Antiracist Work in Asian American Christian Churches

“The convergence of Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 presents a tipping point for Asian American women in theology, asking us to envision and practice antiracist work in Asian American Christian churches. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Keun-Joo Christine Pae Denison University Contact Me
Anne Joh Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Contact Me
Boyung Lee Iliff School of Theology Contact Me
Nami Kim Spelman College Contact Me

About this project grant for researchers

In light of the devastating impact of Covid-19 on people of color, and the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, this project seeks to contribute to antiracist resources informed by Asian American feminist theologies. The project serves as a resource for churches and the theological academy, as they interrogate and resist anti-Asian racism, co-constitutive with anti-black racism, anti-Muslim hostility, and settler colonialism in North America. We propose the entire process of antiracism work in Asian/American ecclesiological contexts be understood as Christian praxis of cross-racial solidarity.

The project aims to (1) analyze how anti-Asian racism is intricately connected to anti-black racism, anti-Muslim racism, and white settler colonialism; (2) examine how differently racialized groups of women can be complicit in perpetuating each other’s oppression in general and in particular, the various ways Asian/Americans perpetuate anti-blackness through the model minority myth deeply coded in heteropatriarchal, binary gender system; (3) interrogate how Christian theology in general, Asian American theological discourse, in particular, has been part of the “problem” rather than a “solution” to racial/gender/economic injustice; and (4) constructively offer critical and creative theological resources by Asian American women that provide possibilities toward radical cross-racial solidarity in resistance to racialized and gendered violence.

This project is three-fold:

(1) a three-day consultation that gathers Asian American feminist theologians and biblical scholars to discuss the role of critical Christian theology in building intersectional cross-racial solidarity; (2) presenting essay drafts for mutual feedback among consultation participants to deepen each other’s work as feminist theological praxis; and (3) publishing an anthology as educational material in undergraduate classrooms, graduate schools, seminaries, churches, and community organizations.