Review:
Soong-Chan Rah has written a needed book as a corrective to the Western white cultural storyline of Biblical exegesis, missions and Christian living. Although he was raised in the United States as a second generation Asian immigrant in an evangelical Korean church, his perspective from the “margins” of evangelicalism provides a welcome analysis of American evangelicalism’s captivity to white Western cultural values. The implications of his critique are far-reaching in how the evangelical church views its own mission, its relationships with those of different cultures within the United States and its understanding of its voice and role globally.
Rah notes: “While the demographics of American evangelicalism are undergoing dramatic change [especially in the growth and vitality of immigrant churches in America], the theological formation and dialogue remains captive to white Christianity” (18). “While North America is becoming more and more multiethnic, white culture remains as the primary standard by which all other cultures are judged” (72).
“American evangelicalism has more accurately reflected the values, culture and ethos of Western, white American culture than the values of Scripture” (20).
He then moves to substantiate that statement by exposing the white Western captivity in the church growth movement (with its homogeneous unit principle that created defacto segregation in our churches) (84), the emergent church movement (whose leaders are mostly white males in their 30’s (108-109), and the core values of individualism, materialism called “affluenza” (48) and racism embedded in American evangelicalism in general. He says: “The Western evangelical church has excessive and hyper individualism…leading to personalism and privatism and narcissism…rather than [modeling] how the community is called to respond to social problems or to reflect a corporate identity as God’s people. Jesus came announcing the Kingdom of God on a societal level. But we have preached a therapeutic gospel for the individual’s personal well-being, health and psychic security…The American dream becomes confused with Biblical standards…We downplay issues of poverty, racism and social injustice – these become a distraction from the ‘real work’ of personal evangelism... But this tendency is in opposition to the Biblical emphasis on social justice, care for the poor, breaking down the barriers between races” (33-40, 60). “An assumption reflecting the Western cultural captivity of the church is that those who currently have the wealth, power and privilege will be the ones to serve and lead those without it…Power and privilege entitles certain groups to exercise an authority over those who are without power and privilege, with the underlying assumption of superiority. There is no expectation for reciprocity.” This is vertical violence, the specter of one person or group over another - dominating, controlling and dehumanizing. Those attitudes are in stark contrast to the Biblical doctrine of the Body of Christ where each part needs the other (144-5). Rah has an entire chapter affirming the “disenfranchised African American church which has expressed tremendous hope and a heightened sense of need to connect relationally and operate communally” (160). He believes those are needed characteristics in the next evangelicalism because they are based on “primary culture’s focus on relationships and community” rather than the mega church’s model of “secondary culture with written communication, media, knowledge and systems” (99).
Rah believes that in America’s multiethnic society, with its vital African American and immigrant congregations, evangelical immigrant churches “are the new face of American evangelicalism, not the white leaders in their 30’s with a mega church paradigm as the model of ministry based on “attendance, buildings and cash” (56)…In the next evangelicalism the second generation [of immigrant evangelicals] with their unique ethos and strength, along with those in our churches who have cross-cultural liminal experiences, will be the ones best equipped to face the next stage of the church” (178, 181). “Bicultural second generation ethnic America has had the journeying experience that will prove helpful in the ongoing call to racial reconciliation and multiethnicity. Liminal Christians, therefore, should lead the next evangelicalism in addressing the challenges of multiethnicity” (188)…Their leadership is crucial in the significant demographic changes in the U.S. and in the American church where the white church is in decline and the ethnic churches are booming. The immigrant model of holistic evangelism: “the engagement of life on all levels – serving a community in need and providing the services that demonstrate the Kingdom of God to those who may be experiencing a sense of displacement in this world” (177) is the model for the next evangelization.
“But,” he insists, “ freedom from cultural captivity is needed to enter into a new multiethnic phase for the American church…Will those under Western white cultural captivity be willing to honor and respect the pastoral leadership of non-whites – a leadership extended beyond the context of serving only ethnic specific and immigrant churches?” (196). “To break off the shackles of the Western white captivity of the church…all expressions of the gospel message must be embraced by the church worldwide, recognizing that our theology and understanding of the gospel message is incomplete until we hear from all voices” (138).
Rah admits “There are portions of the book that are intended to provoke. Confrontation can lead to discomfort, but confrontation and discomfort can also lead to transformation. After all, without a disturbed sense about ourselves, why would any change?” ( 23). His book could bring significant change to the power structures and personnel leading the American evangelical movement IF “there is corporate awareness of the overt racism and also covert privilege in the movement,” IF white leaders (in the churches and Christians colleges and seminaries who set the theological agenda for the American church (20) “have a humble willingness to submit to the spiritual authority and leadership of non-whites,” and IF “the Western white captivity of the church can fall so we can enter into the shalom community of diversity made possible by the work of Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit” (203-207).
Rah’s Biblical exegesis is sound, his own experience poignant as an Asian American theologian who has been marginalized by evangelicalism in America, and his critique justified of the power, wealth and privilege of the dominant white male voice in evangelicalism. May his call to corporate confession and his Biblical vision of the church based on the unity in diversity seen among all peoples in Rev. 7:9-10 and Micah 4 be realized (123-124).
This book is a must read for all denominational leaders, pastors, teachers, seminarians, and lay ministers in America today.
- M.L. Codman-Wilson, Ph.D. 11/17/11