As an Asian-American/Canadian ~ yes a "dualie" (not the truck kind) ~ I've observed the subtle and obvious changes that have occurred within the North American Asian church over the past decade or so. I can't help but see the connection between our local-born addiction to technology and the lateral movement of it (in a Costco wholesale kind of way) into our spirituality. Is it just me or do local-born Chinese (in particular) still carry issues of identity into the 21st century? For instance, why are we so suspicious of the intentions of others? Why are we either too serious or too slack? Why are we either socially integrated or socially segregated? Why aren't there any "in between" to this madness? (i.e. local-borns either running in boatloads to the right or the left; Wallis liberalism vs. MacArthur fundamentalism). Perhaps, we ~ the benefactors of great wealth passed down to us from our hard working immigrant parents ~ are compensating by repeating the cycle taught to us from previous generations. Love = money, Security = material wealth? I don't know. The reason why I would point out the spirituality thing is that our theology - in particular because we are so affluent - is so similar to the same type of Southern Baptist WASP-ish tendencies that many of us grew up coping with (Chinese call you "gwai", White folk call you "those people"). As Ed Stetzer might ask, "how would we maintain biblical fidelity and faithfulness to the mission of God?" As a North American sub-culture, we are just so market-driven and crazy ~ we've sold out to middle-classism and the Southern Californian lifestyle. I feel like throwing up right about now.
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