When Akiko Rogers sat down for our interview at the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley, California, she placed a packet of tissues on the table between us. I thought maybe she had a cold. But Rogers knew she was about to tell a story that would bring her, and me, to tears.
Akiko Rogers knows what it feels like not to belong. Growing up in Cerritos, California, as a mixed white Japanese American, she didn't feel like she fit in anywhere. Like so many young people, she turned away from the beliefs that had guided her family for generations. Little did she know that years later, she would find the sense of belonging she sought in her home temple of the Buddhist Churches of America.
When Rogers grew up, there were four generations of her family close by. “My great-grandmother used to have me doing Buddhist bowing and offering at home,” she remembers. “Buddhism was so engrained in their lives that it happened naturally, not just at church, but as an integral part of Japanese culture.”
Read Full Article »