So glad you address this issue. I'm not a Taiwanese. I've worked with Christians from different countries including Taiwan. I agree with your observation and I think this attitude can be seen in most church leaders, but it is especially evident among Taiwanese pastors & full-time church workers. This may have stumbled others and caused the number of Christians in Taiwan to decline.
說得很中肯,在香港的我也很有共鳴(這共鳴的確不是好事、也不開心,你講對了,sad but true)。 還有一個問題,不知道台灣的情況,在香港,牧師制度並不太嚴謹,雖然正規牧師是由教會按立,但也有一部份牧師並不是由教會所按立,而是自封、自稱,再由幾位與「牧師」相熟的弟兄姊妹一起成立教會,教會大小決定(例如購堂)都由這幾位核心成員決定,決定後他們就自行落實,在事前根本並沒有與我這些「普通會眾」開會商討(我是有經過受浸加入教會,也有奉獻),諷刺的是,事前不與我們商量,但事後購堂資金緊張的情況下,卻在一次崇拜講道上不指名地、以上帝的名義責備沒有做購堂奉獻的弟兄姊妹,我認為這徹頭徹尾的「宗教勒索」。意見方面,當我們發現教會的問題,反映的渠道的確少之又少,都是我們壯起膽去找牧師反映(其實都知道反映的後果),意料之中,牧師不太聆聽,勉強聆聽了也是不去改變,當然我們的意見反映不一定是最正確,人人都有盲點,但在上的牧師就是從「帶領者」角度去回應--「這是她自己帶領的責任,旁人不容干涉」的姿態去回應,意見聽了,行事照舊。久而久之,失望的弟兄姊妹便多了。我們做的也不多。我們都在在失望、盼望之間在教會邊緣徘徊,唯有禱告。
象牙塔是源自聖經,請看聖經雅歌7:4。In the Christian tradition, the term ivory tower is used as a symbol for noble purity. It originates with the Song of Songs 7:4 ("Your neck is like an ivory tower"; in the Hebrew Masoretic text, it is found in 7:5) and was included in the epithets for Mary in the sixteenth-century Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary ("tower of ivory", turris eburnea in Latin), though the title and image were in use long before that, since the 12th-century Marian revival at least.