Rant of the Exiles

Wesley Yang pretty well describes my Atlanta experience in this article . I mostly love the way he writes (some sentences were a little long for me) but I'm completely in awe of the courage it took to write what he did and the insight he brought to bear on it from so many angles. Yang gives voice to frustrations and desires that I'm often afraid to express publicly. Its supposed to be a riff on culture and ethnicity but its really a piece on masculinity. Yang sees (for good reason) the successful white man as the pinnacle of manhood. A true man is the white alpha male. When I read between the lines, I see a cry for the significance every man wants. And that's exactly what I felt furthest from when living in Georgia as a teenager. However, I would take note that 1) I'm not in 8th grade anymore 2) I don't live in North Fulton County, Georgia in 1989. So there is a sense that this experience quite far removed from me and yet the isolation, racism, and bullyin...

Well, it actually does not suck. Something that doesn't exist cannot suck. Its kind of like saying Shrek 7 sucks. And yet it probably would suck if it had been made. In any case, the real question is why there isn't any Asian American theology. If you're a good Evangelical, Asian or otherwise, you're reading this thinking "Why would we need an Asian American Theology? What is the point? What could that possibly offer to Western Christianity?" And the reasons why we don't have a theology and why we need one are exactly what Amos Yong sets out to explain in this talk . Major props and big thanks to Tim Tseng and Grace Hsiao of ISAAC for highlighting this and the great discussion about this topic over the past year. The talk is academically oriented. Big words and long sentences. Its only 21 minutes though - much shorter than the gospel coalition messages so its got that going for it. Here's what got me thinking: Asian Americans are long way...

I was talking to a friend who wants to lose weight. He said eating is one of the few escapes that provide guaranteed satisfaction. I mention this because we had a birthday party for Micah today. I was tired and bothered. I haven't slept well because of allergies. And I felt like crap because I hadn't done much to help out with party and Judy was frustrated with me. To cap it all off, I was hungry. So while the kids were outside, I nuked some popcorn and Elliot and I sat down and self-medicated with food. The kids came in and I proceeded to mow down veggie straws, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries. Eating just felt good. There was definitely kind of a rush and I felt better. I did feel a little sick afterwards but it wasn't that bad. In any case, eating is not in my personal top 5 list of addictive behaviors so its a little easier to have some perspective. But I realized something - if food is a source of guaranteed satisfaction, if its readily available...

I know as an evangelical Christian and American, I am supposed to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden but I feel conflicted over it. I see some Californians interviewed about his killing and they say things like, "Well, I don't approve of killing but this is a good thing". That's kind of like of saying I'm a vegetarian but I love me some dead cow when the occasion warrants it. I think my problem is I'm not sure if killing is ever a good thing. Part of me definitely admires killing in the manly sort of way. For my ten-year old birthday party, we watched my favorite movie, "Delta Force" with Chuck Norris. I love that scene where his motorcycle launches into the air and he lands it in the cargo hold of a military transport plane as it is taking off. Completely ludicrous and awesome. Chuck has two facial expressions in the movie - stoic and stoicer. My tension with killing though is really about public perception. I don't want to be labele...