Би нэг судалгааны талаар өнгөрсөн долоо хоногт бичснийг санаж байна уу? Шашны соёлын талаар болон хүмүүс Ийгл ТВ-ийг хэрхэн хэрэглэж байгаа талаар илүү тодорхой мэдэхийн тулд тэр судалгааны дүнг бид Хэвлэлийн Хүрээлэнгээр шашны бүлгүүд тус бүр дээр нэгтгүүлсэн юм. Гайхмаар шинэ мэдээллүүд илэрсэн. Нэр томъёоны талаар Буддын шашинтнууд болон Христэд итгэдэг хүмүүс дараах ойлголттой байх юм. ?Бурхан? ба “Тэнгэр” хэмээх үгнүүд нь Буддын шашны болон/эсвэл бөө мөргөлийн шашны уламжлалт үгс гэдгийг та санаарай. ?Ертөнцийн Эзэн? гэдэг үг нь Христэд итгэдэг хүмүүсийн итгэгч нартаа зориулан анх бий болгосон нэр томъёо юм.

• Буддын шашинтнуудын 79% нь “Бурхан” хэмээх үгийг Буддын шашинтай хамаатуулсан бол тэдний зөвхөн 10% нь Христийн сургаальтай хамаатуулжээ.
• Буддын шашинтнуудын 59% нь “Ертөнцийн эзэн” гэдэг үгийг Христийн сургаальтай холбож үзсэн бол зөвхөн 0.3% нь тус үгийг Буддын шашинд хамаатуулжээ.
• Христэд итгэдэг хүмүүсийн 78% нь “Бурхан” ба “Тэнгэр” хэмээх үгсийг Буддын шашинд хамаатуулсан бол 89% нь “Ертөнцийн Эзэн” гэдэг үгийг Христийн сургаальд хамаатуулж ойлгодог байна.
• Христэд итгэдэг хүмүүсийн зөвхөн 8% нь “Бурхан” гэдэг үгийг Христийн сургаальтай холбож ойлгодог байна. (бодит амьдрал дээр эсрэгээрээ байдаг, гэхдээ энэ талаар дараа ярина)

Христийн сургааль чухам юун тухай өгүүлдэг талаарх ойлголтыг нь асуухад дараах байдлаар хариулжээ.

• Буддын шашинтнуудын 10% нь Христэд итгэх итгэл нь эд баялагтай болохын тухай байдаг гэсэн бол (цочмоор мэдээ) Христэд итгэгчдийн 44% нь мөн ижил ойлголттой байна.
• Буддын шашинтнуудын 20% нь Христийн сургааль нийгмийн хөгжлийн тухай заадаг гэж үзжээ (нийгмийн халамжын сайн мэдээний номлол гэж үү?), харин Христэд итгэгчдийн 17% нь мөн ийм бодолтой байдаг байна.
• Энэ хоёр категорийг нийлүүлвэл Монголын Христэд итгэгчдийн 60% нь Христийн сургаалийг эд баялагтай болох сайн мэдээ, мөн нийгмийн халамжын сайн мэдээ гэж үздэг болохыг харж болно.

Сүүлийн статистик нь их чухал бөгөөд түгшүүр төрүүлж байна. Сайн мэдээний номлолд эд материалын ивээл болоод нийгэм үүрэг гүйцэтгэдэг ч (Хуучин гэрээний амлалтууд болон тэдгээрийн орчин цагийн хэрэглээ гэх мэт) гэсэн эдгээр үнэт зүйлсийг Христэд итгэх итгэлийг илэрхийлэгч гол хүчин зүйл болгож эн тэргүүнд тавих нь хамгийн наад зах нь сүнслэг өсөлт, олон нийтийн гэрчлэлд асуудал үүсгэнэ. Энэ нь сүмийг теологийн хувьд болон зөв зохистойгоор өсч дараагийн шатандаа хүрэх боломжыг нь бас бууруулж болох уу? Теологийн хувьд Итгэгч хүмүүс амьдралдаа Эзэний гүйцэтгэдэг үүргийн талаар нэлээд ноцтой зүйлсийг хэлж байна гэж би бодож байна. Хэрэв сонгууль байсан бол эд баялагтай болох/нийгмийн халамжын сайн мэдээний төрөл илт давуу ялах байсан. Миний өөрийн ажиглалт, эдгээр судалгааны дүнгээс харахад энд Эзэний бүрэн эрхт байдлын талаар тийм ч их заадаггүй, баримталдаггүй нь тодорхой гэж надад санагдлаа.

Шашны сургаалиуд хоорондоо нийцдэг эсэх талаар:

• Христэд итгэгчдийн 53% нь Христийн сургааль, Буддын шашин хоёр хоорондоо таардаг, эсвэл зарим нэг нийтлэг зүйлс байдаг гэж үзжээ. Энэ ч бас нилээд сэрэмжлэхээр мэдээ байна. Христэд итгэдэг болон итгэдэггүй хүмүүст библийн түлхүүр ойлголтуудыг заахдаа анхаарал болгоомжтой тайлж хүргээгүй гэдгийг энэ статистик мэдээ үнэмшилтэй болгож байж болох уу? Энэ бол илүү сайн дагалдагч бэлтгэх болон олон нийтийн мэдлэг боловсролыг дээшлүүлэх ажил жинхэнэ өөрчлөлт авчрах боломжтой талбар юм. Мөн телевиз энэ ажлыг хэрхэн нэмэгдүүлж чадах вэ гэдгийг нилээд хүчтэй бодож үзэх хэрэгтэй.
• Буддын шашинтнуудын 33% нь Христийн сургааль Буддын шашин хоёрт зарим нэг нийтлэг зүйлс байдаг гэсэн боловч 36% нь нийтлэг зүйл огт байдаггүй гэжээ.

Тэд Христэд итгэх итгэлийн талаарх мэдээллээ хаанаас авдаг вэ:

• Буддын шашинд итгэдэг хүмүүсийн 38% нь Ийгл ТВ-ээс авдаг,
• Шашинд итгэдэггүй хүмүүсийн 36% нь Ийгл ТВ-ээс авдаг,
• Бөөгийн шашинтнуудын 31% нь Ийгл ТВ-ээс авдаг,
• Дээрх гурван үзүүлэлт гайхал төрүүлж байна. Гэхдээ хамгийн том эргэлт нь эндээс гарч ирж байна: Христэд итгэгчдийн 53% нь Христэд итгэх итгэлийн талаарх мэдээллээ сүмээс авдаг, зөвхөн 11% нь Ийгл ТВ-ээс авдаг гэжээ.

Бид дээр дурдсан асуудлуудыг авч үзэхдээ сүмүүд Монгол итгэгч нарт тодорхой юуг зааж байгаа талаар албан ёсны судалгаа хийх талаар бодож үзэх, магадгүй хийх хэрэгтэй. Эндээс нэг зүйлийг авч үзэж болох юм. Юу вэ гэвэл, хэрэв Монгол итгэгчид гол төлөв эд баялаг/нийгмийн халамжын сайн мэдээнд чиглэгдсэн байвал, тэгээд тэр боловсролыг сүмээсээ авдаг бол энэ судалгаанд Ийгл ТВ-ийн үзүүлэлт доогуур байгааг энэ тайлж байж болох юм. Учир нь Ийгл ТВ эд баялаг/нийгмийн халамжын сайн мэдээний нэвтрүүлэг зөвшөөрдөггүй юм. Тиймээс, бид итгэгч үзэгчдийн хүсэл хэрэгцээг хангадаггүй учраас тэдгээр итгэгч үзэгчид тийм төрлийн мэдээлэл авахаар өөр газар ханддаг байна гэж хэлж болохоор байна. Эдгээр асуудлуудыг (дэмжилгүйгээр) тактиктайгаар анхаарал хандуулж засч залруулахад туслах (цаг хугацааны явцад) арга замыг олох нь бидний өмнө сорилт болж магадгүй юм.

Дээрх дөрвөн тохиолдолд тавигдсан асуултынхаа хувьд дэндүү том үзүүлэлтүүд байна. Үүний дараа өөр сонин дүгнэлт гарч ирнэ. Судалгааны дүнг олон шашны бүлгээр салгаж гаргасан байгаа. Үүнд бөөгийн шашинтан, шашингүй үзэлтнүүдийг ч хамруулсан байгаа. Нэр томъёоны хэрэглээний хувьд бөөгийн шашинтай гэж өөрсдийгөө тодорхойлсон хүмүүсийн хариултыг харна уу. Нэр томъёоны хувьд:

• Бөөгийн шашинтнуудын 82% нь “Бурхан” гэдэг үгийг Христийн сургаальтай холбожээ, харин “Ертөнцийн Эзэн” гэдэг үгийг 49% нь Буддын шашинтай холбоотой гэж үзжээ. (Энэ асуултын хувьд судалгааны мэдээлэл асуудалтай байна гэж бодож байна. Гэсэн хэдий ч, манай эндэх миссионер найзуудад энэ үзүүлэлтийн талаар хэлэх зүйлс байгаа байх.)
• Шашингүй үзэлтнүүдийн 52% нь “Бурхан” хэмээх үгийг Буддын шашинтай хамаатуулсан, харин зөвхөн 3% нь л Христэд итгэх итгэлд хамаатуулсан.
• Шашингүй үзэлтнүүдийн 60% нь “Ертөнцийн Эзэн” гэдэг үгийг Христийн сургаальд хамаатуулсан бол Буддын шашинд хамруулсан хүн байсангүй.

Нэр томъёог хамаатуулсан байдал нь маш чухал дүгнэлтэд хүргэж байна гэж бодож байна. Хэрэв энэ судалгаа үнэн зөв бол ихэнх Монгол итгэгч нар хамгийн түгээмэл үгийн сонголт болох (Бухан) хэмээх үг нь утга/гарал үүслийн хувьд Буддын шашны үг болохыг мэддэг боловч амьдрал дээр энэ үг хэрхэн хэрэглэгдэж буйг анхаардаггүй гэдгийг харуулж байж болох юм. Судалгаанд оролцогчдын ердөө 8% нь энэ үгийг Христийн сургаальтай хамаатуулсан (энэ судалгаанд) боловч энэ үг нутгийн хэлэнд хамгийн түгээмэл үгийн сонголт хэвээр байна. Энэ үзүүлэлт Монголын сүмийн талаар теологийн болон нийгмийн хувьд юуг илэрхийлж байна вэ? Энэ их сонирхолтой судалгаа болно доо.
Энэ судалгааны үр дүнд бид өөрсдөөсөө нэр томъёоны хэрэглээ, эд баялагтай болох сайн мэдээ/нийгмийн халамжын сайн мэдээ, болон мэдээллийн эх сурвалж хоорондын харилцан хамаарлын тухай олон асуулт асуух хэрэгтэй болж байна.

Хожим надад илүү олон бодлууд төрөх байх. Энд мэдээж хэсэг хугацаанд эрэгцүүлэхэд хангалттай зүйл бичлээ.

Eagle TV competitor C1 television recently aired a show about Eagle TV’s translation of Christian programming. The guest on the program evaluated our use of Mongolian language on translated programs like Way of the Master.

The guest on the program, a linguist, had some interesting and even helpful things to say about improving our translation quality. But what interested me was his position on Eagle TV promoting Christianity through television. He noted that since Buddhism and Christianity share some things in common that the terminology that is used should be Buddhist so that the common concepts will be understood by the audience.

Of course, using Buddhist terms to describe Christian ideas is not something that we do on Eagle TV. Can you imagine, for instance, the Lord’s prayer being translated to say, “Buddha, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come…” etc.?

For most of our programs Eagle TV uses terminology known as “descriptive terminology.” This uses terminology which is religiously neutral to describe Christian concepts. We do this because using Buddhist terms to describe Christianity can be confusing to the mostly non-Christian audience. In fact, our most recent survey reveals that most people who associate Buddhist terms associate them with Buddhism, but not with Christianity. Therefore, using those terms to describe Christianity would end up in theological confusion and would do a disservice to both religions.

One of the comments made by the linguist was that since Buddhism and Christianity have so much in common, they should therefore work together for their common objectives. The problem with this thinking is that Buddhism and Christianity do not share anything in common—they are mutually exclusive.

I’ve run across this before. This is usually the argument that is made by people who are ignorant of the deeper issues of religious doctrine; who usually only have a surface level of understanding of the faiths. Because both religions supposedly advocate love, forgiveness, right thinking, avoidance of sin, etc., they can therefore work together on these issues. However, that assumes, wrongly, that Buddhism and Christianity have these things in common. In fact, they do not. The definition of what these things are, are different. Just because someone may use similar terms does not mean the terms mean the same thing relative to both religions. It’s like a Mormon saying he believes Jesus is the Son of God. The definition of “Son of God” under Mormon theology is very different from what it means in orthodox, evangelical Christianity. Only those with a surface level of understanding, or ignorance, can make such a declaration. As for the Mormon example, this is one reason why Mormonism is classified as a non-Christian cult instead of being a branch of the Christian faith. So too, what Buddhism means by common terms is completely different from what Christianity means, and therefore, they—by definition—cannot work together. They are mutually exclusive.

As a mass media organization we are responsible to God for how we portray the Gospel. Sometimes that means separating ourselves from other concepts, which can be a bit controversial at times. Nevertheless, it is necessary if we are going to represent Christianity faithfully and truthfully to the community.

Remember the survey that I wrote about last week? We had Press Institute break down the answers into different religious groups to get a better understanding of the religious culture and how individuals use Eagle TV. There is some startling new information. Here’s what Buddhists and Christians had to say about terminology. Keep in mind that “Burhan” and “Tenger” are traditionally Buddhist and/or shamanist words. “Yurtuntsiin Ezen” was originally developed by Christians for the Christians community.

• 79% of Buddhists associate the word “Burhan” with Buddhism, and only 10% associate it with Christianity
• 59% of Buddhists associate the title “Yurtuntsiin Ezen” with Christianity, and only 0.3% associate it with Buddhism
• 78% of Christians associate the words “Burhan” and “Tenger” with Buddhism, and 89% associate “Yurtuntsiin Ezen” with Christianity
• Only 8% of Christians associate the word “Burhan” with Christianity (this would seem to fly in the face of real-world practice, but I’ll touch on that later)

When asked what they believe Christianity is about:

• 10% of Buddhists said Christianity was about becoming prosperous (prosperity gospel), whereas (and here’s the shocker) 44% of Christians said the same thing
• 20% of Buddhists think Christianity is about societal development (social gospel?), whereas 17% of Christians think the same
• When combining categories we see that 60% of Mongolian Christians think Christianity is about prosperity gospel and social gospel.

That last statistic is significant and alarming. While there is certainly a role that material blessing and society play within the Gospel (such as with the Old Testament covenants and their application in modern times), primarily placing these values as “the” or “a” driving force in Christian expression is, at the very least, problematic for spiritual growth and community witness. May this also undercut the church’s chances of growing theologically and properly into the next generation? Theologically, I think this says dire things about the role that believers think God plays in their lives. If this were an election, prosperity/social gospel categories would win by a landslide. It seems clear to me from my own observations combined with these survey results that the sovereignty of God is not much taught or adhered to here.

On questions of compatibility:

• 53% of Christians think Christianity and Buddhism are compatible or share some things in common. This is also highly alarming. Could it be that this statistic lends credence to the idea that key scriptural concepts are not being carefully unpackaged to both the believing and non-believing audiences? This is an area where better discipleship and community education can make a real difference—and how TV can augment this should be strongly considered
• 33% of Buddhist say Christianity and Buddhism have some things in common, but 36% say they have nothing in common

Where do they get their information:

• 38% of Buddhists get their information about Christianity from Eagle TV
• 36% of atheists get their information about Christianity from Eagle TV
• 31% of shamanist people get their information about Christianity from Eagle TV
• The three stats cited above are staggering. But the big turn comes here: 53% of Christians report that they get their information about Christianity from church and only 11% from Eagle TV.

When considering the problems already mentioned above we should consider, and perhaps do a formal study on what churches are specifically teaching Mongol believers. One thing that might be considered in this vein is that if Mongol believers are primarily prosperity/social gospel oriented, and they are therefore getting that education through their churches, it might shed light on the low number for Eagle in this report, because, Eagle TV does not allow prosperity/social gospel programming on air. Thus, we might be able to say that since we don’t meet that desire in the believing audience, that believing audience goes elsewhere for that kind of information. The challenge for us may be to find a way to tactfully address these issues (non-supportively) and hopefully help correct the problem (over time).

In all four cases above, these were the overwhelming large numbers for the questions asked. But after this it gets kind of freaky. The survey was broken down by multiple religious groups, including shamans and atheists. When it comes to terminology usage, look at what those identifying themselves as shamanists had to say. When it comes to terms:

• 82% of shamanism adherents say they associate “Burhan” with Christianity, whereas they associate “Yurtuntsiin Ezen” with Buddhism by 49% (I cannot help but think that there is a problem in the survey data on this question. However, our in-country missionary friends might have some light to shed on this
• 52% of atheists associate “Burhan” with Buddhism, and only 3% associate it with Christianity
• 60% of atheists associate “Yurtuntsiin Ezen” with Christianity and none associates it to Buddhism

I think that the terminology associations are significant. If this survey is accurate, it would seem to indicate that most Mongol believers know that the most popular word-choice (Burhan) is Buddhist in meaning/origin, but in practice, they don’t care how it’s used. Clearly, only 8% of respondents associate it with Christianity (in this survey), but it still remains the most popular word choice in the vernacular. What does this say, theological and socially, about the Mongol church? That would make a very interesting study.

In light of this survey, we should be asking ourselves questions about the relationships between terminology usage, prosperity/social gospel, and information sourcing.

Perhaps more thoughts from me at a later date. There’s certainly enough here to stew over for some time.

In the last year one of our ministry objectives has been to discover how Eagle TV is impacting the community spiritually. One of our tools is a series of surveys asking the audience specific questions about perceptions of Christianity, Bible knowledge, etc.

Our most recent survey was done in June, and we just got the data in this week. What did we learn?

First off, we discovered that Eagle TV is having a huge impact when it comes to what people think Christianity is. 30 percent of respondents said that they get their information about Christianity from Eagle Television. Only 10 percent said they received their information from churches and 12 percent from the Bible. That’s not really unexpected since only 6.6 percent of respondents identified themselves as Christian, with the remaining 93.4 percent identifying themselves as Buddhist, shamanist, or something else other than Christian. I have to say, a 30 percent impact from Eagle TV is huge. To be honest, I don’t know of any other TV ministry that can claim such a large percentage of impact. In fact, I don’t even know of any radio ministry that rates that way. I don’t say this to boast, rather, it seems truly remarkable to me that Eagle is having that level of impact with its audience.

One of the issues we face in Mongolia is about people’s perceptions of what Christianity is all about. In my nearly 8 years in Mongolia I’ve noticed a strong thread of prosperity Gospel influence among Mongolian believers. For those unaware, prosperity Gospel is a Christian heresy that, essentially, makes the accumulation of wealth and material possessions the primary goal of Christian expression.

I was, however, surprised when I learned that the Mongolian view is a bit more varied than I thought. When asked if Christianity is about becoming prosperous only 10 percent answered positively. But a whopping 39 percent answered that they did not know what Christianity is all about at all! On top of that, 41 percent of those surveyed said that they did not know if Buddhism and Christianity are compatible (they are not).

These responses were shocking. Ulaanbaatar has had a full blown television ministry for 15 years. That’s not to say that everything about the Gospel is dependent upon Eagle TV—it’s not—but it does tell us that there is a lot of work to be done to help educate the audience about what Christianity is. It has been said more than once that Eagle TV made Jesus a household word in Mongolia. Yet that’s just the beginning. The need for a deeper understanding of the faith is huge. That means we have to take a careful look at our programming to see where we can make things even clearer.

One of the questions we asked was focused on terminology. We wanted to know, in general, what terminology people most associate with Christianity, Buddhism, shamanism, etc. We asked this because it is natural for certain words to carry specific historical and conceptual associations. In Mongolia there has been a long controversy about what name to use for “God.” In this survey 70 percent of respondents associated the word “Burhan” with Buddhism. 57 percent associated the title “Yurtuntsiin Ezen” with Christianity. “Burhan” is the term primarily used to identify Buddha, though most of the Mongolian church also uses it to identify God in a generic sense. In this part of the survey there was a natural overlap of 23 percent of those who use multiple terms.

What makes this part of the survey so interesting is that the overwhelming number of respondents did not identify themselves as Christian. Therefore, the non-believing audience is drawing a distinction among terms, to some degree delineating in their minds what they perceive as Buddhist and what they perceive as Christian. To be sure about this we are having a new set of calculations on responses being draw up to clearly identify what the non-believing audience associates between specific terms and ideas, minus the responses from believers.

All in all, the survey has really opened our eyes to some of the perceptions that Mongolians have about Christianity. Yet we also know that we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg. Further surveys will try and dig deeper about these perceptions and hopefully help us refine our ministry presentations even more. The fact is, with 30 percent saying their primary source of information about Christianity comes from Eagle TV, we have a sacred responsibility to make sure we are getting our presentations right.

We recently produced a new video about Eagle TV’s work in Mongolia. Enjoy, and please share it with others.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Eagle TV’s news team. The latest ratings report shows a 9.3 share for our main evening newscast, putting us in the number three position against 15 measured competitors. Congrats also to Skip Heitzig on Connection. The translation of his weekly program on Eagle TV garnished a 10.1 making his Bible teaching program the number two program in its time slot against 15 competitors. Great job!

This morning I met with a young American man who is in Mongolia doing a research project for a policy foundation he works for in the States. We discussed the July 1st riots, a small bit of Mongolian politics (which I only pay minimal attention to these days), and the current state of media freedoms in Mongolia. During our discussion I was reminded of a post I wrote in 2005 about Free and Fair Media. I drew a comparison of free and fair media using Natan Sharansky’s book, The Case for Democracy (a must read). My guest asked me, “In five years do you think the condition of Mongolian media will be significantly improved?” I thought about it for a moment and gave a resounding yes.

In the Sates conservatives complain about the liberal slants on the big three networks, CNN, and MSNBC. The left complains about the conservative slant on FOX News. In some ways there are similar things happening here. For instance, many people complain about the MPRP slant of TV9 and TV5. Others complain about the Democratic Party slant of C1 or NTV. In many ways, comparatively speaking, the Mongolian situation is similar to the U.S. Regardless of the bickering between sides it is a legitimate exercise of media freedom to slant stories however a station may wish. If MSNBC wants to slant left, that’s their right. If TV9 wants to slant toward the MPRP, that’s their right. The principles of press freedom are not violated. Such practices may not necessarily be good journalism, but that’s a different issue. Each station has a right to report the news from a perspective and in the manner it sees fit. That’s part of what press freedom is about. It’s also why Eagle TV tries to remain as neutral as humanly possible. That is also the the legitimate exercise of press freedom.

So many positive things have happened in Mongolia regarding freedom of speech and press. The state of media here today is much better than it was seven years ago when I moved to Mongolia. As I explained to my guest, there is no legal censorship or pressure on news organizations, but certainly there is some political and cultural pressure from time to time—though not nearly as bad as it was seven years ago. Significant strides in media freedom have been made. There are still some problems regarding transparency of operations and political ownership issues, but overall the improvement has been great. And I believe it will continue to improve as more and more Mongolian journalists exercise their legal rights and forge ahead to take risks covering the truly important stories.

As I already noted, the discussion I had today reminded me of a post I wrote in 2005 on this subject. You can catch that post by clicking here.

I was given access to the roof of Central Tower in downtown UB today. I spent about an hour taking various shots of Ulaanbaatar. I also applied some “tilt-shift” effects to the images to create the illusion of miniatures. The images are on my Flicker page.

Raindrops falling in front of my lens on July 21st, 2009.
Click the image for a larger version on my Flickr page.

A short blurb in today’s UB Post that has some wondering if religious freedom in Mongolia may encounter problems.

The Mongolian immigration authority is examining religious missionaries in Ulaanbaatar with the help of the Metropolitan Police Department and General Taxation Office in regard of recent complaints lodged against Christian activities.

The authorities said any temple or church that breached Mongolian law will see forced closure. In Ulaanbaatar only, there are around 180 religious churches and temples operating. Around 90 of them are Christian and 60 of them Buddhist, and the rest of shamanistic practice.