Tried With Fire

Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South, Adrienne Berard, Beacon Press, 2016. Water Tossing Boulders is the true story of the Lum family's fight to have their children admitted to the whites-only public school in Rosedale, Mississippi. This unfolded in 1924-1927 during the years of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act , Jim Crow laws, and the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act . Jeu Gong and Katherine Lum were immigrants and part of the wave of Chinese laborers that came to this country to supply the loss of slave labor after the end of the Civil War. A large number of these laborers were denied entry or reentry with the Chinese Exclusion Act, the only law to-date that prohibited people from entering the US based on national origin. Laws were also stricter regarding the Chinese already here, but the Lums were able to settle in the deep South and open a small grocery store. The children, who were Americans by ...

We recently had a short Sunday school class on how to read the Bible. A few principles to consider are: Genre - Is the passage historical narrative, poetry, teaching, or apocalyptic literature? Context - What is the context of the verse in relation to the chapter, the book, and redemptive history? What was the meaning of the author? What would it have meant to the original readers/hearers? Without these guidelines, it is possible to misuse the Bible. Rather than asking what was the intent of the author , the text can become what I want it to mean to me . Authorial intent versus reader response . Instead of the Bible being about God's revelation of himself and his plan of redemption, I can read myself into the text and make the Bible all about me. For example, the story of David and Goliath. This is historical narrative that actually took place. It shows God's faithfulness to preserve his people and the line through which the Messiah would eventually come. The passage d...

This has been an unusual spring. In April and May, I had jury duty which meant being on call every Tuesday of the month not knowing until the night before. I reported only two Tuesdays, but it was stressful not knowing when I would have to serve. I like having some idea of the week ahead so spur-of-the-moment isn't my preference. It's gardenia time. I've cut dozens of flowers over the past week, and my house is filled with the fragrance. All the wet weather we had since last year seems to have made the gardenia bushes happy because they are full of blooms. Even though creation is under curse, even though there is so much that is wrong, there is still so much beauty in the world for which I am grateful. The book of nature, while limited, still speaks loudly of its Creator. If you like audio books, the freebie from Christian Audio this month has been very thought provoking. Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren picks up the same ideas as in You Are Wha...

I came across this Reformed Forum podcast with Dr. Richard M. Gamble, historian and member of the OPC. Dr. Gamble has just published a book, A Fiery Gospel: The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the Road to Righteous War. This book covers the background of the familiar "hymn," which was eye-opening to me. In a nutshell, a supposedly Christian song was written by a Unitarian who was influenced by German liberalism. The podcast is very interesting and points out how easily we are swayed by Christian-ish lyrics that sound vaguely biblical. Perhaps the vagueness is the reason The Battle Hymn endured and became part of American civil religion. I requested A Fiery Gospel through the public library, which I am hoping to read. In the meantime, I looked up Dr. Gamble's other books. His main area of research is American civil religion, a topic that I find grimly fascinating. I was able to find a copy of this book - In Search of the City on a Hill: The Making and Unmaking of an A...

The month of May has been designated Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month . These designated months are important, in my opinion, because it gives people an opportunity to reflect on their own heritage and educate the general public. I was ignorant of this aspect of my history until a few years ago, after which I wrote this post in 2016. I was never taught this in school. In fact, a history teacher I know never even heard of the Chinese Exclusion Act. To quote C.S. Lewis, "What do they teach them at these schools?" It is time to rectify that problem. Myths are fiction. History is not, and we shouldn't substitute or accept one for the other.* A few years ago, I read a novel based on Jane Austen's  Pride and Prejudice . In this case, it was told from a housemaid's point of view. There were a few storylines that were over the top, in my opinion, but my main objection was that this book burst my bubble. I didn't want to know about how hard a servant...

I did an Internet search for the meaning of karma . Most of the results had the same basic definition -  cause and effect. You control the outcome by your actions, temporally and even eternally. At face value, there is a small grain of truth to this. If I live heedlessly beyond my means, there are serious consequences for my actions. I will run out of money and be impoverished. But I could be very frugal and save as much as I can. What if the stock market and banks collapse as they did in the 1920s? My frugality will not overcome the bad decisions of both people and institutions. My responsible actions don't have the power to overcome the irresponsibility of others especially those who wield more power and authority to begin with. Thus simplistic cause and effect doesn't take other players and forces into account. Job's friends fell into karma-like thinking. To them, Job's suffering was obviously the result of something he did that displeased God. Therefore, the ...

A Twitter conversation this morning reminded me of what I had posted in the past about Fascinating Womanhood -  The Andelin Connection?   and  Roles - Another Andelin Connection?   Today's post was in draft form for more than a year.  I guess it's time to hit the publish button. I had been posting about a possible connection between Helen Andelin's bestselling book, Fascinating Womanhood  (FW), and Christian women's books/teaching. Andelin was a Mormon who believed she was called by "God" to teach women the secret to a Celestial Marriage.  The average reader may take those words as a poetic phrase describing happily-ever-after wedded bliss, but the wording is specifically Mormon. Because of her religious devotion, I don't think it is simply a case of her beliefs seeping into her book via osmosis. She saw herself as a prophetess on a mission. 1  Here is what Andelin says about Genesis 3:16. The father is the head, president, or spokesman of ...

pg. 272, Please don't try this at home. American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism , Matthew Avery Sutton, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014, 459 pages. About 10-11 years ago, I underwent a major theological shift from Arminianism to Calvinism and eventually becoming confessionally reformed (if LBC 1689 counts.) Because of this change, I felt compelled to find the answer to this question, "Why did I believe what I used to believe?" So I began to read church history specifically of the late 19th and 20th centuries. But the more I read, I realized that other forces shaped the formation of American Christianity. So my reading broadened beyond the history of the church to the history of the nation. American Apocalypse is the latest of these books that I have fondly categorized as -  grimly fascinating.  Different historians have looked at the rise of fundamentalism and evangelicalism from different angles such as the Scopes trial 1 or the ...

It's been a while since I've gotten back to blogging regularly. Part of it is I'm still in mourning for my dad. I think grief is going to be a steady stream that flows below the surface. It may rise or ebb, but it's always there. Another part is having too many thoughts in my head to organize in a coherent manner and reading too many books simultaneously. So in lieu of a pensieve, this post will be the repository for the random thoughts that have been swirling in my brain based on my recent reading. I wonder if my lack of concentration is due to my use of social media. I'm halfway through Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf. (Ironically I learned of the book via @scifri on Twitter.) Wolf is a neuroscientist and reading specialist. She is concerned that too much screen reading is impairing our ability to read deeply which impairs our ability to think and feel deeply. She is coming from an evolutionary perspective, so she believes that our reading brains evolved o...

" Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. "  James Baldwin After the news of President Trump's call to end birthright citizenship, I was shaken. I was always proud to be the first person on both sides of my family to be American by birth, but now I am faced with a problem. Is my citizenship a mistake because of a misreading of the Constitution? While my initial fears have abated somewhat, I am still wrestling with my feelings. I stopped wearing rose-colored glasses a long time ago, but there is still a sense of grief. My welcome to this country seems begrudging now and given in spite of what the founders and leaders of this country wanted, not because of them. And where do I stand now? Like Hermione Granger, when in doubt I go to the library. In other words, I research and read history to answer the age old question, "Why?" I have several pending interlibrary loan requests for books on immigration, and ...

This is one part of The Social Justice Statement that troubles me: WE AFFIRM that some cultures operate on assumptions that are inherently better than those of other cultures because of the biblical truths that inform those worldviews that have produced these distinct assumptions. Those elements of a given culture that reflect divine revelation should be celebrated and promoted. The "inherently better than those of other cultures" seems to fly in the face Paul's declaration in Phil. 3 that he counted all the rights and privileges of being raised as a Hebrew, as dung compared to the surpassing greatness of Christ. He also wrote in Romans that there is no advantage to the Jew or to the Greek because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If this is veiled reference to America, the debate is still out among Christian historians as to whether America is a Christian nation versus Christians being involved in its founding. Also we have to face the moral discon...

"American history reveals ambiguity in Americans' behavior and faithfulness to the principles on which the nation was founded. Americans have been true, false and indifferent to their stated ideals over time. There is no golden age to go back to, no glorious past to recover or to "take back." America consists of Americans who are flawed and fallible human beings. Americans have set themselves on a pursuit of justice, equality, of opportunity and of natural rights and freedoms. But Americans of every generation have continually struggled to understand what those things mean, how they are to be applied and who gets to enjoy them to their fullest extent. Religious people have always been influential in these issues, but even religious people who are dedicated to divine principles sometimes fail to see clearly and act faithfully. All people, including Christians, succumb to selfishness, short-sightedness, violence and vice. The human condition is complex, thus the Ame...

"When it comes to drawing wisdom from the past, we must be careful to discern between making normative moral judgments based on history and reflecting morally on history. McKenzie* emphasized the importance of this distinction, especially for a Christian. Moral judgments based on history are problematic, he said, because they require obedience to history where no divine mandate to do so exists. History is not authoritative, so drawing normative moral lessons from a past golden age of national history is not only unwise; it undermines the authority of Scripture by neglecting it and replacing it with another authority. It also places the person making the moral judgment in an artificially privileged position, so that with the Pharisee he demands others be subject to an extrabiblical source of authority arising from his own selfish motivations. Moral reflection, however, is directed selfward. McKenzie wrote that moral judgment "renders a verdict but requires nothing of the k...

Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump , John Fea, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018, 238 pages. Early in the morning on November 9, 2016, I was on my way to pick up the day's work. I turned on the radio and braced myself for the announcement that Hillary Clinton was elected. It would be an understatement to say that I was stunned when I learned that the next president would be Donald Trump. I think I pulled the car over to the side of the road. I was that shocked. My first major election was 1980, so I am not a new voter. Yet I don't remember there ever being an election where both candidates had so much ethical and moral baggage to disqualify them. For the record, I did not vote for Clinton or Trump. I understand holding one's nose in the voting booth (or in this case with an  SCBA  on) and choosing to be pragmatic even while being internally conflicted. However, it is another thing to rubber-stamp God's approval on a morally questionable candid...

When people talk about the "good old days," when was that? What made them good and for whom? I haven't asked those questions out loud when people wax nostalgic, although I am thinking them in my head. Maybe I should start voicing my questions. With respect, of course, but consider yourself forewarned. The following are several quotes by three historians on the problem of substituting nostalgia for an honest evaluation of the past. Nostalgia evokes warm emotions for times gone by. Depending on the data available, the basis of these feelings may or may not be historically accurate. But no matter how you spin it, a false narrative is still false. Even if it makes us feel good. I would also venture to guess that the power of nostalgia is indirectly proportional to our knowledge base. The more we know, the less there is to imagine and less opportunity for ourselves and others to fill in the blanks with what satisfies our emotions. Nostalgia then becomes less of a too...

It's amazing what you will find when you sort through your parents' stuff. Amidst all the papers, we found my dad's yearly teaching contracts, his letter of resignation when he retired, copies of my mom's scientific publications, the program from the concert where they first met (pianist Arthur Rubinstein), and a sheet and a half detailing a little history of my mom's family. Maybe it was a cultural thing, but my parents never talked a lot about life before they came to the US. Perhaps they don't remember, as in the case of my mom, but every find opens a window into the past and gives me a greater appreciation for my family. My grandfather came to Canada in the early 1900s to attend high school. His older brother had previously immigrated and owned a laundry. I remember my grandfather telling me that the kids made fun of him saying, "Chinaman, Chinaman, eat the rat." He said it with a laugh, and perhaps the passing of 60-70 years makes memories sting...

Culture and history are a powerful combination. It is all around us and affects our thinking whether we are aware of it or not. I was pretty clueless about this until I went through a dramatic theological shift from Arminianism to reformed theology. It was then that I embarked on a journey to learn about what I believed now, what I formerly believed, and why. It was difficult at times but worth digging up the roots of ideas I had taken for granted as gospel truth which were not. The journey has only continued, and since the 2016 election I am making a feeble attempt to understand the blending of evangelicalism and American culture that brought us to where we are today. My intent isn't to blame but to understand so I can be a bridge builder. It grieves me to see professing believers so sharply divided in the last few years particularly when it comes to issues of ethnicity and gender. Perhaps I can be someone who asks questions to get people to think about things they have not con...

I have a lot of questions regarding how we got to where we are today, which can only be answered by examining history and not relying on vague memories and urban legends from grade school. So I read books that could potentially raise some eyebrows. I just started One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin Kruse. Did your eyebrows go up at the title? If his thesis is true, the push for an increase in civil religion in the 50's was not just a response to the Cold War but a fear of Roosevelt's New Deal. Big business did not like the way the country was headed, so they promoted an amalgam of the independent self, Christianity, and capitalism to get the backing of ministers and, in turn, their congregations. In my words, you can worship God and Mammon. 1 I am troubled by what I am reading, not because I think Kruse got it wrong but because he might be right. The church shouldn't be the dupe or the pawn of any political agenda whether ri...

I started reading American Slavery, American Freedom by the late historian Edmund Morgan. This book was recommended in The Search for Christian America, so I checked it out of the library. I thought I was done with American history when I fulfilled my humanities requirements in undergrad, but I was wrong.  I'm not interested in history as a standalone subject. I read history because I want to understand what has led up to the present. We can vilify it, gaze at it through rose-colored glasses, but we can't escape it. How I see myself and where I find myself is a direct result of past events, and those events were not impartial nor kind to all people. We are reaping what was sowed whether we like it or not. But uncomfortable as it may be, the more accurately we understand our history can only help our understanding of one another. In a nutshell, I read history because only God has the right to think that He knows all there is to know about people and their experiences. ...

I've probably read more history in the last 5 years than in my entire life. It's funny how the things you thought were completely impractical are very relevant. History is awkward. It's very natural to want to distance ourselves from the injustices that occurred in the past. One reaction I have seen is for someone to talk about all the things he/she did that were the opposite of the situation in question or how his/her community was different. I get that. I'm not blaming you. But just because you or your community would have behaved differently doesn't mean that the event didn't occur. It still stands as a moment in time that we have to deal with. Sometimes it seems that American "city set on a hill" Christianity has morphed into the bunker in the hillside. It's a also a weird combination of withdrawal, very strong us/them mentality, and yet wanting to regain control via political means. It's also odd that a Christian subculture that is exp...