Starting at the First Korean Presbyterian church in LA and what used to be the Korean National Association.
This is the first Korean Church in LA, established in 1906 (building built in 1938).
This is the first Korean Church building to be built from the ground up. It was built in 1938 after purchasing the lot in 1936. The first Korean church established was in Hawaii in 1903.
This is the interior of the building.
It’s an aging congregation.
At the Korean National Association museum where we are learning about the independence movement that took place here in the US during Japanese colonial rule over Korea.
It’s great to see so many people from different generations on the #reclaimtrip.
A little bit of Korean American history in four panels.
Four more panels on early Korean American history
One of my @WheatonCollege students is also on the trip as he is from one of the churches in Boston that is participating in the trip. He’s trying to play the song of establishment of the Korean National Association.
They had already been to Chinatown and Koreatown before I got in. I’m excited for everyone to explore Little Tokyo tomorrow.
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Generally speaking, “conservatives” (in the broad sense of the word) know how to build and maintain institutions in ways that “progressives” don’t. Conservatives also generally know how to stick together in ways that progressives don’t.
Here are a few reasons why…
Conservatives know what they are trying to conserve because they don’t have to imagine something new, while progressives have a sense of what needs to be done and pursued, but often find out that people aren’t on the same page - and thus, they splinter.
Conservatives generally don’t need to exercise much imagination outside of ways of adapting to the broader changes. Their hurdle is irrelevancy. Progressives generally need to exercise more imaginative than most people have the capacity to handle. Their hurdle is exhaustion.
There are plenty of people who hold bad ideas. In fact, everyone will be wrong, many times in their life - this is inevitable.
The problem isn’t necessarily with people who have bad ideas, but what we do when those bad ideas are coupled with power and influence.
What do you do when people with bad ideas garner power and resources to promote and perpetuate those bad ideas?
When some people hold bad ideas, it isn’t consequential. When others hold them, it can be deadly. When bad ideas gain muscle, it can lead to devastation.
I’ve never had a problem in walking with people who disagree with me (I actually welcome disagreement because it informs me both of what others are seeing and what I may not be seeing) and am open to being wrong and changing my mind.
You will always have an audience with white evangelicalism if you don’t actually address racism and white supremacy with any real force. Always.
White evangelicalism is always on the lookout for the palatable person of color to say just enough not to appear backwards.
This isn’t to say there aren’t any “good” white evangelicals. What you often find is that white evangelicals don’t want to fall out of grace with the tribe they’ve curated and cultivated and called home - a home that has been brutal for Christians committed to racial justice.
Then you have racialized minority Christians who thought they would find a home with fellow Christians but instead got entangled with the economics of a system that has never had any regard for their dignity & worth, apart from the ways that they could be used as mouthpieces.
If you don’t understand the weight of the brutal murder of #TyreNichols on the Black community, this would be a good moment to press in & pay attention, to sit in & sit with the grief, & to try to comprehend that many know they could’ve been in the same situation.
They’ve seen and experienced this since they can remember. Police brutality existed since the days of chattel slavery.
I can’t tell you the number and type of Black people who have experienced some form of harassment, profiling, mistreatment, and violence at the hands of police.
Those who are supposed to protect and serve, end up being the ones who cause the most terror because their weapons are given to them by the state and their violence is often justified.
Sadly, in corrupt systems, even the good cops get penalized for standing up for what is right.
It was after a Lunar New Year festival in Monterrey Park, CA, a city that is 65% Asian and 27% Hispanic, but almost all Asian where the shooting took place.
It is also the first suburban Chinatown in the US.
News of a second shooting also surfaced in Alhambra, CA, which is one town over - just three miles away.
Alhambra is 52% Asian and 26% Hispanic.
These mass shootings are preventable. It’s not too late to act.
We need:
Mental health services. Stronger communities. More equitable education & social service opportunities. Reduction in economic disparities. Increased gun safety measures.
Christian nationalism is a religion many Christians in the US need to repent of.
Turn away from the false religion of Christian nationalism. Believe in the gospel, which can teach you how to love your country without worshipping it.
Christianity is not American. The United States is not a Christian nation. America has been informed and influenced by Christian values, but has never been Christian - ever. All one needs to do is look at Black history to understand that the US was never a Christian nation.
I am grateful we can freely practice Christianity and freely follow Jesus in the US. The freedom to follow any religion is what can make the US special. Sadly, throughout history, people who weren't Christian in the US faced significant discrimination.