I recently participated in five different meetings with five different groups of lead pastors within two weeks. As conversation revolved around COVID and church lockdowns, I began to notice subtle differences between the non-Asian (White, Black, Hispanic) pastors and Asian American (AA) pastors.
On the surface, we had different perspectives, but I couldn’t help notice that these differing viewpoints were driven by different cultures, contexts, and ideas on congregational care. As an AA pastor, I observed, asked, and self-examined to understand how and why AA pastors are processing COVID and church closures differently. (Please note these are generalizations based on my conversations and may not apply to every AA or non-AA church).
1. Asian Americans leaders operate in a WE culture
It’s no secret that Western culture, and especially American culture, is far more individualistic than many others around the world. After all, one of the founding U.S. documents is the Declaration of Independence, which lays out a case for rebellion and independence.
This history has embedded a particular “I” attitude in the American spirit. As Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, vice chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Global Health Committee and an infectious disease doctor who has worked in Asia and on Ebola in Africa observes, “The U.S. is much more about ‘I’ than ‘we,’ whereas in other countries it’s more ‘we’ than ‘I.’
Asian culture, on the other hand, is deeply collectivistic and deferential. Individuals are expected to think of oneself in the context of the family, community, and country before self. Though AAs are more Westernized than their immigrant parents, they still understand that individual preferences may and should be set aside for the greater good of the group. That ethos allows AAs to more easily accept the requirement for masks and sacrifice indoor worship for a period of time.
2. Asian Americans leaders lead congregations that look to the church for community
While understanding the need to sacrifice personal desire for the community’s needs, the communal side of the AA also causes them to long for in-person gatherings.
Leaders such as Andy Stanley and Rick Warren have spent years delivering video content to campuses in a customized way. So the necessary current shift to online worship for such congregations is less dramatic. In some ways, it is an extrapolation of catering to the individualistic, customized worship experience that many desire.
But pastors caring for AAs know intuitively that the primary reason their congregations come to church is to be a part of a community in which they are known and accepted. Unfortunately, online church meetings simply cannot replace meals in the fellowship halls that their people have come to love. Some immigrant churches are struggling to connect with their congregations who are older, unable to keep up with technology, and are isolated from their normal connections.
I don’t believe this hunger is with just AAs but also with other minority groups, those in rural America and other areas of the country where the church plays a greater social role.
3. Asian American leaders view COVID from an apolitical vantage point
This may be because many AAs are immigrants who have not gained a strong foothold in politics and policymaking. It may also be because there are fewer AAs in political office. Or perhaps it is because AAs feel a sense of otherliness as hyphenated Americans and act more like bystanders than active participants in the political drama of Covid-19.
One of the differences that I have seen with some of the non-AA leaders is that they see government policy as something they can (and should) shape and challenge, while AA leaders see government policy as something they must study and react to. I have seen non-AA pastors attempting to change policy through contacting the county board of supervisors, writing letters to the governor, suing the government, or inviting confrontations with law enforcement. That is not the kind of talk heard among the AA leaders I talked to.
Another difference that I have seen is that non-AA leaders tend more frequently to frame policy decisions politically, while AA leaders do not. When the state banned indoor singing, most AA leaders simply accepted the ban and talked about its scientific merit. On the other hand, many non-AA leaders viewed the state leadership with greater suspicion based on past attitudes toward the church.
4. Asian American leaders don’t think the church is being persecuted
When California began prohibiting singing during indoor worship, many leaders believed that the state was overreaching in its authority and that science was inconclusive. This prohibition was more confusing as different layers of government (state, county, local law enforcement) gave conflicting opinions.
Prohibiting congregational singing (even with masks on) may have been a turning point for many church leaders. A personal poll of churches in North Orange County during that time revealed that the majority of non-AA churches chose to defy the government and continued to practice congregational singing.
Some AA churches also were singing in defiance. Yet, what was different was how the churches AA and non-AA churches differed in their perception and definition of persecution.
Many non-AA churches, who are steeped in American history, point to the First Amendment as giving citizens freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Thus, when the government limits gathering (in person) or expression (in singing), they would argue that this is the beginning of persecution.
Immigrants and children of immigrants of countries have a different perspective on what persecution is. Mandarin-speaking Chinese Americans will say that what the government is requiring of churches in the U.S. is not even in the same category of the religious persecution happening in China against Christians and Muslims.
AAs from countries such as Indonesia or Pakistan will say that systematic and cultural treatment of Christians by the majority culture is categorically different from what is happening in the U.S. Those who have relational knowledge of what happened during the Japanese occupation of Korea or North Korean Communist regime will also say that what is happening in the U.S. is not true persecution.
Though many AA leaders are also alarmed by the changing attitude toward the church in America, because of their proximity to Christians in different countries, most are not using the word persecution quite yet.
5. Asian American leaders are influenced by Asia
AAs cannot help but be influenced by news and trends in Asia. When COVID-19 started growing in China, the Mandarin-speaking churches in the U.S. were probably the first set of churches to react as they had a greater likelihood to know people who traveled to and from China.
When megachurches in Korea began to lockdown, some Korean immigrant churches in the United States began to stop Sunday gatherings without waiting for the government to issue any mandate. AAs also readily accepted face masks because it was already more accepted in Asian culture to wear masks to stop the spread of airborne diseases.
Furthermore, AAs will frequently view the world from a more bi-cultural or global perspective because of their bicultural heritage. For example, Korean Americans will watch the Olympics, not only as exceptional Americans but also as children of their heritage country. The broader AA community also will view the global pandemic in this way. Conversations among AA leaders will sometimes veer toward what Korea, Taiwan, or China is doing as a response to COVID.
Conclusion
Though a majority of my conversations have been with AA pastors in Southern California, they are helpful because Southern California also happens to have the highest concentration of AAs in the country and has become the battleground between government and church.
But instead of criticizing those with different convictions and perspectives, listening, asking, and self-examining may help us to understand why leaders with the same data may come to different convictions and perspectives. And as bicultural, minority children of immigrants, we may also realize that we are also children of our culture, good and bad, with something to contribute and blind spots to be revealed as well.