North American Division Leaders Call for Support of Asian-American Community

Spectrum Website
#1

As leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, we denounce the recent acts of violence and hatred against our brothers and sisters in the Asian-American community. God calls us to love all His children, no matter our differences. Our diversity makes us stronger as a people, and the variety of cultures making up our territory are a direct reflection of His creative power. We need to celebrate our differences and embrace the uniqueness of each and every person. We want all Asian-Americans to know we stand with them and beside them during this season where they are being unfairly targeted.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://spectrummagazine.org/node/11130
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#2

Funny the NAD would adopt this stance after hypocritically adopting an All rights Matter policy instead of the more specific LGBTQ Equal Rights. NAD also changed their 1985 family planning platform to include AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL terms such as ‘personhood’ and ‘unborn’, changing the dynamics of constitutuonal rights for fetuses, contrary to the Old Testament. Their credibility is tainted.

#3

Why do we insist that this was racially motivated when the suspect denies that and there doesn’t appear any other evidence pointing in that direction.

When a Islamist terrorist kills in the name of his religion, many in the media who misunderstand the power of religion insist the suspect must have been mentally ill.

Surely as SDA’s we understand the power of guilt within religious teaching and that this can end badly.
Is there some reason why we want it to be racial?

#4

i think some people, including asians, are seeing racism because 6 of the 8 victims in the atlanta shooting were asian, and anti-AAPI has been on the rise since covid, especially during trump’s last yr in office…

#6

on the other hand, if robert long were motivated by racism, racism would be the first thing he’d deny…I think we should believe the victim community…why would they make up a story of racism if it didn’t exist…

the reality is, 75% of the people robert shot dead were asian…this fact isn’t explained by a sex addition or bad day excuse…in addition, robert has the kind of look associated with trump supporters, which also suggests racism…

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#8

I probably haven’t read every piece on this by any means. What is the “story of racism” you are referring to? Is that being reported as specificity sheeted home to him somehow?

#9

I commend and am supportive of efforts by the SDA faith community to show solidarity with anyone who is targeted and harmed due to immutable characteristics. We should stand with and help the vulnerable and welcome all in our midst. I hope the words of Martin Luther King Jr. will continue to resonate and that people will be judged by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin.

The timing of this announcement is suspect. There was an uptick in speech, policies, and violent acts that either unfairly harmed Asian Americans or had the potential to do so, long before this past week. What changed? Although racial animus or prejudice may yet be shown to be a motive, no racial motive has as yet been determined by police in the tragic shootings this past week. That being the case, why make the statement now and not weeks or months ago, as many on the political left are now doing? Those outside the church will be wondering, correctly, if the church has taken a political side. They will wonder why the church was silent when many in the legacy, mainstream media used the term “Wuhan virus” at the start of the pandemic but only make it an issue after that same media hypocritically bash Trump for doing the same. It will occur to them that the church has not spoken out against the term “Brazil variant”. They will wonder why the church, like the left, responds within days where the perpetrator of a major act of violence with multiple deaths is of one race but not when the perpetrator is of another. They will wonder why the church didn’t speak out against government policies, especially in education, where Asian Americans are penalized for succeeding academically through merit. This can be seen at both the secondary and the university level, in efforts to change admission to Lowell High School in San Francisco from a merit-based system to a lottery as well as in the lawsuit against Harvard University. If the church is not careful, it will be seen as having taken a political side, and will lose its influence and witness with those who don’t share its political biases.

#10

the victim community of AAPI hate is saying that the racism they’re experiencing is not a story…they’re saying it’s real…they’re saying that there’s been an uptick in anti-asian hate that corresponds with covid and trump’s rhetoric…

the atlanta mass shooting is pushing all the buttons of alarm in the AAPI community…the real facts that we know so far are that robert long targeted asian businesses, shot dead 6 asians, and was defended partially by a white cop who has made anti-asian statements in the past…it’s irresponsible to say that this incident isn’t racist at this point…

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#11

I may be wrong but I presumed he targeted establishments that he had frequented.

I can certainly understand how the community is responding to this atrocity but the day that how an incident “feels” to a community influences how an individual is charged and possibly convicted in the absence of actual evidence, is the day you may as well not bother with police investigations.

#12

you do make a good point…my point is that we can’t dismiss racism based solely on the denial of the accused, especially given the overall national context and the way the asian community feels…atlanta’s mayor, keisha bottoms, is essentially saying that the facts of the case indicate racism, even without known motives, which is significant…

as this atlanta case stands now, federal racism charges have been eliminated, but municipal and state racism charges could still be added…from what i understand, the threshold of evidence needed for racism charges to be successfully prosecuted is high…sometimes prosecutors settled on a lesser charge to secure a conviction of some kind, even if they believe racism is involved…that may very well occur in this case…

but let’s also not rule out civil lawsuits…after the floyd settlement of $27 million, anything is possible…to all intents and purposes, i don’t see robert long living a normal life ever again…people are going to see him as a racist, whether he is or not…

#13

Fair enough but as a non-American I find this all a bit head scratching and a uniquely American way of dealing with matters.

Sure, it matters at the end of the day if this is a milepost that leads to more awareness and action against racist attacks but the guy killed 8 people and knowing the US justice system will no doubt die in jail. I guess if they were white people he killed it would be called a misogynistic attack and they’d hope to find message boards filled with hatred of women.

If there is objective evidence that leads police to another motive than he has uttered well and good but I can’t see the motive to lie. “I may have murdered 8 people but how dare you call me racist” Really? People seem determined to get inside his head whether there is a window open or not but for me he killed 8 “people” and the punishment will be the same.

#14

if this atlanta shooting turns out to be an AAPI hate crime, that is treated and successfully prosecuted as such, i think it will reassure the AAPI community that their plea against racism has been heard, and is being treated seriously…it’s important for victims to be able to feel acknowledged and affirmed…

on the other hand, for robert long to not understand that actions against asian-owned establishments, and largely asian victims, even without the current climate, would be perceived as racist, and to split hairs over his motives as if his crime were somehow less heinous if it wasn’t racist, and as if strict honesty in such circumstances had any redeeming merit, is jaw-dropping fatuity…in fact i wonder if he isn’t mentally unstable, and if he’s being evaluated by psychiatrists…it seems there are a myriad of ways a sexual addiction could have been managed besides mowing down 8 innocent people in atlanta, on his way to mowing down more in florida…

not to be overlooked, of course, is this glaring lack of correspondence between cause and effect, which is one of the hallmarks of genuine racism, even if the perpetrator is only 21…

#15

Let’s hope the footprint left by the perpetrator speak loudly regarding motive. As I alluded to above, many left leaning commentators raised without a faith have found it inconceivable that for eg a good Muslim boy who attended mosque every week etc could turn out to have been radicalised and spent his time watching gruesome videos etc.

Those of us raised with a faith completely understand religions ability to have someone fervently believe what to an outsider would be regarded as complete idiocy. Let’s not call it terrorism until they investigate they’d say, he had to be mentally ill and unaware of what he was really doing.

Guilt is a very powerful weapon in most faiths and can have terrible consequences for the individual and others.

#16

it will be interesting to see if robert long has a religious background…certainly his unusual guilt over what he considers a sexual addition, which to others may well register as a normal young adult phase, suggests such a background…

as for the widely expressed evils of guilt, particularly religious guilt, my own feeling is that guilt can function in some cases as a spiritual analog to bodily pain: in the same way bodily pain can indicate something physically wrong that may not be immediately evident, ordinate guilt can indicate something amiss in our spiritual development that the HS sees we’re ready to confront…in this case, guilt is something to be welcomed, and carefully assessed…

but certainly a valid part of this atlanta incident to consider, in light of today’s boulder, colorado mass shooting, is the astounding proliferation of guns in the u.s…clearly, robert long would have spared most of his 8 victims’ lives, not to mention his own future, if he’d gone to those spas in atlanta with a knife, or a baseball bat, instead of a 9mm handgun…

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#17

Wholeheartedly agree on the last point. Although pro gun people argue the point somehow, I know if I was to be attacked by someone and I could chose gun or knife it’s a no brainer.

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#18

It was misogyny. It was a case of, “I can’t control myself so I will control you by killing if necessary”. That said it doesn’t rule out racism. He drove from one town to another to kill women he apparently believed to be in the sex field. That makes it racism as there is no evidence it was that kind of massage parlor.

He was both a misogynist and a racist. His problem goes far deeper than guilty sex feelings, as real as I believe those to be. He definitely needs stable people to step up and witness to him. But he also has to face consequences for what he did.

#19

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