Ethnic Celebrations and American Identity

This paper is on the religious discourses of Korean American Protestant churches and their roles in forming Korean ethnic solidarity. The strong influence of immigrant Christian churches on Korean immigrant lives and communities has received attention from scholars in diverse disciplines. I am concerned with the religious meanings that church leaders have produced within Korean immigrant churches; for example, they have tried to make legitimate biblical settings for and religious explanations of Korean national history and immigrant experiences. These religious discourses have contributed to the establishment of Korean ethnic solidarity among Korean immigrant Christians and to the maintenance of Korean ethnic churches. Pursuant to that goal, my paper made a case study of the commemorative Centennial Celebration of the Korean American church, which was held in LA in 2003. Commemorative events or festivals serve as crucial places for participants to manifest and establish their public memories. Plans for this Centennial Celebration were initiated by church leaders and the Christian Herald, a leading Korean American Christian magazine in Los Angles. Christian leaders in Los Angeles were motivated by a desire to assert consent from all the generations and denominations for maintaining Korean American ethnic churches. Based on these intentions, this event showed how religious leaders and participants tried to build their common immigrant stories by honoring their church founders in Korea and in the United States. Especially photo collections displayed during the celebration aimed at tracing Korean American histories back to their mother country through religious commonality. Furthermore, messages delivered in the festivals mediated the immigrant generations and the American-born generations and illustrated how they projected the future of Korean Americans as the central minority in the United States rather than as a marginalized group by promoting “Korean Exceptionalism” based on their strong background of Christianity.