I was delighted to co-host with Dr. Jane Hong Season Five of the Centering podcast for Fuller Theological Seminary’s Asian American Center. Our theme was Asian American Christian History. Jane is Associate Professor of History at Occidental College. She wrote Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion (University of North Carolina Press, 2019) and is currently writing a history of Asian American Evangelicalism. All the episodes have been posted here!
Is there space in contemporary Evangelicalism for Asian Americans? As American society undergoes historic shifts of public identity and conversation, Evangelicalism is changing along with it. Professor Daniel D. Lee joins us for the season’s final episode to discuss Asian American Christianity’s complicated relationship evangelicalism.
In this week’s Asian American Center of Fuller Theological Seminary podcast, we talk to Helen Lee, Author and Speaker. In 1996, Helen reported on the “silent exodus” of 2nd-generation Asian Americans leaving their parents’ immigrant churches. Helen joins Jane Hong and me to discuss the ways many Asian Americans and their ethnic churches continue to wrestle with cultural, theological, and social tensions. (Ed. note: This podcast was prerecorded on 1/8/21. We hope its discussion of AAPI peoples being and feeling silenced may help to provide context and background for the terrible incidents that have taken place since.)
In 1893, a group of White Americans forcibly overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii. Five years later, Hawaii was annexed by the United States. Today, the Hawaii Independence movement continues to resist US colonial occupation. Have a listen as Jane and I chat with Leon Siu, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ke Aupuni O Hawaii (the Hawaiian Kingdom) and Director of Christian Voice of Hawaii on Centering to speak on faith and freedom in Hawaii.
Sam George (Catalyst, the Lausanne Movement; Director of Global Diaspora Institute, Wheaton College) talk to Jane and me about the ongoing experiences of South Asian American Christians. South Asian Americans have a storied history of Christian faith. Apostle Thomas brought the gospel to the southwestern coast of India in AD 52, and the Mar Thoma church continues as a source of faith and tradition for many diasporic Indian communities. Have a listen here.
Have a listen as Jane and I chat with Dr. Melissa Borja, Assistant Professor in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan about faith, politics, and history in the Filipino American community. Listen here.
Here is her blog post on The Anxious Bench, “The Power of Faith in Filipino Americans Fight for Justice” | Oct. 19, 2020
Melissa also posted about her forthcoming book (with Harvard Press) on Hmong American refugee resettlement & what this history suggests about how government actions and policies can shape religious identity & community.
Refugee American – The Vietnamese Experience on this week’s episode of Centering: The Asian American Christian Podcast. Many Vietnamese Americans did not make a choice to come to the US – they were forced to leave their country by US imperialism and its wide scale displacement, destruction, and death. Dr. Phuong Nguyen, Cal State Monterey Bay, joins Tim Tseng and Jane Hong this week to speak about the experiences, identity, and faith of the Vietnamese community.
The Asian American Christian Feminist Trailblazer. 100 years ago, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee rode a horse through the streets of New York, fighting for women’s right to vote. The first Chinese woman to receive a PhD in Economics in the US, she was also a prominent Christian leader who bought a Chinatown church and fought for a Chinese American voice in her denomination. On this episode of the Centering podcast, Professor Grace May, Director of the Women’s Institute at William Carey International University and an Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, joins historians Tim Tseng and Jane Hong, our season hosts, to share about the life of this incredible Asian American Christian leader.
Roy Sano – From Concentration Camps to Civil Rights Bishop Roy Sano was incarcerated during World War II, led the fight for a distinct Asian American voice in the United Methodist Church, and directed the groundbreaking work of PACTS, the Pacific and Asian American Center for Theologies and Strategies. In this episode, he joins Tim and Jane on Centering to share his lived insights on Asian American Christian history.
Is There Room for Us in Racial Justice? Activist Yuri Kochiyama held Malcolm X as he died. She was a Sunday School teacher, American concentration camp survivor, and activist leader. On this episode of Centering: The Asian American Christian Podcast, Grace Kao, Professor of Ethics at Claremont School of Theology, joins historians Jane Hong and Tim Tseng to share how Yuri Kochiyama’s Christian upbringing grounded her organizing, and can still serve as a model for Asian American Christians engaging in racial justice.
Why Care About Asian American Christian History? We’re back with a new season of Centering: The Asian American Christian Podcast! This season, co-hosted by historians Dr. Tim Tseng and Professor Jane Hong, focuses on the erased, forgotten, and surprising stories of Asian American Christian history. In this first episode, our hosts introduce themselves and jumpstart the season by asking the question: Asian American Christian history? Why should anyone care about such a specific, niche-y topic?
Tim Tseng 
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