Doing some research for my last paper in the class, “Theological Dimensions of Pastoral Care”. It has something to do with identity and the violence that occurs at incongruent negotiations of multiple cultures. Pretty ambitious for a mere paper, but what can I say, I’m a mere hack, an intellectual poser.

From the book on the left, I found a passage that was very interesting that mentions five stages of identity formation. And I have to say, with all my switching between micro- and macro- thinking as easily as one switches lenses of a microscope, I wonder if this identity formation applies to our generation as much as it works for the individual. So here’s a passage from page 54. What do you think? And furthermore, what stage do you identify in? And even furthermore, do you think the Asian models of church and community in America tends to limit or preserve the individual or the group in a particular stage?

It is generally believed that identity development is completed by the end of adolescence, but it is probably clearer to say that core identity is completed by then, because our sef-concept can change significatnly over time, as the “racial/cultural identity development model” appears to confirm….

The first stage is the conformity stage, during which peopel are generally self-depreciating with regards to self and group, discriminatory toward other  minority groups, and positive toward the dominant group.

In the second, dissonance stage, in each of these areas there is a conflict between an appreciating and a depreciating attitude.

In the resistance and immersion stage, the attitude toward self and group is positive and the attitude toward the dominant group is negative. In addition, the person struggles to decide whether to appreciate other minority groups or not.

In the fourth introspection stage, the person retains a positive view of the group but also wishes to take distance and assert individuality.

In the final integrative awareness sage, the person can appreciate self and all groups, although the person selectively appreciates certain subgroups of the dominant cultural group.

Haven’t done this in a while, but I’m just reading so much good stuff out there…I gotta hand out some props.

First off, I have to return some link love from my friend Dan Ra and his new team blog, Merging Lanes. As in all things Dan, he goes from zero to sixty in about everything he does – worship, church, indie music, and our friendship. His friends have started a blog and it is off to a kickin’ start. Check it out…he and his friends have a formidable blog. And yes, Ed Sohn, I’m a fan.

Churches are Wrong – read this post from Justin at Radical Congruency. Short and simple, but pretty compelling. Here’s a quick quote:

I much prefer, but have been unable to live out, the idea that the church is a network, an organization unlike a company or a nonprofit but much like a web of relationships. Now, no longer having a regular Sunday church to call my congregation, I need to start thinking seriously about what this network approach to being the people of God looks like.

Throw it all out. We’ve gotten it wrong in too many ways for too many years to bother any more.

The blog, Amicus Dei – “Have fun feeding people…really” – Now here’s a hat tip to a hat tip, where we credit them who credits Seth Godin.

The more people who play FreeRice, the more advertising they’ll sell, and the more rice they can give away.

The problem with church from Darryl Dash. Now this post is a must-read. Darryl’s blog, dashhouse.com is absolutely outstanding, so do subscribe – you won’t be disappointed. And to go along with this post, I had to read Bill Kinon’s insight, “Consumerism sucks, Please buy my book…And come to my conference.” I’ve been thinking about the Christian industry a great deal and I love even just the title, but it does beg questions of the machine, even the emerging one.

Peter Ong awoke from some blogging hibernation to share his prophetic calling out of Asian American churches to talk about sex and intimacy.

Our silence has murdered our call to purity. It has been this sin of omission that we are so afraid to ask and be asked of this area of our lives that has been a ground zero for so many of us.

Woot! And Letitia Wong kicks in her 2 cents too, so you know it’s worth reading.

And have you read The Cutting Truth lately? Whew, he cuts like a sushi chef in his latest post. It might be a great answer to the interview question “what’s your greatest weakness?”, but not for prayer requests.

And definitely check out Josh Brown’s post entitled “The Consumptive Church: The Context for my Starting Point”. He is wrecking it, in a good way. Rock on, Josh, rock on wit’ yo’ bad self.

As it relates to consumption, I’m beginning to better understand the engine that is driving the emerging movements. I think what many in the emerging movements are proposing is the church as a-cultural (no doubt influenced by Hauerwas, Yoder, and others). That is to say that the church should be a counter-culture, subversive, and antithetical to the predominant host culture. In our case, Christian, scientific, political, capitalist, consumerist, and materialist, to name but a few. Their ecclesiology is primarily one of critique, distance, and resistance to the prevailing culture. Rather than seek to affirm it or exist as a sect within it, their aim is to stare it in the face and name it for what it is. Which is a sort of recognition that it has no real lasting power, control, or influence.

And I’m out of link love for now.

Check out the website: wwjbmovie.com

Here are some of the groups that this movie does promote:

Working with over 100 artisan groups in more than 30 countries in
Africa, Asia and Latin America to bring you fair trade jewelry,
home decor, gifts and more.
Beautiful jewelry and fabulous accessories, from scarves and slippers
to bags and bracelets. And you can feel good wearing all our items,
knowing that your purchases support artisans around the world.\
implementing the principles of socially and economically
responsible business according to Fair Trade Criteria. So you can shop knowing that the products you choose are sweatshop free.

Harnessing economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.
Ending sweatshop exploitation by inspiring responsible local
purchasing and fostering solidarity between U.S. communities and workers worldwide.
The Sierra Club, inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet.
Natural Resource Defense Council works on a broad range of issues as we pursue our mission
to safeguard the Earth; its people, its plants andanimals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.
HomeGrownMarket.com is the place to buy and sell all things
handmade in America. Support the artists, designers and crafters who are the backbone of our country!

United Students Against Sweatshops is an international student movement of campuses and individual students fighting for sweatshop-free labor conditions and workers’ rights at home and abroad.
We believe that university standards should be brought in line with those of its students.

Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood
A national coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and concerned parents who counter the harmful effects of marketing to children through action, advocacy, education, research, and collaboration.

(h/t: Christine Sine)  a short prayer with photos and music for Advent meditation. The music – O Come O Come Emmanuel is from Jeff Johnson’s Christmas CD

Wake up people, it’s the time of the year for giving more than thanks…it’s about redistributing the wealth we grow fat and complacent on.

As Advent approaches, I encourage all of us, myself included, to share the good news. The good news is this:

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

There is no mention of shopping or of Christmas sales.

Remember when Christianity was subversive? Did you know that saying “Jesus is Lord” was part of a conspiracy? Is it possible that we could bring that back in the Advent Conspiracy? A conspiracy of compassion, not consumption?

And if you’re not sure where to give, here’s a list from Forbes of the 200 Largest Charities. This year, no excuses. At least help out the Bangladesh Cyclone Victims. This is the year…

The List

1. 1. Salvation Army
   2. Shriners Hospitals for Children
   3. Nature Conservancy
   4. Mayo Clinic
   5. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
   6. American Red Cross
   7. Metropolitan Museum of Art
   8. Boys & Girls Clubs of America
   9. New York-Presbyterian Hospital
   10. Children’s Hospital
   11. …Click for Complete List

Static by Ron Martoia, is a book I got a chance to read through this “Emerging Models of Church Life” class that I’m taking and have blogged about before.

I’d first heard about the book at Q and had read the publisher’s sneak peek and was intrigued from the start. For the most part, I’d have to say the book delivers on all its initial promise. Martoia is very helpful in navigating the communication failures between Christendom and the rest of the world and for that I recommend this book. But you don’t have to take my word for it (ba da Da!) The writing style is so-so and certainly not as innovative as the thoughts presented, but very readable– which I suppose is the point. I just (hypocritically) think that he could be more efficient with his words.

For an Asian American however, I’d like to share a short excerpt here that I think is very pertinent to our struggle with negotiating church language and contextualizing it to our cultural needs. From chapter 23, entitled “Recentering Our Storytelling”, here are couple of spot excerpts, hope you enjoy:

First, when we’re talking to people who have an ill-formed or nonexistent concept of the Other, and thus have little or no sense of obligation and guilt, is there a better way to connect with them than the old sin-and-repentance model? What would be a good alternative? Let me suggest a possible alternative…I think we need to come up with a number of ways to effectively communicate teh message of Jesus to the new, emerging culture….

In the story we typically tell about the Garden, we tend to capitalize on the fact that Adam and Eve sinned. As a fact, that is true….

Bible scholars and psychologists agree as to why Adam and Eve wanted to cover themselves: They were ashamed….It is this exposure that leads Adam and Eve to the strong desire to be covered, not only in their nakedness but also in their hiding physically from God. Is it possible shame is part of the new verbal currency that better describes the self in our postmodern world? And if so, is it possible to retell the story of Jesus’ death in such a way that addresses the issue of shame? Isn’t that just as much a part of the Genesis story as sin?….

Joel Green recounts an interesting story about Norman Kraus, a missionary to Japan. In the Japanese culture, the idea of Jesus paying the price by dying for the sins of the peopel simply didn’t connect. Why? The culture wasn’t based on guilt and the need to have guilt removed. The culture was based on shame and the need to have shame addressed. This led Kraus to reframe the message of the Cross in a way that addressed shame and paid little attention to guilt.

Kraus concluded that shame was associated with concepts like defilement and uncleanness, whereas guilt tended to be associated with specific acts of wrongdoing for which the individual must bear responsibility. Kraus argued that retelling the story of the Cross in such a way that it addressed the issue of shame wasn’t a distortion of the biblical text, but in fact was much more a part of the biblical text than most Westerners understood.

Many Asians and Asian Americans, having inherited a very moral society in their mother cultures, fail to identify with guilt for sin. But they do work a great deal to avoid shame. Now something happens to those who are enculturated in church where guilt becomes just as weighty as in the Western context, but in my observations, that happens later. Perhaps in our external presentation, we need to address shame…and then we need to prevent the culture of guilt from adopting us.

Although I would consider myself very partial to Asian American women — their voice, their leadership, and their opinion, it’s another thing to a hear/read a strong Asian American woman speak and act. This a key reason why I appreciate and value Anna Lee and this new voice in Letitia Wong.

I just found out about Letitia (h/t: DJ, as always) and her thoughts are profound and relevant. Check out her blog and read her thoughts, here’s a clip from a recent post…good stuff.

During college, I left my Chinese church congregation, but not for the reasons I have posted (at least not primarily). A longtime family friend and member of another Chinese church asked me sometime later where I attended church afterwards. I hesitated to say, because I knew what was coming. Her surprised look and slow reply said it all, “Oh, a lo-fahn church…you like that kind of thing?” A lo-fahn church is a white church.

1. Christians must love others. Sounds like a benign altruism become cliche. But in trying to answer the question for myself “what’s missing in the Asian church?,” it just came to my mind that there is a profound lack of the love of Christ to underpin the church. I am not saying that love is entirely absent. I am saying that the overall sentiment is that the Asian church loves too little.

Before I get into that, Asians do have something that resembles love though. Asians have a lot of loyalty. Asians respect establishment and are loyal to the good intentions of a church and to its attenders. Loyalty is a postitive characteristic, but it is no substitute for the unconditional love of Christ.

The difference? For the most part, loyalty seeks the good of an image to maintain or portray, not necessarily the good of the person or entity receiving loyaly. Loyalty can have many motivations, both selfless and selfish. Love, on the other hand, seeks the best for others for their sakes and, ultimately, for the Lord’s sake. As it says in 1 Cor. 13:3-7, real love cannot be selfish….

Hilarious video from Nokia proposing a whole new origin of hip-hop…

What is the attraction between Asians and Hip-Hop? Furthermore, do our churches reflect this?

Is this further evidence that Asian American churches equate Christianity with Whiteness, whereas Asian Americans who are more self-aware of their social circumstance as minority identify more strongly with the urban art form of hip-hop?

Maybe it’s just that Asians have bought into the veneer of “niceness” that churches portray, but there is a whole other side of the immigrant experience that we suppress and  fail to vocalize. I wonder if it’s more than just hip-hop is cool…maybe it’s an attitude that attracts young Asian Americans, something we would like to have, but don’t. I wonder if the church could address this…is there an anger here that can be channeled as creative expression? Or is this an opportunity to heal and care for our young souls?

I think it’s unusual that Asian youths in church listen to David Crowder, but Asian youths who don’t go to church often listen to hip-hop…so the music they associate with worship is White, the music they enjoy or would rather listen to is hip-hop or urban, even though many of them live suburban lives. What a strange world in which to worship in. Perhaps we don’t even have a strong theology of worship? Or maybe our sense of worship is just as mixed as we are…

Fun class today asking the question for church, is change possible?

Here are a couple of quick videos we saw in class regarding different aspects of change:

the easiest route to take is to apply technical solutions when what is necessary is change of heart, behavior and value. We need to change how we live…

And what changing an organization often feels like:

Heard about this movie tonight. Sounds interesting. Here’s a snippet, but check out the entire review:

Three gunshots ring out from a Korean bar on New York’s West 32nd Street. A 14-year-old Korean-American boy is arrested on the spot for killing the manager of the bar, played by Jeong Jun-ho. The boy’s sister Lila (Grace Park) tries to prove her brother’s innocence, and second-generation Korean American lawyer John Kim (John Cho) takes the case as a way to get acceptance in the mainstream. While investigating the underworld of the Korean community, he meets “1.5 generation” Korean-American gangster Mike Juhn (Kim Jun-sung), who has replaced the dead manager. The meeting of the two ambitious men brings unexpected twists…

And another review describing the movie as exploring “New York’s Korean Underworld”: A quick snippet again:

What’s interesting about the movie, besides it’s effective use of both Korean and English to convey how the people in this hierarchy are upholding a lot of Korean traditions as second- and third-generation Americans, is how very little in the movie is black and white. Kim begins to fall for his client’s beautiful sister Lila (Grace Park of Battlestar Galactica), affecting his judgment. He also seems to be both enamored and disgusted with the antics of Juhn and his crew; Kim wonders if he would be part of that crew — drinking, womanizing and getting into fights — if his parents didn’t detach him from the Korean community by moving away from Queens. Juhn isn’t a pure molten-evil bad guy, either; he’s making his way and trying to advance in his field, just like Kim. It just so happens that Juhn’s field happens to involve illegal and violent acts. Suki (Jane Kim), one of the escorts that work Juhn’s club, wants to see justice done, but for reasons of love rather than hate. And even the movie’s resolution defies standard Hollywood conventions, showing how people sometimes compromise themselves to get to a particular result.

Now that I’m all grown up and don’t even live in the same city as my parents, I can go months without being around full-blooded Korean Koreans. And suddenly when an occasion arises when I’m in that environment again, it’s a bit awkward. It seems, at least to me, very apparent that I’m a stranger even unto myself in that space with these people. That here in this place with people who look very much like me, I feel somewhat like an impostor. Yet I understand it all, the jokes, the questions– but I fumble for the right words…I find myself regressing to a much younger age, a more self-conscious time.

And yet there are moments within that moment where it feels warm and affectionate. How I enjoy the laughter and the knowing looks. I love especially how playful the language is and how the eyes dance. I love the politeness in tone, the smacking of the jaws over good food, and the covering of mouths at a good laugh. And I’m at the age now where people use the honorific with me which tickles my ears now. People use the term “jundosanim” so freely, as though I had actually earned a real title, how odd that matriculation into a seminary does that. I don’t know what to do with that.

There is a great divide between 2.0′s and 1.0s. The dialogue between the two is about as difficult as trying to refuel an airplane in mid-air. We are both moving targets…often moving in different directions. And knowing the Korean psyche, there is such a pragmatism, such an impatience, that we often tire very quickly of one another. But  here in this place, I am more true to myself in this tension than I am in most places. I cannot merely accept the road of least resistance if it means that I cannot return here. So here’s to the dangerous mission…thank you Lord for making me a person who lives in the gray. I’m beginning to see your wonder here.