Racism: One Of Your Own Kind; Stick To Your Own Kind (Part 1)

I just finished reading both Eric Redmond’s July 11, 2008 blog about how Christian African Americans can vote for Obama and Tom Ascol’s July 11, 2008 blog about his personal testimony as an Anglo on racial prejudice. And I haven’t found one yet, but maybe our Latino-American Reformed Baptist brother might have blogged something about Racism from a Latino-American perspective. And, again I haven’t found one yet, maybe an Asian-American Reformed Baptist brother has written something from the Asian-American perspective. If not, then maybe I’ll be the first. If so, then I’ll just add to the voice.

In the movie musical, West Side Story, Anita lectures to Maria concerning Maria’s romantic desires for Tony. Both Anita and Maria are Latino-Americans and Tony is Anglo. And Anita’s lecture to Maria breaks into a song that includes the following racial suggestion, “One of your own kind! Stick to your own kind!”

As a 2nd-Generation Asian-American, I too have experienced my fair share of racism from two sides:

• Within the Asian community, there is the often racial tention that exists between the recently-immigrated Asians, who are derogatorily coined as “FOBS” (Fresh Off The Boat) by the American-born Asians, and the American-born Asians, who are derogatorily refer to as “twinkies” or “bananas” (yellow on the outside, but white on the inside) by the recently-immigrated Asians.
• And then the rest of the non-Asian community

And I see very little difference in racial relations of those outside the church vs. those inside the church. Sometimes one side seems to be better than the other side, but on the whole, sadly, the regenerate body of Christ do not appear to be any better on the issue of racial relations in comparison to the rest of the unregenerate world. In fact, in some cases, Christians are worse.

Seminary Experience

I went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. While there, I quickly discovered that the derogatory term, “Oriental,” is still in the lips and minds of many seminarians, even among Asians, in reference to someone of an ethnic origin as myself. As well, I quickly had to adjust to the fact that almost 99% of the Asian seminarians were from Korea and I was one of the very few handful of America-born Asian seminarians.

It soon became almost defacto in the minds of almost everyone that I was not an American. Never mind that I was born with a U.S. citizenship. And never mind the fact that all my education from pre-K through graduate school have all been in the U.S. And disregard my time serving the American people through its military for 12 years before going into ministry. My 30+ years of identifying myself as an American was completely shot away by the repeated questions asked by almost every seminarian whom I would come across, well represented by one example of a 22 year old Anglo Texan from smalltown, TX who asked me with a very sweet, sincere voice, “So, what country are you from?” And so, with a bruised ego and in a not-so-sweet voice, I rebuked her, “Let me get this straight. Never mind about the fact that I was born in the U.S. and lived all my life in the U.S. Just because I don’t have blond hair and blue eyes, you assume I’m from another country and you consider me as not an American, right? But if I did have blond hair and blue eyes, but am an international student here in SWBTS from Germany or France, you wouldn’t assume that I’m from another country. You’d assume I’m an American, right?”

Local Church Experience

After graduating seminary, I sent out my resumes to all churches, regardless of race but have the English language as the predominant speaking language. And a few of the Korean churches responded back. And so I served in a few of these Korean churches. And I, sooner or later, have to pack my bags because my Reformed theology is considered “American theology” or “Anglo theology,” and that “Korean theology” is different. So in Korean churches, theology falls under the context of racial sociology rather than on Scripture. (See my review of Growing Healthy Asian American Churches for more on this convolution of theology vs. sociology by Asian church leaders.)

And talking with my own mother a few years ago, she lectures me with the same words Anita lectured Maria, “One of your own kind! Stick to your own kind!” In other words, lose my theological identity, and gain my Asian sociological identity in order to succeed in the Asian church. I’m not sure I’m willing to do that.

So what about non-Asian churches? Of those who had received my resume, only one expressed interest, and only because one of the search committee members was an Asian-American himself. But when it came to the church vote, I did not get enough to be voted in as pastor.

But There’s Hope…  Almost…

From the T4G 2008 Conference, I still remember the tail-end of Thabiti Anyabwile’s message:

• “Seminarian: Will you join or apply to serve as a pastor in that church full of people not like you?”
• “Church Planter: Will you consider a merger or a take-over of a fledgling congregation not like you?”
• “Church Member: Will you move to that church closer to your home that is faithful to the Gospel, even though you’re going to be a minority in that congregation?”
• “Pastor: How now shall you preach?”

But the one audience that Thabiti did not address is the search committee and church members (plural): Will you consider a pastor who may not be sociologically racially like you, but is like you in Christ Jesus?

I still have revolving in my head the words of a dear Anglo brother and pastor who once said to me, “You have a far greater awareness of the needs of the people than I do. And you have a greater knowledge of Scripture than I do. And you have a far greater amount of ministry experience than I do. I don’t understand why churches are not considering you.” And quietly I thanked him, but unable to formulate the words to help Whitey[1] understand the race issue.

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[1] I am borrowing the term “Whitey” here from D.A. Carson’s Love In Hard Places, where he uses the term on himself and all Anglos as having the potential inability to understand and be sensitive to racism that exists for or is perceived to exist by non-Anglos.