On the heels of the rapidly subsiding waves of controversy caused by the “SPLASH” of the Deadly Vipers controversy (read more: here, here, here, and here), I find myself  puzzling anew over the whole issue of how Asian-American identity is constructed, what is the relationship between ethnic identity and faith, how and whether to speak up and at what cost, and even how to bring others along on the journey without only being angry.

It strikes me that one of the basic underlying struggles is rooted in the question of what it means to be an authentically ethnic and Christian person when one either is or is immediately descended from people who intentionally forsook their ethno-cultural matrix in order to make a home in North America.  Or in other words, maybe it isn’t just the Francis Chan’s of the world who are sell outs.  Of course no one is actually calling the man a sell-out, it’s just making a point and raising a question about how much one’s ethnicity ought to be in play in an intentional kind of way, especially as a Christian.

But there is a larger and more problematically complex issue at stake here.  The racial history of the United States has created an oddly distorted racialized system that has been a double-edged sword for Asian Americans.  East Asian immigrants particularly enjoy quite remarkable economic and educational success in the United States and Canada.  And the reality of immigration is such that those who chose to leave their home countries came generally (though not always) with quite significant economic, educational, or entrepreneurial drive that made their ability to climb the ladder of economic opportunity much more likely than those left behind in their native lands .

This has been true of most immigrant groups who generally outpace natives in economic achievement after the first generation, however the racialized nature of American society has meant that such economic advancement has rebounded to create a sort of idealized image of Asian Americans that is the foundation stone of the “model minority” myth; a myth alternately decried and embraced by Asian Americans since it provides needed distance from association with non-model minority — Black Americans.  So the image of the hard-working, compliant, family focused and theologically orthodox Asian American who is educated at the finest evangelical seminaries is set against the decidedly lazy, angry, irresponsible and theologically liberal Black who is feared rather than loved. (not to mention Latinos and Hispanics!!) This of course ignores intentionally the many many lazy, non-hard working, irresponsible, dysfunctional Asians both here and abroad.  It is quite easy to have  a picture of relative success when you leave all the unsuccessful relatives back at home.

Of course this is the unintended consequence of the wholesale purchase of the American dream that has been sanctified via the dual cultures of Asian educational idolatry and American materialist pursuit.  A consequence that is further illustrated by the uncertain sound of the trumpet blast of justice against biases and stereotypes such as those employed during the Deadly Vipers controversy.  It is a bit challenging to sound the alarm against the system abusing, misrepresenting, and dishonoring Asian culture when ones own success and acceptance within America has been predicated upon the abandonment of that same culture or at least those parts of culture which are inconvenient and represent impediments to achieving the American dream.  It is a bit hypocritical to condemn the exploitation of ones culture by others when you unwilling to pay the price of defending it.  Certainly it is no virtue to continue to enjoy the privileges associated with being the “model minority” while wanting to avoid the quite high costs of being like that problematic other minority group that’s always complaining about something, i.e. Black people.

I say it with love and respect and those who know me can attest to my bonafides in terms of deep and abiding compassion (in the original sense of “suffering with”) Asian Americans, that AA have long enjoyed the fruits of the labors of others, notably Blacks and to a lesser extent Latinos, in plowing up the very hard ground of racism and racialization in the society.  We have often been (and I speak here of Black Americans) on the “point” of major issues, speaking out, expressing anger, demanding redress and in so doing have taken many hits while others have slipped in on the backs of our misfortune and in the bloody footsteps of our sacrifice.  It has been worth it.   Deadly Vipers would never have been done with an African theme; the writers wouldn’t have written it thus and Zondervan would never have dared to publish it.  However it has come at a cost, a high one.  Are you willing to pay it?

A sell-out is one who bargains away his own identity or people in exchange for acceptance and benefits afforded by those in power.  Asian Americans cannot continue sell out their cultural inheritance and then expect others to honor it.  They (I started to write “we”) cannot ask others to pay the full cost of understanding and appreciating the nuances of Asian culture while failing to be educated and deeply appreciating what it is all about.  They cannot continue embracing unthinkingly the theological and culture paradigms of White American evangelicalism which took root in a very different cultural soil while demanding a theology that influences and is influenced by the nuances of Asian American identity and understanding.  Asian Americans cannot decry the maladaptive use of their cultural symbols, language, and ideas by others while maintaining a steadfast refusal in their churches to demonstrate the redemptive reuse and re-adaptation of those same symbols, language and ideas to the glory of God.   It cannot be enough to say, “we are not your stereotypes” and remain unwilling to engage in the creative process of culture making, of dethroning Euro-American cultural idols of how church is to be done, and of creating an authentic Asian-American Christianity that is more than a bad system poorly imitated.

Heather Ellis racially motivated over-prosecution in Dixie

http://www.theheatherelliscase.com/

Another year in America, and another slew of racially motivated, manipulated and biased application of the laws.Why am I not surprised that a small southern town in the South could over prosecute a crime that generally only garners a slap on the wrist, and a stern talking to.

Our ugly American tradition of prosecuting black people at a level that is akin to def-con 4, for minor offenses that statistically only net a very minor and negligible fine, has got to either stop, or be exposed to the world as a crime against humanity.

If it is proven to be the case in any prosecution, especially this one, then we as people should demand that it is stopped now.

If not now…when.

This latest case of unfair prosecution would be laughable if it were not actually happening.

The AP is reporting that nearly three years after Heather Ellis switched checkout lines at a southeast Missouri store and touched off what she calls a racially charged dispute with white customers and authorities, the young black schoolteacher faces a trial that could send her to prison for 15 years.

15 years for cutting in line is as ridiculous as it is over-reaching.This is what happens to black women and men in the south as a tradition.If you go there, all the southern states, state flags are just a slightly altered versions of the racist Confederate flag, because they still admire and aspire to be just like their Civil war ancestors.

The KKK has joined forces with the local police department in the small southern country town,Kennett,Missouri-which is about a two-hour drive from Memphis,Tennessee, by inserting racism  in to the story when Ellis was handed KKK cards from a Kennett police officer warning her about her actions.

 The cards from the kkkowardly kkkops stated, “You’ve just been paid a social visit by the Ku Klux Klan; the next visit will not be social.” The officer claims that he only showed the family the cards to make them aware of the situation.

Since that time, and after a dramatic plea for support, people have come to help Heather.

My question is…what is the situation that they are alluding too?…and what are the police doing promoting the Ku Klux Klan? This is a rhetorical question, as I know the answer, which is that southern cops, like a lot of police officers here in America, prefer to kill, destroy and abuse black people, since they no longer have the right to do so, ever since President Lincoln beat their weak Confederation of rebel states, and freed the slaves.

In the 60’s the government stepped in and ended the institutionalized segregation, that was much harsher than Apartheid, but similar, known as the Jim Crow laws, which was in fact, a de facto system of slavery and segregation that caused a lot of our black American citizens to be viciously murdered by mobs of white Klan members and their supporters down south, without the fear of legal retaliation, or prosecution of any kind.

The Jim Crow laws were enforced by the police departments, and the local fathers, in these small country towns, up until the time of John F. Kennedywrote the Civil Rights Bills, and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who grew up in a small southern town in Texas, and was well versed on the murderous contempt that the local police always hold for black perpetrators who were always falsely accused of a crime they did not commit.

We all must remember that only a mere 35 years ago, a black man could be legally hanged from a tree until he/she was dead, for simply looking a white man or woman in the eyes. The law was called malicious eyeballing, and was the main reason why the white politicians from the southern states wanted to maintain states rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws

Simply put, they did not want the federal government preventing them from killing and unfairly incarcerating our people with unreasonable jail sentences for minor offenses like what they are attempting to do in this case with Heather.

The Academy Award winning movie ”Sounder” was about such a case of over prosecution.

It follows the lives of an impoverished southern black family that made a living by sharecropping, which was just an extension of slavery,but was patterned after indentured servitude in the Jim Crow south.

The premise of the story shows what happens to a black family down south in Louisiana,when the father is imprisoned for stealing pig meat and chicken out of hunger and desperation, the boy still hungers for an education which was illegal to get if you happened to be black.

Any black man who let it be found out that he/she could read and write, were summarily executed by a white mob of killers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounder

It is still their main goal, but they are willing to infiltrate the police departments and the judicial system down south, as they have done there for centuries.

The facts in the case are in dispute.Prosecutors say Heather cut in line, and then when called out for it, she caused a major disturbance at the store.The police say that words were exchanged between Heather and the customer she allegedly cut in front of, and that groceries were pushed to the side.

No fighting occurred as reported, and Heather paid and proceeded to leave. In Los Angeles a similar exchange that did have a physical element to it led to the death of Latasha Harlins, before the officers arrived, so Ellis was wise to leave the store at this point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latasha_Harlins

When the police showed up, they took only the words of the white patron and store employee, and started to question and detain Heather.

She was upset at this time, and answered the cops with a retort that they did not like, but they have not reported that she verbalized a terrorist threat at all. What I do know of cops, is that they like to put black people back in our places, as we all witnessed via the Rodney King beating video.

Basically, they did not like what she said or did, and given that their grandfathers would have just strung her up to a tree, they could not let it go with a simple disturbing the peace ticket.

Nathaniel Ellis, Heather’s father, says that’s not true, and that his daughter was the one called racial slurs by a store clerk and officers, which seems more believable than a black women down south, and from the south, would do, rather than risk getting murdered by a racist cop.

It is a good story, since most people down south that are not black, are predisposed to believe the most racist and vile stereotypes of our people that they have created without any basis in the truth.

“They just indict her and launch an all-out attack to destroy her character and assassinate her future” says Ellis. “This is her choice, not to admit fault in an area where she hasn’t done anything and so we’re standing by her.

Ellis maintains she was merely joining her cousin, whose checkout line was moving more quickly. She claimed in a written complaint to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that she was then pushed by a white customer, hassled by store employees, called racial slurs and physically mistreated by Kennett police officers.

Police say in court documents that Ellis refused requests to calm down and leave the property, allegedly kicking one’s shin and splitting another’s lip. Her trial on charges of assaulting police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace began today, Wednesday in Dunklin County Circuit Court.

Hundreds of protestors showed up and held a rally at the courthouse that was answered by a Klan rally.

“There’s nothing that I could imagine that could’ve happened in the walls of that Wal-Mart that justifies this young woman, this Pastor’s daughter with no criminal record and on her way to medical school, going to prison for 15 minutes, let alone 15 years” says Dr. Boyce Watkins, a Professor at Syracuse University in the North.

Ellis’ family says they have been threatened by the Ku Klux Klan since speaking publicly about Heather’s case. They’ve asked the U.S. Department of Justice to get involved.

Again, I am not surprised that a black woman down south is being subjected to this malicious prosecution, but is a good example of the level of hatred that many of our white citizens and leaders have for African-Americans.

In this case, the KKK along with the judicial system in that small Missouri town are once again using the criminal justice system as a way to rid themselves of what they perceive to be the continuing problem brought on by the freeing of the black slave system that they financially benefitted from for so many years.

Do not let them get away with it, and step up to free Heather and protect our beautiful African-American queens, or we should be ashamed to call ourselves men. To help her out,click the link… http://www.theheatherelliscase.com/

To read more on this case , click on the links below…

http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/mostpopular/story/Memphians-Rally-for-Woman-Facing-Prison-Time-for-C/1E01qxzIJEK6NMaTMvqM1A.cspx

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/woman-cut-line-walmart-prison/story?id=9107365

Twin White supremacist from Illinois mailed a bomb to an Arizona official responsible for recruiting and hiring minorities in the town of Scottsdale,Arizona, according to federal prosecutor.

In indictment unsealed in July, Dennis and Daniel Mahon were charged with conspiring to blow up buildings and property in an attempt to ”promote racial discord” on behalf of the White Aryan Resistance known as WAR.

WAR is a white supremacist organization founded by Tom Metzger more than a quarter century ago. I guess I can not join…

Metzger is well-known in Southern California as having been a leading member of the KKK, along with his son. He used to reside in Fallbrook,California,where he and his kind were welcomed into the community with open arms.

This quote is from Wikipedia…. During the 1970s he joined the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which was led by David Duke, eventually becoming the Grand Dragon for the State of California. In summer 1979, he organized a patrol to capture illegal Mexican immigrants south of Fallbrook, California. Metzger’s Klan organization also had a security force which was involved in confrontations with anti-Klan protesters….

Metzger hosts a weekly radio talk show called Insurgent Radio, on the Internet-based Turner Radio Network (not affiliated with the Turner Broadcasting System).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Metzger

During the investigation  federal agents also raided the Indiana home of the longtime white separatist Tom Metzger, removing computers and other items, but not arresting him.

On Feb.26,2004, the package exploded in the hands of Don Logan at the Human Resources Complex in Scottsdale.In addition to injuring Logan’s hand and arm,a secretary was wounded.

When police arrived at the home of the suspects ,they found assault weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and White supremacist material, authorities said.

MSNBC reports that…the indictment says the brothers conspired to build and deliver the bomb to the diversity office, taught others how to build a package containing a pipe bomb, and sent training materials on the production and use of explosives, techniques to avoid detection by law enforcement, and methods to commit domestic terrorism.

The indictment also says Dennis Mahon participated in the construction of the bomb, disguising it in a cardboard box that was delivered to the diversity office and exploded in Logan’s hands.

Here is a link to the full indictment received on July 16,2009…

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/indictment.pdf

This is  the mission statement from the Scottsdale,Arizona office of diversity….Diversity and Dialogue develops and sponsors trainings, services, programs, and events that create work and community environments where differences are valued, respected, and embraced.  This is achieved through a diversity initiative that addresses education, employee relationships, recruitment, hiring, procurement, community outreach, and deliberative dialogue.

The Office of Diversity & Dialogue serves as a central point of contact for citizens and employees to address diversity matters. The objective is to ensure that there is objectivity in reviewing and evaluating these concerns.

http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/HR/diversity.asp

The KKK, skinheads,neo Nazis and Neocon Republicans are disgusted by diversity and freedom for all the races,and they are not interested in intellectual dialogue about it.The opposite is true for them.

Their goal is to create hatred between the races,and they prey on the weak-minded fools that follow them and carry out the actions that their leaders only speak about. Their ignorance is blind,and their actions are even more shortsighted.

That is how they abuse their freedom of speech, but are immune to any form of prosecution unless law enforcement can directly connect them to providing some sort of aid or assistance in their terrorist acts.

Their White Power movement is our number one threat domestically here in the United States.

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991,Dennis  Mahon organized a small rally in Tulsa in support of our enemy Saddam Hussein.

“Terrorism works,” he added.

 “We did a lot of terrorism in Tulsa in the 1980s. We put heads in the road, and people paid attention. You have to give it to the Iraqis, they’re putting us to shame right now. I mean, I hate those cock-sucking towel heads, but they’re showing us how it’s done.”

Dennis Mahon also talked about destroying the nation’s capital. “You nuke D.C., you’re going to wipe out most of the politicians, plus a couple million crack head niggers,” he said.

The quotes above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these two social miscreants. They hate just to hate.

They obviously hate themselves.

For more details of the bigot boys, click on the source here…

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2009/06/26/feds-indict-white-supremacists-in-arizona-bombing/#more-3221

Please report all suspicions you may have if you suspect someone of plotting domestic terrorism.Call your local authorities, and get them off of the street.This past weeks tragedy at Fort Hood and the rampage in Florida illustrates to our citizens that some of the worst among us, will turn their weapons on US, in an attempt to destroy our union here in the states, and we should not tolerate such actions, or plans for such actions, for not even a moment.

Beware of anyone, especially those on fake news channels or talk radio programs that step over the boundaries of free speech, into sedition followed by a treasonist acts. 

 These people and announcers are all involved in a conspiracy to topple the great United States of America, and their goal is to destroy us from within. If it discovered that the immigrant Rupert Murdoch is at the head of the sponsorship of any form of domestic terrorism, then I call for his assets to be frozen, and for him to be deported, if not detained in Guantanamo Bay as an active terrorist.

If they close that facility, then just deport him, after he gives up the list of names of the rest of his cohorts involved in the conspiracy against American freedom.

These twin terrorist are just at the tip of the iceberg.

Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck know who their audience is, and two of their followers,the Mahon twins, have been caught in this sweep by the protectors of our freedom. I suggest that all involved in the conspiracy need to be incarcerated along with the twin terrorist.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31555311

wOw what a crazy night we had…

these guys were unstoppable…

one Spanish, one Italian, two Chinese…

and YING & NATASHA…

mmm…

we just went on and on. and the fact that we come in a package, finest Chinese Babe with the finest Indian Chick is just toooooo much for someone of the guys. They expect two Chinese and here they get the entire flavour of the Exotic & Erotic East… we could make out the moment they saw us and we also decided to have a night to remember… we are just back to freshen up… always when u are working like this you need sometime on ur own and especially when u travel only in fancy car and fuck rich fucks from across the globe… we need sometime on our own, we are naked most of the time to everyone and we cunt think but when we cum back home and both of us sit together and discuss the hapening and talk and plan our next steps it always helps us…

We LOVE each other..

i won’t trade her for anything on the planet…

Peace & Lust…

more about te wild night tomorrow!!!

I just got back from Cincinnati, Ohio on Sunday. I attended my first Christan Community Development Association Conference there and had a great time.

I was really privileged to be a part of a workshop on my first outing thanks to a friend, Ruth Arnold, who works at 2nd Mile Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida. She invited me and some other folks to discuss the topic: “Building Synergy in Cross-Cultural Relationships”. Here’s a quick list of the panel: Ruth Arnold
Alvin Sanders
David Park
Juanita Irizarry
Scott Lundeen
Mandia Gordon

Here’s the description of the workshop:

An accurate reflection of God’s Kingdom includes people living, worshipping and working together in synergistic relationships. That synergy is often broken because of misunderstandings, ignorance and a lack of communication. This workshop promotes synergy through understanding and dialoguing about tough subjects related to race and economics.

Any conversation on race is difficult to have, and is particularly hard if you’re doing it under the pressure of an audience. It’s also hard if you don’t know your fellow panelists either. But we did the best we could and engaged the audience as much as is possible in the 70 minute timeframe. So it’s not a perfect recording, but have a listen if you’d like.

While our old continent is transforming itself into ” fortress Europe”, excluding intercontinental migrations, closing borders and featuring racist policies in many of our countries, a new initiative with an extremely high musical and social potential is born:
Célia Mara & La Banda di Piazza Caricamento.
Fresh global bastardsound. It’s fun. It’s easy. It’s today’s urban Europe.
Made between Vienna and Genoa. Viva la globalisaXion cultural!

This is music for peace and social justice – the voices and sounds of migration, the musical and energetical melting of a globalized world. No borders to cultural expression!
It is a big multi-ethnic band full of energy, great grooves and dance performances… with powerful lead singer & guitar player – Diaspora-Brazilian – Célia Mara.
Célia Mara makes music with a big smile. Singing about new, interesting times.
She is a 21st. century singer – songwriter and guitar player, a real Brazilian groove lady, a jazz singer full of emotion, a screaming rock star, a sensual seduction, simply – a firework on stage. The international press calls her the Brazilian Manu Chao, compares her energy to Carlinhos Brown, her voice to Vanessa da Mata and her musical concept goes along with Tom Zé… She is considered one of Europe’s most impressive Brazilian artists, her “bastardsound” conquered the World Music Charts all over the continent, she performed at huge and prestigious festivals in Eastern and Western Europe and was awarded various times.
La Banda di Piazza Caricamento, directed by Davide Ferrari, is a collective of young artists in migration – bringing their “world”-backgrounds in the urban life of a new Europe. It is the babel of Genoa – young people immigrated from Brazil, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Morocco, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Sudan – brought together in 2007… different percussion and voices are dominating, DJ-sounds are integrating traditional sounds. The musicians mix, in a bursting and pressing sound, the rhythms of Cuban congas, African & Arab percussions of djembe and darabouka, the magical riffs of kora, street rap, Indian dance, lyric melodies from eastern Europe, India and Italy …
They are performing strong songs in many different languages, many of them written by Célia Mara: Brazil going funk, Samba mixed with Cumbia and Rap, Electric-Tango, Punk and NuBossa… The musical show is integrated with elements of urban and traditional dance, it is pure joy to watch these young, dynamic artists in their continuous improvisations…

But that’s not all: the projects stands symbolically for a new Europe, for cultural diversity in it’s best expression: there is no question of integration – everybody brings in his or her cultural backgrounds and information’s, creating something new, powerful and reflecting our actual, urban culture.
Considering the fact that today’s European cities are in a continuous process of transformation, stating that culture is flexible, always adapting itself to what it happening around, the anthropologists and cultural manager Davide Ferrari and Silvia Jura Santangelo decided to join forces in music management combined with anti-racist politics. They are offering this great musical project with an amazing live-show – fitting into any type of festival – completed by creative and social workshops & conferences in the fields of migrations and cultural diversity.
Davide Ferrari, since 25 years director of the “Festival del Mediterraneo” and Echo-Art in Genoa, started in 2007 the multi-ethnical project “La banda di piazza caricamento” – an Italian concept of joining musicians of different cultures and nations to big local orchestras. Davide, who is, besides being a musical director, a music therapist and a visionary, formed this big band of young artists with at least 10 different nationalities, respecting gender balance as well! Their first album “babelsound” was awarded with the “prêmio amnesty international”.
Silvia Jura Santangelo, president of the IG World Music Austria, director of globalista, the Vienna based label, Célia Mara management and NGO, is the other conceptionist of the project. Silvia is working a lot on questions of gender and race, running different projects in social and cultural fields. Actually, she is building up, together with Célia Mara, a socio-cultural center in Salvador Bahia. To combine the work of Davide and her’s is a way to bring forward new, interesting perspectives in a global European cultural work.

More infos: Silvia Jura Santangelo & Davide Ferrari / Festival del mediterraneo

The current topic on the table is maintaining cultures and languages and the like … and you know who is tabling that topic? Anglo-Australian academics … and I’d really like to know what it is they think they know about coming to a new culture and a new country … Seriously.

 You can’t tell what my background is culturally by looking at me … and it really doesn’t matter at all … I come from a multi-cultural multi-continental background. I grew up in the Western world and many cultures were part of that world.

 So … my class is multi-ethnic and comes from so many different backgrounds and experiences and who are YOU to tell me how to respect them? I don’t look at them and think Korean Kid or Chinese/Australian Kid or Irish Kid or Aboriginal Kid or Indian Kid or Spanish Kid or Tongan Kid or Chinese Kid or Philippino Kid or Burmese Kid … Seriously. I DO NOT look at them and see their ethnic or genetic backgrounds. I see them as … She-Who-Loves-Rainbows and I see He-Who-Draws-Like-a-Genius and He-Who-Loves-Nature and She-Who-Dances-Like-An-Angel and He-Who-Builds-With-Skill-And-Passion … I see them as completely unique and amazing CHILDREN who are full of such potential and creativity and skill and brilliance and light and love and life.

 I don’t see Made in India or Made in Africa or Made in Australia and you shouldn’t either. You make these HUGE deals of culture and background and you don’t see the child, just the context.  That is such a big mistake. I think it shows your ignorance.

You don’t ignore their backgrounds of course … you reflect it, you discuss it, you show the beauty that is part of our world as a whole … you find common ground and you find beauty in difference and you weave it all into a beautiful and unique tapestry.

If you work in a seemingly “colourless” context ~ you bring the world to the environment … You bring the African prints and the Thai prints and the stories from around the world and the foods from all over and you create dialogues about the World that we are all part of. I think the worst kind of learning environment has teddy bears on the wall and primary coloured home corner tea sets and blocks and plastic everywhere. How boring. I alternatively dislike the other extreme where people have natural everything everywhere and full ban on plastic … I think that there needs to be a creative mix of the real world. I think replicating the Scandinavian or the Reggio Emilia centres doesn’t show any contextual creativity on “our” part here in Australia. I think following the “trends” without creating your own personal style is just being thoughtless and lacks creativity.

 I think that’s all for now … I’m going to watch my movie now … “Buffalo Soldiers” …

Ciao for Now.

Life produces tragic scenarios which outstrip soap opera sagas. Here is one guaranteed to surpass TV scripts. If not so well documented, you would probably dismiss it as improbable, or too much to believe. It happened in the great U.S. of A, and to a pastor as well.

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY MATTHEW NAMEE  - see comment and path to his original post below..

Fr. Vladimir Alexandrov was a priest in the Russian Mission in the late 19th and early 20th century. He began his career in 1896, as the choir director of the multiethnic St. Spiridon Church in Seattle, Washington. After his ordination in 1898 (or ‘99), he remained in Seattle as the pastor of the church. It was there, in 1904, that tragedy struck. From the San J From ose Evening News (January 28, 1904):

Rev. Vladimir V. Alexandrof, pastor of the Greco-Russian Orthodox church gave his five year old son Nicholas a teaspoonful of strychnine last evening. Three physicians were immediately summoned, but before they could do anything the child died in convulsions. Both Rev. and Mrs. Alexandrof are prostrated over the terrible mistake.

Alexandrof thought he was administering penopeptine in accordance with the physician’s instructions, but picked up the bottle containing strychnine instead. The medicines were in bottles of [the] same size. The Alexandrofs had onlytwo children, and it is a little girl which is left to them. Rev. Sebastian Dabovich of San Francisco has been telegraphed for and will arrive in time to conduct the funeral services next Saturday.

This has to be one of the saddest stories in early American Orthodox history, and it is also illustrative of the pharmaceutical industry at the turn of the century. The Alexandrovs no doubt had strychnine in the house to kill rodents, but it was in the same generic bottle as the actual medicine, and apparently kept in the same place. (Incidentally, I looked up penopeptine, but found no results. Anyone know what it would be used to treat?)

Normally, if a priest takes a life — even by accident — he can’t continue serving at the altar. St. Tikhon, who was the Russian bishop at the time of the tragedy, must have decided to exercise economia in this case. Fr. Alexandrov was a young priest with a family, and he was obviously suffering immensely. Losing his priesthood would have only made things worse.

I haven’t been able to track Alexandrov’s whole career, but he appears to have been transferred to the parish in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. After that he served in, among other places, Ansonia, Connecticut; Chicago (as successor to St. John Kochurov); and San Francisco.

But Fr. Alexandrov’s troubles were far from over. His life reads like a Shakespearean tragedy. In 1917, he was rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco. Upon returning from a trip to Russia, Alexandrov found thathis wife had disappeared and $19,000 was missing from his bank account.The culprit in both cases was Fr. Vasily Dvornikoff, Fr. Alexandrov’s assistant priest.Dvornikoff and Mrs. Alexandrov were lovers, and had run off to Buenos Aires, Argentina with all of the Alexandrovs’ money .Fr. Alexandrov sent a public letter to the newspapers:

October 7, 1917.

Mrs. Rose V. Alexandrof, wherever she may be.

Dearest Wife: October first I returned from Russia finding you missing. I know from your letters your desire to join me in Russia. No matter what may have happened to you, please know my absolute faith in your goodness, truthfulness and love for me and children and pay no attention whatsoever to the slandering false stories.

Nobody believed them, as your noble and exemplary record of wifehood and motherhood for twenty years with me, known by many, stands well in your favor, and if you fell victim of prearranged criminal plot of robbery of those whom you and I were helping in their needs and who having robbed you, still, are trying to defame you, please do not for a moment hesitate to communicate with proper authorities and me, as I care so much more for you when you are suffering.

Trust in God’s mercy and help and in my everlasting devotion to you and that soon our hears’ wounds will heal and we will become still happier. My trip to Russia was especially successful. I received special honors for my services to my fatherland in connection with this God-blessed country and have full hope that we shall enjoy life with our dear children better than ever before. My address is 834 Cabrillo street, telephone Pacific 8381, San Francisco, Cal.

REV. ARCHPRIEST VLADIMIR ALEXANDROF.

Dvornikoff was indicted by a grand jury on the charge of grand larceny, and he was arrested upon his arrival in Buenos Aires. Mrs. Alexandrov was with him. (Documents and articles related to the case can be found here.)

So Fr. Alexandrov had lost both his son and his wife, and both in the worst ways possible. I’m not sure exactly what happened to him in the years immediately after 1917, though I suspect he returned to Russia. In 1923, he was made a bishop of the Bolshevik-backed Living Church. He returned to America, and to his old parish, St. Spiridon in Seattle. He was obviously a damaged man, and he became a thorn in the side of the Orthodox community.

In 1932, “Bishop” Alexandrov filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court, trying to take control of the St. Spiridon church property. Alexandrov won, but the St. Spiridon parishioners stripped the church of everything — icons, holy vessels, etc. Alexandrov was left with an empty church, and essentially no congregation. (For more information, see click here and go to page 6.)

Of course, the Living Church itself wasn’t to last much longer, and in July of 1933, Alexandrov was received into the Roman Catholic Church, which recognized him as a bishop. Here is the New York Times report from July 28, 1933:

SEATTLE, July 28 (AP). — The Most Rev. Vladimir Alexandrof, Seattle Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, has been made an Archbishop-elect of the Catholic Church.

The reception of the Russian Archbishop into the Catholic Church, with Papal recognition of his rank, was disclosed by The Catholic Northwest Progress and the Right Rev. Mgr. J.G. Stafford, pastor of St. James Cathedral.

Church leaders here said that his request for recognition and the acceptance is the first among fourteen other Russian orthodox priests in America.

Papal recognition of his rank was involved, editors of The Catholic Northwest Progress said. He spent several months at the Franciscan Graymoor Monastery at Garrison, N.Y., for a period of meditation and prayer before he made his profession of the Roman Catholic faith.

The profession was made to the Most. Rev. Peter Bucys, who was delegated by the Holy See to receive it, on June 4. As Archbishop-elect he is now at the head of the Catholic Russian Mission of North America.

The Most. Rev. Alexandrof was married — the Russian clergy is allowed marriage — and he was received into the Catholic clergy under the vows of celibacy, with which many other men, once married, have become priests. He has been separated from his wife for several years.

I’m not sure what happened to Alexandrov after that, but whatever the case, it’s a sad end to a tragic story. One cannot help but think that all of Alexandrov’s troubles began on that awful day in 1904, when he accidentally killed his son.

May God have mercy on his soul.

The tragic story of Fr. Vladimir Alexandrov is a post from OrthodoxHistory.org. All rights reserved.

“Hey, you’re black, right?!”

No matter whether it’s Minneapolis or Chi-town, when I walk in the neighborhood, brothers’ll greet me with a nod or something – a signal that says, “Yeah, you’re one of us.”

After a few years of accepting that social reflex with bemused misgiving, I find myself asking “why?” Why accept that? It isn’t bad.

Still other people from other countries, or who are older and better-travelled, no matter their color or features, ask if I’m from the Middle East or from somewhere like Morocco, or India. They don’t assume anything. They make me smile even grin and then chuckle. They are cosmopolitan. They understand life outside of the United States’ typical prism of color obsession.

At the heart of this is that I do not look Black. What is it about these disparate and myopic worldviews? Of course, that begs another question that is simple and opaque at once: what does Black look like?

Will Wright

That may be the more important and illuminating question or concern; how Black must black be to be…Black vs simply straddling the colors, the boundaries by one’s own whim and wit? How typical or conventional must one look? How fully must one conform to Anglos’ (white people’s) image of Black in order to be either Black or to pass away from it?

It may be that each of those competing questions is as important as the other.  I simply have yet to understand why North Americans of African descent do not question that someone as ethnically ambiguous as I do, may not call himself Black or half any of African in his heritage or experience.

I suspect that these questions may have sprouted while reading Henry Louis Gates, Jr’s The Passing of Anatole Broyard, a chapter and essay from his book Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man.

Anatole Broyard

Many years ago, I decided to discard that “one-drop-rule” chip from my shoulder – I was going to ignore North America’s demands; I was going to be multicultural and colored or “of color.”

As with far too many phenomena, Anglo America appoints itself to define and encode that. As bizarre, hard, and contradictory as it might be, I chose to occupy that fluid multiethnic crevasse during the turn of the century.  It coincided with the 2000 U.S. Census.

We’ve used some other words to evaluate how we’re doing on the culturally relevant front.

They are: 

1) multigenerational – are we serving the full range of ages and stages of life represented in the room?   I don’t really want anyone to check out during the musical worship time (balanced of course with the importance of giving individuals their freedom to engage or not).  That’s what I’ve seen happen in settings where only one style reigns king.  Some people groove on it ecstatically, and others dissociate.   My current take is we’re serving everyone, but that we might be slightly better at serving those over 30. 

2) multiethnic – are we speaking enough people’s “first languages” (read preferences), when it comes to musical and language choices, to give the wide range of people who actually attend our church a fighting chance to feel at home among us?   I have tended to view multiethnicity not only in terms of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomics, but also in terms of  age, personality, preferences, and even gender distinctions.  Within any one grouping of people, there are many types of people who engage in diverse ways – for example, visual versus verbal versus kinesthetic learners; or introverts versus extroverts; or women versus men, and I could endlessly subdivide on types of women and men.  

(To speak of multiple languages, in the literal sense - I have to acknowledge we’ve done very little on this front, and will likely not make big strides in the season ahead.  But it’s not off the subject, by any means.)

Another word which I’ll drop now is liturgy.  While everybody is likely to end run me to categorizing people as liturgical versus non-liturgical, that’s not what I’m talking about here. 

What I mean by liturgy is based on the root meaning of the word – i.e., common action.  Liturgy is what a group of people do when they get together to worship God.  It’s the way we talk, the way we flow, the things we do together.  Every church or group of spiritual people who meet has a liturgy – a way of doing stuff together.  We have a liturgy at the Greater Boston Vineyard.  (Sorry to burst your bubble, those of you who are proudly non-liturgical.)  And as Leanne Payne has written, a liturgy is only as good as whether it truly connects us with the Living God.

Examples from recent months of adjustments to our liturgy:  as we reintegrated to a single site, we chose to add praying psalms to our worship experience; we experimented with communion one week, inviting people to come to the table with a friend or loved one; we invited the children to join us for worship; we changed our chair set-up.  Earlier this year we inserted moments of focused intercession during the service.  These were all liturgical experiments, as such adjustments always are.  We see how it goes, and then if it seems to fly, we encorporate the change.  Maybe it was a one time deal.  Maybe we want to start doing it that way most of the time.  Maybe the experiment failed. 

I use this word right now to suggest that our focus on recency and professionalism is bound to affect our liturgy in some way.  One possible adjustment being considered:  maybe it would help us technically if we sang one less song on a Sunday.  Less may feel like a loss or it may feel like a gain – we’ll have to experiment with it. 

It might be worth mentioning that though we’ve created a liturgy which offers a range of musical styles, the posture from which we do it isn’t one of trying to please everybody.  This, I’ve concluded is impossible.   But we do offer the range of style to say to a variety of people ”we see you and we’re glad you’re here”.  Ultimately, the reason to do gospel music, for example, is because it’s delightful and it does something in our worship which other forms don’t do.  Ditto with hymns.  We don’t do hymns to keep the ‘old churchy folk’ happy.  We do hymns because when we do them they connect us with God in a way that other songs don’t.  They enhance our liturgy. 

Final definition:  worship.  By worship, let’s not get stuck with the music.  Let’s not limit it to a particular spiritual action which might fall under it as a subheading.  For the purposes of our conversation, let’s say worship is an interactive, in-the-moment connection with the Living God which is shared by a gathered group of individuals.  Most of the time, there are many within the gathering who are not experiencing that connection while others are.  The larger and more diverse the gathering, the more likely that some are not engaged.  This represents my principal challenge as a worship leader – how to stay connected with God, lead those who are deeply connected, while continuing to love and lead those who aren’t. 

As we update our song catalogue or bone up our technique or improve our sound design, we will strive not to lose track of worship.  As I said on Sunday, if we lose touch with the presence of the Living God among us every time we gather (whether we feel Him or not), we have very little to offer the 98%.   By focusing on recency and professionalism, we’re not going to start putting on a show for the 98%.  That’s not what they want or need, and it’s not our most valuable offering.  What we have to offer is Christ living among us, and the living proof of our lives that demonstrates that’s a really good thing.

Some of us would be happy all day to chaw about the conceptual framework underlying what we do and what it all means.  Others want to get on with making it happen.

So far, this blog has favored the former. But we absolutely need the pragmatists to get anywhere.  So here you go, concrete thinkers…

A quick overview of the range of concrete decisions which are going to have to be made in the coming weeks.

1) Band configuration. How many bands can we staff at present? Who plays with whom and in what capacity? I’m going to initiate side conversations to find out what our musicians are up for, and how the big puzzle will piece together. At present, it looks like there will be 4-5 distinct bands (including Encounter Night).

2) Band scheduling. How often do bands cover a Sunday service? How often do we rehearse? Early leanings, one rehearsal per Sunday morning appearance, and perhaps a gathering of the band which is not Sunday-focused, but more relational and prayerful. Two Sundays on, four Sundays off, in rotation. Nothing is set in stone yet.

3) Song choice. This includes what and how many new songs to add to the repertoire, which songs to focus on in the fall, how many songs to expect a band member to learn and keep fresh, how many songs to do on a given service? We’ve added a new song every two weeks this summer, and may continue at that pace. Set planning has been happening as a group process among the worship leaders. That’s likely to continue though the question has been raised, do certain bands have a particular repertoire while others have a slightly different repertoire? We’re likely to keep up the mixing of CCM, gospel & hymns within a given set though we have to address the sound issues which such a choice forces.

4) Rehearsals. How long? How best to run them? Who leads them? What can we realistically expect of our musicians in terms of knowing their music BEFORE a rehearsal rather than using the rehearsal to learn the music?  Do bg vocalists need to rehearse separately?

5) Sound. Lots of choices here. Platform configuration, needed equipment, engineer training & scheduling, level & EQ pre-sets, caging the drums. Two significant changes we’re exploring: 1) Do we assign engineers to particular bands and require the engineer to do the rehearsal as well as the Sunday service toward the goal of community and precision? 2) Will Dominic Kaiser invest a portion of his work hours and engineering skills to lead the way (and thus step away from drums for a season)?

5) The choir. When to rehearse? How to build it in size and precision without losing the great sense of spirituality and community? How often to appear? How to best amplify? Is it time to get/build risers?

6) Worship leadership. What do Dana and I focus on? How do we better resource and deploy our worship leaders? How do we make space for lay leaders to go to the next level while staying connected ourselves to the congregation? Is it time for more formal worship leader training and mentorship?

7) How do we counterbalance this massive focus on the technical, and create meaningful structure for our spiritual life as worship team members? Do we need more time together as bands in order to develop relationship and pray? Are there disciplines we can take on during this season to remind ourselves that we are a worship team rather than a gig band?

In all of this, what’s reasonable to ask and expect of volunteers versus illusory idealism which may lead us to ungracious expectations that are too high and easily dashed? We don’t want to be driven by fear or grandiosity, but rather love and truth.  What is the Lord saying to us in this and are we being responsive to His leading?

Dana and I met with Dave a few weeks back, and boiled down a mandate from him about the focus of our worship and sound team in the coming season to two words:  recency and professionalism.  (More about those words tomorrow.) 

The goal is not to lose aspects of our worship experience which are already strong:  personality, depth, authenticity, spiritual vigor, and inclusivity, but to see if we can up the ‘polish’ in hopes of offering that experience to an even wider range of folks who, for whatever reason, might not otherwise be inclined to give it a hearing. 

In order to understand the full context of this mandate and its implications for us in this season, let me give some background and define some relevant vocab.

The background (and I’m paraphrasing Dave’s comments):  Some 10 years ago, the stats said that 98% of the population of our city and surrounds was unchurched.  From the inception of our church, the focus of our mission has been on providing a meaningful and accessible spiritual experience for that 98%, rather than trying to provide a ‘better church experience’ for the 2%. 

Of course, in the flow of things, many of the 2% shifted loyalties from other churches and joined us, but in most cases, they did so because we were doing something for the 98% which they hadn’t seen done elsewhere, and being missional people themselves, that made them excited. 

From those early days to now, we have (at times uncomfortably) “preferred” the 98% in how we talk, how we teach, how we serve up a worship experience, trusting that the 2% who find their way to us can find what they need within our biblically sound and spiritually vigorous community. 

At some level, the 2% might feel that they are sacrificing some of their own preferences and needs, but when all goes well, they feel that they are doing so in favor of the 98% who would otherwise never do the church thing and perhaps miss out on Jesus altogether.  (For others who actually never liked church, they might prefer the 98% culture and not miss a thing!  For those who have become the 2% from having been part of the 98%, we trust they’ll have much to teach us about what we’ve actually been up to, a few years down the road.)

Other language which Dave has used to describe this is to intentionally blur and deemphasize the edges of a bounded set approach to spirituality.  Picture a circle, and many Xs, some inside the circle, some outside the circle.  Bounded set thinking can tend to emphasize the line, creating strong black and white distinctions – people (represented by the Xs) are either Christians or not, they are insiders or outsiders, they are for Christ or against Him. 

Played out in a community, an outsider can feel that he has to become an insider in order to play.  This might explain the sense of exclusivity and hostility secular people feel in relationship to church people (and I might suggest that American church people threw the first mudball and now reap what we’ve sown.  I might also add that our connection to the living God leaves us more accountable for the contentiousness than our secular, unbelieving earth partners.  But here I am mouthing off ex-cathedra which I said I wouldn’t do.) 

This bounded set approach seems to be in stark contrast to the ministry of Jesus who tended to gravitate toward the outsider while, at the same time, challenging the insider to the core.  A different way of viewing our relationship with Jesus is not whether we are inside a (culturally bound) church circle but whether we are oriented toward that circle’s center (the living person of Christ).  Picture a single dot on the page without a circle around it – this is Jesus.   Many Xs are around him, some near, some far, and He is equally within reach of them all. 

Whether a person is close to the center or far from it, a centered set approach would suggest people are more alive in the kingdom of God when they are actually oriented toward that living center.  In this line of thinking, one could be NEAR, i.e., in the church and off focus.  One could also be FAR, i.e., out of the church, and gaining momentum toward its living center.  The Bible seems to portray a God who came for those near and those far off.

This language has helped some people among us in that it provides a more gracious way of interacting with those traditionally seen as ”outside” the circle, not to mention that it more accurately describes the world in which we live.  Things aren’t so black and white, so clearly drawn.  Good, religious people are not always good, and not always in tune with the living God.  And bad, irreligious people are not always bad, and not as far from Him as they might appear.  This is the cyclical nature of human sin and divine intervention.  

Lots of nuance lost in this quick treatment, admittedly.  Go to Dave’s book, NOT THE RELIGIOUS TYPE, for a more thorough description.

The upcoming Culture Center Summit, hosted by the Greater Boston Vineyard, is creating an opportunity for those of us who lead musical worship here to articulate what we’ve been aiming to do over the past 11 years of church life. Strangely enough, it coincides with a time of significant change when we’re rethinking how we’ve been doing what we’re doing, and thus opening ourselves up to the possibility of “starting from scratch” and doing things differently than we’ve ever done.

So, in two ways, we’re going back to our roots as a worship and sound team. Not so much to redefine ourselves as to get to the heart of who we’ve actually been and to test whether we’re living out of that true center of calling. We’re asking ourselves, “Who and what is it that we’re here for?” “What is it that we’ve been doing and how’s it going?” “What are the non-negotiables?” and “How might we change and grow, personally and in our institutional structures, to become more fully what we’ve always been?”

I, Christopher Greco, worship pastor of said church, am your humbled (not a typo) host. I am excited about the changes, and a little overwhelmed.  This blog is my attempt to get a conversation rolling, not to mouth off ex-cathedra (as much as I’d love to do that).

We have spent the lionshare of our energy and focus over the past five years on the following: buying and inhabiting a church building, doing a compilation CD of original worship tunes, incorporating gospel music as a team-wide staple alongside our more pop-rock roots (read “white worship”) as a Vineyard, and, probably most consumingly, spawning a second site in downtown Boston.

(And successfully so, I might add. I have great partners here, notably in an assistant worship pastor, Dana Reynolds, and a no-longer-present administrator, Esther Cho, but also in a team of lay worship leaders, musicians, and engineers who give a lot of themselves to make it happen week in and week out. And, since I’m still in the parentheses, may I also add what an impossible task is before us each and every Sunday? We, mostly volunteers, play too many songs in too many styles with not enough rehearsal with too many different personnel configurations to have a single sound design. We do so in the hearing of folks who, understandably, compare our irregular “sound” to what they hear when they plug in their own headsets or go to the concerts of their favorite bands, all of which is professionally (we’re talking UBER HOURS & BUCKS) rehearsed, recorded, produced, designed, and executed. And we want/need/expect them to groove with us by singing along - in the morning no less.  We do so when we feel like it and when we don’t.  Wholeheartedly, prayerfully, imperfectly – for all to see and hear - and ultimately, not for the music’s sake. We stretch ourselves, we work through our differences, we forgive ourselves and each other our limitations and mistakes, we turn our focus to God even when everything wars against such focus. And amazingly, the living God breaks through and does something real in the room among us and the people we lead. This has been the case for all 11 years of our church’s history.  Our worship has been blessed!  There is irony for us, of course, because some times things “go better musically” from our perspective which doesn’t seem to correlate directly with the God activity.  He seems to bless us even when we’re not happy with ourselves.)

With the recent closing of our Boston site, our Boston-based worship and sound teams have returned to Cambridge (receiving a hero’s welcome), and for the first time in years we are seemingly fully staffed. A wonderful problem to have.

We’ve also been commissioned by our lead pastor, Dave Schmelzer, to raise the bar on our professionalism and our recency (two terms I’ll define in my next post) for the sake of our mission – which is to provide a safe environment for the unchurched to interact with the living God among the churched.  In Dave’s words, we’re seeking to engage with the 98% of folks in our region who currently don’t jive with church.  In my words, we’re not putting on a show for them, but rather genuinely connecting with the living God in their presence.

And that’s what the summit is about.  And for the first time, we’re offering a “worship track” at this summit to talk with other worship folks from different churches about “centered set” worship - ”whatever that is” –  in partnership with Casey Corum, head of Vineyard Music USA.  Which means we’re going to be talking about what we do here even while it’s shapeshifting.

Next up, I’ll report more on our “town meeting”, try to define some terms, and outline the various concrete details which will have to be ironed out in the coming weeks.  Our fall kickoff is the second Sunday in September.  That marks the new beginning.  From now till then, let’s work this thing out together.

I’ll try to keep my posts on the shorter side, and to keep them appearing regularly.  Please respond as you see fit, and be pithy with your comments rather than expansive, so as to encourage everybody to be able to take it all in.

I don’t have very many readers to this blog, and likely have far fewer now that I’ve neglected to update in nearly 3 months (or is it 4?), but those few readers ought to know that I have not been entirely unaware or absent from blogdom.

Indeed, as St. Jude would say, I have had every intention of writing, but have often found myself at odds with myself over the content that I want to communicate. It is rather difficult at times for me to put into words the concerns that I have had and to clearly lay out some of the recent thoughts I have had about various topics political, theological, ecclesiological, and otherwise. So… just as a way of whetting (or perhaps dampening) the appetite, here are a few things I’m thinking of writing on:

Are ALL Asian American Christians sellouts
(a response to the post at nextegenerasianchurch)

Further thoughts on women in ministry leadership (an exploration of history, hermeneutics, and sociopolitical considerations)

Black Asian dialogue (just wanting to know if we have anything to teach each other)

Are there any other suggestions?? Asian Christians and homosexuality? Preaching in the Asian church? Am I a sellout for going to an Asian church?

Maybe I’m exaggerating here; actually, I’m certain that I’m exaggerating. Hyperbole is sometimes useful to illustrate a subtler point. And there is a point to this post, obscure though it may be. The point is simply this:

It seems to me when people talk about living in a “diverse” city, or having “diverse” friends, or being in a church that welcomes “diversity,” what they’re really saying is Gay people and/or Asian people with perhaps a sprinkling of Middle Easterners or Eastern Europeans thrown in for good measure. What they don’t mean is Black Americans, or White people from the south, or Hispanics (the “work in your yard, sit in the back of the pickup truck” kind of Hispanics don’t count in terms of diversity, only the “wow, can you teach me salsa dancing” kind do).

Okay… I’m and evil wrong person for using these exaggerated stereotypes. But how wrong is it really? To discuss diversity one metric to possibly use would be the raw percentages of non-Whites (since Whites / Euro-Americans are dominant in the US) in a city. The higher the percentage, the more “diverse” the place; this is a simple measure, right? Given that metric, the state of Mississippi would be considered one of the most diverse in the nation since it has a non-White population of nearly 50% or more. Except that most of those non-Whites are Blacks, and they don’t count towards the idea of diversity, unless there are some Asians and gay people in the mix and the Black people aren’t too low brow.

So perhaps that metric isn’t a good one. Maybe it is better to analyze diversity based on residential housing patterns. A diverse city would have many different ethnic groups living there. Thus, Chicago or L.A. are very diverse cities, right? Except that Chicago is notoriously residentially segregated, at least most of the Black people are. And there are many White ethnic enclaves throughout the city as well.

Is that diverse or not? Does being able to find good “ethnic” food count as being diverse, even though usually what counts as “ethnic” are various Asian cuisines with the occasional nod to Ethiopian and Mediterranean/Middle eastern dishes.

What if someone is Asian and grew up in the south, and their favorite foods are grits and turnip greens? Does that count as suitably “diverse?”

What does any of this have to do with anything, and what does it all have to do with the church, and Christianity, which is after all the topic of this blog? Actually, I’m not sure. It’s just that I wonder how much the much touted “diversity” we talk about in our society is really just a proxy for saying “Wow, there are Asian people here, and Asian people are the currently ‘cool’ ethnicity, so yay!!” It is kind of like the way people say “urban” when they really mean Black.