The rioters' use of Christian symbols at the Capitol insurrection was blasphemous, and I wonder how we Asian American Christ followers might respond to our nation's political crisis and the anti-Asian hate we're experiencing.
By Dr. Russell Jeung
A
s I write nine days after the Capitol insurrection, I’m anxious in waiting for President-elect Biden’s inauguration. More COVID-19 US deaths have been reported in the last two weeks than any prior period, yet Americans seem to be going about their business as usual. Anti-Asian hate is as virulent as the coronavirus is; Asian Americans have reported over 2,800 incidents of racism to Stop AAPI Hate.
When Biden won in November and Democrats took the Georgia races for US Senate, I hoped as a Democrat that our nation could get back on the right track. But the Capitol mob riot rousted me from that short-lived victory celebration, and reminded me of the deep, systemic fractures in our society that neither political party could solve. Now in between the insurrection and the inauguration, I’m almost paralyzed. I don’t know what to expect about the political future of our nation—particularly within our communities of color—and I’m especially melancholic over the state of the American church.
These political anxieties lay bare the very contradictions within myself: I espouse to hope in Jesus as Savior and Lord, but do I see Him saving us in the here and now?
Asian American Lament Over Christian Nationalism
A satanic lie has deceived our nation. Almost 1/3 of Americans believe that the election was stolen from President Trump. Shockingly, 15% of Republicans expressed approval of the Capitol’s storming, even though a police officer was beaten to death along with four others who died.
The American Church isn’t just complicit in the political polarization of our nation, but it has created and led it. Evangelical ministers preach that God has specially blessed the United States as a chosen nation, and support Trump despite his pathological lying, misogynistic immorality, and blatant corruption. Christian nationalists use Scriptures heretically when they legitimate the separation of children from their parents by stating these families should obey government authorities. Obedience to the law gets thrown out the window, however, when it doesn’t serve their interests. Insurrectionists bore crosses and a flag reading, “God, Guns and Guts Made America!” when overcoming police and breaking into the Capitol; those in the Jericho March believed they could overturn an election validated by the US Supreme Court by marching, laying siege, and “taking back” America.
This blasphemy doesn’t stem from evangelical theology necessarily, but from White Christian nationalism, a cultural vision of the U.S. that merges Christianity, white supremacy, and conservative politics. How Christian nationalists vote reveal the racist character of this movement: holding this ideology is the best predictor across all religious and racial groups of Trump support, approval of border walls, and disagreement with Black Lives Matter.
Indeed, Christian nationalism, with its emphasis on America’s white and Christian heritage, has long been the justification of the exclusion, expulsion, and extermination of Asians in the United States. Today, Christian nationalists find nothing racist or stigmatizing of the term, “Chinese virus.” Asian Americans are not just infected with the disease, but we are the disease. One street preacher, in an incident reported to Stop AAPI Hate, screamed at a passing Chinese American,
“You are a disease sent here from China! God is the only cure for such diseases, and will eliminate people like you to save those who believe.”
Statements like this one, where perpetrators invoke God in their racist acts, don’t anger me just because I’m Asian American. I lament how our nation has blasphemed the name of Jesus.
The marriage of the white evangelical church with Republican politics has irreparably damaged the church’s witness. Rather than being bearers of God’s Kingdom of peace and grace, the Church is known for its racist self-interest, naked power grabs, and hypocritical morals. Consequently, the percentage of Americans who say they are Christians has declined by 11% in the last decade. Younger people are even more disaffected from the church, as four in ten Millennials declare no religious affiliation.
These clear trends—the stark polarization of the nation, the rising hate against Asian Americans, and the complicity of the church with white supremacy—leave me world-weary and pessimistic. And President Biden’s inauguration won’t bring about quick repentance of the deep-rooted, institutional sins of our nation.
The Intersections between the Samaritan Leper and Asian Americans
One biblical character was in a similar state of anxiety and siege, disheartened by the political state of his people. He was also outcast as a perpetual foreigner and as a diseased individual. That individual, with whom I now identify, is the Samaritan leper.
The Samaritan leper lived in a colonized state of a violent, fascist empire, where he was denied full citizenship rights even though he paid taxes. Within his own borders, the Samaritan was racially and religiously different, and thus shunned as a minority. Furthermore, his leprosy made him diseased and cursed such that he had to remain quarantined, masked, and at least six feet distant from others. Sound familiar?
Asian Americans can learn from the Samaritan leper, whose treatment as a contaminating, marginalized minority wasn’t just a conditional status, but a seemingly permanent one. I’m suggesting that we re-claim and re-appropriate his/our status as perpetual foreigners, for when we acknowledge our weaknesses, God’s power rests on us.
In Luke 17, the Samaritan leper joins his nine fellows in calling out to Jesus for mercy. Desperate and without knowing what to expect, they follow Jesus’ command and head toward the priests. Along the way, they are cleansed! However, the Samaritan doesn’t go to the priest to be re-integrated into the community, but returns to thank Jesus.
I understand Asian Americans’ desire to not feel shame, to fit in and belong, and to be seen in light of being an invisibilized minority. I can relate to wanting things to go back to normal instead of being in a pandemic state of anxiety. But the Samaritan stopped on the way to the temple; he knew that he wouldn’t be received because of his ethnicity. In the same way, I don’t want the US to return its “old normal.” In fact, I don’t even want to belong to America as it was and is now.
Our nation’s norms are white supremacy and racial injustice, mass incarceration and mass deportation. Rather than seeking belonging to such an empire, we Asian Americans need to repent of a desire for whiteness—the desire for worldly privilege and status that stems from oppression. Instead, we must turn back to Jesus. We must praise Him as Lord, rather than making idols of the American mainstream society’s recognition and acceptance. Through our worship, we will find the peace amidst the conflict, as well as the belonging that we seek in spite of the racism we experience.
Jesus then affirms the Samaritan leper and tells him to rise and go. Jesus calls us, then sends us who are Samaritan lepers to do His work of the Kingdom, where we are true citizens where compassion and justice reigns (Philippians 3). When we recall that we were once foreigners, then we care for the other foreigners in our land and provide for their welfare (Exodus 22). As we acknowledge our own outsider status, we make a point to welcome those who also feel excluded and build an inclusive community (1 Peter 4). For empowerment of this work, God’s grace is sufficient in our weakness as Samaritan lepers (2 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Corinthians 1:27).
Jesus’ Calling to Those Between Insurrection and Inauguration
Between the insurrection and the inauguration is akin to the time between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, when the Kingdom of God is here and not yet. It’s the desperate, dark time of political chaos amidst a deathly pandemic. With all trends pointing down, we don’t know what to expect.
In that time and place, Jesus notices us–those of us who are double minorities like the Samaritan Leper. Those of us who are seen from the outside as infected, and those of us who feel inwardly ashamed and cursed, he notices. To the Samaritan leper and Asian Americans, Jesus offers a special call.
This Asian American calling is to repent, and turn away from the allure of white adjacency, the American dream, and belonging in a corrupt empire. Instead, our invitation is to return to Jesus and thank Him for all the healing work that He has done for us. To acknowledge that we are Samaritan lepers, who are desperate and marginalized. To worship Him for giving us a sense of belonging in a true community. And then we’re to rise and go, with his sufficient grace to bless a sick and polarized world that needs God’s healing and shalom.
Between insurrection and inauguration, may we, the Asian American Christian community learn from the Samaritan leper. Even though we may be outsiders in society’s eyes, we are called as His chosen people to take our double minority status, and use it to gift the world.
Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash
Dr. Russell Jeung is author of At Home in Exile: Finding Jesus Among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors. He’s co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, a center that tracks COVID-19 discrimination and proposes policy interventions. He urges Asian American followers of Jesus to sign the open letter on Christian nationalism and anti-Asian racism, at againstchristianxenophobia.com. Follow instagram.com/xenoseimi, facebook.com/xenoseimi, and twitter.com/xenoseimi for more about the project.