after some good conversation with some folks around me, I realized that the biggest qualm I have against this whole issue is not that they were intentionally or unintentionally offending; one could say the authors (and perhaps even Zondervan, but I doubt it) were on the culturally ignorant side, aka, they just didn’t know. This is a good thing because there’s always room to learn! And we as brothers and sisters in Christ are the best people to teach and admonish one another.

The real impact I see this book (and its compliments) could have is its further influence on those that are not yet culturally sensitive. The people that haven’t been around Asians in their life are the ones that randomly ask you, “do you know kung fu?” and the ones that yell “ching chong ching chong” as you drive by (that happened this August!). You can’t really blame them, because they got their idea of an Asian from kung fu movies and such.

For those that have not been around Asian folks growing up, if they were to pick up this book, their idea of “what an Asian looks and acts like” would be consequently influenced (or further influenced) by the contents of this book. I could see this as potentially furthering cultural ignorance, even though not intentionally. I don’t want to see a Christian book having the possibility of encouraging thought like that.

I also wonder what reaction it would spark from a nonbeliever who is Asian. Would they not really care and move on, or would they take offense? If they do take offense, what stain would come upon their view of Christians?

These are just my thoughts, but hope it helps! Boy, I’d love to listen in on this conversation. Good luck!

Why is your reaction to this different than to DV?

What about the rest of you?

http://www.wasabigospel.com/

I don’t find this concept offensive like the Deadly Vipers stuff. What do you think?

In responding to the Deadly Vipers fiasco I frequently began my posts, entries, emails, facebook msgs with “As an Asian American” or “As a Korean American”…. but in writing this post, I hesitated over writing “As a man”… I almost considered not writing it because I assumed it would be obvious. My first reaction was “that sounds silly” or “that seems unnecessary.” After I probably spent 30 seconds thinking about that, I decided to go with a more casual “As a guy” (I was tempted to write ultra-casual “As a dude”). Reading Paul’s preface made me realize what an interesting internal dilemma I had, even if it only was for a few fleeting moments.

Whereas with my ethnicity, it was a no brainer for me to self-identify myself along my ethnic lines.

I wonder what that says about how I view gender and my identity as a man? What that says about the power of ethnicity versus the power of gender?