Review 3: Sacred subdivisions: The postsuburban transformation of American evangelicalism by Justin Wilford

• Main Author: TSE, Justin Kh
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Religion
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3140; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4397/viewcontent/Review_Sacred_Subdivisions_Soc_Cultural_Geog_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This review demonstrates that Justin Wilford's central argument that Saddleback Church reframes post-suburban spaces of ennui into purpose-driven ones added precision to the claims of Asian American evangelical activists. On 23 September 2013, Saddleback's senior pastor, Rick Warren, posted a photograph of a Chinese Red Guard on his public Facebook page, captioning it, ‘The attitude of Saddleback staff as they go to work every day.’ When concerned Asian American evangelicals commented on the distastefulness of the photo as it reminded Chinese Americans of the trauma of the Cultural Revolution while exoticizing Asian Americans within American evangelicalism, Warren replied in a comment, ‘It's a joke, people!’ and then suggested that those who did not understand the joke were like the ‘self-righteous’ in Jesus' day who later crucified Christ while ‘the disciples would have been giggling’. Asian American bloggers then contested Warren's statement for framing Asian Americans as outsiders to American evangelicalism, while some Protestants in Hong Kong discussed whether it was appropriate for someone with this attitude to be planting a satellite church in Hong Kong in two weeks' time. While these conversations led to an initial personal response from Warren on one blog, an article on the incident written by Religion News Service's Sarah Pulliam Bailey prompted Warren to issue a conditional apology: ‘If you were hurt, upset, offended, or distressed by my insensitivity I am truly sorry.’ Yet two weeks later, a church planting conference (incidentally held at Saddleback) held a performance of an orientalizing skit, prompting the publication of an ‘open letter to the evangelical church’ authored by Asian American evangelicals to further contest orientalizing tendencies in American evangelicalism.