This past Monday, Dong Yun (Don) Yoon lost his entire family in an unspeakable tragedy when an F-18 fighter jet crashed into his San Diego home, killing his two infant daughters (ages 1 month and 15 months), his wife and his mother-in-law who was in town to help care for the newborn.

It is heartbreaking for any of us to imagine what we might do in his situation.  This hit home for us in a particular way this week: the Korean American community in San Diego is small and, while the Yoon family is not a part of our church, we are only one step removed from them.  Many of our church families know this family, and are grieving alongside them at this time.

There have been small glimpses of light, faith and hope in the midst of this tragedy.  First, the grace & faith Dong Yun Yoon displayed during his public statement about his loss.  Instead of blaming the pilot whose jet killed his family, he asked us to pray for him.  A friend of mine said that, while there are some important differences (one was an accident while the other involved hostages and murder) , Dong Yun’s response reminded him of how the Amish responded during their tragic school shooting.The LA Times ran a heartfelt op-ed piece today, likening Dong Yun’s response to that of Horatio Spafford, who lost his family and yet was able to pen the beloved hymn, It Is Well with My Soul.  Although I certainly have more than my share of grievances with the immigrant Korean church, Dong Yun Yoon’s response, and the support of his church community, reminds me of what can be so right about the first generation faith:  steadfast trust and hope in God, even in the midst of pain and sorrow, and a church that literally cries out to God on behalf of the suffering.

As Eugene Cho notes, the silence in the Christian blogosphere about Dong Yun’s Christ-like response has been disappointing, if not deafening.  I have been encouraged, though, to hear the empathetic words of the Yoon family’s non-Korean American neighbors, describing them as hard-working and sweet, and even seeing Dong Yun kiss his family that very morning as he left for work.  While San Diego is a beautiful place to live, there is a strong undercurrent of racial tension, so it is particularly moving to see the broader community rally around this family in some ways.

For those of you who would like to contribute a donation to the Yoon family, their church has posted the following information:

Tragedy in Our Community

On Monday December 8, 2008 Dong Yun Yoon (member of the Korean United Methodist Church of San Diego) lost four of his family members in the recent F/A-18D jet crash in San Diego.

We will dearly miss his wife Young Mi, daughter Grace (15 month), Rachel (1 month), and Young Mi’s mother Mrs. Suk Im Kim.

A Trust Fund has now been created and your donations for the Yoon family can be directed to:

Dong Yoon # 200-717-333, SD Hanmi Bank

If you are unable to find a Hanmi Bank in your area, you can mail your donations to the Korean United Methodist Church at

3520 Mt. Acadia Blvd. San Diego, CA 92111

Funeral
Place: Glen Abbey Memorial Park & Mortuary
Address: 3838 Bonita Rd. Bonita, CA 91902

Friday December 12 ~ Public viewing 5 – 9 PM (Little Lodge)
Saturday December 13 ~ Burial Service 1 PM (Chapel of Roses)

www.netsv.com/glenabbey/

Thank You

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Calling all Asian Americans in Nashville, Tennessee, better get on the bus. My buddy John Lamb has put together a website for a new effort to make Nashville a “world-class city.” John tells me that “Nashville For All Of Us” is building support from communities with immigrants, but I’m wondering where the Asians are.

Check out the list of people involved and notice what continent’s peoples are absent. In any case, if you can help, leave a comment or email John at Hispanic Nashville.

The Coalition:(so far)

• Coalition for Education about Immigration (CEI)
• Faith Leaders for All of Us
  
• Nashville’s Moment Is Now

People of faith

• Catholic Charities
• Clergy for Tolerance
• The Community Relations Committee of Nashville Jewish Federation
• Islamic Center of Nashville
• The Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee
• Middle Tennessee Justice For Our Neighbors

Business leaders

• Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
• Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Nashville Business Coalition
• Tennessee Business Coalition
• Greater Nashville Hotel and Lodging Association
• Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
  

Immigrants

• Somali Community Center
• Sudanese Community and Women’s Service Center
  
• Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRCMedia
  
• Hispanic Nashville Notebook
• Liberadio(!) with Mary Mancini & Freddie O’Connell
• Solo Nashville-Telefutura

Political

• Davidson County Democratic Executive Committee
• Democracy for Tennessee
• League of Women Voters of Nashville
• Middle Tennessee Hispanic Democrats
• Nashville Women’s Political Caucus

Advocates

• ACLU of Tennessee
  
• Community Nashville
• Conexion Americas
• Nashville Peace and Justice Center
• The Welcoming Tennessee Initiative (WTI)
  

Arts

• Green Room Projects/Naked Stages
  

Sports

• Nashville Metros

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For my Atlanta people, check out this flick if you get a chance, this week only at the Landmark Theatres in Midtown!

One Week Only! Starts Friday, December 12
Asatu Bah Kenneth In Person Fri, Dec 12 at 7:20pm,
Joined by Producer Abigail Disney
on Sat, Dec 13 at 7:20pm!

This remarkable, award-winning film chronicles the amazing but little-known story of a small band of unarmed women who risked their lives to bring peace to Liberia, a nation in West Africa founded as a home for emancipated American slaves. Thousands of women—ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim—came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they took on the warlords and nonviolently forced a resolution during the stalled peace talks. A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, director Gini Reticker’s documentary honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting and most of all motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations. In English. Official Web Site

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The phrase “swan song” is a reference to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is completely mute during its lifetime until the moment just before it dies, when it sings one beautiful song.1

Thursday night from 7pm, at Communitas, we’ll be discussing worship in the Asian American context. Here’s a quick description from the asianamergence blog:

Have you ever considered these questions: When you go to a church full of Asian-Americans and you close your eyes, what do you hear? Would you be able to detect any distinctiveness coming from our ethnicity or culture? When you read the words on the screen, who penned those words? Where is the melody of our ancestors? Are these even valid questions at all?

On Thursday, Dec 4th, Professor Paul Huh of Columbia Theological Seminary will lead us in singing worship songs to the tune of our ancestors. Reminiscent of Western monastic singing, the eastern style of worship has simple, meditative, and powerful melodies that centers the worshiper.

Professor Huh’s research interests include liturgical musicology, space, time, history, theology, and arts in both Korean and North American settings.  Additionally, he is interested in the praxis of bilingual/bicultural performing, designing, leading, and evaluating worship in an ecumenical setting.

Perhaps the swan song metaphor is a bit much, but I feel that in order to be healthy with regards to the notion of culture, we must acknowledge that many of us as second generation Asian Americans have been silent in our worship for our entire lives. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve borrowed hymns and praises, but they have not been ours and we have been mute – all of which makes me wonder if there is a beautiful swan song welling up in us and if this generation is dying in terms of church, is there a song for us to sing on the way out? or on the way in?

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this is going to sound like gibberish and maybe it is, especially since i don’t wax philosophical/historical/social all the time. so this is just a thought-sketch, and i’m prepared to be wrong or change position on this as much as necessary.

asian americans (from the 2nd generation on) are in general, ambivalent on matters of faith and church. the impressions of Christianity seem limited to morality and/or clique-ishness. asian churches do not speak to an asian american identity, nor do they allow for adequate room for healing and reconcilation in and among communities. while college groups may see some success in reaching this ethnic demographic, the long-term impact remains to be seen, but there are no indication that this phenomenon will help with a sense of identity or reconciliation for asian americans or their churches. in short, they have no particularity about this universal God. so in the church, we have no unique history or unique part to play in the future, just a present experience complete with contemporary worship and definition of doctrines and traditions.

in essence, faith and culture are seen as having little to do with one another, and for those who pursue a notion of faith and spirituality, they are doing so, not as asian americans, but as merely believers who deny that such a category of race actually matters. which in turn, conveys the message that the particulars of race and history and culture do not matter to God or to whomever they engage with concerning faith matters. and these faith matters seem to highlight a very abstract notion of what happens after we die, or how we view specific matters in our own hearts while we live. so the chief preoccupations of christianity as it is commonly presented, are the afterlife and the inner life – which is to say, we should be sure that we do not live with demons when we die; but while we’re alive, we should wrestle with our demons now. but to be honest, even those demons are not unique, they’re just as bland as our churches.

and while this may sound a tad bit medieval, somehow wrestling with our demons now and proving that we’re fit for heaven is tantamount to progress. be sure to note, it’s a fact of economic history that protestantism and progress have a strong correlation. with the exception of japan and perhaps the young tigers of the pacific rim, most of the wealthiest modern nations come from a protestant tradition. and progress and wealth are attractive and auspicious things to wish for and work towards, especially from an asian heritage.

a historical side note, the reformation which took place throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, was, i would say, sidetracked or short-circuited by capitalism and industrialization. in other words, much like the coup that constantine made of the early church, emerging market economies made over the reformation. in doing so, to decipher the true motives between God and country are highly convuluted and remain so to this day because we are subscribing to and are dominated by an economy that has valuated us. therefore to project ‘family values’ or ‘Christian values’ in this environment is like a fish saying it has a method of acquiring oxygen other than the water it swims in. even if it’s true, it doesn’t seem sustainable. which is why the most powerful sign of Christian protest is to completely un-plug i.e. the Amish, the monastics, the desert fathers, the missionaries. to be ‘in the world, but not of it’ is, as history demonstrates, an incredibly difficult proposition.

asian immigrant churches in the US largely hail from missionary tradition of late 19th/early 20th century. when the dependencies of historical circumstance (poverty, war, displacement), which may have provided adequate grounds for God then, have changed or been removed, we see that because we desired God for liberation or survival or prosperity or eternal life, and having achieved that desired end (or some assurance of it in the case of the eternal life bit), we either dispose of God or continue to use God (or the institution of church) as a means for other smaller victories, whether that be power or political influence or as self-help salve. in those cases, again, it’s hard to determine how this christian God was not an economically savvy idol to worship. in other words, in this scheme of things, i can’t tell if i’m christian because i’m proud to be an american where i’m free or because i’m “saved” or because “i’m rich, b#@!$!!” in other words, the growing disenchantment with church is because it is increasingly difficult to discern where our allegiance to this jewish messiah begins and ends.

here’s my hunch, if we do not wake up and begin to articulate where we as asian americans align with this jewish messiah in ways that deconstruct the modern notions of progress and prosperity, we cannot survive without becoming disenchanted ourselves. furthermore, if we do not particularize the universal gospel to the context of the history and sociology of which we are a part, we underestimate the particular methodology of demons and sin to captivate us. and even further still, if asian americans do not critique our own posture with regards to a theology of identity and culture in the face of wealth and accomplishment, then we can rest assured that the Christian churches in China and Korea will be subverted by capitalism in the same way it was in the west. but that’s just my hunch.

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