ISSUE 02:
CULTURAL
IDENTITY
Artists
Mondo Scott is a co-founder of PAX and served as its creative director for five years. His other creative side hustles include design, photography and mentoring urban youth in the digital arts at AMP Los Angeles, where he serves on the Board of Directors. He also serves on the pastoral team at Ecclesia Hollywood in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife Salena and daughter Selah.
Phung Banh is a Chinese-Vietnamese art director, designer, and illustrator based in Dallas, Texas. Passionate about creating immersive storytelling and narrative through visual design, her work seeks to highlight women, facilitates space to promote different world cultures, and brings awareness to various social issues. See more of Phung's work at phungbanh.com.
A young girl in South Korea who loved drawing came to Canada when she was 15 years old. Sophia Park, now a freelance graphic designer and illustrator based in Edmonton, Alberta, is passionate about communicating God’s message in a creative and visual way. See more of Sophia’s work at sophiaparkdesign.com
Tasha is a biracial Korean American melancholy day-dreamer, wife to Matt, and mama to three little warriors. She’s lived and stood in places where cultures collide for as long as she can remember, and most days you’ll find her homesick and thinking about identity, belonging, and lost things becoming found. You can read more from Tasha at tashajun.com.
Writers
Aizaiah is a contemplative Christian Pentecostal minister, practical theologian, & international teacher who is passionate about works of peace, justice, & intercultural community. Aizaiah has experience serving in a variety of leadership positions within non-profit, educational, & religious institutions as well as in consulting roles with executive leaders seeking organizational change. He continues to publish numerous works related to issues at the intersection of wisdom-based leadership, pastoral theology & spiritual care, intercultural studies, and social innovation.
Dr. Andrew Rillera joined the movement in 1999 when he left the Jehovah’s Witnesses and accepted the triune God revealed in Jesus Christ. Andrew finds Pax by playing games with his family, reading, playing ice hockey and disc golf, and finding solitude. He has a bachelor's in biblical studies from Eternity Bible College, an MA in theology and ministry from Fuller Seminary, and a PhD in New Testament from Duke University. He is assistant professor of biblical studies and theology at The King's University in Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada. He co-wrote Fight: A Christian Case for Nonviolence with Preston Sprinkle (now retitled as Nonviolence: The Revolutionary Way of Jesus) and is currently writing a book titled Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death. He and his wife, Karianne, and their two kids, Eden and Zion, live in Edmonton, Alberta.
Anna Faircloth Feingold is a member of PAX's Board of Directors. She is a post-conviction attorney, policy advocate, educator, and mom. After many years in Los Angeles, she now lives in Somerville, MA, with her husband, their toddler, and their cat.
Based out of Seattle, Brandi Miller is the host of Reclaiming My Theology, a space to take out theology back from ideas and systems that oppress. She is a staff member and justice program director with a college campus ministry and works at the intersection of faith, politics and justice.
Carlos is passionate about reaching others with God’s radical love. He is a provocative preacher who serves communities and loves to pastor prisoners, young adults and anyone who dares to think differently. For 15 years he has been traveling the world reaching broken people with hugs, passion and the stories in Luke 15. He is the author of Simply Sonship, Drop The Stones and the upcoming, Proximity. His main passions are leading The Happy NPO and spending time with his wife, Catherine and their 3 adorable children. Oh yeah, he also wants everyone to know that he’s a Puerto Rican (living in Puerto Rico) and he can’t wait to host you there.
Chandra Crane is a resource specialist for the multiethnic initiatives department of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and a member of the multiethnic Redeemer Church in Jackson, Mississippi. She has written for In All Things, The Well, and The Witness: A Black Christian Collective.
Josh is a co-founder of Pax. He has a BA in biblical studies, MA in ministry, and a PhD in intercultural studies. His doctoral work involved qualitative research that platforms the voices and stories that have experienced racially motivated violence. He is an adjunct professor at Eternity Bible College, was the co-founding pastor of Antioch City Church of Los Angeles, and co-founded an after-school arts program called AMP Los Angeles. He has produced and directed documentary films including one on the life story of Dr. John Perkins. His wife Sarswatie and three kids (Aahana, Anaia, & Azariah) all live in Tucson, Arizona.
Jai Patel is a second-generation Indian American who is passionate about helping others experience their newfound identity in Christ and unpacking the beauty and complexity of their cultural and ethnic heritage. Raised in a culturally Hindu household, he placed his faith in Jesus in 2014 and never looked back. He has served on staff with Cru, an international campus ministry, as well as a local church, equipping college students to thrive in their lives and usher in God’s kingdom to a lost and broken world. Jai has a BA in business, communication, and philosophy from the University of Texas, San Antonio, and an MBA from LSU Shreveport. He lives in Texas with his wife, Priyanka, and their son.
Lucretia is the creator of Brownicity.com, a contributor for (In)courage.me, and a TED and Q Ideas speaker (Charlotte). As a wife, mom of 3, and former college professor, her calling to active antiracism led her to design the What LIES Between Us: Fostering First Steps Towards Racial Healing course and study guide.
Robert Chao Romero is an associate professor in the UCLA departments of Chicana/o Studies & Central America Studies, and Asian American Studies. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in Latin American History and his Juris Doctor from U.C. Berkeley, and is also an attorney. He is the author of Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity; The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940; Jesus for Revolutionaries: An Introduction to Race, Social Justice, and Christianity; and Mixed Race Student Politics. The Chinese in Mexico received the Latina/o Studies book award from the Latin American Studies Association and Brown Church was written with the support of a Louisville Institute Sabbatical Grant for Researchers. Romero is also an ordained minister and faith rooted community organizer.
Sarah Shin is the author of Beyond Colorblind (Intervarsity Press, 2019). She formerly served as the Associate National Director of Evangelism for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and is a speaker that connects ethnicity and biblically informed faith. Sarah has a master's degree in theology from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a master's in city planning and development from MIT. She, her husband, and daughter live in St. Andrews, Scotland. She is pursuing more theological studies at the University of Aberdeen in the hopes of better equipping the Church.
Sherrene DeLong (MATS, Westminster Seminary California) is working on a PhD in higher education at Azusa Pacific University. She is a contributor to All Are Welcome: Toward a Multi-Everything Church and Hear Us Emmanuel: Another Call for Racial Reconciliation, Representation, and Unity in the Church. Sherrene lives in Virginia with her husband and son, and they attend Christ Church PCA in Arlington.
Voices
Brandon is a minister, organizer, writer and facilitator. He works across the U.S. within faith education and non-profit sectors at the intersections of decolonizing church, contemplative activism and local presence to build beloved communities. As a serial innovator and church planter, Brandon’s latest venture, with neighbors and friends, is starting The Good Neighbor Movement, a multiracial, queer-affirming, Black-led network of spiritually-rooted activist groups across Greensboro, NC.
Drew Jackson is the author of two collections of poetry, God Speaks Through Wombs and Touch the Earth, poetic and theological engagements with the Gospel of Luke. Drew is a co-founder of Pax and serves as the chair of Pax's board of directors. He is currently on staff with the Center for Action and Contemplation. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Genay, and their twin daughters, Zora and Suhaila.
Josh is a co-founder of Pax. He has a BA in biblical studies, MA in ministry, and a PhD in intercultural studies. His doctoral work involved qualitative research that platforms the voices and stories that have experienced racially motivated violence. He is an adjunct professor at Eternity Bible College, was the co-founding pastor of Antioch City Church of Los Angeles, and co-founded an after-school arts program called AMP Los Angeles. He has produced and directed documentary films including one on the life story of Dr. John Perkins. His wife Sarswatie and three kids (Aahana, Anaia, & Azariah) all live in Tucson, Arizona.
Kathy Khang is the author of Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up (IVP, 2018) and Alabaster Guided Meditations, Psalms Vol. 1 + 2 (IVP, 2020), a contributing editor for Sojourners magazine, and a contributing author of More Than Serving Tea (IVP, 2006). She blogs at www.kathykhang.com , tweets and Instagrams as @mskathykhang, posts at www.facebook.com/kathykhangauthor, and partners with other bloggers, pastors, and Christian leaders to highlight and move the conversation forward on issues of race, ethnicity, and gender within the Church. Ms. Khang has a BS in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and worked as a reporter in Green Bay and Milwaukee, WI before working more than two decades in parachurch ministry. She currently serves as the vice-chair for the board of Christians for Social Action.
Kristy Garza Robinson is a Latina minister, activist, and author currently living in Austin, Texas. She is passionate about advocating for those on the margins and seeking to help people integrate all of who they are into their calling, especially their ethnic identity. She enjoys good food, good friends, and deep conversations. She has a Masters in Global Leadership from Fuller Seminary. Kristy and Eric are also parents to two beautiful daughters.
There’s a lot of things I wish I had as a kid: pink highlights, an mp3 player, and a phone, to name a few of the items on my list. These were things that back then I thought would have helped me – as the sole brown-skinned girl in an all-white school – fit in a bit more. Even more than that, I wish I could have had a Bible as a kid that depicted Jesus as a brown-skinned man. I wish one of my pastors or Bible teachers would have told me that God created culture and ethnicity on purpose and as part of his design for human flourishing on this earth. And I really wished that someone would have told me that who I was, as a bicultural Indian American woman, mattered.
Some of you reading this know exactly what I’m talking about. Many of us were not taught to cherish, let alone celebrate, our cultural identities. Our journeys have been defined more by experiences of shame and intentional choices to hide who we really are; of sitting alone in the school cafeteria because kids thought our homemade ethnic food smelled weird and people making fun of the way we look and dress. If you are a person of color, it’s more than likely that at some point in your life (or perhaps even still now) you were made to feel like your culture, your skin color, and your ethnic heritage did not belong.
And for that I am sorry. This is not the way it was supposed to be.
Here at Pax we believe that God created you with a beautiful cultural identity that reflects God’s image in the world. In the beginning, God created all of humankind in His image, male and female alike (Gen. 1:26), each with our own unique ethnicities and stories to tell. As Trillia Newbell writes in her book, God’s Very Good Idea, “God’s idea was to make PEOPLE… lots of people… lots of different people… who would all enjoy loving him and all enjoy loving each other.” Each of us are cultural image bearers. Whether you have vanilla, chocolate or caramel skin, you were made on purpose and to delight in the uniqueness of your ethnicity, cultural identity and story.
These truths are foundational to who we are as human beings. But I also recognize that we are still having hard conversations about this as followers of Jesus. Not everyone approaches cultural identities the same way. Some people misquote Galatians 3:28 and argue that we shouldn’t talk about culture so much, since we’re all one in Christ. Others have been blinded by the lies of white supremacy and believe that the only accepted culture in the U.S. is white culture (an abstract concept that mostly just equates to an absence of culture).
The theme of our second StoryArc is cultural identity and we have created this as a resource by and for Christians of color as we navigate the spaces we are in. The stories, articles, poetry included here and more are meant as a tool to equip, educate, and empower you on why your cultural identity matters. We want to give you the biblical framework and language you need to develop your own cultural identity, to find healing, and to learn how to speak truth in love in the conversations on culture that you’re having with your family and peers.
Leaning into your God-given cultural identity will take time. The process may be slow and that’s OK. As you hear from fellow Christians, know that you are not alone. We see you and are here for the journey.
