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View from the Pew  Mary Adamski |
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Controversial rickshaw
rolls in isles
Local Baptists add more authentic Asian flavor
to a disputed Vacation Bible School curriculum
Kids and grown-ups lined up to have their pictures taken in the rickshaw this week.
It's been happening all summer at a dozen Southern Baptist churches. This week, the rickshaw was parked in the University Avenue Baptist Church sanctuary.
A cheerleader song with a "jingy jingy jing jing" cartoon coolie sort of tune is still in the heads of hundreds in Hawaii who had the "Rickshaw Rally" Vacation Bible School experience.
The island youngsters and adult volunteers who happily participated probably match the number of people who angrily petitioned the national denomination to ditch the program.
More than 1,400 people signed an Internet petition launched by a Connecticut pastor of Korean ancestry. The New England convention of the Southern Baptist denomination voted not to use the curriculum, which was generated by the national church's educational arm.
The critics charged that "Rickshaw Rally" is demeaning and insensitive to Asians and downright ignorant about modern Asia. Rickshaw indeed! Web sites were established to unload and share angst.
A search for an indignant reaction in Hawaii was unsuccessful, much like a quest to find a Frank De Lima basher. Maybe that's because it's summer break or because the perpetrator was a church, but the University of Hawaii Ethnic Studies Department and the Japanese American Citizens League did not respond to requests for comment.
What local Baptists did was take the LifeWay Christian Resources lemon and make lemonade. Every congregation has Asian-American members who brought out the family artifacts and discarded the nonsensical notions of the curriculum creators.
"We take it with a grain of salt," said Faith Masukawa McFatridge, an Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention staffer who attended mainland training and taught local Bible School volunteers.
She wrote a letter to LifeWay pointing out errors in the supposedly Japanese context, such as cone-shaped peasant hats.
But McFatridge also was the one who asked a friend to make the rickshaw model that will be seen in snapshots for years to come.
"As Southern Baptists in Hawaii, we understand the people who write these are from Nashville (Tenn.)," said the Rev. James Shiroma, of Cornerstone Fellowship in Mililani. "They may not understand Asian culture. It did not cross our minds as demeaning.
"The rickshaw theme is secondary anyway," said the pastor. "It's just a device to teach children about Jesus."
"I understand the ignorance of not knowing the Japanese culture. I can't be critical," said the Rev. Makito Watanabe, Japanese pastor at Olivet Baptist Church. "When I was in college in Texas, I met people who thought Japanese wore samurai clothes and hairstyle."
The Japan-born pastor graduated from Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas, and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in San Francisco.
"I felt it (the curriculum) was a mixture of different Asian cultures, what Americans might think of Japan," Watanabe said. "The rickshaw is more of a historical thing.
"I think maybe Japanese Americans felt more offended than Japanese from Japan would."
University Avenue Baptist deliberately mixed in other Asian cultures. Its Vietnamese congregation contributed a dragon dance costume and other artifacts.
"They missed the mark in some ways, but the lesson is achieved," said Minh Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam and is attending Dallas Theological Seminary.
Watanabe had some insights into the errors that might have shaken them up in Nashville.
Many of the images that surrounded the conservative Christians during Vacation Bible Study week are from non-Christian religions.
"Some of the actions in the dancing they do is like Shinto religion," said the minister. "I saw the demo video. With the lanterns, it looked more like a bon dance rather than a Christian implication. Christians in Japan would not do that.
"The bowing with hands together, we don't do that in Japan except maybe Buddhist priests," said Watanabe.
McFatridge said that in her letter to LifeWay, "I told them happi coats, torii gates, the carp flags are all things with religious roots.
"But we have Christmas trees in our churches, and that has a Druid background."
And in Hawaii, comfortable with diversity, accustomed to borrowing from each other's culture, a rickshaw is just a photo prop.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.