apologies

Kathy Khang 12-19-2018

I SPENT MOST of my childhood in a Methodist church, but I didn’t learn the liturgy. It was sung in Korean, and as soon as I started kindergarten, I exchanged fluency in my original language for assimilation. My parents did their best to teach my sister and me as much about our language and customs as they could, but they had to teach us in between their own assimilation for survival. It wasn’t until years later, when I was on a campus ministry team that sang from hymnals and overhead projectors, that I connected the Korean words of my church upbringing with a Korean-American faith.

As I’ve begun working through the personal cost of assimilation, I’ve looked at the price the church is paying for its own assimilation. At the sound of that, you may think that the rest of this column focuses on legalized abortion, same-sex marriage, and maybe even immigration and border security. Well, it does and it doesn’t.

I wonder if white evangelicalism has thought of itself as the underdog, the persecuted, and the eventual white savior in order to assimilate into a Western culture that glorifies winning, beating all odds, and rising as the unexpected hero. How can this country simultaneously be a Christian nation and persecute Christians? Neither is accurate, but both claims are invoked in modern politics and the rhetoric of white evangelicalism—where white evangelicals assimilate into a blind patriotism that ignores history and orthodoxy.

Christian Piatt 9-03-2013
Photographee.eu / Shutterstock.com

Photo via Photographee.eu / Shutterstock.com

 

I had a series a while back about the Christian Cliches that we should drop from our lexicon, and since then I’ve had people ask what they should be saying instead. So here’s a list of handy phrases to help bring followers of Jesus into a post-Christendom, 21st-century world. 

 

     
    Stephen Mattson 7-24-2013
    Apology text, chevanon / Shutterstock.com

    Apology text, chevanon / Shutterstock.com

    Jesus never said “I’m sorry.” Sure, when he was being crucified, he cried out: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (NIV).” But technically he was apologizing on behalf of others and not for a sin he actually committed.

    Apologizing is one of the only Christian virtues Jesus didn’t do himself.

    Maybe this is why Christians rarely hear sermons or teachings about apologizing to non-Christians. Mainstream Christian culture teaches the opposite: believers are always right. The inner-circle perception is that Christians don’t make mistakes — only non-Christians do. 

    As children we’re taught to apologize for lying, stealing, hitting our little brother, budging in line, cheating on a test, and swearing (among other things). Most people with common decency apologize to each other for these trivial wrongdoings, but when it comes to spiritual things — especially on a widespread and corporate level — Christians rarely apologize to people beyond their faith.

    Rodolpho Carrasco 12-10-2009
    A while back, I was in a situation where I was mocked publicly in front of 300-plus young leaders. There were racial overtones.

    Jim Wallis 11-24-2009
    We at Sojourners, in solidarity with our Asian American sisters and brothers, affirm the act of repentance by Zondervan in its
    Eugene Cho 11-20-2009

    As many of you know, several Asian-American leaders and I have been in dialogue with both the authors of

    Soong-Chan Rah 11-06-2009
    Without trying to be too presumptuous about the resolution of an ongoing story, I'm doing some personal reflection on the last few days.
    Jim Wallis 9-17-2009
    Here we go again. Some people raise the issue of race (this time about the ways others are talking about or treating the first black U.S. president) and the media goes crazy.
    Jim Wallis 7-29-2009
    I have been away for the last couple of weeks, first for a family wedding and reunion on a lake in northern Michigan, and then at the Chautauqua conference center in rural New York state.
    Now that the Cold War that was anything but cold in Africa is over; now that the CIA, as far as we know, no longer pays for the overthrow and murder of democratically elected leaders as it did with