Asian-American Viewpoints

Belong to a newsgroup with emphasis on Asian-American Christians and Social Justice. One discussion item that came up was the following whether or not there really is a distinctly Asian-American point of view in Christianity and in Social Justice. I took a crack at it this way....

> How do we develop pan-ethnic Christian unity?

I suppose that would depend on what kind of unity we are looking for. In Revelation, we will eventually reach a point where every tongue, tribe and nation will worship Him. However, on this earth, we still operate under some practical constraints. As long as the USA is open to immigration, there will be a need for churches that minister specifically because of language reasons.

For me, I can only function in English so I sometimes have the "worst of both worlds" ... viewed as insufficiently Chinese by Chinese folks and not accepted as truly American by other groups. I try to be open to building friendships with people of whatever group they belong to. I would love to reach a point where I'm truly color blind. So that is my desire but I recognize I still fall short.

> Is there a distinctive Asian American Christian voice for justice rather than just a Christian one? What are these distinctives?

Yes and no. One Sunday school teacher made an interesting observations about special interest groups in the USA: they are often driven not by a love for their group but a fear of other groups. It is too easy for ethnic/race based groups to engage in a politics of resentment or grivence.

But having said that, there is still occasional outbursts of racism and discrimination against a particular group in which case only a special interest group may have the weight and awareness to make some noise about it.

So the ideal will be a day when justice is truly "color blind" but for now, in our imperfect society, there is still a place for special interest groups to protect their group because they can be overlooked by the majority culture. However, that special interest group has to be careful not to skate into the realm of the politics of fear.

> Is Asian American panethnicity rooted in a Confucian background that excludes certain Asian ethnic groups? If so, how does Confucianism affect our Christianity and our perspective on justice?

That was TOO DEEP for me to tackle! Would love to hear what the readership thinks about that one!!