“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Happy Lunar New Year! i just returned home from two back to back feasts…one of the perks of living so close to our families. So much for eating healthier this year. But, as a friend tweeted: “if you need to re-evaluate your new year’s resolution, now is the time – Chinese new year is tomorrow!” I’ll be back on track…Monday. I still have to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

A quick update on what’s been going on: Praise God for an awesome time at the Epic East Coast Conference only a few weeks ago. One of the highlights of our weekend was our Day of Outreach, where we sent the entire conference out onto various campuses and locations in Philly to get into spiritual conversations. As a conference we were able to initiate 122 conversations, get into 84 spiritual conversations, give 56 gospel presentations and lead 8 people to pray & receive Christ. Yah God!

Since it was MLK weekend, one of the tools we used on our Day of Outreach was a Martin Luther King Jr. survey that one of our staff created. The first question to this survey is “You may be familiar with the famous quote on the front of this card [the "I have a dream" quote above]. Do you think Martin Luther King’s dream has been achieved?” I was surprised that many of the people I personally surveyed said that they think for the most part, his dream has been achieved.

I was reminded of that quote again when I read this article in The Boston Globe: “Do colleges redline Asian-Americans?” The article essentially says that Asian-American students “statistically, have to get higher scores than others to get in.’’ Some other interesting points (taken from “The Week”, which summarized this article):
* Children of Chinese, Koreans and other immigrants from the East earn good grades, shine in extracurricular activities and outperform other ethnic groups on standardized tests.
* That record of achievement has produced a backlash in the country’s colleges, which have quietly instituted an “Asian ceiling” in admissions.
* Yale, Darmouth and Harvard appear to be taking steps to limit Asian-Americans to between 15 percent and 20 percent of students.
* According to Princeton sociologist Thomas Epsenshade, top colleges practice a kind of reverse affirmative-action policy, requiring Asian-Americans to score an average of 140 points higher on SATs than other students.
* It’s understandable that colleges want a diverse student body.
* In a nation where success is suppsedly based on merit and performance, punishing Asian-Americans for their drive and intelligence “feels deeply unfair.”

I still have to process my thoughts on this issue, but I thought I’d throw it out there and begin the conversation. On a somewhat related note, this article captures why I personally decided to serve full-time in Asian American ministry. Growing up, I always felt like I was running on a “success treadmill”: I had to get good grades on my SSAT to get into Stuyvesant (a specialized Highschool in NY that both my brothers attended), had to do well on my SATs and be involved in lots of extracurricular activities to get into Cornell, and then had to fill my summers up with internships so that I could get a good job (read: high paying and stable, not necessarily something I was passionate/cared about) after college. Living on a treadmill always left me feeling anxious, exhausted and constantly fearing failure.

Reading this article is confirmation of the senseless stress and pressure many Asian families put on their children to do well academically. My personal dream is that one day young Asian-Americans would not be forced into a mold of what their families think success looks like (graduating from Harvard?), but truly enjoy the process of discovering who God is and whom He created them to be.

I just loved learning about the origins of these famous super heroes from Kevin Eng, our teammate who is raising support up in Rochester (please remember to keep him in your prayers!). So I’m reposting his thoughts from his own blog which is here: http://epiceng.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/how-to-be-a-hero/#comment-28

How To Be A Hero

So, how then shall we live to become a Hero for God? The power for a Christian does not come from lightning, a green ring, Greek mythology, the sun, or even years of dedication. The power for a Christian comes from the Holy Spirit. God’s presence in the believer to comfort us in hard times, to refine us and mold our character, to empower us to use our gifts for the kingdom, to convict us of sin and lead us to repentance, to guide us in how to live, and to call us to come closer to Him.

Today I learned from Tommy Dyo (our National Director for the Epic Movement) that he, along with other Asian American campus leaders wrote a thank you note to the authors and publisher of Deadly Viper. Since I didn’t know about this, I figured many others wouldn’t as well. So here it is:

December 1, 2009

Margaret Yu, national director of leadership development, Epic Movement (Campus Crusade for Christ’s Asian American Ministries)

See Jess’s story on how God led her on a summer project. Find out more information below the video.

Epic Summer Project Full on Vimeo.

Domestic Summer Projects:
-Epic Hawaii
-Epic Bay Area
-Epic New York

International Summer Projects:
-Epic East Asia
-Epic Japan

Why go on summer project? Visit gosummerproject.com
Have a question? Contact Us

Here is a short story about the process that led her to have an amazing summer and beyond with Jesus.  Contact her if you have any thoughts or comments Jessica.y.lui@gmail.com.

If you are interested in finding out more about summer project, find some info at www.epicmovement.com.

Available Epic Summer Projects –
Stateside
Bay Area, California
Honolulu, HI
New York City, NY

International
Japan
Southeast Asia
East Asia

I thought it was so cool that Tim Keller was featured in New York Magazine. It’s a pretty interesting article, you can check it out here: http://nymag.com/news/features/62374/index2.html

One line that popped out to me was the following: Jonathan Tse, a 28-year-old investment analyst originally from Hong Kong, describes Redeemer’s emphasis on divine grace as a kind of liberation from the pressure that Manhattan, and the Asian community in particular (the Redeemer congregation has a disproportionately large Asian component), puts on its young people to perform. ‘Redeemer and the gospels themselves basically say, ‘You don’t earn your way into eternal life by working or by being good.’ 

Just reading that made me wonder if the reason for Redeemers’ “disproportionately large Asian component” was due to the lack of “divine grace” shown in the churches that these Asians grew up in? I know for myself growing up, even though “God’s grace” may have been preached, the families at church that compared each other’s children and college aspirations did not match that message. Just recently, my dad’s friend asked if I could bring his 11 year old daughter to church. When I asked why, (since he himself was not a Christian) he said that he knew sending his daughter to church would help her get into Harvard. This kind of thinking, seeing church as a means to earning our way to eternal life AND a successful worldly life, is part of the reason why I think many Asian Americans are leaving the churches they may have grown up in and flocking to mega-churches like Redeemer.

What do you think?

Read more: Why Are So Many New Yorkers Flocking to Evangelical Christian Preacher Tim Keller? — New York Magazine http://nymag.com/news/features/62374/index2.html#ixzz0YPYZnfb4

FYI: From Eugene Cho’s blog–

Zondervan Statement Regarding Concerns Voiced About “Deadly Viper: Character Assassins”
From Moe Girkins, President and CEO

Hello and thanks for your patience.

On behalf of Zondervan, I apologize for publishing Deadly Viper: Character Assassins. It is our mission to offer products that glorify Jesus Christ. This book’s characterizations and visual representations are offensive to many people despite its otherwise solid message.

There is no need for debate on this subject. We are pulling the book and the curriculum in their current forms from stores permanently.

We have taken the criticism and advice we have received to heart. In order to avoid similar episodes in the future, last week I named Stan Gundry as our Editor-in-Chief of all Zondervan products. He will be responsible for making the necessary changes at Zondervan to prevent editorial mistakes like this going forward. We already have begun a dialogue with Christian colleagues in the Asian-American community to deepen our cultural awareness and sensitivity.

Zondervan is committed to publishing Christian content and resources that uplift God and see humanity in its proper perspective in relation to God. We take seriously our call to provide resources that encourage spiritual growth. And, we know there is more to learn by always listening to our critics as well as our advocates.

It would be unfair to take these actions without expressing our love and support for the authors of this book, Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite. Both gentlemen are gifted writers and passionate about their ministry. We do believe their message is valuable and plan to work with the authors to come up with a better presentation of that message. We will jointly ensure we do our due diligence on the appropriateness of the creative side. This will include reaching out to a broad spectrum of cultural experts.

Finally, I want to personally thank Professor Rah, Ken Fong, Eugene Cho and Kathy Khang for their input and prayers during this discussion. We appreciate everyone’s concern and effort and look forward to working together for God’s kingdom.

Warmly,
Moe

http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/zondervan-pulls-deadly-vipers-from-stores/

UPDATE: The Deadly Viper website has been taken down. In it’s place is this message from the authors of the book.

To our Friends and Family:

Due to an unfortunate conflict that arose around our use of Asian American themes, we have decided to close this chapter of Deadly Viper Character Assassins. This decision has been a very difficult one for us and one that we did not take lightly.

For the past 2 years we have had the honor to be part of an incredible movement of advocating for radical integrity and grace. We have been deeply humbled hearing your stories of how Deadly Viper has impacted your life, family, and relationships.

We and our team will continue to commit our lives to the message of integrity, grace, and most of all becoming People Of The Second Chance.

We thank you for your prayers, support, and kindness through this season.

We love you.

Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite

Encouraged by the sacrificial integrity shown by the authors and Zondervan. Praying that the conversation continues. More thoughts may come later…

Regina Chan gave this introductory talk about cross cultural ministry at a recent Cross 09 Conference in NYC to Campus Crusade staff.  The national conference, held in different cities in the US, encouraged staff to minister to a culture that is not of their own (hence the pun on cross =P).  I invite you to view the clip of her talk and share any comments you might have.  Thanks!

FYI The Deadly Viper blog just posted an update on their conversation with leaders in the Asian American Christian community. I’m encouraged. http://www.deadlyviper.org/blog/?p=1975

I’m fascinated by the discussion going around the blogosphere regarding the marketing of “Deadly Viper: Character Assassins”, a book apparently about Christian leadership. You wouldn’t be able to tell that from the dragon emblazoned on it’s cover, the Asian characters printed by the title, or the subtitle: “A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership”. I’m sure the authors of the book had no idea that their innocently packaged book of positive and potentially life-changing truths would offend so many. If you haven’t gotten around to following the discussion, I totally recommend it. I personally learned about it starting from Pastor Drew Hyun’s blog: http://drewhyun.wordpress.com/ [Side note: Pastor Drew will be speaking for our Epic East Coast Conference...very exciting!]

What intrigues me about this conversation are people’s responses to the basic statement, “your portrayal of my culture offends/upsets me.” These responses have ranged from “why are you offended? can’t you take a joke?” or “you should feel honored that they’re using your culture to promote such great values.” The most interesting response is, “Well, I’m Asian, and I’m not offended, so you shouldn’t feel offended either.”

It makes me think about the verse, “But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Cor. 12:24-26)

If one part of the body considers something hurtful or humiliating, shouldn’t the whole body make every effort to understand why and corrrect it? I’m sure that the writers and publisher of this book have learned a lot through this conversation. Hopefully they’ll be able to present their message in a more culturally-aware and sensitive manner.

As for the authors, I’m sure they have suffered much from all the angry, sarcastic, mean and unloving responses posted on blogs, FaceBook, and Twitter. For that, we need to apologize (which many have already). Let’s suffer with each other, and honor each other….I pray we may quickly rejoice with each other too as we see our culture begin changing for good.