The Way Forward Requires Looking Back
A Reflection on “Christianity in Asian American History”
By Joshua Huver
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hat has Christ and the gospel to do with one’s identity as an Asian American?
At a recent meeting amongst the ministers in my denomination, I attended a breakfast meet-and-greet with the ethnic ministers of the fellowship. I was ecstatic. I felt that my denomination was really considering the needs of ethnic minorities. What I did not expect, however, was the confusion and questions surrounding the meet-and-greet by the ethnic ministers. The question quickly came up: What does my ethnicity have to do with my being a pastor? Aren’t I a Christian before I’m ever a (fill in the blank)? What does my ethnicity have to do with my faith? To be fair, many of us felt a strange isolation by the end of the event. But more importantly, what became clear in that moment was that for many of us the relationship between faith and ethnicity was anything but clear.
The same confusion and lack of clarity, I imagine, is felt by many Asian American Christians. What has the Asian American experience to do with faith? While many theologians and church leaders may have sufficient answers to these questions, one field we ought to glean from more is the area of Asian American history.
Indeed, if we want to understand how to integrate faith and Asian American identity in our current context, we need to learn how Asian Americans in days past wrestled with these same questions and took the steps that brought us to where we are today.
Christianity in Asian American History
In April, the Candler Foundry at Emory University launched a six-week online course entitled “Christianity in Asian American History.” Dr. Tim Tseng, Pacific Area Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) and Co-Executive Director of New College Berkeley, taught the course alongside weekly special guest lecturers including, Justin Tse, Randi Walker, Yucheng Bai, Jane Hong, Helen Jin Kim, and Kwok Pui Lan. Dr. Tseng, alongside the host of guests, delivered a historically robust and widely accessible course such that students from diverse educational backgrounds could engage and be inspired to learn more. Moreover, Dr. Tseng facilitated a hospitable learning community where students could discuss, ask questions, and build relationships with one another.
The recordings of the lectures are all available online as well as the slides and resources. My goal for the remainder of this reflection is to share three key take-aways that I hope inspire you to listen to the recordings and learn more about Asian American history.
Asian American Christians & Activism
Before the classes, I never heard of faith leaders like Alan S. Wong, Roy Sano, Hoover Wong, Jitsuo Morikawa, and Harry Chuck. I didn’t know there were Asian American Christian organizations who elevated Asian American consciousness and pioneered institutional change. I never learned how they cared for their community, produced literature, witnessed against oppressive powers through strikes and protests, and advocated for social change. In this course, I discovered a rich history of Asian American activism. I learned that we as Asian American Christians are part of a larger historical movement of public witness.
In addition to the tradition of public witness in the Mainline churches, the growth of post-World War II, second generation Asian Americans led to new organizations that promoted Asian American identity and resisted assimilation in a time where the expectation among American churches was that all races would melt together and fully integrate. Organizations like the National Conference of Chinese Churches (CONFAB) and Nisei (second-generation Japanese) groups advocated for planting and maintaining ethnic churches and Asian American organizations.
Through these leaders and organizations, Asian American built foundations for later movements in the 1970s and onwards for Asian American evangelicals.
Take-Away 1: Though these initiatives and movements eventually declined in Mainline Prostestant churches, their memory attests to the importance of institutional change and representation, social activism and justice, and the continued need to care for and advocate for our communities.
However, after learning this history of public witness, I wondered, how is it that I’m just now discovering this? What happened in the landscape of American Christianity that churches seem to have fewer resources on Asian American identity and fewer organizations dedicated towards advocacy and public witness at least until recently?
Asian American Evangelicalism & Assimilation
A number of factors attributed to the shift away from public witness: the wave of new immigrants following the 1965 Immigration Act, the rise of evangelicalism and missions in Asian countries, and the consequent pressures to assimilate. Following these mid-century shifts, Asian Americans seemed to follow the evangelical prioritization of evangelism over public witness and Christian identity over ethnic/national identity. Dr. Jane Hong’s discussion on the effects of the 1965 Immigration Act helpfully points out that with this wave of new immigrants came theologies from evangelical missionaries in Asia. This theology, which Dr. Tseng illustrates through a comparison of Norman Grubb and Jitsuo Morikawa, reduced the gospel to salvation from sin whereas Morikawa argued for a larger picture of the redemption of the cosmos. Meaning, salvation cannot be separated from the context of society. Morikawa argues,
“But no individual can be saved into the wholeness of salvation except in the context of society. One cannot be a full person . . . except in fellowship, in relationship with others, and society, whether church or school or business corporation or political unit all all essential to our existence, to our life, to our life eternal” (Hazel Morikawa, Footprints, One Man’s Pilgrimage: A Biography of Jitsuo Morikawa, p.89).
As a result, there seemed to be this theological justification to minimize one’s ethnic identity when it came to matters of faith and religion - something that we see to this day (e.g., the conversations from the beginning of the article).
A particularly useful term that Dr. Tseng used to explain the predominant view of Asian Americans by American Christians was the term “heathen,” meaning Asian Americans were interpreted foremost as a group needing to be either ostracized or converted. He explains three approaches taken by Christians towards Asian Americans: exclusionist, conversionist, and pluralist. The exclusionist approach follows the logic of the Conquest of Canaan (e.g., 1882 Chinese Exclusion; Alien Laws; 1924 Immigration Act). The conversionist approach, which seems closer to modern evangelicalism, approached Asian Americans with the expressed goal of evangelism with the result of Christian americanization (e.g., model minority). The pluralist promoted racial democracy through religious and cultural pluralism. These categories provided an informative framework for understanding the approaches of Christians towards Asian Americans in the past and perhaps today. But the more important question that we should ask is how do we understand ourselves? How do we define Asian American Christians today?
In Dr. Tseng’s words, Asian American evangelicalism is a protest. It is a resistance against western Protestant control and embrace of the social gospel. Asian American evangelicals rejected conformity to denominational policies and valued independence. They formed alternative institutions and networks. Though they distinguished themselves from Mainline Protestants at the time, there remains overlap between the two.
Take-Away 2: Asian American Christians don’t fit neatly into the evangelical/Protestant, modernist/fundamentalist, and other theological and ideological divides, but I think even today, must pioneer their own way forward.
Asian American Christians & Pan-Asian Efforts
How do we move forward? At the outset of the course, I noticed that the discussions on Asian American history tended to focus heavily on the experience of East Asian people and little was said about South and Southeast Asian people. I’m grateful, however, that Dr. Justin Tse and Dr. Tseng at least acknowledged this problem in our first session. In part, the lack of discussion is due to the lack of research and literature. But also, Asian American demographics shifted greatly post-1965.
In the wake of the 1965 Immigration Act, there was a great influx of Asian Americans generally, but significantly large groups from Southeast and South Asian countries as well as other ethnic groups, specifically Latin American. As a result, Asian American populations were also no longer composed of mainly second-generation people, but first-generation immigrants. Given the greater diversity of Asian Americans and other ethnic groups, the way forward for Asian American organizations requires a broader, Pan-Asian and Trans-Pacific framework.
Both Yucheng Bai and Helen Jin Kim’s lectures reminded us that the history of Asian American Christians not only includes the experiences of those in San Francisco, but in Hong Kong. Not only Seattle, but Seoul as well. When we consider the influence of American missionaries in Asia, the revivals in Korea and China, the theologies and experiences of those in Asia are intricately connected to those in America. Therefore a more Trans-Pacific frame is necessary for Asian Americans to navigate the complex reality of Asian American history and identity.
Moreover, Kwok Pui Lan expands this focus from a Trans-Pacific frame to include cross-racial solidarity and an intersectional understanding of identity. She helpfully reminds us of the ways our identities and struggles are historically connected with the struggles of other groups.
Take-Away 3: The road forward needs to include cross-racial solidarity, intersectionality in identity, and activism that expands to a Pan-Asian and Trans-Pacific focus.
This course gave me hope in this: Despite the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes and the growing racial conflicts, Asian Americans Christians are responding with activism and collaboration not only between Asian groups but cross-racially as well. I believe the Asian American Christian Collaborative has been a prime example of this type of response, and represents an important shift at least in evangelical Chrisitan spaces. Nevertheless, there is still so much work to be done.
As we continue to have conversations on the integration of faith and Asian American identity, let’s not overlook the wealth of knowledge and experience in the history of Christianity among Asian Americans. In this regard, the Emory Foundry course on “Christianity in Asian American History” is an excellent starting point.
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