Making negotiations with our various identities is one way we can resist identity politics which dehumanizes oppressors, police’s boundaries, and dismisses moral and intellectual standards. Making these negotiations is all the more important during national elections like the one being held this November.
Having Asian American eyes on Naomi’s flight during famine, Mordecai’s exile, or Hagar in the wilderness can sharpen our preaching and teaching. As we serve the church, our experience and family history of migration can bring clarity and resonance to our Bible exposition.
In October 2025, hundreds of people from all over North America gathered for three days in Washington D.C. at the first ever national conference hosted by the Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC) at Open Door Presbyterian Church.
Jesus’ life reflects the minjung (민중) of human history, life born in and concluding in unjust suffering. Incarnate Jesus resembles the deepest suffering of the immigrant experience within the diaspora of Asian Americans and beyond.
When I first read about Jacob and his uncle Laban in Genesis, I did not see Laban as anything but a villain. But now, years later, as I reflect on my South Asian culture and the culture of Jacob’s time, I find that I have questions about who Laban is.
I have carried these two perspectives, those of my tito and my classmates, with me for many years, trying to discern the right way to respond. The painful reality has been that biblical passages such as Rom. 13:1–7 have been used to justify the horrors of colonialism; by right of conquest, the imperial powers were granted the divine right to rule.
Asian Americans who are not fully bilingual understand Moses’s dilemma and can identify with his situation. As they are unable to speak fluently in the language of their homeland, they end up stammering and stuttering when they try. They speak hesitantly as they translate from one language to the other in their heads, and when words eventually emerge, they are tainted by an accent. On occasion, native speakers make fun of their feeble attempts, thus shaming and further discouraging them, causing them to shut down.
