Victor Raj

We live in an age of instant opinions. A photograph, a short video clip, a social media post, or a brief conversation is often enough for us to form conclusions about another person's character. Before long, our perception hardens into certainty. We begin to speak as though we know the whole story. Yet one of the great dangers of our time is confusing perception with truth. The Bible consistently warns us against this tendency. Human beings see only a fraction of reality. We observe outward actions, but God alone sees the heart. As the Lord reminded Samuel when choosing David, "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). Our vision is partial. God's is perfect. This should make us humble. Perception is shaped by our experiences, preferences, fears, and assumptions. Two people can witness the same event and walk away with entirely different interpretations. Neither interpretation is necessarily the truth. Every perception is fil...

DEATH Nobody talks about death so much as the Disciples of Christ. Death scares. Everybody wants to live forever. We are just mortal and mortality scares. Well there was an article on photography in ‘Newsweek’ of June/July, 2005. It’s about fashion photography by Izima Karou. Izima Karou is Japanese, a fashion photographer. He found more acceptances in the West than in country of his birth. He likes his models as corpses; Dior drenched sensuously dressed models as corpses, a combination of eroticism and horror. Through his photography gore is made subtle. Karou says depiction of death or an accident would be a very powerful provocative setting for a fashion shoot. He believes that such fantasy death as a way of confronting mortality by presenting its lighter, glossier side. Most models collaborated with Izima Karou on the setting and manner of their death and the outfit as well. They chose the place of death too. But what was cause of death? It is not revealed in the photog...