Week 10: Sexual, Racial, and Religious Identities Response

Joshua Rivera

Asian-American Studies – A01

Blog/Week #10

In “Teaching Justice and Living Peace: Body, Sexuality, and Religious Education in Asian-American Communities”, Boyung Lee discusses the connection between race, religion, and sexuality in creating one’s identity. He believes that all of these different aspects of someone’s being should be taught in conjunction with one another so that those within Asian-American communities can learn to accept other individuals who are considered part of any minority group. I disagree with this and would like to argue that although each of these topics should be taught to everyone including those in the Asian-American communities, these topics should not intertwine at all unless desired and it should be up to the individual to create their own opinions and ideals. For example, throughout the article, Lee claims that existing churches should include different interpretations and opinions about religious teachings so that topics such as sexuality are brought to people’s attention and can learn more about it. He argues that this would help open avenues for individuals to create more educated opinions about others such as homosexuals. However, this would not be very productive because for some people, by broadening how the Bible and its story are interpreted would mean altering religious teachings, causing religious conflict. Instead, I believe it would more beneficial if schools in compulsory education had an option for students to take classes in sexuality because individuals would not be forced to learn about sexuality if they don’t want to, they are presented with the opportunity without having to make a commitment, and it won’t alter or change already existing curriculum. By incorporating different topics into an already existing topic/curriculum, people would be trying to instill ideals in areas that people didn’t ask for. Although it’s critical for people to create their own identities and to look at other people’s identities by considering all aspects of who they are, these identities should not be forced onto one another unless desired.

Question: How can topics such as sexuality be taught to Asian-American communities without having to alter pre-existing educational curriculum?