Beirut: No Reservations

I was watching late night television one evening, when a familiar thought confronts me. Before anyone assumes incorrectly, it was not the, "My life would be so much more productive if I didn't watch TV," conviction. What was the thought? The writer of Proverbs 30 stated:

There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Four which I do not understand: The way of an eagle in the sky, The way of a serpent on a rock, The way of a ship on the high seas, And the way of a man with a woman.

If this was written today, the author surely would have included a fifth thing which he does not understand...namely, how, with over 100 channels of cable TV, can there be nothing to watch? While flipping through reruns of Law & Order: SVU on TNT and USA while carefully avoiding Bravo's Project Runway (lest Carita wrestle the remote away from me...which I'm not ashamed to admit has happened before...don't mess with her when it comes to Project Runway), I stumbled upon Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel.


This is a hidden gem of a show. Bourdain is the host of this part-travelogue, part-cooking show, whose motto is "be a traveler, not a tourist." We find him often sampling local delicacies like sheep testicles in South America, cobra hearts in India, and seal's eyeball amongst the Eskimos. Don't think that this is an attempt at some kind of Fear Factor gross-out, though, because he truly does try to immerse the viewer into the local culture. He's a cranky, cynical, chain-smoking Rachael Ray (who he apparently doesn't like..."Anyone can eat on $40 a day if they stiff the waiters!"). He's also the chef at some fancy French restaurant in New York City, the name of which I can't pronounce. I wouldn't necessarily want to be his roommate or have him as my brother-in-law, but he seems like the kind of guy who would be fun to travel with.

Just this past week, No Reservations aired an episode recently shot in Beirut. They managed one day of regular filming before all hell breaks loose. Hezbollah had just caputred Israeli soldiers, prompting Israeli airstrikes in southern Beirut. So, for the next 9 days, the crew gets shuttled from one location to another and try to navigate the absolute chaos that descends on the city. It wasn't some hard hitting journalistic piece from the frontlines, but it was really good TV nonetheless. These guys do a cooking/travel show, for crying out loud. This isn't supposed to be part of the bargain. Here are some more impressions:

1) Surreal image #1: The first night of fighting, many locals are still partying...footage of young, rich locals drinking and dancing at the Sky Bar while bombs are going off in the distance. Beirut is apparently a very cosmopolitan city and the locals are very westernized...and apparently very used to exploding bombs. Totally cavalier attitude displayed by the people there was surprising. The party must go on, no matter what, I guess.

2) Surreal image #2: Many foreigners and a few locals with connections manage, after much effort, to find shelter in the northern part of the city...at a 5-star hotel situated on a hilltop. The airport has been bombed and there are no flights out. The best that most can do is wait for alternate means of evacuation. So there are the foreigners, lounging by this fancy pool, which offers a panoramic view of the southern skyline. Each day, people gather by the pool to drink beer, work on their tans, and watch more Israeli airstrikes. It's not like they could have been doing anything else. Given the circumstances, I'd be doing the same things. But the imagery was striking in its paradox. A city being ripped apart, people dying, homes and lives torn apart...with little kids as witnesses from a hotel swimming pool.

3) Anthony Bourdain's local guide, "Joe", upon hearing the initial gunfire and subsequent Hezbollah demonstrations, is quoted as saying, "They'll destroy the country and we'll all pay for this." The fact that he was so resigned to it was heartbreaking. It was a hard climb back from the civil war for Beirut, so it must have been terrible for those who went through the carnage of that war to see what was happening.

4) Eventual evacuation from Beirut was maddening. Disorganized, chaotic, stressful, and a bit dangerous. The crew secures passage, by virtue of their U.S. passports, on the USS Nashville out of Beirut. The way Bourdain described it, the chaos ended the minute they passed the security checkpoints and were put into the hands of the U.S. Marines. From that point on, there was order, calm, and a humanizing effect felt by the entire crew. He was very complimentary of the Marine corps, which may or may not have been the case under "normal" circumstances. But they were his ticket out of Beirut. In light of their experience those past few days, the relief was obvious. He had one interesting observation, though. While he and the crew were overjoyed to be getting out, what was clearly written on the faces of many who were also being evacutated was confusion. The difference was that they had left behind some clothing items, some equipment...these other people were leaving behind loved ones, homes, their entire lives. Big difference.

5) On a much smaller, yet more positive note...I'd like to visit this place someday. It is a beautiful and vibrant place. The food looked incredible, too.

Gentrification and Social Justice

I live in a quaint (realtor code for "small"...also synonymous with "cute" and "charming") two-bedroom house in Central Austin. It's a quiet neighborhood with old, modest homes built in the 40's and 50's. Despite the humble homes, it is a relatively expensive place to live, with property values rising fast. My immediate neighbors include a divorced musician, a documentary filmmaker in his late 60's, a middle-aged couple that works on special effects for Quentin Tarantino films, a pair of female graduate students...and a dude who works as an engineer for Dell. I, of course, work in Christian ministry. In that sense, it's a fairly diverse neighborhood and if you were to ask any of us, "How do you feel about living in Central Austin?", we'd all say that we wouldn't want to live anywhere else in town. The neighbors all proudly describe it as a place for the free-thinker, the iconoclast (except for the Dell guy and me, the Christian guy). The prevailing thought in Central Austin, where snobbery of this sort is not only accepted, but applauded with every "Keep Austin Weird" sign, says that this is the edgy, hip, cool part of town. Truth? Other parts of Austin are much "cooler". But I'm never one to turn from a sentiment that paints me as "cool" (even if untrue), so I bought fully into how great this area is, in large part because of its diversity.

Except...we're the only ethnic people in our neighborhood. Not that I have a problem with white people...in fact, I love white people. :) And the diversity that we celebrate? Well, it took some gentrification to get us all here. Some decades ago, this was a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. Forced out of Central Austin due to rising property values and higher taxes, most moved back to Latino East Austin. The pattern repeats itself, according to USA Today, in those same neighborhoods today:

In the predominantly Latino working class barrio of East Austin, the new Pedernales Lofts condominiums have raised adjacent land values more than 50% since 2003. Last fall, someone hung signs from power lines outside the lofts saying, "Stop gentrifying the East Side" and "Will U give jobs to longtime residents of this neighborhood?"

There are positives that come with a gentrified neighborhood. Safer streets, better schools and services, Starbuck's. Also to be fair, gentrification remains an issue not easily nor quickly resolved. It is a major challenge to urban development all across the country. But after a summer in San Francisco (where the problem is even worse), engaging in some social justice initiatives...well, I came back burdened and looking for opportunities to serve the community more deeply (you can read more about our SF exploits here).

It didn't take me long to see that those types of opportunities are severely limited in my area (was hoping for more, since we are near the heart of the city). Lack of ethnic diversity, as well as economic diversity. While initially disappointed, I now see that opportunities exist in other parts of town and am still eager to serve. I still like where I live.

Something else that I realized while talking to one of my neighbors (the filmmaker, who has been estranged from his adult children for decades)...serving the physically and economically poor is a key component of social justice, but poverty exists on deeper levels, as well. True social justice (the type that Jesus perscribed, at least) calls for the feeding of the hungry, the caring of the orphans and widows, the clothing of the naked...but also for the healing of the broken-hearted and the setting free of the captive.

Poverty of spirit exists apart from money or food or shelter. It exists in broken family relationships, in eating disorders, in pornography addictions, in workaholism, in narcissim and self-centeredness. When Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," did He not mean that there are none in heaven who were not also once poor in spirit? We see how needy we are without Him and it drives us towards gratitude, as well as compassion. Not a compassion born out of simply having more or being more fortunate, but one born of also knowing what it means to be poor and needy. If we are to truly follow the lead of our Savior, we must see poverty in all of its forms and our task must encompass all that Jesus, Himself, set out to do in order to address them.

Hoops Jones

Okay, I admit it, I was looking forward to catching the USA Men's Basketball team play in some exhibition games against Puerto Rico and China. I didn't really care who they were playing...it could have been Athletes In Action, for all I care. No, it was not a morbid desire to witness another basketball trainwreck like we saw in Greece. Two reasons why I stayed up a couple nights to watch the broadcasts: 1) The sports landscape has been pretty barren for me (college football still weeks away and the NL is atrocious this year) and 2) I wanted to hear Bill Walton wax philosophical about the direct relationship between hoops and world peace. Here were some of the highlights for me...

1) Bill Walton: Hearing the broadcast duo of Jim Durham and Bill Walton butcher up the pronunciation of Guangzhou, China, where the games were played. Guang-JEW, Guang-JAO, Guang-ZOO, Guang-ZOW...all within the first 5 minutes of the broadcast. It was priceless. Equally amusing were the predictions of USA dominance and superiority of this team versus previous USA teams. Good ole Bill was single-handedly trying to revive comparisons between this USA team and the '92 Barcelona Dream Team...the absolute gold-standard of hoops dominance. Then, there are the general Walton-isms that we're treated to throughout a game. Bill drops this gem of a statement for us at the start of the 2nd Half:

Jim Durham: "When this team gets Kobe Bryant back, look out world!"
Bill Walton: "...and he (Kobe)...(after a pause to figure out what to say) is a really good player."

That's the genius of Bill Walton! With one sentence, he will overstate the obvious to such an extreme and then, with the very next sentence, make the most outlandish statement that stretches the definition of hyperbole..."Yao Ming will usher in a new age of peace to the Middle East, with his soft touch and incredible basketball IQ!!". Nobody knows what's coming next. You gotta love the guy.

2) Speaking of who is a really good player, that would be Lebron James. I scoffed when Lebron, coming out of high school, was compared to Magic Johnson. The comparisons continued through his first few years in the league and I was still skeptical. But he's pretty close...close enough to warrant a comparison. I wish he wouldn't chuck it from the outside as much as he does, but his ballhandling, vision, and passing (at 6'8") is Magic-esque. If he had James Worthy, Kareem, and Byron Scott to pass to in Cleveland, I think we'd all be on the bandwagon. Dwyane Wade personifies quick, but he got called for traveling on his patented 3 step spin move at least 4 times against China. Elton Brand is the most efficient player in the NBA. I love that guy, even though he went to Duke. Chris Paul's PG play is inconsistent. He's going to have to get better at running the team against the zone...not just excel at running the break. Carmelo Anthony is just a scorer. But he does that one thing extremely well.

3) Overall, I think this team has a better chance of coming out on top than the team in Athens. But, please, I'm not buying in to a return to dominance. Sorry, Bill. This group still needs better perimeter defense and outside shooting. There are 14 players still on roster, with two cuts coming. Those two cuts need to be Bruce Bowen and Antawn Jamison. Having those two on the roster is redundant, in terms of what skills they bring. Bowen is old and will be in the twilight of his career (read "ancient") by the time 2008 comes around. Shane Battier, although from Duke, plays that role better for this team anyway. Jamison's problem is that he doesn't do anything well except shoot, but he's still not the answer for the outside shooting need and doesn't do enough as a Power Forward to keep a spot. Chris Bosh, without the shotblocking. I feel pretty strongly about those two. Also, I'd replace Gilbert Arenas with a shooter. I like Gilbert, but he's a volume shooter (meaning he shoots a lot of shots at a low percentage) that is incredibly streaky from the outside. Replace him with Michael Redd or (I can't believe I'm going to say this)...JJ Redick. Alright, that's it, I know it's time to wrap this up when I start recommending Duke players. By the way, I'm not going to write anything about how Team USA almost lost and barely squeaked out a 4-point win against the Brasileiros. I don't want to get too negative. Good luck, guys...it's a good start, but there's a lot of work ahead.

Convergence

I realize that all of my posts recently have been about ministry. One of these days I'll get around to writing something about the college football season, a movie I watched, or some book that I'm reading...but today is not that day! I will say that the inspiration for this post did come, ironically enough, from yet another viewing of Band of Brothers.

At the risk of confirming my "history geek" status, let me say that what fascinates me about studying history is seeing the convergence of the various elements to produce an event so significant as earn the right to be recorded as "history". Me doing the dishes last night will never be considered "historical"...just not significant enough, no matter what my wife says. Okay, back to my point: (bear with me if you don't like history)

The D-Day Invasion (part of the Band of Brothers story) was this incredible convergence of Need (Hitler was bullying his way through Europe), Opportunity (Allied deception succeeded in misleading the Nazis and lead to significant portions of German forces deployed away from Normandy), and Timing. The original invasion was to be on June 5th, but heavy storms were forcasted for the coast of France and Eisenhower decided to postpone the invasion for at least a day. On June 6th, the weather cleared up just enough, for about a 36 hour window, that the invasion was allowed to proceed. If they miss the window, the Germans would likely have discovered the Allied charade and redeployed troops back to Normandy. If the Allied forces would have tried landing in the middle of the storms, it could have spelled potential disaster for the troops. There's much more to it, but you get the idea. If the weather hadn't cleared, who knows what would have happened. Maybe all of Europe would be speaking German now and the movie that I just watched would be called "Band der Brüder" instead of Band of Brothers. Weather was a pretty key factor. The idea, though, is that timing is key...not the weather. Otherwise, I say we go with Hillary's suggestion and kick Donald Rumsfeld out as Secretary of Defense and replace him with Al Roker.

Finally, here's my point. I've felt, for several years now, the convergence of those 3 things in the context of Asian American student ministry. I've known in my heart, through my own and through stories of others' experiences, that this is true. But sometimes the heart wonders if it's seeing what it wants to see, not what really is. Maybe I'm not alone. Well, here are a couple of reports to consider:


NEED: This is what The Barna Group had to say in 2004...

"The group that was the least likely to be active in Christian-oriented behaviors was Asians, who generated the lowest scores for all eight religious activities measured. Asians were the least involved in attending church, reading the Bible, praying to God, attending Sunday school, participating in a small group for religious purposes, watching Christian television and who gave the least average amount of money to churches. They were also the group most likely to be unchurched...Asians were not only the least likely to believe any of the traditional Christian perspectives tested but they were also the most likely to be either atheist/agnostic (20%) or aligned with a non-Christian faith group (at 45%, more than four times the national norm)."

Part of me is shocked by this (the part that recalls growing up in a Chinese Christian bubble) but another part of me is completely unsurprised. Where is the hope for this culture and this community?


OPPORTUNITY: Christianity Today's April 2006 issue featured an article about the growing number of Asian Americans populating Christian ministries on campuses all across the country. The author cites UC Berkeley as an example:

"Tonight, three of the largest Christian fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley, have arrived at First Presbyterian for a joint meeting. Hundreds of students, dressed in running shoes, jeans, and sweatshirts, spill into the sanctuary. A band warms up while students slap hands and hug. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has invited Campus Crusade for Christ and Asian American Christian Fellowship to hear a special speaker.

Excitement like this would characterize a large Christian gathering at Berkeley during any era. One fact, however, would certainly startle earlier generations. About 98 percent of this gathering is Asian American.

At Berkeley, California's premier public university, "evangelical Christian" and "Asian American" are almost interchangeable descriptions. Three trends come together. One is California's demographics: It is 11 percent Asian compared to 4 percent for the nation as a whole. Two is academic prestige: As the oldest and most selective campus of the University of California, Berkeley has an undergraduate population that is 42 percent Asian. (As a general rule, the more selective the school, the higher the percentage of Asian students.) Three is a national fact: Asian students are more likely to show Christian commitment than other ethnic groups, including whites."

One article says Asians are "most likely to be unchurched", while another says they are "more likely to show Christian commitment than other ethnic groups". What's up with that? The key word here, of course, is students. While the first statement may accurately reflect the deep spiritual need within the Asian community as a whole, the second points to the surprising, counter-cultural spiritual openness of Asian American students.


TIMING: Asian American college students are more open to spiritual truth than they have ever been or perhaps ever will be again. What the CT article hints at is the tendency for Asians (Asian Christians, in particular) to congregate because it's safe. I believe this is true. The result is often a group that is significant in size but lacking in impact. This needs to change, but will it? After a bad day on campus, I wonder that sometimes. But then, I see what God is doing through our Epic Bay Area Project, what He is doing through our Epic Hawaii Project, through the Epic Movement...what He is doing in some Asian churches and ministries. I see God raising up a generation of Asian Americans that are passionate for His Kingdom, who undersand that the Kingdom suffers violence and it is the violent that take it by force, just like it says in Matthew 11:12! Then the heart knows that what it sees is not only the glory of God being revealed, but the hope for an entire culture and community.