Faith
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Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
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Freedom of Licking Shaved Ice in Honolulu
In April I had the opportunity to lead a Korean American Pastor Theologian Consultation in Honolulu, Hawaii (I know… someone has to suffer for the gospel). There were twenty one participants representing both genders and multi-generations. We were the recipients of fabulous Hawaiian hospitality from Pastor Mary Paik, her husband Dwight Morita, along with the congregation members of Nu’uanu Congregational Church. The event was sponsored by the General Assembly Mission Council and was a follow up consultation to the first one that was held in October 2010 in Colorado Springs. You can read more about the Pastor Theologian consultations and the particular context of these two Korean American pastor theologian consultations here (scroll down to “READ PASTOR THEOLOGIAN CONSULTATION REFLECTIONS”).
Why meet in Hawaii and not in Louisville? The rationale of the location was this. Unlike much of Asian American history on the continental U.S., Asian American history in Hawaii goes back some six generations. Given the current generational struggles of many Korean American churches on the continental U.S., the hypothesis was that we could learn much from Asian American churches in Hawaii who are several steps ahead of us in terms of their multiple generational shifts and struggles. Using the experience of the Korean American church in Hawaii as a template, I thought we could apply their successes and learn from their mistakes in order to forge a workable future for Korean American churches on the continental U.S. We did, indeed, learn much from their stories. The situations we encountered, however, in various Asian churches in Honolulu proved too complex to be contextually portable, and resisted easy direct application to our situations on the continent. However, mining the history of these churches and carefully studying their contexts will provide important clues and guidance not only for Korean and Asian churches but I believe for the denomination as well.
The myriad of reflections cannot be contained in this single blog entry. We do hope, however, to publish our theological reflections in a form that will be accessible to the larger church. Let me make one observation here that was especially striking to me (this particular observation is my own, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the group).
Asians and Pacific Islanders in Hawaii are the majority (51.3%) making up more than twice the number of Whites (24.3%). At one point, all of the consultant participants, twenty some Asians, in four vehicles, stopped at a shaved ice place where the Obamas go when they are in Honolulu. There we were, a veritable Korean mob, licking flavored ice in the middle of an outdoor strip mall, talking, laughing, making noise, being very visible… and it felt perfectly natural! If we were in Louisville, I would have felt very differently and quite self-conscious. It felt good to be part of the majority group. There was a sense of freedom, relief, belonging, and a kind of relinquishment. This was a new experience for me. I liked it.
This is not to say that Asians and native Hawaiians do not experience marginality. Kanakas (native Hawaiians) still get emotional when they are reminded of the imprisonment of Queen Liliʻuokalani and the annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii by the U.S. in 1898. Pearl Harbor is still the defining historical event for Japanese Kama‘āinas (long-time residents of Hawaii). And the reason why relatively few Japanese in Hawaii were interned after the Pearl Harbor attack compared to their counterparts in California was that half of the Hawaiian economy was directly dependent on the Japanese. Because of this, the then Territory of Hawaii could not afford to intern them all.
But still, Asians in Hawaii and Kanakas experience marginality differently and I would argue in a much less immediate way than most Asians on the continent. My theory is that being a part of the majority group with a long history in Hawaii has interesting ramifications in doing church and ministry. I’ll write more about this in the coming blogs. But for now I will treasure the experience of freedom and belonging while licking shaved ice in Honolulu. Delicious!
- Posted at 11:36 a.m.
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