Thursday, October 25, 2007

You're reading WHAT?!

OK, I'll confess: I'm reading the latest and last Harry Potter book and enjoying it. It's a little hard to get used to the grittiness of this book, because I'm used to the lighter, kid-friendly atmosphere of the previous books. The body count is appalling. But there is a kind of edge-of-your-seat excitement in the book, partly because of the fear of mortal danger. But enough of playing book critic.

The reason I hesitated to put this on my "what I'm reading" list is because there are so many in the Christian community who are up in arms about witchcraft as the subject of a book. (I would protest that the Harry Potter books aren't so much about witchcraft as they are about being an outsider in a society that prizes conformity. ) The same people might be a little put out that I've read "Pornified", but I could justify that as research for a sermon series and be let off the hook.

Am I a role model? Sure, and so is everyone. "Your life may be the only Gospel some people may ever read" as the saying goes. So should I avoid Harry Potter? Depends on what you think I'm a role model of (sorry for the terrible grammar but it gets the point across better). I don't want to be a role model of a narrow perspective of Christianity as promoted by a small group of powerful people. I want to be a role model of someone who is following Christ and engaged in my world so that I can know how to help others follow Christ in this world.

So I continue to be interested in a wide range of things, partly because I'm naturally curious and partly because I want to be as engaged as possible in this world that God loves and for which he gave his Son to redeem. I hope I'm a good role model of someone who is "in the world but not of it" (cf. John 15), rather than of someone who is "so heavenly minded he's of no earthly good."

Monday, October 22, 2007

Christ and culture

I finished reading Philip Jenkins’ “The Next Christendom”. The chapter on “Coming to terms” really interested me. Jenkins outlines how Christian beliefs have been modified or combined with indigenous religions in the places where Christianity is growing the fastest, i.e., in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

On the one hand, theologians in the West question if the result is truly Christianity. But Jenkins also discusses how Christianity was changed when it moved out of Palestine and co-opted religious practices of the Northern Europeans and British Isles.

Last Sunday we had a bunch of students from InterVarsity’s Stanford chapter visit as part of their “church tour”. In the Q&A afterward someone asked what it was like for someone who was not Asian American to participate in Grace Community. The question made me think about my own experience of Christianity, how my theology, my devotional life, my public worship, and even my music echoes so much of a voice that is mostly northern European.

Yesterday I went to lunch with several families from Grace Community. We were of Chinese and Korean backgrounds eating in a Japanese restaurant. There was that Asian American rhythm to our fellowship that made it easy for us to relate to each other so that conversation could flow easily.

In some ways I’m still coming to terms with being an Asian American Christian. At the same time, I’m sure that Christ is big enough to meet all of us on whatever terms are needed so that we can experience his grace.