Asian Week begins monthly column on Asian American religion and spirituality

UPDATES 04.20.08 - Column posted on Asian Week's Site.

Asian Week, self proclaimed "Voice of Asian America" has got some schmuck to write about religion and spirituality in the Asian American community.  The first column, as part of the "Beyond Borders" series by your truly was published in the April 18th edition.  Is has not made it onto their website yet, but I think things will get smoother as the series develops.  Beyond Borders will tackle some non-traditional topics in the Asian American Community: homosexuality, religion, youth and Black-Asian issues.  Asian Week is located free around the city.

My first column was basically asking folks to be open to the complexity of Asian American spirituality just we are with the Asian American experience as a whole.  Funny that it was edited down to not be as snarky as I usually am.  Oh well.

In any case I also asked folks to submit ideas for future columns and I would try to address them there or on the new Beyond Borders Blog, so if you have some ideas, feel free to leave them here.

Comments

[A.Y. Siu]

Yeah, I just picked up an AsianWeek today and saw your column and thought I wonder why he didn't blog about this, and lo and behold... here's your blog post about this. Cool beans.

[Ryan]

I suppose I'll suspend my unwillingness to read race-centered media to check out your article. Do you have the rights to this article? It'd be nice if you can post it yourself.

[Bruce Reyes-Chow]

Ryan - too too funny. The old-school activist in me would say, all media is race-centered, some more than obvious than others ;-) But then again, I am getting soft and less discerning in my old age. They edited the article down a bit from my original submission, so you'll have to go on over and read it there.

[Ryan]

Bruce - I just read your column. I have a topic suggestion:

I've heard that Sunday mornings are the most segregated time in America.

1) Is that true?
2) Is it a bad thing? (it generally comes out in a negative tone)

Hmm... that kind of sounds like a topic I'd tackle on my blog, which I would incidentally characterize as non-race-centric. But you're certainly entitled to your opinion.

[Bruce Reyes-Chow]

Yeah, that is a well known quote and i would suspect it is still true. I don't actually think it is bad as long as a community understand the obstacles and opportunities that their homogeny brings. Whether it ethnic, cultural or class every church has it's common culture that keeps people there.