The Hidden Stories of Burmese American Christians: Understanding their Imagination of Identity

As compared to other Asian Christians in the US, Burmese immigrant Christians are relatively recent arrivals to the US. Their stories are largely hidden and not widely discussed in the emerging field of Asian American contextual theological formations. The aim of this article is, therefore, to unlock the hidden stories of Burmese American Christians and to put their lived stories and unheard voices into the discourses of Asian American theologies. In the first section, the article explores when and how Burmese American Christians migrated to the US and how they imagine their ethnic and ecclesial identities in the US. In the second section, it reimagines how a migration theology of Burmese Christians should embody God’s trinitarian mission of identity, otherness, and reconciliation within the multicultural and multiracial context of the United States.