EVANGELICALISM

Number 7 – January 2010

The Grand Rapids Press (Friday, December 4, 2009) carried an interesting item that relates to our theme “The Rs That Matter: Race and Reconciliation.” Julia Bauer wrote the article “Editor: Lesson Learned – Zondervan’s New Chief Takes Racial Misstep to Heart.”

Zondervan published DEADLY VIPERS CHARCTER ASSASSINS: A KUNG FU SURVIVAL GIDE FOR LIFE AND LEADERSHIP by Mike Foster of Los Angeles and Jud Wilhite of Las Vegas. Stan Guidry, editor-in-chief at Zondervan, reported that the “basic message of the book is, there are lots of ways leadership and integrity can be compromised and undermined.” Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite were on circuit for two years giving sermons and lectures and teaching about leadership principles rooted in their book. They received no critical comments until North Park Theological Seminary Professor Soong-Chan Rah launched an online battle between Asian-American Christians and Zondervan.

Rah’s blog challenged DEADLY VIPERS CHARACTER ASSASSINS images for portraying Asians as buffoons and sinister enemies. Some of the most egregious offenses he lays out include:
- The video clip is extremely offensive and portrays Asians in a cartoonish manner in order to market your merchandise. Particularly offensive is the voiceover of a white person doing a faux Asian accent.
- The use of Chinese characters and Kanji in a non-sensical manner.
- The confusion and conflation of Chinese and Japanese cultures.
- The use of Asian symbols, like a Japanese garden, kimonos, samurai swords in a non-essential manner that does not honor the heritage or culture of Asians.
- You are taking a caricature of Asian culture (the martial art warriors, the ninja, etc.) and are furthering the caricature rather than engaging Asian culture in a way that honors it.
- The bottom line. You are representing a culture that you do not know very well to thousands of people. You are using another culture to make your message fun and that is offensive to those of us that are of that culture and seek to honor our culture.

The book title DEADLY VIPERS CHARACTER ASSASSINS seems to be inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s movie “Kill Bill 1 and 2.” The Deadly Vipers Assassination Squads (DVAS) are fictional Asian characters in “Kill Bill.” Bill is the manager of the assassination squads who assassinate the Bride at her wedding and her unborn fetus is cut from her womb. The movie centers on her recovery and her seeking revenge on the five deadly Asian Vipers.

Zondervan has pulled from its shelves all copies of the books and has recalled whatever copies they can get, cancelled the planned second printing and stopped all marketing efforts.

It is interesting to note that on his November 30, 2009 blog, Professor Rah congratulated Mike and Jud for launching a new improved website:”The People of the Second Chance.” The new blog continues their work on themes of leadership and integrity without the racist images of DEADLY VIPERS CHARACTER ASSASSINS.

Zondervan’s elimination of such racist materials is here applauded. The appointment of Stan Guidry to the new position Editor-in Chief emerged from the controversy. His primary task is to ensure that future publications treat ethnic groups fairly.

Even more significant is Zondevan’s mandate requiring all staff to read Professor Rah’s THE NEXT EVANGELICALISM: FREEING THE CHURCH FROM WESTERN CULTURAL CAPTIVITY.

Professor Rah is clear that he believes that “if the American church is going to be a relevant participant in the future of global Christianity, it had better recognize the church’s new multicultural reality.” Sixty percent of the world’s Christians are Africans, Asians and Latin Americans. And the American evangelical church is declining, or at least its Anglo component is. The non-Anglo American evangelical church is thriving. Rah challenges the North American Church to break free of its allegiance to Western, Eurocentric and white American mindsets. He calls for a new evangelicalism that is global, diverse and multiethnic.

George P. Wood, in his review of THE NEXT EVANGELICALISM, asks two questions in support of Rah’s thesis: “Why do we think the three B’s—buildings, bucks, and butts in the pew—are indicators of a church’s success, if its even an appropriate word for a church to use? And why do we presume that non-white culture is a mission field that needs our contributions and competence, rather than the other way around?”

THE NEXT EVANGELICALISM is worth our reading and reflection as we deal with the evangelical efforts of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Again from Professor Rah’s blog (Nov. 20, 2009):
Mike Foster, Jud Wilhite and Zondervan acted in a decisive manner yesterday. Zondervan issued a statement that boldly declared their intention to pull the book off the shelves. Their actions were courageous and bucks against business conventions but upholds theological and ecclesiological ones. They acted in the best interests of the body of Christ and for Christian witness above ego and profit…
Last night, after I heard the news, I was putting my son down for the night. I thought to myself: “There is one less expression of a stereotype and cultural insensitivity out there that you will have to deal with. There are many others, but at lest there is one less.”

Race and Reconciliation – The Rs That Matter!
What are your thoughts on this topic??
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