Last week, INHERITANCE Magazine published an article I wrote titled ‘Oops, They Did It Again.’ In it, I try to think through why Asian American evangelicals have cared so much about the orientalizing incidents at Saddleback Church over the years, including last month, by situating it in the nostalgia for The Purpose-Driven Life as well as the sixteen-year history of Asian American evangelicals writing about white evangelicals orientalizing them. It also comes on the heels of two scholarly pieces I’ve published recently on ‘the evangelical intelligentsia‘ and what was known as the 2013 ‘open letter to the evangelical church.’
I’m thrilled by some of the response I’ve been getting to the piece. It seems to me that most readers found the piece nicely nostalgic, which is what I was going for. What I did not realize is that the weekend during which I wrote it was a big deal for the Free Britney movement. Having quoted Britney Spears to open this piece, I soon found myself immersed in the news that ties her pop stardom to her legal situation.
I’m deeply thankful to Daniel Chou and Kristine Chong at INHERITANCE for taking an interest in the piece, for Kristine’s deft editing suggestions, and for their promotion of the piece. INHERITANCE is a place where I’ve previously published about my conversion to Eastern Catholicism from Anglicanism, as well as my first childhood memory about Tiananmen in 1989. It’s a venue where I get to add a dimension of personal reflection to the scholarly work I’ve been working on.
Justin K.H. Tse 