Walking the Talk

I'm sure Rev. Soong-Chan Rah did not set out to be a spokes-person for the racism that exists against Asian Americans. But when he sees it, he is able to face it with clarity, humility, integrity and Christian love. Another of the guest speakers at the National Youth Workers Convention, Rev. Rah challenged everyone to step out of the 'white western gospel' to provide a much more culturally relevant and accurate picture of the Gospel to those we teach. I can guarantee you that many were squirming in their seats during his powerful, prophetic and honest message. He raises the good and tough questions that we need to be raising at this time in our cultural and spiritual history. How have we as white westerners (Americans) co-opted the Gospel and twisted it to meet our own cultural and racial mindsets? How have we been mis-reading and mis-teaching the Scriptures based on our own limitted cultural and racial lenses? Are we allowing other cultural, racial and ethnic voices to enter into our readings, our discussions and our worldviews so that we avoid ethno-centric and even racist interpretations of Scripture? Check out Rah's blog and read more. And be sure to read about how he confronted two major publishing companies for their stereotyping of Asian Americans in their literature.

Kudos to Rev. Rah for challenging a stereotype, and to Youth Specialties, Zondervan and the Skit Guys for their retraction of the offensive material and public apology to the Asian American community. These are people I'm proud to associate with as part of the body of Christ.

Youth Curriculum for Post-Election Healing (click here)

LinC, published by Cokesbury, just released this week's issue of it's youth Sunday School curriculum, which is the best piece I've seen yet on how to deal with the post-election emotions and healing from a Scriptural perspective. Yes, I'm biased because I am also a writer for LinC, but I did not write this issue. I read it yesterday and it is outstanding...if you are looking for something to raise the discussion to a different level for you or for your church, please consider buying and downloading this issue. Click on the title above to see the issue description.
For many people, 'moving on' is much easier said than done. But let's keep the conversation spiritual and Scriptural in our Christian communities!

Let's Pray for Our Publishers

Youth Specialties recently published the book, Barack Obama: An American Story and is now taking hits from people all across the religious and political spectrum for publishing it. Interestingly enough, none of the people attacking or applauding YS has even read the book yet. I have 5 copies on order and am waiting to read and discuss it with my student leaders. Honestly...what have we as a society come to that we attack first, reflect/read later? This is a non-issue that some folks want to make into an issue because emotions are still running high after a long political campaign. Are we really so small-minded in our churches and our worldviews that one little book should stir such controversy for a Christian publisher? If we are to be like Jesus aren't we supposed to be 'out there' with those most unlike ourselves, caring for one another...not infighting and arguing about how appropriate it is for a publisher to publish a book?

Hang in there Marko! Read Mark's blog response here.

Another Great Voice

Phyllis Tickle was another of the guest speakers at the National Youth Workers Convention that I recently attended. Insightful and well-reasoned, she helps make sense of spiritual and religious movement in the context of culture and history.

Building Bridges

Many Christians have no idea what to think about or how to deal with people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual. In fact, rather than deal with the issue and 'those people' most churches and church leaders shy away from the issue completely assuming that it doesn't really affect their congregation anyway. But from this Youth Workers perspective (an many, many others) it is an issue that permeates youth ministries across the country, and so also is an issue in all of our churches. For some wonderful teaching and dialogue about this issue, please see Andrew Marin's website.

No matter what church or synagogue you attend, visit, or belong to I can guarantee that there are youth, young adults, parents and grandparents who are dealing with this issue in some way shape or form. If you think it does not exist where you are...you are in denial. In over 15 years of youth ministry, I have learned so much about gay, lesbian, bisexual and sexually curious young people. And from experience, I can tell you that most of them who have 'come out' in their youth groups or churches have felt just the opposite of the love of Christ. They have felt the condemnation, judgment and anger from the very people who they thought were supposed to love them based on the teachings of Jesus.

Francis Chan (click here)

While at the National Youth Workers Convention in Pittsburgh the past 4 days, I heard Francis Chan preach for the first time. Check out his website and download a sermon or two. You will be challenged and hopefully changed!