Liberation Theologies in the United States: An Introduction

5. Asian American Theology

| 115 5 Asian American Theology Andrew Sung Park Historical Backdrop Asian American life is marked by memory of trauma and discrimination: the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; the Immigration Act of 1924, including the Asian Exclusion Act; and the Japanese American Internment during World War II. Activism and liberation movements, such as the civil rights movement and the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, would begin to crack the structures of oppression. However, signs of progress were not indicative of racial harmony among minoritized and marginalized groups. In 1992, as but one example, the Los Angeles South Central eruptions targeted and completely burned down over two thousand Korean American and other Asian American small business shops. It was in light of both violent conflict and moments of progress that Asian American theology emerged. Clear markers of this new theological discourse include the establishment of the Pacific and Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies (PACTS) in Berkeley in 1972, the Center for Pacific and Asian American Ministries in 1976, and the formation of the PANA Institute (Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion) in 2002. Several other Asian American centers and programs have emerged and activelyservedAsianAmericanacademicandecclesialcommunities:theAsianAmerican Ministries Center at Garrett Evangelical Seminary (1984); the Center for Asian American Ministry at McCormick Theological Seminary, Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity (ISAAC) (2005); and programs for Asian American ministries and theology hosted by major theological seminaries such as Princeton Theological Seminary and Brite Divinity School. Description Situated in multicultural soil, Asian American theologians have reflected on their experiences of racial and cultural discrimination and have critically 116 | Andrew Sung Park analyzed discrimination encountered to construct their own theologies. These life experiences motivated them to commit themselves to transforming the oppressive structures of society and the church and led them into the construction of their sociocultural and personal identities that were characterized by their contested negotiations of the complex and difficult relationships among their Christian faith, culture, ethnicity, and personhood.1 Generally speaking, Asian American theology may be divided into two stages:thefirststagebeganintheearly1970sthroughthe1980s.TheactivetheologiansofthisstageweremalesandProtestants ,consistingofJapanese,Korean, and Chinese Americans. Facing considerable challenges from their own churches, communities, and society, they endeavored to unravel and change entrenched racist prejudices and discriminations of Christian institutions and beyond.2 The second stage of Asian American theology emerged during the 1990s. It used interdisciplinaryperspectivesandtreatedavarietyofissuessuch as ethnic identity, feminism, marginality, multiculturalism, diasporic experience , racial reconciliation, community transformation, evangelism, and faith journey. Whereas the Asian American theologians of the first stage were criticalofexternalsocialstructuresbutpaidlittleattentiontothenegativeaspectsof their own ethnic communities, the Asian American theologians of the second stage have reflected on intracommunal oppression and repression, including theissuesofinternalethnocentrism,racism,andgenderrelations. Sources Most male Asian American scholars have used multiple sources to construct their theologies, heavily drawing on their personal and communal experiences and theologies of liberation such as minjung (the downtrodden );3 Black and Latin American theology; sociocultural studies; Asian religions such as Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism; their own Asiatic spiritual , cultural, and ethnic heritages; and Diasporic, racial relations, and Asian American studies. An effective way to present these source materials is to provide an overview of the manner in which the work of certain theologians has developed. I begin with Roy Sano. Scripture: Prophetic Tradition Sano expressed his apocalyptic theology through several articles in the 1970s.4 Apocalyptic theology refers to the overthrow of existing unjust social and political systems through God’s drastic acts. Sano contrasted an Asian American Theology | 117 apocalyptic vision with a prophetic tradition that rose to prominence when Israel established its nationhood and when they gained the ear of rulers. He believed that Euro-American theologians were more concerned with the ideas of prophecy, whereas theologians of color were interested in apocalyptic visions. In the world of the “two-category system” where Euro-Americans dominate over other peoples of color and their values supersede values of other groups, simple reshufflings of social orders do not help the situation fundamentally.5 Sano finds a colonial pattern in the relationship between Euro-Americans and peoples of color in the United States and rejects a wholesale integration of the lower category into the upper category in the two-category system. He does not reject reconciliation between the two levels , but he aspires to see peoples of color obtain liberation from the dominance of the upper group. Drawing on biblical sources, Sano elaborates on the importance of Moses, Esther...