First of all, I must confess something. I am a big fan of John Cusack and 80′s films in general. However, only after watching Cusack’s Say Anything for the first time after having had some experience in formal ministry, the movie was quite different for me. It became more about the underlying tale of lives intertwined in everyday stuff–where people aren’t always what they seem, and not everyone strives to be an achiever.

One of the things that stuck in my brain this time was when Lloyd Dobler (played by Cusack) was asked about his aspirations once he graduated from high school. His response was:

When I heard this, my mind immediately went to ministry. I have stayed away from ministry for some of the reasons that Cusack’s character Lloyd Dobler mentioned staying away from choosing a career path. Yeah, it’s kind of a convoluted thought, but if you stop and think about it, don’t you know of someone in ministry that has been guilty of selling something (church, religion, tithing, serving), buying something (doing something in exchange for getting financial support), processing something for sale (personalizing a theology or doctrine and then preaching it, rather than Christ crucified) or ____________ ? (add your own thoughts here)

Ministry shouldn’t be about sales or buying something or having an agenda. It should be about people and connecting them with the eternal love of Christ.

Now, it’s your turn to say anything…

Saw this great video posted by my friend Marc Payan. It shares a great message, but I was most-impressed with how it shows our perception of the future can be misleading depending on how we look at it. It’s only 1 minute, 40 seconds so I hope you’ll watch it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday today, I have read a lot of great stories, tributes and messages of hope. Dr. King continues to inspire and be a hero to many in the world today 40 years after his passing. However, it took reading this post by John Saddington to inspire me to share my story.

My story doesn’t start off very neat or encouraging. In my childhood I always had a prejudice against Dr. King. First of all, he was a black man trying to bring attention to black people and seemingly blaming the white man for the woes of being black and underprivileged. I was put off by that activism and finger pointing. You see, I am an adopted Japanese-American. I was born in Japan and brought to Sacramento, CA at the age of 4. I grew up in suburb named Rio Linda, which was a rural, farming & ranch community and almost exclusively white. It neighbored an urban, crime-infested, predominantly black community named Del Paso Heights. From Kindergarten through high school, I can only remember one African-American teacher, and that was my first grade teacher. However, she never seemed black to me. She was black in appearance, but in my mind she was no different than any other white person in my neighborhood. She definitely didn’t fit the stereotype of what I saw in Del Paso Heights–small, unkept house with a Cadillac Coupe De Ville in the driveway and a men dressed like pimps and women dressed like they were going to church on Sunday every day of the week. Sadly, this is my frame of reference. Culture was non-existent and everything was either white or black.

Interestingly enough, there were a few African-American kids in my schools and I was friends with all of them. However, as was the case with my first grade teacher, the African-American kids were seemingly white…they dressed like me, talked like me, enjoyed the same cafeteria food as me. I denied them their culture and they didn’t present their culture. Through all of this, I was continually the butt of Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese (etc.) jokes and remember times when I was in fights just because I looked different than the white kids. Rather than standup for myself and those that didn’t look white, I tried harder and harder to be white. I deeply wanted to be accepted as white, even wishing that somehow my eyes could become more round, my skin could become lighter and my hair could be changed from any color other than jet black. As stupid as this is going to sound, I remember sitting on the grass in my physical education class as a high school freshman hearing two white kids sitting next to me using the N-word and talking about how they were driving out a black family in the community through their participation in a KKK cross burning in the black family’s front yard that week. I was appalled and disgusted by what I heard, yet remained silent and indifferent to the whole thing because I wanted to fit in as white.

My parents perpetuated all of the negative stereotypes and tried to teach me racial hatred. Interesting as my adoptive parents were a bi-racial couple–my dad was white and mom was Japanese–yet they were racists. There hate was so deep that even as I graduated high school and entered the workforce while being a part-time college student, my mom told me one day that if I ever brought home a black a girl she would disown me.

You see, everything around me influenced me to be prejudiced and filled with hatred and anger towards those that were not white. While I never really learned how to hate others for the color of their skin, I did learn to be prejudiced against the stereotypical black person if they lived in the wrong place, used the wrong language, or dressed the wrong way. Even my memories of tv shows back then like Sanford & Son helped perpetuate my way of thinking. For me, it wasn’t the color of one’s skin, but rather aspects of culture that caused the negative thoughts and prejudices. Everything was viewed and compared to my white, rural, suburban perspective. It doesn’t excuse my pseudo-racism however.

As you can imagine, I have had a lot of experiences and influences that have caused me to be conflicted or never really being fully accepted in a particular group. I’ve always been a marginalized person because I am complicated and see things differently than many others. Even in my view of Dr. King, it’s like I’m on the outside looking in. I was not one of those school kids that was drawn to Dr King’s message of empowerment or hope–I actually viewed it in a negative and judgmental light growing up. Not only could I care less about his words, I didn’t give him much respect because he was also a minister. Back then in my narrow world, God did not exist. Therefore, hearing Scriptures or references to Biblical oppression turned me off.

Fast forward to the year 2010 and I think anyone that knows me or hears me speak can realize that much of King’s message, philosophy, love and call to abolish racism resonate within my vocabulary. It is only in recent years that I’ve been drawn to learn more about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and realize how much we have in common and how much I can learn from him. To a confused boy growing up in a conflicted world, it was easy to see how his message was for blacks, yet as I hear his words today it is obvious that it is a message for everyone:

• “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
• “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence”
• “At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”
• “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”
• “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. “
• “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. “

How can one read the above-quotes and see black or white? Christian or atheist? Dr. King spoke a message of hope and racial reconciliation for all people. It is exactly that platform for which I stand today as a minister of the gospel and human being that I desire so passionately to see embraced within the church today. You see, I’ve been to the other side and it’s a very dark, unhappy place to be. I know what it’s like to experience prejudice against me as well as casting it upon innocent others. While my experience isn’t unique, it is different. It took many years, but the legacy of the greatness of Dr. King’s life has been infused into my being and it is my hope that others in the coming generations will come to know the beauty of Dr. King’s dream and I am humbled to think that in some small way, maybe I am being used to continue shining a light on his legacy. People can and do change. We can rise above our past and our negative environments to be a voice for what is right.

Thank you Dr. King for your steadfastness, compassion and sacrifice in the name of what is just, true and right.

The real question is why wouldn’t you? The church tends to follow patterns that have clearly led to growth and decline over the past 2,000 years. Trends change, people change, cultural influences dictate change…eventually the church changes as well. Unfortunately for the church, we tend to be reactive rather than proactive. It leaves us playing catch up and going through a lot of pain in the interim.

With all sociologists in agreement, the United States will have no majority ethnic culture/race by the year 2050. However, here in California, the expectation is that Hispanics will become the majority population by 2020…that’s just 10 years from now! We can look amongst ourselves and see the predominant culture in our churches and believe we are poised to be healthy, large and growing forever, or we can step back and realize that at least in California, by 2020 we won’t be the majority culture in our cities.

In addition to the rising population of Hispanics, did you know that 40% of all Asians in the United States live in California? For those of you not in California, it still means that 60% of all Asians in America live in other states, so they have or will have some impact on the cultural makeup of your city.

Here in Sacramento, one of the big influences I have been seeing is that of Russian culture coming into the city. Recently this group of caucasian people have really begun shaping a lot of the culture here. There are many large Russian congregations and we even have Russian food restaurants. To go with the change, I’ve noticed that at least 1/3 of the items stocked at the local Asian grocery store are now Russian. While these people may blend in at the local church because they are white, culturally they are not your average Sacramentan. They have a different cultural heritage and are bringing its influence into our city unlike anything I’ve experienced in the past 39 years I’ve lived here.

You see, with everyone around you coming from a different cultural background, it’s easy to go about being the church of the majority while you’re the majority. When the day comes that you are not the majority, what do you do? When the mantra of being racially diverse in your church never materializes, yet you see new churches all around you that are not just diverse racially, but diverse culturally, do you move to join them or hang onto to your dying ways as the new minority?

To repeat Dave Gibbon’s definition of third culture (which i use solely for the standpoint of the local church): “Third culture is the mindset and will to love, learn and serve in any culture even in the midst of pain and discomfort.” there is pain and discomfort that comes with being a third culture church. You have to set aside some things you like for the sake of experiencing other cultures. Without pain and discomfort, rarely is growth possible. We all chant about how Christ has transformed us and that we love everyone because he first loved us. However, when we are an inclusive group of people trying to invite others that looks like us to our party, yet we play only the music we like, only serve the food and beverages we enjoy, talk about the suburbia which we worked hard to obtain, how can we expect others to connect with what we are selling? Yes, when we talk about reaching other people yet do not change to make room for them, we are selling them a bill of goods that isn’t very tasty. We are the salt that has lost its saltiness.

We all tell the world that we value truth. We say that we not only want to speak the truth, but that we want others to speak the truth to us. In the end, you want to speak the truth and hope that no one will be bold enough to speak the truth back to you. Why? Because you are a phony!

[I'm sorry if I offended you, but it is my blog and therefore my truth. However, after hearing me out, I do encourage you to speak your truth back to me in the comments section below.]

Take a moment to stop and ask yourself a question: Are you really representing your thoughts honestly to others? In other words, are their times in church when you will raise your hand and stand for God, yet in the office you say nothing?

“If we endure hardship,
we will reign with him.
If we deny him,
he will deny us.” — 2 Timothy 2:12 NLT

Do you find yourself telling people “yes” when you wanted to tell them “no”?

“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” –Matthew 5:37 NIV

Why do we profess to living a life of truth, yet we ultimately find ourselves in lies?

For me, it’s not just simply saying “yes” to something I wanted to say “no” to. For me, it goes much deeper than that. In my world, I am what’s referred to as the twinkie: yellow on the outside, white on the inside. I have lived the life of being an Asian-American trying hard to assimilate in a world of the white majority. It’s not who I am; it’s not who God created me to be. It was a lie I was living in order to fit into a world that was comfortable with the majority. I was deceived because it never felt like a lie, until some people spoke truth into my life and caused me to see it for what it was.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not some Malcolm X and I don’t see to have the majority world view. I’m simply feeling compelled to let my words and actions represent who I am, rather than who I want you to think I am. Worse would be if I distort the truth to be who you think I should be.

Something is being changed deep within me. I can’t just come to learn this truth in my life and passively wait for it to come to the surface. My environment must change, my friends must change, my lifestyle must change if I am to honor this. I do sense these changes coming — how and when I do not know — but they are coming and I know in my heart that I am not a twinkie. My inside should be reflected on the outside, and my inside isn’t white. I have suppressed a lot of emotion and pain. I have lived a confused (and confusing) life at times. It hasn’t been who I was created to be, and with the help of my Creator I hope to let you all get to know me for who I am, not who you want me to be. I can’t live that lie anymore.

In response to some things stirring within me, along with the sense that there is some cultural context we are striving to find yet failing in our search, I am devoting my blogspace on Thursdays to what I am calling “3rd Culture Thursday.” It’s an exploration and conversation related to the idea of third culture kids and how we as the church should move towards embracing the concept within our own communities. This whole 3rd culture idea became aware to me from reading Dave Gibbons‘ book: The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership For A Third-Culture Church.

Gibbons defines 3rd culture as:

The mindset and the will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort.

A key element to the discussion is this idea of being committed to something while being in the midst of pain and discomfort. It involves honesty, conflict, hard work and an attitude of openness. These are all hard things to deal with on an individual basis, but imagine what life would be like if we were to take them all on once and then some. Imagine the amazing things that come about if we would at least try.

Here’s a video from Dave Gibbons that gives a bit of insight on the 3rd culture mindset:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfrGpdjdv40

Does this resonate with you? Are you intrigued? Beginning to feel a sense of connectedness? If so, it is my hope that this forum will help educate and be used as a way to lend a voice to others and engage in some new dialog.

Learn more by visiting Dave Gibbons’ 3rd culture website: http://www.3culture.tv or by reading his book: The Monkey And The Fish. Also, look for tweets with the hashtag #3ct or follow the aggregate list of tweets on twubs.com/3ct as I will be tweeting 140 characters at a time throughout the week to help facilitate better understanding and dialog on 3rd culture.

See you here next Thursday as we kick-off the conversation with a post titled “Who is your neighbor?”

Something so simple has turned into something so divisive. I get it, but I don’t like it! People within Asian-American culture are divided in some aspects and people of the predominant white American culture are divided as well.

The initial intent of the discussion regarding the marketing/packaging of Deadly Viper Character Assassins was to make known how this was insensitive to Asian-American culture. It was to help stop the perpetual pain of Orientalism and respect our culture in a relevant context. However, the way the situation has been handled has continued to bring about pain. However, now it’s not just the Asian-American community, but it is also the culture of fans of the Deadly Viper Character Assassins book. Where’s the intelligence in that?

From day one the biggest misstep in all of this has been communication. Unfortunately, for those of you looking to blame Asian-Americans for being at fault you are completely wrong. Gross errors in communication have occurred on both sides. Some communication has taken place, but it’s been inappropriate in many instances.

The latest communication error in my opinion is in the way Mike Foster & Jud Wilhite have emerged as the victims. If you go to their website, deadlyviper.org all you’ll find is this note:

To our Friends and Family:

Due to an unfortunate conflict that arose around our use of Asian American themes, we have decided to close this chapter of Deadly Viper Character Assassins. This decision has been a very difficult one for us and one that we did not take lightly.

For the past 2 years we have had the honor to be part of an incredible movement of advocating for radical integrity and grace. We have been deeply humbled hearing your stories of how Deadly Viper has impacted your life, family, and relationships.

We and our team will continue to commit our lives to the message of integrity, grace, and most of all becoming People Of The Second Chance.

We thank you for your prayers, support, and kindness through this season.

We love you.

Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite

At a glance, this seems reasonable. However, I get red flags from just the first sentence:

Due to an unfortunate conflict that arose around our use of Asian American themes, we have decided to close this chapter of Deadly Viper Character Assassins.

The reason I have an issue with this is because it solely places blame on Asian-Americans as the reason why the website was shut down. First of all, lets get something straight. When you come out initially and say that you used Asian imagery in the promotion of the book not realizing that it would be deemed insensitive and that out of respect to the error you are withdrawing the Asian themes from your website and other media how can that now be expressed as an “unfortunate conflict?” In reality, the “unfortunate” aspect of this whole fiasco was using the imagery in a non-relevant way in the first place. Know that because I found the wording of the letter to be unfortunate, I reached out to Mike Foster and asked if he’d take a few minutes to converse with me about why he chose those words. We have several mutual friends, but none of the channels I operated through (both direct & in-direct) worked and I never received a response from him. In my opinion, shutting down everything and not explaining it in better words has caused confusion and resentment. It’s being viewed by many as a passive-aggressive action that really is uncalled for if the intent really is to better-understand the issue and reach out to those that were offended.

Secondly, the final word on the matter on deadlyviper.org is that the total shutdown of their work was in direct response to the conflict with the Asian-American community. For whatever reason people haven’t gotten this so far, let me clarify it for you as simply and as succinctly as I can: No one in the Asian-American community attacked Mike Foster or Jud Wilhite personally. Most of us went out of our way to preface our comments by saying that we respected and appreciated Foster & Wilhite and their ministries (a few examples from: me, Eugene Cho, David Park, Laurence Tom, Daniel So). Yes, many Asian-Americans felt hurt by the insensitive use of the Asian imagery in the book, but it was never compared to the other ministry of Deadly Viper. Ultimately the issue was placed on Zondervan to withdraw the book in its current form and re-release it with the insensitive materials removed. Zondervan responded by agreeing to swiftly remove the book from stores. So, when deadlyviper.org gets unexpectedly shutdown, most of us in the Asian-American community are scratching our heads just like the fans of Deadly Viper. None of us had issues with the Man Cave sessions, the blog, or any of the other ministries launched from that site. Those could have continued on without any feedback from those offended by the packaging of the book. So, to blame Asian-Americans for seeing the site taken down was something I see as an attempt to increase the divisiveness and make it an “us against them” issue which it was never intended to be. In fact, one of the amazing things I got to witness by being at The Idea Camp in Portland, OR this past weekend was seeing Eugene Cho, one of the guys invited into the discussion with Zondervan, wearing a People Of The Second Chance shirt on stage. He never once commented on the issue, but his shirt spoke volumes as to how his issue was never with Mike Foster or Jud Wilhite personally.

As I wrote in a previous blog post, the issue isn’t really just the use of Asian imagery being used inappropriately to market and package a book. It’s about a deeper issue of racial insensitivity that has continued for generations because Asian-Americans just quietly deal with it. A generation is finally coming forward to say that it’s wrong and the heart of the matter needs to be addressed. We’re not looking for our Rosa Parks or organizing boycotts or anything like that. We’re simply asking to be respected for our cultural diversity and our relevance in society. None of us are demanding equality or favoritism. However, each one of us looking at how this has escalated have all either thought or expressed how something like this in the context of an African-American issue would have never happened. First, proper precautions would have been taken to make sure it wasn’t deemed offensive to the African-American community, but even of greater importance is that it would have never even been pitched in the first place. Had it flown through all the checkpoints and actually been published, it would have caused an uproar and not only would books have been pulled, but amends would have been swift and apologetic and hands would have been outstretched to heal the pain caused to the African-American community. We would have all expected to see that happen. However, when it comes up in an Asian-American context, many in the predominant American culture have wondered what the big deal was all about.

I’m not here to assassinate anyone’s character or judge them for being racists. However, this whole incident has had racist undertones for some and it had triggered an angry response both by those on the offensive and defensive sides. Regardless of how things have transpired, if you harbor ill-will towards the Asian-American community for causing the beloved Deadly Viper to come crashing to its knees, you’d better look elsewhere because we don’t deserve that criticism.

I’ve been seeing a lot of promotion for another ministry of Mike & Jud: People Of The Second Chance. Unfortunately, details for that were taken down along with the Deadly Viper stuff so I can’t link to any of it, but it’s an awesome work full of grace and extending open hands to people. If more of what was behind that ministry was exemplified in the Deadly Viper issue, things would not have escalated and misunderstandings would have been quickly squashed.

We in the Asian-American community just want to see some ongoing dialog of reconciliation occur. We’re not interested in drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves, nor are we out to win any fights. We have a story and a history in your nation and in all honesty, it’s you who miss out when you are indifferent to that. As my friend Charles Lee tweeted recently, “Reconciliation is better than closure.” May it be reconciliation that is declared the winner someday in all of this.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. –1 John 2:15 New International Version

I just Re-tweeted something I saw mentioning that my friend Charles Lee was going to be speaking at Exponential 2010. I was excited! Then I saw a tweeted link from the website on a national church planter’s conference announcing The Idea Camp being in Portland 11/20-21. I was excited! Then…it struck me like a ton of bricks. There it was. I saw an image of Rob Bell being displayed in a banner as if he was Elvis Presley circa 1972:

Sorry, but this image disturbs me…seriously disturbs me. What are we doing? We’re mimicking the secular world and hyping up big budget Christian events with Christian celebrities–treating them like celebrities, marketing them like celebrities, ogling after them like celebrities–and putting our hopes into one big social event every year. It’s our chance to hear first-hand from famous people why they are famous and we are not. We are basically acting like the world that idolizes fame, except we are operating under the premise that it’s different because we are working for God. Seriously, are you buying in to the hype? The better question is, should you be buying into the hype?

We are Christians that are supposed to live in the world, yet not be a part of the world, yet we are doing the exact same thing to attract Christians that worldly idols do to attract idolaters. How can this be right?

Imagine what our faith would be like if we read in the Bible that Jesus went from town to town preaching the Good News and charging $300 per person in order to hear the message. Imagine what the Apostle Paul’s story would have been like had he gone to Rome, Galatia, Ephesus and spoke from the coliseums and amphitheaters to a crowd of paying spectators, while watching the rest of the people perish because they couldn’t afford to hear him speak.

Take a look at some of the additional images that are rotated through the banner for this national Christian conference below and you decide:

What do you see when you see the images above? Doesn’t it look like a promo for some celebrities or a rock concert? Is that the image we in the church really want to portray to the world? Is that an image we as the church want to portray to Christians? Does anyone else even really care? Maybe you should:

No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments. –Exodus 20:4-6 The Message

I bring this up because some from Chloe’s family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you’re fighting among yourselves! I’ll tell you exactly what I was told: You’re all picking sides, going around saying, “I’m on Paul’s side,” or “I’m for Apollos,” or “Peter is my man,” or “I’m in the Messiah group.”

I ask you, “Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul’s name?” I was not involved with any of your baptisms—except for Crispus and Gaius—and on getting this report, I’m sure glad I wasn’t. At least no one can go around saying he was baptized in my name. (Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephanas’s family, but as far as I can recall, that’s it.) –1 Corinthians 1:11-16 The Message

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. –James 1:27 New International Version

Personal Tidbit: I rarely feel like I have much of a voice when it comes to being an Asian-American Christian or especially, when it comes to practical ministry to Asian-Americans. However, whenever I blog about such things, I get the most readership and the most feedback to the posts. Interesting!

So, here is another post on an aspect of being Asian-American. However, this time I have to chime in and say I feel like I have a lot to speak to on the issue regarding the controversy between the guys at Deadly Viper and Soong-Chan Rah. If you haven’t heard enough about the issue already, you can read the initial blog posts that started the controversy: Soong-Chan Rah’s post is here; Deadly Viper’s post was taken down yesterday, but you can see a follow-up here.

Let me start by saying I’m not here to criticize or judge anyone. I think enough has been said based on too-little information *and* too much assumption already. The fact-of-the-matter is that I truly believe that had all parties involved taken the issue seriously and worked toward solutions from the beginning, rather than being defensive this would have all been alleviated. Taking it privately where real understanding and reconciliation could emerge rather than making it public, thus drawing attention to themselves. So, I’m not adding fuel to the fire through using a public forum to call people out. Instead, I ask that we take a look at the deeper issue. The escalation was just the byproduct of the underlying issue that hasn’t really been brought to the surface yet. That is, that understanding the context of Asian-Americans in a predominantly white (western, Anglo, Caucasian) culture is excruciatingly difficult, yet important.

To Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite, I know you guys from your time with my class at Londen Institute in Corona, CA. Especially in the case of Jud, I have seen integrity and leadership revealed in a stripped down way that was incredibly humbling and eye opening for me as a seminary student with no real practical ministry experience beforehand. I know Pastor Wilhite is an amazing man of God, full of grace and that he gets the gospel of Christ on many levels as he reaches out to the marginalized and forgotten people in Las Vegas. As for Mike Foster, I sense his grace and heart for people in everything he does. His ministry work speaks for itself. However, with that said, there is one more thing I must add. Neither Jud, nor Mike can stake claim to knowing what it’s like to be Asian in America. In addition to that, I don’t think they care to know. In fact, I don’t think many Caucasian-Americans really care to know. There is just an incredible amount of indifference by white America when it comes to this subject.

As for Soong-Chan Rah, I do not know him or know much about him. However, I read and studied his book The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church From Western Cultural Captivity and found it to be a great work that expressed many thoughts I resonate with. Professor Rah seems to be man of integrity and kingdom mindedness as well. However, I don’t think Rah can claim that he knows what it’s like to be a white person living in a world of mixed cultures where the slightest mis-step can lead to one being labeled a racist. Living in a world of political correctness where seconds after making a statement, social media blasts it all over the world for the judging public to chime in can be quite intimidating (and nauseating!).

You see, we can attack some white guys that appear to have used some Asian aspects to add a cool factor in marketing their book to a white consumer and give them a piece of our mind. Interestingly enough, there were quite a few non-Asians speaking about the offensiveness of the packaging/branding of the book. However, is that really the issue? It’s what’s behind the packaging that is the issue. Unfortunately, we Asians haven’t had a loud voice in America and it has hurt us in being identified as a relevant culture in the United States. Blacks took a stand and made their voice known. Even today we are talking about repression and reparation for slavery in America hundreds of years ago. We are censored in our use of the n-word and how we portray African-Americans publicly in the media. However, the same cannot be said for Asian-Americans. Being born in Japan and moving to California when I was 4 years old, my ancestry is obviously Japanese. However, one of the great injustices in the history of America was when Japanese people lived in the United States in the 1940′s, spoke clear & fluent English, worked hard to live the American dream, pledged allegiance to the American flag and wanted to serve in the US military against Japan in WWII, yet families were separated by the US government and forced into internment camps and their land was taken away. Years later when the war ended, they were released with no restitution and in most cases, no land to come home to. As unjust, unfair and irrational as that act was, did you hear any Japanese people complain about it? In some cases, some of you didn’t even know this injustice took place. And, if you did, it isn’t a burden to you to see this resolved and mad right 50 years later. No, we Asians just tend to shut up and assimilate, work with the hand we are dealt with and be happy that we live in the land of (supposed) opportunity.

Please know that I am not bitter or angry. Just because an injustice to my ancestors wasn’t made right, doesn’t mean that I won’t stand in the name of justice for others. All I’m saying is that what happened to Japanese-Americans back in WWII is an example of how we Asians tend to deal with things. I think white America takes this for granted. It’s a shame actually, because as the world becomes multi-cultural it seems to be seeking to become more Eastern. Religion, design, food, etc. With all of the Asian influences visible in the U.S. today, it is still so lacking because the culture it comes from is never really associated with it. It has been taken over and Americanized. You are getting bits and pieces of Asian culture, but mostly out of context and that is a problem. When we Asians come into the United States, we’re expected to dress like you, speak English like you, worship God like you, think like you. It’s as if it’s such a privilege to share your land, that we must do it on your terms. You take from us and put it into your context of living, yet never really give us the respect or credit. To you, being just like you is our greatest reward.

Know that while you may choose to live disrespecting other cultures that are not your own, at some point Asians and other minority groups will take a stand against it. You won’t understand why it happened and you’ll think we’re making a big deal out of nothing. What you don’t know is that when you say you look at me and see just another person, you are saying you see me as you see other *white* people. Think that’s an unfair statement to make? Then ask yourself this question: How much do you know about my Asian culture and perspective? How important is it for you to take the time to listen to what I bring to the table as an Asian-American? In reality, the answer is that you really don’t care, because you just want to see me as one-of-the-guys. I am one-of-the-guys, but my eyes don’t look like yours and they don’t see things exactly the same as yours. There is a reason for that. You can say I’m making a big deal out of nothing, or you can ask God why he birthed me in Japan to Japanese parents who gave me up for adoption and put me with my adoptive parents who moved me to the United States. If I were to live life like a Caucasian-American, I should have been born here like you and made to look just like you. I was definitely created to live as an American–that I am proud of and I appreciate my opportunities as an American, but my perspective as an Asian is important…it is relevant…it is worth your knowing about. This is the greater tragedy that I as an Asian-American have faced my entire life. It is complex, it can be confusing at times–even we as Asian-Americans don’t see things the same way. In the end, we are all unique and one of the things that distinguishes me from others is my cultural identity + my own personal life experiences. I am clothed in Christ, but that clothing consists of many layers.

In the end, you may perceive me as irrelevant because I have less than 100 blog readers and as a people group, we (Asian-Americans) don’t make or break your profit margins as a publishing house or corporation. However, know that one day that will change. I won’t be the one causing a revolution, but I will be the one that has stood here with my open hand reached out to you and inviting you into my world, just as you have been gracious enough to invite me into yours. Your indifference to me is more disrespectful than you know, but I’m not one to call you out on it. Instead, my hand is open and my arm outstretched. I’m here to join in conversation and relationship with you based on mutual respect and grace anytime.

It was interesting to see all the expressions on twitter and facebook over the past weekend regarding Kanye West’s upstaging the VMA’s (MTv Video Music Awards). I chose not to watch the VMA’s, but all was made clear to me when I read the news feeds today.

I’m curious what makes Kanye’s drama any different than that of say Michael Vick. When Vick was released from prison for gaining profit and enjoyment out of dog fighting I saw lots of people in ministry coming to his defense and welcoming him back to the NFL. Kanye pulls off a stupid stunt on the VMA’s, apologizes immediately afterwards, yet is being ridiculed and attacked for what is in essence, Kanye being Kanye. From a Christian perpsective, if one apologies for their actions, shouldn’t we offer forgiveness rather than judgment?

I spoke to someone recently who is a Christian hip-hop artist. He told me of the struggle in the hip-hop culture of being a Christian rap artist with one foot in the kingdom (of God) and one foot in the world and its ways. Hip-hop is about standing up and being counted. It’s about making it through the struggle. It’s about representing you and yours. When the culture is so focused on the individual and glorifying themselves as a way to represent to others that they made it, being a Christian and seeking to make a name for oneself in hip-hop i bound to lead to issues. Kanye is no different than most other chart-topping hip-hop artists that have professed their faith in Jesus. Kanye, like each of us, is not perfect.

I don’t condone what Kanye did at the VMA’s at all. As a Christian in ministry, I would have definitely preferred that this event never occurred. However, we are challenged to offer grace and forgiveness to others that have done far worse than Kanye. I’m not saying we should cover over Kanye’s actions under the guise of grace, but I wonder if the Christian community pointing out how Kanye blew it at the VMA’s is a good example of our faith and grace. After all, this really isn’t out of character for Kanye and as he stated afterwards, he’s just got to keep it real and is allowed to voice his opinion.