Sorry for the late notice!

But tonight’s tokback will be hosted by DJ Chuang! I believe it will start at the usual time of 10pm (EST) / 7pm (Pacific), but keep an eye out on @djchuang to catch any latest developments.

The discussion tonight is going to be around DJ’s recent presentation on “The Future of English Ministries“, and it’s definitely worth hearing DJ out on the subject. He’s definitely done his homework! As we like to say here in the South, “this ain’t his first rodeo,” if you get my drift. So stay tuned and hope to see you join the conversation tonight. Again sorry for the short notice, I’ll make sure to get the news out earlier next time, but we are definitely on for Thursday nights!

The link is www.djchuang.com/tokbox – see you there!

1 Samuel 17 – After David speaks out against the giant Goliath who threatens the people of Israel:
28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

Thank God for second chances, eh?

I know a lot of my brothers and sisters from “evangeli-world” (quite an amusement park) are peeved about Deadly Vipers, but I maintain that Asian Americans are doing Mike and Jud a huge favor. I say this somewhat cynically, so in the interests of full disclosure, I want to state that I don’t believe any of this is necessarily malicious opportunism on part of the authors or the publisher, but shouldn’t be ignored in a market-driven Christian industry like the one we have here. And all of this, I must add, serves to help us all avoid the real issue, that even when minorities speak out for more sensitivity and understanding, there is a nasty backlash against us as though we were the opposition. And the giant and his threats go unanswered…

First off, Asian Americans were not the target demographic. Obviously, this was nothing like Paul Tokunaga’s Invitation to Lead or Helen Lee’s Growing Healthy Asian American Churches, this was for “any” (read: white, male) Christian leader. What this means is that Asian Americans causing a stink about the book was completely not on their radar, after all, it wasn’t directed at us to begin with, it was directed at “anyone”. But what is interesting is that people who didn’t pose an economic threat in boycotting the book or the publisher were addressed with a decisive act. Why? To save face? Or because any smart business (Christian or non) knows that any stink about a book is good for the bottom line. Zondervan won’t lose when the book reappears. If anything, they might have gained more support from Asians for their gracious act.

And clearly, Mike and Jud now have a running start downhill on their next project (by the way, anyone notice how quickly that new project took away the sting of all their recent “ups and downs”? (That, my friends, is white privilege — “oh, did i hurt your feelings? i’m sorry, but i did take down my website and my book has to be re-done. you really should apologize for that — all these people were being ministered to. well anyway, i have this other thing i gotta go run and do. bye!”) And somehow, by “giving in” to the Asian American cultural sensitivity police, they maintain some sort of moral high ground (?!); how did that happen? How did they become the victims in this?

How did correcting our Christian brothers on cultural insensitivity and silent racism lead to people in their corner getting angry at us and getting extra credit for simply doing the right thing? Can’t I even speak? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to diminish their apology or the consequent actions, but that’s not radical integrity, that’s just basic. That’s not the high moral ground. If anything, the profile and scale of this overblown discussion (and I realize the irony in this very post, but it speaks to every instance where minorities get anger thrown back in their face when they point out the problem of racism), only helps the visibility of every future project Mike and Jud will ever engage in. And instead of facing the issue of racism within evangelical circles with the same aplomb they tackled the issue of pornography, they opt out, earning rave character reviews and supportive tweets and comments, which all serve to demonize Asian American Christians for bringing up the issue of race.

Now what have we done? Can’t we even speak?

When the Goliath of silent racism still lurks in our churches, our publishing houses, our conferences, our blogs and our neighborhoods, should we not say something? I am not your enemy; for crying out loud, I’m not even your target audience. I’m a confessed racist; and it takes one to know one. All I’m saying is that I’m not your antagonist, and my greatest accomplishment is not the apology elicited from Mike and Jud or the re-call of their brood of vipers; I don’t revel in this at all. I don’t think we won.

The giant lives and mocks us all still.

This week’s tokback topic (can’t say that too many times fast) is “How Asian are Asian American Christians? How Asian should they be?”

Please join us back here tomorrow evening, Thursday 11/19 at 10pm (EST) / 7pm (PST) for a good, lively conversation online using tokbox. I’ll update this post tomorrow afternoon and provide a URL where you can click and join in on the video chat, but don’t worry if you don’t have a webcam, as long as you have a microphone and speakers, you can at least listen and carry on the conversation.

Last week, we had a great showing to discuss Asian American women and the church with the likes of Kathy Khang, Helen Lee, Glennis Shih, Pauline Chiu, Joshua Settles, DJ Chuang, Danny Yang, Daniel So, Dan Ra, Laurence Tom, Edwin Kang, Dan Iwao, Tiffany…(um I can’t remember your last name, sorry!), and a few others popped in and out.

Here’s DJ Chuang’s tweet for that evening where he captured some of the conversation: “sneak a peek at a 3-minute clip from the ng.ac tokback video chat earlier tonite http://ow.ly/BOvd”

So join us again tomorrow evening. It’s been a lot of fun~ so much fun that they’ve been no less than 2.5 hours each!

***UPDATE: Here’s the tokback link: http://www.tokbox.com/conf/vg14ncvn4gpdqpav

Hey everyone, Next Gener.Asian Church (NG.AC) has begun hosting a regular dialogue on Thursday evenings, 10pm (EST) / 7pm (Pacific). This week’s topic is “Asian American Women and the Church.”

Last week, we did a trial run that included headsparks (Dan So), abcpastor (Laurence Tom), elderj (Joshua Settles), djchuang, jadanzzy (Dan Ra), and a few others popped their heads in, including Eugene Cho and Bruce Reyes-Chow. And the conversation featured lots of laughter, cool lighting, trumpet playing, and a few deep insights on how might instill a sense of ethnic identity through preaching, worship, and whatnot. It was so fun, we spent a few hours talking before calling it a night.

You won’t need any software, and you don’t have to have a webcam, but it would be nice just so everyone can see your facial expressions! Just check out Tokbox if you want to get an idea of what the technology behind it will be. And check the twitter feed on Thursday as it will be updated with the conference link.

As this Thursday we’ll be talking about Asian American women and the church, we’d love to see some strong sisters step in on the Tokback, so spread the word and join us.

UPDATE: Here’s the tokbox link to join!: http://www.tokbox.com/conf/1mt9zjjo4veo3evi

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. – Prov. 15:1.

In light of “Deadly Viper v. Asian Americans,” I have to confess that I was quite hopeful that all of this angst could be quickly alleviated if there was direct contact between Soong Chan Rah and Mike Foster. From my purview, things went from to room temperature to boiling very quickly. I’m not sure if it was the abrupt emails exchanged between Rah and Foster, the fact that social media (this blog and tweets included) really amplified the dialogue to a frenzied lather, or if it just felt that way.

Here are a few observations I want to make:

Mike Foster is obviously a busy man. And in his quick responses to Soong Chan’s initial email probe, it seems that he assumed that Rah was trolling. He mentions “an agenda” that he perceives Soong Chan is using to ensnare him and is  dismissive. Now, I know that tone is very hard to discern from online text, but I wonder if he had taken a little bit more caution in responding to Rah on those first few exchanges, we would be at a different place right now. “A gentle answer…”

Now, to be fair to Mike, he probably was not aware of the Rickshaw Rally fiasco. or about the Skits The Teach blunder or about the internal discussion that Camy Tang generated.  He had no idea that Rah and other Asian American Christians were highly sensitized to the matter. I know Mike’s not a repeat offender, but this is a repeat offense by Christian publishers, and honestly, they should know better by now. (Zondervan, if you haven’t noticed by now, Soong Chan Rah is a friggin’ watchdog, so you might want to get some multicultural training or at least read a few IVP books, something, gyah). So suffice it to say, at least when it comes to Christian books, we’re probably not the best ethnicity to mess with right now.

Mike is also used to criticism and witch hunts. I’m sure he got thick skin from his work with XXXchurch. Maybe Soong Chan came on a little strong, pulled out the monkey fist questioning too quickly. Perhaps out of habit, he was just trying to put Rah and his comments in his place.

That being said, I’m guessing Mike is a little bit taken aback. Honestly, I think a lot of bystanding, well meaning white folk were a bit taken aback. “Ninjas are cool! We want to be like you! Kung fu kicks ass, we want Christian leaders to kick ass! Why on earth would we be offending ass-kicking ninja leaders? We wish we came from the land of ninjas!”

Obviously, they want us to look at the content and ignore the promotional/marketing and other “catchy” things that are peripheral to the book. And of course, they probably want us to be “big” about this, post-racial even, you know, give them some credit for the good things this book is addressing, cut them some slack for cultural ignorance. Geez, it was all in good fun. Maybe they want to write this off as a spiritual attack on what is clearly God’s gift to the young, emerging ninja leader.

They didn’t expect the wrath of the Asian American subculture, after all, we are “sub”-culture, right? Right? And “you’re Christian and I’m Christian and you’ve gotta give grace and you know that I have no  malicious intent…”

But that’s the thing that’s so hard, You’re Christian and I’m Christian and we just can’t get there yet, not easily. I mean, sure, we’re called to forgive, but it doesn’t seem fair if Asian Americans are always the ones doing the forgiving. And so what?

Because the painful truth is you don’t need the Asian American demographic to sell your book. You can do fine without us. You don’t need us at your conferences, or to log on to your site, and enter the “mancave”. You don’t need any “Manswers” from us. Honestly, that’s probably what’s so frustrating about this. You don’t need us. Heck, Francis Chan doesn’t even need us. All we’re asking for is some respect. And from some our Asian American brothers and sisters, we’re asking for a little self-respect.

Mike Foster and I had a brief and cordial chat during “Online Man Cave” time tonight. When I asked whether something could be done, he replied he was working on something and was hopeful for a good ending. I know he didn’t mean any harm. I know he thinks this is being blown way out of proportion, that this is way too divisive of a conversation to be constructive; but man to man, I’m really eager to see how this plays out. I’m anxious to hear Mike’s and Zondervan’s response. Because the way I see it, this has little to do with you or Rah, but a lot about Christian ways of re-orienting white privilege, about giving respect to people you don’t have to account for.

And so for tonight, we wait for an answer. A “manswer,” even. A better manswer. A more thoughtful manswer. An manswer with actions.

And unfortunately, in that waiting for an answer, the anxiety grows, the suspicion mounts, the tension feels more palpable and all the tweets, the blog posts, the facebook status updates, the links, the comments…it feels like our wrath has turned away the answer. Perhaps we have spoken a harsh word in asking for justice, and you are asking for grace, not knowing that we have eaten a thousand insults before this one.

But I am hopeful.

Here’s just a glimpse of Prof. Rah’s opening night plenary session at CCDA.

I just got back from Cincinnati, Ohio on Sunday. I attended my first Christan Community Development Association Conference there and had a great time.

I was really privileged to be a part of a workshop on my first outing thanks to a friend, Ruth Arnold, who works at 2nd Mile Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida. She invited me and some other folks to discuss the topic: “Building Synergy in Cross-Cultural Relationships”. Here’s a quick list of the panel: Ruth Arnold
Alvin Sanders
David Park
Juanita Irizarry
Scott Lundeen
Mandia Gordon

Here’s the description of the workshop:

An accurate reflection of God’s Kingdom includes people living, worshipping and working together in synergistic relationships. That synergy is often broken because of misunderstandings, ignorance and a lack of communication. This workshop promotes synergy through understanding and dialoguing about tough subjects related to race and economics.

Any conversation on race is difficult to have, and is particularly hard if you’re doing it under the pressure of an audience. It’s also hard if you don’t know your fellow panelists either. But we did the best we could and engaged the audience as much as is possible in the 70 minute timeframe. So it’s not a perfect recording, but have a listen if you’d like.

HT to @djchuang for this video of Ed Stetzer talking with Ray Chang. I met Ray a few months back in Chicago, but didn’t get much of a chance to speak to him. There’s been talk that he might come visit Atlanta soon, and if he does, I’ll be waiting.