Since Soong Chan Rah broke the news about Zondervan publishing an egregious racial faux pas from The Skit Guys in their latest book, “Skits That Teach”, there has been a lot of activity online to get people to speak out against the publisher, the authors, and key distributors, i.e. Youth Specialties (YS). Thecuttingtruth and emergingtruth, two fellow Asian American bloggers are indeed “holding their feet to the fire” by holding the parties involved accountable, with thecuttingtruth proving his point by ordering the books in question this morning despite YS having promised to “freeze all remaining stock”.

After communicating with thecuttingtruth this morning, I sent Youth Specialties the following email content:

Is the book “Skits That Teach” listed in your Store section the one in question with racially egregious material towards Asian Americans? If so, I humbly request that you temporarily remove it from your store site until the revisions demanded are made.

I have not been able to access the YS storefront since late this morning. I have left a message with Soong Chan Rah and hope to follow this through with someone at YS or Zondervan directly. It appears at best that Mark Oestreicher, President of YS, is proactively engaging Prof. Rah, thecuttingtruth, and emergingtruth in the form of comments. He comments that he is waiting to make a statement on his blog, ysmarko.com, until he communicates with Rah, so please be on the lookout for this. While emergingtruth accuses these actions as merely “damage control”, I have hope that measures, if not all, are being taken to rectify the matter. This scenario is far different from the Rickshaw Rally disgrace from the Southern Baptist Convention (which is still friggin’ posted!) because of the relative speed and reasonability in which the parties are responding to the feedback. So while some of us are the hunt for our pound of flesh, I believe we have made this a worthwhile effort and it has been effective in this instance.

However, this indicates a severe pathology in the ways in which non-Asians perceive Asians as these “Skits That Teach” have taught me the following:

1) We are not ready to laugh.

Forget the distributors and the publishers, it’s the authors I have a problem with. Your initial dismissal of this offensive material makes it sound as though Asian American Christians are the ones who take themselves too seriously. I suspect you never thought that minorities would be buying your book? Or are minorities not part of the Kingdom? Or perhaps lesser in your mind — which makes them perfect fodder for ridicule? That’s not playful banter, Skit guys, it’s Rosie O’Donnell material. Shame on you.

2) We need to create our own content

And shame on us. If African-Americans can have their own line of Hallmark greeting cards, then for Christ’s sake, we need to contribute Asian American content in bible studies, dramas, skits, talking points, other YS-like material and work at informing non-Asians about who we are and how we are wired. The Skit Guys are partially guilty for the ignorance, but the responsibility of engaging and informing non-Asians about sensitive stereotypes falls on us. The fact that our churches are so segregated and ethnocentric only reinforces the notion that Asians are not Asian AMERICAN.

3) We need to engage more in the larger Christian community

And shame on all of us. This problem exists in the Christian community because we are all so segregated from one another. Sure there are multi-ethnic churches where we all face the same direction in worship and prayer, but rarely do we break bread together, look one another in the eye, and listen to one another. In essence, we need to engage, church-to-church, person-to-person, and repent. We can point the finger and say that this is a clear reflection of the Western superiority complex, but I guarantee you that patronizing, exclusivistic, and rabid self-aggrandizing sin is in our Asian heritage as well. We must hate the sin and love the sinner in the collective sense and in tangible and realistic ways, make this part of our everyday.

God’s been pressing into me lately and I’m coming to face some of my weaknesses. Before this year, I had never considered my lack of discipline a weakness, but rather a mere quirk, a common character flaw even, and quite pedestrian really. But now I realize that it’s something far more insidious. So I wanted to share 3 particular lessons that God has taught me recently on the subject of discipline.

Growing up, I categorized things in two groups: “things that I had to do” — like taking out the garbage, studying, going to church, practicing the piano, and cleaning up; versus “things that I wanted to do” — hang out, perform music, play sports, and have fun. I considered “the things I had to do” as “discipline” — things done in order to avoid trouble with the parents and/or an unpleasant guilt trip. Discipline was an obstacle to the “things that I wanted to do” or “fun” as it was also known.

But in a controlled environment, like high school or a regimented job perhaps, one has “fun” when they can fit it in. When I got to college however, I majored in “the things I wanted to do”. Instead of scheduling play around work, I scheduled work around play. And in three years’ time, I found myself on the outside of school, my parents, and my friends. I was caught in a trap: working three dead-end jobs as a college dropout, a dropping credit score, and one car breakdown from turning myself into a shelter.

Lesson 1: If you don’t do “the things you have to do”, they will limit the “things you want to do”.

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Yes, I saw the movie on opening night. Yes, I wept like a 7-year-old girl with a skinned knee.

Just a quick thought came to me though. William Wilberforce was a man who spent years of his life in social activism on behalf of others who looked nothing like him. Now this is nothing to lionize this man or John Newton (who penned the namesake hymn of the movie), but only in as much as he has pursued the image of our savior, Jesus who suffered unregrettably and fearlessly for we who had no right to be called friends.

I think Asian American Christians will come into their own when we can cry out not only for those of us Asian Americans who are wronged or insulted, but when we cry out on behalf of those not related to us, who do not resemble us at all. That is indeed, the amazing part of grace.

And because we know, and are becoming increasingly aware, of the racism that exists today, even in the Christian publishing circles (pointed out by TheCuttingTruth and Soong Chan Rah), then we should all the more become abolitionists of our day and age not only when we are insulted and offended, but when the humanity of others is at stake. For instance, how many of us are up in arms for our Hispanic brothers in Christ as the politics of the immigration debate is breaking up families and ruining lives? How many of us are cognizant of what is happening in the Sudan? How aware of you the things that are going in your very city? How are school zones set up? Where are the ghettos in your town? What’s the average median household? What’s your city’s history?

To become an abolitionist I witness from this evening’s viewing is not altogether that difficult, it is merely to face myself in the ugliest parts of me and by the power of God, quite literally, fight the living hell out of me and out of the world, one little thought, action, habit, routine, house, neighborhood, county, city, state, and nation at a time. Grace so amazing demands a good fight.

On the heels of the movie, I found this site to accompany it, The Amazing Change. Sign up to become a modern day Wilberforce.

May I live a life worthy of the song:

Amazing Grace
Words by John Newton 1779

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.

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Excerpted from NYT’s Korean Men Use Brokers to Find Brides in Vietnam:

More and more South Korean men are finding wives outside of South Korea, where a surplus of bachelors, a lack of marriageable Korean partners and the rising social status of women have combined to shrink the domestic market for the marriage-minded male. Bachelors in China, India and other Asian nations, where the traditional preference for sons has created a disproportionate number of men now fighting over a smaller pool of women, are facing the same problem.

The rising status of women in the United States sent American men who were searching for more traditional wives to Russia in the 1990s. But the United States’ more balanced population has not led to the shortage of potential brides and the thriving international marriage industry found in South Korea.

Now, that industry is seizing on an increasingly globalized marriage market and sending comparatively affluent Korean bachelors searching for brides in the poorer corners of China and Southeast and Central Asia. The marriage tours are fueling an explosive growth in marriages to foreigners in South Korea, a country whose ethnic homogeneity lies at the core of its self-identity.

In 2005, marriages to foreigners accounted for 14 percent of all marriages in South Korea, up from 4 percent in 2000.

Read the full article >>

Could this kind of thing be increasingly prominent here among next generation Asian Americans too? Not to find marriage traditionalists so much as to see more porous relational fluidity between Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, et al? Marriage and family dynamics are much more at the core of the spiritual sociology of churches than just college friendships.

Re-published with permission from author, Pastor Eric Foley, for those who don’t get a chance to pick up their Korean Christian publication (or would). This article is a great read as it pertains to the handing of the baton from 1st to 2nd generation in the Korean (which I think would be fairly applicable to other ethnic) churches. As many 2nd generations work in multi-generational churches, I think it brings up a good bit of healthy dialogue. Enjoy, and again, thanks to Pastor Foley.

How to Help Your EM Cultivate Unique Korean Virtue #3: Respect for Elders, ctd.

Did you complete your homework assignment from last month’s column: Watching the American movie, “RV”? I asked you to watch “RV”, even if you speak no English, so that you could personally experience what is a normal relationship between American children and their parents.

The claim I made in the last column was this:

The most monumental change between the first and second generations, between Korean culture and American culture, is that in America, respect does not come from position, title, or age. It is earned in personal interaction. If we fail to realize this and simply demand that we be respected for our position, title, or age, the only “respect” we ever receive from the second generation will be what they must yield to us out of necessity. It will be all form and no heart.

The prescription I offered last time was this:

If we are serious about repairing the breach between our first and second generations, it is going to be necessary for 1.0’s to do something very humbling and difficult. It is going to be necessary for 1.0’s to find out what ‘respect’ means to Americans in general and 2.0’s in specific. Then, rather than demanding respect on our terms, we are going to need to earn it on their terms.

My promise last time was to begin to offer you through this column a series of practical steps that you as a first generation Christian or Korean church leader can take to learn what respect means to 2.0’s—and to enable you to earn it from them, for the urgent good of the Korean American community in the future.

We start by addressing a very controversial question, and by offering an even more controversial answer than is ever usually given:

In order to earn the respect of EM’s, KM’s need to make abundantly clear through their words and actions and imparting of vision that they support something far greater for EM’s than independence.

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Source: An anonymous young African pastor on the day of his ordination.

I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know and work till He stops me.

And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me — my banner will be clear.

Recently at work, I’ve been studying something called the Lean Method — a process improvement system that originally began in the manufacturing production lines of Toyota. It is also known as “The Toyota Way” or TPS, short for Toyota Production System. The system has been so effective, its impact has spread to arenas outside of automobile production, which is I’m studying it in the context of healthcare (pdf). Guy Kawasaki, an innovation guru, offers this document that describes The Toyota Way as the “Elegant Solution” (pdf). And finally, I saw found this article in the New York Times entitled, “The ‘Toyota Way’ Is Translated For A New Generation of Foreign Managers”. I’ve pulled a couple of excerpts that I thought would be interesting to juxtapose the Toyota Way in looking at the way they approach their process to the way we approach the health of our churches. Perhaps there’s no real correlation at all, but I thought it was interesting. (emphasis and indented paragraphs mine).

“For Americans and anyone, it can be a shock to the system to be actually expected to make problems visible,” said Ms. Newton, a 38-year-old Indiana native who joined Toyota after college 15 years ago and now works at the North American headquarters in Erlanger, Ky. “Other corporate environments tend to hide problems from bosses.”…

Christians know this as confession, but usually this is limited to the individual, private level. One thing that Toyota does that is notable is that it is doing as an organization — openly stating progress of the individual goals. True community is when we can easily discern how everyone is doing. Is this kind of openness possible in our churches?

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What if this is much ado about nothing? What if there is no difference? What if my white friend is right–that I’m “just American” and the longer I wrestle with my Asian-ness that, the less constructive I can and will be? After all, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ”. And if “Christian” is the ultimate property of my being — how does one slough off other defining characteristics (i.e., male, middle-class, heterosexual, and Asian American)? Are all these issues and bringing them up merely a sinful, Sisyphean exercise to carve myself some property in existential significance? What if this issue of defining a cultural distinctiveness and lens to respond to who Christ was, is, and will be is a non-sequitur?

I’ve heard that one needs to find one’s identity in Christ, not in the world. While confidently calling Christ my savior, I still find this a difficult teaching. Jesus was a Jew, a rabbi, the fulfillment of prophecy, the Messiah, and the hope of the world. Perhaps, as others suggest, my problem is that I do not fully grasp how much of a sinner I am–implying that my preoccupation with my ethnic-specific issues is a mere red herring, a fruitless diversion that I commit myself to,  as though it would make me holy. I confess I’m speechless. I thought that my walk with God had been leading me to this point–towards confession and healing, not away from it.

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I don’t remember how I got on the Saddleback Church mailing list, but was fascinated with the following email and its implications. Obviously megachurches are showing substantial growth and there probably is at least one in your metropolitan area. I know there is a prominent one which seems to attract Asian Americans where I live. It’s a place that offers a number of resources without, how shall I say this, the baggage of an immigrant church or the growing pains of a second generation church. Is this the future? While we debate and hack it out, are many just opting out? Multi-ethnic and ethnic under one roof, now that’s the best of both worlds, isn’t it? Is it? Asian American churches– are we too small in our vision? Or can we unearth the diamonds in our rough?

January 21, 2007

Re: Saddleback Vision at Korean Connection!

Come and meet other Saddleback folks who share an interest in the Korean culture on January 28, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. in Room 405, As Pastor Rick Warren has said, the face of Saddleback Church is changing. And our International Small Group team is part of that change. ALL are welcome to come and hear an exciting vision on how God is working in and through the Saddleback Korean small groups and community to show HIS love and reach others for Christ.

If you have any questions or want more information, please contact at (562) 555-5555 , [email address].

We look forward to seeing you on January 28^th!

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” –Matthew 28:19-20

Serving Christ together,

Saddleback Church

INTERNATIONAL SMALL GROUP TEAM

P.S. There will also be a video presentation of a P.E.A.C.E trip to Rwanda by one of our Korean Small Groups!

Much thanks to theCuttingTruth for finding this absolute gem of a sermon by Soong Chan Rah.

As an Asian American Christian who seeks to walk with a greater of sense of how God made me and with a bigger passion for what God made me for, this is an absolute must-hear for our generation. There is much work to be done…work that is waiting for us, and for many of us, should stoke more flames of destiny than many of our churches are willing to speak for. Thank you Soong Chan, you are a voice for us — may we heed this word and prepare the way.

Please, please, please give it a listen (just hit the “play” button below) if you have the time, or go here and download it here.