I’m Japanese, you’re not…therefore I win, and you lose! 6 comments
While responding to a blog post recently I was compelled to introduce a concept to those that follow my blog. It’s a story that was briefly introduced awhile ago, yet only engaged new Asian readers into the discussion, while most of my readership is not Asian. Asian or not, this is an issue that we must face within the church and I’m curious what you all think.
A reply to one of my comments on the blog was:
“In the short-run, you are right, i don’t think you’ll see much positive growth at all, but ethnicity needs to validated as a gift from God and our inheritance from our immigrant parents. so while i agree with your implication that many would benefit from a multi-ethnic or missional church (culture/ethnicity can be viewed as an inefficiency from many people’s eyes, but), an honest exploration into the question of why God created us to be from a certain place and of a certain people should inspire us to discover our ethnicities and cultures in a redemptive light.
This is where i think the example of the people of israel and the biblical practice of remembering, remembering what God has done, who God is, and who God has made us to be, a very real practice to engage in the ethnic context.”
First of all, let me state very clearly that I am extrapolating something from a post that had a larger context. It is not my intention to argue or criticize the blog author or anyone that shares his viewpoint. I am just taking the statement and inflecting my experiences and ideas in the hopes of engaging in some dialog about the subject (hopefully) from both Asian and non-Asians.
Okay, so I’m Japanese, but I’ll admit there were some times in my life where I wished I could have been born looking like Brad Pitt or Joe Montana (nod to my NorCal upbringing) or David Cassidy. Usually it was so that I could have a girl attracted to me that wouldn’t date me because I was Japanese or so that I could avoid the words and violence associated with racism and prejudice. However, I am who I am and all that I am is for the glory of God.
However, do I want to celebrate my heritage in such a way that I need to have everyone around me be Japanese and understand my culture and my language when I’m in a Sunday church service? Is preserving my heritage in such a way something that can honor God much in the same way that the Israelites were true to their place as God’s chosen people? Did God create me as a Japanese person to engage only other Japanese people and rally us around a common cause of preserving who we are?
The Israelites were in-fact God’s chosen people. They were to inherit the earth as Abraham’s descendants. They were not to intermarry or in anyway corrupt the lineage. However, even in the Old Testament we see evidence of something that goes against this notion. Ruth was a Gentile that came to faith in the one true God. Not just any Gentile, but a Moabite and therefore hated by the Israelites. Ruth marries Boaz and bears a son that can be traced to the family line of Jesus himself.
As we see here, introducing Ruth into the Israelite culture of Judah had a profound place in history. Therefore, what is my place as a Japanese person living in the United States? Am I to segregate myself to a place where I can teach the things of God based on the context of my Japanese culture for those that will understand it because they too are Japanese? Or should I celebrate who I am in Christ and share my culture and experience with others so that they may benefit?
Let me shift to a different scenario to help me make my point. With Barack Obama’s candidacy the discussion of black church and white church came up in the media. There were some black churches (I personally dislike this label even though it is socially acceptable) where the message was preached against white America. It was almost an us-against-them mentality that was glorified. However, what if instead of trying to empower African-Americans in the church to stand up to social injustice from the caucasian world they tried to share their stories outside of the black church in a way that brought attention to what has gone on and continues to go on in their lives? How can white America know what is going on in the black community if the black community segregates themselves from the rest of us? The same is true with Asian-Americans in my opinion.
I talk to so many people today that have no clue what I go through as an Asian-American in society. So many think that racism and prejudice is a thing of the past. You wouldn’t believe how many people think I must be smart in math or must have gone to college at UCLA or Cal or that I must be an engineer or know all there is to know about computers or ask me questions about sushi. The outright hatred of me due to my Asian features has diminished greatly over the years, but the stereotypes have not. How does being exclusively with other Japanese people on Sundays help me to make a difference? What if I could take the fulfillment of one of God’s Ten Commandments to honor your mother and father to a whole ‘nother level by introducing my Japanese culture of being there for my parents in ways that aren’t the norm here in America?
I believe that God created me more to honor him and bring glory to his Son Jesus through my unique perspective of a Japanese person with my own individual experiences than he did to see me perpetuate my ethnic values and cultures at all costs. As the Great Commandment in Matthew 25 calls us to do, we are to preach the gospel to all nations and teach them what Christ has taught us. He didn’t say each nation is responsible for the preaching of the gospel to themselves. Three thousand didn’t come to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and believe so that they could go back to their nations and keep their faith within the borders of their individual nations. Paul didn’t preach there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile only to see us reverse that in order to preserve our ethnic culture in a new land.
I should not have the viewpoint that I am Japanese and you are not so I can perpetuate my culture and heritage in my church and you are excluded, therefore you lose out on all that you could gain through knowing and understanding who I am and what I experienced. Through knowing my struggles with racism and prejudice and the pressures I faced in school here in America you can have some insight on persecution for who I am and how I dealt and continue to deal with that now that I am a Japanese person and a Christian. You can learn how some of the values revealed to us through the Scriptures have been in place in the country of my birth even though less than 1/10th of 1 percent of its people are Christian and how that breaks my heart. You can learn how to look at me as a brother or sister in Christ with individual experiences I can bring to the table and share rather than someone you have no idea how to address since you couldn’t be as mathematical or technologically savvy as me or because you don’t like sushi or whatever.
The harsh reality is that I am different from most of you. Heck, I’m different from many Japanese people as well. However, not only do I truly believe that you can learn from me, I absolutely know that I can learn from you. Together we can celebrate all of God’s people and all that he is doing in this world as the brothers and sisters he created us to be.
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There’s a lot of truth to what you say. In the 21st century and as Christ followers, there shouldn’t be any room for bias, segregation or stereotyping, especially within the church. One Messiah, one focus, many people coming together in obedience to His Word.
Those who claim ethnocentrism is precedented in the Bible because of the ancient Israelite tribes are mistaken. God required the Jewish race to be pure in their focus upon Him, knowing full well that the nations and peoples surrounding them were multitheistic and pagan. Israelites who intermarried with other groups would likely be pulled away from their faith, and in fact it was for that reason the kingdoms of Israel and Judah fell (events prophesied well before they took place secondary to disobedience of and turning from God’s Almighty character).
The example you gave of Ruth was a good one. Paul traveled throughout the ancient world after the Lord revealed to him that gentiles were to be among the Christian church. To this day, nothing should be changed: one Messiah, one focus, many people coming together in obedience to His Word.
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Deb, I am in agreement with you on this. We as a society have done all we can to be politically correct in our schools, workplace, and in public, yet for whatever reason we don’t practice this in the church. It’s the only place I know of where we can come together and speak negatively and pass judgment on others that aren’t like us and get away with it. While I know one day it won’t be like this as Christ is coming back to stake claim to his church and proclaim final righteousness amongst his people, I feel compelled to do my part now to seek unity and share the gospel with all people. At the foundation of the vision for the church plant we are starting next year is Ephesians 4 which calls upon us to live as children of light and be a unified body of Christ.
Thanks so much for adding to this discussion!
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I think it is a hard struggle. Cultural differences play out in many ways. I mean some people feel uncomfortable with a gathering of Pentecostals because it isn’t their culture. We all have a cultural context, we can’t escape it.
The problem is when we worship that cultural context whether that is race or church heritage and believe that this context makes us better than others.
In the early days of the church Gentile believers met on Sunday while the Jews continued to worship on the Sabbath. They both would gather if possible for the agape meal and when they did Paul makes it clear they shouldn’t dwell on differences (Romans 14).
Much of the problem may be linked to size of gatherings.
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Darin, one of the differences between church culture and the racially segregated church is that Pentecostals will go out and let others know they worship God and about his power in their lives and invite them to an upcoming church service. Generally, it doesn’t matter too much about who the recipient is or what they look like. Within the ethnocentric church, especially if it is for Asian people, it is not common to see people invited to a church service and if it does happen, it is almost 100% of the time going to be a fellow Asian. In particular, if it is a Korean church then it will be Koreans that are invited.
Separately however, you bring up a good point. I have heard descriptions of how the Pentecostal experience is fuller than the non-charismatic experience in kind of a demeaning way. One illustration is that Christianity is like an ice cream sundae. However, Pentecostalism with speaking in tongues is like an ice cream sundae with whipped cream and a cherry on top. So, I see your point within that context.
I would be interested to learn how you see size of the gathering as being a possible problem to the segregation. Thanks for your reply!
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hey dave, i appreciate your post and you bring up salient points.
i wrestle with this a great deal as you can imagine on my website and such with ethnic issues, so i have a great tension within myself about what you’re saying here.the point of high ethnic identity (as opposed to assimilation) is not exclusion or self-righteousness. it is three-fold: one, to identify and thus be able confess what i call cultural sin (this is something that i define as a sin that is larger than the individual, but perpetuated by the culture-many of which you can identify in korean churches); two, is to discover and offer the cultural gift; third is to administer meaningful and profound reconciliation.
you pointed out black churches in your example as being highly antagonistic to white America, and yes, that is true, but without their high ethnic identity redeemed in Christ, the black community could not have served as an extremely necessary corrective and prophetic voice to the racist church in america which supported empire and oppression and not the God of the Bible. this is where ethnic identity provided gifts to the global church such as negro spirituals and gospel preaching. the segregation while imposed at first was not only a means of survival for the black community, but the very platform which strengthens the identity of many black people in this country who are believers to the point where their distinctiveness and self-awareness helps to make them vibrant contributors to the life of multi-ethnic communities and congregations. you can’t judge the current segregated landscape of churches based on this ideal of multi-ethnic church in the present. to do so, is to underestimate the extent of the oppression and history of hatred.
asian americans on the other hand are very low in general on ethnic identity, meaning they assimilate far too quickly and have wrestled very little with the notion of what it means to be asian american and christian. which means, they assume the two aren’t related at all. and having worked in an english ministry at one, you have to admit that the ethnocentrism there is sheer ethnocentrism, it’s not ethnic identity fused with spiritual identity a la african american christianity. there is no rich transformed christian heritage and voice that we learn to speak and understand as to how the Lord brought us a mighty long way, and thus, we have no real ethnic identity at all other than to eat the food and bow our way out of an introduction.
but here’s my point, i’m not saying we stay at asian churches because i’m trying to preserve my ethnic heritage. i’m not saying i exclude you or whomever so i can feel like this is my one day out of the week where i can be myself and make fun of others, i’m saying that this is the place where i can hear the testimony of my father through the korean war meet Christ and love his japanese oppressor. this is where i can hear how God provided for my mother in a country where she was a token in constant anxiety for not being able to speak the language. this is where i find that we prayed all morning and all night and God showed up. this is where i find out we are more than just nerds or aftermarket car freaks. it connects me to the narrative of how an asian living in america is worshiping a jewish messiah. and that is what we do not hear in asian churches. if we did, then the reconciliation that needs to take place between japanese and koreans would be real, because Christ would compel us, not to re-write our pasts, but to get busy writing a new future, but not because we don’t remember, but because we do and that would make reconciliation much more profound. and that is not something the multi-ethnic church can speak to. this is precisely why when Christ tells the story of the good Samaritan, it’s not simply compelling because this guy was a non-Jew, it’s because of what kind of non-jew that he was. history matters. race matters. and if we want our reconciliation to be deep and meaningful, then that’s where cultural distinctiveness and memory matters. random acts of kindness are for beginners…shalom is remembering what was and re-imagining what can be. my point is that asian americans have no idea that it matters at all and so we sit in the small-mindedness and pettiness of protectionist ethnic identity. what i am talking about is a missional ethnic identity that knows who i am, not just in some cheap, existential sense, but really knows where i came from, the people i come from, the people i’ve sinned against and have sinned against me, and through the power and love of Christ begin to mend and build from there.
exclusion is not the only inevitable outcome of ethnic identity, as you pointed out, but in order to provide a way it out, it requires the missional component out of a healthy sense of self differentiation. otherwise, we become parrots of another culture and people and we lose our sense of self, which is to say, our very flavor. if Christ has placed us in the midst of these cultures, i believe the Holy Spirit leads us to be really who we are so that the distinctives matter. one day we may have to speak prophetically to the culture at large one day, and we cannot do so if we have already sold out (think Esther).
sorry for the long post, just wanted to offer up a counterpoint and clarification on the issue. ethnic identity is not for self-perpetuation’s sake, but so that each color (figuratively) maintains some distinction, so that the unity of God’s bride is not one based in sameness, but in the diversity that God created us to be. as it says in rev.21, God intends to bring the glory and honor of the nations into the new Jerusalem, my only contention is that we don’t dilute the diversity, while keeping in mind your critique as well.
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David, your point on cultural sin…ouch! That is a tough one and I do see that happening every day. Never really composed it in a tangible manner for whatever reason though. Probably because I fell victim to accepting it as a cultural norm and believing I couldn’t do anything to change it. As for the other 2 of 3 points you make I concur with them, but not sure if I can grasp the issue of racial/cultural reconciliation.
You stated that some African-American churches can only be an example to other Christians through being reconciled within their own cultural identity first. However, if there is no diversity in the church, how can the outside world really understand that reconciled perspective and benefit from it? Also, what prevents the ethnocentric church from going overboard and antagonisitic to outside influences in an effort to preserve their culture and understanding with the four walls of their community of worship?
Additionally, the point you bring up about your father giving testimony of how he can come to know Christ and learn to love his Japanese oppressor is a poignant one. In fact, so poignant that I feel it’s relevant to all, not just in the context of the Korean-American church. These are the kinds of things that the world-at-large have no clue about. They bury their head in the sand of their own culture and have no idea about oppression or persecution or struggles that cause people to be the way they are. Sure, some of us assimilate oh-too-well into the American culture and become part of the homogenous landscape, yet this should not be the goal and I agree with you on this point.
For us to love others, we must learn to love ourselves. We should have pride in our heritage as God created us to be born and grow up where we do for a specific purpose and to affect specific people. I can see how we can learn to understand and embrace our culture through the ethnocentric church, but fail to understand how this helps us share the cultural experiences with those from different cultures if we worship together in churches that mirror our own cultures only.
You point out the differences between Samaritans and Jews. Jews hated Samaritans and thought them to be lowly people. However, just because Jesus walked through Samaria to get to Jerusalem rather than walk around Samaria as the other Jews did will not impact Jews in the same way as if he leads them through Samaria for their own personal experience. If Jesus shows that Samaritans are on the same level as Jews and deserving of grace and favor just like they are, then Jews can all agree with the statement, yet have a tough time putting into practice because they can’t get themselves to do what they say because it’s not in their hearts.
As Paul stated that there is no such thing as clean or unclean anymore, yet if someone needs to keep the difference and not touch unclean food, then we should keep the difference so as to not cause them to stumble. It’s about sacrifice and encouraging others to keep the faith without judgement. Why can’t such an attitude exist in a multi-ethnic church rather than keeping Sundays segregated? As you stated that you don’t want to be exclusive, that is good, but at the same time if 100% of the congregation is Korean and the message and testimony is always in the context of a Korean audience, it is not a conducive or friendly environment to non-Koreans. So, it kind of defeats the purpose of being open if the deck is stacked against outsiders.
Maybe at some point (if you haven’t do so already) you can post something to your blog that gives your perspective in such a way that maybe I can get a little more clarity on the matter. Maybe it is because I am seeing things only from my perspective or that because I have not been raised in the ethnocentric church that I don’t quite get the issue of redemption from a cultural/racial perspective, but I’m trying.
As much as I have wanted to pull my hair out or felt out of place in the Korean-American church, I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything and am so grateful to have been blessed to see the church from this perspective and to try and understand how Korean culture in a Christian American setting can glorify God and reach the unchurched with the gospel. We had 8 baptisms of new converts a few months ago in a church of 20 so I see the Lord’s hand at work and am encouraged, but so much of what I see also discourages me here in Sacramento. Somedays fighting the good fight in the context of the Korean-American church in Sacramento just seems impossible and I apologize if any of my experiences have negatively affected my perceptions or my misunderstandings.
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deb burton
13 Oct 08 at 8:08 pm