tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73620333644693838322024-03-18T23:41:39.854-04:00Kwok Pui LanOn postcolonialism, theology, and everything she cares aboutUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-77999041314510171502022-11-25T13:55:00.000-05:002022-11-25T13:55:04.665-05:00Postcolonial Politics and Theology<p>I began to conceive the book <i>Postcolonial Politics and
Theology: Unraveling Empire for the Global World </i>during the 2019 Hong Kong
protests, the global Black Lives Matter movement, and the COVID pandemic. I
asked what a postcolonial theologian had to say in a time like ours. I gathered
pieces of my writing in the last decade or so to discern if there was a pattern
of thought that would be useful for our time. For me, writing is a witness to
history—my personal history as well as the history of the world around me.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in
Denver, Colorado, in November, there was a panel devoted to my book. I am very
grateful to Traci C. West, Miguel De La Torre, Nami Kim, and Melinda A. McGrarrah-Sharp
for their remarks and questions. I have learned so much from each of them through
the years and treasure their friendship and critical engagement with my work.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUaDlqX7DkVCAeKa3FftIOf2zZ_GJMQ7FMPbQtlkT_nNN4FEjrcgoJ9_eOsfSPfvsqD5eZYaU5Mhc2Eid8wgr4_COi2tXd8HrEszP2v9_Fpv53STOgCXRp7es0-jW7i8EIe3qEYtmxOEvrz7qUgUCjW8wooD0SHEJetnSu9KLxtdVAriaxK3tenSH7/s3919/AAR%20pics.re.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2511" data-original-width="3919" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUaDlqX7DkVCAeKa3FftIOf2zZ_GJMQ7FMPbQtlkT_nNN4FEjrcgoJ9_eOsfSPfvsqD5eZYaU5Mhc2Eid8wgr4_COi2tXd8HrEszP2v9_Fpv53STOgCXRp7es0-jW7i8EIe3qEYtmxOEvrz7qUgUCjW8wooD0SHEJetnSu9KLxtdVAriaxK3tenSH7/s320/AAR%20pics.re.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">As I look back on my work in the past decade, I notice
several changes. I have engaged decolonial thought more intentionally than
before. This is partly due to my dialogue with colleagues in Brazil and South Africa,
who are developing decolonial religious thought in their contexts. As a result,
I have read beyond Spivak and Bhabha and learned more about postcolonial history,
economics, and political sciences.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When I started to learn about postcolonial theory in the
mid-1990s, China had begun its reform and liberalization. Today, China has become
the world’s second-largest economy and China-U.S competition has a worldwide
impact. Postcolonial studies needs to scrutinize the so-called “peaceful rise”
of China and the ways many countries have been forced to ally with one
superpower or the other.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have also learned from practical theologians, and so the
book includes discussion on practices: protest, teaching, preaching, peacebuilding,
and planetary mission. Postcolonial theology needs to incarnate in the churches
and the wider community if it is to make difference, and not remains an
academic exercise.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak talked about “sanctioned ignorance,”
when she critiqued the biased white episteme and curriculum. But nowadays, I
understand “sanctioned ignorance” to mean also the ignorance of racial and
ethnic minority groups about each other’s history and resistance movements.
Each group would focus on its own struggles against the white-dominant world
and knowledge system, without making connections with other minorities or
oppressed groups.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Several panelists raised the question of how to teach to
promote the decolonization of theological education. One of the ways I have
tried is to promote global awareness because many American students tend to place
U.S. history and politics at the center. When we discuss racism in the U.S., we
need to connect this with the historical context of colonialism and global racism.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As teachers, we have to resist participating in the
disciplining and domesticating of students’ minds. What do we count as theory?
Do students need to learn Derrida, Foucault, Agamben, Butler, etc. to be theoretically
proficient? When supervising doctoral students, what kind of theoretical frameworks
do we want them to follow or develop? Can they find jobs if they don’t cite
these known figures?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is not that these theorists are not helpful. But if we
continue to privilege “western” theory, where is our creative edge? Why do we
assume that the reality of the majority of the world will be illuminated by
scholars whose interests and preoccupations come from different contexts? In
other words, do we repeat the mistake of seeing “western” scholarship as universal,
which can be applied context-free?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">De La Torre has counted that there were fifty-three sessions
at the annual meeting related to colonialism or postcolonialism. He raised the
concern whether this mainstreaming of postcolonial studies in the academy would
lead to its losing its subversive or activist edge. He noted that when liberation
theology began to gain traction in the academy, it lost its close connection with
social movements for change. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have also noticed that in recent years, there has been
increasing engagement with decolonial or postcolonial theory by religion
scholars of different traditions. In last year’s annual meeting, there was a session
with a lively discussion on decolonizing the teaching of religious studies. Given
the long history of colonial influences on the study of religion, I welcome
this self-critical scrutiny of the ways we teach and study. The transformation
of the field will hopefully lead to more organic knowledge of the religious practices
of the oppressed and not just the elites.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While working on the book, I became keenly aware that we
need more work on political theology from the Asia Pacific. With Lester Ruiz, I
co-convened a group of Asian and Asian American scholars from many different
countries to discuss this topic for about three years. We are going to publish
a book based on our Zoom conversations that are transpacific,
interdisciplinary, and interreligious. Political theology will not be the same
if we shift our gaze from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which is long overdue. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Adapted from a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 19, 2022) </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-86480297931432866682021-12-12T22:32:00.002-05:002021-12-18T10:56:14.975-05:00Gutierrez Signed My book “In the Same Option”<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7ubm9wa7TVz__SOiK_4BTfLLgB2zvtznaT7f-QhlAqBH0npPlHlh5D1mnN4bkrIaZ199RmKSv7mEmACoekSA1Niy1MvWhHTSbUXUhyJupzWwU8nQk020dTPnNybzcFNf6uLwRNOIwlLRbm0B-EFQLW3X8XucX_S_1xN-Syby8BOquebqgcpLboc3y=s610" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="377" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7ubm9wa7TVz__SOiK_4BTfLLgB2zvtznaT7f-QhlAqBH0npPlHlh5D1mnN4bkrIaZ199RmKSv7mEmACoekSA1Niy1MvWhHTSbUXUhyJupzWwU8nQk020dTPnNybzcFNf6uLwRNOIwlLRbm0B-EFQLW3X8XucX_S_1xN-Syby8BOquebqgcpLboc3y=s320" width="198" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In the 1970s, I was introduced to </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">A Theology of
Liberation</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> by my professors when I studied theology in college in Hong
Kong. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the Spanish
version of the book.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">The 1970s was a time of protests among
students in many parts of the world. In Hong Kong, students took to the streets
to demonstrate against government corruption and colonial rule. Gutierrez’s
theology of liberation spoke to the situation much better than the books of those European
theologians I read, such as Karl Barth and Paul Tillich.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">A Theology of Liberation</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">
begins with a critique of the theological enterprise. It offers a new
definition of theology as critical reflection of praxis. Reflection cannot exist without praxis. But praxis also needs the aid of critical reflection. The book helps
me fathom the vocation of a theologian, because Gutierrez is someone steeped in
the Christian theological tradition who cares about the suffering of the non-person.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">The 1970s was the period when contextual theology
began in Asia. Taiwanese theological educator Shoki Coe coined the term “contextualizing theology.” There was a conscious attempt to develop theology relevant to the
socio-political changes happening in many Asian countries. Various Asian theological
movements, such as Minjung Theology in South Korea, Homeland Theology in
Taiwan, and Theology of Struggle in the Philippines, emerged in the 1970s and
1980s. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">Similar to Gutiérrez’s work, Asian contextual theologies began with
critical analyses of the socio-political contexts. But except in the Philippines,
Asian countries have not been shaped by the Christian tradition. Thus, the kind
of living theology emerging from Asia could not rely on the Christian paradigm
alone but had to take into consideration religious and cultural elements of Asian peoples. It was eye-opening for me to see that Asian mask dance, poems of
dissidents, folk idioms, stories, protest songs, and shamanistic practices found
their way into theologizing for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">In <i>An Asian Theology of Liberation</i>, the Sri
Lankan theologian Aloysius Pieris writes, “The irruption of the Third World is
also the irruption of the non-Christian world. The vast majority of God's poor
perceive their ultimate concern and symbolize their struggle for liberation in
the idiom of non-Christian religions and cultures.”* Pieris argues that Jesus
needs to be baptized not only in Jordan but also in the Ganges and other Asian
rivers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">As Latin American theologians paid more attention to
popular religiosity and the religious heritages of black and indigenous peoples
in the continent, they opened new avenues of dialogue with Asian and African
theologians. Gutierrez has also expanded his views on the culture and religiosity
of the poor. As Maria Clara Bingemer points out, in the new Brazilian edition
of his theology of liberation published in 2000, Gutierrez wrote a long preface
and emphasized the importance of dialogue with African and Asian theologies. He
acknowledged the fact of religious pluralism and the emergence of interreligious
dialogue as challenges of our time.**<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">Even though Gutierrez’s book emphasizes the
preferential option for the poor, there is no analysis about gender and
sexuality in the examination of dependence theory and the proposed liberation
project. In 1981, Ghanaian theologian Mercy Amba Oduyoye calls the emergence of
third world women’s theology “irruption within the irruption.” This
irruption has given rise to various women’s theological movements in the
two-thirds world. They argue that we need to pay attention to the ways patriarchy
intersects with poverty, militarism, gender and sexual violence, and political
discrimination. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">In the last two decades I have worked in postcolonial
theology. What I found missing in <i>A Theology of Liberation</i> is a more
nuanced analysis of the subjecthood of the poor and the colonized. Influenced
by Marxism, the book has a rather homogenous and flat description of the poor. Many
have pointed out that the poor need to be examined through the critical lenses
of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and culture. Postcolonial theory opens
up a space to interrogate the construction of colonial and postcolonial
subject. It asks, what decolonization process would enable a postcolonial
or a politically engaged poor subject to be formed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">I have been keenly aware of the cooptation and
collaboration of the colonized in the colonial project. I have found that a
binary and clear distinction between the colonizers and the colonized is less
than satisfactory, for it does not speak to the ambivalence and mimicry of the
colonial subject. The poor and the colonized can’t be the subjects of history
without going through a decolonial process. For the colonial system would not
have been sustained for so long without the complicity and collaboration of the
colonial subject willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">I also find that the paradigm of liberation theology
can be over-determined if it is not open to critique. The paradigm starts with
social analysis of oppression—be it class, race, gender, and sexuality—and then
Jesus Christ is seen as the liberator of all from suffering and exploitation.
Jesus can be seen as identifying with the suffering people or as the savior who
intervenes in human history. As the late Marcella Althaus-Reid has pointed out,
Gutierrez has included the poor as theological subject, but his theology is
still traditional in the sense that it continues to work within the existing
paradigm. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">As we think about the future of liberation theology,
what kind of questions do we need to ask? As we have entered the Anthropocene age, in which human activities have significant impact on the planet's climate and ecosystems, churches and faith communities have important roles to play to transform moral values, change consumerist patterns, advocate policy changes, foster international cooperation, and shape a green culture. Leonardo Boff and other liberation theologians have already linked ecological degradation with liberation. We need to shift our anthropocentric model in theology to a much more complex and expansive planetary model. This means we can't talk about equality, human rights, and social justice, with taking seriously our collective responsibility as humans to the nonhuman species and our roles in the evolutionary processes of the planet. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">As a theologian of Chinese background, I also ponder how the rise of China has impacted my response to the book and what kind of future I imagine. When Gutierrez wrote the book, the cold war was raging. Today, we witness a new cold war between China and the US. Much to the chagrin of Gutierrez, his theology </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">will be considered orthodoxy in China for China has been waging a war
against Western imperialism for a long time. The change of China from Communism
to state capitalism raises the question of what happens after the social
revolution?</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">Today,
it is no longer dependency or developmentalism,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> but the forces of globalization and neoliberal economy that are shaping the world.
President Joseph Biden talked to President Xi Jinping of China recently and
decoupling between the two biggest economies in the world will not be easy. We
need to think about political theology in Asia Pacific that takes into consideration the
contestation of two empires with different cultural, religious, and political
outlooks. This comparative political theology needs to look beyond Western
Christianity to widen its critique of religious and political ideologies
shaping world politics.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgccIcFF39FeOJBfEqrzNiRc-QIDSvTkZrQ13fav3YYfhZ-7CMuajOhLFlL-zw_A08HNX1wcJZdo1yD3mpbUhlkBIB7J7EjLZlp7RpL-eP6xcQWK02EuY6rrA7fqwoxur686d-JzaDf12SlaSgy1Iy3DSey5pxlWXBXHeszqCGCnqBL09niAmBQVKgm=s628" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="628" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgccIcFF39FeOJBfEqrzNiRc-QIDSvTkZrQ13fav3YYfhZ-7CMuajOhLFlL-zw_A08HNX1wcJZdo1yD3mpbUhlkBIB7J7EjLZlp7RpL-eP6xcQWK02EuY6rrA7fqwoxur686d-JzaDf12SlaSgy1Iy3DSey5pxlWXBXHeszqCGCnqBL09niAmBQVKgm=s320" width="320" /></span></a></p><br /><p style="text-align: left;">For fifty years, <i>A Theology of Liberation</i> has
challenged us to think about the nature and scope of theology and the vocation
of a theologian. This challenge remains. I brought my copy of <i>A
Theology of Liberation</i> across the Pacific when I moved. In 2000 when I met
Gutierrez while speaking at a conference in honor of him, he signed my book “To
Pui Lan, In the same option.” It was in reading Gutierrez’s work in college that I
became who I am as a theologian today. And I know doing theology is a
commitment and a vocation.</p><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">*Aloysius Pieris, <i>An Asian Theology of Liberation</i>
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988), 87.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">**Maria Clara Bingemer, <i>Latin American Theology: Roots
and Branches</i> (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016), 113.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 107%;">(Adapted from a presentation at the session “Fifty
Years of Teología de la Liberación—Examining Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Influence and
the Task of the Liberation of Theology,” at the annual meeting of the American
Academy of Religion, November 19, 2021)</span></p><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-41369622985875896392021-09-11T15:05:00.001-04:002021-12-18T18:47:23.782-05:00God /Terror and 9/11<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7szueVHDeziHdX4teba32LiE9vmNSSDqD0cWpKY1c97MY9C8Zp6exDnAtv30ke7PDYGfsUt5Qz2jtHqL7R2VhLSyvlbJtPqf2_-OAQRFdb6Cpf_kMzoial_z5R6k2YuWtKJNxGNPu_g/s221/1800500939.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="221" data-original-width="170" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7szueVHDeziHdX4teba32LiE9vmNSSDqD0cWpKY1c97MY9C8Zp6exDnAtv30ke7PDYGfsUt5Qz2jtHqL7R2VhLSyvlbJtPqf2_-OAQRFdb6Cpf_kMzoial_z5R6k2YuWtKJNxGNPu_g/w246-h320/1800500939.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>What is the significance of discussing Volker Kuster’s
book </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/godterror/" target="_blank">God <span style="background: white;">/</span>Terror:
Ethics and Aesthetics in Contexts of Conflict and Reconciliation</a> </i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">today on
the twentieth anniversary of 9/11? For me the significance is that we gather to
remember, to make sense, and to search for meaning.</span></div><p></p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Two unforgettable images stand out for me on this day.
One was people jumping to their death from the Twin Towers on 9/11. The image elicited the feeling of terror and horror. The second image was the image of two children I
saw on TV, a boy and a girl, at the Kabal airport last August, waiting and
not knowing what would happen to them and their families in the US evacuation
from Afghanistan. I saw terror and horror in their eyes.</span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On this twentieth anniversary, what have we learned as the human community? What have we not learned? How might we learn anew and again?
Kuster’s book helps us to remember, to look forward by looking back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The book records Kuster’s intense dialogues with
artists—painters, installers of memorials and museums, novelists, and writers—to
search for meaning and to search for what is possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">For indeed when language reaches its limits, when we
are at a loss of words, we turn to the artists among us. When theodicy seems to
fail, when all sorts of theological gymnastics seem to lack the power to
explain, to make sense, we ask those who can see, who can still feel, who can
come up with shattering beauty in the midst of terror to guide us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The book speaks of an aesthetic turn in theology. What
does it mean to turn to aesthetics to make sense of theology? In what sense is
theology aesthetic? On the one hand, What is it about the aesthetic that can turn
theological thought? On the other, what is it about aesthetic that theology itself
may turn on it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">With numerous images, Kuster’s book is divided into
two parts. The first part is “Terror, War and Violence: God Talk in the Memory
of 9/11.” The second part is “Guilt, Reconciliation, Grace: God Talk in the Political
Conflicts in Germany, South Korea, and South Africa.” The second part is a
contrapuntal reading of the first part. The first part has a section on the “conflicting
images of God”; the second juxtaposes this with “in conflict with God.” This juxtaposition
reminds us of the fact that God/Terror is not only found in one locale, in 9/11,
but also in pivotal moments in other histories and timelines.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The book has some of the most striking images
depicting terror and horror, the absurdity of life, and tragic memories of history.
The aesthetics in the book deconstructs the classical understanding of aesthetics
as the study of beauty and taste. Rather, as Volker writes, “The strenuous
reconstruction of the relation between aesthetic and ethics is not about an aesthetization
of suffering in the sense of its glorification but about its disclosure, its treatment
and the preservation of memory” (p. 73).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The book raises the question of how we can bring art
in dialogue with Christian theology. Kuster challenges the boundary between the
secular and the sacred. He discerns religious meanings in “secular” art and
culture. The artworks in the book reveal life and death. Christianity talks about suffering,
healing, reconciliation, the cross, and resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But we have to avoid superimposing a Christian
framework on art. We need to ask, How might art reveal and challenge us to think
about and reconstruct Christian symbols in new ways.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I want to use two paintings in the book to illustrate.
The South Korean artist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Song-dam" target="_blank">Hong Song-Dam</a> (b. 1955) depicts a woman’s violated body
in a pool of blood in a woodcut titled “Blood and Tears 7.” Women were raped
and brutally killed during the Kwangju massacre in 1980. The image of the suffering
woman’s body requires us to think about why Christianity has focused on male suffering
to the neglect of women’s suffering. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The other image is from Hong’s oil paintings in the
series “The Twenty Days in Water” (8 pieces, 1999). The series depicts the
agony of a political prisoner who is tortured. The torturers tie him on a chair
and presses his head under water. The following painting portrays his close to death experience: imagining that he has grown fins and swims with a fish forming like a yin-yang symbol. While Christians have
talked about resurrection, this artwork offers another idea: metamorphosis. How
might metamorphosis challenge or supplement our understanding of resurrection?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I am grateful to Kuster, whose dialogue with arts helps
us remember the burden of history, the burden of memory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Presented at an international panel on
September 11, 2021, for the launching of the book.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-91481471713966389882020-05-09T20:35:00.000-04:002020-05-09T20:35:20.999-04:00Minor Feelings and Asian American Identity<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKR22_f6QHyFnk4l2LRxe3AaA-EUVI9r8FDvIgYtPPjv2jhNAPF9JT_6jnMoHRmIkaWm4w43pLyaMJWELWhGHE0k6igVFx6tFqZrcAma0DSXUXPjTyB-bbm-dHQTBLxrwpb1ETVd7-8s/s1600/minorfeelingscover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1511" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKR22_f6QHyFnk4l2LRxe3AaA-EUVI9r8FDvIgYtPPjv2jhNAPF9JT_6jnMoHRmIkaWm4w43pLyaMJWELWhGHE0k6igVFx6tFqZrcAma0DSXUXPjTyB-bbm-dHQTBLxrwpb1ETVd7-8s/s320/minorfeelingscover.jpg" width="211" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have seldom read a book that has caused me to pause
so many times to reflect on my life as a racial minority in the United States.
This is the reason I appreciate <i>Minor Feelings</i> by Korean American
award-winning poet Cathy Park Hong.*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Several days ago, my spouse and I went to a
supermarket to buy groceries. To space out the customers because of Covid-19,
the store put red tapes 6 feet apart in the checkout lane. As my spouse lined up
to pay for the groceries, the white woman in front of him demanded that he
moved back several steps further to about 9 feet behind her. Did she do this
because he is Asian? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This incident reminded me of the “minor feelings” Hong
describes in her book: “the racialized range of emotions that are negative,
dysphoric, and therefore untelegenic, built from the sediments of everyday
racial experience and the irritant of having one’s perception of reality
constantly questioned or dismissed” (p. 55).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hong grew up in California with immigrant parents, who
have worked hard so that their children would have better lives. Her book is
not a coming of age story or a story about survival and self-determination. It
is an honest reckoning of the psychic life of an Asian American woman struggling
to gain her voice when racial identity can box one in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hong does not mince words when talking about Asian
Americans’ habit of seeking white approval. Before reading the book, I knew
that it is not easy to be a poet. But I didn’t know that a poet needs to win
prizes and fellowships and be validated by (white) prestigious institutions to make
a living or get a teaching position. Yet Hong is tired of writing her life
script using the alphabets provided by the white world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Her ruthless honesty makes her Asian American readers ponder
the prices we have paid (or are willing to pay) to be “successful” in a white
dominated world. What makes Asian Americans willing to be “the carpenter ants
of the service industry, the apparatchiks of the corporate world” as Hong says?
Why do we step on each other to become cogs in the money-making machine?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is difficult to live with the ambivalence, if not
self-hatred, one feels about oneself. Hong writes, “Racial self-hatred is
seeing yourself the way the whites see you, which turns you into your own worst
enemy. Your only defense is to be hard on yourself, which becomes compulsive,
and therefore a comfort, to peck yourself to death. You don’t like how you
look, how you sound. You think your Asian features are undefined, like God
started pinching out your features and then abandoned you. You hate that there
are so many Asians in the room. <i>Who let in all the Asians? </i>you rant in
your head.” (pp. 9-10).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We are hard on other Asians: we cringe when we hear
other Asians speak with an accent or make grammatical mistakes; we frown when
we see an Asian woman too fat or wear a dress too short; we burn with envy when
our Asian friend gets a coveted fellowship or award.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJDR9yhxdSzMK85zn8ve21V1Xs6jk_tnP_txRfOn6AAOHvJZjwyuzfp1b2KjZBmVThHZuUXRZxhSdPSNr4S3Ko3fTXgkTgWZOAJcfGCLlbS-zglG4ztEIUYAZTjG2BCqu5oU2ZFcexhY/s1600/Cathy+Hong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="427" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJDR9yhxdSzMK85zn8ve21V1Xs6jk_tnP_txRfOn6AAOHvJZjwyuzfp1b2KjZBmVThHZuUXRZxhSdPSNr4S3Ko3fTXgkTgWZOAJcfGCLlbS-zglG4ztEIUYAZTjG2BCqu5oU2ZFcexhY/s320/Cathy+Hong.jpg" width="213" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hong is merciless in shredding the “model minority”
myth. I am surprised and impressed by her willingness to air dirty laundry in the
open and pay little attention to cultural taboos. Her mother beat her and her
sister. Her father learned to speak in a pleasing way to his customers and
clients. In graduate school, she thought writing about Asian identity is
“juvenile” and uncool. While many revere the pioneering Korean American author Theresa
Hak Kyung Cha, the author of <i>Dictee</i>, Hong traces the story of Cha’s rape
and murder. Filial piety is a cardinal virtue for Koreans, but Hong makes no
secret of the burden of having to feel indebted to one’s parents all the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Living with contradictions and pulled from all sides, Hong
finds solace in poetry and literature. The poetic form allows her to conjure up
worlds by stretching language to its limits. She introduces me to many authors
I have not known before. She pays attention to how narratives illumine
realities and fashion lives. In doing so, she invites theologians and religious
scholars to be keenly aware of how religious narratives shape our worldviews
and aid or hinder our meaning-making process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Minor feelings</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
is not an easy read. The book elicits many mixed feelings but does not offer any
easy resolution. The best thing from reading the book is that it allows you to
feel messy, less perfect, anguish, complicit, and not always in control. It is
OK to have these minor feelings because relationships are so racialized and we are
constantly conscripted to serve the white world. In reckoning these minor
feelings, we can better comprehend the depth of precariousness of the lives of racial
minorities, despite appearing successful in the eyes of the outside world. It
is only then that the long process of racial empowerment and healing can begin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">*Cathy Park Hong, <i>Minor Feelings: An Asian American
Reckoning</i> (New York: Random House, 2020) Kindle edition<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-78779235372373868082020-04-30T16:39:00.002-04:002020-04-30T16:46:31.954-04:00The COVID-19 Pandemic and Sino-American Relations<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNO3v1IQw_aD_FXg17EpeDILTzOYku5yC8WcFP76aY5GCVeNsRWb6gciMBiJR3FNiJM5-B6jYSrKEwqQth9Phcm3fdE72c7A3ekOlCEa6K7QsdhVrCHR6jZqWaraDkIRHWBHCJBCWrdDQ/s1600/wuhan-coronavirus-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="789" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNO3v1IQw_aD_FXg17EpeDILTzOYku5yC8WcFP76aY5GCVeNsRWb6gciMBiJR3FNiJM5-B6jYSrKEwqQth9Phcm3fdE72c7A3ekOlCEa6K7QsdhVrCHR6jZqWaraDkIRHWBHCJBCWrdDQ/s320/wuhan-coronavirus-10.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call to look at the
world we live in and the global forces that are shaping it. Joerg Rieger, Distinguished Professor of Theology and Director of the <a href="https://www.religionandjustice.org/mission-vision-history">Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice</a> at Vanderbilt University, </span><a href="https://www.religionandjustice.org/blog/the-ugly-truth-of-a-pandemic-and-the-logic-of-downturn"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">points
out</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
that the U.S. is ill-prepared to face the pandemic because we have not learned
the lessons from the Great Recession in 2008 by addressing growing inequity at
the hands of financial capitalism. Indeed, when the market and stock indexes
reached record highs in mid-February 2020, it was difficult to forecast the
market’s sharp decline and volatility because of a tiny virus that has brought
the world to heel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The pandemic shines a spotlight on issues of race and
class in American society. In the early days of the pandemic, celebrities and
sports stars could get tested for the virus, while ordinary people with
symptoms could not. Though professionals and white-collar workers can stay at
and work from home, service workers and other low-income earners cannot. </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/us/coronavirus-stay-home-rich-poor.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR1iMBtRsAPc_Vm0llZ3Qnrp2Us_6JC2PLq0dJXOj0AelYHFm11qMMaI-UI"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Staying
at home is a luxury</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> for them. While the coronavirus does not
discriminate along racial and ethnic lines, </span><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/black--hispanic-americans-coronavirus-2645677258.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">black
and brown people are affected disproportionally</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> because
of poverty, ill-health, and a general lack of medical support in their
communities. Additionally, </span><a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-01/coronavirus-anti-asian-discrimination-threats?fbclid=IwAR3SHFo1N8xNzjywqsgUdTxnpYco94pR0DEjrRWtRzv2Jg9vZaduET0K0e0"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Anti-Asian
racial incidents</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> are on the rise, exacerbated by President
Donald Trump’s labeling the coronavirus the “China virus.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The COVID-19 pandemic spread at a time of tense
Sino-American relations amidst trade wars and political and military
realignments in the Asian Pacific. This tension has made global solidarity in
combating the novel coronavirus more difficult and challenging. In 2003, when
SARS reared its ugly head, scientists in Canada, Hong Kong, and the U.S.
collaborated to </span><a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3051802/coronavirus-cooperation-shows-how-world-getting-better-hunting-down"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">hunt
down the virus</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. But the blame game between China and the
U.S. during COVID-19 has created obstacles in scientific collaborations and the
procurement of necessary medical supplies and resources. The pandemic shows how
much the world is interconnected, from the production of face masks to travel
and migration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZET6xc1-urb5F3neBElXKei8ToosjJ7PaqUlTyDb6fuo6a8BuGaqQhqXm5Mw749ibXGjs_y9nmtqI9xhyphenhyphenlkNvUE43bW3YeXbivx076UxUXfnFjPtcsEXgvyn8vfx3JDHwIWamljfyme0/s1600/trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="1000" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZET6xc1-urb5F3neBElXKei8ToosjJ7PaqUlTyDb6fuo6a8BuGaqQhqXm5Mw749ibXGjs_y9nmtqI9xhyphenhyphenlkNvUE43bW3YeXbivx076UxUXfnFjPtcsEXgvyn8vfx3JDHwIWamljfyme0/s320/trump.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The U.S. has shown itself to be slow and </span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-united-states-vulnerable-pandemic/608686/"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ill-equipped</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> to
face the COVID-19 pandemic whereas China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, having
learned from the SARS and other previous epidemics, were spurred to action
swiftly. Trump’s botched response and the government’s lack of preparation have
been deadly. As the U.S. became the epicenter for the virus, the rush to get
face masks, ventilators, and other basic medical supplies highlighted the lack
of government coordination. Rapid responses to the pandemic have been hindered
by a market-driven health care system, the lack of universal health care, and
no provision of paid sick leave for many workers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Many commentators have compared the Chinese communist
system to the American democratic system to assess which nation is better equipped
to handle the pandemic. But there is no time for finger-pointing or the blame
game. Christine Loh, a former undersecretary of the environment in Hong Kong,
argues that </span><a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3076008/no-room-coronavirus-conceit-us-or-china-world-has-its-hands-full"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">it
is simplistic</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> either to attribute China’s success in
controlling the virus to authoritarianism or to blame America’s failings on
democracy. She argues that the divergent ways that China and the U.S. have responded
to the crisis have much more to do with resources and capacities at hand,
cultural and societal values, scientific understanding, political ideologies,
and their decision-making structures. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Chinese government </span><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/15/china-didnt-warn-public-of-likely-pandemic-for-6-key-days.html"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">did
not warn</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> its citizens or the world of a likely pandemic at the
beginning of the outbreak in Wuhan, China. Had early warnings been made, many
lives would have been saved. Similarly, President Trump played down the
severity of the impact of the virus until March and does not want to follow the
strategies used by Asian countries to contain and mitigate the crisis. He is </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/15/834666123/trump-and-who-how-much-does-the-u-s-give-whats-the-impact-of-a-halt-in-funding"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">halting
U.S. funds</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> to the World Health Organization for 60 to 90 days, accusing
the WHO of being both “China-centric” and slow in responding to the crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The détente between China and the U.S. has sabotaged global
efforts to combat the coronavirus. Countries should not be forced to side with
one of these superpowers in order to receive help and resources. When the pandemic
is over, the world will need cooperation between the two largest economies in
the world for concrete actions to bring about economic recovery. The lives and livelihoods
of so many people are at stake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We cannot forget the valuable lessons we are learning from
facing this pandemic: namely, that we depend on each other for survival.
Without solidarity with one another and with the least among us, we will fall
short in responding to the looming crisis of climate change which will
devastate human lives and our habitat on a scale that is hard to imagine. We
must commit ourselves to building just and sustainable world systems for we can
ill afford to go back to life as usual. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">* First published as a blog on the Wendland-Cook Program of Religion and Justice Website at Vanderbilt University.</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-19642742874437447822020-01-30T17:24:00.001-05:002020-01-31T19:39:27.713-05:00Why I Like Worshiping at Candler's Cannon Chapel<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAmHrdtfHajCd7oYsC41wttwzm-mPtit06oVtEHm5SS1U4hBgzHEHYyXKRVQYUYPiymKWiYGTPQKgIHfSDpSS3bm3NKp8mT11iaLIqf0TB4vcXdx00t1xqqtPe84kSzRzg9wNOm2BnA7Y/s1600/Fry+Brown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAmHrdtfHajCd7oYsC41wttwzm-mPtit06oVtEHm5SS1U4hBgzHEHYyXKRVQYUYPiymKWiYGTPQKgIHfSDpSS3bm3NKp8mT11iaLIqf0TB4vcXdx00t1xqqtPe84kSzRzg9wNOm2BnA7Y/s320/Fry+Brown.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rev. Dr. Teresa L. Fry Brown</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Worshiping at Cannon Chapel is one of the things I
like most in my life as a professor at Candler School of Theology of Emory
University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. In the past two years as a visiting
professor, I have attended chapel frequently on Tuesdays and Thursdays.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">During the week in which we celebrated Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy, I listened to inspiring sermons by Baptist
minister the Rev. Dr. Damon P. Williams and by the Rev. Dr. Teresa L. Fry
Brown, Bandy Professor of Preaching at Candler. They demonstrated the power of
the word and deeply moving and engaging black preaching styles. Dr. Fry Brown, who belongs to the African Methodist Episcopal tradition, used Psalm 27 as her text. When she linked the suffering of African Americans
to the beginning of the psalm, “The Lord is my light and my salvation-Whom
shall I fear?” she provided a new context for me to listen to the words of the
Psalmist with new insights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGpDoY22Y3oTpZoPnbYF2TE7gdkh8yRBtck7HzTKUWETsC2GuIQ5zl_y4SCQiOCxQChzf-Jdjjaa21pQOLIfl1zBwKFiyaDo-D0d1ILmgNEYJF-7IiMMOsDuiUglMIk9xtaijAPgfTwIw/s1600/Oliveto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="714" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGpDoY22Y3oTpZoPnbYF2TE7gdkh8yRBtck7HzTKUWETsC2GuIQ5zl_y4SCQiOCxQChzf-Jdjjaa21pQOLIfl1zBwKFiyaDo-D0d1ILmgNEYJF-7IiMMOsDuiUglMIk9xtaijAPgfTwIw/s320/Oliveto.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bishop Karen Oliveto spoke at Candler</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then this past week, Bishop Karen Oliveto, Bishop of
the Western Jurisdiction, Mountain Sky Episcopal Area of the United Methodist
Church (UMC), came to visit the school and preached about how God’s table is open
to all. As the first openly gay bishop in the UMC, she asked us to think about
whether the church is “united” or “untied.” Her message was especially
important for our GLBTQIA students, who are pondering about their future
ministry and vocation in a church that is in the process of splitting over the
issue of human sexuality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This morning Dr. Andrew L. Prevot, an African American
Catholic theologian and associate professor of theology at Boston College,
preached about the Beatitudes, focusing on the verse, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). He said many people think that we have to
wait to go to heaven to see God. But we need to train ourselves to see God in
this world. This can only be done if we can see with mercy and compassion. The
message was particularly poignant, coming from Dr. Prevot who suffered from
many eye problems as a child. He used to carry a card of Saint Lucy and
frequently prayed for his eyesight when he was growing up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just within the short span of two weeks, I have
experienced preaching from four different traditions as well as gospel music,
Catholic chants, and evangelical hymns. These worshiping experiences opened me
to a spiritual world that is vibrating, inviting, and full of grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh8-eTmgyAauytAIzaXtJJ6nWLTav9gkkApJKfGxg2wH30Wr6W5IlXYjRrsYY8veLOq2sVD5b9CXvJR7IDOdsSxyh_amdXf4JeJzN5Ka3GRz9Xti9vwHG1hkkitEeTZKqkQVpR97fkPbo/s1600/Prevot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh8-eTmgyAauytAIzaXtJJ6nWLTav9gkkApJKfGxg2wH30Wr6W5IlXYjRrsYY8veLOq2sVD5b9CXvJR7IDOdsSxyh_amdXf4JeJzN5Ka3GRz9Xti9vwHG1hkkitEeTZKqkQVpR97fkPbo/s320/Prevot.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From left: Dr. Antonio Alonso, Dr. Andrew Prevot, and me</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As an Anglican, I am used to following the set
liturgy in the Book of Common Prayers. I have not experienced different kinds
of ecumenical worship on a consistent basis. My faculty colleagues and
students, led by the Rev. Dr. Khalia J. Williams, Assistant Dean of Worship and
Music, have put their soul and energy in planning for these worship services.
These services and the weekly evensong offered by the Episcopal and Anglican Studies
at the school have enriched my spiritual life and sustained my academic
pursuit. They provide a supportive and welcoming environment for me to explore
the hidden face of God that has yet to be revealed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As a theologian, I consider theology and spirituality as
deeply integrated, partly because I come from a Chinese background. The
neo-Confucian philosophers in the medieval period debated about the relationship
between knowing and doing. I am firmly with the camp that emphasized that
knowing and doing should go hand in hand. I so admired Dr. Prevot’s
sermon because he demonstrated that one can combine vigorous theological
thinking with the deepest longing for God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Candler’s worship also challenges me to think about
how we can live into God’s realm, embracing differences in race, language,
custom, class, gender, and sexuality. It is not easy to study together; it is
even harder to worship together. I, for one, can’t clap and sing and
move my body. For others, it is so natural. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I was thinking about this, I remembered the address
given by Dr. Rebecca Chopp, who was once a professor at Candler and Emory
University’s Provost. In her convocation address, she used the theme of abiding
to talk about our faith and loyalty. Coming to seminary and divinity school,
she said, provides an opportunity for us to listen to abiding of other people,
and to learn to dwell in our own abiding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Abiding means a sense of belonging and community. In
our time of rootlessness and isolation, when we have to check our mobile
devices so many times a day to stay “connected,” the opportunity to sing, move,
worship together enables us to experience the epiphany of God’s grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Without drinking from the spiritual wells of our many
traditions, it will be much harder to live in community, to honor difference,
and to work together to change the world. Prophet Micah exhorted us “to do
justice, and love mercy.” Both justice and mercy can only be nurtured by
sustainable practices.* Worshiping together is one such practice to help us
see each other as God’s beloved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">*I am grateful to my former student Julian Reid for
this term. He mentioned this in the context of discussing how to integrate what
we have learned in divinity school and in our different ministries and vocations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-86451781442006370882019-12-12T23:00:00.000-05:002019-12-13T15:13:24.018-05:00Guard Your Sensory Doors<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBK3JyW3VqfPp2VGyZFzT-a04PLr7W7HqzZFQpVpDEaR-zCKvtw7eR43ZLp8q4BrPpQxHDxiywUUKMf8f7LsFxhwThNrfa7nPGoIhO5yuWmS9NDtuLwfTyKii7EUzb_VWhTFhXJQJWXo/s1600/apple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBK3JyW3VqfPp2VGyZFzT-a04PLr7W7HqzZFQpVpDEaR-zCKvtw7eR43ZLp8q4BrPpQxHDxiywUUKMf8f7LsFxhwThNrfa7nPGoIhO5yuWmS9NDtuLwfTyKii7EUzb_VWhTFhXJQJWXo/s320/apple.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
Today the yoga teacher began by saying that
it is through the sensory doors that we get in touch with the world. But during
today’s yoga, we wanted to guard the sensory doors intentionally.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This is the reason she doesn’t use
music in her teaching, because she wants us to focus on yoga.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">During the whole day, I have been thinking if
I have guarded my sensory doors mindfully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We live in a world of information overload.
I do not subscribe to printed newspapers. But every day I look at the New York Times,
Politico, Huff Post, World Journal (in Chinese) and sometimes South China
Morning Post. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In addition, I watch videos from Hong Kong
and Taiwan. During the past six months, I have been following the Hong Kong protests
and sometimes spent hours watching commentaries by different KOLs (key opinion
leaders). Watching the news often makes me upset, sad, and angry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I have told my students many times about
the need to protect our brains and guard our time. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crazy Busy</i>, Dr. Edward Hallowell says that many of us are suffering
from ADT (Attention Deficit Trait). ADT are people who have difficulty staying
organized, setting priorities, and managing time. As a psychiatrist who has diagnosed
and treated thousands of people with ADD, he is seeing more and more people suffering
from ADT.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Our culture and modern life create the
environment for developing ADT. We watch TV, eat dinner, check our phone, and
talk to our children at the SAME TIME during dinner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We boast we can multitask, but this may
affect our brain’s function. Dr. Hallowell writes, “as the human brain is asked
to process dizzying amount of data, its ability to solve problems flexibly and
creatively declines and the number of mistakes increases.”*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">After I talked about Dr. Hallowell’s
research in a class, a student canceled several of her social media accounts
and said she needed to wean herself from spending so much time checking
messages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I did not have her problems until two weeks
ago. My friends were amazed when I told them that I did not have a smartphone
till two years ago. I had only a flip phone. Since I sat in front of my
computer all the time, I didn’t need a smartphone to check and respond to
emails. I also did not want to be connected 24/7.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipElk97Z6y6yZs0-U5Tkj4j7j1Hycag5LW0yA228SnRxWOdOkJvcXygUg2q8X1dfaP0nhpFn7sWl2MfJuMs4gophaeMVSW7NtT3GkwErmla0GIHJtFkl2HrXqIChHwnu34VGW_2dq7WZA/s1600/multitasking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="1079" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipElk97Z6y6yZs0-U5Tkj4j7j1Hycag5LW0yA228SnRxWOdOkJvcXygUg2q8X1dfaP0nhpFn7sWl2MfJuMs4gophaeMVSW7NtT3GkwErmla0GIHJtFkl2HrXqIChHwnu34VGW_2dq7WZA/s320/multitasking.jpg" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I finally decided to change to a smartphone because I found a phone plan that was even cheaper than my flip phone
plan. I went to Amazom.com and bought the cheapest one (on sale for $69).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I was not addicted to my phone and did not
carry it around every day. Sometimes I purposely left it at home, so that I would
not be connected all the time. The cheap phone worked for me, except it could
not take beautiful photos as iPhones or Samsung phones could. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">During the Thanksgiving holidays, I decided
to buy a nicer phone because I need to take a few videos for a project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">So, I bought a top-of-the-line Samsung phone
that came out this year. And my problems began!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The screen is so nice and the images so
sharp. They appeal to the eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I have always wondered why my friends can
respond to Facebook posts so fast. Now I know. My Facebook app shows the number
of likes, comments, etc. I have received. It is so tempting to check what my
friends have said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The Outlook app and the Google mail app show
the number of new messages. The YouTube app shows the number of new videos I
have subscribed to. The apps in my old phone would not show these numbers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Suddenly, I find myself checking my
beautiful phone all day—a practice I had proudly avoided until two weeks
ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As I am typing this, my phone sits right next
to the laptop, smiling at me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">How can I ever do or write something
seriously if I am checking my phone all day? I will be busy responding to
emails, checking Facebook likes, and looking at how many steps I have taken
today through another app.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Guard your sensory doors should be my inner
mantra from now on. Dr. Hallowell wrote <a href="https://www.drhallowell.com/emotional-wellness/crazy-busy/">CrazyBusy </a>after he has written a very
popular article, “Why Smart People Underperform” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harvard Business Review</i>. At my age, I am not so concerned about
underperform or overperform. But I need to protect my brain and live a fuller
life. Not becoming a slave of a small device that I am attached or addicted to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In this age when there are so many external
demands, close or limit some of the sensory doors may bring sanctity or inner
peace. At least a healthier brain, I hope.</span></div>
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</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">p.s. I wrote this in 49 mins, including
checking Dr. Hallowell’s article. I could have done it faster if I didn’t check
the Facebook likes!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">*Edward Hallowell, “Why Smart People
Underperform,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harvard Business Review</i>,
January 2005, 57.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-71869967285960160252019-12-11T13:11:00.000-05:002019-12-26T20:32:19.875-05:00Doing Yoga in Hard Times<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1lMUdgetkNgHCR8S8RfXbnkMH0xNHGC-LXg6chfM29aoSJsEs1n14y8eiXbUX0M6ctfxCNsg10d41zGDOQUeEY0-fALCKinzKXzwSMOouodBK1BRCfEB1jSfXHyH4gcWYO4w7aTQsBIY/s1600/warrior+1.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1lMUdgetkNgHCR8S8RfXbnkMH0xNHGC-LXg6chfM29aoSJsEs1n14y8eiXbUX0M6ctfxCNsg10d41zGDOQUeEY0-fALCKinzKXzwSMOouodBK1BRCfEB1jSfXHyH4gcWYO4w7aTQsBIY/s320/warrior+1.1.jpg" width="320" /></a>Inspired by two best friends who did a
fasting retreat to take care of their health, I went back to yoga after a long
hiatus. I decided to tune up my body before I return to Atlanta to teach at Candler
School of Theology in January.<br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The small yoga studio can accommodate 8-10 people. Yesterday’s class was quite full with 8 people.
The teacher Joy (not her real name) was a middle-aged woman. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A woman in her forties came in a few minutes
before the class and had tears in her eyes. Another woman in the class apparently
knew her and began talking to her. The crying woman then told the class that
she was sad because she has a family member who is sick. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">On my! I didn’t come to yoga to hear family
tragedies….I came here to practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As she apologized for her crying, one woman
said, “Crying is cleansing. There’s no need to be ashamed.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Some of the women in the group clearly knew
each other and offered support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We began by practicing different breathing
exercises: three-part yoga breath, belly breathing, and breathing in through
the left nostril and breathing out through the other side, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This was to warm up and after 10-15 minutes,
the body felt quite warm as the internal organs were massaged. You massage the
organs by expanding and contracting the diaphragm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As we continued to do different yoga poses,
the teacher sometimes became chatty and there were friendly responses from the
room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I HATE to listen to banter in yoga, good-natured
or otherwise. I came here to relax.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I realized others might have come to seek
community, especially during the holidays, with so much to do and so much
pressure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Joy turned out to be a very good teacher.
She offered some of the best comments on the pelvis I have ever heard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">While teaching one pose, she said: “Move
your pelvis freely. Turn it and try to put in at a different angle.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then she said, women were not allowed to
move our pelvises freely. Patriarchy wants to control our pelvises. Wow, so true!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Later, when we were doing the Warrior I
pose, she told us to square our pelvis, so that the navel would face the wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">She said our pelvis needs to be strong and
pliable—strong so that we can stand up and pliable so that a baby can come out
from the birth canal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then as if catching herself, she said not
every woman is a mother, but the belly is the seat of creativity. We may not give
birth to babies, but we can give births to new things. We can all be creative
in our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As we were doing the baby pose, Joy asked us
to relax all parts of the body. She said much of unresolved emotions are stored
in the pelvis (in addition to other areas of the body). Contemplative exercises
allow us to get in touch with the still body, beneath the thinking and feeling
bodies, so that we can get in touch with these unresolved emotions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This was such a good reminder for me, a teacher
of spirituality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Joy told the group to listen to our bodies.
Listen to what the body was telling you today. We could modify the poses to
accommodate our needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The body is not supposed to suffer because
of doing yoga. Instead, yoga is to ease suffering in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">After doing yoga for an hour and 15 minutes,
I felt my body was more relaxed and my joints more flexible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As we concluded the practice, Joy asked us
to dedicate the practice to ourselves or to someone else. I dedicated it to my
brother. Joy said the usual saying: “May all beings be protected. May all beings be free of suffering…..”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When we said namaste, I was grateful to the
company of yogis who practiced with me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The woman who cried at the beginning stayed
behind and apologized to Joy for crying and disturbing the class.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I walked up to her and consoled her, “I met
you for the first time. But when you shared your story, I felt honored to be
invited to be part of your community. There are times in our lives that we need
even strangers for support…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then out of the blue, I began telling her
that I have a brother who is going to have surgery for a brain tumor the
following week. . .and started crying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">She embraced me and tried to offer some kind
words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As I walked back home, I thought what a
wonderful yoga class I had. My feelings for the crying woman has softened during the short span of the class. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Doing yoga together is to create community—whether
we chat during the class or not. The silent assembled bodies, the rhythm of the
movements, and the commitment to support each other in our practice are gestures
of building community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The holidays are hard times. People may not
have loved ones to share the holidays with. People may hate the big family dinners,
for they have little in common with their relatives and don’t know what to say
to them. People may have loved ones who have died and can’t share the joy of
the season.</span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Do something during the hard times. We can choose
to do something to ease suffering in the future. I am glad that I went to yoga
that morning.</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-1684856387807837092019-12-11T10:51:00.000-05:002019-12-12T19:38:26.858-05:00Traci C. West’s Solidarity and Defiant Spirituality<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBgckZs3jkkAkJdYhHCaCeNfRLtjtzMWJzJZT0oy9tLafwRWej__uQCxHCC17gD7HBe5Q1hnzZa68MLnbc0j2vtg_7q7SeJGtCU-FYrjYnS9Th6DVmQsPeSQEFJyJ7WpwNbChEa9su8k/s1600/Traci_West.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1087" data-original-width="1200" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBgckZs3jkkAkJdYhHCaCeNfRLtjtzMWJzJZT0oy9tLafwRWej__uQCxHCC17gD7HBe5Q1hnzZa68MLnbc0j2vtg_7q7SeJGtCU-FYrjYnS9Th6DVmQsPeSQEFJyJ7WpwNbChEa9su8k/s320/Traci_West.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-US">More than ten years ago, Traci West, other religious
scholars, and I participated in a group to discuss the intersection of
postcolonialism, womanism, and queer studies. I am glad to see that West
includes all these perspectives in her book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Solidarity
and Defiant Spirituality: Africana Lessons on Religion, Racism, and Ending
Gender Violence. </i>West has written about and fought against violence against
African American women for a long time. Based on her encounters with activists
and scholars in Ghana, Brazil, and South Africa, West broadens the conversation
in her newest book to include Africana wisdom on ending anti-black racism
and gender-based violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-US">The book recounts West’s visit to Cape Coast and
Elmina in Ghana, where slaves were kept before they were loaded as human cargo
onto ships bound for Brazil, the Caribbean, and the Americas. The slave trade
was an integral part of European colonial expansion, and anti-black racism
played a key role in it. Comparable to what Paul Gilroy has done in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Black Atlantic</i>, West attempts to
suture broken memories of Africans separated by oceans. Her account of Africana
activism and resistance in four countries represents a countermemory to the
global myths of progress and modernity, and a subversive description of
neoliberal capitalism, which targets and sacrifices black female bodies. It
documents how Africana activists and scholars have fought against colonial
legacy, anti-black racism, and heteropatriarchy across the continents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-US">Postcolonial scholars have been concerned about
representation of the Other in knowledge production. In the Introduction, West
discusses her decolonizing method, which includes interweaving narratives with
theoretical analyses, paying attention to reason and emotions, and being open
to uncertainties and messiness. What impresses me most is her refusal to
produce “objective” ethnographic data of the countries she has visited. She
insists on keeping the border between the researcher and native informant fluid
by presenting portraits of “intercultural dynamics in motion” (20). West<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tells us her reactions on visiting the
Candomblé temple in Salvador, Brazil, her uneasiness about her host’s suspicion
of her intention, and her discomfort in gazing at black male prisoners. Her
account shifts back and forth between gender violence in the US and foreign
contexts. This juxtaposition prevents her readers from objectifying other
peoples and demonizing their cultures as if gender-based violence is uncommon
in the US.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-qe8x_1082JwyDsRLCUjNjDkG5W8FkRNr7sxNVBmY8FPLdux6duZaneOUVPIP_FCakatkWf1BMUv4EBoL_I-R1mcm-HAQ3JyYvQ9gFaV_VbxCRDaX8h17d0Qmn812k47CfW5x5NTfst8/s1600/West+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="263" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-qe8x_1082JwyDsRLCUjNjDkG5W8FkRNr7sxNVBmY8FPLdux6duZaneOUVPIP_FCakatkWf1BMUv4EBoL_I-R1mcm-HAQ3JyYvQ9gFaV_VbxCRDaX8h17d0Qmn812k47CfW5x5NTfst8/s320/West+2.jpg" width="213" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-US">Her decolonizing method requires utmost honesty and
self-reflexivity. West has devoted her professional career to the study of
gender-based violence and especially intimate violence. This is a topic that
not many have chosen to focus on, because it is hard and emotionally taxing.
West does not want to objectify the victim-survivors or invite a kind of
voyeurism into their suffering. Yet her narratives successfully portray the
gravity of violence, and its cost to the human body and soul. West admits that
she has unresolved questions and reveals her “vulnerabilities that include
uncertainties, hopes, blunders, awakenings, and commitments” (17). In those
poignant moments when West caught herself reflecting on her cultural biases and
class and heterosexual privileges, she invites her readers to unlearn their
habituated ways of being and be self-reflective in entering another cultural
world. The book is beautifully written. For example, West narrates the
affective experience she had while she sang “We glorify your name” in a ritual
of remembrance, rode in a bus with common people in Brazil, and dipped her toes
in the cold ocean after a long day of listening. The book engages not only the
readers’ intellect, but also elicits emotional resonance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-US">In the American individualistic, consumerist culture,
spirituality has often been described in private, personal, and transcendental
terms. In contrast, West grounds her discussion of defiant spirituality in
activism, especially in combating violence against black LGBTQI persons in
South Africa. This defiant spirituality is communal, embodied, antiracial,
interreligious, and practice-based. It is a spirituality that “accentuate[s]
the human-life enhancing and connectivity” (194) against death-dealing forces
that condone violence against black women. It involves challenging existing
cultural myths and Christian misogyny and homophobia, crossing identity
borders, organizing collective action, and forming alliances. Defiance
spirituality is not timid or meek but involves faith-based confrontation of
white racist realities and of the hypocrisy of faith communities when religious
rhetoric does not match action. Using the ritual of remembrance at the Cape
Town Free Gender group as an example, West shows the importance of creating
space to grieve and to remember.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-US">The conclusion has a thought-provoking title “Hope as
a Process.” Hope is often described as a state: whether you are hopeful or
hopeless. Hope in Christianity is associated with time—the final eschaton.
“Hope as a process” signals contingency without secure promise, directionality
without assured outcome. For West, this hope is found not only in those
nurtured by religious symbols and faith, but also in secular activists working
for justice. She argues that “defiant Africana spirituality and Africana hope
are interdependent” (227). This is because “Africana spirituality births
Africana hope for solidarity in ending gender violence, which in turn fosters a
solidarity within which hope can be found” (227). Africana defiant spirituality
involves antiracist commitments, countercultural courage, and forging alliance
within the politics of intercultural dynamics. West concludes that learning
defiantly with Africana activist leaders from diverse settings has given rise
to hope. She describes this learning metaphorically as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">blackening</i> process, which repudiates the denigration of blackness
by white Christianity and colonialist thought. I want to add that this
blackening process also involves seeing the complexity and contradiction in any
given situation. It chastises us not to find an easy solution by resorting to
naïve hopefulness or romanticized hope. It has the humility to admit as Paul
says, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I
know in part, but then shall I know as also I am known.” (I Cor. 13:12, KJV).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-US">As I was reading this book in the past months, the
news of the Hong Kong protests occupied my mind as I was born and grew up in
Hong Kong. I pondered about the relation between civil disobedience and defiant
spirituality. During her short visits to each of the three countries, West
talked to leaders, participated in meetings, and visited sacred and historical
sites. She did not have a chance to observe mass protests and describe defiant
spirituality manifested in the “assembled bodies” (Judith Butler) of mass
demonstration. In her examples of changing the marital rape laws in Ghana,
combating sex-trafficking in Brazil, and challenging discrimination against
LGBTQI persons in South Africa, I wonder why kinds of mass action was needed.
The protests in Hong Kong were largely peaceful in the beginning, but with
increased police brutality, some of the protesters have turned radical and
violent. I have been thinking about the limits of defiance. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Duty to Resist:</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When Disobedience Should Be Uncivil</i>, Candice Delmas says we do not
only have the duty to obey the laws, but the duty to justice, and “the duty of
justice demands resisting injustice, bettering institutions, and frustrating
wrongs, and it supports principled disobedience in the process. Given our
less-than-ideal polities, obeying the law is neither the sole, nor necessarily
the most important, of our political obligations” (106) During the civil rights
movement in the US and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, protesters
used different strategies, some were violent. I need to think more about the
ethics of social actions and the principles of non-violence to effect social
changes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-US">*This blog is based on a paper presented at a panel to review the book at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 24, 2019 at San Diego, CA.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-78467417471596071472018-06-08T19:37:00.000-04:002018-06-10T15:18:56.256-04:00Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Africa<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFb2ov1psafVdlVF2wqB05tXTt6V4xnIqXjrcap3B19HiiPh6-GvpK8o9tikO8v0iKYl84uy5ILMBoAf-xjOaqIP-Ksvz_d94wWkb10DeXeQgOxMNPAQUL-POfqYIYSzkjOSx4VVbVwyg/s1600/kwok+in+s+africa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="657" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFb2ov1psafVdlVF2wqB05tXTt6V4xnIqXjrcap3B19HiiPh6-GvpK8o9tikO8v0iKYl84uy5ILMBoAf-xjOaqIP-Ksvz_d94wWkb10DeXeQgOxMNPAQUL-POfqYIYSzkjOSx4VVbVwyg/s320/kwok+in+s+africa.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Spurrett, Kwok Pui Lan, Charlene van der Walt, <br />
Lilian Siwila, and Federico Settler</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In May, I attended a conference on Religion, Gender,
and Sexuality in Africa sponsored by the School of Religion, Philosophy, and
Classics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
I was invited to deliver the <a href="http://ndabaonline.ukzn.ac.za/UkzndabaStory/Vol6-Issue27/College%20of%20Humanities%20Hosts%20First%20Gender,%20Religion%20and%20Sexuality%20Conference%20">opening keynote address</a> on theology, gender, and
sexuality from a postcolonial perspective. </span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This was the first time that I had the opportunity
to discuss gender and sexuality outside the North Atlantic context and I have
gained a lot of insights from the experience. I am very grateful to the organizing
team Professors Lilian Siwila and Charlene van der Walt and Dr. Federico
Settler for their hospitality during the conference. I hope to continue to
learn from my African colleagues.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">South Africa is close to my heart. The first rally I
participated in the US during the time when I was a graduate student in the
1980s was to protest against the apartheid government in South Africa. In a
travel seminar to South Africa several years ago, I had the opportunities to
visit churches, seminaries, and social agencies working for women’s rights and
HIV/AIDS issues. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyehOh8Kk4D2TiByfUU2_y9sFyTa-YaZCcCiUACJ00bhUMKyWMXX254ToDvslYtZZFH68FgVfb7KahZTr8iZjIr5u3pbqPj5_eeeUUbBWL0WvJ3QyXkOX_E6HcUoi05ojaYbKjwYHPjyA/s1600/kwok+in+africa+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1440" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyehOh8Kk4D2TiByfUU2_y9sFyTa-YaZCcCiUACJ00bhUMKyWMXX254ToDvslYtZZFH68FgVfb7KahZTr8iZjIr5u3pbqPj5_eeeUUbBWL0WvJ3QyXkOX_E6HcUoi05ojaYbKjwYHPjyA/s320/kwok+in+africa+6.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Keynoters: Kwok Pui Lan, Sinenhlanhla Ngwenya, <br />
Cheryl Anderson, Madipoene Masenya, and Kakay Pamaran<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIYS7PFAor4d_7mDAxx7xzQjXAsER2EXkBJzRIXEKcI7qK-L_ID_0O1dGXz9SfMmt5KuwX-1O4egUEr5ceygzqOHEOemF4PalvOSuQsErJ2bfpNo437Pbwb3YPgamfu1PokzSPuRmOAc/s1600/Kwok+in+africa+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Professor Cheryl Anderson of Garrett-Evangelical
Theological Seminary was also a speaker and she delivered a stimulating keynote
address on “Intersecting Identities: Exploring Race/Gender/Sexuality Constructs
in the United States Today and Their Theological Implications.” Other keynote
presenters addressed the issues of “disabled sexuality,” gender and sexuality in
the Philippines, and African women’s biblical hermenetics today. In addition,
more than 50 papers were presented in the concurrent sessions, with presenters
from South Africa and other African countries.</span></div>
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Although I have participated in discussion on gender
and sexuality in denominational gatherings, academic institutions, and
professional guilds in Asia and the US, the scope of the South African
conference was most comprehensive! The papers touched on biblical
interpretation, masculinity, public health, queer theology and practice,
language and liturgy, ethnography, HIV/AIDS, mass media, and digital
humanities.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIYS7PFAor4d_7mDAxx7xzQjXAsER2EXkBJzRIXEKcI7qK-L_ID_0O1dGXz9SfMmt5KuwX-1O4egUEr5ceygzqOHEOemF4PalvOSuQsErJ2bfpNo437Pbwb3YPgamfu1PokzSPuRmOAc/s1600/Kwok+in+africa+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1189" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIYS7PFAor4d_7mDAxx7xzQjXAsER2EXkBJzRIXEKcI7qK-L_ID_0O1dGXz9SfMmt5KuwX-1O4egUEr5ceygzqOHEOemF4PalvOSuQsErJ2bfpNo437Pbwb3YPgamfu1PokzSPuRmOAc/s320/Kwok+in+africa+3.jpg" width="236" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It was delightful to meet Professor Sylvia Tamale
from Uganda at the conference. She was the first female Dean of Law in Uganda
and the editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/African-Sexualities-Reader-Sylvia-Tamale/dp/0857490168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528496768&sr=8-1&keywords=african+sexualities">African Sexualities: A Reader</a></i>. When I asked her why she took on the massive job and editing a
volume of 670 pages, she said that she was tired of hearing what Westerners and
outsiders have to say about sexualities in Africa. The media tends to portray
African sexualities in sensational and biased ways to reinforce the colonial
construct that Africa is a “dark continent.” For example, the media widely
reported that Uganda passed an Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2013. But the
Constitutional Court of Uganda ruled the Act invalid in 2014.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As an Anglican, I am particularly interested in the
debates on human sexuality in the African churches and societies. The Episcopal
Church in the US took a progressive stance on LGBTQ issues. In 2003 the first
openly gay bishop Gene Robinson was consecrated in New Hampshire. Later, the
Church resolved that the call to ministry is open to all, including
transgendered persons. In 2015, the Church decided that the rite of marriage is
available to all people, regardless of gender. These practices have been looked
at with scorn by some African bishops, who even declared that there are no
LGBTQ people in Africa!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLDgEzm8Uzs_hPJncOraAs9jXyAVSv065TGSNjfkTKgbmUlCDUY9mlcTudxuNr8HrvFmIOoo077zFf7IBvCsvaNAODwdr3QTHxv4rnHzjNijLOLhKkI9mWCN1pJzF8NfcInYSRpFIrIk/s1600/kwok+in+africa+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="259" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLDgEzm8Uzs_hPJncOraAs9jXyAVSv065TGSNjfkTKgbmUlCDUY9mlcTudxuNr8HrvFmIOoo077zFf7IBvCsvaNAODwdr3QTHxv4rnHzjNijLOLhKkI9mWCN1pJzF8NfcInYSRpFIrIk/s200/kwok+in+africa+5.jpg" width="128" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">At the conference in Pietermaritzburg, LGBTQ issues
were fully included in the discussion. A particular highlight was the
discussion of the politics of race, sexuality, and nation-building.
Participants discussed whether the labels LGBTQ were suitable in African
societies and whether there are indigenous terms. Others discussed alternative
forms of sexual practices in Africa and queer Christian voices in charismatic
churches. Professor Melanie Judge has published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blackwashing-Homophobia-Violence-Sexuality-Psychology/dp/1138219053/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528496917&sr=8-1&keywords=melanie+judge+homophobia">Blackwashing Homophobia: Violence and the Politics of Sexuality, Gender and Race</a></i>. She examines the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and
class identities and the politics of violence in a postcolonial context.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1GFjY038glzmqr47TTfZ2cq2IkdW2fknCYA970tOeOgn0DXS8QSCStWJmGWM7OSS9lul5BzpwNfC2u_BQnD_6DsWxN2-TWcg46o5hWL174lN0QyXiSiK7nkB_DtPG4Z59Qf9m8A0sTAg/s1600/kwok+in+africa+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1GFjY038glzmqr47TTfZ2cq2IkdW2fknCYA970tOeOgn0DXS8QSCStWJmGWM7OSS9lul5BzpwNfC2u_BQnD_6DsWxN2-TWcg46o5hWL174lN0QyXiSiK7nkB_DtPG4Z59Qf9m8A0sTAg/s320/kwok+in+africa+4.jpg" width="209" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We watched a documentary prepared by the “Destabilizing
Heteronormativity Project,” in which civic and religious leaders talked about
their work educating and supporting people to challenge heteronormativity and
cisnormativity. The conference included NGO partners, such as the <a href="http://gaylesbian.org.za/">Gay and Lesbian Network</a>, <a href="http://iam.org.za/">Inclusive and Affirming Ministries</a>, <a href="http://www.gin-ssogie.org/">Global Interfaith LGBTQ Network</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/329249600819263/about/">Queers without Borders</a>. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Since I was so stimulated by the conference, I hope
a similar conference can be organized for academics, activists, and NGO
partners in Asia. Questions of sex tourism, prostitution, LGBTQ rights, gender-based
violence, HIV/AIDS have long been important issues in Asian feminist theology. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I returned from the conference with renewed
commitment to explore further the intersection of gender, sexuality and
religion from postcolonial perspectives. Future research issues and some of the
resources include: constitutional rights, human rights, and sexuality (Grace Y.
Kao, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grounding-Human-Rights-Pluralist-Advancing/dp/1589017331/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528497509&sr=8-1&keywords=grounding+human+rights+grace+kao">Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World</a></i>); psychic and national trauma and gender-based violence
(Nigel C. Gibson and Roberto Beneduce, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Frantz-Fanon-Psychiatry-Politics-Creolizing/dp/1786600935/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528497556&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=franz+fanon+psychiatry">Frantz Fanon, Psychiatry, and Politics</a></i>), African churches, homosexuality, and US
Christian Right (Kapya Kaoma, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.politicalresearch.org/2009/12/01/globalizing-the-culture-wars-u-s-conservatives-african-churches-homophobia/">Globalizing the Culture Wars</a></i>); and African postcolonial thought (Achille Mbembe, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Postcolony-Studies-History-Society-Culture/dp/0520204352/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528497594&sr=1-1&keywords=on+the+postcolony">On the Postcolony</a></i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Critique-Black-Reason-Franklin-Center/dp/0822363437/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528497623&sr=1-1&keywords=critique+of+black+reason">Critique of Black Reason</a></i>; and Emmanuel
Chukwudi Eze, ed., <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Postcolonial-African-Philosophy-Critical-Reader/dp/0631203400/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528497662&sr=1-1&keywords=postcolonial+african+philosophy">Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader</a></i>). </span><br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-10827432697849842372018-03-25T22:18:00.000-04:002018-03-25T23:16:06.242-04:00March for Our Lives Atlanta<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyKRTf4EQbUcaz3GeSb-JK6Pk_IB_8o8DEMB9R2WvORA0CHJ725sERvK2fzhK3d1CRckm6b5QgHPyvqsR295ne8l8b_3oKMab2uEz-PG_9SpvfkxB2RFFY37PpLT7gnHwfz4PMq3aOqA/s1600/IMG_20180325_213815.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1589" data-original-width="1600" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyKRTf4EQbUcaz3GeSb-JK6Pk_IB_8o8DEMB9R2WvORA0CHJ725sERvK2fzhK3d1CRckm6b5QgHPyvqsR295ne8l8b_3oKMab2uEz-PG_9SpvfkxB2RFFY37PpLT7gnHwfz4PMq3aOqA/s200/IMG_20180325_213815.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
On March 24, 2018, March for Our Lives in Atlanta, Georgia,
began at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, a museum dedicated to
the achievements of both the civil rights movement in the US and the worldwide
human rights movement. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
More than 30,000 people took part in the march in Atlanta,
joining marchers in 800 cities in the US and around the world. The people took
to the streets to support a student-initiated movement to change gun laws and
end gun violence in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting that took the lives
of 17 students and adults.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
At the Atlanta rally, teenage students took to the podium to
read poetry, sing songs, and call the protesters to action. Congressman John
Lewis, who was a young man when he joined the civil rights movement, was
impressed by the students leading the protest. He addressed the crowd and said,
“It is amazing. It reminds me of the early days of the civil movement.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
I have never seen so many elementary and high school
students marching in a rally before. They carried signs that said, “#Enough,” “Not
one more,” “Loving arms, not fire arms!” One particular sign captured my
attention: it said thoughts and prayers are not enough, and we need policy and
change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP4CDX34ZCSnC7XOTUS2uO6VHyNSOgtbR6XNtPKU0FxmcH2qgrdJ8AGqvHpxAmbyEUENeFtMOcAoAEj_zLDKVUdResDhzuk4xhjKCbebaS4YC-Urc_Bp38FM4G2Yk5vgY9_kUPsw4DvzA/s1600/palm+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP4CDX34ZCSnC7XOTUS2uO6VHyNSOgtbR6XNtPKU0FxmcH2qgrdJ8AGqvHpxAmbyEUENeFtMOcAoAEj_zLDKVUdResDhzuk4xhjKCbebaS4YC-Urc_Bp38FM4G2Yk5vgY9_kUPsw4DvzA/s320/palm+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
The rally was a site for civic education. A father near me brought
his two small children, who carried signs made by themselves. The family began
shouting, “NRA, go away.” As we passed by a booth for voter registration, a father
told his teenage daughters, “I had registered to vote. As soon as you can vote,
you will register too.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihR1Pbm3rvrjGjiyhZZ5J13yXv2YADvBGCi9_vCqgw4mz4jbZbLj5Cl4jrQ27x_DQ2KG9iKZCJLS0l1dSGS_aagQwcy7gSaZAQzPKDRyRUSsXlTzKJ8aSUTfIngGvt724-PGYAmrTOWrA/s1600/IMG_20180324_123014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihR1Pbm3rvrjGjiyhZZ5J13yXv2YADvBGCi9_vCqgw4mz4jbZbLj5Cl4jrQ27x_DQ2KG9iKZCJLS0l1dSGS_aagQwcy7gSaZAQzPKDRyRUSsXlTzKJ8aSUTfIngGvt724-PGYAmrTOWrA/s320/IMG_20180324_123014.jpg" width="320" /></a>At a time when the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=d000000082">NRA lobby is so strong</a>, and the Congress
refuses to pass common sense gun laws, students across the country <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/us/school-walkout.html">marched out of their classrooms on March 14</a> and took part in the national protest on March 24.
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-story-behind-11-year-old-naomi-wadler-and-her-march-for-our-lives-speech/2018/03/25/3a6dccdc-3058-11e8-8abc-22a366b72f2d_story.html?utm_term=.8d12f616b4b7">Naomi Wadler</a>, the 11-year-old fifth-grader, said at the rally in Washington.
D.C, “<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I represent the African-American women who are victims of gun violence, who
are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential.” <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/03/the-powerful-silence-of-the-march-for-our-lives/556469/?utm_source=fbb">Emma González</a>, 18, one of the most prominent of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas
survivor-activists, asked us to remember the lives of students cut short. When adults
fail to protect them, children across the nation stand up. When politicians refuse
to act, students march literally for their lives! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipJLMe5EtdOrzatL4r9eZYwH5dGatjqlkv1kelUl7p6134sGBFfwb6ogHrblv_G9BN-7bcD1owVLqFlxz82cgUYsyfYgUAeXTbptrM0pem6eLgt9vDXk0T_2TjnCzw5DK_KrJKPJpgXI8/s1600/IMG_20180325_214021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1344" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipJLMe5EtdOrzatL4r9eZYwH5dGatjqlkv1kelUl7p6134sGBFfwb6ogHrblv_G9BN-7bcD1owVLqFlxz82cgUYsyfYgUAeXTbptrM0pem6eLgt9vDXk0T_2TjnCzw5DK_KrJKPJpgXI8/s200/IMG_20180325_214021.jpg" width="167" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marching down Martin Luther King Dr</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">March for Our Lives took place the day before this year’s
Palm Sunday. As students were marching in the nation’s capital, I was reminded
of <a href="http://jezuiti.sk/blog/kamnatftu/files/palm-sunday-procession-with-palms-gospel.pdf">Jesus’ march to Jerusalem</a>. Jesus entered the city from the east side, riding
a donkey and cheered by his followers. This was a peasant procession and Jesus
came from the village of Nazareth. On the west side, there was another imperial
procession. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Idumea, Judea, and Samaria,
entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers.
Pilate’s march displayed imperial power and Roman imperial theology.*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus’ procession was a protest march, an anti-imperial
march! Many church leaders preach about the religious significance of Palm
Sunday, but completely overlook or choose to forget the politics of Jesus’ march.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Palm Sunday, I participated in a worship service with
more than 2,000 people in a big church in downtown Atlanta. Most of the worshippers
were African Americans. In his sermon, the preacher said that Jesus entered Jerusalem
triumphantly as a different kind of king, not like the kings in the world.
Jesus entered Jerusalem to fight for us, to fight for forgiveness. He did not mention
the socio-political background of Jesus’ march, nor did he refer to the march that
took place not far from his church the day before. He did not say a word about
a march against gun violence, which disproportionately affects the African
American community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip072eQzvRBwrO25bVQRZTzA8N6D4lujAmqXIueyXl5c1Gi2PUKbROVYpTiDjrtVId9GZ6W7ascVFAjWta2dlypEWtTrawVwjj1Y1PwDpfazf40QN55jFLtFCzFWr_qKY_UjzDKlcqSrg/s1600/mitri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip072eQzvRBwrO25bVQRZTzA8N6D4lujAmqXIueyXl5c1Gi2PUKbROVYpTiDjrtVId9GZ6W7ascVFAjWta2dlypEWtTrawVwjj1Y1PwDpfazf40QN55jFLtFCzFWr_qKY_UjzDKlcqSrg/s320/mitri.jpg" width="206" /></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus’ march and the unfolding events of the Holy Week
must be seen in the larger context of political and religious terror. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cross-Contexts-Suffering-Redemption-Palestine/dp/1626982295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522034139&sr=8-1&keywords=cross+in+contexts">The Cross in Contexts</a></i>, Palestinian
theologian Mitri Raheb reminds us that “Jesus was not only a victim of state
terror but also of religious terror.” This was because Jesus was not sentenced
to death under Roman law alone, but also as a blasphemer, for he dared to
challenge religious authorities. Jesus died because of religious terrorism. The
cross, Raheb says, “becomes the ultimate critique of state and religious violence.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today, following Jesus means to confront imperial power
of our time, and to oppose racism, sexism, heterosexism, bigotry,
anti-immigration, xenophobia, and capitalist greed. It means engaging in
non-violent resistance, pursuing justice, and working with our religious
neighbors to foster peace. It means protecting the young and bequeathing our
children a better world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The children are marching for their lives! Are we
marching with them or not? </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: ChaparralPro-Subh; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: ChaparralPro-Subh;"><span style="font-family: ChaparralPro-Subh; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: ChaparralPro-Subh;">* </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Marcus Borg and
John Dominic Crossan, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Last Week: A
Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem</i> (San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 2-5.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-21142376256357808032017-10-25T22:17:00.002-04:002017-10-25T22:17:50.580-04:00Translating Global Feminism
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4wHGtufuysqpomAoqYrzG-KyVVn1p_cszM-Eb8F8jL2elu-GTe98I-6_xZdR5P5cSPlgBnPsGqsjfpqGXGfulFm57fwNyNYIkAQ0hppXvG0sxyAtH0qgZqduyjMH_PHTcF_tTmxqCqw/s1600/rola.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1243" data-original-width="1280" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4wHGtufuysqpomAoqYrzG-KyVVn1p_cszM-Eb8F8jL2elu-GTe98I-6_xZdR5P5cSPlgBnPsGqsjfpqGXGfulFm57fwNyNYIkAQ0hppXvG0sxyAtH0qgZqduyjMH_PHTcF_tTmxqCqw/s320/rola.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kwok Pui Lan and Rola Sleiman (right)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Two
weeks ago, I was at the University of Edinburgh attending a conference titled
“Women in the World Church” co-sponsored by the University and the Church of
Scotland’s World Mission Council. Several international students and special
guests were invited to speak about the situation of women in their church and
society. Sara from Iran spoke about the difficulties of women exercising
leadership in the church and in the Muslim community. Jessie from Nigeria
talked about gender violence, child marriage and abuse, and HIV/AIDS. She also
reminded us that women are not just victims of oppression, but are also agents
of social change who seek to be co-creators with God. Cadida from Hong Kong said
that the first woman was ordained in Hong Kong as early as 1944, and, as a
younger woman, she has not experienced much gender oppression. At the conference,
I also met the first woman ordained in the Middle East. She is the Rev. Rola
Sleiman from Lebanon, and she worked in the church for eight years before she
was ordained. Her ordination was a joyful event that her Muslim friends also
attended.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">As I
listened to the stories about women’s struggles, agency, and ministries in many
parts of the world, I thought of the topic, “translating global feminism.” How
do we understand and conceptualize the diverse expressions of feminism in these
different settings? The word “translation” comes from Latin, meaning “to
transfer.” Do we have an original version of feminism, which is transferred or transported
to other cultures and rendered into local languages and idioms? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Many
women in the two-thirds world do not want to be associated with the term
“feminism” because the word is often used to describe Western, middle-class,
white women’s movement. Global feminism, for them, may not be a blessing but
can instead be a superimposition of Western values and lifestyles. Because of the
hegemony of Western power, globalization often means Westernization. And
globalization in the past decades has contributed to the rise of
fundamentalisms of all kinds, making women’s lives harder and more restricted
than before. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">But
global feminism needs not be conceived as a top-down, pre-packaged movement translated
from elsewhere. It can also refer to a global women’s movement built from the
ground up. There are, in fact, many feminisms, each of which is locally and
contextually defined by women themselves. Feminism in Iran, for example, would
look very different from feminism in Hong Kong. Instead of taking Western
feminism as the blueprint, women in Nigeria may have more to learn from women’s
struggles in Lebanon. The global feminist movement can be characterized as
multilingual and pluriphonic: spoken in different accents, and open to a
continued process of creolization. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Unfortunately,
many of us in the United States have the disadvantage of living and operating
in a monolingual culture, while the majority of the world lives in bilingual or
multilingual societies. Living in a superpower, we are not required to acquire
other tongues, either literally or metaphorically. Postcolonial theorist Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak says that we should regard our privilege as our loss. The challenge for
us is how to understand the multilingual and multicultural expressions of so
many different feminisms so that we can be ethical subjects in an increasingly
interconnected world. This is especially pertinent for me, as I am now teaching
a course on Feminist Theologies in the Global South and have been involved in
translating and editing women’s theologies from other parts of the world.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">In her
article “The Politics of Translation,”* Spivak writes that “the task of the
feminist translator is to consider language as a clue to the workings of
gendered agency.” Spivak argues that in order to do a good translation, we have
to pay attention to rhetoricity, logic, and silence of the text. I want to
borrow her insights to talk about translating global feminism. In order to
understand feminism as it is manifested in different parts of the world, we
have to learn how women use language and rhetoric to construct meaning and make
sense of their world. For example, African feminist theologian Mercy Amba
Oduyoye speaks of a mothering God. We have to understand that the word
“mothering” has rich meanings in the African familial system, and the nurturing
role is a crucial one in the face of poverty and life and death in the
continent. The challenge for us is that we often do not know enough of the
cultural and social worlds of these women, and hence only come to know their
feminist politics and theology superficially. We hear the words, but don’t
really understand their rhetoricity. In our liberal academy, we often say that
we want to be in solidarity with other women in their struggles. But without
learning other women’s languages and their meaning-making processes, such
solidarity could be at a very superficial level.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">To
be a good translator of global feminism, we need to pay attention to what
Spivak calls “the relationship between the social logic, social reasonableness,
and the disruptiveness of fuguration in social practice.” I once heard a Muslim
feminist ask, “why it is OK for a woman to be both a Christian and a feminist, but
a Muslim woman must give up her religion to become a feminist?” The American
mass media has created a social logic that Islam and feminism are incompatible.
We are bombarded with stereotypical images of Middle Eastern women wearing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hijab</i>, symbolizing their modesty and
subordination. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hijab,</i> as
portrayed in the media, serves as a marker of cultural difference and female
submission. Yet, in her book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Quiet
Revolution</i>, Harvard professor Leila Ahmed shows that some Muslim women in
the United States have purposely put on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hijab</i>
after September 11. In the midst of the “war on terrorism,” wearing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hijab</i> can be a sign of solidarity with
the Muslim community, and a gesture of defiance. By doing this, Muslim women
are claiming their agency and their subjecthood, challenging the invisibility
of the Muslim community in America. Without knowing the history of wearing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hijab</i> and understanding the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hijab</i> as a multivalent symbol, we will
miss these women’s social cues and superimpose our own social logic onto them.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
most difficult part in translating global feminism is how to deal with women’s
silence. Spivak famously asked the question, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Here we
have to ask questions such as “Who are the women who are given the power to
speak?” “How have the lives of the gendered subaltern been represented?” “Under
what conditions do women in the majority world enter into the knowledge system
of Western academy?” “Even if poor and marginalized women have spoken, do we
understand their rhetoric and logic?” “In translating women’s work from another
culture into a dominant European language, what compromises have been made to
render it intelligible?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
American culture, we often associate speaking with being active and taking
part, and associate silence with being passive and disengaged. But this is not
the case in other cultures, especially in East Asia. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Enfolding Silence</i>, Bret Esaki offers a multilayered reading of
silence in the experiences of Japanese Americans, facing racism and oppression.
In the classroom, I have often encountered international women students who
remain quiet and silent. When I ask a question, these students have to
translate my words and meanings into their cultural context, and when they come
up with a comment or an answer, the discussion may have moved on. I do not
assume that their silence means they are not interested in the class. Rather, it
reminds me of my need to think about other channels of communication and
different modes of participation so that these students can share.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Translating
global feminism is not easy because it often reveals our ignorance, indifference,
and impatience. So my question to you is “What kind of risk-taking are you
prepared to take in order to enter the social and cultural worlds of other
women and, by doing so, be transformed into agents of social change?”<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">*Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak, “The Politics of Translation,” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Outside in the Teaching Machine</i>, <a href="http://www.pierre-legrand.com/16spivak.pdf">http://www.pierre-legrand.com/16spivak.pdf</a>.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Paper
presented at a panel on “Translating Global Feminism” at Emory University, October
2, 2017.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-816799264929171142017-08-26T15:09:00.002-04:002023-04-05T22:26:26.686-04:00Vocation of a Theologian in the Trump Era<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I was in Greece when Donald Trump was elected President
on November 8, 2016. I was on a research trip and had just visited the
Acropolis, the Agora, and the magnificent museums several days before. The fact
that I was in Athens, the cradle of Western democracy, prompted me to think
about the long struggle for democracy in human history and <a href="https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/2017/05/trump-democracy-and-empire/">its relation to empire</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_y-aYX6sIZ4rSF-USOTgnWMDVkFFbLfboc1eGeP_3u9yvMVqvMeinI7GswDT82ZkJ_Os0hGe59-7mQBpRDbjE3jCnEd7IOwD5nRT9yAXUk8U94GnUisFtZVQPdEH-pLwXCq8P_xLq04/s1600/_90790312_hi034695804.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="660" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_y-aYX6sIZ4rSF-USOTgnWMDVkFFbLfboc1eGeP_3u9yvMVqvMeinI7GswDT82ZkJ_Os0hGe59-7mQBpRDbjE3jCnEd7IOwD5nRT9yAXUk8U94GnUisFtZVQPdEH-pLwXCq8P_xLq04/s320/_90790312_hi034695804.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From left: Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Democracy is an unfinished project. On the one hand,
people in many parts of the world have struggled for a democratic and
participatory government that respects human freedom and dignity. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/world/asia/hong-kong-joshua-wong-jailed-umbrella-movement.html?_r=0">Three young men</a> in Hong Kong, where I was born, have recently been jailed for their
involvement in the pro-democracy movement. But on the other hand, the spread
and protection of democracy have been used by Western powers as justification
for regime changes, removal of elected political leaders, and military coups. The
lack of democracy has been used as a signifier of the inferiority of
non-Western cultures and societies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As a postcolonial theologian, who is deeply interested
in the relationship between religion, power, and empire, the election of Trump
and the chaos of the White House in the past several months demand serious
theological reflection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">For some, especially in the Chinese media, the
election of Trump shows the dysfunction of democracy and the unreliability of populism.
But to see the election of Trump as an aberration is to miss the signs of our
time. His slogan “Make America Great Again” appeals to the imperial impulse of many
American people, especially working-class white men who perceive that they have
lost much power. Trump had to appeal to his base and that was why he waffled in
his condemnation of Neo-Nazis, KKK, and white nationalists after the rally in Charlottesville. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Trump enjoys the support of the Christian Right.
Eighty percent of white evangelicals voted for him and Jerry Falwell, Jr.
campaigned vigorously for him and spoke on his behalf after Charlottesville.
Many of us might think the Christian Right misinterprets the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, who was a political prisoner under the Roman Empire. But we cannot forget
the complicity and lingering impact of Constantinian Christianity that has
justified violence, colonialism, racism, war, and genocide in the past and the
present. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Learning from Foucault, we need to ask, “Is there
something in Christianity that is productive and contributive to the discourse
of imperial power?” When we say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done” and when we sing “A mighty fortress is our God” (Martin Luther), “King
of Kings….Lord of Lords” (Handel’s Messiah) and “King of Glory, King of Peace”
(George Herbert), what kinds of images do we have for God? What if the
Christian ethos inculcates a certain attitude toward authority and power?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOjhb4XREjJRtqiGhqSPDbNoh68HQSH1kMQTH-1pr396jnpCAIjJTi6YPirUgFrU-BslRVyronPnyTSZpKOBEmukj7zEVFKd1wyQvDzaWE8yBhtl8iWVRBQzupfJIYzIGgZ6UQzbDH9E/s1600/61Mqllmm1QL._SX373_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="375" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOjhb4XREjJRtqiGhqSPDbNoh68HQSH1kMQTH-1pr396jnpCAIjJTi6YPirUgFrU-BslRVyronPnyTSZpKOBEmukj7zEVFKd1wyQvDzaWE8yBhtl8iWVRBQzupfJIYzIGgZ6UQzbDH9E/s320/61Mqllmm1QL._SX373_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Christianity has had a much more ambivalent relationship with empire than we might think. From its very beginning and throughout the
centuries, Christianity borrowed from, adopted to, negotiated with, and at times
subverting the language of empire and status quo. As a postcolonial theologian,
I see it as my vocation to study, research, and teach this complex history so
that we can learn from the past, understand the present, and work
collaboratively for a better future.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We need public theologians in our time, when many
people, secular and religious, are looking for ways to understand what is going
on and how to transform the status quo. Religious leaders and theologians such as
Wu Yaozong, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosemary Radford
Ruether, Desmond Tutu, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Gustavo Gutierrez, and Ivone Gebara are shining
examples who have spoken prophetically to the church and society.</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Following their examples, we need to understand
religion and power realignment in the Trump era. As a theologian of Chinese descent,
I am keenly aware that the relationship between China and the United States will
shape the future of the twenty-first century. We need a new political theology that
goes beyond its Eurocentric roots to address the rise of Asia Pacific,
especially the emergence of China as a global power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">To develop this new political theology, we have to
learn more about postcolonialism and international politics. Books such as Sanjay
Seth’s <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Postcolonial-Theory-International-Relations-Interventions-ebook/dp/B00EVWI1B8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1503766932&sr=8-3&keywords=postcolonial+theory+and+international+relations">Postcolonial Theory and International Relations</a></i> (2013), Herfried </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Münkler’s</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Domination-Ancient-United-States/dp/0745638724/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1503766976&sr=8-1&keywords=Empires%3A+The+Logic+of+World+Domination+from+Ancient+Rome+to+the+United+States">Empires: The Logic of World Domination from Ancient Rome to the United States</a></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (2007); Christopher I. Beckwith’s<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Silk-Road-History-Central-ebook/dp/B004UGKKBE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1503767029&sr=1-1&keywords=Empires+of+the+Silk+Road"> </a></span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Silk-Road-History-Central-ebook/dp/B004UGKKBE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1503767029&sr=1-1&keywords=Empires+of+the+Silk+Road">Empires of the Silk Road</a></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (2013) and the
anthology </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Legacies-Empire-Imperial-Contemporary-Global-ebook/dp/B012GS22IQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1503767065&sr=1-1&keywords=Legacies+of+Empire%3A+Imperial+Roots+of+the+Contemporary+Global+Order">Legacies of Empire: Imperial
Roots of the Contemporary Global Order</a></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Legacies-Empire-Imperial-Contemporary-Global-ebook/dp/B012GS22IQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1503767065&sr=1-1&keywords=Legacies+of+Empire%3A+Imperial+Roots+of+the+Contemporary+Global+Order"> </a>(2015), coedited by Sandra Halperin
and Ronen Palan are invaluable resources. Within the field of theology and philosophy,
I continue to learn much from Enrique Dussel, especially from his acclaimed
volume </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Liberation-Reclaiming-Theology/dp/0334041813/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1503767160&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Enrique+dussel+politics+of+liberation">Politics of Liberation: A Critical
World History</a></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Liberation-Reclaiming-Theology/dp/0334041813/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1503767160&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Enrique+dussel+politics+of+liberation"> </a>(2011).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Colonialism and imperial expansion cannot be maintained
by rational justification alone without the support of structures of feelings (Raymond
Williams). Franz Fanon writes, the black man desires and wants what the white
man wants. There has been an “affective turn” in the humanities and social
studies, which focuses on the states of mind and body that are related to
feelings and emotions. In <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Our-Senses-Affect-Culture/dp/0231170521/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503767213&sr=1-1&keywords=dierdra+reber">Coming to Our Senses</a></i>, Dierdra Reber investigates the roles of affect in ordering the neo-liberal
global consumerist culture. The introduction of affect theory to the study of
theology will open doors to understanding suffering, loss, reconciliation, healing,
and other subjects. Moreover, it will help decipher habits of the hearts when
people hold so steadfastly and sometimes nostalgically to theological “truths,”
ecclesial practices, and devotional patterns of a bygone era. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This new political theology must speak about racial
justice as well as racial reconciliation and healing. How can the US as a
nation come to grips with the legacies of genocide, dispossession, and slavery? While
racial and ethnic minorities may proudly declare that there will be no majority
race in 2040, how can we build the infrastructures and movements necessary to
help people of all races and ethnicities, genders and sexualities, to transition
into this looming reality? What roles can the churches play in bringing people
into fruitful dialogue across differences? What kind of theological education will equip future leaders of churches and faith communities to lead people in
this transition?</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKfueC61uHb1EpnH1EFoYLYg0UIgJ_sLecBtW6K0wUCOlT8DUywVNOy5QsuDZmwhUjdEeP-rNeuUrT3eyPAllfr1dHnqlEhQz8kvqxEjzTwMQEc5cZckoW_yBigj4MhEj5xBIqIsqmsu0/s1600/th2ALGB0VK.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKfueC61uHb1EpnH1EFoYLYg0UIgJ_sLecBtW6K0wUCOlT8DUywVNOy5QsuDZmwhUjdEeP-rNeuUrT3eyPAllfr1dHnqlEhQz8kvqxEjzTwMQEc5cZckoW_yBigj4MhEj5xBIqIsqmsu0/s1600/th2ALGB0VK.jpg" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI6vy4zQ2Gu-ICZ6-fAuutouFg4HlS1kZevBBKW0fn2pTaSOWtv2pAF4LQdmDacTXahhwx0nMUoJLhGU4pFa5UoAqTVFQF2lCl-G2jR8jKXfzSZhkqVLfOGxfAEjTCh7cfUkY8Z7C91NM/s1600/clergy-vigil.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The white nationalist rally and counter-protest in
Charlottesville were sparked by the vote to remove the statue of </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #110000; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Confederate General Robert E. Lee. While we
condemn white hegemony, hatred, anti-Semitism, and racism, a deeper question is
how to help people face history, heal from past wounds, and reconcile with a sense
of loss of identity. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Maya Angelou says, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.</span>” The test for us today
is to dialogue across political ideologies and spectrum so that history
can be interrogated, discussed, and reconstructed together. The statues and war
monuments of the Civil War are divisive because the past wounds continue to
haunt our present. If Christianity has contributed to a racial discourse that
denigrated African Americans and other races in the past, theologians and religious
leaders must summon theological and spiritual resources for racial justice and
healing today.</div>
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The vocation of an intellectual and a theologian is to speak truth to power. We need that courage more than ever in Trump's era of alt-truth and alt-facts.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-21465350291663408302017-05-26T20:45:00.001-04:002017-08-05T17:16:05.207-04:00How Did I End Up in an Exhibit that Honors Luther's 95 Theses<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy9uJCcTWLjkE4FLIy76vMGAXsl6GVKtFb7HBYjjj7T9wD_VEjkJutDrpYAAi8NidmlYIU_YPViUziD47vDJduAn-D4PYGvM_T8lxvDzXxFY4njfd9yL1KLgdgn5qnz-R_4OVGLAEsmsk/s1600/Luther_95_Thesen.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy9uJCcTWLjkE4FLIy76vMGAXsl6GVKtFb7HBYjjj7T9wD_VEjkJutDrpYAAi8NidmlYIU_YPViUziD47vDJduAn-D4PYGvM_T8lxvDzXxFY4njfd9yL1KLgdgn5qnz-R_4OVGLAEsmsk/s200/Luther_95_Thesen.png" width="139" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">This year marks the 500th anniversary of Luther’s 95
Theses. In Wittenberg, Germany, there is a National Special Exhibit on “Luther!
95 People—95 Treasures” from May to November 2017. Organized by the Luther
Heritage Sites Foundation of Saxony-Anhalt, the exhibit seeks to follow “the young
Luther on his path to the Reformation and highlights the significance of his
impact on people from the 16th century to the present day.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Among the 95 people are Johann Sabastian Bach and
Martin Luther King, Jr. The national exhibit received 4 million euros in
funding from local and state sources.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">How did I end up in this exhibit as I am not
Lutheran and have never published anything on Luther or the 95 theses?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Thus, I was surprised when I received an email in
April 2016 from Dr. Benjamin Hasselhorn, curator of the national exhibit,
saying that he wanted to include me in the exhibit. He was interested in my
work on the Occupy Movement, a movement which he regarded as “bringing
together. . .the central tenets of Christian belief and the call for a more
equitable and humane society.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“What is the relationship between the Occupy Movement
and Luther?” one may ask. Hasselhorn explained, the Occupy Movement was “the
embodiment and representation of an idea that was similarly of great importance
to Luther: that charity and love should stand firmly at the core of religion as
opposed to an institution or the protection thereof.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">I still had doubts, for the Occupy Movement was a
leaderless movement and no one single individual could represent the grassroots
effort. Time magazine named “the protester” as Person of the Year in 2011,
instead of choosing a particular individual.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwqUI40L0EcVmW0kqX0krBgTls4p5kBCanNZ8qvU6U_hGQIpBmuR0Ca3qjw4xE32RyXUdNheJu-4lqoWGWUPXDydgNdSVXkQWXn9JM1Vfo9g11WSL8BpBJwc92PoFqb9AEVxgj-bfuxqY/s1600/Occupy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwqUI40L0EcVmW0kqX0krBgTls4p5kBCanNZ8qvU6U_hGQIpBmuR0Ca3qjw4xE32RyXUdNheJu-4lqoWGWUPXDydgNdSVXkQWXn9JM1Vfo9g11WSL8BpBJwc92PoFqb9AEVxgj-bfuxqY/s200/Occupy.jpg" width="133" /></a>I suggested to Dr. Hasselhorn the idea of having “the
Occupiers” as one group of people to be included. I even thought of inviting
friends who have participated in the Occupy Movement to send me pictures so
that a slide show can be shown at the exhibit. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">But Dr. Hasselhorn explained that the exhibit wants
to explore Luther’s legacy in a personal approach and it would be difficult to
include the Occupy Movement as a whole as people participated in it had
different orientations and faith traditions. He was interested in my approach
to the Occupy Movement from a theological perspective. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQp2Dxq0JsYD3SIbYWfVGh42T5EKPaDXbzRT38CCdhwfuoMpQ-XYBpfHE1ikpkAVs4Q3XKzeQS-odq5cjZC42jG8-a-I0Ir3JomxPSgnixMVOMzK80H6sfhNOlT6Z_Wjd5jYu7BMJWZo/s1600/umbrella+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="354" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQp2Dxq0JsYD3SIbYWfVGh42T5EKPaDXbzRT38CCdhwfuoMpQ-XYBpfHE1ikpkAVs4Q3XKzeQS-odq5cjZC42jG8-a-I0Ir3JomxPSgnixMVOMzK80H6sfhNOlT6Z_Wjd5jYu7BMJWZo/s200/umbrella+3.jpg" width="141" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With Joerg Rieger, I have written <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Occupy-Religion-Theology-Multitude-Modern/dp/1442217928/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495844190&sr=8-1&keywords=occupy+religion">Occupy Religion: A Theology of the Multitude</a></i>—the
first theological reflection on the movement. I also provided comments and
feedback for the editors of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Theological-Reflections-Umbrella-Movement-Christianity/dp/1349948454/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1495844224&sr=8-6&keywords=jonathan+tan">Theological Reflections on the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement</a></i>, a continuation of the
Occupy Central Movement </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: "simsun"; margin: 0px;">佔領中</span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: "simsun"; margin: 0px;">環</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">in
the fall of 2014. I am a pioneer of postcolonial theology and my theological
reflection on the Occupy Movement is part of my overall work.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Dr. Hasselhorn asked me for an artefact to represent
the Occupy Movement. I thought of a yellow umbrella that a friend from Hong Kong
gave me as a gift. Protestors used umbrellas to protect themselves against the
police’s use of teargas and pepper spray. When I sent Dr. Hasselhorn pictures
of the umbrella, he said it would be perfect for the exhibit. It has the words:
“A dreamer, but I’m not the only one” on it!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Since I was included in the exhibit, I began to
think more about the legacy of Luther and Reformation. So when the editor of
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ecumenical Review</i> invited me to
contribute an essay to a special issue that marks the 500th anniversary, I said
yes. My essay “Reformation Unfinished: Economy, Inclusivity, and Authority”
appeared in <i>Ecumenical Review</i> 69.2 (July 2017).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4wCShThc_IcIWCM8yBxahF0ocKNg4Bkjo3aGroN3yGXImYLNgsW98slyeSQHiBrtrDV5uivwcHUmazMZxbUpr7bhNS_ojIPBCcImRfeT8llaKufztJUPaECwJE-FJE4Ag6TpvgViXjHQ/s1600/umbrella+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="640" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4wCShThc_IcIWCM8yBxahF0ocKNg4Bkjo3aGroN3yGXImYLNgsW98slyeSQHiBrtrDV5uivwcHUmazMZxbUpr7bhNS_ojIPBCcImRfeT8llaKufztJUPaECwJE-FJE4Ag6TpvgViXjHQ/s320/umbrella+1.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Martin Luther lived during the emergence of early
capitalism in Europe. Max Weber has written about the relationship between
Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism. During the peasants’ revolt,
Luther did not support the protesters and called upon the German nobility to
suppress them. In our time, Luther possibly would not stay in the Occupy
campsites and I don’t know if he would support the Occupiers. But he did
support charity and provision for the poor. This is what the Lutherans call
faith begetting charity.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Luther’s idea of priesthood of all believers was
really radical in his time. He argued that the clergy and laity did not belong
to two different estates. He surmised that <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">there is really no difference
between laymen and priests, princes and bishops, except that of office and
work. He wrote, “</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">We are all
priests, as many of us as are Christians.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">But full inclusivity in
the church still has a long road to go. Some denominations still do not allow the
ordination of women and GLBTQ persons. The feminist movement has challenged the
church to accept full equality and ministry of women. The full acceptance of GLBTQ
persons has been a painful and tortuous journey, leading to separation and
division in some denominations. As the mainline churches experience decline in
membership, the emergent church movement has called for greater participation
and leadership of lay people.</span></div>
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Luther emphasized the authority of the Bible over
against the authority of the pope and the traditions. While the Bible has been
used to support liberation movements, it has also been misused as a symbol of
cultural superiority. A literal and fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible
has reinforced conservative attitudes toward women and GLBTQ people.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Christian communities have to live out the vision of priesthood
of all believers and develop models of interpreting scriptures and authority in
participatory ways. The church needs to find new ways of being church. Do we
need a new reformation?</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-42441320805935316652017-03-27T10:08:00.000-04:002017-03-27T10:09:25.821-04:00When Asian and Asian American Women Lead
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeaKBf6p-j8PexUXgU9lsQa1AD1ZOA_BX3yPSOBJzM7QtkhzazRGsV01eMcQTUisyC6XF30DQX14FAehJ0izppt_6g1x5a3NKb3tEB2GeT8kZgmq1sy93byhZ0p_xXyLK3m_jRRnejfBY/s1600/pui+lan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeaKBf6p-j8PexUXgU9lsQa1AD1ZOA_BX3yPSOBJzM7QtkhzazRGsV01eMcQTUisyC6XF30DQX14FAehJ0izppt_6g1x5a3NKb3tEB2GeT8kZgmq1sy93byhZ0p_xXyLK3m_jRRnejfBY/s320/pui+lan.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
From Left: Mai Anh Le Tran, Seung Ai Yang, </div>
<div>
Grace Kao, and Kwok Pui-lan</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Asian
and Pacific Islander (API) women have to overcome many obstacles in order to
become leaders in their professions. First of all, they have to challenge
persistent cultural stereotypes that portray Asian women as gentle, meek, and
submissive. The image of a soft-spoken and compliant Asian woman does not fit
the cultural expectation that leaders should be active, aggressive, and willing
to take risks. API women often have to work much harder to prove ourselves and overcome
negative stereotypes.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">But
in many Asian communities, women who work outside the home are still expected
to be responsible for their children’s care. While it may be possible for
Sheryl Sandberg to “lean in” because she can afford to have a lot of help, many
women simply do not have that option. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women
Don’t Ask</i>, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever explore the personal and
societal reasons women seldom ask for what they need and deserve at home and at
work. This is especially true for Asian women who are new immigrants. They are
grateful when they are offered jobs and don’t ask for higher salaries or
negotiate benefits, and they frequently do not even realize they can ask. They
may also be passed over for promotion. API women may also be hindered by the cultural
script that says you should not blow your own horn, and if you ask, then you
are too demanding or pushing too hard. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PzdYGRko7hD_1e8KKJFSbjkSZ7nzb2ov-GdA_MIyAKdXNIw2dfbr-c0aA2tA2ljrPTbWJZ4zLw4r9rem7GAIlPUDvBam8zOnZjPykKoB5MmLAH-n_srT1-nHFU6WvMy7_sr23LefzHs/s1600/women+don%2527t.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PzdYGRko7hD_1e8KKJFSbjkSZ7nzb2ov-GdA_MIyAKdXNIw2dfbr-c0aA2tA2ljrPTbWJZ4zLw4r9rem7GAIlPUDvBam8zOnZjPykKoB5MmLAH-n_srT1-nHFU6WvMy7_sr23LefzHs/s200/women+don%2527t.png" width="132" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">API
women find it hard to take up leadership positions because there are few models
and they often harbor doubt about their abilities. Studies have shown that men
apply for jobs when they meet 60 percent of the qualifications, while women
apply only if they meet 100 percent of them. In theological education in the US
and Canada, women make up only about 30 percent of the faculty. Racial and
Ethnic minority professors made up only 21 percent of the faculty, showing that
seminaries and theological schools do not match the diversity of the
population. Asian and Asian American faculty make up about 6 percent, and among
them only a small number of women are in full professor rank. Since API women have
seldom seen one of their own as a president or dean of seminaries or as a top leader
in other professions, it is understandable that they are hesitant to break the
glass ceiling. Very often, they are nudged by mentors and trusted friends to
apply for and take up leadership posts. Lesbian and queer API women find the
path to leadership tortuous for they are marginalized by both white culture and
their own ethnic communities.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Many
people have hoped that when women become ordained, the church will change. But
unfortunately this is not always the case. If the church’s structure, cultural
ethos, and liturgy do not change, women are just performing the same roles as
their male colleagues, while the patriarchal structure remains the same.
Clericalism remains strong, even though we pay lip service to Reformation’s
vision of priesthood of all believers. We have often heard about the idea of
servant leadership, but very few leaders actually embody this. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">People
sometimes argue that we need women leaders because they will bring a different
leadership style, which is more collaborative than men’s. But when some women
become leaders, they act as authoritatively as men do, if not even more so, in
order to show they are strong and in control. API female leaders can be in a
double-bind. If they are not bossy enough, they risk being seen as weak. But if
they act aggressively and give out orders, people label them dragon ladies and
hard to please.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">It
is important to remember that successful leadership depends not only on the
quality of the leader, but also on the people she works with. Women can
exercise collaborative leadership if the environment allows and encourages it.
I think of collaborative leadership not so much as the style of the leader, but
a set of practices the leader puts in place with the help of the community,
such as transparency in decision-making, open communication, clarification of
roles and expectations, mutual accountability, and encouragement of new ideas
and feedback. Collaborative leadership is a process, which takes time and
effort, and trial and error.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">A
collaborative leader enables each member of the community to feel they have ownership
and a stake in the success of the whole. I was fascinated by how Tony Hsieh has
created a cultural ethos at Zappos to keep his employees motivated and engaged.
The employees can decorate their desks and working areas to “create their home
away from home” with pictures, office toys, and colorful décor. The company
empowers employees with tools to succeed, provides opportunities for continued
learning, and allows employees to fulfill their higher purpose.* Indra Nooyi
writing thank you notes to parents of each of her direct reports so that they
could experience pride in their children also impressed me. Integrating
employees’ family members is an example of wholehearted leadership and the
emphasis on family is a key element of Asian culture.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Collaborative
leadership works when everything is fine, but is put to the test when conflicts
among different constituencies arise. Consider the situation when the board,
administration, and faculty cannot agree on the future directions of a school,
or when there is a financial shortfall and the church budget has a large deficit.
The leader needs to balance the needs and demands of different sectors of the
community and is often caught in the middle or in the worse case, ends up as
the scapegoat.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">API
cultures can be sources of strengths or liabilities in handling conflicts. On
the one hand, API cultures value harmony in relationships and tend to avoid
conflicts. But avoiding conflicts may lead to covering up of problems, which
will only get worse over time. On the other hand, API women have been caught in
the middle and serve as the go between in patriarchal systems. In traditional
families, they negotiate between the demands of husbands and mothers-in-law and
other in-laws. There may be lessons gleaned from navigating complicated
relationships.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Female
leaders attract admiration and envy from both men and women. As leaders, they
are judged more harshly than their male counterparts; just ask Hillary Clinton
or Carla Fiorina. This is one of the reasons API women may not want to consider
leadership positions because they can’t bear to lose face and be publicly
criticized. They have to develop very tough skin to deal with insidious sexism
in the workplace.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Because Asian cultures
place so much emphasis<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>on shame, API
women often internalize blame and guilt when something goes wrong. It is
important to separate between personal attack and rational criticism. Women
leaders need to accept criticisms when they are due, but reject misogynous
smears.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHNB53al_2GRYjvG4vvd0M3f_XSTqEl00CcEWxqke7x1Kz4SLIhKxg76T-kdbEITbGWh2vN7G6dfFZNQNOBVRvMBNzVtNsLG4NvL11_W-OJ1kHqQdlRzarRMZSCI2fFcGYut1rBR3Heo/s1600/rita.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHNB53al_2GRYjvG4vvd0M3f_XSTqEl00CcEWxqke7x1Kz4SLIhKxg76T-kdbEITbGWh2vN7G6dfFZNQNOBVRvMBNzVtNsLG4NvL11_W-OJ1kHqQdlRzarRMZSCI2fFcGYut1rBR3Heo/s200/rita.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rita Nakashima Brock</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Many
years ago my school invited Rita Nakashima Brock to speak to the community. In
her talk, she warned that women need to avoid self-sabotage. For example, a woman
might be under so much pressure, with one bad thing piling up on top of another,
that she is just ready to snap. With no more than a slight provocation, all of the
garbage built up inside would come bursting out. She advised that women need to
have a metaphorical “delete” button or a “recycle bin” so that they have a
place to put all that negative stuff. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Finding
a healthy way to decompress and to deal with pressure in life is vital for
women leaders for the long haul. In the past, women have tended to share with
their confidants to seek support. The recent impeachment of President Park
Geun-hye sounds caution. Park said she leads a “lonely life” and trusted too
much in her friend. Sometimes women leaders can live in a bubble in their own
alternate universe, alienated from the people they serve. It is crucial to lead
a balanced life and to have friends and colleagues who can offer a healthy reality
check. Meditation, exercise, and yoga are good ways for renewal and relaxation.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Women leaders stand on the shoulders of women who
have gone before them. In many women’s liturgies, we recall the names of
foremothers who have been influential in our lives. We know that our success is
based on the work and sacrifice of many other women. Therefore, once we become
leaders, let us remember to push the doors wider for women from the upcoming
generation.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>People sometimes ask why I
spent so much time in mentoring students and junior faculty. I would tell them
that I grew up in a working-class family and my parents came to Hong Kong as
refugees. I would never have been where I am today if not for so many people’s
encouragement and investment in me. When I first came to the US some thirty
years ago, Katie Geneva Cannon and other white women mentored me. Beverly
Harrison invited me to speak for the first time at the American Academy of Religion
on women’s work in China. When I became one of the few Asian women theological faculty,
I decided to help to make the road wider for others. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Pacific Asian North American Asian Women in Theology
and Ministry was started by a group of Asian and Asian American women, with mentoring
by Letty Russell and Shannon Clarkson. In 1997, the Asian and Asian American
faculty in the network acknowledged our debt to Letty and Shannon for their
many years of service and took over fundraising and other administrative duties
from them. The same year we began the doctoral seminar to provide assistance
for doctoral students to develop their dissertation proposals and to learn
professional skills. Celebrating our thirtieth anniversary in 2015, Su Yon Pak
and Jung Ha Kim have coedited <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leading
Wisdom: Asian and Asian North American Women Leaders,</i> which will come out
this fall. As the coeditors wrote, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">this
book is yet another testimony of how the PANAAWTM movement enables women
leaders to experience the nurturing and empowerment necessary to define their
calling and ministry on their own terms.” I hope the book will inspire more API
women to become leaders to change the church and the world.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">*
Mig Pascual, “Zappos: 5 Out-of-the-Box Ideas to Keep Employees Engaged,” US
News, October 30, 2012,
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/10/30/zappos-5-out-of-the-box-ideas-for-keeping-employees-engaged.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">This is a presentation made at the annual meeting of PANAAWTM on March 19, 2017 at Delaware, Ohio.</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-45986723891624172962017-03-09T17:58:00.001-05:002017-03-09T18:26:26.298-05:00A Postcolonial Eucharist<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklZukAYiYoe6ARD54TqV6rPRpeeTqJ89lTQxrOhQ4wimGj_u0lEcPg4QzhYeh6D1n4uJ8kt8kWYYyzTIgADB0SYUJX9KJD7KX649BufSt4ROLN6rukRwzK_TKfVyY41CAKr5-IiEDKXU/s1600/worship_mar9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklZukAYiYoe6ARD54TqV6rPRpeeTqJ89lTQxrOhQ4wimGj_u0lEcPg4QzhYeh6D1n4uJ8kt8kWYYyzTIgADB0SYUJX9KJD7KX649BufSt4ROLN6rukRwzK_TKfVyY41CAKr5-IiEDKXU/s320/worship_mar9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">What would a postcolonial Eucharist look
like? How would it break down the hierarchal setup of traditional Eucharistic
services? How would we use the sacred space? What would we use for the hymns?
What should be the preaching style?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Today at the St. John’s Chapel at the
Episcopal Divinity School (EDS), we had the opportunity to try out a
Eucharistic liturgy written by Dr. Michael N. Jagessar, the former Moderator of
the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dr. Jagessar was one of the speakers at the
“Challenging the Church: Postcolonial Practice of Ministry” conference held at
EDS in November, 2014. In his presentation on postcolonial liturgy, he
referenced a liturgy that he has written. After the conference, we had many requests
to have a copy of the liturgy and it was <a href="http://eds.edu/postcolonial">posted</a> on the school’s website.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The invitation of the liturgy says, “Welcome
to the table with no corners. LOVE calls us—friend or stranger, saint or
sinner. God’s table is the meeting place of generosity and abundance.” To honor
this, we used a round table as the altar. The Bible and the bread and wine were
carried and placed on the round table during the singing of the first hymn. As
we sat in a circle surrounding the altar, we were reminded of Letty M. Russell’s
vision of the church in the round.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">When I tried to find an image of the Last
Supper with a round table for the service bulletin, I found out it was not an
easy task, for most of the images have a rectangular table. Fortunately I was
able to find one painted by the well-known Japanese artist Sadeo Watanabe
(1913-1996).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRdLALqud0d2HxQFAwRWSlLhzqIUGKuwzGJWMZNLxtchM7MGp-PHBpAz_ktn5L9mFyMSeMEaos5EAHcKvae4-E0AuCrFzflO76h0MeFUBNjph4jZL9ZF4JJgBjo8Tu7v5wTUFqNkZXwg/s1600/sadeo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRdLALqud0d2HxQFAwRWSlLhzqIUGKuwzGJWMZNLxtchM7MGp-PHBpAz_ktn5L9mFyMSeMEaos5EAHcKvae4-E0AuCrFzflO76h0MeFUBNjph4jZL9ZF4JJgBjo8Tu7v5wTUFqNkZXwg/s1600/sadeo.png" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">We opened the service with Fred Kaan’s
hymn:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The church is like a round table, a
table that is round.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It has no sides or corners, no first
or last, no honours;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here
people are in oneness and love together bound.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">We included a Japanese hymn* with a
Japanese student singing the first verse, and all joined for the following verses.
Two students from Burma sang a beautiful hymn from their country, “Jesus Is My
Friend.” The closing hymn was a Chinese hymn of blessing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The scriptural readings were read by a
Malaysian student in Malay and a student from the Bahamas in Portuguese. The
Lord’s Prayer was recited in participants’ mother tongues.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Instead of a sermon from the pulpit, the
liturgy called for a “table conversation” following the scriptural readings.
The assumption was that all have truth and wisdom to share to benefit the whole
Body of God. We divided into groups of two and three to have these table
conversations. After the small group discussion, we invited participants to
share insights with the whole group. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">During the Communion, we passed the bread
and wine among the people sitting in a circle. The Communion hymn was one of my
favorites: “My God, And Is Thy Table Spread.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My God, Thou table is now spread,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thy cup with love doth overflow;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Be
all your children thither led,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And let them thy sweet
mercy know.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Michael
Jagessar’s presentation at the EDS conference provided a theological rationale
for his liturgy of the round table. He has further developed it as a chapter of
the book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Postcolonial Practice of
Ministry</i> coedited by former EDS professor Stephen Burns and me. Jagessar
situates the Eucharist in the cultural discourse of eating, drinking, and table
habits, and in such a way connects Eucharist with what we do in our daily lives
and in community. He uses the metaphor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pelau</i>,
a Trinidad meal with mixed ingredients that can be cooked in different ethnic
styles, and invites us to rethink Eucharist as an open table that welcomes
ambiguity, creolization, and the encounter of multiple identities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzyTBKF6eZfaGlVIQYpDcpVXQnQTMtQhCdHL0lUeX7gfN0gLZgkDTJTSuqoNau5xUjmJXMmq6MzrQptQRShrsQv8cVqWBeJXkthxgQ_1Kx2_OCikcCbi2GfboGM2P6t471H6ZvY26OO2U/s1600/post.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzyTBKF6eZfaGlVIQYpDcpVXQnQTMtQhCdHL0lUeX7gfN0gLZgkDTJTSuqoNau5xUjmJXMmq6MzrQptQRShrsQv8cVqWBeJXkthxgQ_1Kx2_OCikcCbi2GfboGM2P6t471H6ZvY26OO2U/s1600/post.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">When
examining different Eucharistic theologies, he asks us to ponder what kind of
table habits—rules of eating and drinking and conversations—are encouraged. Colonial
table habits tend to reinforce the colonial class structure, such that those on
the lower rung of society would be excluded or made to feel unwelcome. In
contrast, Jagessar points out that Jesus’ table ministry welcomed all kinds of
people, pushed social hierarchy and boundaries, and created new spaces in the interest
of God’s kingdom. In our postcolonial world in which cultures collide and
peoples comingle, the Eucharist should not be a ritual to safeguard doctrinal
and cultural purity, but a symbolic act that welcomes hybridity, difference, and
liminality. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jagessar
also finds the metaphor of the third or in-between space helpful in
understanding the mystery of the sacrament of Eucharist. In the exchange in the
in-between space of the table, he says, the spirit is at work “</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">to produce mutual
inconveniencing, transformation, and new creation with regard to identities and
belonging.” </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I hope
the church will be bold enough to try out different styles of postcolonial
Eucharist because the postcolonial church</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is not a cozy and secure place
reinforcing the status quo and what we already know. It is a messy, in-between
space such that God’s grace, beyond human understanding, can be made known.** </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">* The Japanese hymn was "Sekai no tomo to te tsunagi!" (Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather) and the English version can be found in many hymnals.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">*</span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">* The last four paragraphs are taken and adapted
from my “Epilogue” in <i>Postcolonial Practice of Ministry</i> (Lexington
Press, 2016).</span></strong></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-67074279564460337722017-03-05T19:26:00.000-05:002017-03-05T19:51:00.908-05:00A Rich Past for a Positive Future for Theology<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFFDYeU0-uKSPp7Vsbaqa-AJS8ofBDFs_GtCyDNtubRv7iLT9a-TwBk1T3RVEmI5z4cDwfno9spZ8OCxC960P8Ncutn7QN59yNJ3uUf1XHbEgfKklCZf8KpaDHFy4KMuzwR-uu8XLp8gc/s1600/Cobb+and+Kwok.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFFDYeU0-uKSPp7Vsbaqa-AJS8ofBDFs_GtCyDNtubRv7iLT9a-TwBk1T3RVEmI5z4cDwfno9spZ8OCxC960P8Ncutn7QN59yNJ3uUf1XHbEgfKklCZf8KpaDHFy4KMuzwR-uu8XLp8gc/s320/Cobb+and+Kwok.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">with Professor John Cobb</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">As
an Asian postcolonial feminist theologian, my relationship to the Christian
past is multifaceted and ambivalent. My reading of the Bible and the long theological
tradition is never a “natural” reading, arising out of a living tradition that
shaped my culture. For example, I wondered how the terms <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ousia</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hypostases</i> in
the debates on Trinity could be translated into Chinese and whether there would
be equivalent concepts in Chinese philosophy.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">So
why do we have to study the Christian past? Sometimes my students put this even
more bluntly, “Why do we have to study the dead white guys?”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We
study the past because we want to learn different models of how theologians
addressed social, political, and ecclesiastical issues of their time. Take for
instance, this year we are commemorating the 500th anniversary of Luther’s
posting of the 95 theses. The questions that Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and
Münster raised for the church and wider public remain with us to this day, such
as, the source of authority, the shape of liturgy and the meaning of
sacraments, the visible and invisible church, the relation between the two
kingdoms, and the relation between the established church and radical reform
impulses. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">A
highly relevant question for today might be “How can the Church be reformed so
that it might respond to the challenges of the Trump era?” Although the Chinese
may not have an event equivalent to the Reformation, the Reformation provided a
mirror through which to look at the relation between religion, politics, and
power at a watershed moment of the early development of capitalism and
modernity.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Without
learning from the past, we impoverish ourselves because we are left with the
tyranny of the present. We can easily lose hope and fall prey to cynicism and
despair. This is especially important in the United States because historical
literacy is low and people seek immediate relevance. Facebook and social media
outlets can make us obsessed with the immediate present. Learning from history
allows us to maintain a certain distance and to have a broader perspective when
examining our present time.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Given
that we have such a long and rich theological tradition and so many theological
giants before us, there is also the danger of the tyranny of the past. We might
become so immersed and inculturated into certain modes of theological thinking,
patterns of argument, and the common vocabularies of a certain theological
tradition and our minds be so colonized that we are unable to see the horizon
beyond or dare to take the road less traveled.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Theological
innovations often begin by posting radical questions to the past. The feminist
theological movement wrestled with the validity of past tradition. Mary Daly
argued that the Christian tradition is so sexist that it is irredeemable, while
Letty Russell spoke of a usable past. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza offered a revisionist
history of Christian origin, and Rosemary Radford Ruether recovered the lost
voices of Christian women in history.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Many
theologians who have found their cultures and traditions left out from the
dominant theological tradition have recovered their histories through the use
of slave narratives, alternative archives, oral history, literature, and myths
and stories to create a colorful tapestry of theologies. Today, theology is a
global enterprise and we must pay attention to the global contexts shaping
human lives and our theological imagination. Theology is contextual, but our
contexts are deeply intertwined today. We need to find ways to educate
ourselves about how others are developing theologies to respond to common
concerns of our time. This must be a sustained and deliberate effort and not
something to do only when we have time.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">I wish I knew when I began to study
theology that this would be a life-long vocation with many twists and no easy
answers. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Our
work is harder because, unlike Luther and the reformers who stood in the
vanguard of the intellectuals of their time, we as contemporary theologians
have to defend our existence in the academy and larger society. When Christian
theology is in a defensive posture, the marginal voices within it could be even
more marginalized or suppressed. A danger for theological movements is that
they become reactionary or ossified over time and fail to respond to new
challenges. There is often much excitement when a theological movement begins,
but as it becomes institutionalized or domesticated, it needs new reformers
and discussants to keep it alive and on the cutting-edge. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Facing the future, theologians have
important roles to play in the Trump era. Latin American theologians reminded
us that we must distinguish between the worship of God and the worship of
idols. When people are mesmerized by populist claims such as “Make America
Great Again” and the representation of the President as pseudo-Messiah,
theologians must challenge idolatry and alternative facts. In the battle for
truth, we stand on the shoulders of giants such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther
King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Y. T. Wu, Oscar Romero, Mercy Oduyoye, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Tissa Balasuriya,
Desmond Tutu, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Ivone Gebara, and others. When the country
begins to look inward, we need theologians and leaders of faith communities who
<span style="margin: 0px;">are cosmopolitan in theological
outlook, astute about world politics, and have a deep sense of American
multiracial and multicultural history. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We
must develop a culture of resistance in the churches </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and rid</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> ourselves of Constantinian Christianity in order to see clearly the life
and ministry of a postcolonial Jesus. Americans have not been comfortable
seeing the connections between empire and Christianity. Middle-class American
Christianity has so successfully adapted to the individualistic culture that
religion has often become a private affair. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Christian message of
sin, atonement, justification, and salvation has been thoroughly
individualized, if not psychologized, such that they have relatively little
social import. We look at Jesus as primarily a religious figure, separated from
the highly politicized and volatile situation of his time, an era filled with
periodic popular revolts and protests against Roman colonial rule. We must
recover that the Jesus movement was a resistance movement against Pax Romana.
Jesus was not a passive religious leader, but took an uncompromising stance
against the Roman Empire and its client Judean and Galilean rulers. Jesus’
revolutionary message is relevant to our time more than ever as we struggle
against pax Americana.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Do I think theology will have a
positive future? My answer is yes. When I began to study theology in the early
1970s, Gustavo Gutierrez has published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Theology for Liberation Theology</i> for a few years. Mary Daly has not
published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beyond God the Father</i>. As a
doctoral student, I witnessed the development of Womanist theology, Mujerista
and Latina theology, Asian American feminist theology, and gay and lesbian
theology. Today we have such a plurality of voices arising from racial and
ethnic communities in the U.S. and from faith communities around the world. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">In the 1960s, some of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">avant garde</i> theologians launched a
series of books with the title “New Frontiers in Theology” and their aim was to
facilitate “discussions among Continental and American theologians” and the
discussants were all male. Here at this conference, we have such diversity of
theological voices, and this should give us hope for a positive and more inclusive
future.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">(Presented at the “New Frontiers in
Theology” Conference at Claremont School of Theology on February 17, 2017)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-52705002539760030102014-02-25T09:02:00.000-05:002014-02-25T09:02:03.016-05:00Feminist Professors Are Not Secluded Monks
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5salJUS0hqG1t-FLt-2uSaY9UE09x6wKkzxW1nDzcvH6a8c5xYnVb3THIb3ESBsdi4koV0d7wOkXtxA9ScF1MTAUpSxzqhae-wyj0CrydLBLnYsfwAETD3cjMFnxZodkJ11E4h6TICuk/s1600/DSCN1051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5salJUS0hqG1t-FLt-2uSaY9UE09x6wKkzxW1nDzcvH6a8c5xYnVb3THIb3ESBsdi4koV0d7wOkXtxA9ScF1MTAUpSxzqhae-wyj0CrydLBLnYsfwAETD3cjMFnxZodkJ11E4h6TICuk/s1600/DSCN1051.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>In his column “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-professors-we-need-you.html?_r=0">Professors, We Need You</a>!” <i>New York Times</i>
columnist Nicholas Kristof charges that most university professors “just don’t
matter in today’s great debates” and admonishes them not to cloister themselves
“like medieval monks.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Many academics and others took offense at
what he has written. A Twitter hashtag </span></span></div>
<h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/engagedacademics">#engagedacademics</a> sprung up and many have
posted opposing views. <o:p></o:p></span></span></h1>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
That Kristof imagines the professors who isolate themselves
from the real world as “medieval monks” betrays his bias that the professors to
whom he is addressing and the public intellectuals he longs to see are male
(and possibly white)!</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Kristof is an award-winning columnist who has written on
sexual violence against women globally, human rights issues, and Chinese
politics. Yet, he has overlooked that feminist professors have engaged in
political struggles for decades and many have used Twitter and other social
media to spread our ideas and further our causes.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">Gwendolyn
Beetham, an adjunct professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Brooklyn
College, responds that <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/women-and-public-scholarship#.UwX8DNJq9mg.twitter">Kristof has failed to take women and marginalizedgroups’ concern</a> about public engagement seriously. Women’s voices are routinely
neglected and those who dare to enter public debates are shunned or even
threatened. Professor Brittney Cooper, an African American scholar, was
physically threatened while speaking in a forum in New York and British
classicist Mary Beard was threatened with rape and having her home bombed via
Twitter.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">The
mainstream media marginalizes scholars in the field of feminism and religion.
In debates such as the provision of contraceptives in health insurance, the
future of the Catholic Church under Pope Francis, and gender violence associated
with religion, we seldom hear the voices of feminist intellectuals in the mass
media. Male scholars, conservative TV and radio hosts, and religious leaders
have the large microphones.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">Kristof has
overlooked that many professors in religion who are women of color are closely
related to their communities and have worked tirelessly to effect social
change. The late </span><span style="color: black;">Mujerista</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;"> theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz is one
shining example. She was very involved in the Women’s Ordination movement in
the Catholic Church and she interviewed grassroots Latinas and included their
voices in her ethical analysis. A new group “Women of Color Scholarship,
Teaching, and Activism” has been formed at the American Academy of Religion to
discuss challenges to women of color who want to be engaged scholars.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">Many have
pointed out that Kristof has only looked at publications such as the </span><span style="color: black;">New York Times</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;"> or the </span><span style="color: black;">New Yorker</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;"> when he laments the diminishing presence
of public intellectuals. Had he looked wider, he might has noticed that feminist
scholars, including those in religion, are actively blogging, tweeting,
uploading pictures and videos in Instagram and Google Plus, and using other
forms of social media. We have written op-eds and blogged on </span><span style="color: black;">Huffington Post</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">, </span><span style="color: black;">Feminism and Religion</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">, </span><span style="color: black;">Feminist
Studies in Religion</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">,
</span><span style="color: black;">Religion Dispatches</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">, </span><span style="color: black;">Patheos</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">, </span><span style="color: black;">Center
for American Progress</span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">,
and other websites. Some of us post videos or appear in YouTube and have
personal blogs. I have started <a href="http://kwokpuilan.blogspot.com/">a blog</a> several years ago to share my ideas about
postcolonialism and religion and to connect with my readers.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">Kristof
notes the pressure on academics to publish peer-reviewed articles and books.
But he does not mention the underclass of adjuncts who earn $2,000 to $3,000
per class and can hardly make ends meet. According to the Coalition on Academic
Workforce, adjuncts earn on average $21,600, while tenure-track positions
averaged $66,000 a year. Some labor groups estimate that adjunct faculty make
up to 75 percent of higher education positions. <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/175214/academias-pink-collar-workforce#">Women make up 61 percent ofadjunct faculty</a>, according to the Coalition.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">The scarcity
of jobs in the field of religion and the growing use of adjuncts have made many
feminist professors wonder whether they should encourage their bright female
students to pursue a PhD. Some are concerned whether to encourage their PhD
students to do research in feminism and religion, for fear that this will
further narrow their marketability. Several trade presses in religion are
publishing mostly textbooks and there are fewer venues for feminist religious
scholarship.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">I am
convinced that the world needs feminist work in religion more than ever. The
generation of feminist scholars in religion before us faced ridicule,
censorship, and loss of employment when they charted a new territory and started
a new field. They have laid a solid foundation for us to build on. It is
important for us to discuss how the field will flourish and how feminist
professors can continue their work as engaged intellectuals and help the
upcoming generation. </span></em><em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;"> </span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;"></span></em> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;"><em>This article is cross-posted on</em> <a href="http://feminismandreligion.com/2014/02/25/feminist-professors-are-not-secluded-monks-by-kwok-pui-lan-2/">Feminism and Religion</a><em>.</em></span></em></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-30018433397383281992014-01-26T19:59:00.001-05:002014-01-26T19:59:54.858-05:00Acu-yoga: Synergy of Shiatsu, Acupuncture, and Yoga
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbon-XhTpSXKFMRQLVSg7AcWvPJKWpvs2lKH0qPy-U-mOgBteomAYygWQ6W6ZsenN2lYf-f5LhqxYFsFSe7Sq625pK5KRC6Ob09qK6s3xGGMTFwx0pKyl0PpCNg-iOQbwUR6tijsOg-Fs/s1600/chakras.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbon-XhTpSXKFMRQLVSg7AcWvPJKWpvs2lKH0qPy-U-mOgBteomAYygWQ6W6ZsenN2lYf-f5LhqxYFsFSe7Sq625pK5KRC6Ob09qK6s3xGGMTFwx0pKyl0PpCNg-iOQbwUR6tijsOg-Fs/s1600/chakras.png" /></a>Yoga postures can activate energy centers of the body called
chakras. Shiatsu and acupuncture can revitalize the body and clear blockages
through activating particular points along the meridians on the body.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
While traveling as a college student, I learned shiatsu, an
ancient form of bodywork, from a Japanese friend. I practice yoga and have used
acupuncture to relieve body pain. So when I heard about a workshop called
Acu-yoga led by a yoga teacher and a shiatsu practitioner and acupuncturist, I
was excited to learn more about how these ancient systems intersect.</div>
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This afternoon I attended the Acu-yoga workshop at a yoga
studio at Boston’s famous Newbury Street. About two dozen people, mostly young
women and men, paid the $45 fee to attend this special workshop. It was cold
outside, with temperature around 18 degrees Fahrenheit.</div>
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Karma, the yoga teacher, began the workshop with gentle
breathing exercises. She especially asked us to breathe into the belly and the
back where the kidneys are located. Karma has long blond hair, a slim body, and
a gentle voice, which is very soothing.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
After several minutes of breathing, Zoe, who practices
shiatsu and acupuncture, explained the location of the Bladder meridian. She
asked us to form a fist and use the knuckle on the thumb to press on the space
between the eyebrows. From there, we would use the knuckle to lightly knock
along the meridian up the center of the forehead, across the head, and reaching
down the back of the head to the sides of the spinal column. She said the
meridian continues along the bottom to the back of the legs and all the way to
the pinky toes. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJ8O-iVQGiTEf5j6eBbjTJ5BgMWGg9iT_U6QHgt_zzsANr077Uq7HHNL3xzNRDh7ou3vQKEBPq-VNiU0hcWQcr9jzuK8ZAoXwHOBpmBteeXtedRQSVvcT2Gphpownsg6zaiwFOYfc_Vg/s1600/Bladder+meridian.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJ8O-iVQGiTEf5j6eBbjTJ5BgMWGg9iT_U6QHgt_zzsANr077Uq7HHNL3xzNRDh7ou3vQKEBPq-VNiU0hcWQcr9jzuK8ZAoXwHOBpmBteeXtedRQSVvcT2Gphpownsg6zaiwFOYfc_Vg/s1600/Bladder+meridian.png" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
As I was doing this, my body became more alive and I became
more aware. </div>
<br />
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Zoe then explained the location of the Kidney meridian and
demonstrated how to press on the relevant points. She said that the Bladder and
Kidney meridians are especially important during winter time. The bladder
regulates the nervous system, stores and excretes fluids, and balances the
spirit. The kidney is a primary source of vitality and energy of the body and
its energy can be drawn during times of stress.</div>
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Afterward, Karma led us through a series of yoga exercises
that focused on the yang side—the active side. While we were doing this, she
and Zoe would go around the room and use the technique of shiatsu to gently
press on the students’ bodies. For example, Karma pressed along the sides of my
spinal column when I was in the Child pose. Some time later, when I was doing
the Downward Facing Dog, Zoe would come and press on my right leg and ankle. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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This was the first time that I had shiatsu applied when I
was doing yoga. Since I had acupressure and massage before, I was not sensitive
to people touching me. I would continue to hold the posture, while they worked
on my body. The sensation from the body was quite different from that when I
was lying on the massage table when a massage therapist worked on me. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The yoga sequence then focused on the yin side—the passive
and receiving side. There was much less stretching and bending. We had to hold
our breath longer for each posture to allow our body open more. At the end of
the yoga practice, Karma told us to find a comfortable position for savasana
(the Corpse post) because we would lie in that position for a long time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Zoe and another acupuncturist went around and inserted
needles on our bodies. Students could opt out if they wanted to. I had a needle
inserted near my left eyebrow, and needles on both my hands and ankles.
Afterward I rested for about ten minutes and felt very relaxed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I breathed in and breathed out following the chanting music
that the instructors have selected. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I
remembered the blessings in my life—a loving family, a four-month-old cute
granddaughter, colleagues I have worked with for a long time, and students and
junior scholars I have had the privilege to mentor. . . . <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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I had come to this workshop with curiosity and I left, quite
unexpectedly, full of thanksgiving and gratitude.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-4285707887294558822013-12-27T18:58:00.000-05:002013-12-28T10:21:52.293-05:00Why Yoga<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPGgLaTh9FUaE3BM7cxBK_MWnl0vFPxr37wd2OX1LgyLXgv-YvhBVpAAA8XSEUD-5J2lpkzv2ePWz5tPP5iwJVfhgOtbM9T1LnF2ihnXZaKGOPP3CTLJ5nYdF2_AJfGF7pbWG9iVu-Ec/s1600/Downward+Facing+Dog_Enlarged.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPGgLaTh9FUaE3BM7cxBK_MWnl0vFPxr37wd2OX1LgyLXgv-YvhBVpAAA8XSEUD-5J2lpkzv2ePWz5tPP5iwJVfhgOtbM9T1LnF2ihnXZaKGOPP3CTLJ5nYdF2_AJfGF7pbWG9iVu-Ec/s320/Downward+Facing+Dog_Enlarged.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
My first encounter with yoga was at the Episcopal Divinity
School more than ten years ago. A talented teacher Anna taught the class and it
was free. I learned some basic yoga poses and most of all I learned the breath
(prana) and the pose (asana) needed to go together. Anna was very gentle with us
as we had different body sizes and shapes. At middle age, Anna has a lean body
with a strong core. I used to enjoy watching her shift from pose to pose with
ease and grace.</div>
<br />
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I know I need to do more strengthening exercises to keep my
body strong. I have been going to a gym near Harvard Square for the past few
years. It has a section for weight training and machines for strengthening the
muscles. Needless to say, very few women frequent this area. Occasionally there
is one woman pumping iron, usually half of my age. Asian women? Not one
except me!</div>
<br />
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While pumping iron is good for the bones, I want to
increase flexibility as well. This is where yoga comes in.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The most basic and widely known yoga position—Downward
Facing Dog—is good for so many things. According to <a href="http://yogauonline.com/news/downward-facing-dog">Yoga U Online</a>, “<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Downward Facing Dog gently builds muscles
in the shoulders, arms, and abdominal region, as well as along the back and
down the thighs and calves. In addition, the pose stretches and decongests the
spinal column, a vital function which promotes the free flow of energy and
nerve information between the body and brain.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the past two
weeks, I have gone to a yoga center near Harvard three times a week to practice
vinyasa yoga. I have learned from teachers with different teaching styles.
Lucie combines meditation with yoga and after her classes, I felt so relaxed
and renewed each time. I almost went to sleep during savasana (corpse pose) at
the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Many teachers would
not want to correct students’ poses or touch students’ bodies. This may
discourage the students or cause embarrassment. But Mickey would and he is
amazing. He will come near you and demonstrate how he wants your pelvis to turn
or the muscles of your leg lengthen. I know much more about fine tuning the
muscles and about alignment because of his coaching.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Some of the
classes are much more vigorous than the classes I have attended at my school.
It is like I am suddenly promoted to college from grade school. Most of the yogis
are younger, who are college or university students. But I have no time to
compare myself to them, since I am so busy just trying to follow what the
teacher is saying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">After one of
these vigorous classes, I felt so happy and energized. Exercise is good for the
brain. I now believe it. When we exercise, our brains release the chemical <span style="color: black;">endorphins. According to <a href="http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/exercise-depression">Web MD</a>, “These endorphins interact
with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain. . . .
Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body.” Exercise is good for
you if you have depression or winter blues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;">During
the holidays, I have so many things to do. I am not talking about buying
Christmas presents, but grading papers, preparing for the January term,
finishing a paper long overdue, and thinking about a book I have started in the
summer. It sounds ambitious. It also means working for <a href="http://www.medimanage.com/my-health-at-work/more-articles/health-risk-of-working-long-hours-at-the-computer.aspx">long hours at the computer</a> and potential neck and shoulder pain. Doing yoga is great!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This
morning I went to yoga class. As we spread our legs wide apart and bent forward
and lowered the head, the teacher asked us to empty everything we didn’t want.
After yoga my mind became clear. On the way home, I had so many ideas about a
chapter of my book. It was as if I had the outline of the whole chapter worked
out. After lunch, I typed out the chapter outline and was very pleased with it.
It made me feel great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN">I will continue to go to yoga several times
a week for a while and see how it goes. I have signed up for a “New Year’s Day
Cleanse” yoga workshop. I have had health issues in 2013. My hope is that I
will become healthier in 2014. I wish you a happy and healthy 2014.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This
blog is not meant to give medical advice. Please consult your doctor before you
start an exercise program.</span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-13137247758931220602013-11-30T23:12:00.000-05:002013-12-01T13:45:50.610-05:00Religion, Theology, and Class<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXtm-AFw0HGwq6wTZ-aYC2iNavrLz0lpbLcv4KGrUvs23S-eR9SK_iTyzXT7idW0VdBcj3IBKaYOiOMrL7yFRGGxdN1QMXKaWqbpb7xG-Ha7Z78Em6qHgW1iqXPYt1ok-vHb50oVoh5o/s1600/Rieger+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXtm-AFw0HGwq6wTZ-aYC2iNavrLz0lpbLcv4KGrUvs23S-eR9SK_iTyzXT7idW0VdBcj3IBKaYOiOMrL7yFRGGxdN1QMXKaWqbpb7xG-Ha7Z78Em6qHgW1iqXPYt1ok-vHb50oVoh5o/s1600/Rieger+2.png" /></a><i>Religion, Theology, and Class: Fresh Engagements after
Long Silence</i> edited by Jeorg Rieger has just been published by Palgrave
Macmillan. The book wants to re-emphasize class as a critical category in
theology and ethics, because people tend to focus more on gender, race, and
sexuality issues in North America. Divided into three parts, the book presents
new definitions of class, situates religion and class in the context of early
Christianity and the United States, and examines the relation between class,
poverty, gender and race. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Gary J. Dorrien, Stephanie Mitchem, Santiago H. Slabodsky,
Susan B. Thistlethwaite, and I reviewed the book at the annual meeting of the
American Academy of Religion on November 24, 2013 at Baltimore, Maryland. My
review used a postcolonial perspective to examine the contribution of the book.
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Postcolonial theorists have criticized the limits of the
concept of class in classical Marxist theory, based as it was on the
development of industrialized and capitalist societies. It is less useful to
study pre-industrialized societies and other forms of oppression in society.
They have also pointed out the Orientalist biases in Marxist writings. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
In this book, the contributors seek to bring the concept of
class up to date in the context of global capitalism. The nuanced and
pluralistic approach is most helpful and it points to the difficulties of
formulating a generally accepted theory of class. Less is said in the book,
however, about the vision or shape of an alternative global economic system and
the role religion and theology will take part in it. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
While the poor are often mentioned, they are discussed in
the context of Marxist or other theories. The Occupy Movement is mentioned in
several chapters and offered as a clear example of people rising against the
transnational capitalist class. In addition, Vítor Westhelle speaks briefly
about the transgression and resistance of migrant people, while Pamela K.
Brubaker refers to the factory workers in Mexico, who struggle to live out
according to the values of sustenance economy in relation to transnational
production. Toward the end of her chapter, Brubaker also mentions Vandana
Shiva’s work on sustenance economy and nature’s economy to contest the dominant
market economy.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Corey D. B. Walker’s chapter presents a sustained reflection on
class from a subaltern perspective by offering an account of “thinking
blackness” in the work of black religious scholars and theologians. He
challenges us to work for “a categorical infusion of an/other logic the opens
up onto new and that in/forms novel conceptual intelligibility as well as the
orientation of human life.” Walker finds Walter Mignolo’s concept of “colonial
difference” and Anibal Quijano’s concept of “coloniality of power” valuable for
his project. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Edward P. Antonio’s important essay on “Black Theology and
Postcolonial Discourse” in the <i>Cambridge Companion to Black Theology</i> has
brought to my attention the often unexplored overlapping concerns of black and
postcolonial theologies and possibilities for mutual learning.</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJEzp75QXCIYNjvNcXA5kp85YUPEAyoZnou6W2GO_o5dfk7x4oacaFheyWlPZX4To32eLQSDVMC73zGCuphpt67IRtMrijSahjFJFSt2t0QrFitSXuaBB9ikr-c06_UVVEK0jH_DvdrqE/s1600/Rieger.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJEzp75QXCIYNjvNcXA5kp85YUPEAyoZnou6W2GO_o5dfk7x4oacaFheyWlPZX4To32eLQSDVMC73zGCuphpt67IRtMrijSahjFJFSt2t0QrFitSXuaBB9ikr-c06_UVVEK0jH_DvdrqE/s1600/Rieger.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joerg Rieger</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I would like to see the following areas articulated in
future discussion about religion, theology, and class. Postcolonial theorists
discuss the intimate relationship between the colonizers and the colonized,
such as mutual inscription, collaboration, attraction, and repulsion. The book
often presents stark contrast between the rich and the poor and toward the end,
Rieger says that dualism is necessary to articulate the realities of class
struggle. But class in today’s global capitalism must be seen as more fluid and
multifaceted, and indeed in relational terms. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
While the exploitation by the transnational capitalist
elites should be criticized, we need to investigate the role of the poor and
the middle class in collaborating with or sustaining the global economic
system. This is not to blame the victims, but to see how global capitalism
interpellates different kinds of subjects through its ideologies and practices.
Without articulating how and why the poor are absorbed, coopted, and bought
into the system and become the instrument of their own oppression, we cannot
see through the maze to propose alternatives and mobilize resistance.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I hope that gender and sexuality will feature more
prominently in future discussion of religion, theology, and class. Except for
Brubaker’s chapter, other chapters have either left these categories out or
mentioned them only in passing. The work of Marcella Althaus-Reid has
convincingly shown the intersection between heterosexism and colonialism and
empire building. We need to investigate for example how gender is racialized
and has a class dimension, how race is genderized, and inflected by class, and
how class intersects with race and gender especially in the consumerist culture.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
Finally, I would like to see
contributions from China, Vietnam, and Eastern Europe as their move from
Communism to adopting capitalist measures will offer another perspective to
look at how religion and theology is inflected by class and economic injustice
in these rapidly changing societies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
hope the publication of the book and this panel will stimulate further
interdisciplinary research and conversation.</div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-9017349211827592302013-09-03T08:23:00.000-04:002013-09-03T08:23:05.502-04:00European Women in Theological Research<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikMeH-8mI3GFeRpJKvsxrOPmf9fJUB3npcVDok2fF59CtNPwrbfYAzHTQsDfElR_hsa_PSwzU5ncnnZ59YxgcXzOcVn_W1EuNwj5BuwZOnu_HKd3Q5Z8MlSXyJKXPmPkg4SX_rJoj9q4c/s1600/DSCN1037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikMeH-8mI3GFeRpJKvsxrOPmf9fJUB3npcVDok2fF59CtNPwrbfYAzHTQsDfElR_hsa_PSwzU5ncnnZ59YxgcXzOcVn_W1EuNwj5BuwZOnu_HKd3Q5Z8MlSXyJKXPmPkg4SX_rJoj9q4c/s320/DSCN1037.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Dresden train station where mass deomonstration<br />
took place in October 1989</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The 15th international conference of the European Society of
Women in Theological Research took place from August 28 to September 1, 2013 in
Dresden, Germany. About 180 women from 16 countries attended the conference
with the theme “New Horizons: Resistance and Visions.”<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
This was the first time that I had visited a city in the
former East Germany. I looked forward to learning about the revolution of 1989
that changed the Eastern Bloc. We were shown a documentary about the mass
demonstration in October of 1989. The former mayor of Dresden, a local priest,
and others who had participated in the demonstration came to share their
experience with us. They talked about the contribution of the Women for Peace
movement and the roles of the churches in providing a space for people to
discuss social reform.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The outcome of the demonstration in East Germany was
drastically different from what happened at Tiananmen Square in Beijing earlier
in the year, when the Chinese military crushed the students and demonstrators.
The demonstration in Dresden was largely peaceful and the police had dialogues
with leaders of the people. In November, the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled
the end of the Cold War era.</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbASG1UYViTAZDJ18xLnxNtnOcfJc10DqeeziEWu56hNbCU4IcQ6TnRYBqHtGazFNqoDJENG7JlI3upxcHo2laZndSd1v3AfJCp1iM40qsoF7qgqYmrCmG807TogLp5f32sa9FxkPT1ak/s1600/DSCN1027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbASG1UYViTAZDJ18xLnxNtnOcfJc10DqeeziEWu56hNbCU4IcQ6TnRYBqHtGazFNqoDJENG7JlI3upxcHo2laZndSd1v3AfJCp1iM40qsoF7qgqYmrCmG807TogLp5f32sa9FxkPT1ak/s320/DSCN1027.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joerg Rieger, Kwok Pui Lan, Ulrike Auga <br />
from Germany and Teresa Forcades i Vila from Spain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Joerg Rieger and I spoke on “Occupy Heaven: Are God,
Religion, and Politics beyond Rescue?” at a public forum during the conference.
We were asked to speak about the Occupy Movement and the theological issues it
had raised, based on our book <i>Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude</i>.
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
This was the third time that I have attended a conference of
the Society and I noticed several important changes. Spanish has become an
official language of the Society, together with German and English. About 20
women from Spain attended the conference and their participation was
significant. A sizeable group came from Eastern European countries, including
Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, and Hungary. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
In the past, women in Western Europe dominated in the
meeting. The leaders of the Society have worked hard to include women from
Southern and Eastern Europe. Younger researchers and graduate students were
also given space to present their research.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The conference had three sub-themes: postcolonialism,
post-secularism, and queer visions. I was glad to see that postcolonial and
queer issues have been taken up seriously in the discussion, which I have not
seen so much in previous meetings. Musa Dube from Botswana was invited to speak
about postcolonial feminist interpretation of the Bible, while Mayra Rivera
Rivera from Harvard Divinity School spoke about the key challenges for
theologies of the body in the twenty-first century. Janet Jakobsen from
Columbia University used the example of domestic work to illustrate the
intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality in thinking about new
economies and solidarities.</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbKtorxlIDJ1DZMxaYsceqfuvRmB0PRXzj9XLrTNJ_ElvxBzoKJqYabhfnbKudC5fUrlvtnEg8rZb7mMnZgL4WcTc46gbaByoVnkiuD1_Lz4V9wMUy6WRv0pdHOtWpVQAUnwDgHsedMAk/s1600/DSCN1023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbKtorxlIDJ1DZMxaYsceqfuvRmB0PRXzj9XLrTNJ_ElvxBzoKJqYabhfnbKudC5fUrlvtnEg8rZb7mMnZgL4WcTc46gbaByoVnkiuD1_Lz4V9wMUy6WRv0pdHOtWpVQAUnwDgHsedMAk/s320/DSCN1023.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dresden was heavily bombed in WWII. <br />
The Church of Our Lady was rebuilt and reopened in 2005</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
In addition to the plenaries, there were many panels. Two
papers were of particular interest to me. Aurica Nutt of Germany presented a
paper on queer ecologies and Christian theologies. Drawing from queer
ecologies, she discussed why Christian theologies must analyze their
discrimination against “unnatural behavior” and against the environment. An
interesting point is how queer animals challenge us to think about “nature” and
“queerness” differently.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Niki Papageorgiou and Angeliki Ziaka from Greece presented a
paper on “Postcolonial Feminist Theological Discourse: Muslim and Christian
Interactions.” They talked about the important work done by Islamic feminists
on reinterpretation of Qur’an and Shari’a and why feminist theology and
reinterpretation of religion could contribute to postcolonial political
discourse. They also identified the similarities and differences of Muslim and
Christian feminist movements.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
European women in theological research face many
difficulties and challenges. Jobs are scarce and many with doctorates cannot
find teaching positions and have to work in churches and organizations. There
seems to be a serious “backlash” or re-traditionalizing of religious
traditions. Feminist theologians are increasingly under more pressure. During
the conference, participants identified strategies and ways to support one
another. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
One of the goals I had in going to Dresden was to learn more
about changes of women’s lives in Eastern Europe. I bought two books to help me
understand the transformation after 1989. <i>Gendering Post-Socialist
Transition</i> examines the effects of social and political changes on
relationships between women and men, gender roles and representations, and
normative discourses about femininity and masculinity in eleven countries in
Central- and South Eastern Europe. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i>Gender and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe</i>
contributes to our understanding of theoretical and empirical approaches to the
study of gender and religion in post-communist societies. In the United States,
we do not have many opportunities learning from women in post-socialist
countries. I hope to learn more about the transformation of women’s lives in
Central and Eastern Europe in the future. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhow9xuUyeb3cGOLN-uoAIRqXPwxoD5YBZ1fijOcBTBbYLwDL3Myoaa4AjhtBqyHiP_9AQNGCAq8rE6_Y24Rul4jJ5ZmHHa51CFh3MttKNiAgSdMQ7Y7x-2G0H8gkVye0-Y6_P-p7vtFfs/s1600/DSCN1023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-42176283614597813052013-06-06T11:38:00.002-04:002023-03-28T23:21:57.753-04:00Asian Theological Summer Institute<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie1Y9-796RWEZjOPayTCjifJ-I7-hTzIMRtzZ4ClD_KOGCeFx-VGhBemenUI5vK9mwUIFKGlb0PjbwBmiklqPpqTu_u6aysXf_gKphtoxO98EbHkm9XprzpiQClyfs3WtTM2PqECiEiuk/s1600/Philly+2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie1Y9-796RWEZjOPayTCjifJ-I7-hTzIMRtzZ4ClD_KOGCeFx-VGhBemenUI5vK9mwUIFKGlb0PjbwBmiklqPpqTu_u6aysXf_gKphtoxO98EbHkm9XprzpiQClyfs3WtTM2PqECiEiuk/s320/Philly+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
“How can one develop a theological voice?” asked one of the
participants at the <a href="https://www.unitedlutheranseminary.edu/academics/institutes/asian-theological-summer-institute">Asian Theological Summer Institute</a>.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
“It is a lifelong process,” I replied.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The Asian Theological Summer Institute (ATSI), funded through
the Luce Foundation, offered a four-day seminar for Asian and Asian American
doctoral students at The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (LTSP)
in the last week of May. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Dr. J. Paul Rajashekar, Luther D. Reed Professor of
Systematic Theology at LTSP, saw the need to offer such a mentoring program
because Asian and Asian American doctoral students often do not have the help
and support of an Asian professor at their schools. The students came to
present their dissertation proposals and work in progress and received feedback
from a group of professors in different theological fields. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Just as in any art, developing your individual and unique
voice in theological scholarship and style requires much learning, practice,
coaching, and responding to feedback. But in many theological schools, Asian
and Asian American doctoral students do not find the coaching they need to
develop their scholarship and the community of discourse to try out new ideas.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Even though a student’s supervisor may be supportive, he
or she may not know the social and cultural context of the student sufficiently
well to give informed feedback. Worse, some professors treat the student as a
“native informant”—the one to educate them about the particular culture or
community.</div>
<br />
One of the recurrent feedback from ATSI participants is
that their work has been taken very seriously at the seminar. They do not need
to explain their culture to people who have little knowledge about Asian and
Asian American culture and history. The discussion can therefore move further
along to explore the theological issues involved in the dissertation and the
different theories and theological traditions to address them. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Developing your theological voice requires a lot of
confidence in yourself. You need to have the courage to speak your mind,
disagree with what has been said, offer a viewpoint that has not been tried,
and/or suggest fresh new ideas. </div>
<br />
Many educational systems in Asia are good at impacting
knowledge, but not so good at encouraging students to challenge established
authorities and think for themselves. Thus when Asian students come to
the US to attend graduate schools, they often find the academic culture
demanding and difficult to adjust to. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj48lvV8WDGD4LSh4SBKeZ4PgeZ-FdH_DHmx1OR0jWOj-IoovdqF4NWtY0eMf1v7eH1MI0yXYpcS9SWv6xzI-j_4FYFFAgBY8wXbWZch2vABgyMI5LC03tKuZOOgZOXqAXV7eqU00mYi1w/s1600/Philly.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj48lvV8WDGD4LSh4SBKeZ4PgeZ-FdH_DHmx1OR0jWOj-IoovdqF4NWtY0eMf1v7eH1MI0yXYpcS9SWv6xzI-j_4FYFFAgBY8wXbWZch2vABgyMI5LC03tKuZOOgZOXqAXV7eqU00mYi1w/s320/Philly.jpg" width="320" /></a>A dissertation needs to make some original contribution to
the field. Where does that originality come from? Would it come from questions
and issues arising from an Asian and Asian American context? Would it come from
seeing a misfit of an established body of theories when applied to a new situation?
Would it come from constructing new knowledge based on qualitative research?
Would it come from developing new models that are culturally specific?</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
These are questions that beginning Asian and Asian American scholars often ask. In <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Open-Minds-Howard-Gardner/dp/0465086292">To Open Minds</a></i>, Howard E. Gardner, an
expert on multiple intelligences, compares Chinese and Western approaches to nurturing creativity, using learning Chinese painting as an example. He says
that in China, one needs to spend years mastering the techniques and imitating great artists before developing one’s style. In sharp contrast, the
American system values too much individuality and personal expression,
sometimes at the expense of basic skills and training. He says that a balance
between the two approaches will be beneficial.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The ATSI, now in its seventh year, has provided the space
for more than 130 budding scholars to listen to themselves and others, hone
their academic skills, and sharpen their theological thinking in a
supportive environment. They have been encouraged to take the beginning steps,
however tentative, to develop a life-long pursuit of scholarship and nurture a
theological voice that is distinctly their own. </div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">I wish I had such a seminar when I began. It has been
a privilege to be able to accompany many of these students and play a small part in
their journeys.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-91612472560759355782013-03-28T12:27:00.000-04:002013-03-28T12:27:09.802-04:00Anglican Women on Church and Mission
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOSbWEdATHCyYO5PdKJcHTzQVRaMZQL21DUgMnYs2dZmQgKPwDj0x_wsV9UXcUvsA4X0xYhFNZCYKrS6xue3FYbBAV7kALtBae1HysUsZIRYj8HjUY2aehDFYTQmaOL-N4LHWM5QYB-Gs/s1600/51Kaw9dYcmL__SY300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOSbWEdATHCyYO5PdKJcHTzQVRaMZQL21DUgMnYs2dZmQgKPwDj0x_wsV9UXcUvsA4X0xYhFNZCYKrS6xue3FYbBAV7kALtBae1HysUsZIRYj8HjUY2aehDFYTQmaOL-N4LHWM5QYB-Gs/s1600/51Kaw9dYcmL__SY300_.jpg" /></a>The Anglican Communion is in
crisis. The battle over homosexuality, with its intense media coverage,
threatens to rip the Church apart. The debates on women bishops in the Church
of England caused anger and frustrations among female clergy and their
supporters. Some conservative Anglican bishops and their followers have formed
a Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, chastising the Church as having gone
astray from true biblical teaching. These controversies epitomize the challenges
facing the Communion and touch on fundamental issues such as the crisis of
Anglican identity, the nature of authority and provincial autonomy, contrasting
views on biblical interpretation, and ecumenical relations with other churches.
The tenor of the debates is also influenced by the shift of Christian
demographics from the global North to the global South. If the contentious
issue of women’s ordination did not break the Anglican Church apart in the
1970s, some are less optimistic that the Communion can weather the present
storm and find ways to remain together.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Yet even as gender and sexuality issues remain at the heart
of these debates, voices of women from the Communion have not been clearly
heard or appreciated. Media coverage and church pronouncements tend to focus on
the opinions of bishops, as if they could represent the range of diversity
within the member churches, or of spokespersons of various Anglican networks
and agencies, who are mostly male and clergy. The voices of lay people and women
are marginalized, even though women make up the majority of many churches. This
groundbreaking volume attempts to fill this gap by inviting female church
leaders, scholars, and theological educators from across the Communion to share
their reflections on the Anglican Church and its mission. An anthology such as
this makes a unique contribution because there are very few substantial works
by women from different parts of the Communion. It is even rarer for the
majority of the book’s authors to have grown up in the global South, bringing
with them the rich textures and multilayered experiences of the Anglican
Church. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The book originated at a conference for Anglican female
theological educators at Canterbury, United Kingdom, in the spring of 2009. The
women gathered became very conscious of the fact that we had few women leading
theological schools in the Anglican Communion. Although there are several books
on Anglican women’s history, mission, and struggles for leadership, they are
mostly limited to a single country and do not cover the Communion as a whole.
Judith A. Berling, Jenny Te Paa, and I decided to coedit this book to broaden
the conversation.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The book is divided into two parts. Part one provides
Anglican historical and theological perspective on the Church. Contributors
include Ellen K. Wondra, Jane Shaw, Wendy Fletcher, Jenny Te Paa, and I. We
discuss the transition from a colonial church to a global Communion, the
problems of authority, the debates on sexuality, women's struggle for ordination, and
women’s leadership development in the Communion. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Part two focuses on Anglican women and God’s mission. Gulner
E. Francis-Dehqani, Cordelia Moyse, Esther M. Mombo, Denise M. Ackermann, Clara
Luz Ajo Lázaro, and Judy Berinai are the contributors. The chapters discuss the
involvement of women in the Church Mission Society in Iran, the work of the
Mothers’ Union, the Church’s involvement in poverty alleviation in Africa, the
Church and the HIV and AIDS pandemic, cultural diversity and women’s
spirituality within the Communion, and women witnessing Christ in a Muslim
context. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
We hope that this book will promote dialogue and scholarship
on women in the Communion. We are very grateful to those faithful Anglican
women who have gone before us, and we hope that women in the upcoming
generation will be given greater responsibilities and leadership opportunities
in the Church.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">*Adapted from <i>Anglican
Women on Church and Mission </i>© 2013 the Church Publishing Inc. All rights
reserved. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362033364469383832.post-85932211317842060772013-03-23T15:47:00.000-04:002013-03-23T16:27:07.730-04:00I Went to the Emergency Room<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ZutfpJcBL0s79qVcNQNF4OOJW93JnbLemCqE_TNclcCe9J_25xWhdP5KTgqQVvU-c3rnVTwRdONELmwqNGBZ3Kf8Tx4bgiCe192RNRm24eM9hcq5sYSY-JIdKfBUra8sET3IkbO1W6Y/s1600/sickness.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ZutfpJcBL0s79qVcNQNF4OOJW93JnbLemCqE_TNclcCe9J_25xWhdP5KTgqQVvU-c3rnVTwRdONELmwqNGBZ3Kf8Tx4bgiCe192RNRm24eM9hcq5sYSY-JIdKfBUra8sET3IkbO1W6Y/s320/sickness.png" width="320" /></a>Last Saturday night I went to an emergency room in Evanston,
Illinois. I had spasms on my right chest. Luckily it was on the right side and
not the left side (where the heart is located). Since I needed to fly back to
Boston the next morning, the nurse I spoke to at my primary care doctor’s
office advised me to go to the ER to make sure I was all right.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I am a relatively healthy person. This was the second time I
have gone to an emergency room. The first time was almost ten years ago when I
had vertigo. I was very fortunate that my colleague Gale Yee attended the
conference in Evanston with me and she kindly accompanied me to the ER.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I didn’t know having chest pain would give me some privileges
at the ER. I didn’t have to wait and was swiftly seen by a nurse assistant, who
checked my vital signs. Then the health care professionals did the ECG, took
chest x-rays, and ordered the blood tests.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I was not very nervous since I did not have sweating,
shortness of breath, dizziness, and other symptoms of a heart attack. But fear
crossed my mind when I gave Gale my spouse’s cell phone number, just in case.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Thank God, my ECG, x-rays, and blood work were normal, except for low potassium. I was
able to board the plane the next day to go home.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
What happened in the next few days was a learning
experience. For first of all, I had to find out what caused the spasms.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I googled chest pain and chest spasm on the right side and
found so much materials. Websites like the Mayo Clinic’s provide very detailed
and useful information on all forms of chest pain. But what I benefit most are
those forums in which patients share their symptoms, treatments, and results.
These completely unknown strangers suddenly seem like friends to me and I am
not so alone.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Pain makes us connect with our body in a special way. Pain
is difficult to describe. People who have not had debilitating muscle spasms
might sympathize with you, but they might not fully comprehend how you feel.
For example, one person in a forum said that finding other people suffer from
similar pain made her feel that she was not insane.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
It was difficult for my doctor to diagnose since I did not
have symptoms associated with heartburn or acid reflux at the time, and the
pain was located under the right collarbone. My doctor prescribed muscle
relaxer, but it upset my stomach so much that I couldn’t sleep. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I saw that a person in one of the forums suggested putting
some salt on the tongue and swallowing it. I didn’t know if it would work but I
had to do something to stop the pain. So in the middle of the night, I went to
the kitchen to try it. I was so tired that I dozed off afterward. It might or
might not have worked.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
On the next day, four little red bumps started to appear on
the side of my body. At first I thought I have scratched my skin and didn’t pay
attention. Then the rash spread to the back and the breast. And as if this wasn’t
bad enough, symptoms of acid reflux began to develop. When I went back to see
my doctor, she said I had shingles. Oh My God!</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I was given medicines to treat the shingles and acid reflux,
but I still needed to manage the pain. This was where Chinese medicine came in.
My acupuncturist has been trained in Western medicine and she understood that
shingles occurs when the virus that causes chickenpox gets activated. But in
Chinese traditional medicine, shingles is caused by heat in the liver and
gallbladder. This happens when one is stressed, too tired, and the body loses
its balance. Although I do not understand why it has to do with the liver and
gallbladder, Chinese medical system always reminds me that the body is a
wholistic system, and overall balance is important.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
I thought some Tai Chi movement would help. I consulted <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNWPk6tYoUM">Dr. Paul Lam’s Tai Chi exercises</a> for beginners and for arthritis on Youtube. I have
had Tai Chi lessons before and found his exercises easy for the joints and for
a body in pain. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Pain in the body often brings one to a threshold, because
one starts to ask many questions about the body and about life. I have always
believed that sickness is the body sending a message and I have to learn to
listen. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
It is surprising that shingles comes during my sabbatical,
when I should have more time to relax and rest. But when I look at my
sabbatical proposal, I recognize that I have intended to do even more than when
I am teaching, including books and projects, planning a course that involves
international participants, speaking engagements, and international travels. A
person half my age might have found this demanding. I need to rethink the pace
of life and to set priorities and to say no to more things.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Illness has its social dimension and healing comes when one
is supported by family and friends. I am very fortunate to have a strong social
network. My spouse volunteered to postpone his travel if needed to take care of
me; my daughter who lives in Manhattan asked if I needed her to come home.
Colleagues and friends who heard about my illness sent their prayers and
healing energy. Several of them who have experienced chest pains and muscle
spasms told me how they have dealt with them. I am very grateful to them for
their loving care. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Just as I am having these pains in my body, Sheryl Sandberg,
the chief operating officer of Facebook has started a national conversation on
women, work, and leadership through her book <i>Lean In</i>. She encourages
women to “sit at the table,” take greater responsibilities, and pursue their
goals. She notes that sometimes women are the ones who sabotage ourselves.
There is truth to what Sandberg has said because women must overcome both
internal and external barriers to be able to succeed.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
But I appreciate the wisdom of Arianna Huffington who says
that in order to lean in, women must first <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2013/03/11/arianna-huffington-sheryl-sandberg-to-lean-in-first-lean-back/">lean back</a>. By leaning back, she
means taking care of our well-being, having enough sleep, and rejecting the
culture of “time macho.” Huffington, 18 years older than Sandberg, learned this
in a hard way. In 2007, while spending long hours at the Huffington Post, she
had to cart her youngest daughter around the country for college visits. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/03/21/arianna-huffington-on-lean-in-lean-back-and-the-second-womens-movement/">She fainted</a> because of exhaustion and hit her head on her desk and broke her
cheekbone. </div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 4.5pt;">Huffington
wrote, “The world needs women to redefine success beyond money and power. We
need a third metric, based on our well-being, our health, our ability to unplug
and recharge and renew ourselves, and to find joy in both our job and the rest
of our life.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 4.5pt;">Both
Sandberg and Huffington are millionaires who have a team of people to help them
take care of family, children, scheduling, and other personal needs. I wonder how
the corporate structures and the workplace need to change so that ordinary women,
and not just wealthy and successful women, can lean in and lean back at the
same time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 4.5pt;">Before
these changes happen, we have to listen to the messages of the body and develop
a way to eat a healthy diet, exercise, and reduce stress. For a workaholic like
me, this is not easy, because I actually enjoy doing the work I do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em>This blog is not meant to give medical advice or intended to
replace the advice of a doctor. </em></div>
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