Now that the Deadly Vipers controv has died down I can comment in retrospect and objectively.
More so than the controversy itself I think I’ll comment on the emerging asian-american consensus that is arising, a vociferous element that has finally gotten in touch with its angry side, its unabashed and bold calling out of the “white man” and its strong presence on the internet. I would say the DV controv is in some respects the hallmark event that congealed the solidarity of this movement, a sort of historic moment in my opinion. I see strengths and weaknesses of this incipient movement: Read more…
Some thoughts spurred on by my readings in feminist theology (a req for hermeneutics) as well as a spate of blog posts lately by perceptive and insightful writers. I’m realizing in many ways how complicit I am in the domineering of the opposite gender. Now I don’t just mean overtly sexist behavior or speech, but rather a complicity that comes by being part of a system, a culture, a way the world works. I’ve found naming the problem is not enough. Elitist intellectualisms don’t solve the problem either. My wife would remark how I tend to pride myself that I am progressive intellectually but really am in truth, quite conservative in outlook and practice, showing just how much I am ingrained into a way of life that is patriarchal, Korean, hierarchical, oppressive. So yes, I am part of the problem, sexist, an oppressor just by nature of the way of life I perpetuate. How are women truly liberated by my work as a pastor? I’m not sure yet but I know that it’s going to be more than just leaving the toilet seat down.
OK – here we go. Things have been stewing lately, not to mention the whole Deadly Viper controv, but also things I’ve been observing about the academic / ecclesial establishment. A black man is fired at one place with no attempt to consider racial dimensions behind the act. And then I hear at a recent Halloween party for Regent seminarians someone not only donned blackface but completely justified his behavior. And this is never addressed up here. So I’ve had enough. Dispensing with my usual policy of avoiding polemics. Read more…
One thing I love about Regent is its emphasis on art. So the current discussion is if there be something religious about art, both the experience of viewing it and creating it. Having a Bachelor of Fine Art from Parsons School of Design, I am somewhat aware of the conventions – but I also know how godless the study of art can be. Nonetheless, now, almost 15 yrs since I first set foot in NYC’s art scene, I adamantly do believe there be a spark of divinity in the creator and the created. A hermeneutical shift, here the “Christian viewer” can have one of two responses when confronted with “art”: Read more…
Has been the question over @ Regent as of late, with Boersma, Provan, Watts, and others getting into the brouhaha. The debate is simply this. Athens is the city of man (political, Constantinian, establishment, institution, the State). Jerusalem is everything heavenly-minded (kingdom of God, kingdom come, Augustine’s City of God, pure religion). Can the two mix is the question. But most notably, it has cultural implications. The issue being, can one extract a pure Christianity from its Hellenistic Greco-Roman roots? Is such a thing possible? Some would argue yes, and it must be done. Others would say no, the two have become inseparable, and essentially we must accept the reality that Christianity is a religion of the West, rooted in Western philosophy. The issue then is if there is integrity to the pursuit of a contextualized Christianity – a Black theology, or an Asian theology, or what not.
Disclaimer: If you’re looking for a video game you’re @ the wrong place. If you’re here for a theology book – you’ve searched correctly.
This book was on a req’d reading list for a class I’m taking on Biblical perspectives on evil. I’d heard Boyd’s argument before and found it deeply compelling – some of the best answers to the problem of evil – that I’ve ever heard. But at the same time it left me with questions – something wasn’t normal - in the sense that we are used to orthodoxy. After deeply studying the book, arguing it, debating it, discussing it – I think I get what’s not sitting well with me now, along with several classmates. The prof seems convinced; we remain unconvinced – although deeply compelled. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it heterodox - but it definitely is UN-orthodox. Here’s my review: Read more…
My last year @ Regent College is ahead of me. I’ve been workign at somewhat a frenetic pace, produce, produce, write, write, and every so often you’ll stumble upon somethign that’s significant and maybe a contribution. Maybe that happened recently. I was listening to yet another lecture by two older Caucasian gentlemen in the academia talking about how we ought to go down to them, downward mobility, kenotic spirituality. Over and over again. One fine young gentleman asked why immigrants (refered to as “they”) cluster together in cliques and do not open to the broader society. As if “they” would be easier to reach in our downwardly-mobile efforts if they would just come out of “their” shells. I started to get uneasy because even in this great seminary – I was noticing a glaring blind spot. Read more…
Starting a new series titled “1st World Re-Evangelization” where I’d like to muse on some thoughts about ministering in a 1st world context as a 3rd world immigrant (what some might call “third culture”). Especially what it’s like as a minority (Korean-American) ministering in a predominantly Caucasian context. I find it intriguing – and different in many ways. Hence, the title, 1st World Re-Evangelization. Also because it is the title of a class I’m taking now, “Empowering the Church for First World Re-Evangelization: Theological And Missional Themes” – so don’t deconstruct the title too much, I didn’t come up with it. It is however a chance to hash out both in-class and out, in theory as well as in praxis, what this idea of “re-evangelizing the first world” really means – as a Christian in a postmodern world and as a minority in a dominant culture context. Either way, a minority. So I turn my first thoughts towards the theme of chaplaincy. Specifically police chaplaincy, and our own local support officer program here in Bellingham / Whatcom County. Read more…
Soong-Chan Rah: Another Angry Asian Man?
Reading “Prof Rah’s” The Next Evangelicalism is like gargling with salt. It stings in the throat but at the same time clears the sinuses of the stuffiness and congestion of poorly thought-out racial dialogue. Sure, we like to talk about color-blindness, and melting pots, and model minorities, but do we know what we’re really saying when we talk about these things? Surely the Church – that glorious multicultural reality – is exempt from these faux-pas assumptions… Or is she? Perhaps a little deconstruction is in order – and maybe that aint such a bad thing.
Read more…
I found this article terribly compelling (thanks to Daniel Eng for the heads up) – especially the following snippet – this has everything to do with defining * success * in church, or entrepreneurship, or just plain life: Read more…
Like
Recent Comments