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<\/a>Dr. Grace Y. Kao<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Dr. Grace Y. Kao<\/a> (pronounced \u201cGow\u201d), professor of Christian Ethics at the Claremont School of Theology<\/a> in Claremont, California, told Hinson-Hasty during Wednesday\u2019s podcast<\/a> it\u2019s \u201cthis next generation\u201d of students.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m teaching undergraduates for the first time in a decade,\u201d Kao said. \u201cIt\u2019s their commitment to social justice. They\u2019re trying to be antiracist and they\u2019re taking steps to be more environmentally sustainable. They correct themselves when they become aware of things they need to change. What\u2019s making me come alive is them, frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s giving those students that drive, that hope, asked Hinson-Hasty, senior director for Theological Education Funds Development for COTE and the Presbyterian Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s \u201ca confluence of factors,\u201d Kao responded. The Black Lives Matter movement is part of it, Kao said, but \u201cwhile we were all stuck at home,\u201d students asked, \u201cWhat about the environment? Why are young people changing their eating and consumer habits and pressing the business sector and the public sector to clean up their acts? I think the fact that ordinary folks can have a platform\u201d by doing something akin to what Kao and Hinson-Hasty were doing at the time, using social media to exchange ideas, \u201chas something to do with it. I think the dissemination of power has something to do with it. I don\u2019t know all the reasons people are coming alive and taking charge, but I\u2019m appreciating it.\u201d<\/p>\n When Kao sees gifts in her students, particularly the potential to teach in higher education, \u201cI want to encourage them. You can only pay things forward \u2014 you can never pay [her own mentors] back. So I try to nurture the next generation of talent when I find it.\u201d<\/p>\n Kao said she\u2019s working on two projects in addition to her teaching. One\u2019s a monograph that develops a theology of reparations for Asian Americans, aggrieved by actions including the Chinese Exclusion Act<\/a> of 1882 and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. In Hawaii, she noted, generations of Asian Americans have apologized to Native Hawaiians, and the U.S. government has apologized to the former kingdom of Hawaii. Such acts, Kao said, have economic repercussions and can result in the redistribution of land.<\/p>\n \u201cAsian Americans are in a unique position,\u201d Kao said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n Kao is also completing a manuscript on surrogacy, drawing from a Christian ethical perspective. She herself was a surrogate for a friend, and, she said, \u201cpeople would ask me questions.\u201d \u00a0As Kao would answer their questions, they encouraged her to write a book on the topic.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t looking for a book deal,\u201d Kao told Hinson-Hasty, \u201cbut I thought, how many professionally-trained ethicists have lived through the experience of surrogacy? For that reason, I thought, OK, here we go.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years ago Kao gave a paper on the topic to the Society of Christian Ethics<\/a>, wondering if she\u2019d get \u201ctarred and feathered. The treatment of embryos is a sensitive issue, but it was well-received.\u201d<\/p>\n Surrogacy itself is controversial, Kao said, often dividing the Christian and feminist communities. Medical innovations including uterine transplants and artificial wombs are coming, she said. \u201cSome people look at it as technology taking over,\u201d Kao said.<\/p>\n On the rise in consciousness regarding recent anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander acts of violence, Kao said campuses across the country are undertaking significant Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, \u201cand for very appropriate reasons, they are focused on anti-Black racism.\u201d What\u2019s next, Kao said, is \u201ctalking about cross-racial solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n In the aftermath of 9\/11, religion scholars were often asked, \u201cWhat does the Koran really say about\u201d whatever topic interested the questioner, Kao recalled. \u201cAs a religion scholar, you want to move beyond that first question to talk about how we build a racially just society.\u201d Now that the national consciousness is being raised, \u201cwhat is next is getting into the messiness, the nuances.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked by Hinson-Hasty to deliver a blessing or charge following the 30-minute interview, Kao turned to \u201cmy shero,\u201d the Presbyterian activist Yuri Kochiyama<\/a>, who made the 1993 documentary \u201cPassion for Justice<\/a>.\u201d Had she lived (Kochiyama died in 2014), Kochiyama, who was interned for two years during World War II, would have celebrated her 100th<\/sup> birthday on Wednesday. Kao paraphrased Kochiyama\u2019s message: \u201cRemember that consciousness is power. Consciousness is education and knowledge. Consciousness is becoming aware. Consciousness-raising is pertinent for power. Be sure that power will not be abusively used, but be used for building trust and goodwill, domestically and internationally. Tomorrow\u2019s world is yours to build.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Grace Y. Kao, a Christian ethicist, says teaching undergraduates for the first time in years has been life-giving<\/p>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":11577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}