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Seeking Reconciliation after Deadly Vipers
It’s been a week after the Deadly Viper controversy and much dialogue and movement has happened. Moving toward reconciliation Mike Foster & Jud Wilhite have posted their conversation w Asian American leaders as well as Soong-Chan Rah. A conference with Zondervan was also conducted which included Ken Fong weighing in. This is definitely bigger than Mike & Jud or Zondervan could have ever anticipated.
What more is needed? Well. Much. Much. More. It’s beyond Mike & Jud but Deadly Vipers has certainly been an undeniable catalyst for change. If anything it will serve as a great case study in marketing on many levels including conflict resolution through social media.
Let me first say that I appreciate the many non-Asian voices that have added not just their voices to this important conversation but the steps to sincerely seek deep reconciliation and the faith to move towards the vision of a better ‘country’.I think the question that many Asians bring up is, “Do White people get it?”
“Will they ever get it?”This is about all of us and not just demonizing the “White Privilege” of Caucasian men. I am capable of insensitivity, prejudice, and worse. Our church is far from perfect. Our church bumbles and stumbles our way in the ministry of reconciliation but we’re committed to engaging in both conversation and actions – even if we know we’ll fall short. But we’ll keep trying because we know that the ministry of all things reconciliation is not an option but part of our discipleship. – From Eugene Cho
In race matters as well as in real relationships, we’re never going to get anywhere unless we step into the world of another person who is different from us. Becoming like Christ means we willingly step into another person’s reality just. I say this often, I never realized how ‘Chinese’ I was until I married my Italian-German wife. I thought I was more Italian than Chinese growing up in Brooklyn but living with my non-Chinese wife has forced me to confront things about myself. This is how I begin my response to Chinese leaderships that think to be an multi-ethnic church is merely the task of the American born in their church. Not that I think this should or shouldn’t be the goal of ethnic/immigrant churches but becoming a multi-ethnic church will challenge us in ways we cannot begin to imagine and typically fail to acknowledge. It’s a ‘nice’ thing to dream about. Unless we’re willing to step out, reinvent our ways of thinking and have our social consciousness challenged it will always remain a dream. We like being around people just like us. Once we’re doing life on life with those different than us be it their skin color or socio-economic status or something else will we really taste what Christ came to do – deep reconciliation. I have to ask church leaders, are you really committed to building ethnically rich dynamic gospel communities or clusters of likeness where we have lots in common and oh yea Jesus too…
Anyways there’s been some great movement amongst Asian American Leaders about what we need to do next. I had a great tokbox session last week with some great voices including headsparks (Dan So), elderj (Joshua Settles), djchuang, jadanzzy (Dan Ra), NextGenerAsian Church (David Park) including Eugene Cho and Bruce Reyes-Chow who popped their heads in now and then. We discussed identity formation for the next generation of Asian Americans in the church and we want to follow up from that conversation with “Asian American Women and the Church”. What an appropriate next step.
So if you’re around this Thurs 11/12 10p ET / 7p PT tune in on TokBox. I’ll post details on that soon.Non-Asian Responses to Deadly Vipers
Skye Jethani: Hidden Racism?
Jonathan Brink: Confronting the Enemy Within
Ed Cyzewski: How White Christians Can Deal with Racial InsensitivityOther
DJ Chuang: How a Conflict Played Out in Social MediaBookmark and Share:
ed cyzewski said...
1Glad to hear about the conferences and the ongoing conversations. I’m glad we’re expanding this to women as well, since matters of gender and race always seem to be related on so many levels.
11/11/09 9:13 PM | Comment Link
Jasmine said...
2Hey LT,
Not related to this per se, but actually, my church is going thru this right now. They said they wanted to become multi-ethnic, but they’re not willing to lend their support to the English side to make that happen. In fact, a vote is going on in the Chinese side (w/o Eng side representation) about whether or not to eradicate the whole Eng side in favor of being a CHINESE church. (With emphasis on the Chinese part. =T) By the end of the month I may no longer be an Eng “ABC” pastor. =( And I echo what you wrote about not knowing how “Chinese” you were til you married Lauren. I had the opposite happen to me this yr. Marrying into a Chinese family, I never realized how American I was. Or even Hispanic – something I never identified myself with until now. =P
Sigh. Pray for me, bro. Wish you were closer so we could talk.
11/12/09 4:34 PM | Comment Link
LT said...
3Thanks Jasmine. We should definitely catch up. Need to include you in more of the dialogue going around. We had a tokback discussion last week on Asian-American women and the church that I think you could have contributed significantly to.
11/19/09 8:34 AM | Comment Link
Melody Hanson said...
4I am grateful for each of you AA leaders who have bravely spoken up re: the offensiveness of DV materials. As a white person just beginning this journey of “getting it” what do you mean when you say:
“In race matters as well as in real relationships, we’re never going to get anywhere unless we step into the world of another person who is different from us.”
I’ve always thought I had to be invited into someone else’s world. Perhaps you mean go to that church in which you (as a white person) are the minority?
What are the steps that white folk should take to be positive change in this conversation and in relationships?
11/29/09 4:58 PM | Comment Link