Social Holiness in a New World

As a Biden-Harris administration begins, Asian American Christians must continue the faithful work of love and justice across all society’s spheres.

By Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Kuan

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o say that 2020 was a challenging year would be an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 2 million people worldwide, with the United States accounting for over 400,000 of those deaths. Asian Americans have been subjected to racist acts and violence, fueled by the Trump Administration’s racist rhetoric. Police brutality and violence against Black bodies continued. The economic devastation brought about by the pandemic has been incalculable. And the polarization of our society has become clearer and clearer, with the election revealing the fissures of our nation.

With the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president and Kamala Harris as the vice president, we stand at the cusp of a new beginning for our nation, one that the Biden-Harris ticket campaigned to “build back better.” There is new hope of a better tomorrow with a change in administration. We can be confident that the Biden-Harris administration will have no place for white supremacists, whose ideology has not only stood against racial and gender inclusion and equity, religious diversity, immigrant rights, and refugee resettlement, but also compromised white evangelical Christians in being complicit in the erosion of our human decency and dignity and common commitment to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” (“Preamble to the United States Constitution”).  

As Asian American Christians, what do we have to look for in this change of administration? President Biden has made known that he intends to issue executive orders to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change, rescind the travel ban on several Muslim countries, issue a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel, extend pandemic-related limits on evictions and student loan payments, and order agencies to reunite children separated from families who crossed the border. He also plans to introduce immigration legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented people in the country. He promises to bring the coronavirus under control and to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days. These are signs of promise of a new world.  

As Asian American Christians, we might ask what our role in this world should be. As difficult and challenging as 2020 was, as polarized as our country has become, as bad as race relations have gotten, and as devastating as the COVID-19 pandemic has been, this is not the time to withdraw and focus solely on ourselves and our own personal piety and faith in God.

Yes, spiritual practices as expressions of our personal piety in relationship with a God are important. Jesus himself teaches in Matthew 6 about acts such as charitable giving, prayer, and fasting. Yet personal piety is not enough. The Christian faith goes beyond it. Our faith must include, what John Wesley refers to as, social holiness. This is about loving and caring for others. It is about living in the reality of God’s entire creation, recognizing other human beings, living organisms, and the rest of God’s created world that we are a part of. It is about coming to grips with Jesus’ great commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It is not just about loving God but about loving and caring for others. This is critical for Christian faith.

Wesley’s understanding of the inseparability of personal piety and social holiness is grounded in the biblical tradition. Micah 6:6-8 is one of those biblical texts that many of us are very familiar with. Micah was an 8th century BCE prophet in Judah. As worshippers of the god Yahweh, Judah had no shortage of religious people. Micah, in fact, describes widespread religiosity where people, especially religious leaders, make a public show of their personal piety through their offerings and sacrifices. They seem to be asking, “What is it, O God, that you want from us? What do you require? Just tell us your favorite offering, and we will surely sacrifice it—even if it is a rather extreme request.”

  With what shall I come before the Lord, 
    and bow myself before God on high? 
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, 
    with calves a year old? 
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, 
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil? 
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, 
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:6-7) 

For Micah, personal piety is insufficient. Micah reminds the people that their religiosity is missing a social component—social holiness, if you will—that God is seeking.  

 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; 
    and what does the Lord require of you 
but to do justice, and to love kindness, 
    and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) 

God’s expectation strikes at the heart of what it means to be a godly person, a person in right relationship with God, a person after God’s own heart, a person for whom personal piety and social holiness are inseparable.  

In an episode of The Michelle Obama Podcast hosted by the former first lady in August 2020, Michele Norris made these powerful remarks in her reflection on the pandemic: “We are all going through a significant period of evolution, and it means that there’s an opportunity in that. It feels burdensome right now because so much has been taken from us, but there’s such an incredible opportunity to decide how you want to show up in the new world. Because it will be a new world. And my greatest hope is that we don't reach for normal, that we reach for better.” 

How do we Asian American Christians want to show up in the new world under the Biden-Harris administration? I want to reach for better and I hope you do too. 

Our faith calls us, Asian American Christians, to participate in this new world, regardless of our political affinities, to rebuild our country. If we take seriously Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must work harder together to bring the pandemic under control, even as the vaccination program is being implemented. As emotionally, mentally, and spiritually taxing as this long season has been, we cannot afford to let our guard down now. We all have a role to play to stay safe and healthy and not contribute to the virus’s spread. This, in part, is what loving and caring for others is about. 

Bringing the coronavirus under control is critical to help turn our economic disaster around and bring economic relief to those most affected—lower-income people, the majority of whom are people of color. In addition, communities of faith, including our Asian American churches, can work to ensure that people facing economic hardships have help. We can also make sure that our government work on policies and bills to bring relief to them. 

As Asian Americans, we know that racism is alive and well and that the pandemic has accentuated it. Even as victims of racism ourselves, we know that unless our nation reckons with its anti-blackness that began with slavery, none of us people of color will ever stop being victimized by racial discrimination and acts. Asian American Christians in this new beginning must participate in the work where people, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” We must play our part in repenting of our own anti-blackness and work together to dismantle racism and white supremacy in all spheres of life, including in our church communities. 

Finally, we must hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable for their promise to “build back better,” as they begin their work in the rebuilding of our country and our democracy toward the better, so that everyone has a better tomorrow, enjoying equal justice, tranquility, common defense, welfare, and the blessings of liberty!  

Photo by René DeAnda on Unsplash

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The Rev. Dr. Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan is president and professor of Hebrew Bible at Claremont School of Theology. He is also ordained in the United Methodist Church. Twitter: @JeffreyKuanCST