Category Archives: Theology

Three Enraging Racist Encounters in American Evangelicalism

Posted on May 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’m currently reading through some books in preparation for Sunday’s sermon. At the moment, I’m working through The Next Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah. In it I came across these three accounts of racism in the context of American evangelicalism. That so many evangelicals consider racism a personal rather than a systemic, structural problem shows a massive failure in understanding and contextualization.

Account 1

“The following story from an Asian American blogger reveals the harmful aspects of the creation of ‘the other’:

I am sitting in a service at my home church in Missouri. During an announcement for a new outreach to international students, a non-Aisan woman dressed in a kimono (traditional Japanese dress) stepped up to the mike. She was an elder’s wife. She feigned an accent, in which she spoke in halting English. The congregation roared with laughter. There were two Asians in the church that day. One was me. The other was my unchurched friend. He turned to me and said, “This is bullish__.” He got up, turned around (we were sitting in the front row) and walked past the crowd of 800 laughing and guffawing faces.

Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Christianity, Ministry, Pastoral, Racism, Theology

A Short Critique of an Aspect of American Evangelicalism

Posted on April 30, 2012 | 1 Comment

Sociologist R. Stephen Warner: “What many people have not heard…and need to hear is that the great majority of the newcomers are Christians…This means that the new immigrants represent not the de-Christianization of American society but the de-Europeanization of American Christianity.”

I am looking forward to the day more theologies from regions around the globe—and locally—are not plowed over or bullied out by entrenched theological positions. I do value Western theology, but to think it’s exhausted theological enquiry is silly and dangerous. In fact, a proper understanding of the inexhaustible nature of God should help any Christian realize that theological development will probably never reach its end in time or by humans.

I am most looking forward to seeing American evangelicalism receiving a dose of much needed humility. Taking a global view, the myopic nature of the rhetoric on Continue reading →

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Christianity, Ministry, Racism, Theology

Abortion – A Feminist Pastor’s View

Posted on December 29, 2011 | 5 Comments

At the moment, I’m quite busy working on my New Year’s talk, but I wanted to share with you a sermon I found by the Presbyterian minister the Reverend Terry Hamilton-Poor. I came across this gem while doing comprehensive research on the issue of abortion. In 1991, Stanley Hauerwas (Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School & Professor of Law at Duke University) gave a talk on abortion titled “Abortion, Theologically Understood” at the annual conference of The United Methodist Church. To start his talk, he read this sermon by Pastor Hamilton-Poor. It’s short, and not comprehensive, but it gives what I believe to be an excellent example of how Christians and the church can (and should) respond to the issue using the gospel. It also includes some powerful and real responses to abortion toward the end. Continue reading →

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Abortion, Life and Death, Ministry, Pastoral, Theology, Women

Tagged , , ,

How I Write Sermons

Posted on December 20, 2011 | 4 Comments

This post will probably be of particular interest to pastors; however, over the years, I have found that some congregants are also quite curious as to how pastors go about preparing their sermons. I am writing this entry in hopes to give folks a somewhat voyeuristic peek into the sermon writing process. Of course, my method is only one of many, but I think this entry should help folks get a rough idea as to what sermon prep can be like. I also hope to dispel the common misconceptions that writing a sermon is easy and that pastors are able to “just get up and preach” (behind which the assumption is that little preparation is necessary.)* By the way, I think the question I’ve been asked the most by far as a pastor is, “What do you pastors do during the week?” I remember someone saying to me, “You guys have it easy. Just chilling all week and hanging out with people and reading. That’s gotta be the life.” Don’t I wish. My friend addresses this question and myth on his blog. I’ll probably write about it one day as well. ;p Continue reading →

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Pastoral, Theology

Tagged ,

The Day My Baby Sister Heard God’s Voice

Posted on November 30, 2011 | 4 Comments

[As I do the Racism series, I will occasionally include off-topic posts as little breathers.]

Sometime during my years in elementary school, my dad was estranged from us. There was some issue with the status of his immigration visa, and it took over a year to resolve. For some, this might sound routine; however, for us, it was a very stressful and painful experience. Not only were we unsure if he would ever be able to come back to the States, but we were also not very well-off.

My mom suffered tremendously that year trying to put food on the table. Since the separation was unexpected, she had to scramble to find a job in a country where she could barely speak the language. Thankfully, a church friend offered my mom a wage for sewing little clothing pieces like socks and cuffs. But to make even a little money, she had to sew thousands of these things. My mom shares with me that she spent many sleepless nights sewing sock after sock; oftentimes, she fell asleep at the sewing machine exhausted. I still have many memories of my Continue reading →

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Family, Life, Theology

Tagged , , , , , ,