This year, Presbyterians will again meet in our General Assembly to do the work of the church. This year, our Presbytery is sending a few commissioners, below are a list of the delegates and their responsibilities:
Here is our complete list of commissioners and advisory delegates and their committee responsibilities:
- Erika Rembert Smith: Addressing Violence in the USA (Moderator); (June 22-26). Erika is also on the Business Referrals committee.
- Cris Heceta: Mid-Councils (June 20-23)
- Jody Mask: Immigration (June 26-30)
- Juan Montanez: Moving Forward/Vision 2020 Committee (June 29 – July 3)
- Samira St. Clair-Husbands: Standing Rules of the General Assembly (June 26-30)
General Assembly 225 Commissioner Resolution on Anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Hate/Violence June 17, 2022
Resolution
That the 225th General Assembly (2022) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):
Condemn and denounce all acts of violence and hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), and especially against the AAPI elderly.
Condemn the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s inability or unwillingness to lead on addressing anti-AAPI racism that has perpetuated attitudes and perspectives leading to the unequal, unjust and ungodly treatment and murders of racialized minorities, including the AAPI communities.
Commit to tearing down the idols of nationalism, misogyny, and xenophobia in the church through race- and gender-conscious discipleship [1] that includes, but is not limited to, education on the diversity of the AAPI communities, AAPI issues, anti-AAPI bias, the fetishizing of AAPI women, and AAPI histories of oppression and resistance, including U.S. colonialism and militarism across Asia and the Pacific.
Commend the Stated Clerk for his statement, “We See You Among Us” (March 2021), expressing the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s solidarity with its Asian siblings and standing against anti-Asian hate.
Commend the Presbyterian Mission Agency and its Office of Public Witness for its statement decrying racism against Asian Americans and calling for acts of hate against them to stop (March 2021).
Direct the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of Public Witness to support the work of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders which is driving a whole-of-government agenda to advance equity, justice and opportunity for these communities.
Direct the 225th General Assembly (2022) to ask that the U.S. Department of Justice fully implement the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and demand that all federal agencies review and revise policies that define hate crimes in ways that better account for acts of racism as seen in Atlanta, Buffalo, El Paso, etc. and support legislation aimed at protecting those who are being targeted by acts of hate and domestic terror.
Direct the Office of General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency to affirm the work and statements of other denominations, including the National Council of Churches, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the American Baptist Church, and other faith-based organizations.
Call upon the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee and other advisory committees, as appropriate, to monitor and track the actions at all levels of the Presbyterian Church (USA) which will enact and implement the actions called for in this resolution and provide a report to the 226th General Assembly (2024).
Call upon its congregations and mid-councils to actively combat anti-AAPI racism by preaching and teaching against such racism.
Call upon its members, congregations and mid-councils to invite, empower, and hire AAPI ministry leaders who understand the complexities of U.S. racism to speak into the ways they can respond to anti-AAPI racism, misogyny, and Christian nationalism in holistic and long-term ways; listen to AAPI stories of discrimination, marginalization, racism, and racialization, in larger U.S. society and in the church; and include AAPIs in initiatives that impact communities of color.
Encourage its members, congregations and mid-councils to seek to understand the ways that the “model minority” myth pits the AAPI community against other communities of color in ways that discourage solidarity among them, perpetuates the false notion that racial inequities and barriers can be overcome at the individual rather than systemic level, and discounts the harm that the AAPI communities face and minimizes the needs of the AAPI communities when they emerge.
Encourage its members, congregations and mid-councils to seek to understand the ways the “perpetual foreigner” stereotype casts Asian Americans as a racial problem and as a “perilous other” in ways that led to insidious racial microaggressions and brazen forms of anti-Asian violence.
Encourage its members, congregations and mid-councils to stand in solidarity with the AAPI communities by:
Advocating that their state governments invest in combating anti-AAPI hate and violence as well as addressing racial inequities that continue to harm AAPI communities.
Advocating that their state and local governments require all public schools and agencies to provide culturally-competent mental health services and resources for AAPI youth and their families.
Advocating that their state governments require their public schools to include education about Asian American studies, such as the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act enacted by the State of Illinois.
Advocating that their state governments institute public education programs and initiatives to combat harassment and violence against AAPI women and other vulnerable populations in public spaces, including streets and public transit, such as bills proposed in California [2].
Supporting AAPI businesses and enterprises that are disproportionately and negatively impacted by COVID-19 as well as AAPIs in the workplace who are unfairly targeted and discriminated against.
Support the work of Stop AAPI Hate, the Asian American Christian Collaborative, and other AAPI organizations who seek to empower and equip individuals, organizations and churches for faithful action to address anti-AAPI racism.
Rationale
Beloved Community, the gospel is clear and the words of Jesus Christ are unambiguous: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These words are fully and firmly grounded in the belief that all people are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), are deserving of love and respect, and therefore our faith compels us to support the flourishing of every human being, paying particular attention to those who are marginalized, oppressed, and suffering (Ex. 22:22; Is. 1:17; Ps. 82:3).
This means actively seeking to ensure that all, including the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, thrive. We must commit in earnest to actively dismantle generational and systemic prejudice, suspicion, and hatred of the AAPI communities. Although we are speaking in the present, seeking a new future, these issues are profoundly evident in our past.
“In recent years, there has been a resurgence of racially motivated violence directed against Asians in the United States…An alarming number of cases of racially motivated muggings, beatings, armed assault, shootings, verbal abuse, and vandalism have been reported..”
These words came from a resolution on Racially Motivated Violence Against Asians in America, which was adopted by the 197th General Assembly in 1985, following the vicious murder of Vincent Chin, a Detroit Chinese American. Two white auto workers thought Chin was Japanese, and while blaming him for the success of the Japanese auto industry the two white men, using racial slurs, began beating him with a baseball bat. Chin died of his injuries days later. The two assailants pleaded guilty to manslaughter, were ordered to pay $3000, and served three years probation with no jail time. In response to criticism the white judge who sentenced the killers wrote “These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail… You don’t make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal.” [3]
Twenty-six years later, a 21 year-old white male massacred eight people, six of whom were Asian women in Atlanta, on March 16, 2021. In the wake of the Atlanta massacre, many issued statements condemning this hateful action, mourning the loss of life and expressing outrage over the violence. Despite the shooter having been reported to yell, “I’m going to kill all the Asians!” and to place the blame for killing people on his “sex addiction,” the white captain of the sheriff’s department paraphrased what the killer told investigators about his motives, saying "he was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope, and I guess it was a really bad day for him and this is what he did." [4] The shooter was a professing Christian. He was reported to love “guns and God,” an alliance often documented to be associated with Christian nationalism.
The Atlanta massacre was a link in a long chain of hate and violence experienced by those of Asian descent in the United States. Historically, Asian people have been tagged as the so-called “Yellow Peril”. Communities of Chinese settlers were frequently scapegoated for a variety of ills and burned down. [5] The Chinese were the first group to be excluded from immigration to the US on the basis of ethnicity and race in 1882 by the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was not repealed until 1943. Filipino American laborers were discriminated against and violently attacked during the 1920s and 1930s. 120,000 persons of Japanese descent, including American citizens, were unjustly incarcerated during World War II, many of whom lost homes, businesses, and farms as a result. Asian Americans were demonized as the enemy, regardless of their ethnic origin, during the wars in Korea and Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. South Asian Americans of diverse ethnicities (including but not limited to India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), suffered violence and discrimination alongside Middle Eastern Americans after 9/11.
Asian Americans have also been stigmatized as perpetual foreigners and outsiders, treated with interpersonal racist violence and systemic anti-immigrant policies. Asian women in America are particularly targeted through racialization and sexualization, which in turn has led to their mass objectification, exoticization, and fetishization.
From March 19, 2020 to December 31, 2021, a total of 10,905 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons were reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition which tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. From 2020, reported hate incidents increased by 339 percent in 2021. According to the Asian American Christian Collaborative, harmful tropes of “yellow peril” continue to be perpetuated by the news, with portrayals of Asians, Asian food, and Asian customs as unsafe and unwelcome. Early in the pandemic, the COVID-19 virus was characterized as the “Chinese Virus”, which stoked fear and discrimination and violence against Asian Americans. Many Asian Americans have been told to ”go back to where they came from.” Asians have been spit on, coughed at, shoved, and stabbed. Youth have been bullied, being called “Covid” or “Coronavirus,” and the elderly have been killed.
In response to the surge of anti-Asian hate incidents, numerous organizations, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), have issued statements of solidarity with Asians and Asian Americans. The Stated Clerk, Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, issued a statement in March 2021, “we see you among us, and our spirits and our prayers are with you… Just as the PC(USA) stands against every other form of hate and stands for God’s love and justice shown to us by Jesus Christ, we also stand against hatred toward those of Asian descent.” The Presbyterian Mission Agency through its Office of Public Witness, also issued a statement in March 2021 decrying anti-Asian racism and offering specific actions to stop hateful actions against Asian Americans.
Asian American clergy and elders within our own denomination have spoken to their lived experience, and called for solidarity. The Rev. Byeong-Ho Choi, Moderator of the National Caucus of Korean Presbyterian Churches (NCKPC), said of the Atlanta attacks, “This is a hate crime. Racial discrimination is heavily embedded in our country and society.” At the same time, Choi called for a reconciliation and unity rather than building hate for one another, and for the church to be the place of hope, healing, forgiveness and love.
Asian American moderators and vice-moderators of previous General Assemblies spoke in March 2021 [6], “Our AAPI forbearers have endured, have suffered, and have been made to bear countless incidents of micro- and macro- aggressions every single day, the caricaturing and stereotyping of being “model minorities,” of “exotic Orientalism,” of derogatory names, of being silenced, or assuming that our silent reflections and thoughtful meditations are somehow indications of acceptance or complacency. We ask you to listen to the stories of our AAPI siblings. Don’t speak, don’t explain, don’t theologize. Just listen. Receive our voices, hear us, hear our stories, hear our struggles.”
Following the Atlanta massacre, the U.S. Congress passed the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, which aims to make the reporting of hate crimes more accessible at the local and state levels by boosting public outreach and ensuring reporting resources are available online in multiple languages.
Also, President Biden signed Executive Order 14031, "Advancing Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders" to establish the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) [7], which is working across government to advance equity, justice, and opportunity for AA and NHPI communities. Both the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act and the WHIAANHPI deserve the support of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Yet, more needs to be done. Understanding the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community’s challenges, hardships, and achievements is the first step in addressing this ongoing hate. Public education, school boards, and legislatures can play a big role in this effort by incorporating Asian American studies into the public school curriculum. In 2021, Illinois passed the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act, the first state law in the U.S. requiring public schools to include a unit dedicated to Asian American history. More states need to pass such laws.
In California, the State government approved in 2021 an Asian and Pacific Islander Equity Budget to invest in responding to anti-AAPI hate and violence as well as addressing racial inequities that continue to harm AAPI communities in California. Bills were introduced in 2022 to address harassment and violence against women and vulnerable groups in public spaces. One bill seeks to protect women and vulnerable groups from harassment on public transit. Another bill would require the state’s public health department to run a multiyear campaign about street harassment. Such bills must be passed, and more states should pass legislation to address the specific circumstances which cause anti-Asian hate incidents.
What can individual members, congregations and mid councils do to dismantle hate and violence against the AAPI Community? Here are suggested actions from the Office of Public Witness:
Be an ally in the fight against AAPI racism.
Include AAPIs when discussing racial injustice.
Advocate for law enforcement to create task forces and liaisons to address concerns emanating from the AAPI communities.
Foster increased engagement between African Americans and Asian Americans and challenge attempts to generate conflict between them.
Challenge AAPI stereotypes, including the “model minority” myth, that downplay the issues confronting that community. Asians are often touted as possessing greater intelligence and success, especially compared to other racial-ethnic communities, while downplaying important problems the community faces.
Write letters of outrage to politicians who make anti-AAPI statements or express prejudicial sentiments. Write op-eds and letters to the editor in local papers.
When an incident occurs in your community, publicly advocate for prosecutors to charge hate crimes in violent attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Attend rallies and protests in support of the AAPI community, and advocate for investment in education and community resources to get at the root causes of anti-AAPI xenophobia in the ongoing conversation on race.
Supporting the flourishing of every human being means protecting all marginalized groups from violence and hate, and promoting education and understanding of not only the AAPI experience, but also the history and experience of African American, Indigenous and First Nation Peoples, Latinx, and other racial ethnic groups, as well as the LGBTQIA+ community. Any statement of support for one marginalized group does not ignore, nor should it take away from the support of another marginalized group.
Zia, Helen (May 18, 2001). Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 60. ISBN 978-0-374-52736-5. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/antioch-race-riot-chinatown-arson-california-16067820.php
https://breyeschow.medium.com/aapi-pcusa-moderators-fb57deb6d148
