Many of the Korean American ministries are student-run, Kim says. Services are only in English. Locally ordained pastors offer input and support, but the groups lack the professional staff members and national infrastructure of an organization such as InterVarsity. The second-generation Korean Americans come from middle-class, predominantly White neighborhoods.
They do not intentionally exclude non-Koreans from their ministries, Kim notes, but they gravitate to one another because they have such similar life experiences. And in a Korean-dominated fellowship, they don’t have to deal with negative stereotypes or even simple cultural misunderstandings that would occur in a predominantly White organization or even a multiethnic one. They use certain Korean phrases and share jokes unique to the culture that might not necessarily be understood by other Asians.
Understanding the religious mores of Asian American students is not only key to understanding culture, Kim writes in her book, but foreshadows “what is to come in broader society” in American religious institutions as well as in daily life.
--Lydia Lum
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