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February 21st, 2012
06:20 PM ET
Jeremy Lin emerges as emblem of burgeoning Asian-American ChristianityBy Steve Almasy, CNN (CNN) - When Jeremy Lin was a sophomore at Harvard, he was struggling emotionally. A good guard on an awful basketball team – the Crimson finished the season with an 8-22 record – he needed something more than hoops. Lin, who had been baptized into an evangelical Chinese church near San Francisco in ninth grade and had come to value Christian fellowship through his youth group, was part of the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Christian Fellowship group, regularly attending Bible study. But most of his life was spent with his basketball teammates and other athletes, he later told the Student Soul, a website of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. “It’s a tough environment and if you don’t have appropriate boundaries, you’ll compromise your faith,” he told the website, run by a major Christian college ministry, in 2010. So, during his sophomore year, Lin stepped up his involvement in the Asian-American Christian group, about 80 members strong, gaining a sense of community that had eluded him. CNN's Belief Blog – all the faith angles to the day's top stories Those kinds of stories are becoming increasingly commonplace as more second generation Asian-Americans like Lin join campus Christian groups, said Carolyn Chen, who directs Asian-American Studies at Northwestern University. "What's happening at the college level, for students this is a really important time and this is a really important form of community," Chen said. "It is also somewhat like an extended family for them." According to the latest census, the Asian population in the United States grew by 43.3% between 2000 and 2010, the largest percentage increase of any ethnic or racial group. Asians make up just under 5% of the population. Asian-American Christianity, experts say, is growing along with that population boom, especially among second generation Chinese-Americans. Jeremy Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan and who talks openly about his Christian faith, has become a symbol of that trend. Pyong Gap Min , a sociology professor at Queens College in New York, said there has been growth in the number of Asian-America Christian churches, though it is hard to get reliable numbers on the size of the community. But Min said the number of Pan-Asian churches is increasing, especially on the West Coast, where congregations that have traditionally been dominated by one ethnicity have become multiethnic. Many of those churches are adding services specifically for second generation Asian-Americans, many of whom want services in English. Chen said more Asian-Americans are also joining traditionally white evangelical congregations. “You see Asians gaining more visibility in American evangelical circles,” Chen said. “What you are seeing is more integration.” Lin grew up in Chinese churches. On college campuses, Asian Christian groups have grown up separately from the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Jeremy Yang, a senior at Harvard who sits on the board of the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Christian Fellowship, said his group offers a place where faith and culture intersect. Students feel comfortable being with and sharing their faith with other Asian-Americans, he said. The Harvard group began in 1994 as part of the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship. So many Asians joined their Bible study that the founders decided to form a separate entity, he said. “The growth was really explosive,” he said. “There is something about being Asian-American that attracted people into the fellowship.” Fenggang Yang, author of “Chinese Christians in America: Conversion, Assimilation, and Adhesive Identities” and a professor at Purdue University, said Asians are drawn to Christianity partly by values that dovetail with Asian culture, including thrift, education and family. “In that way it helps them assimilate into the U.S. culture while preserving important aspects of their cultures,” he wrote in an e-mail. Evangelicals tend to have a value system that fits a widely held Asian desire for order and success, he writes in his book, adding via e-mail that Lin is being lifted up as an example of those values. Despite being a superstar in high school, Lin received no scholarship offers to college. And despite being a high-scoring player by his senior year in college, he didn't get drafted by the NBA. Lin signed a free agent contract with the Golden State Warriors and seemed to get in the game only when his team was way ahead or far behind. The Warriors sent him down to a developmental league, where he fought emotional battles while on long, late-night bus rides, he told an audience at River of Life Christian Church in Santa Clara, California, last year. Lin, who until last month was sitting on his third bench in his short pro career, was given a chance to play when some fellow New York Knicks were injured. He responded with a record-setting stretch of games in which he scored more points in his first five starts than stars like Michael Jordan or Allen Iverson had over a similar number of games. As a student, Lin led what the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Christian Fellowship calls a "family group," a small group devoted to Bible study and praying for others. "A lot of people looked up to him because he was good at sports and really solid in his faith," said Yang, the Harvard senior. Lin, who has said he may become a pastor someday, credits his rise as a professional athlete to understanding the way God was working in his life and developing a trust in God’s plan. "I've surrendered that to God. I'm not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore," he told the San Jose Mercury News last week. But there have been plenty of struggles. When he was sent down to the minor league the first time, Lin told a church group last year, he turned to his pastor, Stephen Chen, at the Church in Christ in Mountain View, California. Chen told him to spend an hour a day with God. Lin memorized a few Bible verses, Chen says, including a passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans in the New Testament that reads in part: “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Chen told CNN's Sandra Endo last week that Lin doesn't believe in a prosperity gospel, where having great faith means everything will always work out. "It's true hard things may come and you're not guaranteed an outcome but through it all, there'll be joy because you're walking with the Lord," Chen said. "The greatest joy you could have. Greater joy than being a professional NBA basketball player all-star." Michael Chang, a Taiwanese-American who was once the second ranked tennis player in the world, said Lin will need to keep a balance in his life that can be hard in the world of competitive sports. Sports stars are offered a tricky platform, said Chang, who now plays tennis on the Champions Tour and runs a Christian foundation that administers several sports leagues. People will listen to your every word, but they also watch your every move, waiting to see what you will do in public, he said. They equate your value with your success or lack of it in the spotlight. "As believers, we don't measure it that way," Chang said. "For us, it's going out there, knowing the Lord, and being able to take all the talents and gifts that you've been given and use that as a platform to touch lives and touch hearts." Lin told the Mercury News that his own battle as a believer continues. "There is so much temptation to hold on to my career even more now," Lin told the paper. "To try to micromanage and dictate every little aspect. But that's not how I want to do things anymore. I'm thinking about how can I trust God more? How can I surrender more? "It's a fight,” he said. “But it's one I'm going to keep fighting." |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team. |
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I think he is great, he is asian and can shoot hoops with the best of them. The only wrinkle for me would be his faith.
Lin sounds like a genuine Christian and a good guy but he'l never get the adulation of a Tim Tebow since he's not white.
Evangelicals don't care what race or ethnicity you are; just as long as you hate gay people.
The gods of all organized religions, if true, would all be horribly unjust and evil deities to send billions of people to eternal suffering for choosing the wrong one or being born in the wrong place. Looking at organized religion objectively, they are myths from stone age societies that were trying to explain the world, and there is virtually no chance any one is truth.
Rationally speaking if there is a just god and an afterlife, you will be judged on how you lived your life. Rejecting reason and deluding yourself in blind faith does not help your case.
TOMG:
Dude, I would suggest that you don't use caps. But I don't think that would even help. Thanks. You are sending me off balled over laughing.
A new kind of Christian? Why wouldn't Christians look at the history of Christianity and see there is no need for a new kind of Christian. For the first 1,000 years of Christianity there was one Church. The Orthodox Church hasn't changed and is the Apostolic Church. Protestants should look at the history of the Church and see how far it has gotten away from early Christianity and there isn't a need to create all these denominations.
Thanks for the article, Steve. I admire Lin for his bold witness for Christ in the professional sports arena. He seems to be genuine and sincere in his faith, unlike so many other athletes and entertainers who can talk the talk but don't really live out their faith. God bless.
I'm proud of Jeremy Lin. He's a good athlete and has found a way to "bend a knee" to his faith that is not fake or mawkish.
Looking up a map of Asia might do Steve Almasy some good.
DEAD IS LIFE AND IF THERE ARE NO LIFE THAN THERE WON'T BE NO DEAD PERIOD , AMEN . AND THE SUFFERING ARE MOSTLY BECAUSE OF ONESELF ARE DOING TOO MANY EVIL DEED FROM ONESELF PASS LIFE TIME INORDER TO GETTING THE FULL AFFECT FROM THIS PRESENT LIFE TIME ALL , AMEN .
god is childish nonsense..you sound like a complete fool and a nut...love to see yourself speak aye
god is baby nonsense..you sound like a complete fool and a nut...love to see yourself speak aye
....But even Satan knows that God is real...:)
English much?
ALL HUMAN MIND ARE ALWAYS AFRAID OF DEAD AND SUFFERING , AMEN .
JUST BY LOOKING AT HOW LONG THE HUMAN BODY CAN LAST ABOUT WHAT ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD THAT ALL , SO DOES LIFE ARE ALWAYS WILL HAVE THEIR OWN STEP BY STEP SUCH AS BORNING OUT INTO THIS WORLD AS A BABY AND THAN GROWING UP TO AN OLDER MAN OR WOMAN AND THAN AT OLD AGE EVERY BODY WILL BE GETTING SICK AND THAN EVENTUALLY WILL DIED OUT , AMEN .
HUMAN ARE TOO COMPETE THAT IS WHY AND EVENTUALLY TRANSFORMATION ONE ONTO THINKING LIKE AN ANIMAL WAY OF LIFE FORM AND NOT THE TRUE COMPASSION DOWN TO EARTH GENIUS GOOD HEART FORM SHOULD BE IN THE FIRST PLACE , AMEN .
NOTHING ARE FREE , JUST ONE SEED CAN HAVE THE AFFECT OF ONE THOUSAND OF FRUITS TO ATE OR HUNDREDS OF FRUITS ATE JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS TECHNIQUE OR FORMULAR THAN ONE WILL HAVE A LOTS OF BLESSING .
ONE HAVE TO STARTING LAYING AND PUTTING THE GOODNESS SEED ON THIS LIFE TIME SO ONE CAN HAVE MORE BLESSING ON ONE NEXT LIFE TIME THAT ALL IT TOOK , AMEN.
WHAT ONE HAVE AT THE MOMENT IS BY BECAUSE ONE HAVE DONE A LOTS OF GOOD DEED OR BAD DEED FROM ONE PASS LIFE TIME INORDER TO HAVE THE GREAT BLESSING AT THIS MOMENT OF TIMING THAT ALL SIMPLE AS THAT , AMEN .
WHAT ONE DO NOT LIKE OTHER TO THROWING THE HUMAN WASTE OR URINE ON TO ONESELF FACE IS FIRST OF ALL ONE DO NOT THROWING THE HUMAN WASTE OR URINE ON OTHER FIRST , THAN ONESELF DON'T HAVE TO CONCERNING ABOUT OTHER WILL BE THROWING THE HUMAN WASTE OR URINE ONTO ONE THAN , AMEN .
ALL HUMAN HEART HAVE IT ANIMAL THINKING INSIDE OF THERE OWNSELF GENE , INORDER TO GETTING RIDE OF IS BY TRUSTING GOD , THE FIRST BUDDHA HAPPY BUDDHA PHAT DI LAC , JESUS , MARIA , AMEN .
HEAVENLY MIND ARE MOSTLY CAME FROM THE COMPASSION AND DOWN TO EARTH TYPE OF GENE THAT ALL , AMEN .
HELL MIND ARE CAME FROM THE DUMB ASSSSS GENE THAT ALL , AMEN .
ONLY THE COMPASSION MIND CAN OVER COME ALL HELL WORLD THAT ALL , AMEN .