The Jeremy Lin indicator

“Lin-sanity” took hold of my Bronx living room last Friday night.

Like many New Yorkers, we were cheering on the unexpected rising star of the Knicks. Jeremy Lin, a Harvard grad who had been nearly invisible before as an NBA player, was defending, dribbling and shooting his way to a career-high 38 points in that night’s home game against the Lakers.

It wasn’t until the next day that I thought about the fact that the couple who had joined us for dinner – our fellow cheerleaders for this new basketball star of Taiwan origin – were from families who had immigrated from Brazil and Guyana. The beauty of it all made me smile.

To me, Jeremy Lin is an indicator of both a growing U.S. ethnic diversity that no longer is confined to New York and California and the continuing way in which racial stereotypes are being shattered as our multicultural society gains acceptance, particularly among young people.

The fanfare over Jeremy Lin has not yet abated. By Wednesday this week, the rejuvenated Knicks were on a seven-game winning streak and Lin had set an NBA record for the most points (109) in the first four starts.

In Lin’s case, what has been particularly intriguing is the side focus on his Christian faith. The New York Times has had at least three stories in the past week on the faith issue, including one about Asian-American young people who had gathered in a bar to watch Friday’s game. “If Lin’s storybook week captured the imagination of New York City and the wider sports world, it hit the community of Christian Asia-Americans like a lightning bolt,” writes Times reporter Sam Dolnick.

Even more interesting was a first-person column in the sports section, in which reporter Michael Luo writes about his common ground with Lin as an Asian-American, a Harvard grad and a fellow believer. “An Asian-American Christian? What’s that?” he acknowledges. “Many in this country have probably never heard of this subcategory on the religious spectrum.”

United Methodists have because we have our own Asian-American congregations. But, the problem, in my opinion, is that our denomination hasn’t done nearly enough to reach that population – or any other U.S. ethnic minority group, including African Americans.

Our expanding membership base outside the United States is considered a cause for celebration. Why are we so resistant to diversifying – and thus increasing -- the shrinking U.S. membership? Yes, we pay lip service to diversity through a few noteworthy plans or projects targeted to specific groups. But where is the overall strategy? Where is the monetary commitment? Where is the spiritual mandate?

United Methodist leaders are absorbed right now over how to restructure church operations to achieve denominational goals, with a proposed plan set for discussion and a vote at the upcoming 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Fla.

Representatives of United Methodist ethnic/racial ministries say there was little or no consultation with their groups regarding the restructure proposal. They are concerned the plan will render them even more invisible than they already feel.

Jeremy Lin used to be invisible to sports fans and the NBA. Now, he’s not. How can we make the need for greater diversity visible to the church?

Offering support (and chocolate) for Valentine's Day

In 2003, I met a soft-spoken farmer from the Dominican Republic who convinced me that the phrase “fair trade” is not just an empty marketing slogan designed to move product.

Abel Fernandez,production and export manager for the National Confederation of Dominican CocoaProducers, came to the New York and explained how buying fair trade cocoa would benefit his organization’s 9,000 small farmers and their communities.

At that time, 10 percent of the organization’s annual crop yield was used for the fair trade market and the roughly $150,000 that they earned back was reinvested in both improving product (teaching how to ferment cocoa beans for chocolate bars, for example) and meeting community needs in areas such as health care and education.

June Kim, a United Methodist Committee on Relief executive who works on hunger/poverty and sustainable agriculture and development projects, also convinced me. Her passion for fair trade products – coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, olive oil -- has made the UMCOR Coffee Project, launched in 2002, an unqualified success. She literally has walked the fields of some of these farmers.

Kim is a tireless promoter for our denomination’s partnership with Equal Exchange, an employee-owned fair trade organization, and its trading partners, cajoling local congregations into placing orders for coffee hours, church dinners and fundraising projects. Because of her efforts, the United Methodist Church’s top legislative body encourages the use of fair trade products.

It’s kind of a no-brainer. When we buy through the Equal Exchange interfaith store, we support farmers in some of the poorest regions of Latin America, Africa and Asia and also support UMCOR, which receives a small percentage of wholesale sales.

For Valentine’s Day, there’s a special card/candy combo offer, along with the usual enticing array of chocolate bars by the case: Very Dark Chocolate; Dark with Almonds; Mint Crunch; Milk with Hazelnut; Dark Caramel with Sea Salt; Dark with Espresso Bean; Dark Orange; Ecuador Dark (65% cacao); and Panama Dark (80% cacao). Bestow them with love upon your sweetheart, friends, officemates, classmates or fellow congregants.

Here’s how to buy through the interfaith store: On the web Direct from Equal Exchange; email interfaith@equalexchange.com; phone, 774-776-7366; fax, fill out an order form and fax to 505-587-5955 [Download order Form]

I’ve already placed a Valentine’s Day order of espresso bean bars (my favorite) and organic Earl Grey tea through St. Paul and St. Andrew’s, my local church.