Editor’s Note: The AAPI Christians for Black Lives event takes place Saturday, August 1. You can find out more information about the event here.
A friend of the SOLA Network, Dr. Alexander Jun is the co-chair of the vision committee for the “AAPI Christians for Black Lives” vigil in Los Angeles on August 1. This event is co-sponsored by Christian churches and parachurch organizations, but many do not have vision statements that perfectly align with the SOLA Network’s Confessional Statement. So then why is Dr. Jun, who is Reformed and an elder at his PCA church, supporting this event?
Dr. Jun said he believes that partnering with other Asian American Pacific Islander Christians to repent of anti-Blackness and pray for our Black Christian brothers and sisters is important, despite and because of our theological differences. We discussed how attending this vigil can be a step in Asian American Christians showing love and care for Black brothers and sisters, how we can “break bread with” not “break fellowship with” other Christians, and how socially and theologically conservative Christians need to take active steps to be a part of the conversation.
The following is a transcript of the video. It has been edited for clarity and readability.
Hannah Chao: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to The SOLA Network. I’m here again with Dr. Alexander Jun, who is a professor of higher education at Azusa Pacific University. He’s an author, he was a former moderator of the PCA, and currently, he is the co-chair of the vision committee for a march happening on August 1 called AAPI Christians for Black Lives. We really just wanted to talk to you about the march and about the organization. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about the AAPI Christians for Black Lives?
Dr. Alexander Jun: This event that we’re having is probably rare for a lot of us. We’re calling it a vigil. I refer to it as a prayer vigil. We’ll do other things as well, but [it is] primarily a prayer vigil, not a march.
Our focus is for Asian American Pacific Islander Christians to show love and empathy and solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters. It’s going to be here in Los Angeles on August 1. It’s in Leimert Park in Los Angeles, and a lot has gone into this in a very short amount of time, as I came to discover what it is and had some say in the direction and talking about the vision.
A big part of this is [asking] why are we having this event. SOLA is a good example of lots of articles, interviews, conversations, lament, and realizations for some Asian American Christian communities’ complete unawareness of what’s been going on — to go from completely unaware to starting to get an inkling of what’s been going on, and that’s leading to empathy, repentance, and conversations.
And then what? What’s the next step? Well, there are many different next steps, but one of them is to show public solidarity, empathy, love repentance, with our Black brothers and sisters and with other Asian American Pacific Islander Christians. This event, if you go to the website and you look at it, you’ll say, “I don’t recognize any of these churches because they’re not in my tribe.”
But they are, in fact, Asian American Pacific Islander Christians. That’s something that’s worth talking about. Why would you get together with people who aren’t in your tribe to address some of these issues? I’d love to talk about that as well.
Hannah Chao: So certain topics like racism are such an anti-Christian sentiment. There is power when Christians who have different theological stripes come together. I think that’s what your this vigil is going to do. So can you talk a little bit more about that?
Dr. Alexander Jun: If you are a socially and theologically conservative, Asian American Christian, if you’re a reformed Christian, you might look at this list of churches and either not recognize them or say, “Those are churches that are not in my tribe because we disagree on so many other theological issues or denominational differences and all that.”
But what an opportunity for us to gather around what I think we all do agree on, and you reference this — the sin of racism — and an opportunity for us to put aside our theological differences on other issues, and link arms in solidarity to show that we can be united on the issue of the sin of racism, especially anti-Blackness, and to show some solidarity in that way.
Does this mean that we then suddenly agree with everything, and we should agree with one another on all the differences that we have theologically? No, there will be another day in time to argue and fight on those issues, I’m sure. But for this issue, I don’t think anyone is in disagreement that the sin of racism, especially as it’s happened in anti-blackness to our Black brothers and sisters in American society for hundreds of years. But especially in these days, as we recognize it, can we come together?
So it’s a real test for ourselves as well. To be honest, theologically progressive and socially progressive Asian American Pacific Islander Christians have been engaged in this for a long time. They’ve been doing this work for a long time. It’s really the socially and theologically conservative folks who are just starting to get involved into some of this work. I imagine there’s some hesitation, doubts, and questions, which is I think is partly why we want to talk.
Hannah Chao: With more theologically conservative AAPI Christians, especially, there is a fear, that there’s like a slippery slope or a fear that, you know, once we associate with people who might be theologically progressive, that the message of you know, the Gospel gets diluted. They feel like, you know, that that can hamper the gospel, so to speak. What kind of encouragement would you give them and to assuage those fears?
Dr. Alexander Jun: I think it’s very appropriate to say we can link arms even in our disagreement for the sake of what we do agree with theologically and lean into that. So seek the positive and continue to lean into that and hold on to that because it’s Christ who unites us and on certain issues where we are united, I think it’s important to show solidarity.
But if you’re still concerned, I don’t agree with most things that some of my other Asian American Pacific Islander Christian friends hold to. I’m a reformed Presbyterian elder. I’ve taken vows on certain issues, and so we don’t agree. That doesn’t mean we can’t have fellowship.
I think I said this in a tweet or something. How do we learn to “break bread with” not “break fellowship with,” brothers and sisters in the Lord, where we disagree? And I think that this is a great opportunity.
For me, what do I want to accomplish? If you’re thinking about joining us — what is the end goal? Well, we were talking offline before how you like Taylor Swift.
Hannah Chao: Yes, I do! I’m proud!
Dr. Alexander Jun: That’s a good way to start a confession. *Laughs* Something about leading with confession and leading with repentance is a good spiritual practice. I’ve learned from some of my White brothers and sisters in the Lord, where we’ve repented publicly and confessed for some of our sins of commission, as well as sins of omission, with the Black community [and] black brothers and sisters.
Well, where do Asian Americans fit in? I’ve been saying this for a while for the last few months to say, I would love an opportunity where Asian American Christians, who haven’t been involved in some of this work and have been committing the sin of omission, can publicly come together and pray a prayer of confession and repentance as the first step. That’s a big reason why I want to go, and it’s part of the schedule as part of the program. If that’s where you are, if you do nothing else, but to go, pray, and share together but join in that public confession and repentance as the first step before we move on to doing something else. To be honest, that’s a big motivation for why I wanted to be able to go.
Is anyone going to be against — maybe somebody is — prayer, against repentance? That’s what this event is about for me. What this event is not ( just to put some fears at rest) is this is not a Black Lives Matter event — capital BLM, if you will. There’s plenty o
f Black Lives Matters rally events and protest marches that Asian Americans and Asian American Christians have been involved with. This is not that. This is a very unique, specific opportunity for Asian American Pacific Islander Christians to come together and demonstrate our solidarity to other Black Christians.
So we are actually partnering and have been invited by a Black church in Leimert Park, and that’s why we’re going there. That’s the other side of the argument: People are saying Asian American Christians just got together and decided they were going to do something, inflict some good on a Black community. What is this, short-term missions? So it’s an opportunity for us to link arms with a community that has invited us — a church. Hopefully, there’ll be equal representation and opportunities of prayer and other activities that we have together.
Hannah Chao: Since you bring up, non-Christian organizations have been doing rallies and marches. What would you say to Christians who see those, for example, Black Lives Matter or other affiliated groups on their social media? What would you say to those people who might say, “I don’t know what to think, As a Christian, should I go? Should I not go?” There has been a lot of discussion in the Christian community about Black Lives Matter, the organization, with its founders being Marxists having that be a part of the organization. But then can [Christians] still go to the protests? What would you say to people who are thinking about those protests?
Dr. Alexander Jun: One of the challenges that I would throw back to my friends is to say, “Are you consistent in that thinking or is it just Black Lives Matter?” The US military, for example, they’re not Christian, but hundreds, thousands, millions of people have served the US Military. Now, some might say that’s a different example. But we’re serving and there’s nothing explicitly Christian about the organization.
Or a right-to-life rally that’s organizes anti-abortion rallies that people will go to may or may not be Christian organizations. In fact, some people like non-Christians and others might say, “Oh, are you part of that group that blows up abortion clinics? Domestic terrorists? Is that what you’re involved in?”
We may not fully understand the organizations that put on these events. We may not even agree with some of the things that they do. But that hasn’t stopped us from getting involved. The Republican Party or the Democratic Party is not inherently Christian, but people will go to events and support certain things. There are charities and other organizations that are not Christian that we participate in because on certain issues where we feel conviction, we will be involved in [it].
I think [there’s a] danger of the coupling or the package dealing that prevents us from doing anything. If that’s true, we would be so paralyzed to do anything. It’s important for us to be at least a little bit more intellectually and spiritually mature in the way that we approach some of these things rather than this very reductive, knee-jerk reaction, to say, “Oh, there’s one or two elements to this. I’m going to reject it, and have nothing to do with it.”
Having said that, this type of event that we’re going to have — a prayer vigil among Christians, organized by Christians, even as we are theologically denominationally varied — is an opportunity. There are other options, and this is why these types of events get created: to give others the opportunity to say, “If you don’t want to participate in a secular organism, [but] because you care about Imago Dei, you care about Black lives because God cares about Black lives, then get involved in [this] Christian organization.
Now, if you don’t like the different theological convictions that people have, and you don’t want to play along with others, then in your own tribe, start one. But if we can’t even do that, then we have to have another conversation.
Hannah Chao: I do feel like there’s Christian Liberty here and our conscience is what might lead us another way But I feel like what you said in the very beginning where a lot of Asian American Pacific Islander Christians are learning and unlearning racism, there has to be some action taken. Something organized like a prayer vigil, especially by AAPI Christians and putting those steps forward is such a powerful way to work out our faith. Do you have anything else you’d like to add that I didn’t ask?
Dr. Alexander Jun: If you can’t make this event, that’s okay. It’s not a one and done type of thing. This is the first step in many steps that are public, and it’s necessary. I want to be careful for people who think that this is the next evolution of wokeness, and now we start looking down on people who are in reading groups or people who are in prayer. No, it’s all of it. That’s the way the Lord works — there multiple ways for us to be engaged, to show love, solidarity and empathy. This is just another way.
If you can come out on August 1, that’s great. If you’re a little hesitant, it will be live-streamed and you can see what we’re doing. I think that’ll be helpful. If your other concern is, “I don’t see enough of my people — conservative Asian American reformed people — visible or in the planning, then maybe the Lord’s answering your own prayer. The next event that we have, I’d love to invite more socially and theologically conservative Asian Americans to participate, organize and run these types of vigils and prayer opportunities. So this is an invitation for you all, to join and in solidarity and to work on these things.