The Christianity Today April 2006 article is finally released online, The Tiger in the Academy: Asian Americans populate America’s elite colleges more than ever—and campus ministries even more than that::
As a group they are hard-working—driven, some say—and morally conservative. Many come from ethnic churches—Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean, particularly—but culturally they are transitioning between their Asian roots and their American home. … some cultural challenges remain. Family expectations can get in the way of service. “The reality of duty to family, regardless of what Asian culture you come from or what your economic status is, is a huge, inescapable reality…” … “They have so much fervor and dedication, partly because of their Confucian background.” … “Confucianism is a pretty good background for responsibility, sacrifice, and grace.”
[ht: Kenneth Liu; cf. mirrored 1]
And a few pull quotes from me about comment spam, in Spero News, Decoding ‘Christianity Today’: Bene Diction forwarded the comment to Spero News’ technical experts for help and posted a warning for other bloggers to beware of the potential forgery in Christianity Today’s name. My pull quotes [click-thru for context]:
When Herman revealed his identity on Bene Diction Blogs On, “He righted his wrong so to speak,” said DJ Chuang who blogs at www.djchuang.com.
“I think there is a blurry line between a person’s professional role, his personal role, and how s/he can share hyperlinks to other blogs/ websites/ resources. In other words, I’m not the most sensitive to it, since I have professional associations myself, and do not always declare my connections to things every time I make a comment or provide a link. And, I’ll admit that I have an alias blog on which my identity is not revealed, but I have not used that for occasions to ‘link spam’ yet,” DJ Chuang added.
[ht: Bene Diction]
Asians…
//MOOD: Married //PODCAST: Coverville by Brian Ibbott From djchuang.com: “Asian Americans populate America’s elite colleges more than ever—and campus ministries even more than that…As a group they are hard-working—driven, some say…
FULL DISCLOSURE (I’m now telling everyone, in every conversation — online and off, at the grocery story, and at the library where I work and who I am): My name is Michael Herman, and I work in the Media Relations Department for Christianity Today International, publisher of 13 print publications.
Now, that’s out of the way, so I’ll leave my comment.
I agree with your comments, DJ, and I thank you for injecting a bit of your understanding into the Spero article.
Sadly, the misunderstanding/the false assumption was cleared-up on the Bene Diction Blog before Clinton from Spero contacted me for his interview.
The article could have been a good opportunity to discuss exactly what you mentioned, the blurry line of understanding people’s intentions by what they write online — as it related to this situation. But, the article was not taken out into a broader trend, which is a very common journalistic habit. It’s remained specific…specifically — pretty much — about me, and about my possibly tainted actions.
Even in the follow-up after the article was written there still was misunderstanding. It’s frustrating. It was altogether unnecessary. It’s been something that has, sadly, ruined it for other bloggers with which I would’ve grown future relationships.
I used to regularly send all kinds of notes and comments to bloggers to commend them, direct them, and assist them in my work here in the Media Relations Department. Not all of it directly helped my employer, CTI, but what it did do was it helped the body of Christ in the blogging world. But, I now can no longer take the change of a blogger misunderstanding or simply falsely assuming what I mean to accomplish in my contact with them.
There were words used in the Spero article that painted me wrong, misquoted me, and did not tell the story as it was told to the reporter in the initial interview. But, I iimdiately let that go. I can’t let that bother me because I choose to truly believe that the writer’s intentions were right and true. I’ve shared this with the writer, so this blog comment here is not news to him.
I was not given that benefit of the doubt by Bene Diction, or by many of the words Spero chose to use in the article, but, by choosing to give Spero the benefit of the doubt when I was not given that benefit, it allows me to show what it means to do the right thing in all situations.
I’m not perfect, and I learned an important leasson — a few of them actually. I never admitted any guilt, even though I was reported to have “admitted” something in the article. That was because my conscience is clean about why I originally contacted that blog.
I should’ve taken more time to start by saying a sentence or two about the post. If I would have then followed with what I did write, then none of this would’ve come about. I should’ve done that, but, it’s water over the dam.
Thank you again for your honest thoughts in the article, DJ. I’ve been to your blog many times. But, if I never comment here again, please forgive me. I’ll be a little gunshy for quite a while.
Best,
michael.herman.who.works.at.CTI.in.the.media.relations.department…really.
Hi DJ, I believe we’ve interacted in many different places. Thanks for your blog which is a great resource. I posted a response to that article on my blog. But in summary, I read such accounts and wonder how often Asian-American issues are prioritized over the Gospel itself. Sometimes it seems as though we can press Asian-Americanism, and neglect the reality that we are in Christ far before we are Asian-Americans. Just a thought.