culture

Asian-American / culture — 9 Comments
23
Nov 09

Confused about Deadly Viper shutting down? Me too!

picture-1Something 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.

Share
Christianity / church / culture — 28 Comments
9
Nov 09

Fueling the fire of Christian celebrity

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:

robbell-elvis

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:

catalyst

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

Share
Asian-American / culture / Dave (personal) / life / multi-cultural — 39 Comments
5
Nov 09

Don’t disrespect me because I’m Asian!

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.

Share
culture / faith / people — 2 Comments
14
Sep 09

Kanye West: When Hip-Hop & Faith Collide

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.

Share
culture / Dave (personal) / friends / social networking — 2 Comments
3
Sep 09

How Social Networking Changed Things

For those of you still in disbelief, I have more confirmation of my age for you. If you are connected to me on facebook, you know that I attended a high school reunion of sorts two weeks ago. It was some friends from my graduating class of 1984 (yes, 25 years ago!) getting together at a house and reconnecting. For most of us, this was the first time we had seen one another since we graduated back in 1984.

I have to admit that this reunion wasn’t all what I expected. I believe that the advent of social networking has really changed our lives forever. For those of you that weren’t even alive back in 1984, I can tell you that connecting with friends was so much different! As much as I have embraced and sometimes even overuse my social networking tools, a big part of me still lives back in 1984.

The weird thing for me was that we had a reunion, yet our small group of friends had already connected on facebook. We had already engaged in facebook comments and notes and had a familiarity with each other before showing up to the reunion gathering. So, rather than reuniting and catching up on the past 25 years, we ended up just kind of picking up on established conversation from facebook or felt so familiar with each other that we talked about current things instead of what we had done in the past 25 years or our families or careers, etc.

You see, back in 1984 we didn’t have cell phones or computers. Computers were for geeks/nerds, and as hard as it probably is for you to believe, I was not a geek in high school and I never took a computer class in college. My first computer was in 1994 and I was 28 years old at that time. Anyway, with no email or text or myspace or facebook, we had to wait to see each other in class to talk or we had to use a landline to call someone at their house. So, if we had some big news to break, we actually had to pick up the phone and make several phone calls to let our circle of friends know. Today, you can send a message to thousands of people with just the click of the send button.

Part of me misses the old, antiquated way of socializing. We didn’t have starbucks back in the 80′s and therefore we usually hung out at friend’s houses and saw what life was really like for each other. We couldn’t hide out in a coffee shop and offer the perception that everything was okay.

As much as I appreciate the connectedness that social media allows, I think it has corrupted us in some ways. Back in my high school days, for people to know me they would have had to be my personal and in-person friend or they could learn about me from gossip. Nowadays though, it is as if my reputation and online persona precede me when I meet others that I have known only through social networking beforehand. Even by people that I do not know. I remember traveling to Burbank to visit with a friend of mine that was having a church fellowship and had invited. When my friend introduced me to his brother as Dave Ingland or @daveingland from twitter, he had no clue who I was. However, after staring at my face for a minute, he exclaimed with excitement, “Oh, now I remember! You’re the guy that changes his profile picture on twitter all the time. If you’d have said that in the first place, I’d have recognized you immediately!” As you can imagine, I’d rather not be recognized as some guy that either suffers from ADHD or as some egomaniac that showcases himself through his twitter avatar. I feel as if I got some of this when I was at my class reunion gathering. Not in a demeaning way, but in a I-feel-as-if-you’ve-been-a-part-of-my-life the past 25 years and that we’re old buddies. Heck, when I walked in people were coming up to me and asking me about Star Trek because I had (as a humorous thing) superimposed my head onto the body of Sulu from Star Trek and uploaded the photo to my facebook account. I walked into a room and found every picture I had ever posted to facebook along with the pictures others had posted of themselves. It was almost as if I wasn’t a former classmate from high school when I walked through the door, but that I was perceived as everyone’s facebook buddy.

For my classmates that were at the gathering and may be reading this, I am not complaining about anything. I had an absolute blast seeing everyone and love and appreciate each of you! However, I’m not much for being superficial with my friends and since I consider you my friends, I want to get to know you and learn of what you have done since we graduated. I want more than a facebook friends gathering. So, I have invited each of you to my house for a BBQ later this month and I look forward to catching up a bit with each of you at that time.

Social networking is a wonderful thing. I’m even going to be speaking at the Cool Twitter Conference in San Francisco because of my belief that some great things can happen to help us better-use social networking tools as a community of faith. However, I still find a distinction between my close, personal friends and my online friends. I connect often with my online friends, but when I desire more I pick up the phone and call or setup a video conference. I also do what I can to physically see my friends in-person and build upon our relationships.

Facebook and twitter have helped me stay better-connected with friends more than before we all started using these tools. My seminary friends and I are always communicating via facebook and/or twitter and that is a nice thing. However, I’ve committed to still see my seminary friends face-to-face when I can afford to do so. It’s important to me. It’s probably my experiences from connecting and bonding with people in a world that precluded social networks. However, I think it goes much deeper than that. I just feel like there are limitations to relationships online and as I’ve found out recently, it’s too easy to have things misunderstood when facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice can’t be comprehended through a facebook comment or a 140 character tweet. It’s caused some tension in some of my communication that *definitely* would not have arisen had we been conducting a face-to-face communication.

To my close, personal friends I truly hope that we’ll never, ever give in to the convenience and the fact that social media is free to cause us to stop desiring to stay see each other in person and share more of our lives with each other. To my facebook and twitter friends that I have yet to meet, may there be a way made to see you in-person and share some time getting to know each other away from the computer. It’s who I am and no amount of technology will ever change that. social networking has changed the way we live, but it won’t ever take the place of sharing real space together with my friends.

Share
← Older Entries
Newer Entries →