Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity
Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology
Virginia Union University, in Richmond, Virginia
March 14, 2017
Dear President Trump, Vice President Pence, Members of the Trump Administration, and the 115th
Congress,
I love this country, my new home, and about a year ago all my family members became US citizens. That was our glad choice to join millions of immigrants who already become citizens of this great country—a place of opportunities, cultural diversity, and high moral values embodying more justice and freedom for all people. But recently, I and others have felt uncertain about this joyful expectation about our country’s ideals and achievements. I hear that diversity and otherness are seen as suspicious and checked at many corners of this country. Though there is a long way to go, our country has made conscious efforts to embrace more diversity, free thought, and human dignity. There are many colors on earth, named or unnamed; but all of them are beautiful. There are many flowers in the world, named or unnamed; no question that all are splendid. All of them are flowers, small or big, short or tall. The flower is the flower. There are many people of color on our globe, documented or undocumented; all of them are God’s masterpieces. Yellow is color, black is color, and white is also color. All races are colored and cultured. Some are more distinctive than others. Yet all represent a colorful representation of God’s world where different thoughts and lifestyles coexist.
As a biblical scholar, author, and professor teaching at a graduate theological school, in Richmond, Virginia, my vocation is to communicate the love of God to all, advocating diversity in our lives. Diversity is the way that the world exists and prospers. Differences, whether personal or cultural, are not wrong by themselves but can be a moment of engagement with one another through the love of God. In God’s creation, there are many colors, many races, many cultures, many stories, and many histories. One cannot represent all. It is the imperial culture that does not embrace diversity.
Sincerely,
Yung Suk Kim