Asianamerican religious cultures, about 1000 pages and what is this about . The Asian American international and Pacific Islanders are a Diverse Group of full. Group of people. What is common is not that obvious. The publisher approached me several years ago to see if we could really develop an encyclopedia that would be comprehensive over what is going on in the religious scenes for the asianamericans and the Pacific Islanders. That is the reason that this came about. What i did not understand at that point was that the Asian American religions are very complex, and the spokes of the religious scenes in the u. S. , not that clear. So how do we bring this together in an encyclopedia that is more of a comprehensive understanding of the current religious scenes, and that was the challenge. How long did this take you . It started in 2008. Several years. You are one of the editors and understand this gentleman to your left, and you invited the doctor to come on board, and how did you come on board . I am not sure which year it was but there were three of us professors, and another editor, and we would get together for lunch and hear him complain, about people not doing their work. They would ask for articles, but they were not coming in. It seemed as if we had kind of a conceptual limitation, and they were cognizant of the Christian Community and the christian doctrine. I am a buddhist scholar, and we managed to expand the scope of the encyclopedia. The fourth editor, jonathan, who had already done an encyclopedia on folklore and he knew how to manage the mechanics of putting these together. We brought him in, and even if that because it was such a long project, years, that we were involved in the parameters, they changed as we went along. Weve got new material and we had to figure out how to fit it in. It was an evolved process. This was just published, and on saturday, this was just published, and on saturday, september 24 you will be holding an event and where is it and what is that . It will be in japan town, and im not exactly sure the name of the center. It is the Japanese Community historical society. The Japanese National library is sponsoring it with other sponsors. There is event on the saturday between 1 30 pm and 4 00 and we will get that to you in a minute. How many faiths are you dealing with and this . I cannot remember exactly how many, but i think it is close to 700. Even buddhism is so diverse, and we are not talking about japanese, and even in the japanese tradition, Everyone Wants to be the bishop or the boss. So they always created new sector. They form a new movement, so it was hard trying to make sense of all of this chaos. Basically, we have a scorecard if you are a baseball fan. You cannot tell the players without the scorecard. [ laughter ]. We will come back to talk more about the asianamerican religious cultures and this book. Thank you. Were talking with our professors about this remarkable two volume work on asianamerican religious cultures. In the last segment we have invited the public, you, to come on september 24 at at 1 30 pm to 4 pm. And being a careful host i found this is the Japanese Culture community center, 1840 sutter street in san francisco, and we are urging you to attend. Ron, give us examples, as we go into this, when you choose a faith, and tell us what we will find. This is such a diverse thing, and i should also mention that part of this, it was to include the Pacific Islanders. There was one particular entry in their which i thought was exceptionally good, the one on hawaii, hawaii and religion and speech or reality spirituality. I worked directly with the writer on this and he would write something and i would ask them why it is taking so long. He said that every time i write something i take it to the elders to see if they approve of it, and that is white took a long time. That was part of our philosophy is that we wanted to get into the living reality, i guess would be the term, of the faith traditions from the insiders. We scholars have a tendency to be objective, and we do not get the flavor or the sense of the tradition. This was one example of how we tried to get into the culture itself, and into the faith tradition by those that are in the tradition. I am opening here and finding something under hawaii and i will read just a snippet. The spirit is that the people of hawaii have a special connection to one another, the land, culture and visitors. It is a feeling of love and hospitality, an easygoing spirit and nature. Many of us a bid to hawaii and understand that, but this is so detailed. Tell us more about this, this labor of love obviously. As ron was talking about, each National Group of Asian Americans is so distinct. The distinctive culture, history and religious understandings, and in the u. S. We talk about unity and diversity. That is the National Model of what the building is all about, but for asianamericans, that is one thing that we recognize or acknowledge at the same time, we have to deal with very distinct ways that we go about our lives. What this means is that we are caught between the narrative, the accepted narrative of the u. S. As a nation on one sense, the very distinct background from which we come from on the other. What happens is we get caught between those two backgrounds, and we have to figure out what that means. You said something that fascinated me in terms of asian religion and thought, it is more of a pathway, a way of living more than the doctrinal approach of western religion. Can you speak more about that . Yes. The expression, religion into the japanese vocabulary somewhere in the 1850s. Until then they never had a word for religion. The reason this came about was that the japanese were negotiating with the russians on a trade treaty and there was a clause that says something about freedom of religion, and the japanese had no notion of what that meant. Prior to that of course they had defined buddhism as a way of the food truck, of confucius is him ism, but never in the terms of religion. It has a relationship between the deity in the case of abraham it religion and being in humanity, but this was such a foreign idea to most asian people. And you are christian, so how do you translate this . I talked about the in between identity, the way that we rise, and that expands to the religious area as well. Many of us come from the country, culture and religion that is based on many different gods. Many deities. In the u. S. , and as ron was talking about, the abraham it take traditions, we talk about one god. So what we get between this is the many gods as the formational background of the asian and Pacific Island on one hand, and one god as a tradition for christians that are embraced. And what does it mean to hold those two in contention at one time to make ourselves to the one god religion in our own life context. I think that is one of the issues that we struggle with. What is the answer . I use a simile that does not really mean anything, but at least we recognize what we know about religion for the faith is not complete. That there is more to what even the Christian Faith is all about than what we already understand, or articulate. The moral part of the greater reality is something that we hold tentatively in our own faith position, even though we are permitted to it, it is a very strange kind of position to be in. The japanese novelist had the term, for repeal people because we need to negotiate two histories, two languages, two religions, and we need to know two different sets, to terms of culture and religion. And he says that the for repeal people are the most creative because we learn, and we know the relative values. Nothing is absolute. Being from tennessee that is the way that i felt about moving north. [ laughter ]. We thank you for your work on this, and for being our guest. And dr. Nakasone will be back to wrap this up as we come right back. This is a program about Asian American religious cultures, and this is a new two volume encyclopedia coming out. We speak with one of the contributors, and the minister has been doing work out of the Arlington Community church in kensington. Welcome. How did you get associated, come to write something for this . That is easy, doctor mac nakasone, and part of what was happening is i was serving a Japanese Christian Church in the central valley. A Japanese Christian Church and . We were noticing that many, as they were dying, i heard about the christian and buddhist that had a fellowship together that did Amazing Things together. Is this in alabama . Selma, california. And he said why not write an article for the encyclopedia. Buddhist and christians in the same building . Yes, and this was very rare. And in little japanese towns there would be separate building for each, but in selma they said we should not separate that. They had two fellowships but share property and Memorial Services with celebration of both traditions. The buddhism took more time so they would start with the buddhist ceremony, change the altar and do a full christian ceremony, and all of the members would stay for both, and is that not amazing . And you came away appreciating watt . What . That being neighbors first comes to gather to find a unique way to share our lives. Maybe they had different culture ideas or come from a different part of japan, they put being a neighbor first. You also worked in the philippines and tell us about this. I had an opportunity to represent the United Church of christ in the philippines during 2010, i was one of the human rights observers for the election which was fascinating. And then spending time with the filipinos for about 20 years on the west coast. And what have you learned . The importance of eating. [ laughter ]. Filling and spending time in the philippines, you have a way of seeing the world and you travel and meet people from other cultures, and when you go to other countries, you begin to see that what is human is universal but the manifestation of the conditions can be very different. I think it grocery hearts, open to remind, and makes you more open to others. It is part of deconstructing the White Privilege and faults. And you have been engaged and involved with those that have written this, and tell us about the energy and appreciation you have for singers come together. It is a lot of things, and as a pastor i understand that it is a collection of stories. It is twofold, a collection of humble histories, and many of the stories wouldve never been told. And these people do not brag, so it was pulling out the stories, and going to the elders to get the stories, not stories that people would have presented. The other thing that i think is important about this collection is that we live in an era where opinion is popular. People can opinion a everywhere opinion eight can be opinionated everywhere, and the editors were good about holding us up to the scholarly rigors, and it is scholarly and not just opinionated, and that is very important for us right now. But obviously it is accessible to folks like me that dont know much. At first its just essays in the beginning in the general it is a general introduction. It is grouped in different ways, and there is an entry in the lesbian and gay people on the Pacific Islanders and communities, and you can learn all sorts of things just reading the first few essays. You are living in the bay area and what you like about living here . There is no place in the world like it. All of these people together and i served the church in hayward for number of years, and while there was the most diverse city in the bay area and san jose has now trump that. Tromped that, and there is an attitude in the bay area that is a blessing and it does not exist in very many places in the world. Why did you go into the ministry . [ laughter ]. I dont know. Quite honestly, i think it was my grandmother, a woman of deep faith and very openhearted. She lived in the south and when she saw prejudice she would talk about how god loved everybody, and i think sometimes i get frustrated that there was not more of that big love christianity. I did not set out to become an ordained minister, i set out to talk about more love. And you have been talking about more love and being a clergy for 20 years. Not ordained all of that time but yes. Kathryn schrieber were grateful that you came on, and when we return, doctor mac nakasone will be back again, Asian American religious culturals two volume works as we continue. We will be right back. One of the joys of living in the bay area is the diversity of the religious and spiritual cultures, and that is what we are about today. The two volume work, Asian American religious cultures that involves articles from how many authors . About 100, i think. How many aspects of spirituality would you say are covered . My best guess would be 700 to 800. So a little, and a wonderful thing. Again, the public is invited on saturday, again, the public is invited on saturday, september 24, 1 30 pm to 4 pm at the japanese cultural center, and that is on sutter street in san francisco. How can we get this . You can get it online or go directly to the publisher, and it is almost 200. And i can get it online . Yes, on amazon. It took six years to get there. And were not done yet. A joy to see you, and what are you working on now that you have done this . After this project was done, it took me 6 to 8 months to get detoxed. Right now i am did returning to my book, the structure of the buddhist thinking. We look forward to that, and thank you for walking dr. Us through this and giving us highlights, getting us through this, and giving us the highlights, dr. Nakasone. Thank you for watching mosaic. You are looking at a beautiful redwood posts, and is that a suit on that redwood post . T ou nope, even easier than that. More like taking a left on that street where you usually take a right that wasnt so hard. And if finding that paint made you and your walls beam with pride, is it still paint . Benjamin moore. Paint like no other. Find one of our 5,000 authorized retailers near you. Have a show idea. We wod love to hear from you. Go to facebook dot com slash bay sunday and comment to welcome to bay sunday, and im your host, kenny choi. If you have a show idea we would love to hear from you, and comment on our page. Today we have our book author, nonprofit, Garry Marshall and we welcome jeff. And tell us about this book,
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