***Just a brief word before I get started: I’m really nobody, okay?  Kay.***

The Christian Post recently interviewed Amos Yong, a professor at Regent University, who was one of the contributors to the book Aliens in the Promised Land, Why Minority Leadership Is Overlooked in White Churches and Institutions.  I think it’s clear from the title that the book is going to be pretty thought provoking, which is good thing when it comes to the discussion on race.  One part of the interview really stuck out to me, where Dr. Yong says this:

What I mean by “racialization” is that we learn how to look at the world through a racial lens, one in which whites are superior and other races or ethnic groups less equal, if not inferior. I don’t think we teach this as the God-given truth, but we do act in ways that basically presume the superiority of white evangelical culture, values, and perspectives. Growing up Asian (Chinese) in America and even into my young adult years, I tried to act and become white since I felt that full conversion to Christ meant leaving behind Asian culture and embracing “Christian” (white) culture. Whites don’t realize that they are communicating this, and Asians do not generally realize that they are receiving this message.

A tough statement, but I agree.  I have seen it firsthand on several occasions, how many white evangelicals do not realize that some elements of “evangelical” culture are not truly religious or theological, but really…white, and uniquely American.  They assume that their approach to Christianity is completely above culture, based solely on universal biblical principles.  But this is simply not true, as the different streams of evangelicalism around the world have substantial differences from American evangelicalism (and of course, some important similarities).  So I appreciate what Dr. Yong, and the other contributors to this book, are saying.

BUT.  There’s always a BUT with me, and usually it’s a big one.  What can I say, I like big but’s. Continue Reading…