I am writing this post for two reasons. The first is to begin a series of retrospective theological reflections on what happened during the Asian American evangelical open letter campaign after six months of the event and why it matters theologically more than anyone else thinks. The second is to convince you that Chinglicans can pray in solidarity with the Blessed Virgin without blinking an eye. As a Chinglican, I manage to do that simply by closing my eyes. It... Read more
Consider this post a placeholder. I am writing this post simply to signal that we need to pay attention. Taiwan matters. Hong Kong matters. This post is not an analysis of what is happening in either Taiwan or Hong Kong. The situation is developing far too rapidly for me to be able to give an opinion on where this is going. I’m just saying: pay attention. On 26 February 2014, the former editor of Ming Pao newspaper, Kevin Lau Chun-to,... Read more
With the recent spate of controversy surrounding megachurch pastors like Mark Driscoll, Steve Furtick, and David Cho Yonggi, it might be tempting to ask: who cares? The question is legitimate. The Russian violation of Ukraine’s sovereign borders to get into the Crimea is a geopolitical nightmare. The savage attack on ex-Ming Pao editor Kevin Lau in Hong Kong points to larger issues in Greater China geopolitics. The demonstrations in Venezuela have led to a military crisis. And the disappearance of... Read more
Greetings from Seattle. I’m happy to report that I’ve left Storybrooke and resettled at the University of Washington as a postdoc. Things have taken some time to warm back up, but I am back in full force. My first post from Seattle wasn’t on this blog. It was a guest post on “Rabelaisian Catholic” Artur Rosman’s wickedly funny blog, Cosmos the in Lost. Rosman works on a lot of things. He likes to dig up atheists and show that they’re... Read more
As I prepare to move to Seattle, I am also saying goodbye to a place dear to both my wife’s and my heart. That place is Steveston in Richmond, British Columbia. While we were both educated at the University of British Columbia and work in Vancouver proper, we have both called Steveston home for upwards of ten years. It has in fact been a place that has been central for our lives together. We began dating here. I proposed to... Read more
I cannot tell you how happy I am that the Vancouver Sun‘s spirituality and diversity columnist Douglas Todd managed to get Tenth Church Vancouver’s senior pastor, the Rev. Ken Shigematsu, on the front page of today’s Christmas Eve newspaper. I have been telling Doug to pay attention to Ken since the former decided to write about me in June. When Ken released a new book on spirituality with Zondervan, we tried to get Doug to write about it. Doug did... Read more
To be honest, I was not interested in the Duck Dynasty fiasco until Sarah Pulliam Bailey posted on it at Religion News Service. Yesterday, my social media feeds exploded with talk about the GQ interview that Phil Robertson gave in which he made some dubious comments about sexuality, race, and ‘terrorism.’ It happened that much of this news was neatly paralleled on my feeds with articles that focused on another putatively evangelical couple, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, for no... Read more
Mark Driscoll has broken his silence. Embedded in a statement released by Tyndale House publishers and circulated via The Christian Post, Driscoll has now clarified his plagiarism situation. On the heels of allegations that he plagiarized from D.A. Carson’s (actually, David H. Wheaton’s) 1 and 2 Peter commentary from InterVarsity Press (IVP), Driscoll now admits that sales on Logos Bible Software has earned Mars Hill Church $236.35 in profits before the book was pulled off the market. Without naming Carson,... Read more
Despite my efforts to get back to the evangelical material with #TPCIU (though it is not only ‘evangelical’; stay tuned), it seems unavoidable that on a week with two Marian feasts, I am now blogging about controversy about things Roman Catholic. I put up a less-noticed post on about why the Immaculate Conception should make you think of Asian Americans. Perhaps this second post will give that piece a second read. That is to say, this Feast Day of Our... Read more
It occurred to me when I mentioned Artur Rosman and Cosmos the in Lost in yesterday’s update on the Mark Driscoll plagiarism fiasco that I have a lot of friends who would identify as Roman Catholic theology and history buffs. Whether or not they are officially Roman Catholic or not remains an open question. If you want to know about my own convoluted theological history, you can read about the mess here. The point, however, is that this group of... Read more
Eastern Catholic Person
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