He is an ordained Southern Baptist minister. He is the kind of evangelical I do not wish to be connected with but he is a brother in Christ no matter how differently our faith informs our daily lives.

He is also the kind of evangelical I want to ignore but Mike Huckabee, who is still vying for the GOP nomination, doesn’t want to be ignored. He wants to draw attention to himself, and last night, instead of respecting and honoring the Imago Dei of the “other” he revealed what is truly in his heart and made me check mine.

During the democratic presidential debates Huckabee tapped “tweet” on this gem:





To put that tweet in context, Huckabee, shortly before stereotyping Koreans with the tired but apparently still useful dog-eating comment, tweeted “Racism exists because we have a sin problem in America, not a skin problem. #DemDebate”

Well, Mr. Huckabee. Your sin is showing.

And by the 7,155 “likes” on your racist tweet about Koreans, America’s sin is showing.

Huckabee and everyone of his followers, supporters, and tweet-likers and I actually have something in common. We all were created in God’s image. That is why Huckabee’s tweet makes me angry – the deep in my soul and speed to my fingers on a keyboard anger. I am tired of powerful, loud white brothers in Christ belittling me and others who stand with me.

I am tired of people like Huckabee and his supporters, especially if they are sitting in the pews of an evangelical church on Sundays, thinking it’s ok, it’s just a joke, it’s appropriate to make a mockery of another person and their personhood. Koreans are not sitting around all day long breeding, beating, and eating dogs. Koreans are actually fairly intent on sharing the Gospel with the world. Koreans and Korean Americans are actually praying for the country’s unification, which is why adding “North” to the Korean designation doesn’t make it ok, Huckabee.

And I’m angry because as soon as you experienced some push-back, some public commentary that called you out on your sin issue you doubled-down. You didn’t apologize. You didn’t listen. You didn’t learn. You can still do that, even while live-tweeting.

Huckabee, you blamed the poor liberals. You claimed you were tweeting about a brutal dictatorship. You did what too many leaders do when shown their own sin issues. You puffed up your chest and pointed a finger.

You are a Republican. I am a Korean American. We are both created in God’s image. I’ll be honest. Your comment was racist, and last night your comment made it more difficult for me to trust other white Christians.

Racism is a sin issue because Christians like you want to ignore the Imago Dei, the skin and humanity, of people like me.