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Long before the whole incident of the Deadly Viper/Zondervan use of Asian culture to promote a book arose, there was a lengthy dialog from the Next Gener.Asian Church blog about how white evangelicals were using Francis Chan because he was a safe spokesperson from the Asian-American ministerial community that would relate to a broad audience. It was titled: Is Francis Chan a sell-out? At the time of this writing, there are 162 comments in reply to that post and more are added each week. It’s a polarizing issue and one that is totally misunderstood. Due to some recent events, it seems that this conversation has taken on a new life and either people are voicing their opinions or left on the sidelines scratching there heads in confusion. If Francis Chan is an Asian-American pastor and his messages don’t have much relevance to his being Asian, how can that be bad? Should there be a Chinese gospel along side a Caucasian/Anglo one? Weren’t we all called to be part of one church anyway? Some people are looking upon the Asian-American Christian community as one that wants to be segregated and appearing to be somewhat elitist.

I’m kind of in the middle on the whole issue–I understand both sides, yet I’m not quite sure I have the answer to build unity on the matter. However, maybe my perspective will help some gain more understanding the heart of the matter.

If you are a white evangelical, a lot of this will probably resonate with you:

1. It’s not about what we want, but it’s about who God sends to our church. God builds the church, not us.
2. While we may be white, we are open to people of all races coming in to worship together with us. Not only are we open, but we encourage people of other cultures to join us!
3. There should be no Black church, White church, Asian church, Latino church–there should just be one church as we are all one in Christ.

In actuality, there are some in the Asian-American evangelical church that would agree with all three of the above-points as well. However, there is a bit of a different perspective that is predominant within Asian-American Christians. Unfortunately, many within the Asian-American community can’t quite place their finger on it or even understand there is an issue.

The perspective from the Asian-American evangelical is like this:

1. I grew up in a (Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese, etc) church that had services for my parents in (Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese, etc.) and services for me in English. Often times the English services were presided over by a Caucasian pastor who spoke English well, but didn’t really understand the (Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese, etc.) culture I was raised in. My friends aren’t Asian, my neighbors aren’t Asian and I want to go to church with them somewhere that isn’t (Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese, etc.)
2. When in a predominantly Caucasian church service, I feel like I don’t fit in. I’m not connecting beyond a surface level with others in the church.
3. I don’t embrace all of the culture forced upon at my parent’s church, yet I don’t feel like I get any culture from the predominantly-Caucasian church.

On an even deeper level, some Asian-American Christians struggle with their identity. They don’t quite know how to feel about being Asian. Are they to look past their cultural heritage and integrate with everyone else disregarding why God birthed them as Asians or is there some relevance they should appreciate by being birthed by God as Asians?

When someone says, “I don’t see color, I just see people. When I look at you Dave, I don’t see someone who is Asian. I just see you as Dave.” I think that’s great. However, what you fail to realize is that you just discredited my cultural heritage. I’m not just like you. Even though we may think and speak in a similar manner, we don’t have similar stories. If you are white growing up in America, you can never really know what it’s like being Asian growing up in America. Racism aside, imagine what it’s like growing up with the pressure to be smarter than the average student. There is a stereotype that Asians are smart and they become accountants and engineers. Not only is there pressure from Asian parents to excel in school, but there is pressure to stay in school and at least obtain a master’s degree. I can understand how some non-Asian people will tell me how they had similar pressure to excel in school, but it’s just not the same. I can’t tell you how many times I have been introduced to people that aren’t Asian and the first thing they ask me is what I do for a living, then they ask me what school I went to. When I tell them what I do (and it’s not being an accountant or engineer) and when they ask me where I went to school and I tell them I did 2 years part-time at a community college and went to seminary when I was 38, they usually walk away from the conversation confused. They spent time trying to quickly assess me before asking the questions, yet my answers were unexpected. At the heart of the matter is whether they would ask me what I do and where I went to school if I weren’t Asian.

So, being deemed too smart and a geek by white students, yet not smart enough for the Asian students is not a very comforting place to be. It leads to conflict and some resentment over who we are.

Another problem is in how we as Asian-Americans represent ourselves. Why should non-Asians really be cautious over what they say or what they find humorous if Asians say and laugh at the same things? Isn’t that hypocritical? In short, yes it is. When there are people like Bobby Lee of MadTv mocking Asians for the sake of getting a laugh, it absolutely sends a confusing message to non-Asians. Unfortunately, for some that aspire to be actors or comedians, perpetuating stereotypes is the only way they can get work. Some Asians don’t even understand how wrong it is to perpetuate the stereotypes and connotations of playing up being Oriental.

As an Asian-American, does Francis Chan have a responsibility to be some super-Asian and season every statement he makes with an Asian perspective? Not at all! From Francis’ perspective, he is doing what is right for him and his messages connect with lots of people. However, at the same time, should Francis Chan operate in circles of influence that only care about his Asian appearance rather than his Asian cultural perspective? No, I don’t think he should. As an Asian-American Christian, I think he does have some responsibility to other Asians. He may speak the language of white evangelicals, but at the same time he obviously doesn’t look like a white evangelical. There is a reason for that. Chan is Asian-American and is gaining respect in the white evangelical church, yet he isn’t white. This has to have some meaning and can’t be equated as just some random thing. It’s similar to Obama’s presidency. We all pat each other on the back and the world stands and applauds us for voting in a black president. However, our expectation is that he is black in appearance only, not in a cultural context. President Clinton went to McDonald’s and was criticized and stereotyped as a result. Imagine if President Obama went to KFC on a regular basis. Even though you may explain to me how you aren’t prejudice or racist and that you see Obama as just another president, I know that your mind wandered into a place of stereotype as you envisioned Obama eating at KFC. It’s the same reason why if Obama plays basketball you’re okay with it, but if he played basketball poorly you’d question it. Stereotypes are difficult to overcome. They wreak havoc on our perceptions even on subconscious levels. As much as we as non-black Americans see in these stereotypes, how do you think black Americans feel? They see Obama as a sign of hope and change. That a black person can be elected president and ultimately bring some respect to African-Americans. They expect that he will represent them in some way that someone like myself couldn’t. In the same way, there is some expectation that Francis Chan will use his opportunities to lend a voice for the voiceless Asian-Americans who deal with conflict and self-esteem issues and feel out of place in the church. In an extreme sense, just as pop culture and Hollywood exploit people like Bobby Lee on MadTv to show some diversity on the set, the white evangelical church can exploit Francis Chan for the sake of claiming some diversity in the pulpit.

In the end, those of us that are Asian-Americans don’t have a unified philosophy on racism, prejudice, stereotypes or exploitation. Some of us (Asian-Americans) laugh at skits that remind us of the days of being an Oriental in a white land because we never lived through that pain and accepted environment oppression. Some of us Asian-Americans use our Chinese voice and squint our eyes and make fun of parents to our white friends because they don’t know what it’s like to be physically threatened because we as Asians were caught talking to a white girl on campus. Yes, some of us Asian-Americans can be insensitive to those that have walked before us because we feel we are above the racism so much so that we can laugh at stuff just like our white friends. In the end, it’s this passive perpetuation of stereotypes that fuels non-Asians to make the same jokes, pull at their eye lids and make the buck teeth while putting on thick coke bottle glasses, say things like “Heh-rro!” in a room full of Asians and expect to get a laugh.

Just so you know, I am an American first. I love my country and am willing to defend her. However, God created me for a reason and I am called to live my journey as a guy born in Japan and brought to California to live amongst a diverse group of people and find my own identity in Christ. It must have some perspective of my culture otherwise my story which begins with being born in Japan is insignificant and irrelevant. If that were to be true, then why are there so many nations of varying cultures on Earth? Why not just be one continent with one people? Even in the Bible we see people of different nations all playing a role. Some positive, some not so positive, but they all are important in the context of entire story. Even Moses was created by God to be extracted from his land and placed into the culture of Egypt, only to be reunited with the people of Israel and lead them to the promised land. His culture was of great importance in the greater context. Mine isn’t to be considered on the same magnitude, but it is still significant in some small way. I am a child of God with a Japanese perspective and heritage living in America. He wouldn’t have it any other way.