Review of: God and Karate on the Southside
God and Karate on the Southside: Bridging Differences, Building American Communities. by Joseph Yi (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009)
Review by Mark Redhead (formerly California State Univ . - Fullerton)
Contrary to popular opinion, conservative Protestant churches, especially new line ones can be a source for developing a politics of inclusion rather than one of fragmentation. This is one of several provocative themes Joseph E. Yi develops in God and Karate on the Southside: Bridging Differences, Building American Communities. Like so many other democratic theorists, Yi is a modern day Tocquevillian, concerned that American democracy has become plagued by atomization and a lack of trust between communities. What makes Yi’s book unique is its distinctly non-liberal approach to this problem combined with a focus on two divergent forms of secondary associations, evangelical churches and karate clubs.
Yi sees an emerging appetite for liberal political theory in general and late 20th century multiculturalist rhetoric in particular among educated Americans. This has fostered a culture of individual choice and collective indifference while “the decline of traditional, Protestant-oriented civil society, and the rise of institutions promoting individual autonomy and cultural diversity, reinforces the trend of educated persons to sort themselves along specialized, homogenous groupings (20).” Given this reality Yi turns to two institutions as potentially sources for revitalizing democracy, the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) and Tang Soo Do (TSD) karate clubs both which he became intimately familiar with during his studies at University of Chicago (referred to here as “Midwestern University”). Yi’s focus is on the strengths of these associations as bonding (creating strong ties among members) and bridging (creating ties among individuals from divergent social backgrounds) institutions involving members of the University community and residents of South Park area of Chicago where the University is situated. South Park is not unique; there are a number of working class areas that surround seemingly insulated elite academic institutions. Hence it provides an ideal setting for an empirical project such as Yi’s that seeks to make larger conceptual arguments.
The strongest section of Yi’s book is the middle chapters, where Yi presents an extensive ethnographic study of the role both a local chapter of the ICOC and a local TSD club play as bonding and bridging institutions. This work relies on extensively cited interviews of actual members of both organizations as well as Yi’s own first hand experiences in each. Yi also supplements his work on the ICOC with data from the general social survey (GSS) on religious affiliation and practice so as to tease out a broader set of claims about new-line fundamentalist churches like the ICOC as well as the Catholic Church. Yi’s scholarship is refreshingly open minded and reflective not only on the limits of liberal political discourse but on the limits of his subjects themselves.
The book is well worth reading for those who hold out hope that America’s supposed culture wars are not as intractable as they seem. Readers learn how the actions and some times non-actions of groups like TSD and ICOC can contribute to potentially more inclusive public spheres in which citizens can engage in healthy forms of contestatory politics, necessary for a vibrant practice of democracy.
**Note: This review was previously published in the November-December, 2010, Christians in Political Science Newsletter. Professor Redhead passed away in 2019.
