Review: Against All Odds - The Struggle for Racial Integration in Religious Organizations

Brad Christerson, Korie L. Edwards, and Michael O. Emerson, Against All Odds: The Struggle for Racial Integration in Religious Organizations (New York: New York University Press, 2005) 185 pp. ISBN: 0814722245

Since I started to get my DVD movie rentals by mail, I’ve rarely watched movies in theatres. There are times when I’ve regretted not watching a good action movie in the theatre. Likewise, I’ve regretted missing the “buzz” around the publication of important books when they are first introduced. Against All Odds is such a publication.

I wish I had read this book when it was published three years ago because it provides such valuable insights into how people from different racial backgrounds interact in religious organizations in the United States. The authors conducted sociological studies of six multi-racial evangelical organizations in the Midwest and California (four congregations, a campus ministry, and a Christian college). They make a couple of important assumptions in their research. The first first is that America continues to be divided racially through a historical socio-political process called racialization (which should not be confused with ethnicity or ethnogenesis). Drawing from Howard Winant and Michael Omi’s Racial Formation theory that was first proposed in their now classic Racial Formation in the United States, the authors of Against All Odds believe our public and private realities continue to be structured along racial lines. Racial integration cannot happen by simply changing individual attitudes or trying to be color-blind. The second assumption is that religious organizations are mediating institutions between the private and public spheres. As such, these organizations have the potential to draw people out of their private, racially segrated lives, into a social space where human interactions are more intimate than the public arena. The new interracial relationships that are created in these organizations may become a model for American society in the future. By working with these assumptions, the authors challenge the belief that race and religion are of diminishing significance in 21st Century America.

Against All Odds is not a handbook of “best practices.” Becoming interracial is a struggle for each of the organizations examined since “interracial organizations are inherently unstable” (152) and participating in them is “risky” (157). A visibly diverse organization will not naturally attract new people. Intentionality and favorable external factors and internal dynamics are required to overcome the American racial order. According to the authors, “numerical minority group members bear the highest relational costs of being involved in interracial organizations. The costs are reduced as representation increases.” In other words, most people in these organizations do not have strong friendships with people who are not like themselves. A critical mass of a numerical minority group in an organization and its leadership is necessary for sustaining that group’s presence and growth. Healthy interracial organizations are in reality coalitions of racial groups each of whose needs are being addressed and whose presence is adequately represented. The authors conclude that

“Representation can be in any or all of the following areas: raw numbers, worship styles, leadership, or organizational practices. For instance, incorporating music from the out group’s culture, increasing diversity in the staff, accommodating different attitudes and understandings of time, and instituting children’s programs are all examples of increasing representation, depending on which groups are marginalized. Increasing representation and providing some time for separate space for groups are the means organizations are most able to control.” (158 )

If the book ended on this note, then the solution to creating healthy interracial organizations would be simple. If an organization does not have enough white or Asian people, then create an “affirmation action” policy to recruit whites and Asians. But the authors throw a big “monkey wrench” into this assumption. “The importance of minimizing the costs of being in interracial organizations is greatest for those who are racial minorities in the larger society,” say the authors, “because they pay the costs of both numerical and minority statuses daily in the larger society.” (158 ) In other words, racial minorities in the larger society pay a higher “cultural tax” than racial majorities and therefore have a greater need to avoid paying these taxes in the religious organizations in which they invest their social capital. On the other hand, as the racial majority, white people experience less “cultural taxation” in American society than they do in interracial organizations. This creates a dynamic some have labeled the the problem of “white privilege.” Repeated examples of unconscious white privileging are given in this study. “Whites are accustomed to being in control in social contexts,” claim the authors. “Their norms and values are in most cases accepted without challenge. These characteristics afford whites far greater opportunity, relative to racial minorities, to live in, establish, and reproduce social spaces that accommodate their preferences, culture, and superior status.” (172) Consequently, the authors conclude that:

“Whites are more likely than racial minorities to leave interracial religious organizations if their particular preferences and interests are not being met.” (168 )

“White adults, despite their desire to attend an interracial church and their belief that this membership holds intrinsic benefits for them, are unwilling to sacrifice the potential experiences, privileges and opportunities of their children to do so.” (170)

“Maintaining legitimacy within the dominant group is of greater priority for whites than are the desires and needs of fellow non-white organization members.” (171)

The behavior of whites becomes a major destabilizing factor for interracial churches. They are ‘”not necessarily aware of their privileged status as the dominant racial group, nor are they aware how their own actions perpetuate it.” Quoting George Lipstiz (‘the artificial construction of whiteness almost always comes to possess white people themselves unless they develop antiracist identities’ [1998: vii]), the authors argue that “unless whites are conscious of the status and privileges afforded them through whiteness, and unless they act to dismantle the structure that sustains that privilege, they will by default reproduce the racialized social order.” (172)

If white privilege tends to destabilize an interracial organization, the authors argue that interracial marriages brings stability. But this is further evidence that building friendships and trust across racial lines - even within the same organization - is extraordinarily difficult when racial identities are so clearly shaped in America.

Finally, Against All Odds explores the internal religious dynamics of these organizations. The authors identified “religiously charged ethnocentrism” (i.e., turning cultural practices into theological absolutes) and “color-blind theologies” (i.e., refusal to recognize race as a part of one’s religious identity or practice) as destabilizing forces. On the other hand, regular use of “theological arguments for diversity” and providing “spiritual enrichness” from diverse worship environments are stabilizing forces. This appears to be confirmed by the participants in the study. In the Christian college dominated by the majority white evangelical subculture, the destabilizing dynamics created a dysfunctional organization where racial minority students felt marginalized and shut down. in other organizations, almost everyone interviewed valued being part of an interracial community despite the struggles of the organizations. When interracial organizations emphasize diversity as a positive value, most participants hesitate to return to more homogeneous contexts.

Against All Odds needs to be read carefully by leaders of religious organizations who want to understand the dynamics of multiracial organizations. Many of the observations are applicable to multicultural and multigenerational organizations as well. It is clear that any organization that seeks to sustain healthy diversity must allow sub-groups representation. Unity is not uniformity.

Reading the book with Asian American lens, I was left wondering why Asian American participants in multi-racial religious organizations were so ambivalent about their own identities. I suspect that the power of racialization impacts Asian Americans differently from other racial minorities. In settings that are predominantly white, whenever I bring up Asian American concerns, the conversation usually goes in one of two directions. There is usually a surprised reaction since the prevailing assumption is that Asian Americans are no different from white immigrants. At other times, the conversation shifts to issues and events in Asia. There is virtually no place to stand between invisibility or foreignness for Asian Americans in multiracial settings. If we are to overcome the power of racialization of Asian Americans, if we are to encourage adequate Asian American participation in interracial organizations, we must ensure that engaging Asian American identities and consciousness becomes a priority. Against All Odds provides a helpful frame of reference and starting point.

Timothy Tseng
Castro Valley, CA
June 21, 2008

ISAAC welcomes Marie McCulley and Johnson Chiu to our team

ISAAC is delighted to announce that Marie McCulley and Johnson Chiu have joined our team!

Pastor Johnson Chiu will be ISAAC’s Bay Area Chinese Program Director. He has pastored for over 20 years in Chinese and multicultural churches. His ministry highlights prayer, spirituality and church health. He recently concluded a D.Min. project on these issues. In addition to pastoring Faith Walk Community Church, he is also a group facilitator for The Leadership Connection, a ministry that focuses on the needs of pastors. With ISAAC he will work toward equipping Asian American churches. He is married to his high school sweetheart Andrea and has three ministry-minded daughters, Christal, Summer and Lauren.

Marie McCulley will be ISAAC’s Donor Relations Associate and SANACS’s Membership Coordinator. She just graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary. She spent three years in China on behalf of the Amity Foundation after connecting with Tim Tseng at the American Baptist Seminary of the West.

Al Tizon comments at The Scandal of Evangelical Politics Conference (Mar 28-30, 2008)

The Scandal of Evangelical Politics Conference, sponsored  by the Evangelicals for Social Action/Sider Center for  Ministry and Public Policty, was held in Philadelphia on  March 28-30, 2008. The aim of the Conference was to help  Christians practice their biblical faith in the political  arena in an informed, uncompromising way. The program  included a panel discussion responding to the National  Association of Evangelicals’ Statement, “For the Health of  the Nation” from different cultural perspectives. The  following comments were offered on the panel by Al Tizon from an Asian American perspective. Al is Assistant Professor of Evangelism and Holistic Ministry, Director of Network 9:35 at Palmer Seminary. He was formerly pastor of Berkeley Evangelical Covenant church and received his PhD from the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA). Contact Dr. Tizon for a copy of the statement.

I’m glad to be part of this panel for a variety of reasons: first, because I get to serve with esteemed colleagues and world-changers at the table; second, because the Statement that we’re responding to is an important one; and third, because an Asian American has been invited to the table to bring an Asian American perspective—not the Asian American perspective, as if there is such a thing, but one perspective—namely, mine, who happens to be Asian American.

As a short aside to the topic at hand, I do find it curious when cultural diversity in America is talked about or called upon, that Asian Americans are more often than not left out. Diversity in America remains predominantly a black-white issue. And increasingly, Hispanic Americans have been invited, but Asian Americans not quite yet. For example, the title of this particular presentation [which this panel discussion follows] was “African-American, Hispanic, and White Evangelicals: Can They Come Together on Politics?” And I was on the planning committee!

I’m not sure this exclusion is legitimate in light of the rapid growth of Asians in America. According to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau, 10,242, 998 Asians and 1,655,830 mixed race people with Asian blood live in the United States. This does not include Pacific Islanders, which if you add them/us, balloon up to almost 17,000,000 Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. There are over 4,000,000 of us Filipinos alone running around the country (as we continue our quest to take over the world)! It is projected that the Asian and Pacific Islander population will double by 2030.

There are a few theories floating around in my head as to why Asian Americans are not readily included in diversity discussions despite their numbers, and maybe we’ll get into it here a little. For now, let me just say that it is an honor to bring an Asian American perspective to this panel and to this Conference.

And not just an Asian American perspective, but an evangelical Asian American perspective. 26% of the Asian community in the United States profess a Protestant faith, the largest percentage, with Catholicism at a close 20%. Of the Protestants, most Asian Americans identify with evangelicalism.

“For the Health of the Nation” – Random Thoughts from an Asian American Perspective

Strengths
•    The Statement works toward consensus in the midst political diversity in the evangelical community
•    It provides biblical basis for civic engagement, and affirms the Bible as the source from which we as Christians derive norms
•    It calls for humility, civility and integrity amidst political differences
•    Pledges allegiance first and foremost to the kingdom and then America. I find the statement, “As Christians we confess that our primary allegiance is to Christ, his kingdom, and Christ’s worldwide body of believers, not to any nation,” particularly promising to include people of color, including, of course, Asian Americans.
•    (Related to the last bullet) the Statement acknowledges the contribution of the worldwide Christian community in enriching American political life with the sentence, “We invite Christians outside the United States to aid us in broadening our perspectives on American life and action.”

Weaknesses
•    There was no wiggle room with regard to different perspectives on violence; the Statement seemed to adopt the just war principles wholesale with no regard to those who may think differently about the role of force in bringing about change. The People Power Revolution of 1986, for example, told us Filipinos and really the whole world, that indeed non-violence can work to change political realities. So to appreciate diversity in this area in the document would have been more consistent with the nature of the document as a whole.
•    There were also no developed thoughts on the church as the social conscience of the nation. The idea of community in the Asian mind, generally speaking, is central; so language of Christian community as a change agent in the larger community seemed lacking in the document.
•    Racism seemed buried under “We Work to Protect Human Rights;” but the “health of the nation” depends on how we deal with racism and therefore should be more prominent. In fact, it should be a free-standing principle alongside the other principles—something like: “We Seek Racial Equality and Work toward a Fully Integrated Society.” And include the last paragraph under Human Rights, expand the proposed section also to include what it means to be “hospitable to strangers,” i.e., immigrants. And add a specific example from the Asian-American experience in the paragraph: Choose from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the banning of Filipinos coming to America in 1934, the infamous relocation of Japanese Americans into camps during WW II, etc.
•    Lastly, there was limited distribution/visibility of the document on the grassroots level. Evangelical laypeople and clergy alike know very little to nothing about this Statement. And it is too important to be discussed solely in the ivory towers of the NAE. Let’s get this document in the hands of local congregations.

Overall, the Statement has the potential to bring diverse evangelical political camps together, and if the issues of race and ethnic diversity were lifted up, people of color would feel more welcomed to join the convergence.

Southeast Asian Leadership Summit - ISAAC’s report

The re:new Southeast Asian Leadership Summit was held last week from March 11-13, in the greater DC area.  Attendees numbering around 130 attended from around the country, enjoying the modern facilities of Open Door Presbyterian Church (a 17-year old, fast-growing bilingual Korean church, www.opendoorpc.org).  Many of the attendees were young adults with a few older faces sprinkled in the crowd.

This is the second nationwide conference led by the South East Asian Committee (SEAC, www.seacleaders.com); the first was in 2006 in Long Beach, CA.  The seed for this movement germinated at the 2004 Asian American Leadership Conference in Los Angeles.  That event was organized and led mostly by Asian Americans of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ancestry, but included a forum for South East Asian American leaders to gather and catch the vision that became SEAC.  (As it happens, the followup 2008 Asian American Leadership Conference is also taking place this month, http://aalc2008.org.)

Keynote speakers were Southeast Asian leaders Arounsavath Sacdyphoud (IL), Men Mua (MN) and Ken Kong (CA), and Australian scientist John Ridgway who has worked in Asia for 27 years.

There were also many workshops during the breakout sessions.  ISAAC was represented by Andrew Lee and Russell Yee who led sessions on Reading the Bible as an Asian American and Asian American worship (SEAing Worship) respectively as part of the Re:Source track.  Other seminar tracks were in Leadership Development, Evangelism and Re:Conciliation.

The highlight of the conference occurred on Friday night during the celebration banquet.  One of the leaders from the 1st generation church got up and shared this through a translator.

“We sacrificed so much to come here.  Perhaps that is why we wanted so much to protect you (1.5+ 2nd generation). But now I see we held on too tightly.  Please forgive us. We need to release you, to let you go. We bless you. We want the future to be one of mutual forgiveness, mutual respect, and mutual full support.”

It was an absolutely electrifying moment. There was hardly a dry eye in the house.

This reconciliation may well have been the fruit, in part, of the SEAC leaders including an honoring-of-elders lunch and presentation at the 2006 conference in Long Beach, with each 1st-generation pastor seated in a place of honor and recognized.  But it was also the result of the SEAC leaders having it together in organizing events that are attractive, well-networked, and effective in equipping next generation leaders.

The South East Asian American church is far younger than the East Asian American churches that make up the largest and oldest segments of the Asian American church.  Yet this impressive new generation of leaders–emerging from the backdrop of full wartime catastrophe, immigration hardships, and scattered settlement into American cities–has managed to forge, in just five years or so, a nationwide movement among their churches.  At this pace, they will not only continue learning from both the achievements and mistakes of older Asian American churches and movements, but indeed will have (and indeed, already do have) much to teach others as well.

New Report on Religion in America

Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has just published an important report of their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. Its findings reveal tremendous religious restlessness among Americans who change religious affiliation frequently. It also demonstrated the growth of an unaffiliated population (atheist, agnostic, secular unaffiliated, and religious unaffiliated), particularly among people under 40 years of age. It also reveals that Protestantism has diminished to 51% of the population share (though evangelicals continue to gain an increasing share of the Protestant population). Catholicism also has not grown, due to the decline of its white population. However, immigration from Mexico, South America, and Asia have drastically reshaped its ethnic composition. Immigration has also impacted evangelicals more than mainline Protestant churches.

What about Asian Americans? The survey confirmed the anecdotal evidence that Asian Americans have a higher affiliation with Christianity than other religions. 45% of the Asians surveyed identified themselves as Christians (17% evangelicals, 17% Catholics, and 9% mainline Protestant). 14% identify as Hindu, 9% Buddhists, 4% Muslim, 3% other world religions or faiths. Among Buddhists, whites out number Asians 53% to 32%. 23% of the Asians surveyed were unaffiliated, the highest percentage of all racial groups.

Among East Asian immigrants, 57% are Christians (27% Catholic, 18% evangelical, 11% mainline Protestant), 14% Buddhist, and 27% unaffiliated. 55% of immigrants from South-Central Asia are Hindu, 16% Christian (9% evangelical, 3% Catholic, 2% mainline Protestant), 12% Muslim, and 11% unaffiliated.

The implications of the survey findings about Asian American religions are clear. Research about Asian American Hindus and Muslims is needed; but so is research in Asian American Christianity. — Tim Tseng

Links to:

• Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life [full downloadable report]
• Los Angeles Times Coverage (Connie Kang)
• New York Times (Neela Banerjee)
• Washington Post (Jacqueline L. Salmon and Michelle Boorstein)

Lunar New Year - the Year of the Rat!

ISAAC would like to wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year! The following clip is compliments of the Asia Society:

Asia Society U-Tube Site: http://www.youtube.com/asiasociety

Asia Society website: http://www.asiasociety.org/

NPR Interview with Gene Yang, author of American Born Chinese

From National Public Radio (NPR) with thanks to Jonathan Lew…

January 23, 2008 · Graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang has created a groundbreaking read in American Born Chinese. It’s the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award.

As one of the few Chinese Americans in his predominantly white school in Northern California, Yang wrestled not just with all the usual questions of childhood, but also with often subtle forms of racism.

Yang says he ran out to the local copy shop with the original draft in 2000, thinking he would sell 12 or 13 copies of the “mini comic” by hand. The novel tells the story of three characters, the Monkey King, the Chinese-American boy and Chinkie, the over-the-top stereotype.

Memories of shame played a big part in shaping the book, Yang says. He recalls a boy who joined his elementary school from Taiwan. Yang’s teachers wanted him to befriend the new kid, who gamely talked to Yang in Mandarin for a week. Yang struggled to respond. “I was really dealing with something inside about me being ashamed of the culture of my parents,” he says.

>> Listen here for the interview and to view the Audio Slide Show

2007 - highlights of an exciting inaugural year!

What an exciting year for ISAAC!

2007 was a year for testing ideas and learning how ISAAC can best strengthen the work of individuals and organizations that serve Asian American Christians. We are grateful for all who have given time and resources to ISAAC!

Here are highlights of ten activities from 2007:

1. Appointment of Eastern and Southern California Regional Directors, Andrew Lee and Young Lee Hertig. We are going national!

2. Asian American Christianity Reader (co-sponsored by PAACCE). We are creating a resource for Asian American Christianity courses. Click here for more information. We anticipate publication by early 2008. PAACCE has also contracted ISAAC resource team members Young Lee Hertig and Russell Yee to write resources on Asian American Christian women’s legacy and Asian American worship.

3. Asian American Program Directors Summit at Fuller Seminary, Feb. 17th (co-sponsored with the Korean Institute for Advanced Theological Studies) a gathering of seminary-based Asian American Center directors at Fuller Seminary - see list of participants and purpose of the gathering. It was an important first step towards making theological education more relevant to Asian and Pacific North American Christian communities. This event was covered by Connie Kang of the Los Angeles Times.

4. Summer Immersion Program, Los Angeles, July 25-28: “Wow, wow, wow!! That’s all I can say! I can’t stop talking to everyone about the experience we had last week. It’s like I’ve been reintroduced to the REAL Good News!!” “I really think it was a fantastic experience and would recommend this to any Asian American who wants to grow and is open to learning about our communities…It stimulated my faith!” Find out more! Click here.

5. Bay Area Chinese Churches Project: On Jan. 13, over 40 leaders from Chinese churches in San Francisco’s Chinatown participated in the Bay Area Chinese Churches Project consultation at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco. This event was co-sponsored with the Chinese Christian Union. Oct. 27, over 35 persons participated in the consultation at Sunset Church in San Francisco. These are part of on an on-going follow-up study of Dr. James Chuck’s 1996 study of the Chinese Churches in the Bay Area. The next consultation will be held on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008 at the Bay Area Chinese Bible Church’s Alameda campus. Find out more at http://bapcc.wordpress.com/

6. Asian American Women on Leadership (AAWOL): 30 sisters attended AAWOL’s writers feedback meeting on Oct. 26th. AAWOL will produce a resource tool called “The Ying and Yang of Leadership: Biblical Characters According to Asian American Women” AAWOL is now planning a leadership retreat that will utilize the $2,000 grant from Yong Nak Presbyterian Church’s Community Service program. Visit the AAWOL blogsite at http://aawol.wordpress.com

7. ISAAC-Nagel reception at the American Academy of Religion/Socity of Biblical Literature Annual meetings in San Diego, Nov. 17-20. More than 100 joined us! Find out more - click here.

8. Society of Asian North American Christian Studies (SANACS): More than 50 charter members have joined SANACS since it was launched at the AAR/SBL meetings. Help support better and quality research about Christianity among Asian North American communities! Go to http://sanacs.wordpress.com/

9. Association of Theological Schools Asian and Asian North American Faculty Consultation in Dallas, TX, Dec. 7-9: Fifty faculty gathered to develop a report on effective theological education for Asian and Asian North American seminarians. Find out more! Click here.

10. Growing use of ISAAC’s Bulletin Board and Opportunities blog: Go to ISAAC Opportunities or ISAAC Bulletin Board

We look forward to a new year of exciting possibilities - for ISAAC 2008 activities, go to http://isaacblog.wordpress.com/isaac-events/

ATS Asian/Asian North American seminary faculty consultation (Dec. 7-9, 2007)

Fifty Asian and Asian North American (AANA) seminary faculty gathered in Dallas, Texas on Dec. 7-9, 2007 to discuss how to make Theological Education more effective for AANA seminarians. The findings will be summarized in a report for the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) early in 2008. The ATS credentials seminaries in the United States and Canada, approves their degree programs, and sponsored this consultation. The Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity (ISAAC) facilitated the planning of the consultation and will draft the report. Russell Moy chaired the planning committee, which included Ekron Chen (Logos Evangelical Seminary), Oliver McMahon (Church of God Seminary), Seung Ai Yang (Chicago Theological Semnary), and Timothy Tseng (ISAAC). Daniel Aleshire (Executive Director), Janice Edwards-Armstrong (Director, Leadership Education), and Karen Kuder of the Association of Theological Schools also staffed the consultation. This was the second consultation for AANA faculty organized by the ATS. The first was held in Redondo Beach, California, in 2005.

On Friday, Dan Aleshire started the consultation by providing statistical information about the current status of Asian and Asian North American (AANA) seminarians in ATS seminaries. In 2006, AANAs made up 7.5% of the total ATS student body - which is a higher percentage than their overall population and slightly higher than their percentages in other graduate level programs (6.5%). This is equivalent to the percentage of Visa (or international) students, of whom a large number come from Asian nations. 13% of the total student body are African Americans/Canadians (which is equivalent to their population in North America) and only 3% are Hispanics (compared to their general population of 13%).

Among the AANA seminarians, only 35% are enrolled in M.Div. programs - an indicator that the traditional church ministry route is not as popular as it once was or that churches and ministry organizations are more open to hiring AANA graduates without M.Div. degrees. Approximately 4,000 AANA students attend evangelical seminaries (9% of the student body), 750 attend mainline Protestant seminaries (3.5%), and less than 500 attend Roman Catholic seminaries (6.7%). Interestingly, 6% of the faculty in evangelical seminaries are AANA, 4.7% in mainline Protestant seminaries, and 3% in Roman Catholic seminaries.

Download complete Asian & Asian American Seminarians powerpoint presentation

On Saturday, four seminary educators made brief presentations and facilitated break out groups discussions. Peter Cha (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) gave an overview of the emerging landscape of ministry among Asian Americans. Mai Anh Tran (Pacific School of Religion) engaged the question of inter-generational factors in AANA communities, congregations, and seminarians. Seung Ai Yang (Chicago Theological Seminary) had the group interrogate the complexity of gender and race issues in classroom settings. Tim Tseng (ISAAC) facilitated a conversation around educational assets and stereotypical deficits that AANA students bring to seminaries and encouraged participants to suggest ways that seminaries can more effectively work with these students. On Sunday, the four gave summaries of the break out group discussions. The notes of the discussions will be summarized into a report by ISAAC on behalf of the consultation.

In addition to the opportunities to work together, network and fellowship, the contextualized worship service led by Debbie Gin (Haggard School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University) was another highlight of the consultation. Frank Yamada (Seabury-Western Theological Seminary) accompanied Debbie’s piano with guitar and Diane Chen (Palmer Theological Seminary) gave a thought-provoking homily. A video of the service can be viewed and downloaded at: http://www.4shared.com/file/31926798/dbf0f6a8/ATS_AANA_worship.html?dirPwdVerified=2d3679f6

ISAAC looks forward to developing the consultation report and partnering with ATS and its member schools in the future!

* * *
The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) is a membership organization of more than 250 graduate schools that conduct post-baccalaureate professional and academic degree programs to educate persons for the practice of ministry and for teaching and research in the theological disciplines.

The Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity (ISAAC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit that seeks to advance research in Asian American Christianity and strengthen organizations that serve and minister to Asian American communities.

Report: ISAAC-Nagel Reception at the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting

Over a hundred guests celebrated the work of the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity and the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College on Nov. 17th at the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature annual meetings. Prof. Diane Obenchain shared about Nagels’ current projects. Dr. Joel Carpenter is the Director of the Nagel Institute.

In addition to sharing about ISAAC’s programs, it also encouraged the scholars of religion, theology, and biblical scholars who attend the AAR/SBL meetings to join the newly formed Society of Asian North American Christian Studies (SANACS). The new society will promote greatest scholarly attention to Asian Christianity in North America and will publish an Annual journal. Charter membership dues are $45. Contact Dr. Russell Yee for more information.

ISAAC is grateful for this partnership with the Nagel Institute and looks forward to future opportunities to collaborate.

* * *

About the Nagel Institute
http://www.calvin.edu/nagel/

The Nagel Institute was founded in 2006 as a service of Calvin College to those who study the rise of Christianity in the global south and east, and to others who are eager to see Christian thought and cultural engagement flourish in those regions.

The mission of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity is to accomplish significant work in the following three areas. We intend to:

• Promote a deeper understanding of world Christianity,

• Partner with study centers to strengthen Christian intellectual movements in the global south and east, and

• Provoke a reorientation of Christian thought in the North Atlantic region toward the concerns arising from world Christianity.