waking up

Asian American Christians should be in uproar…

Blog #1 – http://profrah.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/kung-fu-fighting-as-a-means-to-sell-christian-books/

Blog #2 (response) – http://profrah.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/response-from-one-of-the-authors-of-deadly-viper/

Blog #3 (Open Letter to Zondervan) – http://profrah.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/an-open-letter-to-zondervan-and-to-mike-foster-and-jud-wilhite-authors-of-deadly-viper-character-assassin-a-kung-fu-survival-guide-for-life-and-leadership/

One of the videos in question – http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=35881373178&ref=mf

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Let me say first that before anyone goes on a rampage citing white privilege and blasting Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite for this, no one like being judged/condemned on assumptions, fair or unfair.

I for one believe they had good intentions… a book on Christian leadership and integrity, great. We could use more of that. But whoever was responsible for signing off on this insensitive marketing strategy has forgotten or never cared enough to really know what it is like to walk in the shoes of an Asian/Asian-American. Part of being an Asian and growing up here means that you have been on the receiving (victim’s) end of the martial-arts, chinky-accent, slanted-eyes, and various other stereotypes many times. Here, at least the authors are at fault, and so is Zondervan, if not many other people for not pointing out these grievous oversights sooner.

It’s about pain. The pain people experience is not something we want to be reminded of, especially not in such a careless way… and especially not by people in the public eye. Add on to the fact that it’s worse when coming from people in positions of influence, and on top of that, the fact that these guys are supposed to be progressive Christian leaders/thinkers, and you get this huge mess that is sending Asian American Christians such a bad message.

I myself was not offended much (because I haven’t read the book). But when I saw the callous justification type of “what’s the big deal?” response from Mike Foster posted up on Prof. Rah’s blog, and then some video, I was really ticked off. Then it made me sad to think about the state of faith & ethnicity and all the work that we have to do.

I really hope it doesn’t stop here, but that a public apology is issued from Zondervan… I hope they and the authors really understand the pain that so many experience as immigrants and ethnic minorities, and do better than this.