A Home Away From Home

The Korean Presbyterian Church of Ventura County is a faded, slightly scruffy old mansion at the corner of 6th and F streets near downtown Oxnard.

Inside, the building seems to list like a ship taking on water. Floors tilt abruptly. Bare bulbs swing from aging fixtures. And narrow corridors lead to hidden alcoves.

But every Sunday the 100-year-old house jolts to life.

Young people huddle in back rooms chatting while children scream and play outside. Women busy themselves in the kitchen shredding cabbage and boiling rice. In all the bustle, Korean and English blend seamlessly.

For this county’s small Korean community, the church is more than a place to worship; it’s a second home, an outpost of culture, tradition and stability in an often alien land. Inside, young people bow to their elders, Korean is spoken, gossip is exchanged and couples meet and get married.

“The church is very important here, a lot of people feel isolated from the mainstream because of cultural barriers,” said June Lee, 29, who has attended the church for more than 20 years. “We want our daughter to know who she is and to speak her language. We want her to understand her grandmother and grandfather.”

John Myoung, 16, moved to Oxnard four years ago from Bellflower, which has a much larger Korean population. His family immediately sought out a Korean church.

“At first I kind of felt left out,” he said. “I am slowly getting to know other ethnic groups, but I feel more comfortable in a Korean church.”

Immigrants Quick to Establish Churches

Wherever Korean immigrants have gone, churches have followed.

There are 3,000 Korean churches nationwide, with about 40% of them in Southern California, experts say. They range from storefront parishes to mega-churches--one in Torrance has 5,000 members. Los Angeles has about 800 Korean churches while Ventura County, with just 3,300 Koreans scattered from Oxnard to Thousand Oaks, has 12.

“Churches have been at the center of [immigrant] Korean society since Day 1,” said UCLA professor Timothy Lee, an expert on Korean Christianity. “Wherever there are 50 Koreans you will likely find a church.”

The Rev. Samuel Kim oversees Oxnard’s Korean Presbyterian Church, which was founded in 1978 and is one of the oldest in Ventura County.

Every Sunday, he stands surrounded by bouquets of red flowers, preaching to a congregation that includes everyone from elderly women in traditional gowns to young men in shaggy hair and sharp suits.

The sermons are in Korean, the prayers are in Korean, the choir sings in Korean and when it’s all over everyone is invited to feast on beef soup, seaweed and pickled radish. There isn’t coffee or a doughnut in sight.

After a recent service, Kim sat at a long table plucking kimchi from a small bowl with his chopsticks.

He quizzed a non-Korean visitor about his religious beliefs, pressing him to join his flock. He tried to sweeten the deal by promising earphones and English translations of the service.

Kim, 46, keeps a tireless pace. He holds daily services beginning at 5:30 a.m. and helps new immigrants adjust to America while trying to keep a second generation from straying from its roots.

“I am first generation,” he said, apologizing for his spotty English. “My brain is Korean. My kids have American minds. In any Korean church you have two groups: the American cultural group and the Korean cultural group. Ninety percent of our church is first generation. They are more comfortable here because the language is in Korean.”

A Religious People Embrace Christianity

There is no simple explanation for why Christianity took root in Korea, where Buddhism, Confucianism and indigenous religions have long flourished. The question was so profound that UCLA started an entire course of study on the subject of Korean Christianity a year ago.

Kim says Koreans are by nature deeply religious people. Like Jews and Christians, Koreans have seen their share of tragedy and persecution. And in the same way, Kim said, they can readily relate to Christian notions of justice, equality and love.

“The Koreans have gone through terrible times in their history,” he said. “Korea was a Japanese colony for 35 years and then they went through the Korean War. Catastrophes fell on us.”

Kim, who identifies himself as a “third-generation Christian,” said another reason for his faith’s popularity may be the generally relaxed attitude that Buddhists have toward other faiths.

“A Buddhist would permit his kids to go to a church, no problem,” he said. “But a Christian believes only Jesus is the way to salvation so they would never let their children attend a Buddhist temple.”

The depth of Korean Christianity is apparent when compared to Asians worldwide. More than 26% of all Koreans are Christians compared with less than 2% of other Asians, experts say.

The first Korean Christians were baptized in 1784 in China, but it wasn’t until the U.S. and Korea opened diplomatic relations in the late 1800s that missionaries began arriving in force.

Christianity in the nation strengthened in 1910 when Korea became a Japanese colony. Koreans were forbidden from speaking their own language and were forced to adopt Japanese names and Japan’s Shinto religion.

The turning point came in 1919 after a mass demonstration against Japanese rule, led by Protestants, sparked a crackdown in which an estimated 7,500 Koreans were killed.

“Christianity grew in Korea partly as a reaction against Japan,” said George Totten III, an expert on Korean and East Asian history and professor emeritus of political science at USC. “As an expression of their own nationalism there came to be ties between Christianity and their own freedom.”

Christianity continued to spread throughout Korea during World War II and the Korean war. As the nation modernized and became an economic powerhouse, Christianity also flourished.

In Ventura County, the first sizable contingent of Korean immigrants arrived in the early 1970s. They founded the Ventura County Korean Tabernacle Church in 1973, which later became the Oxnard Korean United Methodist Church.

“We are the mother church in this county,” said Rev. John Lee, pastor of that church and president of the Council of Korean Churches in Ventura County. “We now have about 150 members. Most are first generation.”

County No Longer Just a Melting Pot

About 60% of Korean Christians are Presbyterians, 15% are Methodists and the rest are Catholic or other denominations, professor Lee said. There are 10 Protestant, one nondenominational and one Korean Catholic church in Ventura County.

Many Koreans in Ventura County own businesses--which often include liquor stores, dry cleaners and doughnut shops. Many, such as John Kim, left places with larger Korean populations for the safety and security of Ventura County.

“It’s much better here,” said Kim, 54, who moved from Cerritos to Ventura. “I can leave my garage door open all night and no one will take anything. But I have no Korean neighbors. I see Koreans once a week--at church.”

Many of those attending Rev. Kim’s church have been coming there for decades. Their children and grandchildren were baptized and married there.

They have also watched the world change around them. They’ve seen an overwhelmingly white county slowly evolve into one in which different cultures and ethnicities have quietly staked their claims to the future.

Dale Park, 67, a longtime church member, says he likes this new world.

“The idea of America being a melting pot is no longer true,” he said. “It is now multicultural. This will make the country stronger.”

Jeff Lee, 32, was one of only two Korean students when he attended Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard. Now, he said, there are so many Asians they have formed their own clubs.

“I feel strongly that we need to know our culture. We need to respect the older generations,” said Lee. “The church is a big part of that, not just for the religion but for the sense of community.”