tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10635723073135795102024-03-13T03:08:39.675-07:00Jesus for Revolutionaries: A Blog About Race, Social Justice, and ChristianityRobert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-47177324749103800872013-03-13T10:41:00.001-07:002013-04-19T07:47:24.898-07:00We've "Immigrated" to A New Website! jesusforrevolutionaries.org<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear Friends,<br />
<br />
I hope you are doing incredibly well today! <i><b>The Jesus for Revolutionaries Blog has moved</b></i><b> to a new and improved website</b>!<b> All of our previous posts are available on the new site. </b><br />
<br />
<b>Please check out our new site!</b> You can get there by clicking on the website image to your right or by clicking on the link below...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://jesusforrevolutionaries.org/">http://jesusforrevolutionaries.org/</a><br />
<br />
Please spread the word!<br />
<br />
All best,<br />
Robert<br />
<br /></div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-82983879760087727862013-03-06T13:18:00.001-08:002013-03-06T15:34:48.500-08:00“Operation Wetback” and the Racist History of U.S. Immigration Law<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This week we return to our 40-day series on
immigration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a past blog we
looked at how most Chinese immigrants (my maternal side) were excluded from the
U.S. between 1882-1943 as part of what were known as the Chinese exclusion
laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We, the Chinese, were the
first ethnic group to be singled out for exclusion from the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the Chinese, the United States
proceeded to recruit other Asian immigrants such as Japanese, Koreans, and Filipinos
to fill the labor void caused by exclusion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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In time, these other Asian immigrants became systematically
barred from the United States through various laws and diplomatic agreements as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anti-Asian sentiment
reached its apex in federal law when <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Immigration Act of 1917 </i>was passed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This law created an “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Asiatic Barred Zone</i>” which banned “Asian” immigration to the United
States from much of Asia and the Pacific Islands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This barred zone encompassed a huge mass of territory all the
way from Turkey in the west to the Polynesian Islands in the east.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>President Wilson tried to veto the law,
but the law was so popular that Congress over-rode his veto! </div>
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The Immigration Act of 1924 further enshrined these
prohibitions against Asian immigrants and expanded restriction to Southern and
Eastern Europeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Immigration
Act of 1924 was an extension of the “Emergency Quota Act of 1921.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Emergency,” as in, “help, we have an
‘emergency’ on our hands—too many inferior Italians, Russians, Greeks,
Hungarians, and Poles are coming to our country.” </div>
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The Immigration Act of 1924 severely limited the immigration
of people from these less favored nations of Southern and Eastern Europe, and
favored immigration from Northern European nations such as Germany and Great
Britain. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the U.S.
Department of State Office of the Historian, the goal of the 1924 Act was
"to preserve the ideal of American [cultural and racial] homogeneity.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a side note, the general policy of
racist quotas in the U.S. was not overturned until 1965!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All this restriction
created fertile ground for wide-scale immigration from Mexico during the early
twentieth century.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who would fill
the labor void caused by these racist immigration laws, especially in the
Southwest?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Answer:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mexicans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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It just so happened that as my Asian peeps were being systematically
banned from the U.S., my other peeps in Mexico (my dad’s side) were going
through a bloody civil war called the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Mexican Revolution was so violent
that scholars claimed it took the lives of anywhere from 1.9 to 3.5 million people!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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There was a perfect historical fit:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the U.S. needed cheap labor in places
like California, Texas, and Arizona, and thousands of Mexicans were looking to
flee the violence of the Mexican Revolution and come to the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This all led to what
scholars call the Great Mexican Migration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
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The Great Migration gave birth to a huge, somewhat-new
(after all, the Southwest was still Mexico in the mid-19<sup>th</sup> century
and thousands of erstwhile Mexicans still lived in the Southwest during the
early 20<sup>th</sup> century) Mexican community scattered throughout the
United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We did many of the
low-wage jobs required by the economy of the Southwest in agriculture, railroads,
construction, mining, and factories. By the 1920’s, we made up 3/4 of the
workforce of the 6 major western railroads, and ¾ of construction workers and
80 percent of migrant farm workers in Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In California, we represented ¾ of the agricultural work
force, and nearly 2/3 of workers in construction, food processing, textiles,
automobile and steel production, and utilities industries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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We Mexicans were paid very low wages compared with white
workers, even when we did the same jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is because of something called the “Mexican scale.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Employers felt justified to pay us less
because of our brown skin, and, since the 19th century they had exploited us to
keep wages low, break strikes, and weaken labor unions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Although our cheap labor was initially welcome, that all
changed in 1929 with the onset of the Great Depression. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American society scape-goated us and blamed
us for job losses, the shortage of relief services, and housing
congestion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The American
Federation of Labor led the anti-Mexican campaign, and even President Herbert
Hoover promoted anti-Mexican public opinion.</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This economic
scape-goating led to massive, unjust deportations to Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
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From 1930-1935, 345,839 of us Mexicans were repatriated or
deported back to Mexico! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In fact, almost 2/3 of Mexicans who came to
United States in the 1920’s were sent back to Mexico.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Los Angeles lost 1/3 of its Mexican
population.</div>
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Tragically, Mexican Americans were not excluded from
deportation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In California, over 80% of the repatriates were U.S. citizens or legal
residents of the U.S.!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>According
to one of my uncles whose family lived through this time period in Pico Rivera<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, immigration officials even conducted raids
in churches!</i></div>
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These unjust deportations broke up many families and thousands
of American-born kids were separated from their parents. For the rest of the
Great Depression, we lived in a climate of fear and uncertainty.</div>
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Fast forward in time a few years to 1942 and World War
II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of the extensive
war effort which redirected many Americans (including many Mexican Americans)
to the military and defense work, the U.S. experienced a labor shortage in
agriculture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guess who it turned
to to fill the labor shortage in agriculture? Mexico!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s right, after deporting 2/3 of us less than a decade
before, they suddenly threw down the welcome mat again—this time by initiating
a temporary guest worker program known as the “Bracero Program.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of this program, nearly 250,000
of us Mexicans were recruited to work for low wages on farms in the Southwest
and Pacific Northwest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Many <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">undocumented
workers</i> were also hired by growers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As the years passed, American farmers encouraged or required “bracero
workers” to keep working without renewing their work visas with the U.S.
government. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a consequence,
within a decade, undocumented farm workers came to outnumber documented farm
workers by a ratio of three to one (Props to UCLA grad student Kim Serrano for
filling me in on this in one of her recent papers).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In summer 1954, U.S.
immigration policy took yet another schizophrenic turn when President Dwight
Eisenhower launched “Operation Wetback.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></i>That is a sickening name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like it’s predecessor program in the 1930’s, Operation Wetback was a
mass deportation program. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a
quasi-military operation spear-headed by the United States Border Patrol, together
with the military and city, county, state, and federal authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of their massive hunt for
undocumented immigrants, they went house-to-house in Mexican-American
neighborhoods and checked for papers as part of regular traffic stops. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They probably went door to door just a
few blocks down the street from where I live today.</div>
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On the first day of Operation Wetback, authorities
apprehended 4,800 undocumented immigrants, and thereafter arrested about 1,100
Mexican immigrants a day throughout the summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The INS boasted (perhaps exaggerating its “success”)
that its racist operation led to the deportation or “voluntary deportation” of
more than 1 million Mexicans. Does that “voluntary deportation” sound familiar
(yes, that was Mitt Romney’s idea, too)?</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Upshot</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The main purpose of this blog post has been to highlight the
intense historical racism which has characterized U.S. immigration policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether it be the mass deportations of
the 1930’s, Operation Wetback, or even the mass deportations (1.4 million!)
carried out by President Obama over the past four years, the historical pattern
has been the same:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Recruit us Mexicans as
a cheap, undocumented labor supply when it is necessary to keep the U.S.
economy afloat. </i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In times of economic difficulty,
scapegoat and blame us for taking the jobs of Americans and taking government
services (how dare we go see a doctor or educate our children, in addition to
working our 60-70 hour work weeks picking your fruits and vegetables, raising
your children, cooking your food, maintaining your educational campuses, fixing
your lawn, or remodeling your home? We are strong, but we still break down from
time to time. We are not brown robots ). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then, we get deported by
the thousands, and painfully separated from the beautiful families we created after
we were recruited to work in the jobs which no one else wanted to do.</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then, because of labor
shortages, we get recruited back to the U.S. after a few years to work once
again in the jobs no one else wants to do.</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Repeat cycle from 1910
to the present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This historical pattern constitutes biblical oppression, and it is
antithetical to all the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Bible clearly teaches that when we oppress immigrants in this
manner</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we are oppressing Jesus
Himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conversely, when we love
immigrants and treat them humanely, we are actually loving Jesus Himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we “welcome the stranger” (as Matt Soerens and Jenny
Hwang have passionately and compassionately written about: <a href="http://welcomingthestranger.com/">http://welcomingthestranger.com/</a>),
we are welcoming Jesus Himself.</i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jesus articulates
this amazing truth in Matthew 25: 31-46:</b></div>
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31 “When <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the Son of Man (Jesus)</b> comes in his glory, and all the angels with
him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered
before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and
the goats on his left.</div>
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34 “Then <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the King (Jesus)</b> will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are
blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since
the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to
eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I (Jesus) was a stranger
(immigrant) and you invited me in</i></b>, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed
me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit
me.’</div>
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37 “Then the righteous will answer
him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you
something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or
needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go
to visit you?’</div>
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40 “The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">King (Jesus) </b>will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’</i></b></div>
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41 “Then <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">he (Jesus)</b> will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who
are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For
I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
nothing to drink, 43 <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I was a stranger (immigrant) and you did not
invite me in</i></b>, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick
and in prison and you did not look after me.’</div>
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44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord,
when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick
or in prison, and did not help you?’</div>
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45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell
you, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whatever
you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’</i></b></div>
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46 “Then they will go away to
eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As Matthew 25 teaches, when we love immigrants, we are loving Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we oppress immigrants, we are
failing to love Jesus in our midst</i></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we exploit undocumented immigrants for their cheap
labor and then deport them out of political expediency, we are doing the same
to Jesus.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The U.S. has been deporting Jesus for the past 100 years.</i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Will we continue to do the same?</i></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As followers of Jesus,
we, of all people, must take Scripture seriously and sound the loudest clarion
cry against the unjust deportation of immigrants in the United States today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must break the vicious historical
cycle set in motion by racist policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, The
Immigration Act of 1924, the mass deportations of the 1930’s, and Operation
Wetback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is our biblical
mandate and calling.</span></div>
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Here’s a way you can get involved: <a href="http://welcomingthestranger.com/">http://welcomingthestranger.com/</a></div>
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Robert Chao Romero</div>
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@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
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<a href="http://jesusforrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/">http://jesusforrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-70495171953039422512013-03-01T14:33:00.001-08:002013-03-02T07:53:12.163-08:00The Supreme Court Battle over the Voting Rights Act<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We are currently in a 40-days blog series about immigration. In light of the current U.S. Supreme Court battle over the Voting Rights Act--the highest court of the land just hear oral arguments on a big voting case yesterday--I felt like it was really important to write a blog on the topic. Here goes...</div>
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---------------------------------------- </div>
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Latin@s and African Americans have historically experienced
wide-scale discrimination in voting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This discrimination has taken the form of poll taxes, racial
gerrymandering, all white primaries, and prohibitions against interpreters at
the polls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lest you think such
discrimination is an artifact of the distant past,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> as recently as August 28, 2012 (yes, just six months ago), the state
of Texas was found guilty of racial gerrymandering</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Texas was found guilty of deliberately
drawing district boundaries in such a way as to weaken the voting power of democratic-leaning
Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In so doing, Texas violated <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In its comments upon the case, the
League of Women Voters denounced the Texas plan as “the most extreme example of
racial gerrymandering among all the redistricting proposals passed by lawmakers
so far this year.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Just yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments
in a case which seeks to overturn—yes you guessed it—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Section 5, jurisdictions
with a history of constructing voting barriers against racial minorities need
federal authorization before they can implement certain voting changes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A state or local jurisdiction can get
off this “pre-clearance list” by demonstrating a 10-year clean record of no
racist violations in voting practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Guess which states are part of the racist voting list?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and most of Virginia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I
can’t help but notice that many of these states have also recently passed some
of the most racist, anti-immigrant laws in the nation</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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The current lawsuit before the Supreme Court was brought by
Shelby County, Alabama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shelby County is still on “the list”
because it cannot demonstrate a clean record of 10 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an example, the city of Calera,
which is located within Shelby County was found guilty of redrawing its city
council districts in such a way as to prevent the reelection of the
municipality’s only black city council member.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Latina Supreme
Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor—the first Latin@ member of the U.S. Supreme
Court—did not miss this irony. In yesterday’s hearing she said: "Some
parts of the South have changed. Your county pretty much hasn't," said
Sotomayor. "You may be the wrong party bringing this."</div>
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<br /></div>
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Opponents of Section 5 say that racism in voting is no
longer a big problem in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Super conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has
even said that Section 5 results in the “perpetuation of a racial entitlement”—i.e.,
that it results in black and brown politicians and constituencies feeling
“entitled” to have voting districts which reflect their cultural communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To that I say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Damn straight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been locked out of the
political structures of the U.S. for the past two hundred years because of
outright racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has resulted
in the creation of hundreds of laws and policies which have oppressed and
handicapped our communities—in law, education, healthcare, media, you name
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are just now starting to
gain political recognition and a meaningful hearing in the public square. And
now you want to tie our hands behind our back again? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No way Scalia and Roberts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No way.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Racism is still alive and well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may not see it, because it doesn’t affect you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come to our communities. Come to our
homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come to our schools and
hospitals and cities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are still
deeply impacted by decades of discrimination—past and present—and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we need to be able to elect leaders who
understand how what we’ve been through still affects where we are today, and
leaders who understand our current realities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act </i>is necessary to
preserve the small political voice we have recently gained, and to ensure that
our voice continues to be heard.<br />
<br />
Let's pray for justice in the Supreme Court, </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Chao Romero</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</a></div>
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Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-68534718314105853362013-02-22T10:17:00.004-08:002013-02-27T18:20:26.024-08:00“A Day Without A Mexican”: The Essential Economic Contributions of Undocumented Immigrants <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>What if my wife woke up this morning and found me missing—together
with my two kids and the more than 14 million other Latinos in California?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s the premise of the 2004 film, “A Day Without A
Mexican.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a means of
advocating for compassionate immigration reform, the film shows that the state
would come to a standstill without the vital economic contributions made by
Latinos—both documented and undocumented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to the film (conceived in part by Raul Hinojosa,
one of my departmental colleagues at UCLA), Latinos contribute 100 billion
dollars to the California economy each year, while only drawing 3 billion
dollars in social services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We comprise 60% of all construction
workers in the state, and the agricultural industry—the most lucrative industry
in California—is entirely dependent upon us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We raise the children of the wealthy, wash their cars, paint
their houses, and serve them food and libations in their favorite restaurants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A lot of us are teachers, doctors, professors, lawyers, and
dentists, too. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We (including our undocumented brothers and sisters), pay
millions of dollars in taxes which help keep our state afloat in desperate
economic times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And oh, we’re not all “Mexican.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though some of us are proudly Mexican, we also come from 21
other beautiful and distinct countries in Latin America—Guatemala, El Salvador,
Argentina, Cuba, Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, just to name a few…</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And so, If we Latinos
were to suddenly disappear, California would lose out on this wonderful
diversity—and also grind to an economic halt.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the main point of “A Day Without A Mexican.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It’s also the main
point of compassionate, comprehensive immigration reform.</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 11 million
undocumented immigrants of the United States contribute in essential ways to
the economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recent statistics
reveal that undocumented immigrants contribute <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">more than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">2 trillion dollars a
year to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the United States! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></b>Without these vital economic
contributions, our nation would plunge into economic despair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Undocumented immigrants do the jobs no one else wants to
do—for low wages that no one else wants to get paid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their low wages ensure big profits for large corporations
and small businesses alike, and for the 401(k) retirement plans of millions of
Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their low wages also
make it possible for 99 cent Big Mac specials, $4.99/lb strawberries, $39.99
Forever 21 jeans, $99 Expedia.com travel specials, and a wide assortment of
Angie’s List specials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><br /></span></u></div>
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Undocumented immigrants account for 4.3% of the U.S. labor
force—about 6.3 million workers out of 146 million.</div>
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<br /></div>
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They are clustered in construction, agriculture, service
sector, and domestic work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Undocumented workers make up:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
27% of
drywall/ceiling tile installers</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
21% roofers</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
20% construction
laborers</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
26% grounds
maintenance workers</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
25% butchers/meat
and poultry workers</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
18% cooks</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
23% misc.
agricultural workers</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
22% maids and
housekeepers</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
18% sewing machine
operators</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Note that these are national statistics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In places like California, Texas, New
York, and Florida, the percentages are much higher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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To fill our ravenous need for cheap labor, 300,000 to
500,000 undocumented immigrants came to the U.S. in the early 2000’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is estimated that 11 million undocumented
immigrants currently live in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If 6.3 million
undocumented workers and their families contribute more than $2 trillion per
year to the U.S. economy, guess how many unskilled labor visas the U.S. granted
to immigrants throughout the world in 2010?:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4,762.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>In fact, the maximum number of annual
unskilled labor visas granted by the U.S. government is capped at only
10,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Can you see the grave injustice here?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The U.S. benefits from the cheap and
arduous labor of 6.3 million undocumented workers—to the tune of $2 trillion annually--but
it is only willing to grant 10,000 (or less) low-skill worker visas per year!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">6.3 million workers vs. 10,000 unskilled
labor visas</i></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That’s
INJUSTICE!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The United States benefits immensely from the cheap labor of 6.3
million undocumented workers, but it is not willing to officially recognize
these vital economic contributions by granting legalized status and a pathway
to citizenship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s not
right!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To fail to grant legalized status to these 6.3 million
workers and their families constitutes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">biblical
oppression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible is clear: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“You shall not
<u>pervert justice due the stranger (immigrant)</u> or the fatherless, nor take a
widow’s garment as a pledge.” Deut 24: 17.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>“Cursed is the one who perverts the
justice due the stranger</u>, the fatherless, and widow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deut 27: 19.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>“Do not oppress an
alien</u>; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens
in Egypt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exodus 23: 9</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each day we fail to pass compassionate comprehensive
immigration reform in this country, we perpetrate biblical oppression and
pervert justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We oppress
undocumented immigrants when we allow ourselves to benefit from their essential
economic contributions, but deny them the concomitant rights of political citizenship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As followers of Jesus, let’s do all we can to advocate for compassionate
and comprehensive immigration reform. And let’s ask God to carry out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">His justice</i> for undocumented
immigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s a good
way to start: <a href="http://g92.org/experience/challenge/">http://g92.org/experience/challenge/</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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In hope,</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Chao Romero</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl</a></div>
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Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-31068900830062137182013-02-15T07:58:00.001-08:002013-02-15T08:02:22.822-08:00We (the Chinese) Were the First "Undocumented Immigrants" from Mexico<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Unknown to most people, we, the Chinese,
were the first “undocumented immigrants” from Mexico.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, we were the first undocumented immigrants
from anywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is because we
were the first ethnic/racial group to be singled out for official exclusion by
the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
many people do know, we first came to the U.S. to make our fortunes during the
California Gold Rush (in the 1850’s, not too long after half of Mexico was
stolen in the U.S.-Mexico War; see last week’s blog post for more on
that).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following the Gold
Rush, about 40,000 of us were recruited as cheap labor to help build the
railroads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We did the most
dangerous jobs for the lowest wages.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After
the railroads were built, many of us went into jobs in California as domestics,
launderers, miners, and manufacturing plant workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were also among the state’s first agricultural laborers.
By the 1870’s and early 1880’s we made up about a quarter of all laborers in
California. As immigrants, we worked for cheap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Too cheap for
some.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Anti-Chinese
sentiment--“sinophobia” as it’s called--expressed itself in the forms of
“anti-coolie” clubs, bigoted newspaper editorials, and boycotts of Chinese
commercial products. In reaction to the Chinese presence in mining,
anti-Chinese activists successfully lobbied in 1852 for an invidious tax
targeting Chinese miners. By the 1860’s and 1870’s, we were the targets of a political
smear campaign by the Democratic Party and racist protests by white labor union
organizers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Democratic Party
scape-goated us as a means of regaining political traction after their
blundered attempt to preserve slavery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because of our willingness to work for low wages, we were condemned as
unfair competition (sound familiar?) by white laborers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tragically, the anti-Chinese movement of the
1870’s and 80’s was also justified in religious terms.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people tried to justify their
racism against us by saying it was God’s will that we be expelled from the
country (does that sound familiar today, too?).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a grad student back in the day, I was horrified when I
came across this prayer from a San Francisco pastor, Isaac Kalloch, (who later
went on to become mayor of the Golden Gated city—not so golden to the Chinese).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On July 4, 1878 he prayed:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“We
believe, O Lord, that the foundations of our government were laid by Thine own
hand; that all the steps and stages of our progress have been under Thy watch
and ward…We meet together today to celebrate the anniversary of our national
birth, and we pray that we may be enabled to carry out the divine principles
which inspired our noble sires and others, and we pray that our rules may be
righteous; that our people may be peaceable; that capital may respect the
rights of labor, and that labor may honor capital; <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that the Chinese must go</i>…and
good men stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We believe Thou
wilt hear our prayer when we pray that we believe to be right.”</b> (As quoted
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Indispensable Enemy</i>, by the
late UCLA history prof Alexander Saxton).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I
cringe every time I read this prayer because it is a disgusting
misrepresentation of Jesus (I am pretty certain that Jesus cringed as well when
he heard this prayer).</span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This pastor used Christianity, and his
official clerical office, to justify discrimination against Chinese immigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We came to the U.S. in order to be able
to work hard and feed our families, and were initially recruited to serve as
cheap laborers for jobs that nobody else wanted to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the railroads were built and we
began to branch out into other types of work, we became unwanted. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, people wanted our labor,
but didn’t want to recognize us as human beings, made in the image of God, and
worthy of full political inclusion in the United States of America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">To boot, as articulated by Mr. Kalloch,
some people even felt that our expulsion and exclusion was God’s will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Chinese-Mexican Christian American
I find this reasoning sickening and antithetical to all the teachings of Jesus
and the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">God
is a God of justice and He doesn’t play racial favorites—not then, not
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loves all people more than
we could ever hope for or imagine, and He desires for all of us to come to know
Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many verses of Scripture warn
against the mistreatment of immigrants and speak of God’s love for all people
of all the beautiful ethnicities He has made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Here is a small sampling of what the Bible
says about God’s love and concern for immigrants:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“The Lord watches over the strangers
[immigrants]; He relieves the fatherless and widow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Psalm 146: 9.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“You shall not pervert justice due the
stranger [immigrant] or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a
pledge.” Deuteronomy 24: 17.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“He administers justice for the fatherless
and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore love the stranger, for you
were strangers in the land of Egypt.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Deuteronomy 10: 18-19</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“Cursed is the one who perverts the justice
due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deut 27: 19.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know
how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exodus 23: 9</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In addition to all of these strong warnings
against the mistreatment and oppression of immigrants, the Bible is also clear
about the fact that God does show racial favoritism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">As
the Apostle Peter famously says in Acts 10: 34-35:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: 4.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“I now realize how true it is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God does not show favoritism but accepts
from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul
echoes similar sentiments in his famous speech to the Greeks in Athens:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“The God who made the world and everything
in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by
human hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he is not served
by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life
and breath and everything else. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From one man he made all the nations, that
they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in
history and the boundaries of their lands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach
out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Acts 17: 24-27.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And,
of course there are Jesus’ own famous words:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“For God <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so loved the world</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[not just Europeans or white Americans or Chinese or Asians
or Mexicans or Africans or any limited ethnic or cultural group] that he gave
his one and only Son, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that whoever</i>
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John 3: 16-17.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Oh
yeah, now back to the topic of undocumented immigration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This virulent racism as expressed by
Mr. Kalloch, white labor unions, and the Democratic Party led to the passage of
the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This law barred the legal immigration of Chinese immigrant laborers to
the United States—zero, zilch, nada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This law was subsequently extended and was not repealed officially until
1943.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even then, things didn’t
really change for us Chinese until 1965 because between 1943 and 1965 only 105
of us were allowed to immigrate to the U.S. per year!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And that’s why we turned to Mexico </i>[my
paternal homeland]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of us went to Mexico in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a way of circumventing the Chinese
Exclusion Laws and getting smuggled into the U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During these years, there were virtually no restrictions on
the numbers of Mexican immigrants that could come to the U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We, the Chinese, were the ones singled
out for exclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we invented undocumented immigrant smuggling
from Mexico!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Coyotes (smuggling guides), fake papers,
smuggling by boat and train and plane, underground tunnels—you name it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We came up with it first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the earliest border patrol units were created to keep
us out—they were called “Chinese inspectors.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We were the first
‘undocumented immigrants.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Don’t
mess with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Robert
Chao Romero</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">@ProfeChaoRomero</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-7863244329919960652013-02-07T12:13:00.000-08:002013-02-07T12:13:02.420-08:00A History of Mexican Immigration to the United States: Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mexican immigration to
the United States began with bad theology and an “unjust war.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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In 1821, Mexico was about twice its current size.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It included what is now California, Texas,
Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada, as well as parts of Utah, Colorado, and
Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, Anglo
Americans began settling in the Texas territories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1836, these
immigrants and Mexican Texans, or, “Tejanos,” gained their independence from
Mexico through military battle (i.e., “Remember the Alamo”…).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you can imagine, Mexico was
not quick to recognize Texas’ claim to independence and did not like it when
Texas became a state of the American union in 1845.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make matters
worse, the U.S. and Mexico disagreed as to what constituted the official border
between Texas and Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The U.S.
asserted that the boundary was the Rio Grande River (what it is today).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mexico claimed that the border was 150
miles farther north at the Nueces River (which was the historical boundary
line).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This border dispute is theoretically what sparked the
Mexican-American War in 1846.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Following failed diplomatic negotiations regarding the
boundary line, 4,000 U.S. troops marched to the disputed Rio Grande
region.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to President
Polk, Mexican troops then fired on American troops and started the
Mexican-American War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A year and a
half later, the U.S. won the war and Mexico was forced to sign the Treaty of
Guadalupe-Hidalgo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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As part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Mexico
surrendered half of its territory to the United States in exchange for 15
million dollars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s how the
U.S. acquired the present-day states of California, New Mexico, Nevada and
parts of Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and even Oklahoma—over half a million square
miles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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That’s also how we Mexicans first “immigrated” to the
U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us!</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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Unknown to most people, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">many
Americans felt that the Mexican-American War was an “unjust war.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abraham Lincoln was the most famous
opponent of the Mexican-American War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></i>Lincoln felt that the war “was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally
commenced by the President," and he staked his early congressional
reputation on opposition to the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ulysses S. Grant, famous Civil War general and 18<sup>th</sup> President
of the United States, also condemned the Mexican-American War later in
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stated, “I had a horror
of the Mexican War…only I had not moral courage enough to resign…I considered
my supreme duty was to my flag.” Grant went so far as to say that he felt the
Civil War was God’s punishment of the U.S. for the Mexican-American War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Nicholas Trist, the man responsible for brokering the Treaty
of Guadalupe-Hidalgo for the United States, had some of the harshest words to
say about the war and ensuing treaty: </div>
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<br /></div>
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“If those Mexicans…had been able
to look into my heart at that moment, they would have found that the sincere
shame I felt as a North American was stronger than theirs as Mexicans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I was unable to say it at the
time, it was something that any North American should be ashamed of…”</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To make matters worse,
the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo were inspired by
bad theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>This bad theology had a name, and it
was called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Manifest Destiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Manifest Destiny, God had ordained the United
States to colonize North America “from sea to shining sea”—from Maine to
California, and everything in between.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, as a specially
anointed people of God,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anglo Americans
were given the “manifest destiny” to spread Protestant Christianity and U.S.
democracy throughout North America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The brutal colonization of the Native American population and the seizure
of half of Mexico through an unjust war was all part of this so-called “divine
calling.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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John O’Sullivan, editor of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Democratic Review</i>, coined the term “Manifest Destiny.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the July/August 1845 issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Democratic Review</i>, Sullivan claimed
that it was the American “destiny to overspread the whole North American
continent with an immense democratic population” (i.e., white and
Protestant).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Manifest Destiny was not some fringe
idea either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had broad social
support, and proponents included rural communities, New England poets, northern
abolitionists, and southern slave holders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Notable supporters of Manifest Destiny included Walt
Whitman, </div>
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John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Perhaps not surprisingly, the letters and diaries of American
soldiers during the Mexican-American War clearly articulate the bad theology of
Manifest Destiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, some of
these letters and diaries are quite shocking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, one volunteer officer wrote the following to
his cousin who was a Protestant minister:</div>
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<br /></div>
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“I wish I had the power to stop
their churches [Mexican Catholic Churches]…to bring off this treasure hoard of
gold and jewels, and to put the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">greasy
priests, monks, friars</i> and other officials at work on the public highways
as a preliminary step to mending their ways…<u>It is perfectly certain that
this war is a divine dispensation intended to purify and punish this misguided
nation</u>…Most of our officers concur with me that nothing but a divine ruler
and commander could have brought us safely through so much peril against awful
odds.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Unfortunately, some American Catholics were also not immune
to the lure of Manifest Destiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One Catholic soldier wrote:</div>
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<br /></div>
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“ I cannot help but think, that
God has fought upon our side, to chastize them for their sins.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Some American soldiers not only misrepresented Christianity
through their bad theology and journal entries, but also through unjustified
violence on the battlefield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accounts
of soldier misconduct during the Mexican-American War were also often
squelched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Highlighting the
military abuses committed by American soldiers, and the silencing of voices of
opposition, one military private wrote the following to his father:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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“The majority of the Volunteers
sent here are a disgrace to the nation; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">think
of one of them shooting a woman while washing in the bank of the river—merely
to test his rifle</i>; another tore forcibly from a Mexican woman the rings
from her ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their officers take
no notice of these outrages, and the offenders escape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If
these things are sent to the papers, they are afraid to publish, and so it
happens.”</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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One regular officer commented on the military destruction in
northern Mexico in the following way:</div>
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<br /></div>
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“From Saltillo to Mier, with the
exception of the large towns, all is a desert, and there is scarcely a solitary
house (if there be one) inhabited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The smiling villages which welcomed our troops on their upward march are
now black and smouldering ruins, the gardens and orange groves destroyed, and
the inhabitants, who administered to their necessities, have sought refuge in
the mountains.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Boy, this is making me depressed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve taught about the Mexican-American War many times in my
classes, but this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to speak about it
in depth to a broader audience in the context of my faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As a follower of Jesus,
it makes me so sad to know that there were those who misrepresented His</i>
name in such a horrific way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I am filled with hope,
however, to know that there were Christians who loudly and boldly denounced the
Mexican-American War. </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we’ve
already said, Abraham Lincoln was a vocal Christian critic of the war, and so
was Ulysses Grant--later in life at least.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a book called, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
War With Mexico Reviewed, </i>Abiel Abbott Livermore also denounced the war in
powerful—and explicitly Christian—terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In stinging condemnation of Manifest Destiny, Livermore wrote:</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Again, the pride of race has
swollen to still greater insolence the pride of country, always quite active
enough for the due observance of the claims of universal brotherhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Anglo-Saxons have been apparently
persuaded to think themselves the chosen people, anointed race of the Lord,
commissioned to drive out the heathen, and plant their religion and
institutions in every Canaan they could subjugate…Our treatment both of the red
man and the black man has habituated us to feel our power and forget right…The
god Terminus is an unknown deity in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the hunger of the pauper boy of fictionm the cry had
been, ‘more, more, give us more.’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(As cited in Rodolfo Acuna, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Occupied
America</i>, 46).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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In recognition of his forceful critic of the
Mexican-American War, Livermore was awarded the American Peace Society prize
for “the best review of the Mexican War and the principles of Christianity, and
an enlightened statesmanship” (Acuna, 46).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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The example of Livermore reminds me of an historical
principle that I’ve found to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>be at
play in the past 2,000 years of world history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Every time
someone, or some country, misrepresents the name of Jesus through racism or oppression
of the poor and marginalized, God always raises up a witness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Livermore, these witnesses <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>denounce such misrepresentation as
counter to the teachings of Jesus and sacred Scripture, and loudly declare that
God is a God of justice and compassion for the poor and marginalized of
society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Can I get a witness?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Chao Romero</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-80633015088101323902013-02-01T07:50:00.000-08:002013-02-01T08:07:51.214-08:00Faith and Immigration Part I: The Immigration Table and the 40-Day "I Was a Stranger" Challenge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I am hopeful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This past week we’ve experienced an openness to comprehensive, and compassionate,
immigration reform in the United States that we have not seen in more than 25
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Comprehensive” immigration
reform means a change in immigration policy which recognizes the <i>huge</i> economic
contributions made by undocumented immigrants to our economy (to the tune of
some $2.4 trillion a year) by providing them with a pathway to legal residency
and citizenship; at the same time, this approach is also “comprehensive” in so
far as it still recognizes that border security is a legitimate concern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically, the last time the U.S.
passed this type of comprehensive immigration reform was in 1986 under the
leadership of Ronald Reagan (a hero to many present-day opponents of such
reform).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>On Monday, an influential bipartisan
team of senators known as the “gang of eight,” put forth a plan for
comprehensive immigration reform, and on Tuesday, President Obama presented a
similar plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In response to the
walloping that Republicans experienced by Latino voters (like myself) in the
recent presidential election, there’s been a complete about-face in U.S.
politics related to immigration reform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many Republican and Democratic politicians realize that their harsh
stance on immigration reform has disaffected millions of Latino voters, and
they are eager to get that vote back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>In fact, according to a
recent poll, 76% of conservative Republicans now favor comprehensive
immigration reform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I am also hopeful
because of the proactive stance that the evangelical Christian church in
America has taken to promote compassionate immigration reform.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yea!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been waiting a long time for this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m particularly inspired by the Evangelical
Immigration Table (<a href="http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/">http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/</a>)</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">40-Day “I Was A Stranger Challenge.”</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Immigration Table consists of
a broad evangelical coalition including: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, the National
Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Clergy and Laity United for Economic
Justice (CLUE) in Orange County, the Christian Community Development Association,
Sojourners, the National Association of Evangelicals, World Relief, Bread for
the World, and the Southern Baptist Denomination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In support of
their position, they have put together the following “Evangelical Statement of
Principles for Immigration Reform”:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Our national immigration laws have created a moral,
economic and political crisis in America. Initiatives to remedy this crisis
have led to polarization and name calling in which opponents have
misrepresented each other’s positions as open borders and amnesty versus
deportations of millions. This false choice has led to an unacceptable
political stalemate at the federal level at a tragic human cost.</div>
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As evangelical Christian leaders, we call for a bipartisan
solution on immigration that:</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Respects the God-given dignity of
every person</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Protects the unity of the immediate family</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Respects the rule of law</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Guarantees secure national borders</div>
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</span>Ensures fairness to taxpayers</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Establishes
a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who
wish to become permanent residents</div>
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<br /></div>
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We urge our nation’s leaders to work together with the
American people to pass immigration reform that embodies these key principles
and that will make our nation proud.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Good job Evangelical Christian Table!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an Asian-Latino, Chican@ and Asian
American Studies follower of Jesus, I can now proudly say that the church in
America has stepped up to the plate to pass immigration reform that is
consistent with God’s amazing love and concern for immigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yea!!!</div>
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<br /></div>
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To read the original statement and the long list of
signatories from many cross-cultural and denominational backgrounds, go to: (<a href="http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/">http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the website you can also sign a post-election letter to
President Obama and Congress urging them to pass compassionate, comprehensive
immigration reform now!</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I also strongly encourage you to take the
40-Day I Was A Stranger challenge!</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For more information and a free “kit” that you can download, go
to: (<a href="http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/">http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can do the challenge on your own, or with friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first part of the challenge consists
of reading 40 different Bible verses about immigration—one a day for 40
days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with this reading, you
are urged to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pray</i> for compassionate
immigration reform. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the second
part of this challenge, you are asked to contact your local Congressperson, ask
for a meeting, and encourage them to take the 40-day challenge and implement
compassionate immigration reform!</div>
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<br /></div>
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Inspired by hope, I’m launching this 40-day series of blogs
about Faith and Immigration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More
soon…</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Chao Romero</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl</a></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-11604073052654138862013-01-26T16:25:00.002-08:002013-01-26T16:25:49.550-08:00Hope from the Hood: the Christian Community Development Movement and the Metro CDC in Compton<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My last blog shared about the dark reality of racial
segregation in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Time for some hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the hood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
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Unknown to most people, there is an amazing movement of
Christian Community Development in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thousands of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Christians of all colors and stripes and denominations are living and
laboring in urban communities throughout the U.S. in the name of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many are from urban communities, and others relocate to serve humbly alongside
existing urban churches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Another important goal is to help raise
up indigenous leaders to transform the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To learn more about the Christian Community Development
movement check out: <a href="http://www.ccda.org/">http://www.ccda.org/</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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As an illustration of Christian Community Development, I’d like
to share a story of hope from Compton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This story involves a young man and rising leader named Chris, some
friends of mine who have lived and served in Compton for the past two decades,
and the Metro Community Development Corporation (<a href="http://metrocdc.org/">http://metrocdc.org/</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, in their own words, is their recent story of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hope from the hood. </i></div>
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"Chris grew up in Compton and faced many challenges as a
youngster such as foster </div>
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care, a gang lifestyle and poor education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After high school, he became involved with
our Construction/Discipleship Program, growing in his relationship with the </div>
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Lord and earning his contractor’s certificate. </div>
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<br /></div>
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On one occasion, Chris bid a job calling for a 20ft beam to
be installed in an attic. As they were discussing the job, the client revealed
that he was the director of a security organization within a major retail
mall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, Chris told the
client that he would be willing to install the beam for FREE if the
client would interview him for a job with his security firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man agreed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a third-party interview, Chris was
hired the following day and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>has
full time employment with benefits! Now he has the dignity of being able to
provide for his new wife and daughter. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Driving the security vehicle around the parking lot is one
of his functions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do so, Chris needed to provide proof of having a valid driver’s
license by the end of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, he owed $800 for an outstanding traffic ticket he
incurred as a teenager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
amount would not seem horribly overwhelming to you or me, but for Chris, this might as well be millions!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His ordinary resources are just too
limited and if the fines weren’t paid, he’d lose this job. </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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However, through the resources of Metro CDC, another option
presented itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chris was able
to sell one of our donated cars, and not only pay off his debt, but keep his
job as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is one of our
Courageous Leaders, a family man<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>growing in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ." </div>
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<br /></div>
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To learn more about Metro CDC, or to help support the
training and mentorship of young leaders like Chris by donating a car, go
to:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://metrocdc.org/">http://metrocdc.org/</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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In much hope!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Chao Romero</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl</a></div>
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Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-8830263579995446042013-01-21T08:26:00.002-08:002013-01-23T10:54:04.383-08:00Segregation Today: An MLK Day Reflection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I write this post today in honor of the memory of Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I
have conversations with secular activists and activist Christians who have
fallen away from their faith, I become very thankful for Rev. King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thousands (probably millions) of social
justice minded individuals in the world today have rejected Christianity
because of the way in which it has been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">misrepresented</i>
over the centuries by countries and people who said they believed in Jesus but
who went ahead and segregated people based upon the color of their skin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love pointing to Rev. King as an
example of a follower of Jesus who challenged this misrespresentation of
Christianity in the United States for the world, and generations, to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a prophet of God, he told America
that segregation was unbiblical and that “Jim Crow” was a violation of God’s
truth.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Jim Crow” refers to the historical time period in between
the abolition of slavery in 1876 and the official dismantling of legal
segregation in the United States in 1965.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the era of Jim Crow, white society in America
felt that it had the moral and legal right to segregate African Americans,
Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, South Asian Americans, and others,
from itself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This segregation was
complete from cradle to the grave. It involved housing, education, health care,
public spaces like parks, pools, restaurants, movie theaters, and hiking
trails, and even mortuaries and cemeteries!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you were Latino in Pasadena during this time period, for
example, you were even restricted in the days you could enjoy God’s
mountains!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of Jim Crow,
laws banning racial intermarriage remained legal on a national level until 1967.
Can you imagine what it was like to live in America during this time period? It
makes me so sick to even think about it. </div>
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<br /></div>
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What makes me even more sad was that the vast majority of Christians
remained silent during the battle to end segregation in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even worse, some Christians actually
twisted sacred Scripture to justify racial segregation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, there were very notable
exceptions of Christians who stood side by side with Rev. King and denounced
Jim Crow segregation as unbiblical and antithetical to the message of Jesus
Christ. Under the leadership of Rev. King, they preached the simple biblical
message that all humans beings are created equally in the image of God (Genesis
1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them”), and are therefore worthy of equal treatment
in all aspects of U.S. society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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On this MLK Day, I celebrate this amazing legacy of Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, a follower of Jesus, who, together with millions of other
lesser-known but no less important revolutionaries, brilliantly upended Jim
Crow segregation in the Name of Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we celebrate the second inauguration of our first Black
president today, I imagine that Rev. King must be smiling from heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I am. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Although “de jure” (legal) segregation ended some 48 years
ago in the U.S., “de facto” (in fact) racial segregation is still prevalent today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Jim Crow segregation produced
unequal conditions of housing, education, health care, legal services, etc.,
which have not gone away despite the official end to segregation in the
1960’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jim Crow segregation
produced segregated neighborhoods, schools, health care systems, etc., which have
continued to replicate themselves to the present day.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Public schools attended by millions of beautiful brown and
black children are vastly inferior to those in rich suburban neighborhoods
within the same school district.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These same children and their families lack access to quality,
affordable health care and legal services, and have few parks and safe public
spaces in which to play and just be a kid. The majority of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Latinos and African Americans in the United States today continue to
experience the invidious lingering effects of Jim Crow segregation.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lest you think I’m just some radical ethnic studies
professor and liberation theology pastor, let’s take a look at some staggering
statistics which bear this out:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1
out of every 3 valid legal claims of the poor in California is never heard in
court because no attorney will take their case (because they can’t afford to
pay); stated another way, 2/3 of the legal services needs of the poor are unmet
in this state and it would require $394,100,000 per year to close this profound
“justice gap.”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To make matters worse, 16 million kids currently live in
poverty in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With
regards to educational access, 8% of low-income students graduate from college
sometime within their lifetime vs. 87% of students from affluent communities
who will graduate from college by the age of 24.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Out of every 100 Chican@ students who begin elementary
school, only 8 will graduate from college, 2 will go on to earn a graduate or
professional school degree, and less than 1 will earn a doctorate!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, similar statistics can be
reported for African Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
2005-2006, only 47% of African American male students graduated from high
school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2007, only 56% of
African American high school graduates went on to attend college, and in that
same year the college graduation rate for African Americans was only 42%.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As for healthcare, close to 50 million people are currently
uninsured in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1
in 4 children go without healthcare in our country, and more than 23 million
kids go without adequate healthcare in any given year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About 30 percent of Latino and 20
percent of African American children lack a regular source of health care, and
brown kids are almost 3 times more likely than white kids to lack<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sufficient healthcare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Millions of Chican@s, Latin@s, African Americans, Native Americans,
and others, are still segregated from equal opportunity in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As
followers of Jesus we have an affirmative obligation to advocate on their
behalf and to work in His name to transform the inequitable socio-economic and
political policies and structures which reinforce this exclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>If we don’t, then history, and,
most importantly, God, will judge us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let’s learn from the mistakes of the millions of Christians, who, half a
decade before us, failed to speak up against Jim Crow segregation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s follow the example of Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., who, though an imperfect man, sounded a magnificent
clarion call for biblical equality in Jesus’ Name.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Much inspired,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Chao Romero</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-1674610571763686482013-01-15T19:26:00.001-08:002013-01-15T19:26:36.201-08:00A Biblical View of Cultural Diversity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Now
with that mixed-race biblical meandering aside, on to the truth that has set me
free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if you are not a
mixed-race individual I think you will find that what I’m about to share
meaningful because it provides <i>a biblical framework for understanding
“diversity.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This biblical
model of diversity seeks to address the question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is God’s purpose behind what we call “race,” “class,”
and “gender”?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Here it is<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>I am made uniquely
in God’s image, and I am His child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Every individual uniquely reflects the
image of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible teaches
that “God created human beings in his own image” (Genesis 1:27 NLT).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Every person <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">holistically</span> reflects God’s image in terms of his/her:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1) individual personality, gifts,
talents (Psalm 139: 13-16); (2) cultural heritage (s) (Revelation 21:26) ; and
(3) gender<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Genesis 1:27).</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i> </i> </span>In other words, when you
look in the mirror you are staring at a beautiful and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unique</i> reflection of who God is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This uniqueness encompasses all of who you are—your
personality, gifts, and talents; your ethnic background (s), and your gender.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together, these traits make you
uniquely you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are beautiful,
special, and unique, unlike anyone that has ever lived or ever will walk this
earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By God’s design, you
are valuable and uniquely reflect who He is to the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">One of the most beautiful declarations of
our inherent individual value and worth to God is found in Psalm 139:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>13-16:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“For
you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I praise you</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because I am fearfully and wonderfully made</i>; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">My
frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was woven together in the depths
of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
may come as a surprise to many of us, but our cultural heritage(s) are critical
components of the unique reflection of God’s image within each of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By God’s design each of us is
given a cultural heritage that helps make us who we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, our ethnic
background is not an accident!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God
gave it to us!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his famous
speech to the Greek Areopagus, the Apostle Paul reminds us of this truth:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“From one man <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he made every nation of men</i>, that they should inhabit the whole
earth; and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he determined the exact places
where they should live</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God
did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him,
though he is not far from each one of us. “(Acts 17:26-27).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, it is not an accident
that I was born in East L.A. to my Mexican father and Chinese mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not coincidence<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that I grew up in Hacienda Heights,
spent time in the Bay Area, and now live in Los Angeles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has been exactly determined for me
by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same is true for every
person reading this book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God
given you your unique cultural heritage!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Whether you are Chinese, Korean, English, German, Mexican, American,
Armenian, African American, Indian, Native American, or any variation of any of
these ethnicities, this is exactly how God has determined it to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your parents might not have realized it
when you were conceived, but God has sovereignly determined what ethnicity and
nationality he wanted you to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Not only has our cultural heritage been
given to us by God Himself, but the Bible teaches that our various ethnic
cultures are viewed by God as <i>“treasure” which will last forever!</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i> </i> </span>The inherent and eternal value of our
national cultures is described in Revelation 21:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>22-27(NIV):</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“I
did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are its temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The city does not
need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light,
and the Lamb is its lamp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor
into it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On no day will its gates
ever be shut, for there will be no night there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The glory and honor of
the nations will be brought into it</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is
shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's
book of life.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">This passage states that the “glory and
honor of the nations” will be brought into the New Jerusalem for eternity (<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>According to the Bible,
the time will come when all things are made new, and all the evil, pain, and
suffering of this world will be wiped away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This new world and order of things is represented by what
the Bible calls the “New Jerusalem.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In describing the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:4-5 states:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He will wipe every tear from their
eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There will be no more
death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed
away. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything
new!”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is this “glory
and honor” that John is speaking of? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is interesting to note that most evangelical Bible
commentaries completely overlook this text.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">The word “glory” which is used in this
passage can also be translated as “treasure” or “wealth” of the nations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely John is not describing
literal currency or national government coffers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that he is talking about the cultural treasure or
wealth of the different ethnic groups of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This cultural treasure includes food, music, dance,
literature, architecture, etc., as well as the unique cultural personalities of
the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">The first category—food, music, dance, etc.
is quite obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every
ethnic group has it’s unique food, musical styles, literature, dance, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">The second category deserves more
explanation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you ever noticed
that different cultural groups possess different personalities?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have experienced this first hand
because of my own cross-cultural heritage and because of my cross-cultural
marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As previously stated, I
am of Mexican heritage on my father’s side and Chinese on my mother’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife is of Midwestern,
German-American heritage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">When I attend a family gathering on my
father’s side of the family, I observe distinct types of humor, ways of
relating to one another, attitudes towards life, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same with my mom’s family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have especially noticed this to be true during my past
four years of marriage to my lovely Midwestern wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, I’ve noticed that German-Americans tend to be
very time-oriented and financially practical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we are even five minutes late in preparing for an event I
can visibly see the anxiety levels of my Midwestern family members rise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From a Latino perspective it is
“relationships” which matter more than being on time for an event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, if I’m engaged in a deep conversation
with someone it is of a higher cultural value to me to stay in the conversation
and be a little bit late to my next engagement rather than to cut off the
conversation and appear rude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In Mexican culture it is also appropriate
to “lavish” gifts upon loved ones and friends regardless of the cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is seen as a way of showing love,
respect, and deference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You could
say that one the Mexican “love-languages” is giving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Midwestern culture, lavish giving can actually be
frowned upon as waste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nice
gifts are valued and appreciated of course, but beyond a certain point it
becomes culturally inappropriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I actually learned this lesson first hand
when I met my wife’s family for the first time before we were married.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had made the long journey to Indiana
for the annual meeting of the Christian Community Development Association and
thought that that would provide me with the perfect opportunity to meet my
future in-laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In anticipation of
our meeting over lunch, I went to the airport candy shop and bought mounds of
expensive Godiva chocolate to give to my future in-laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without thinking about it very
much, my Mexican side was coming out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I thought to myself:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I
want to make a good impression and I want them to know that I care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll be generous and spend lots of
money by buying them good chocolate.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Erica was a bit uneasy when she found out because she
thought that my generosity would be interpreted as “waste” and the absence of
frugality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was shocked!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From my cultural vantage point such
lavish giving should have made a positive impression and should have been
interpreted as warm generosity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I
ended up giving them the chocolates and it turned out fine!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">What I’ve learned from my different
cross-cultural experiences is that <i>every culture—Mexican, Chinese, Taiwanese,
Egyptian, German, Midwestern, etc.—uniquely expresses different aspects of
God’s heart.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i> </i> </span>As exemplified in the
lavish giving of Mexican culture, God is very generous and gracious and
sometimes gives us more than we can hope for or imagine (Ephesians 1:7-8,
3:20).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No eye has seen or ear
heard what God has prepared for those who love Him and are called according to
His purpose (1 Corinthians 2:9).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Relationship is also at the core of God’s heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The divine Godhead relates to
Himself in a beautiful mystery that we cannot fully comprehend (Matthew
28:19).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">At the same time that this is true, I learn
much from my Midwestern family about God, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I joke with my wife that I’m familiar with about 80% of
Midwestern culture by virtue of my American heritage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About 20% though is almost completely foreign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This 20% can sometimes make me feel
like an immigrant even though I was born in the U.S. and have lived here all my
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I learn from them the values of industry
and frugality (and starting a savings account for your child when he/she is 3
months old!)(Proverbs 6:6-11).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
learn about discipline in our personal relationships with God (1 Corinthians 8:
24-27) and about the importance of individual relationship with Him (Revelation
3:20).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The food is also
pretty good too!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">To use another example of what I’m trying
to convey, I like to use the example of Mambo Cologne by Liz Claiborne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trying to capitalize upon the
J.Lo Ricky Martin craze of the early 2000’s, Executives at Liz Claiborne set
out to develop a cologne which captured, in all bottle, the “essence” of what
it meant to be Latino.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They hired
researchers to find out what made Latinos unique and what positive cultural qualities
they possessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among other
things, their research revealed that Latinos were “spicy,” “sexy,” and
passionate, and that they were also family-centered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drawing from their research, Liz Claiborne then
set out to create a cologne fragrance which expressed these distinctively
Latino qualities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result
was the “Mambo” perfume line, “an up-tempo twist of bergamot and zesty lime,
mediterranean herbs and spices [which] raises the pulse and turns up the heat.
A festive tandem of french clary sage and thyme is embraced by exotic,
masculine floralcy, and an ultra-sensual fusion of cinnamon leaf, cumin and
heart of cedarwood.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
2007, Claiborne released a spin-off cologne--MAMBO MIX—which features an added
blend of “spicy oriental fragrance.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Chinese-Mexican, Mambo Mix is perfect for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it captures my unique “essence”
and can be called the first<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Asian-Latino” cologne (ha).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">At first glance, the example of Mambo
perfume seems silly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could
someone even attempt to capture the essence of what it means to be Latino in a
perfume bottle?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, Liz
Claiborne’s so-called “research findings” about Latinidad are just a bunch of
crazy stereotypes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite the
inaccuracy of Liz Claiborne’s stereotypes, I believe they are driving at a
profound biblical principle about Latinos and about cultural diversity in
general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They realize that Latinos, and all
ethnic groups of the world, possess distinct cultural “treasure and wealth”
according to the biblical principle expressed in Revelation 21: 26-27.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">More about a biblical view of culture and diversity next week!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Thanks for tuning in to this especially long, but hopefully meaningful, post! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">In God's diversity,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Robert</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">@ProfeChaoRomero</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Follow this blog on Facebook! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-83390188340059302092013-01-09T06:45:00.001-08:002013-01-09T06:47:58.889-08:00Mixed-Race in the Bible ("Chino-Chicano" Part II)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">As
an expression of my multiracial struggles, I used to wrestle a lot with the
issue of marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I used to say
to myself:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If I marry someone
who’s Mexican, then my kids will be 75% Mexican.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ll have a solidified racial identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I marry someone who is Chinese, then
they’ll be 75% Chinese, probably look mostly Asian, and then they might have
some identity problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I marry
someone who’s Anglo, then my kids will probably look Latino, even though
they’ll be only 25% Mexican.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
they’ll have the last name Romero, so they’ll probably just pass as
Latino.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t believe I used to
think this way!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
my heart I knew that this was not the right way to be thinking about
marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every time I went down
this path of reasoning I would end up deeply frustrated, practically to the
point of tears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is led me,
one day in law school to cry out to God and say, “God, please help me to
understand the topic of race from Your perspective!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer to that prayer is what I hope to share with
you in the next several blog posts.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">After many years of wrestling with my mixed
race identity, I feel that God has given me peace, healing, and a deep security
in my unique identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
discovered a biblically-grounded understanding of race and ethnicity which
allows me to be a whole-human being, and which allows me to understand,
celebrate, and accept all of who I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thank <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope that I might be able to share
this understanding with you now, and that what I share might help bring healing
to many individuals who have gone through, or are going through, the same
struggles I have experienced as a mixed race individual. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">As part of my journey of coming to
understand my mixed race identity, I have come to learn that I am not
alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the 2010
census, there are nearly 7 million mixed race individuals in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My home state of California has a
mixed race population of 1.6 million.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By 2050, moreover, it is projected that 70 million, or nearly 20% of the
U.S. population, will be mixed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m also not alone as an “Asian-Latino.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the 2000 Census, there are more than 300,000
Asian-Latinos in The United States and 60,000 in California alone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based upon my own experience and these
compelling statistics, I am convinced that a biblical understanding of racial
identity is now more important than ever. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Before sharing the biblical framework of
race and diversity which has brought me so much peace, it’s worth noting that
there are many prominent biblical examples of interracial marriage and mixed
race individuals!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moses, for
example, arguably the most important spiritual leader in all of the Old
Testament, was married to a Midianite named Zipporah (Exodus 2:21-22).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their first-born son was mixed-race and
his name was Gershom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are later
told in the book of Numbers(12:1-2) that Moses’ siblings Aaron and Miriam
criticized him because of his interracial marriage and used this as a basis to
question his spiritual authority:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Miriam
and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had
married a Cushite. 2 “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?” they asked.
“Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard this.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bible
commentators give several explanations for this passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to one interpretation, it is
said that in calling Zipporah a “Cushite” (or in other translations,
“Ethiopian”), Aaron and Miriam may have been taking a racist jab at her for
being dark-skinned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also
could simply have been being racist against her because she was not an
Israelite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any event, the Bible
is clear that God “heard this” and that he severely punished Aaron and Miriam
for their spiritual disobedience and their racist slight (12: 9-13):</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">The
anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">10
When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous[a]—it
became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a
defiling skin disease, 11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not
to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be
like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten
away.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">13
So Moses cried out to the LORD, “Please, God, heal her!”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">And so there were serious consequences for
being racist against Moses for his interracial marriage—“the anger of the LORD
burned against them,” and Miriam was struck with leprosy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently England
and the United States didn’t read this passage too closely when they allowed
anti-intermarriage “miscegenation laws” to exist in North America from the 17<sup>th</sup>
century until 1967.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
addition to Moses, Zipporah, and Gershom, other prominent interracial families
include Joseph, Asenath, Ephraim and Manasseh; Judah, Tamar, and Perez; Salmon
and Rahab; and, Boaz, Ruth, and Obed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like Moses, Joseph is one of the giants of the Old Testament and one of
the biggest heroes of the book of Genesis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He married the Egyptian Asenath who was the daughter of
Potiphera, priest of On.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
sons, Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted by Israel as sons entitled to special
inheritance in the Promised Land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Through a series of messy human events that’s too complicated to explain
here, Joseph’s brother Judah had a son named Perez with his Canaanite
daughter-in-law Tamar!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judah and
Perez play important parts in the genealogy of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Speaking of Canaanites, Rahab was the
famous Canaanite prostitute who protected the spies before the Israelites
conquered Jericho.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rahab
married a prominent Israelite named Salmon, and they had a son named Boaz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boaz married—yes, you guessed it--Ruth
the Moabitess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ruth has a whole
book named after her in the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She is considered a heroine of the faith because she selflessly followed
her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem after her husband Mahlon died, and in
those days that was basically like resigning oneself to a life of poverty and
alienation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of her extreme
faith and fidelity Ruth attracted the favor of Boaz and became his wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their son Obed was the grandfather of
King David, the “man after God’s own heart” and the most famous king in all of
the Old Testament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the Davidic
line traces directly to Mary and Joseph and JESUS!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, Jesus, the King of Kings has at least four
“Gentile” women and several generations of mixed race heritage in his
genealogy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a mixed race
individual I feel like I’m in good company!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">More
soon,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Robert</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">@ProfeChaoRomero</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Please
follow the J for Rev blog on Facebook, too!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</span></div>
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Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-48008711324746251652013-01-03T07:10:00.005-08:002013-01-03T07:10:52.598-08:00"Chino-Chicano": A Biblical Framework for Diversity (Part I)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I’m
a “Chino-Chicano.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
born in East Los Angeles and raised in the small town of Hacienda Heights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad is an immigrant from Chihuahua,
Mexico and my mom an immigrant from Hubei in central China.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Romeros lost their family
fortune during the Mexican Revolution by siding with Pancho Villa, and
eventually immigrated to El Paso, Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They moved to East Los Angeles in the 1950’s and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we’ve been here in Southern
California ever since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mom’s
family immigrated to Los Angeles from China via Hong Kong and Singapore in the
1950’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My maternal grandfather,
Calvin Chao, was a famous pastor in China who launched the first Chinese branch
of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Chaos fled their native land because my grandfather was on a
communist “hit list.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an
interesting side note, my Mom’s family traces directly back to the founding
emperor of the Song Dynasty!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Growing up “mixed,” I had a lot of
struggles with racial identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was very proud of my Mexican heritage, but at a young age got sent the message
that being Chinese was a bad thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the first day of first grade a kid walked up to me, pretended to hold
an imaginary refrigerator in his hands, and said, “Here’s a refrigerator, open
it up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s a coke, drink
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Me Chinese, me play joke, me do pee-pee in your<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coke.</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kids are so mean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was so scarred by that event that I denied my
Chinese heritage for the next 18 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once I even remember telling a friend that my mom was
our housekeeper because I was embarrassed that she came to pick me up from
school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">To make matters worse, Hacienda Heights, or
at least the school I attended for elementary school during the 1970’s and
early 80’s, was mostly white.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Ironically, today Hacienda Heights is basically half-Mexican and
half-Chinese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I grew up there
today I would fit in perfectly).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a result, I also wrestled with other types of self-hatred and a deep desire
to fit in with my blond peers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not only did I not want to be Chinese, but I did not want to be Mexican
as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can remember being
called a “beaner” and feeling like I did not fit in because I was not
white.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I can
distinctly recall two blond kids playing with one another (while I stood alone)
and saying to myself, “She’s playing with him because they both have yellow
hair and I don’t.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">These racial identity struggles followed me
into my adulthood, and they are, in part, what have driven me so close to God over the years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>I’ve often asked myself:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I
Mexican?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I Chinese?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I American?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where do I fit in?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love spending time with my
Mexican family and friends, but yet I feel incomplete if I do not also spend
meaningful time with my Chinese family and immersing myself in Chinese culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I’m with Latinos I’m usually
accepted as one of them because I “look Mexican” and can usually “pass.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many people have walked up to me on the
street and started speaking Spanish because I am tall with dark wavy hair and
tan skin and can grow a pretty good beard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Although
I look Mexican to many people, I definitely get categorized in other ways as
well:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you “Filipino”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you Hawaiian?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you Middle Eastern?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you “Chinese with a
tan”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I don’t
usually mind being categorized in these ways, as any mixed race person will
tell you, it’s sometimes painful to be labeled something that you’re not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
can really identify with the following poem, called “Clueless,” by Chicana/o Studies
professor Rudy Guevarra.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guevarra
is a fellow “Asian-Latino,” and his poem captures the frustrations that we as
mixed race individuals often feel as a result of being misunderstood and
mislabeled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is a “Mexipino”
(Mexican-Filipino) from San Diego, California.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“What's it like to be me you ask?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">better yet,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">what are you?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">so many times</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I hear this phrase</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">from those who don't know</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">what I am…</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I am your illusion, your reality,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">your future…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Mestizo you call me,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">but what the hell is that?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">does that include all of me?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">my Asian, Indian, African, and Spanish
roots?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">can you see my multidimensional character?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">the complexity of my being,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">my existence</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">which thrives on the ignorance of the
masses</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I am the Filipino you once despised</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">the one you hated,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">the Mexican you abhorred, ignore,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">and continue to attack</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">but wait</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">what if I was both?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">could you deal with the double reality</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">of my presence… </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I may be foreign to you,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">exotic</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">even threatening</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">but so many times</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I can be invisible too</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">my illusion masks my inner thoughts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">but not what I see</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">and it sure as hell won't cloud my sanity</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I know who I am</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">see my genetic, cultural, social,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">and political identity</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">is often in question</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">but it's all the same to me…”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Thanks for reading. More to come. Please spread the word about this series to one of the other 9 million mixed-race individuals living in the U.S. today!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Much love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Robert</span></div>
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@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
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Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-36824051545044856102012-12-31T04:49:00.000-08:002012-12-31T11:06:54.339-08:00Kwanzaa and Christianity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“Joyous Kwanzaa.” Holidays reveal our deepest cultural
values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and Kwanzaa, all reveal the deep underlying values of their celebrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In past blogs, I’ve tried to reclaim
the biblical roots of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">: </span>(<a href="http://jesusforrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-revolutionary-thanksgiving%20reflection.html">http://jesusforrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-revolutionary-thanksgiving
reflection.html</a>)</div>
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(<a href="http://jesusforrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/2012/12/shalom-revolutionary-hope-of-christmas.html">http://jesusforrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/2012/12/shalom-revolutionary-hope-of-christmas.html</a>).</div>
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<br /></div>
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I’ve tried to disentangle the western cultural bias from
these important holidays in a way that is biblical, and in a manner which is
faithful to my conscience as a follower of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope that I have been able to do this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I have fallen short in any of these
respects, I take full credit for the mistakes and pray that God will help me to
see things with greater clarity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kwanzaa </i>reveals
the deep cultural values of its 2 million adherents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>It was
established in 1966 by California State University, Long Beach professor, Dr.
Maulana Karenga.</div>
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<br /></div>
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According to the website “African Holocaust”:</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, celebrated from December 26
to January 1, which is profound because it reclaims what was lost during the
African Holocaust—that sense of an African connection. It replies to the
ongoing mental slavery experienced from the Diaspora being culturally orphaned
in the West.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Kwanzaa is an authentic African Holiday created in the
African Diaspora. It is becoming part of traditional African American, and
African diaspora cultural heritage. All holidays have the roots somewhere, and
Kwanzaa is an indigenous African American creation… “</div>
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<br /></div>
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The seven principles of Kwanzaa, or “Nguzo Saba,” include: </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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“Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the
family, community, nation, and race.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kujichagulia
(Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for
ourselves, and speak for ourselves stand up.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ujima
(Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community
together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to
solve them together.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores,
shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and
developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional
greatness.”</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can,
in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited
it.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents,
our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.”</div>
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At the center of Kwanzaa is a deeply admirable sense of
African cultural pride, and an abiding interest in social justice for the
African diasporic community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kwanzaa
rightly recognizes that African Americans possess an important and distinct
cultural heritage flowing from Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It also provides a meaningful philosophy of socio-economic and political
empowerment for the African American community which continues to experience
the detrimental effects of historical and contemporary racism in the United
States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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As an “Asian-Latino,” I can closely identify with Kwanzaa
because of the ways in which my Asian and Latino cultures are often belittled
in the media and mainstream culture. Kwanzaa also resonates with me because my
Asian and Latino communities also continue to experience the lingering effects
of historical and contemporary racism in the United States.</div>
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<i>As a follower of Jesus, however, what saddens me about
Kwanzaa is the fact that it is a reaction to 500 years of historical
misrepresentation of Christianity. </i>Western imperialism and colonization
destroyed the global witness of Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Starting with Columbus in 1492, and well into the 20th
century, numerous European nations, together with the United States, went around
and ravaged the globe. They used their superior military power to conquer
almost every nation in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of this colonial rampage,
tragically, more than 12 million Africans were enslaved as part of the African
Holocaust. To make matters worse, most, if not all of these western nations
claimed to be “Christian.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
historical misrepresentation of Christianity is what Kwanzaa rebels
against.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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The destruction caused by colonialism was not limited to
some time in the distant past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
still feel the terrible consequences of imperialism in the United States and in
most nations of the developing world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans
continue to experience extraordinary levels of poverty in the United States and
to live in communities that are even more segregated than 50 years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our families and children continue to
suffer from unequal public education systems, lack of affordable housing and
healthcare, police brutality, unequal justice in the courts, and pervasive
racist stereotypes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Racist
socio-economic, legal, and political institutions persist in Latin America, and
harmful legacies of colonialism are alive throughout Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>HIV/AIDS, the most deadly pandemic of our time is said to
have gotten its start during the British colonization of Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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As a result of the religious arrogance and social devastation
associated with imperialism, millions of people of color throughout the globe
have condemned Christianity over the past five centuries as a “white man’s,
colonizer’s religion.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If
this is what Christianity is all about,” they say, “then why would I ever want
to be a Christian?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why would I
want to celebrate Christmas?”</div>
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<u>This devastates me.</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It devastates me
because I know that western imperialism was a complete misrepresentation of
Jesus and all that Christianity, and Christmas, represent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As clearly articulated in more than
2,000 verses of the Bible, God is the author of Justice, and He cares for the
poor and marginalized and oppressed more than we could ever hope for or
imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Jesus came, “to bring
Good News to the poor…to proclaim that captives will be released, that the
blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the
Lord’s favor has come” (Luke 4:18).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is what I celebrate this Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joyous Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Robert Chao Romero</span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">@ProfeChaoRomero</span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-61225667521803809302012-12-23T22:51:00.000-08:002012-12-23T22:51:41.870-08:00Shalom: The Revolutionary Hope of Christmas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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If you’re like me, you’ve probably been brought up hearing a
very limited view of what Christianity is all about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of us have been taught what USC philosophy professor
Dallas Willard calls the “gospel of sin management.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It goes something like this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Jesus came to save me from my sins so that I won’t go
to hell when I die.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Presented in this narrow fashion, Christianity is little
more than eternal “fire insurance” which leaves most of life untouched by God’s
love and redemption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We believe in
Jesus so that we can be forgiven and so that we can go to Heaven after we
die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, forgiveness is an
amazing thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So is Heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the Good News of Jesus, and of
Christmas, is about so much more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is “bigger and better” than what you’ve probably been told.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jesus came to save,
redeem, and transform every aspect of our lives and the world.</i></div>
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His salvation extends over all of God’s good creation which
has become twisted and corrupted as a consequence of sin. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This includes everything messed up and
broken in our world--whether personal, familial, social, or global.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It includes our personal emotional
brokenness and dysfunctional family relationships, poverty, slavery, human
trafficking, oppression of immigrants, warfare, lack of clean water, AIDS, gang
violence, and lack of educational opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No aspect of life is untouched by the love and redemption of
Jesus!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is what we
celebrate this Christmas and every Christmas.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Christine and Tom Sine state in their wonderful book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Living on Purpose</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Jesus Christ is interested in seeing
the gospel transform every part of our lives and every dimension of God’s
world.” </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This comprehensive nature of Christianity is summed up in
something called “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shalom</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word “shalom” is used more than 350
times in the Bible, and it refers to “God’s desire to restore all things to the
wholeness and harmony of relationship in which they were originally created”
(Christine and Tom Sine, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Living on
Purpose). </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“[Shalom]
covers a wide range of meaning:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>wholeness,
without injury, undivided, well-being, a satisfactory condition, bodily health…If
a person or a nation has [shalom], no lack exists in any direction, whether
personal or national”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Arthur
Glasser, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Announcing the Kingdom</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Shalom” is the
revolutionary hope of Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus
is the Prince of Shalom</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is what the world has celebrated for 2,000 years in commemoration of Jesus’
birth, and this is what we celebrate this Christmas. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the famous words of Isaiah:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>``The
people who walked in darkness</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>have
seen a great light.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
For those who lived in a land of
deep shadows—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>light!
sunbursts of light…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The joy of a great celebration,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>sharing
rich gifts and warm greetings.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The abuse of oppressors and cruelty
of tyrants—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>all
their whips and cudgels and curses—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Is gone, done away with…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The boots of all those invading
troops,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>along
with their shirts soaked with innocent blood,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Will be piled in a heap and burned,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>a
fire that will burn for days!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> For
a child has been born—for us!</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he gift of a son—for us!</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
He’ll take over</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>the
running of the world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
His names will be: Amazing
Counselor,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Strong
God,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Eternal Father,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prince
of Wholeness [Shalom]</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
His ruling authority will grow,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and
there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Isaiah
9: 2-7 (The Message).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>May
you, and all who are dear to you, know the amazing Shalom of Jesus this </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is my sincerest prayer for you, and
this is what this blog is all about.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With
much love,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Robert
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-28294085786571164172012-12-19T06:55:00.002-08:002012-12-21T06:13:05.147-08:00My Chinese-Mexican-Midwestern Christmas: Biblical Reflections On Cultural Diversity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Greetings from Indiana. My wife, two children, and I, have made our annual pilgrimage to the land of the Hoosiers. Each winter we travel the reverse course of the birds to visit my wife's family in small-town Indiana. Ironically, my wife's hometown is also a Latino immigrant hub, so it kind of works out. <br />
<br />
Unlike many, I enjoy spending time with my in-laws. They treat me well, and we've always had a great relationship. My kids love spending time with their Hoosier cousins, too. I asked my two-year old daughter what she liked most about our time so far, and she said, "my friend [her cousin] Natalie." There's also a part of me that identifies with small town life--the slower pace, friendly folks, and much more considerate drivers. Every once in a while I'll get a look in public from someone that I'm not sure how to interpret. I think to myself: "Was that general rudeness, is someone just having a bad day, or is it because of my brown skin?" It's usually impossible to know, so I just give people the benefit of the doubt and move on. It's not too often, so it's not too big of a deal. Overall, my experience is pretty pleasant. <br />
<br />
Without a doubt, though, my yearly trips to the Midwest remind me of my "Chinese-Mexican-ness." I was born in East Los Angeles (Boyle Heights to be exact), but raised in the suburbs of Hacienda Heights, CA. My father's family are immigrants from Chihuahua, Chihuahua, in Northern Mexico. Ironically, despite the association of the name with a certain breed of small dog, people from Chihuahua are known for being tall. My Mexican grandfather was 6 foot 4, and I stand 6 foot 2. The Romeros lost their fortune during the Mexican Revolution because they sided with the famous revolutionary Pancho Villa. It is said that my great-grandfather died of a broken heart while staring at an empty chest of worthless Revolutionary paper money. The Romeros eventually made their way to East Los Angeles in the 1950's via El Paso, Texas (a common Mexican migratory path of the time). My dad, and several uncles and aunts, are graduates of Roosevelt High. <br />
<br />
My mother's family comes from Hubei in central China. They came as religious/political refugees to Los Angeles in the 1950's. My Chinese grandfather was a pastor and evangelist, and he started Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in China. He was known as the "Billy Graham" of China, and Christianity Today magazine even did a story about him many decades ago. My "Gung-Gung," together with my "Po-Po" and 8 kids, fled to the U.S. because he was on the communist "hit list." As an interesting side note, my Chinese family descends directly from the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty--one General Chao. We've actually got the documentation to prove it.<br />
<br />
When I come to Indiana I become keenly aware of my distinct cultural heritage not only because I stand out like a sore thumb (a 6 foot 2, 220 lb. brown man with pierced ears and a shaved head), but also because, in a positive way, I get the chance to experience a culture that is very different from my own. I joke with my wife that I'm familiar with about 80% of her culture by virtue of being American. About 20% of her culture, however, is totally foreign to me. Not in a bad way, but in a way like,"wow, what did they say? What was that? What was that word? They didn't teach that word to my family in ESL class." Sometimes I lean over to my wife and just say, "that's part of the 20%."<br />
<br />
My Chinese-Mexican-Midwestern Christmases always make me think about God's plan for diversity, and a particular passage of Scripture found in Revelation 21:22-27:<br />
<br />
"I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp...<b><i>The glory</i></b><i style="font-weight: bold;"> and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, </i>but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life."<br />
<br />
In this passage, the Apostle John describes what it will be like when God restores all things back to the way He originally intended. This final restoration culminates in the City of God,or, the New Jerusalem. According to John, the "glory and honor of the nations" will be brought into the New Jerusalem. The Greek word translated as "glory" in this text can also be translated into English as "treasure" or "wealth." The Greek word translated as "nations" means the "ethnic groups" of the world. So, this passage could be read as, the "treasure and wealth" of the different ethnic groups of the world will be brought into the City of God.<br />
<br />
But what is the "treasure" and "wealth" of which John speaks? Surely it is not literal currency, or commodities traded on the stock market, or paper money. I believe that John is speaking of the <i>cultural treasure and wealth </i>of the various ethnic groups of the world. By God's design, every ethnic group of the world possesses distinct cultural treasure: food, music, art, architecture, song, dance, sports, poetry, jokes, humor, etc., and even unique cultural personalities (more on this in a later blog). Every nation on earth is on an equal playing field in this regard. Every ethnic group has its own unique and distinct cultural treasure, and no one's cultural treasure is more valuable than any other's. It's all good. <br />
<br />
This is why racism is wrong. Racism says "my cultural treasure is better than yours." This passage from the book of Revelation corrects such racist thinking. It teaches that the cultural treasure and wealth of every nation is so important to God that it will all find its way into the New Jerusalem for us to enjoy--forever.<br />
<br />
It's important to note that just as every nation has its own distinct cultural treasure, each nation also has its own distinct cultural "impurities" as well. This is directly implied by John when he says that "[N]othing impure will ever enter [the City of God]." Every ethnic group of the world has its unique sinful cultural practices which will not enter the New Jerusalem and which will be banished from eternity. We're all on equal footing in this regard as well. No nation can afford to be self-righteous. This is why "American exceptionalism" is so sickening. American exceptionalism seeks to propagate the unbiblical notion that the United States has cultural "treasure and wealth," but no cultural "impurities." Gag. This is simply untrue and unbiblical. The U.S. has distinct cultural treasure to be sure, but like every other nation it is not immune to sin.<br />
<br />
With this theological foundation laid, now back to my travel diary. Every time I visit the Midwest for Christmas, I literally get a taste of the "glory and honor" of Indiana. Through food, music, art, architecture, swim meets, choir performances--and every person I meet--I experience this cultural treasure. It's a wonderful thing. Some of it is so enjoyable that it even adds a few inches to the waistline! <br />
<br />
Although every ethnic group has its own distinct cultural treasure and wealth, and is therefore equal in God's sight, I wonder if it's still o.k. for us to have our favorites? I'm sure it probably is. I'm sure God doesn't mind. Me personally, I'm looking forward to heading back to Cali in a few days and enjoying the "glory and honor" of my Chinese and Mexican cultures once again :)<br />
<br />
Thankful for God's diversity,<br />
Robert Chao Romero<br />
@ProfeChaoRomero<br />
FB: "Jesus for Revolutionaries"<br />
www.facebook.com/jesusforrevolutionaries<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-48950185546817083042012-12-11T20:38:00.000-08:002012-12-11T21:22:58.546-08:00"The Parable of the Good Undocumented Immigrant": The Good Samaritan Revisited<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A central teaching of Scripture is that we are called to
love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and also that we are called
to love our neighbors as ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the parable of the “Good Samaritan,” Jesus teaches that our “neighbors”
include those who are culturally different from ourselves and those who are
looked down upon by dominant society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This story is told in Luke 10: 25-37:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010:25-37&version=NIV">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010:25-37&version=NIV</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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What if Jesus were to have told this parable in 21<sup>st</sup>
century America?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who would be the
unloving religious leaders in the story and who would be the “Samaritan”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine with me that Jesus is
telling this parable, today, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arizona</i>…</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
25 On one occasion a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seminary professor</i> stood up to test
Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
26 “What is
written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength
and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
28 “You have answered correctly,”
Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
29 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus,</i> “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And who is my neighbor?</i>”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was
going down from Phoenix to Tucson, when he was attacked by robbers. They
stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. </div>
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<br /></div>
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31 A <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pastor of a “mega church”</i> happened to be going down the same road,
and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. </div>
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<br /></div>
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32 So too, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a church elder</i>, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on
the other side. </div>
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<br /></div>
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33 But an <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">undocumented immigrant</b>, as he traveled, came where the man was; and
when he saw him, he took pity on him. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
34 He went to him and bandaged his
wounds, pouring on hydrogen peroxide and neosporin. Then he put the man in his
own gardening truck, brought him to a motel and took care of him. </div>
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<br /></div>
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35 The next day he took out $128
(two days worth of day laborer wages) and gave them to the hotel manager. ‘Look
after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra
expense you may have.’</div>
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36 “Which of these three do you
think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
37 The seminary
professor replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
Jesus told him, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go and do likewise</i>.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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May we go and do likewise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May we fall in love with Jesus more and more each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May we learn from the parable of the
Good Samaritan, and grow in loving those we believe to be most unlike
ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Growing in loving,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Chao Romero</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
@ProfeChaoRomero</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries?ref=hl</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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P.S., please stay tuned in January for a 40-day series on
the topic of undocumented immigration. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Join me then for the 40-Day “I Was A Stranger
Challenge”:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/">http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/</a></div>
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Spread the word to your friends and networks!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Also, this contemporary version of the Parable of the Good
Samaritan was inspired by “The Cotton Patch Gospel.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In case you’d like to check out this “colloquial translation
of the New Testament with a Southern accent”: <a href="http://rockhay.tripod.com/cottonpatch/">http://rockhay.tripod.com/cottonpatch/</a></div>
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<br /></div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-75018991515578719852012-12-05T21:51:00.000-08:002012-12-05T21:51:30.144-08:00WWDJ: What Would You Do To Jesus?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In my opinion, the most powerful testimony
to God’s love and concern for the poor is found in Matthew 25: 31-46:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“When
the Son of Man [Jesus] comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will
sit on his throne in heavenly glory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the
people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will put the sheep on his right and
the goats on his left.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Then
the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my
Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation
of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For I was hungry and
you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I
was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whatever you did for one of the least of
these brothers of mine, you did for me.”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">These words of Jesus present a stunning
truth<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus loves and cares about immigrants and the poor so much
that when we love them we are actually loving him!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Jesus identifies so closely with the
struggles of the poor that he teaches that the barometer of a sincere
relationship with him is whether or not we love the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we love him, then we will love the
poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When we love the poor we are loving him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">St. Augustine put it this way, Jesus is
present “in the person of the poor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>"Christ is needy when a poor person is in need" and "is
hungry when the poor are hungry." "To come to the aid of the poor…is
to come to the aid of Christ the Head who is present and in need in the
poor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love Mother Theresa’s
summation of Matthew 25, too:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Jesus appears in the distressing disguise of the poor.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I like to describe these verses in Matthew
as the “WWDJ,” or, “What Would You Do For Jesus” passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s common to see people wearing
bracelets which say, “WWJD,” or “What Would Jesus Do.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sentiment behind these catchy
bracelets is a good one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea
is that, when confronted with a difficult situation, the wearer of the bracelet
will stop him or herself and ask, “What would Jesus do in this situation?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“WWDJ” stands for a related, but
different proposition drawn from the logic of Matthew 25:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Jesus is really present in
immigrants, the homeless, and the poor, then we should think long and hard
about the way we respond in our daily lives to immigrants, homeless
individuals, or the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would
you ever call Jesus a racist name like “beaner,” “spic,” or “wet back”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you ever spit upon Jesus and call
him “lazy” and a “bum” if He asked you for money outside of your local grocery
store?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you ever call Him a
“welfare mom who needs to stop having babies and get a job”?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">The fact of the matter is that if we really
take the Bible seriously, then Jesus is present in the homeless person
wandering our local neighborhood in search of food and a dry and safe place to
lay her head;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he is present in the
undocumented male immigrant cutting our lawn, cooking our meal and cleaning our
dishes in the backroom of Denny’s;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>he is present in the undocumented <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mujer</i>
who cleans our home and raises our children, and, as Cesar Chavez understood,
in the farm worker who picks our fruit at minimum wage so that we can buy
strawberries on sale for $3.99 at Trader Joe’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is also present in the “AB-540 student” who works 30-
40 hours a week, commutes 100 miles a day by public transportation, and who
sacrifices food for books in order to attend UCLA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is present in the Mexicana who is deported and ripped
apart from her young U.S.-citizen children and deported to Mexico because mainstream
U.S. society is content to benefit from her cheap labor and at the same time
blame her for all of it’s social ills; Jesus is present in the female Asian
immigrant who was tricked into prostitution and who now lives as a sex slave in
Monterey Park and in her relatives who labor away in sweatshops of Downtown
L.A. so that a sixteen year old suburban teen can buy her trendy jeans on sale
at Forever 21;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is also present
in the African-American and Latino youth of South L.A. who are denied equal
access to quality public education, medical care, safe parks, and so many other
things; He is present in all of the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>inner city residents of the United States who suffer from the increased
risk of a multitude of health problems because they live in “food deserts”;
Jesus is present in the many African-American women who experience an increased
risk of pre-term pregnancy and infant mortality because of the many expressions
of racism which they continue to endure in white America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Jesus is present in all of the poor,
disenfranchised, and “least of society.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If we love him, we will love
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WWDJ?</i></span></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-43170229665252518792012-11-30T08:17:00.002-08:002012-11-30T08:22:24.631-08:00God’s EPC (Part III): Corporate Responsibility and Living Wages<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Buenos
dias.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before continuing our
discussion of the biblical basis for social justice, I want to thank you for
speaking up on behalf of the African American family who was driven out of
Orange County by racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks
for spreading the word about this terrible occurrence and getting in touch with
the Yorba Linda City council to express your concern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I received a thoughtful response from the city after writing
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They expressed a sincere concern
for what happened and said that they have launched an investigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No leads have turned up yet,
unfortunately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s continue to
pray for justice…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">----------------------------------</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Before
the Thanksgiving holiday, we had begun a multi-part discussion about the
biblical basis for social justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Today’s post is part III of this series, and it will explore the
biblical basis for corporate responsibility and labor rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Old Testament “law of gleaning” speaks loud and clear about corporate
responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leviticus 19: 9-10
summarizes this important social justice law which is also restated in
Deuteronomy 24:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">9
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your
field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard
a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor
and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
law from God Himself, commanded landowners, business owners in our language
today, to leave some of their potential profits for immigrants and the
poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In those days when
landowners sent out farm workers to pick their fields for sale in the
marketplace, some of the harvested grapes and produce would fall to the
ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this passage, God
commanded agricultural business owners to leave this fallen produce, or
“gleanings,” on the ground so that immigrants and the poor could have something
to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, this text
orders them to leave the “very edges of [their] field” alone, so that immigrants
and the poor could harvest the edges for food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
law of gleaning imparts a very important principle which stands in opposition
to the corporate greed which we see rampant in America today:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corporations and other businesses have
a moral, indeed divine, obligation to reserve some of their profits to help
immigrants and the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Corporations should not squeeze as much profit as they can from the hard
work of their employees (i.e., the farm workers employed in the above passage)
and keep it all for themselves, their stockholders, and their highly overpaid
CEO’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is immoral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every business and corporation
has a moral obligation to give back and not to hoard wealth when millions in
America and around the globe are starving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Bible is also clear that corporations and employers have a moral obligation to
pay just wages to their employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If they make themselves rich by failing to pay their employees fairly,
then, as James, Jesus’ younger revolutionary brother tells us, they face fiery
divine judgment:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“Look
here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible
troubles ahead of you. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">2
Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">3
Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting
on will eat away your flesh like fire. This treasure you have accumulated will
stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">4
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">For listen! Hear the cries of the field
workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out
against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears
of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">5
You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You
have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">6
You have condemned and killed innocent people, who do not resist you.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James 5: 1-6</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>WOW!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’ve never read the book of James
before, you’re probably stunned after reading this passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whoever makes the false claim that the
Bible stands opposed to social justice must never have read the book of James
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been criticized for
sounding too “angry” in my writing about social injustice—I will now reply,
yes, I am righteously angry just like Jesus’ brother!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
passage of Holy Scripture is abundantly clear about the moral responsibility that
employers have to pay fair wages to their employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they fail to pay their workers, and by implication if
they fail to pay their workers fairly, they face the danger of God’s righteous
judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God gets very upset when
corporations and employers hoard wealth and fail to justly compensate their
workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is enraged when
workers cry out to Him about such injustice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The picture here is that employers who engage in such unjust
labor practices are like bloated and overfed cows awaiting the slaughter of God’s
judgment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
passage makes me think about the disturbing trend of inflated CEO salaries and unlivable
wages for incredibly hard-working, blue-collar employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many CEO’s make millions of
dollars a year while their hard-working employees don’t earn enough to feed
their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They benefit from
lavish benefits packages and housing and car allowances, while their employees
can’t take their children to see a doctor because they lack health care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is biblically immoral according to
the book of James.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For
example, in 2011, Walmart CEO Mike Duke earned $16.27 million, but how many of
Walmart’s employees could not feed their families or take them to see a
doctor?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2011, the average,
full-time Walmart employee earned an annual pay of $15,576.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This salary was about $7,000 less than
the 2010 Federal Poverty Level of $22,050 for a family of 4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And these numbers apply only to
full-time employees at Walmart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What about the many employees who are hired on a part-time basis?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Do
you like to travel and stay at hotels?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I know I do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Starwood
Hotels CEO Frits van Paasschen earned $16.66 million in 2011. How many
minimum-wage Latina immigrant moms work at one of the company’s hotels like the
Westin and the Sheraton, but don’t make enough money to provide for their
family’s basic needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be sure to
tip big to the cleaning staff when you stay at a hotel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
do you like the shirts with the little horsey on them? Ralph Lauren earned $43
million in executive compensation in 2011.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many sweatshop workers are suffering in the world today
because of those little horsey shirts?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Costco corporation is a wonderful counter-example to the rampant corporate greed
in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not a perfect
company by any means, but Costco gives healthcare benefits to full and
part-time employees and pays an average of $17 per hour!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, Costco shareholders were so alarmed by the high
wages paid by their company that they actually sued—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unsuccessfully</i>-to try and lower compensation rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They lost their lawsuit because Costco
was able to prove that their fair employee practices lead to higher corporate
profit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think that it is
an accident that Costco’s fair employee compensation policies were spear-headed
by former Catholic CEO, Jim Sinegal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mr. Sinegal probably read the book of James.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In sum, the Bible is very clear:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is immoral for corporations,
businesses, and employers to hoard wealth at the expense of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>immigrants, the poor, and their
employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have a moral
obligation to reserve some of their profit to assist immigrants and the poor,
and, for fear of fiery divine judgment, they also have a moral duty to pay fair
wages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Jesus’ revolutionary
younger brother, let’s speak out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In
solidarity,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Robert
Chao Romero</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">@ProfeChaoRomero</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Like us on FB! https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</span></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-12276064140415843962012-11-24T01:15:00.001-08:002012-11-28T07:46:47.852-08:00Driven Out: A Black Family's Battle with Housing Discrimination in the O.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's pretty late on Black Friday (at least for me). I feel compelled to write this post because of two things: 1. A terrible act of racism which recently occurred in my parents' home town of Yorba Linda, California; and 2. The new movie, "Lincoln," which I just got back from seeing with my wife on our date night. <br />
<br />
<i>Driven out</i>: in a terrible act of racism reminiscent of the 1920's ands 30's, an African American family was just driven out of my parents' town of Yorba Linda. They moved to Yorba Linda in 2011. Both the father and mother are police officers and they have two children--a college-aged and six year old son. They moved to Yorba Linda last year hoping to enjoy the peace and quiet of this suburban O.C. town of 65,000. Their ambitions were shattered by deplorable acts of racism which they experienced. Racists threw rocks through the windows of their house and slashed the tires of their two cars. Their six year old child was told by other children at school that they would not play with him because he was black. Their college-aged son was called the N-word and other racial epithets when he road his bike to work at the local Home Depot. The last straw was when someone shot acid pellets at the father's car when he was pulling into his own driveway! Before this final act of racial violence had occurred, the family had filed two complaints to the police department, but the police did not feel it was appropriate to categorize the racially-tinged acts as hate crimes. The mayor of Yorba Linda seemed sincere when he said on Wednesday that city officials "deeply regretted" what had happened and that they did not condone what had occurred. <br />
<br />
"Deep regret" and "not condoning" does not seem adequate in this case, however. How about "deeply condemn"? That seems more appropriate in this situation where racists acted violently and with impunity against an African American family of police officers and their two children. I am enraged by what this family has suffered, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it for the past day and a half. <br />
<br />
As I process what occurred, I am reminded of my historical studies of Yorba Linda and the state of California during the first half of the twentieth century. During this time period, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans were segregated in housing, parks, pools, education, and even in death and burial. In fact, Yorba Linda was one of the worst offenders, even then. Many cities segregated people of color, but Yorba Linda would not even allow a segregated Mexican community to exist within its borders! <br />
<br />
It gets worse. When California state legislators outlawed race and gender-based discrimination in housing as part of the Rumsford Fair Housing Act in 1963, guess what happened? By a 2-1 margin, California voters repealed the Rumsford Act with a ballot initiative (Prop 14)! It wasn't until the National Housing Act was passed by Congress in 1967 that racial discrimination in housing was outlawed in California once and for all. <br />
<br />
<i>Lincoln</i>: I went to see the movie,"Lincoln," with all of this spiralling around in my heart and mind. I was greatly surprised, however, by the spiritual insight I gained about these events from watching the movie. There was a line in the movie where President Lincoln said something to the effect of, "Slavery had for centuries hardened the hearts of Americans against the biblical truth that all human beings are made equally in the image of God." That's a very rough paraphrase (with some Robert Chao Romero artistic and spiritual license thrown in).<br />
<br />
I realized that Lincoln was absolutely right. 250 years of slavery had darkened the collective heart and mind and soul of America. Many Americans convinced themselves--absolutely contrary to all biblical teaching--that some human beings were made more in the image of God than others. Africans, Native Americans, Mexicans, Latin Americans, and Asians were viewed as unequal to whites, because, presumably, they somehow failed to reflect God's image or reflected God's image in a diminutive fashion. This unbiblical logic made it ok for whites to enslave blacks for 250 years, kill millions of Native Americans, and seize Native American and Mexican lands based upon the far-fetched theological concept of Manifest Destiny (the idea that God had ordained for Anglo-Saxon Americans to seize control of all of North America so that they could propagate their brand of Protestant Christianity and democracy). This twisted logic also provided the immoral basis for racial segregation and apartheid. <br />
<br />
It is my belief that a residue of this unbiblical reasoning continues to darken the collective heart and mind and soul of America to this day. We've definitely come a long way since the abolition of slavery in 1867, <i>but the deep residue of racial sin in the United States still remains. The evil ouster of an African American family on the eve of Thanksgiving in 2012 evidences this.</i> So does all of the anti-immigrant and "blame the poor for being poor" rhetoric that we heard from political campaigns this past year. A lot of people will not like me for saying this, but I also think that all of the harsh anti-ObamaCare and anti-affirmative action rhetoric of recent months also falls into the same category. Despite the fact that 50 million human beings made in God's image are suffering in the United States for lack of adequate health care, and millions of students of color have limited future financial prospects because of inequality in our public education system, so many people in this country are unwilling to give up even a small amount of privilege in order to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. <br />
<br />
I am reminded of what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus 2,000 year ago: <br />
"So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29290AN" title="See cross-reference AN">AN</a>)"></sup> live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29290AO" title="See cross-reference AO">AO</a>)"></sup> <span class="text Eph-4-18" id="en-NIV-29291"><sup class="versenum">18 </sup><i>They are darkened in their understanding<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29291AP" title="See cross-reference AP">AP</a>)"></sup> and separated from the life of God<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29291AQ" title="See cross-reference AQ">AQ</a>)"></sup> because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29291AR" title="See cross-reference AR">AR</a>)"></sup></i></span> <span class="text Eph-4-19" id="en-NIV-29292"><sup class="versenum">19 </sup>Having lost all sensitivity,<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29292AS" title="See cross-reference AS">AS</a>)"></sup> they have given themselves over<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29292AT" title="See cross-reference AT">AT</a>)"></sup> to sensuality<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29292AU" title="See cross-reference AU">AU</a>)"></sup> so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.</span> <span class="text Eph-4-20" id="en-NIV-29293"><sup class="versenum">20 </sup><i>That, however, is not the way of life you learned</i></span><i> <span class="text Eph-4-21" id="en-NIV-29294"><sup class="versenum">21 </sup>when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.</span> </i><span class="text Eph-4-22" id="en-NIV-29295"><sup class="versenum">22 </sup>You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29295AV" title="See cross-reference AV">AV</a>)"></sup> your old self,<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29295AW" title="See cross-reference AW">AW</a>)"></sup> which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29295AX" title="See cross-reference AX">AX</a>)"></sup></span> <span class="text Eph-4-23" id="en-NIV-29296"><sup class="versenum">23 </sup><i>to be made new in the attitude of your minds;<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29296AY" title="See cross-reference AY">AY</a>)"></sup></i></span><i> </i><span class="text Eph-4-24" id="en-NIV-29297"><i><sup class="versenum">24 </sup>and to put on<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29297AZ" title="See cross-reference AZ">AZ</a>)"></sup> the new self,<sup class="crossreference" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29297BA" title="See cross-reference BA">BA</a>)"></sup> created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.</i> Ephesians 4:17-25.</span><br />
<span class="text Eph-4-24"></span><br />
<span class="text Eph-4-24">In 2012, almost everyone in America can agree that slavery was wrong and that it was right for Abraham Lincoln to forcefully pursue its abolition. But that was not what many people believed in his day. Many condoned slavery and were "darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that [was] in them due to the hardening of their hearts." America's collective heart was hardened by slavery and the sin of racism which had permeated American culture ever since the earliest English settlers set foot on the continent. We've been recovering ever since. We've made some good progress, but we have a long way to go. I've got a long way to go.</span><br />
<br />
<i><span class="text Eph-4-24">Join me in speaking out against this 21st century Jim Crow racial prejudice in Yorba Linda. Let others know about what occurred and write or call the Yorba Linda City Council. </span></i><span class="text Eph-4-24">Let's express to the city council how deeply concerned we are about how this family was treated. Let's share with them that we are hopeful that they will act to right the wrong and act to ensure that it does not happen again: </span><br />
<br />
<i><span class="text Eph-4-24"><span class="text Eph-4-24">Yorba Linda City Council <br />(714) 961-7110<br />
<a href="mailto:city_council@yorba-linda.org">city_council@yorba-linda.org</a></span> </span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span class="text Eph-4-24">Let's also pray. Pray for the family who experienced the injustice. Pray that the city council would have wisdom to act in an appropriate way. And, pray for those who committed the injustice as well--that God would change their hearts. </span></i><br />
<br />
<span class="text Eph-4-24">In solidarity,</span><br />
<br />
Robert Chao Romero<br />
<br />
<span class="text Eph-4-24">@ProfeChaoRomero</span><br />
<span class="text Eph-4-24">FB: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries"><span style="font-family: Lucida Bright;">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</span></a></span><br />
<br />
<span class="text Eph-4-24"> P.S., Here is the letter which I just emailed to the Yorba Linda City Council:</span><br />
<br />
<span class="text Eph-4-24">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
November 28, 2012</div>
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<br /></div>
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Dear Yorba Linda City Council:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My name is Dr. Robert Chao Romero and I am an Associate
Professor at UCLA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
recently read about the disturbing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>racist events in Yorba Linda which led to an African American family
being driven out of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
former Yorba Linda resident, and as someone who has six family members who are
current residents, I am deeply disturbed by what occurred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I lived in Yorba Linda I
also experienced some racial tension, and one of my family members has also
told me about experiences of racial discrimination at the local supermarket as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am concerned for my family
members and for other African American, Latino, and Asian American residents of
Yorba Linda. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure that
you are deeply disturbed by these recent events, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am hopeful that you will act to right the wrong which
occurred and act to make sure that this hostile racial climate does not
continue in Yorba Linda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have been so disturbed by what occurred that I have spoken
to my UCLA class of 400 students about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, I was told by one of my students that she was not
surprised by what happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
says that she has Latino family members who live in Yorba Linda and that they
have also experienced a hostile racial climate, specifically at Canyon High
School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my personal capacity—not as a representative of UCLA—I
have also written about what occurred in my personal blog: <a href="http://jesusforrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/">http://jesusforrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am hopeful that the Yorba Linda City
Council will act with all of its power and authority to remedy this hostile
racial climate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The eyes of many are watching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Should you have any further questions, please contact me by
phone or e-mail at: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>xxxxxxxxx
or xxxxxxxxx.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Sincerely,</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Chao Romero, J.D.,Ph.D.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Associate Professor </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chicana/o Studies & Asian American Studies</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<span class="text Eph-4-24"></span><br />
<span class="text Eph-4-24"></span><br /></div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-36560745514359779692012-11-21T07:13:00.002-08:002012-11-21T07:25:07.358-08:00A Revolutionary Thanksgiving Reflection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I am very thankful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I received tenure this year and we bought our first house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much more importantly, I’m thankful for
my amazing wife and two beautiful, healthy children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are God’s most wonderful gift to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I appreciate the opportunity that
Thanksgiving gives for me to take stock of the many blessings in my life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m keenly aware that I do not merit any
of these good things on my own, and that they are all God’s gracious gifts to
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m glad that we, as a
country, can pause for at least one day a year to thank God, too (followed by a
wild outburst of excessive materialism and consumerism—but that’s a topic for
another blog and another day).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not so happy, however, with the romanticized historical
narrative which often accompanies the celebration of Thanksgiving in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It goes something like this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The pilgrim’s came to America in
search of religious freedom and established a unique colony of heaven. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These momentous beginnings were
commemorated with a happy, happy meal with the Native Americans, and for the
next three hundred years America was a godly ‘city on a hill’ and a ‘Christian
nation.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until the 1960’s
happened—oh how we need to get back to the way the United States was in the
1950’s.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As an Asian-Latino American I am turned off by this
romanticized—and historically inaccurate--view of Thanksgiving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can I celebrate an event which led to the dispossession
and decimation of more than 10 million Native Americans? How can I say that the
United States was a godly “city on a hill” when it enslaved millions of African
Americans for 250 years, seized half of Mexico in what Abraham Lincoln called
an unjust war, and justified western colonial expansion by saying that it was
God’s will and “manifest destiny.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My Asian American side is quite perturbed by the traditional
Thanksgiving narrative as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From 1882-1943 the United States banned the immigration of Chinese
laborers as part of the Chinese Exclusion Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the Chinese were banned, Japanese, Filipinos, and
Koreans were all cut off from immigrating to the United States as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Italians, Poles, and other Eastern and Southern Europeans
were not spared either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>African
Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and Asians were all subsequently
segregated in housing, education, and employment until well within my parents’
lifetime as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 1950’s were not a good time for my Asian
and Latino ancestors in America, and I would never want to return to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve noticed that I’m not alone .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, a know that thousands of people (if you’re reading
this blog it’s likely that you’re one of them) have the same ambivalent
feelings towards the Thanksgiving holiday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some even call it “Thanks-taking,” and others celebrate “Anti-thanksgiving.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">So what is a
revolutionary to do?</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I think we should disassociate this great
opportunity to thank God for what we have from the inaccurate historical
narrative that often accompanies Thanksgiving.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can still
give thanks without endorsing the historical inaccuracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Paul tells us: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In every thing give thanks: for this is
the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, as Jesus’ revolutionary younger brother
James said: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows”
(James 1:17).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so, for all the ways that God has loved us and been good
to us this past year, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>LET’S GIVE
THANKS.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
RCR<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">If
you’d like to join the Revolution, please like us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Please
follow me on Twitter, too:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>@ProfeChaoRomero</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-26712301423666198572012-11-15T08:05:00.000-08:002012-11-15T08:17:32.802-08:00God's Equal Protection Clause (Part II): "Trickle Up" Justice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Last
week we talked about how more than 2,000 verses of Scripture speak of God’s
love and concern for the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drawing
a parallel to the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, I argued that
this large body of Scripture forms the basis of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“God’s Equal Protection Clause (EPC).” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I proposed that God’s EPC might be summed up in this way:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">All
persons born in the world are made in My image, and subject to the jurisdiction
of Heaven… No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of immigrants and the poor who are made in My image;
nor shall any state deprive them of life, liberty, or property, without
consideration of My rigorous ethical standards; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nor shall they deny any immigrant or poor person the equal protection
of the laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who violate My
Equal Protection Clause will be subject to divine judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Our goal in the next several weeks is to
explore some of the key scriptural texts which make up the biblical EPC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">As expressed by my reiteration of the Equal
Protection Clause, Scripture teaches that oppression of immigrants and the poor
is offensive to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same
time, the Bible is also clear that such injustice is the defining reality of a
humanity which has chosen to turn its back on God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As King Solomon states in the famous book of
Ecclesiastes (5:8-11):</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">8
If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do
not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and
over them both are others higher still. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">9 The increase from the land is taken
by all; the king himself profits from the fields. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>10 Whoever loves
money never has money enough; </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>whoever loves wealth is never satisfied
with his income. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This too is meaningless. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>11 As goods
increase, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>so do those who consume them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
what benefit are they to the owner </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>except
to feast his eyes on them?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In a broken and sinful world, we all fail
to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a consequence, we also fail to love
our neighbors as ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because we fail to love our neighbors as God intended, human greed and
selfishness rule, and the poor are often oppressed and mistreated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, the Bible is also very
clear that God loves the poor and defends their cause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">As we’ve previously discussed, more than
2,000 verses of Scripture speak about God’s love and concern for the poor,
immigrants, and the dispossessed of society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This topic is the second most common topic in the “Old
Testament” second only to that of idolatry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(This is because every time people in the Old Testament fell
into the worship of anyone or anything other than God, they began to oppress
immigrants and the poor.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In the “New Testament,” the topic of the
poor and money is found in 1 out of every 10 verses of the “Gospels” (the first
four books of the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—which are
basically biographies of Jesus).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In Luke, it’s actually 1 in 7 verses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus speaks much more about his love and concern for the
poor and the devastating consequences of greed than he ever does about heaven
and hell (and he does talk about those topics, too).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In fact, the Bible is written from the
perspective of an oppressed people group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Old Testament was written by former slaves (the Israelites) who came
to know God by being delivered from slavery and oppression in Egypt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The New Testament was written by “triple
minorities” who experienced an intersectionality of three layers of oppression.
Not only did they inherit the history of deliverance from slavery in Egypt,
they were oppressed and colonized by the Romans and persecuted by the religious
leaders of their own ethnicity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An
accurate understanding of the Bible must take this important historical context
into account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Here is just a small sampling of what the Bible
has to say about God’s love and concern for justice and the poor (it would take
many volumes to present and interpret the thousands of verses from the Bible which
speak of God’s love and concern for immigrants and the poor):</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In Isaiah 1:17, the prophet Isaiah declares
emphatically, “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for
the widow”(Isaiah 1:17).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later on
in the book of Isaiah, the Lord Himself says, “Is not this the kind of fast I
have chosen:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to loose the chains
of injustice, and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and
break every yoke?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it not to
share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when
you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and
blood?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isaiah 58:6-7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In words similar to those of Isaiah,
the prophet Amos cries, “But let justice run down like water, and righteousness
like a mighty stream.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amos 5:24</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I love Psalm 140:12 which states
unequivocally that God fights for the oppressed and upholds their “causa” (cause):</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“I know that the LORD secures justice for
the poor</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and upholds the cause of the needy.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In proclamation of his public ministry,
Christ declared, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to preach the good news to the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of
sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s
favor.” Luke 4:18. As Rich Stearns, President of World Vision says about this
passage:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">“In
the first century, the allusion to prisoners and the oppressed would have
certainly meant those living under the occupation of Rome but also, in a
broader sense, anyone who had been the victim of injustice, whether political,
social, or economic. The proclamation of “the year of the Lord’s favor” was a
clear reference to the Old Testament year of Jubilee, when slaves were set
free, debts were forgiven, and all land was returned to its original
owners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The year of Jubilee was
God’s way of protecting against the rich getting too rich and the poor getting
too poor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Stearns, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hole in Our Gospel</i>, 22)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Can
you see where I’m heading?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
doesn’t sound like blame the poor for being poor, or the political mantra of “trickle
down” economics and “equal opportunity not equal economic results.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It sounds a lot like “trickle up” justice</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"> This
is also not some radical communist saying this, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the Bible and the president of
one of the most important evangelical Christian organizations on planet
earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In
Solidarity,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Robert</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">If
you’d like to join the Revolution, please like us on Facebook! <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries">https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Please
follow me on Twitter, too:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>@ProfeChaoRomero</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-84793758378570529932012-11-13T06:31:00.003-08:002012-11-13T07:52:08.830-08:00God's Equal Protection Clause: The Biblical Basis for Social Justice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">The
Equal Protection Clause (EPC) is the prime guarantor of civil rights in the
United States Constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
reads:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">All
persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state
wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">The
EPC was originally created to protect the rights of newly emancipated African
American slaves after the Civil War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basically, the federal government was afraid that
states would treat blacks unequally following the abolition of slavery by
passing racist policies and laws against them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The EPC was constructed, at least in theory, to prevent
the states from denying African Americans “the equal protection of the
laws.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we know from history,
states blatantly disregarded the EPC, discriminated against African Americans
in every horrible way imaginable, and found legal loopholes to justify their
racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Although originally designed to protect
African Americans, the reach of the EPC was eventually extended to protect
Asian Americans, Latinos, and other minorities from governmental
discrimination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the present-day,
the EPC guarantees the civil rights of all people (including whites), based
upon race, national origin, gender, and religious affiliation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">One controversy surrounding the EPC is that
it has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court to offer little protection to
the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Poverty is not a "suspect classification" according to the highest court in the land, </span>and the result is that the
federal government, states, and cities can pass almost any type of law which
discriminates against the poor and it will be found constitutional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the current conservative shift of
the U.S. Supreme Court it is likely that the same might become true for the
civil rights of undocumented immigrants as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thankfully,
the Bible has a very different view than the Supreme Court of the United
States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Bible is very clear that any discrimination against the poor and
immigrants violates God’s Equal Protection Clause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact,
the Bible is also abundantly clear that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God’s
equal protection extends to every individual regardless of race, nationality,
gender, or socio-economic status.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <u>More than 2,000 verses of Scripture establish the biblical basis for God's Protection Clause. </u></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">A summary of biblical teaching on the civil
rights of the poor and immigrants (God’s Equal Protection Clause) might be
summed up in this way:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">All
persons born in the world are made in My image, and subject to the jurisdiction
of Heaven… No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of immigrants and the poor who are made in My image; nor shall
any state deprive them<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of life,
liberty, or property, without consideration of My rigorous ethical standards; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nor shall they deny any immigrant or poor
person the equal protection of the laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Those who violate My Equal Protection Clause will be subject to divine
judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">As expressed by this reiteration of the Equal
Protection Clause, Scripture teaches that oppression of immigrants and the poor
is offensive to God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same
time, the Bible is also clear that such injustice is the defining reality of a
humanity which has chosen to turn its back on God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Tune in in a few days for a specific discussion of the Scripture which forms the basis for the biblical EPC... </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Thanks for your support...please spread the word!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JesusForRevolutionaries</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Follow me on Twitter: @ProfeChaoRomero </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In solidarity,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Robert </span><br />
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-14143897679646324182012-11-12T09:34:00.000-08:002012-11-12T09:34:29.722-08:00Proud, Unburied, and Deported: Latino Veterans in the U.S. Military<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I come from a proud line of Latino war veterans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father and two uncles are Vietnam
War vets, and I have a relative who lost his legs in combat during World War II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also have cousins who were West Point
grads, Green Berets, Army Airborne, and National Guardsmen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Latino, I’m not alone in
having a long tradition of family military service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than 1
million Latino vets are alive and well in the United States today, and Latinos
comprise 11% of the U.S. military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beginning with the American Revolution (yes, the war with
the wig-wearing Brits more than 200 years ago), Latinos have bravely served in the U.S.
military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Latinos have fought in every war since,
including the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean “conflict,” the
Vietnam War, Operation Desert Shield/Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation
Enduring Freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much to my
surprise, Latinos even fought in China (and won a Congressional Medal of Honor)
as part of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I wonder, did one of my Mexican ancestors fight in China one hundred
years ago having no idea that one of his own would end up marrying a Chinese
woman in Los Angeles 70 years later?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">:)</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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A higher percentage of Latinos fought in WWII than any other
ethnic minority group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Latinos
also won more medals during WWII, including Congressional Medals of Honor, than
any other ethnic minority group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This led many of us to shake our heads in disbelief when Ken Burns
failed to honor the specific military service of Latinos in his famous WWII
documentary series which came out in 2007.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As proud as us Latinos are of our brave history of military
service to the United States, there’s also a bit of tension which many of us
experience when we talk about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is because, historically, though we’ve fought our hearts and souls
out on the battlefield, we haven’t always found open arms when we’ve returned
home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Felix Longoria incident is a tragic example of this
which deserves commemoration this Veteran’s Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Felix Z. Longoria, a Texas native, was killed in action in
the Philippines in 1945.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
fighting and dying bravely on the battlefield for his country, his body was
transported back to his south Texas hometown of Three Rivers for honorable
burial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unbelievably, an Anglo
funeral home in Three Rivers refused to allow his family to conduct funeral
services for him there because of his Mexican ancestry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This raised a national
controversy and spurred the political intervention of then Senator Lyndon B.
Johnson and Dr. Hector P. Santiago, founder of the American G.I. Forum (a
Latino veterans organization created to advocate for the civil rights of Latino
war veterans).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Justice was served
, and Private Felix Longoria was granted an honorable burial in the Arlington
National Cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thankfully, things are much better today for our Latino
veterans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our country has indeed
come a long way since then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m
proud of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, unfortunately,
many Latinos have recently come back from service in Iraq and Afghanistan and
have not been given their just recognition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In fact, thousands of
Latino veterans have faced deportation proceedings in the past two years in the
United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2011, ICE
(Immigration and Customs Enforcement)</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">reported
that 3,000 veterans were in deportation proceedings!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>This is a modern-day Felix Longoria travesty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May we remember Private Felix
Longoria and these 3,000 veterans facing deportation on this Veteran’s
Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-49603942533769654762012-11-07T07:42:00.001-08:002012-11-09T07:33:01.756-08:00Obamanos!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Obama is still the 44th President of the United States. President Obama slid into home base last night with an overwhelming victory in the electoral college due in large part to the <i>Latin@ vote (</i>303-206 at last count)<i>.</i> One huge lesson emerges: <i>You can't stomp on 52 million Latin@s in your campaign and expect to win the Presidency. </i>In the Republican primary race, Mitt Romney went out of his way to be mean-spirited and harsh towards undocumented immigrants--repeatedly using the offensive term "illegal alien" as a cuss word intended to rile up the Republican base. 52 million of us were listening. You can't make fun of our moms, dads, abuelitas, abuelitos, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, friends, madrinas, and padrinos, and expect to gain our support. Moreover, whether you have undocumented family or friends, or not, most compassionate people favor a balanced form of comprehensive immigration reform.<br />
<br />
It doesn't work to politicize the painful struggles of undocumented students--or "Dreamers"--either. While criticizing President Obama for not passing the Dream Act, Mitt Romney had the audacity to go on to the presidential debate stage and advocate for a version of the Dream Act which only involved military service. Apparently, to Mitt Romney, we're good enough for cannon fodder, but we don't deserve to go to college or medical school.<br />
<br />
Think I'm just making this up and stuck in my Chicana/o Studies/ethnic studies bubble? <i>71% of Latin@s voted for President Obama yesterday. </i>Mitt Romney would have won last night if he could have garnered the same amount of support as George W. Bush did among Latinos. What's more, 50,000 Latin@s turn 18 <i>every month</i> in the United States. Buenos dias, America.</div>
Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1063572307313579510.post-9157078689171402642012-11-01T14:08:00.000-07:002012-11-02T07:50:43.793-07:00Student Stories from the Revolution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Carlos</span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"> was raised in an immigrant Latino community in Santa Ana,
California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He first came to know
Jesus when he was a child at a local church in Orange County.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Chican@ Studies major at
UCLA he learned about the many injustices experienced by Latin@s in Latin
America and the United States over the past 500 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He learned about the Spanish
Conquest which led to the decimation of 90% of the indigenous population of
Central Mexico—more than 20 million people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He learned that the conquest was justified by many (though
there were notable exceptions) in religious terms based upon the belief that
God had ordained for the Spanish to slaughter the indigenous people so that
they might become converted to Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carlos was also taught about the unjust
Mexican-American War which led to the violent seizure of half of Mexico and
which was justified by Anglo-Americans based upon a belief in “manifest
destiny.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Manifest Destiny was the
idea that it was God’s will for Anglo-Saxon Americans to conquer and colonize
North America from “sea to shining sea” in order to spread democracy and
Protestant Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carlos
learned that these same settlers created a segregated American society in which
those legally defined as “white” received special socio-economic and political
privileges, while Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian
Americans were segregated and treated as second-class citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carlos also came to learn about the
structural inequalities within education, healthcare, politics, and law, which
have their roots in this historic discrimination, and which persist to the
present-day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, Carlos
fell away from the faith of his youth because he came to understand that many
of the injustices just described were perpetrated by self-professed
“Christians.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As a result, he believed that Christianity
was a “colonizer’s religion” and that it was a tool of oppression used by white
men to perpetuate social, economic, and political hegemony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Elena,
a Chicana single mom</span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">, was
another student of mine with a similar experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of a faith-based inner city training which we
led for students, she confessed her internal wrestling with God:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The need to be a part of urban justice
is huge to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being a Chicana/o
Studies major many injustices have been brought to light for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll be honest, I have cried many times
in class while watching videos or reading books and I have often asked God
why…I would like to understand through His words/teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[I hope to gain][u]nderstanding and
hopefully an answer to the many ‘why’s’ I have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can cry all I want but my tears won’t bring understanding
nor change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recently started
going back to church so I’d like to be surrounded by others who also have faith
in Christ.”</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Francisco
was a student in a small Christian liberal arts college in the Midwest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">He came from a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mixed-race Guatemalan-Middle Eastern</i> background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similar to Carlos and Elena, Francisco was passionate about promoting change for the socially
marginalized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being a natural
leader, he made the decision in his junior year to run for student body
president of his predominantly white Christian campus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tragically, Francisco’s main
opponent, a white male, opposed him on racist grounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His racially-tinged rallying cry
against Francisco was: “don’t vote for Francisco; if you do he will do all
these radical things for minorities.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These scare tactics apparently worked because
Francisco lost the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you can
imagine, Francisco was also deeply wounded by the hateful rhetoric which was
waged against him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, the hostile racial campus climate did not stop with that
election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make matters worse,
the following year one of his professors devoted an entire chapel session (a
weekly church gathering on campus with students, faculty, and staff), to
challenging the findings of an outstanding Christian book called, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Divided By Faith</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This path-breaking and well-researched
book by professors Michael Emerson (Rice University) and Christian Smith (Notre
Dame) examines the different perceptions of white and African American
Christians with regards to race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Drawing upon extensive interviews and solid methodology, they found
that, although most African American Christians recognize the existence of
racism in contemporary U.S. society, most white evangelical Christians do
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">When I met Francisco at an
annual meeting of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), he
was actually preparing to hold a public debate with his professor!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a unique act of divine
providence, Francisco got a chance to meet with author Michael Emerson at that
CCDA conference, and Emerson gave him some coaching to prepare him for the
debate!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite this encouraging
turn of events, Francisco was quite demoralized when I met him and it took
great effort on his part to hold on to his faith and remain enrolled at his
Christian college in the face of such racial challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Carlos, Elena, and Francisco have all had
their belief in God shaken because of what they’ve learned about history, and
because of the present-day misrepresentations of many self-professed followers
of Jesus. They’ve learned the hard cold truth that many of the worst acts of
oppression against people of color over the past 500 years have been committed
by “Christians.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, they’ve
had this message reinforced through encounters with living and breathing
Christians who, intentionally and unintentionally, perpetuate racism through
their actions. Tragically, they are not alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thousands of students in the United States and throughout the world have had the same experience</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and have lost their faith in Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">I’m sympathetic to this negative
perspective of Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
reasons that will be explained in upcoming blogs, I don’t agree with it, but I
do understand it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact,
if I had not had my life totally transformed by Jesus 16 years ago, I’d
probably feel the same way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
view of Christianity as a racist, classist, and sexist religion is
unfortunately backed up by about 1700 years of historical misrepresentation on
the part of many self-proclaimed followers of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a person who supports his family as a historian, and as
an avid watcher of cable news, I am all too familiar with these kinds of
misrepresentations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost
every day I hear about someone somewhere in the U.S. who claims to be a
Christian but who says racist things or publically advocates for some sort of
social policy which has a discriminatory impact upon people of color and the
poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">As a historian, however, I know that
sincere followers of Jesus have also led some of the most transformative social
justice movements of world history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This inspires me and makes me hopeful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve also found an encouraging principle at work in global
history:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every time Christianity
has been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">misrepresented</i> to the world
as a racist, classist, and sexist religion, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sincere
followers of Jesus have forcefully challenged the misrepresentation and
declared emphatically that God is a God of justice and compassion.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as important, they have acted upon
these convictions and changed the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An important aim of this blog is to highlight some of my Christian
heroes who have championed racial, socioeconomic, and gender justice over the
past 2,000 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">This blog is for Carlos, Elena, Francisco,
and the thousands of students and individuals of conscience like them who have
never received a proper introduction to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jesus,
the Ultimate Revolutionary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>This
blog is intended to be a manifesto and concise manual for them and the many
others who care passionately about issues of race and justice, but do not know
how to reconcile faith with a deep concern for social change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also my bold hope
that this blog will launch a global student movement of faith, justice, and
racial reconciliation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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Robert Chao Romerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17450129104778690076noreply@blogger.com1