A full pdf version of the preface is viewable here: secretidentities.org/preview.pdf

SECRET IDENTITIES will be available in stores, April 2009 from The New Press but you may pre-order your copy at amazon.com today!

For those who love comics, AA’s will have their own line of comic book heroes. I was thinking about this the other day, and although I wasn’t that big into comics, I remember as a child growing up in Oklahoma, the only hero I had and really felt a connection with was Bruce Lee. There’s something to be said for heroes that can give voices and faces to our imagination.

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Once in a while, one can find a thoughtful blog post about church issues of grave concern. One pithy quote (or cliche) that has circulated is: “too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.” This blogger writes about the disconnect from the pulpit to current events, and the corresponding disconnect of spiritual life and human decisions & understanding, particularly in his experience of the Chinese church in North America.

Led by the Spirit: The Stagnation of Christian Growth

I recently visited a friend whom I have not seen for a long time. We had a wonderful fellowship time sharing what God has been doing in our lives. During our conversation, the subject of Chinese church in North America was brought up. More and more Christians have been questioning the disconnection of church ministry and the world. Messages from the pulpit seem to be missing the heartbeat of the congregation. My friend observed that with the global economy in shambles and the OBCs fixing their vision on the trial of the former Taiwan President for corruption, the pulpit has offered not a single word on the spiritual perspectives on these issues.

… The analysis he concluded with was theological. He suspected that while Chinese Christians emphasized so much on being led by the Spirit, eventually it became an excuse for the stagnation of personal growth because of the lacking of reflection.

… While my friend observed some American churches continued to grow, the good news really belongs to the minority. Most churches, American or Chinese, still struggle with internal and external issues.

… The general culture in the church ascribes the work of the Spirit to supernaturalism. When it comes to “spiritual matters”, the understood consensus dictates that the less involvement of human decision the better. … Gradually, ignorance equals spiritual maturity.

Now, his experience is similiar to mine. It makes me wonder, though, does this over-spiritualizing and anti-intellectualism happen in other non-Chinese ethnic-Asian churches? What can be done to remedy this?

I’ll reveal a peek into my latest tentative thoughts about why the church has to do the work of contextualizing faith in ethnic & cultural context, why there needs to be churches adapted to include Asian Americans, why there needs to be Asian Americans doing theology, why there needs to be Asian Americans in leadership. In other words, it’s not enough to say that we’re all human, we’re all spiritual in Christ, we can just follow Christ by reading the Bible, praying and obeying.

I won’t write a long treatise about it. I’ll say it this way, in one word: incarnation.

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Perhaps it’s the economics major guilt that I have, but seeing as how this current crisis is defining how Americans live and experience community across the nation, I just wanted to show some videos to help explain the origination of the problem. Enjoy…

Part 2, much shorter -

More thoughts to come on this later, but I’ve been thinking a lot these days how Christianity in America really put God and Mammon very close together, so that we have a difficult time discerning what is of God.

Also, I realize that many churches have been affected by the mortgage crisis, but don’t you think we’ve been too silent on it in terms of speaking out against predatory lending and lack of regulation?

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So you’re not just a racist, you’re a coward…cowardly racist. You are a yellow-bellied yellow guy.

And you’re such a wuss, you won’t even dare bring it up, you Christian fearmongering ‘fraidy cat. You won’t even acknowledge your race, like you’re some virtual World of Warcraft character, or NBA Live player – like you could choose your physical and ethnic attributes. Go ahead, change the color of your hair, never utter a word in broken English, dress like you’re a hip-hop citizen, everyone can identify you in ways you won’t even recognize.

Eat dim sum, sing karaoke, and know a couple of phrases in your native tongue – you’re still a coward. Especially on the weekends. You hide in ethnic enclaves, you sing about Jesus saving the nations, and changing the world, but you won’t even acknowledge your own, or dare to change it.

But I’m not really the one who thinks you’re a coward.

Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday called the American people “essentially a nation of cowards” in failing to openly discuss the issue of race.

“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” Holder declared.

“On Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some 50 years ago. This is truly sad,” Holder said.

There are people who think we are so far ahead, so far past the race issue, they fail to leave the four walls of their churches or homes and see that there is no peace outside their little circle of friends. The city of Atlanta once called itself “the city too busy to hate” and while that sounds wonderful, I wonder if it makes us the city too busy to love, to listen, to really reconcile. Is that what we are? Is that what I am? What am I afraid of really?

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Brad Lomenick of Catalyst (described as “a leadership development company in Atlanta“) complies a monthly list of young influencers. Having heard John Maxwell define “leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less,” these lists notes young leaders in our generation. In the mix are two Asian Americans:

• Charles Lee – Charles is the cultural catalyst and pastor at New Hope South Bay in CA, a founding member of Just One (addressing poverty and slavery), and a professor on the side. [September 2008 edition]
• Eugene Cho – pastor in Seattle of Quest Church. Also soon to launch a new organization focused on global poverty. You can watch a video introducing the idea here. [July 2008 edition]

Good to see these two acknowledged in this list. Having met both of them, they’re doing some great things. I’ve also met a number of other Asian American leaders in my journey, and perhaps some of them will be recognized in a future list.

It’s one thing to be a leader in the Asian American community. It’s a different thing to be recognized as a leader in mainstream multiethnic America. Just as it is one thing to be a leader in the Christian subculture versus being a leader in the mainstream of society.

By the way, Charles Lee is also playing “point” in coordinating The Idea Camp, February 27-28, 2009, in Irvine, California. This $0 registration hybrid conference may well be a “game-changer” in the church leadership conference world. I’ll be there — drop me a line if you’re going.

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The NYTimes report a “Return of Indulgences” which may bring about scoffs and rolling of the eyes from Protestants, but for some reason on this afternoon, I find this revival of a ticket to heaven quite fascinating.

Oh, and if you’re asking what the going rate is for say, adultery, you’ll just have to know you’re in luck. Indulgences aren’t for sale, out least not outright.

There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day.

Why bring them back when the last time indulgences made the history books, it kicked a series of protest and reformation?

“Why are we bringing it back?” asked Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn, who has embraced the move. “Because there is sin in the world.”

I wonder why Jesus didn’t distribute indulgences, hmmmm.

Joking aside, I wonder how whether or not we issue indulgences in Protestant churches or not, we still assume that our actions somehow absolve us in some way, don’t we? Prayer, service, Bible reading, tithing, etc. all can serve as leverage in our minds somehow, but none of it, none of it gets us anywhere, does it? Truly indulgences are ways in which God indulges our foolishness.

At least, I’m glad to see that they’re not actually selling these things this time around. I never could afford grace to begin with.

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Last week I led a discussion at A3MNet on Asian American Identity. It was more than we could really get our arms around in the time we had, especially with such a large and complex topic, but it led to some good conversations and I hope it continues.

As expected, there was some good tension about how our identity in Christ relates to our ethnic identity, but we ended nodding in agreement to Newbigin’s encouragement for us take on  our own scandal of particularity so that we might not let the breach between Asian American culture and Asian American church grow too large. Enjoy~

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