer Western weddings because they are considered to be more romantic, use modern Japanese language and allow for more guests.Over the past several years, a number of Japanese celebrities’ church weddings have been broadcast on T.V.This has caused a demand for Christian ministers to perform church weddings.Having a foreign minister officiate at a wedding also seems to add to the romance.

Tom:

Dave this is interesting because it really relates back to the program we did on the cross.You know wearing a cross, you’ve got a nice silver cross, or gold cross, or jeweled cross, whatever it might be.Yeah that’s Christianity and now we have Japan — missionaries have trouble over in Japan winning converts.Here we go this seems like an item.

Dave:

Well if you can get somebody to participate in a Christian wedding doesn’t that make them Christians?Doesn’t that launch them into heaven when they die?Isn’t this wonderful?A Christian wedding—what’s a Christian wedding?I don’t know what a Christian wedding would be.I don’t quite understand that because it would seem to me that Christians in America at least have weddings pretty much like other people.Now a real Christian wedding—it’s [been] a little while since I participated in one, but I gave a rather stirring address to the bride and groom about what it means to be real Christians, how they treat one another and how they serve the Lord together.I don’t think that’s happening in these so-called Japanese Christian weddings because the people are not Christians.So it’s sad Tom because it demeans Christianity.It confuses what it means—

Tom:

That’s the biggest problem right there.

Dave:

…what it means to be a Christian.People don’t understand and now they will understand even less so that Christianity is sort of an outer form of the way you do things—a ritual.And again I don’t want to offend our Catholic or Episcopalian, or Lutheran friends out there, but I see much of that in the rituals, the sacraments.I see it in evangelical churches where the remembrance of Christ (Jesus said take this bread and this cup in remembrance of me) and well, it’s sort of tacked on to—I’m going to offend a lot of people I guess, I don’t mean to, but I’m just expressing my heart’s concern—it’s sort of tacked on to the sermon once a month or once a quarter.It’s as though going through the ritual of taking the bread and the cup is what it’s all about.No!It’s in remembrance of Christ.There needs to be some meditation, some thought, some expression of thanks to the Lord for dying for us!It’s not just the physical act of the sacrament.And now they get the impression that if you kind of change it around (the wedding procedures) that you’ve got a Christian wedding.That’s not Christianity Tom.

Tom:

Dave there’s an irony here because the Japanese object to their marriage ceremonies because of the ritualism.But they don’t recognize that they’re getting another form of ritualism without content, absolutely without content.The objective here—they like it because it’s more romantic.Well what have we got there?

Dave:

And some of the celebrities are doing it and on TV.Tom I am sorry that reminds me of the use of celebrities in church that have supposedly become Christians and we could go back and name a whole lot of them, and how they were pushed forward and their testimonies were given and then they bombed out because they weren’t really Christians. What is Christianity?Well Christ died for our sins.Christ is God; He became a man to pay the penalty for our sins.He died on the cross because He took our place and He was punished; not just the physical sufferings, but He was punished; He took the penalty that His own infinite justice required for our sins.That was accepted of the Father and He rose from the dead and He offers pardon, forgiveness, eternal life to all those who will believe Him; who will accept this pardon as a free gift recognizing they are worthy of eternal separation from God.That’s Christianity.Buddha didn’t do that, Confucius didn’t do it, Mohammed didn’t do it, and nobody did it except Jesus Christ.When we receive Him as our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as our Savior, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we are born of the Spirit of God into the family of God and we become children of God.We are saints, not just people in heaven.Saints sanctified, set apart for God to live for Him.This is Christianity and then Christ begins to live His life through us.This is not some wedding ceremony; this is not some sacrament that takes place in a church or on an altar.This is a reality that occurred on the cross 1900 years ago and we don’t replicate that.We don’t do it over again.It would be like going to the bank to try to pay some more on a debt that’s already paid off.Christ paid the penalty in full.So Tom it just saddens me to read this news article because Christianity is being misrepresented.People are getting a false idea of it and it’s not going to help them in their relationship with God.It’s going to rather delude them into thinking maybe they are sort of become Christianized now.

Tom:

Yes, Dave a Christian wedding is very simply two people who are Christians—two strands standing before the Lord who is their third strand.That’s what enables them to keep their love commitment to each other.If they don’t have that, this is all a sham.