http://elderj.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/i-dont-have-to-go-to-church-with-you/ Reflections on faith, culture, and life Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:52:36 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://elderj.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/i-dont-have-to-go-to-church-with-you/#comment-774 elderj Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:47:33 +0000 http://elderj.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/i-dont-have-to-go-to-church-with-you/#comment-774 I couldn't agree more Wayne. I think your story is like many. Unfortunately multiethnicity can easily become a substitute for dealing with systemic issues of justice. Also, many AA don't have the same sense of healthy ethnic identity that you do and so their move into "multi ethnic" environments is not always healthy. I haven't observed the same dynamic within the Black community, which has enabled the Black church to develop a strong sense of itself as legitimately Black & Christian with no real tension between those identities. I couldn’t agree more Wayne. I think your story is like many. Unfortunately multiethnicity can easily become a substitute for dealing with systemic issues of justice. Also, many AA don’t have the same sense of healthy ethnic identity that you do and so their move into “multi ethnic” environments is not always healthy. I haven’t observed the same dynamic within the Black community, which has enabled the Black church to develop a strong sense of itself as legitimately Black & Christian with no real tension between those identities.

]]> http://elderj.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/i-dont-have-to-go-to-church-with-you/#comment-767 Wayne Park Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:48:56 +0000 http://elderj.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/i-dont-have-to-go-to-church-with-you/#comment-767 Where people are coming from I think is important too; I avoided Koreans at first but became enamored with the Korean scene in my teens. After that, I just couldn't extract myself from it to engage the world at large and found myself often uncomfortable in the presence of other ethnicities, so for me to move away from my home culture was a missional step towards maturity. In that sense embracing multiethnicity was not the default easy thing to do, it was very difficult and definitely not a crutch of self-hatred... Where people are coming from I think is important too; I avoided Koreans at first but became enamored with the Korean scene in my teens. After that, I just couldn’t extract myself from it to engage the world at large and found myself often uncomfortable in the presence of other ethnicities, so for me to move away from my home culture was a missional step towards maturity. In that sense embracing multiethnicity was not the default easy thing to do, it was very difficult and definitely not a crutch of self-hatred…

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