May 2

The Stop AAPI Hate movement has galvanized over our anger at seeing friends and family members attacked. Knowing our elders are particularly at-risk has moved us to action. Indeed, having been victimized by racial violence, we know our community is at peril.

Flight or fight is the response to threat. Asian Americans may dismiss the issue, instead focusing on family concerns instead of societal problems. Or, we may retaliate and act in anti-White or anti-Black manners. Either response, unfortunately, maintains America’s vicious cycle of racial violence.

Jesus offers a radical, third way. He invites us, as Asian American Christians, to forgive and reconcile with our perpetrators.  We are to seek restoration with even with those who hurl racial epithets and profanities while spitting at our elders. Jesus himself modeled this peacemaking while being abused, and He calls us to this path today.  May we who have been excluded invite America to Jesus’ gracious hospitality and lead a movement of justice.