I bought myself a pineapple in December.

Without thinking, plunked it in the basket.

It wasn’t on sale.

It wasn’t particularly colorful

or fragrant.

It was mostly unripe—

Bright green, like bamboo,

With a foreshadowing of yellow.

Editor’s Note: This piece is sourced from the author's sermon, Honor Your Mother and Father at Forefront Brooklyn on June 30, 2019.

I think by my family’s standard, I am a total rebel. When I reflect back on my life growing up, I feel like I’d find any excuse to rebel against my parents, even if I didn’t do it on purpose. Just by nature, I went against most things they wanted me to do.

In my youth, I felt valued and whole in the conservative evangelical Asian American church I called home. This community gave me a foundation for understanding God’s engagement with the world and my role in it. This place provided me a family with mentors who believed in my potential as a leader.

Editor's note: We are sharing the following transcript from the Progressive Asian American Christian 2019 Conference's evening plenary message. We are delighted that we are able to share this message from Pastor Vicki Flippin with our Diverging and PAAC communities.

The aspects of my identity are fueled by tension and otherness. The battles of tension and otherness shout at each other, debate each other, lie to each other, chase each other. They torment me, define me, limit me.  

They tell me: I am not queer enough. I am not Korean enough. I am not American enough. I am not feminine enough. I have heard it all from society, even from my own community.

There is a diversity within our racial category that defies naming (AAPI/AANHPI/APIDA, etc). What assortment of letters fits who we are?

This weekend, we celebrated the second birthday of Nemo, the child of two women who are giants in our community, who has grown up in and with the community. I saw this child who is filled with all of the different emotions we experience in human life, and his parents affirming each one with love and grace, holding space for those feelings. In the children of PAAC, including my own, I saw so much hope. These are children growing up knowing their families will love them for exactly who they are and will be, unconstricted by the restraints I grew up with (a world full of strict gender conformity and restrictive, toxic theology).