by Deepa Bharat
Associated Press
The Rev. Kyunglim Shin Lee, associate dean of international relations at Wesleyan Theological Seminary, poses for a photo in the chapel at Washington Theological Seminary, Thursday, March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
When Pastor Kyunglim Shin Lee was ordained in 1988, it angered her in-laws for violating long-standing Korean cultural values that were subordinate to women’s roles in society. Even her husband, a pastor, told her he understood intellectually, “but his heart couldn’t take it.”
The reactions broke Lee’s heart—and strengthened her resolve. Today, she is associate dean for international relations at Wesleyan Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.; has traveled to 60 countries as a seminary ambassador; and served as interim senior pastor at a Korean-American church for 11 months. During the journey, she imagined herself as a speeding train.
“People either have to get in the car or get out of the way,” she said. “Once I’m sure God can use me, no one or anything can stop me.”
Lee’s success story is rare in the Korean-American church field, where women are rarely seen in pulpits. At a time when women make up about 20 percent of Protestant pastors in the U.S., Korean-American female pastors still struggle to gain recognition in their own house churches and often end up in leadership positions elsewhere.
Women like Lee who have broken barriers in these fields remain pessimistic about the speed of change and worry about the resilience of patriarchal attitudes even among second- and third-generation Korean-Americans. They say church presbyteries and pulpits need more representation to promote equality and provide role models for young women considering ministry, but achieving this cultural shift has proven to be a daunting challenge.
The Rev. Young Lee Hertig, executive director of Asian Christian Innovation Spaces, which supports Asian women in ministry, said that gender equality in Korean-American churches lags far behind churches in South Korea. South Korea has more female lead pastors, she said, “because when it becomes mainstream, the culture changes faster.”
“Of the Asian-American churches, the Korean-American churches are the most patriarchal. …Things should have changed by now, but they haven’t,” Hertig said.
Male domination in traditional Korean society has its roots in Confucianism centuries ago, when women were subject to the authority of their husbands and fathers and were in many ways barred from participating in public life. Grace Ji-Sun Kim, a theology professor at the Institute of Religion in Earlham, Indiana, said many immigrants from South Korea still hold such beliefs, especially as the church has been slow to embrace equality.
“It’s hard for Korean women to be ministers because they have to obey men,” she said. “(South Korean) men have a hard time listening to women because this sense of superiority is ingrained in them.”
Pastor Janette Ok, an associate professor specializing in New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary and pastor of Ekko Church, a non-denominational church in Fullerton, Calif., agreed that “representation matters.”
Growing up in Detroit in the 1980s, she was fortunate to be a role model, where she saw a Korean woman lead her church in English services every Sunday—without realizing at the time how unusual that was.
“I watched her give sacraments, give blessings. I still have pictures of her sneaking around in bucolic robes,” Ok said. “Without her example, I would never have imagined that I would be a pastor.”
That woman was Pastor White Mary. Now retired and living in Hawaii, Paik said she was only hired as a last resort because the male applicant’s English was not good enough. As a 30-year-old unmarried female pastor, she received “a lot of strange looks”.
The male elders of the church patronized her and treated her like a daughter, while some younger men flirted with her or refused to recognize her. Many older women seem to find her presence incredible.
“But some young women stood up straighter because I was there,” Bai said. “They feel good about it.”
She has seen some progress. The Presbyterian Church (USA) formed a group for the denomination’s Korean-American clergy in 1991, when there were only 18 members. 150 people today.
“When I started this, I was alone,” Bai said. “There are other women now talking to each other and sharing their struggles with each other. As long as we do it together, it’s bearable. We do it not because it’s easy or difficult, but because it’s a mission.”
But Ok said that while more people are in ministry now, most will end up serving in mainstream or multi-ethnic congregations rather than Korean-American churches.
“There’s a feeling I love my house church and I don’t want to give up my family community,” she said. “But they didn’t affirm that I was the leader. It was heartbreaking.”
Ok’s own church is predominantly Asian American, but not particularly Korean. A few years ago, she served as interim lead pastor for nine months.
“I was worried that people would leave because I was a woman, but they didn’t,” she said. “It’s very encouraging. Change doesn’t happen overnight. You have to create paths and pipelines.”
Soo Ji Alvarez had a similar situation. She grew up in a conservative Korean immigrant church in Vancouver, British Columbia, without a female pastor, and is today the lead pastor of The Avenue Church, a multi-ethnic Liberal Baptist church in Riverside, California.
She said leaving her home church was not intentional, but a natural occurrence, and she accepted her pastoral position as a role model.
“For me (as a woman of Korean descent), leading a congregation is a big deal,” she said. “I hope I can pave the way for others to know it’s possible. Ministry should be like any other profession – your race or gender shouldn’t affect your chances.”
As for male pastors in Korean-American churches, Kim, on the one hand, expressed anger that so many were silent on the issue: “They feel that fighting social justice issues shouldn’t be the church’s business. But to me, it’s God’s work. This is important, necessary work.”
But Lee’s ordination was distasteful to her family, who said she was glad to see some male pastors welcome women to the pulpit — as her husband eventually did.
Pastor John Parker, who leads Numa Church in Buena Park, California, is one male pastor who embraces this ally. He called on men to make a conscious effort to empower women, citing the Bible in the words of the apostle Paul: “There is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
“The Bible is clear about equality,” Parker said. “But it’s an internal struggle in our community. We’re fighting our own past.”
