Karen Yang

"Karen is too easily distracted and needs to focus on her own work."

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In the In-Between

Photo by Jessica Yang If there is anything I’ve learned in the in-between, it’s that you are not what you do or who you are working with (although those do reveal parts of you), but what is most telling is your why. Why are you doing what you are doing? Why do you keep the company that you keep? Why do you get up in the morning and go to sleep at night? Why do your dreams take the shape that they…

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Love Letter to Sad Revolutionaries

Love Letter to Sad Revolutionaries

Picture from Radical Tenderness Project by Kristen Trudo: https://www.radicallytender.com/karen/ On August 6, 2017, I was invited by Rev. Rebecca Turner, my former supervisor at Faith Aloud, to preach and preside at Christ Church United Church of Christ in Maplewood Missouri. I chose the Matthew 14:31-21 story about Jesus feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, and initially…

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Justice in STL Resources

Justice in STL Resources

Last year, I compiled a list of resources for Jesuit Volunteers on racial equality here. It is interesting to look back on what I referred people to, and the snapshot in my thinking on racial justice at the time. Some things have changed, others have remained the same. I don’t focus so much on bookmarking articles, for one. I’m more interested in taking action with communities. This year, I…

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Bus Stop Consent

I ride the bus everyday. During the week, I wait at bus stops near Sts Peter & Paul Catholic Church, a church that feeds people at 5pm from Monday through Friday. And I have some stories. The first time I noticed Frank*, he was carrying a chair. Over his shoulder, a wooden chair with teal vinyl cushions, a cane in his other hand. It was impossible not to notice him. Who carries a damn chair out…

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Church History I Final Study Session

Church History I Final Study Session

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Video: Living in the Plot Twist

Video: Living in the Plot Twist

Readings and sermon, with full acknowledgement that it might feel a bit weird/silly because this is recorded with a webcam, rather than with an audience. But sounds fine audio-wise (although there are a few minor hiccups/misreadings)! Alternate titles include: You Can’t Stop the Revolution and The People United Will Never be…

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Living in the Plot Twist

Living in the Plot Twist

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Photo Credit: Bryce Krug Reading the Signs of the Times Regina Purnell-Gray, Kevin Kriesel, Deborah Krause Excerpts from “Forward through Ferguson,” the report of the Ferguson Commission “In 2013, as we prepared to celebrate St. Louis’ 250th birthday,  leaders debated whether or not to engage in community-wide planning, in a wide assessment of the region.…

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Church History I Study Notes

Church History I Study Notes

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What If...

What If…

A picture taken by my sister with me and a young fig tree, an offshoot of the larger fig tree to the right of the picture. Some reflections with an imagination partner in response to my “What Commission?” sermon… Imagination partner: I did get to thinking that…what if…Jesus was a spoiled “hangry” brat who discovered—as if for the first time—that his people had always lived among barren fruits.…

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What Commission? Kerner Then, Ferguson Today

What Commission? Kerner Then, Ferguson Today

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Today on Monday, February 29, 2016, I co-created a worship service and preached a sermon with the help of a group of people I call “Team Karen.” These are people who have been formative through my years at Eden Theological Seminary through their presence, their ideas, and their friendship. You will see their names in the notes below. I was mindful that on this…

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Who Killed Kim King?

Who Killed Kim King?

#‎whokilledkimking‬ ‪#‎sayhername‬ ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ My favorite part of today was hanging out with a kid who saw chalk and immediately said, “Can I draw something?” First he decorated some letters. Later he wrote “JK” and asked me to translate it. “Just kidding, duh!” I replied. “WOW YOU’RE GOOD,” he said, proud of his JK with a backwards J. “Look, look at what I drew!” he said later. He had…

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White Womenhood and Myself

White Womenhood and Myself

My love-hate relationship with white women (and myself): Love – Grew up with white women as role models. I didn’t know other adults well enough to consider them role models. White women taught me a moral framework, and therefore they were the keepers of knowledge and instructions about morality. Hate – I could never be a white woman. I tried my best to adhere to white women’s morality in…

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Exhibit Review: Letters to Hop Alley Letters to Hop Alley was phenomenal. Anya and Georgia did an amazing job of creating an exhibit that was both artistic and historical, emotionally evocative and well-researched, humanizing and soul-searching.

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Black Lives Matter – We Do this Work Out of Deep, Abiding Love

“Greater love has no man than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

As a result of Moral Monday’s nonviolent civil disobedience action that brought together clergy, people of faith, and people of conscience from across the nation, I sat in a jail cell with people who supported the Black Lives Matter movement out of deep moral and religious conviction. We risked arrest to confront the Department of Justice by reclaiming its building as sacred space under the dominion of Divine power. We anointed one another in our holy struggles for justice. We held the Department of Justice morally accountable for implementing the recommendations of its report on the Ferguson Police Department. By extension, we indicted all police departments with similarly racist and morally reprehensible practices. When we sat in jail for the crime of prophetic witness, we noticed that one officer had “John 15:13” tattooed on their arm. We whispered to each other, “John 15:13… what’s John 15:13?” We joked that the Dean of Eden Theological Seminary was in the next cell—maybe she would know…

Later, I read John 15:13 and wondered, The question is, who are your friends? Some of those who were arrested as a result of Moral Monday suffered bruises from being pinched and shoved by officers, deep indents from zipties that cut into their wrists, and hands that turned purple or lost nerve sensation when zipties cut circulation off for too long. Some experienced psychological terror from threats by officers of bodily harm, sexual violence, and isolation. The officers were not protecting us, they were hurting us. We were clearly not their friends.

John 15:13 was not etched into the skin on its own—it sat on a blue line. The design suggested that the friends in question were other police officers, those in blue. With the blue backdrop, the verse took on a military and fraternal tone. This fraternal police culture deepens the “us versus them” mentality created by militarized policing, with SWAT teams wearing bulletproof vests, carrying rifles and canisters of tear gas, hiding behind Plexiglas shields, positioned as snipers atop tanks, threatening unarmed dreamers and mourners who dare to speak out against the racist, deadly status quo. 

The Requiem for Mike Brown sung at the St. Louis Symphony seems to adopt a similar “us versus them” mentality with the opening line, “Which side are you on friends, which side are you on?” But this line is followed by the harmonizing, unifying refrain, “Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all…” The song acknowledges that racism, debtors’ prisons, and militarized policing created rifts and fractures in the St. Louis community. However, justice for Mike Brown, and by extension, justice for all black people, would unite us all.

The #UnitedWeFight march from Vonderrit Myers’ memorial uplifted this vision of unity and justice. Leading the march with one #UnitedWeFight banner were Muslims for Ferguson, Palestine Solidarity Committee, Latinos en Axión Stl, Asian and Pacific Islanders for Black Lives, and Hands Up United. White supremacy creates a black-white binary in St. Louis. White supremacy promotes infighting, invisibility, and isolation among people of color in St. Louis. But the dream of unifying justice is incarnate when people of color march in solidarity with white folks for black liberation.

The Black Lives Matter movement has awakened the valley of dry bones in my soul. Whereas hope for healing racism in US-America often rings hollow in the clattering bones of my spirit, the Black Lives Matter movement puts flesh and breath on those bones, causing them to rise and dance. Momma Cat nourishes the protestors, radically welcoming all to the Lord’s Supper, feeding the 5,000 who are hungry for justice, making food as sumptuous and miraculous as manna and quail in the desert. KB Frazier drums to call on our ancestors for strength and invite all to join in a vision of restorative justice. Elizabeth Vega creates the playful disruption of the Holy Spirit, constructing community, critique, and comedy through art so that the haughty might be brought low and the poor in spirit be lifted up. As Dorothy said, “I saw theology walk off the paper and come to life.”

The eschatological creed of the Black Lives Matter movement exclaims, “I….! I believe! I believe that we will win!” The modern day miracles of the Black Lives Matter movement strengthen my faith that the year of Jubilee is coming, that justice will be restored once more, and we will rejoice in life abundant. “I believe that we will win!” is an invitation to join in the sacred work of creating the reign of love on Earth. I am called by Ella’s song, which asserts that “Until the killing of black men, black mothers’ sons, is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers’ sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.”

I am challenged by Rev. Renita Lamkin’s questions, “What are you willing to risk? If you haven’t risked everything, you’ve risked nothing! Are you willing to put your resources to work? Are you willing to put your body on the line? Are you willing to suffer the exact same treatment that your black and brown siblings suffer? Are you willing to suffer with them?” When I reflect on the considerations that hold me back from fully engaging with the Black Lives Matter movement, I realize that all of my justifications pale in comparison to the intolerable treatment that black people face in US-America. If I truly profess to love my black siblings, I must be willing to totally devote my resources, my body, and my heart to the Black Lives Matter movement. It is my work as a pastor, preacher, and chaplain that I am compelled to support the Black Lives Matter movement. No greater love have I experienced than this, to lay down my life with my family, a family that welcomes all who believe in liberation and justice.

Essentially, Rev. Renita’s soul-stirring questions ask, “Are you willing to fight for black liberation out of deep, abiding love?” To these questions, I must answer in the words of Assata Shakur: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom! It is our duty to win! We must love and support each other! We have nothing to lose but our chains!”

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Mom So Woke

I finally told my mom that I was risking arrest by supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, because I stand with clergy, professors, and people of conscience against white supremacy which murders and harms black folks in US-America. I told her that I didn’t immediately tell her that I got arrested for Moral Monday because I didn’t want to worry her or cause her to lose sleep. I said that I was…

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Little Racists, Little Laughter

I was walking across the parking lot at a Schnucks when a minivan rolled by, three little rosy-cheeked blonde girls in the back. “THERE’S AN ASIAN RIGHT THERE!” exclaimed one, and the entire back seat erupted in giggles. I have never wanted to flip off a child in my life. I had to grip my clutch in order to stop myself. I could feel heat rising from my stomach to my throat, and as I walked…

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The Pull is Strong

Yesterday, I was thinking that I need to move to Chicago, so I can be surrounded by radical Asians. Today, I was surrounded by a wonderful community of friends, Black and Asian, all laughing and talking excitedly and eating good food and playing bananagrams and drying dishes together. I thought to myself, we have a lot of loving power in this home. We have a lot of family here. And it wasn’t…

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