Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in hate crimes targeting the Asian American community in the United States. Despite some decline in the overall amount of hate crimes in the past few years, anti-Asian slurs and violence continue to rise, especially since Donald Trump won the presidency in the 2024 election. In response to one notable case of anti-Asian violence, the Atlanta spa shooting, an incident in which the murders were motivated by both the racialization and the historical sexualization of Asian American women, pastors of Asian American churches seemed to vary in their response to the acts of violence depending on their own gender identity. This paper aims to explore the empirical question of how specifically Korean American women pastors approached preaching and providing pastoral care following such acts of hate crimes against Asian American women.
Previous scholarship regarding Korean and Korean American women’s ordination and their roles in the church have largely been centered around the challenges these women faced when it comes to acquiring leadership positions. The dominant literature specifically highlights how Confucianism has contributed to the patriarchal and hierarchical system that continues to oppress women in the Korean, and subsequently Korean American, culture (Son, 2006). In addition to naming sources of oppression, there has been work that describe the reality of underrepresentation of Korean and Korean American women’s leadership in churches by providing statistical analysis of how many approve of such leadership based on denominations and how many women actually hold leadership positions, although these numbers are not current and require an update (Min, 2008). There has also been work done to hear from the Korean and Korean American women pastors themselves, such as ethnographic research interviewing Korean women leaders or collecting accounts from these clergywomen about how they came to be in their leadership roles (The Holy Seed, 2010).
This work, as an expansion of the work that has come before, seeks to use a practical theological approach to investigate the lives and experiences of the Korean American women pastors to excavate how they are impacting their congregations in the current day. The research will draw from a range of seven to ten preliminary interviews with Korean American women pastors to investigate how having Korean American women leaders ultimately helps shape the theological and political subjectivities of their congregants. Further, by demonstrating how the theological and political aspects of the congregants’ lives are actually intertwined, this research will explicate the concept of theopolitics, as presented by William T. Cavanaugh, to exemplify how pastoral leaders are uniquely positioned to mobilize their congregants both in their religious and civic participation. Additionally, this paper will borrow HyeRan Kim-Cragg’s concept of interdependence, naming it as a strength that these Korean American pastors bring to their contexts. The new findings of this work will provide a deeper understanding of the dynamic between women pastors and their congregants, which then can help churches develop new strategies to empower and motivate their community towards civic action.
Bibliography
Cavanaugh, William T. Theopolitical Imagination. 1. publ. London: T & T Clark, 2002.
Kim-Cragg, HyeRan. Interdependence: A Postcolonial Feminist Practical Theology. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2018.
The Holy Seed of Calling : Korean-American Clergywomen’s Journeys toward Ordination. (S.l.: S.l. : National Association of Korean-American United Methodist Clergy Women, 2010).
Min, Pyong Gap. “Severe Underrepresentation of Women in Church Leadership in the Korean Immigrant Community in the United States,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47, no. 2 (2008): 225–41, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00404.x.
Son, Angella. “Confucianism and the Lack of the Development of the Self Among Korean American Women,” Pastoral Psychology 54, no. 4 (2006): 325–36, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-005-0003-0.
Yu, Jung Ja Joy. “Empowering Women’s Leadership Models and Spirituality: Ethnographic Research on First-Generation Korean Immigrant Women Leaders in North America” (ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019).
The recent landscape of politics in the United States has further marginalized communities that were already vulnerable based on their identities. One notable example is the significant increase in hate crimes targeting the Asian American community in the United States following the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to explore the empirical question of how specifically Korean American women pastors approached preaching and providing pastoral care following such acts of hate crimes against Asian Americans. The research will draw from a range of seven to ten preliminary interviews with Korean American women pastors to investigate how having Korean American women leaders ultimately helps shape the theological and political subjectivities of their congregants. The new findings of this work will provide a deeper understanding of the dynamic between Korean American women pastors and their congregants, which then can help churches develop new strategies to empower and motivate their community towards civic action.