South Korea's kimchi deficit

South Korea's kimchi deficit
South Koreans' national dish is increasingly made -- cheaper -- in China.
Gregory Rodriguez
November 3, 2008

There's probably no nation in the world more emblematic of the pitfalls and challenges of rapid modernization than South Korea. South Korean society is a caldron of competition and contradiction, caught between respecting the past and striving for the future.

And now it seems this nation -- which worked its way from the Third World to the First World in a single generation, and whose people show the strain by working more hours, consuming more hard liquor, having more sex and committing more suicides than in any other country -- is facing another culture clash between traditional identity and a globalizing world: the kimchi deficit.

It's difficult to overestimate the cultural significance of kimchi in South Korean society. It's the national staple: cabbage fermented in garlic, chilies and vinegar. More than just food to Koreans, kimchi is a cultural icon and a national treasure. In Seoul, you can meander through a museum dedicated to promoting its history and beneficial qualities.

Earlier this year, when the first South Korean astronaut ventured into space, three government research institutes spent millions to develop bacteria-free kimchi to send with him into orbit. "If a Korean goes to space, kimchi must go there too," one scientist told a reporter.

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture threw its weight behind a $40-million public-private campaign to make Korean cuisine as famous as French, Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Italian, and spreading the gospel of kimchi is no doubt central to the strategy.

In addition to establishing Korean culinary schools abroad, the goal is to quadruple the number of Korean restaurants around the globe by 2017.

But last week, a report to the South Korean parliament revealed a flaw in the nation's culinary ambitions: the country's kimchi trade deficit.

It seems that growing domestic demand for cheap, Chinese-made fermented cabbage has led to a 376% surge in imported kimchi from 2004 to 2007. For those three years, South Korea's kimchi trade deficit reached $77.3 million. The national symbol -- what one writer called "the palpable expression of the country's feisty spirit" -- is now more likely to be made in China than at home.

Everyone knows that eating is not just about satisfying a physiological need. It also serves a psychological and social function. Food plays a primary role in how people create and maintain their identities. We define each other by the foods we eat. As one scholar has put it, food binds "taste and satiety to group loyalties. Eating habits both symbolize and mark the boundaries of culture."

But just as much as it binds us to an identity and a place, food is transportable and even mutable. For good and ill, once I find out about your favorite food, I can cook it and eat it myself. I might even put my own stamp on it. I might even sell it back to you. You might like my version better than yours.

In the U.S., ethnic food consumption has risen dramatically over the last quarter of a century. Sociologists disagree about what significance this "internal tourism" has for our society -- does a growing hunger for foreign foods make us all budding internationalists? And if we're eating kimchi, will it, as the South Korean government seems to believe, translate into greater influence and respect for South Korea?

So far, the debate over the cultural consequences of globalization has been primarily about the evils and benefits of "McDonaldization" (stultifying homogenization) or, in novelist Salman Rushdie's term, "chutneyfication" (glorious mixture). But South Korea's concern over its kimchi deficit points to a much more subtle and potentially menacing dynamic of modern life. What happens when that which you consider to be yours exclusively begins to come from somewhere else?

If you think this is a silly question, just remember that it was a feeling of cultural displacement that helped fuel the fundamentalism of Egyptian student Mohamed Atta in Germany. In times of great change, people tend to cling to what they think are the fundaments of their culture and religion.

South Korea's kimchi deficit could point to a future in which we are all acutely aware of how intertwined we are. But it could also presage increased personal confusion, displacement and anxiety, and a provincial cultural retrenchment.

Chinese-made kimchi could carry the pungent smell of a contentious future.

Area Koreans nurture their roots (Minnesota)

Area Koreans nurture their roots
Worship service leads to outreach to community

By Sara Gilbert Frederick
Special to The Free Press

MANKATO — Church was a struggle for Lauren Park.

Although Park, who was born in Korea, had lived in the United States for several years and was gaining more and more confidence with the English language, she had a hard time keeping up during church services.

“Church was almost like an English class for me,” she says. “I had to concentrate so much on the words that it wasn’t very spiritual for me.”

Park’s wish for a sermon in her native tongue coincided with Julie Kim’s desire to maintain the Korean culture for herself and her family. She was born in Korea but grew up in Chicago, as did her husband. Their two children were both born in the United States.

“It’s getting harder and harder to maintain that sense of culture,” Kim says. “Even for me. English is my first language; I’m definitely more fluent in English than I am in Korean.”

Park, too, wanted her children to grow up with a Korean influence. “I wanted them to understand me and the culture I grew up in,” she says. “I try hard to understand them, and I hope that they will be able to understand me as well.”

As the two women started talking about their own needs, they found out about Jonathon Lee, a Korean pastor serving a Methodist church in Le Center. With his help and two other families, they started a Korean church in Mankato in February 2007.

About 30 people now regularly attend that church service, held 12:30 p.m. Sundays at the Centenary United Methodist Church at Second and Cherry streets. Most of the service is in Korean, including the hymns, but a summary of the sermon is available in English as well.

As the congregation grew, so did the opportunities to get together. Many of the adults in the group, for example, began meeting every Friday evening for a Bible study. During that meeting, their children study the Korean language with international students from Minnesota State University.

“The teacher is wonderful this year,” Park said. “She gives a lot of homework. So I love her — but maybe my son doesn’t so much.”

Now they want to share the connections they’ve made to their culture with the rest of the community — especially local Korean adoptees and their families.

“We want to be able to give back to the community,” Kim says. “We have an opportunity to share our culture with those who want to learn about it. That’s a great thing that we can do.”

They started with Korean Culture Night, a celebration of Korean dance, food, art and other cultural aspects held last summer. That led to plans for both a language school for adoptees, which they hope to launch in January, and a Korean Culture Camp tentatively scheduled for August 2009.

The language school will be held on Friday evenings at Centenary. The camp will span three or four days with time to focus on language basics as well as activities such as tae kwon do, Korean dancing and singing, and traditional games and toys. They’ll try to incorporate the culture of modern Korea as well.

“We saw a need for this,” Kim says. “There’s a good number of Korean adoptees in the area, and we know that a lot of them go up to the Twin Cities to culture camps and to find exposure for their families and themselves. We thought, why should they have to go so far?”

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Missions in Crisis

Missions in Crisis
Korean church leaders look back on the 2007 kidnapping that brought Afghanistan ministries to the world's attention.

Interview by Sang-Hwa Lee | posted 11/11/2008 10:02AM

The 2007 Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan was very difficult for the Korean church, but it has not stopped Christian organizations from sending workers to the country. They have come under fire, literally and figuratively, for risking ministry in an unstable and sometimes unwelcoming country.

The hostage crisis was the source of much grief not only for the leaders of the Korean church but also for Christians everywhere. After more than 40 days in captivity and the loss of two of their companions, the 21 remaining hostages were released. Saemmul Church, which sent the kidnapped workers, expressed remorse and has taken a conservative approach to missions since the crisis.

In late October 2008, a South African Christian aid worker was killed on her way to work in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying they tracked and shot her because she was trying to spread Christianity in the country.

Sang-Hwa Lee, an editor of Christianity Today Korea, interviewed two of the key men on the Korean side of the hostage crisis a year later. Eun-Jo Park, lead pastor of Saemmul Church, and Tae-Woong Lee, director of Global Missions Fellowship and Global Leadership Focus, spoke about Christians' attitudes and the anti-missions mood pervading Korean society.

What influence do you think the Korean hostage crisis had on the Korean church and its missions?

Tae-Woong Lee (TWL): After modern missions practices began in 1792, the Western church incurred countless losses. In comparison, we have been doing missions for only 25 to 30 years with much less sacrifice, at least in terms of human life. I think that because we were unprepared and weak, God had been especially protecting us and extending this grace period of sorts.

But the Korean church will run into more and more obstacles in the future, and in such circumstances, we must not abandon our mission or [move] away from sacrifice.

From this perspective, I believe that the Afghanistan situation ultimately will not have been for nothing. It came at an immense cost, but we came away with lessons we could not have learned otherwise. Especially in terms of crisis management, various organizations demonstrated their concern. Also, numerous training protocols came from crisis-management seminars and conferences.

What is at the root of the negative reaction Korean society has had toward the hostage crisis? It might be foolish to ask, but is it "their" fault or "our" fault?

TWL: I think we should not attribute causes of the crisis so simply. We should bear the majority of the responsibility; we were irresponsible and complacent because we thought we were dispensing much more aid and love than other religious bodies. We should have been faithfully and honestly reporting our work to the world.

On a more immediate note, I think that one of the causes of [the hostage crisis] was that the mission was conducted with a crusade-like attitude, despite public disapproval. The fact that [Saemmul's ministry team] ignored frequent media warnings of the dangers of their actions and obstinately conducted their missions, only to be kidnapped soon after, could do nothing but cause grief among the public.

Although we shouldn't worry much about perceptions of us, we can't just demand that others accept actions that clearly lack common sense.

If we lose public support, it might be many centuries before we regain it. In some cases, we must be very careful not to offend, and in some cases, we must have faith and go ahead, even if our actions are unpopular. It's a very difficult decision, surely. However, the church has survived despite constantly having to make such decisions.

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Real missionary work rooted in gospel

Real missionary work rooted in gospel
The Rev. Wally MorrisCharity Baptist Church
Published: November 8, 2008 6:00 a.m. People of Praise

In 1793, 98 percent of Protestants lived in Europe and North America. After 100 years of aggressive missionary activity, by 1900, that percentage had decreased to 90 percent, still very high.

Today, however, Christianity has spread to the Southern Hemisphere, Africa and Asia. Despite persecution, the number of Christians in China and India has grown. In fact, some of the athletic equipment used during the Olympics in China was made by political prisoners and Christians in “re-education” work camps.

Yet, in North America and particularly in Europe, Christianity is struggling to survive as Islam is rapidly replacing Christianity. What Muslims tried to do centuries ago is now being accomplished through immigration and the theological bankruptcy of European Christianity. Islam is growing in Europe because the Christian churches of Europe do not have anything substantial or meaningful to offer people.

Last fall, another man in our church and I went to Africa to visit some missionaries whom our church supports. In that remote location, we saw the hardships of Africans and of the missionaries who bring them the gospel of Christ.

Although missions may include social and medical programs to relieve the suffering of people, basic missionary work must always be the gospel of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Medical missions have a long and noble history of reaching people with the gospel. Christ himself established the precedent for medical missions by his healing ministry.

But too often, social work and construction programs become an end in themselves, and the gospel never seems to get mentioned.

We saw evidence of well-meaning but ineffective social programs in rural Africa, such as the wells and pumping stations that European and American agencies had built but which no longer worked because no one maintained the equipment.

Ironically, North America and Europe are now the mission fields. Many people in our affluent country consider Jesus Christ irrelevant to real life. And the Jesus whom many worship on Sunday (and even Saturday night!) is a Jesus who is basically a glorified buddy, a super-spiritual pal who makes us feel good while we make minimal changes to our life.

In Africa, we saw humble believers in the resurrected Jesus Christ, believers who live simply and sparsely but who also have a dedication to Christ that shames our complacency and excuses.

We saw Christian men walk or ride a bicycle several miles just to attend a Sunday afternoon Bible study. We saw a Christian man, trained as a schoolteacher but, instead, doing simple masonry work because his local village refused to pay him. We saw missionaries willing to invest years of their lives to build a small group of believers so that the next generation will have something to build on.

Too often, missions work focuses on picking up garbage, constructing a building or home, or digging a well. Although in limited and specific circumstances, these may have their place, missions work must always focus on the supreme king of kings and salvation in Christ alone, a salvation that transforms every area of life, thus creating the social change that many try to achieve without the gospel.

Unfortunately, because of skewed emphases, much missions work is hardening people to the very gospel they need to hear. When we went into a village to tactfully and carefully present the gospel, the village elders wanted to know whether we had come to build them a well. When they discovered that building a well was not our purpose, some were not interested.

Although the social and physical needs of people are very real and heartbreaking, those needs are not the most important. We saw villages that had a working well but that also had lazy, abusive men with two or three wives, signs warning about AIDS, and taunting of white people by children. I’ll let you figure out who taught the children to do that.

We saw the simple, mud-brick church, sacrificially built by a small group of African believers. And we also saw the grooves in the outside walls of the church where herdsmen had driven their cattle as close as possible to the wall, hoping the wall might collapse as the cattle’s large horns dug into the walls.

Those Protestant churches that still believe the Bible must instill and inspire our young people to consider missionary work – not the social work that so often passes for missions, but the hard, spiritual work of the resurrected Christ who died on the cross for our wretched sin against a holy God.

That is missions work. Anything else is a shallow and ultimately ineffective substitute.

Southern California's Korean Christians put a premium on evangelism

Southern California's Korean Christians put a premium on evangelism
Missionary work is being underscored as well in South Korea, which surveys say is second only to the U.S. in the number of evangelists it sends abroad.
By K. Connie Kang
November 8, 2008

Visit a large Korean church in Southern California and you are likely to see a distinctive part of the decor -- a world map peppered with markers locating missionaries supported by the church.

At Grace Korean Church in Fullerton, two walls inside the elegant atrium serve as a photo gallery highlighting the work of 208 missionaries serving in 47 countries, including Sweden, Italy, Argentina, Bangladesh, Russia and Vietnam.

"Mission is prayer. Mission is warfare. Mission is martyrdom," reads a bilingual sign on a giant board that stands prominently on the 25-acre campus where a new Vision Center with a 3,000-seat auditorium is nearing completion.

The church, begun with three families 25 years ago in Los Angeles, today has 4,500 members and a $15-million annual budget. Half of the budget is set aside to support missions.

Along with rapid growth, 5 a.m. prayer worship and tithing, Korean churches on both sides of the Pacific are distinguished by their emphasis on evangelism. Surveys have shown that South Korea dispatches more Christian missionaries abroad than any other country except for the United States.

"Some passionate evangelicals even predict that it will not be long before South Korea is No. 1," said Sun Gun Kim, a professor of sociology at Seowon University and an expert on Korean churches.

Christianity, in the form of Roman Catholicism, came to the Korean Peninsula centuries ago. But Christianity really took hold and spread after Protestant missionaries arrived in the late 19th century. The growth continued through Japan's colonial rule (1910-1945), the Korean War and up to now.

South Korea is home to 23 of the 50 largest churches in the world, Kim said. Christians make up nearly 30% of the South Korean population -- 12 million Protestants and 5 million Roman Catholics.

The growth of Korean churches in the United States has also been rapid. An association of Korean Protestant churches in Southern California has 1,359 congregations representing 39 denominations. Many, following the style of most churches in Korea, are adorned with red crosses. Often lighted at night, they are a striking element of the Seoul skyline and a familiar sight in Korean neighborhoods in the L.A. area.

The first time the Rev. Douglas McConnell saw red neon crosses in Seoul's nightscape, he was moved to tears.

"The church had such a significant impact on Korea that the most distinguishing feature of the Seoul skyline were the red crosses on top of the churches," said McConnell, dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.

Missions are central to the Korean practice of Christianity. The Rev. John Huh, a former youth pastor at Irvine Baptist Church who led numerous mission trips, sees a fervor for evangelism among many young Korean Americans. "They may not want to get up for the early-morning prayer, but they love serving on short-term missions," he said.

Tommy Dyo, national director of Epic Movement, an Asian American ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, has seen the same trend. "I am so impressed with the Korean Christian movement," Dyo said. "They are willing to step out in faith and take some big risks for the Lord."

The reach -- and potential perils -- of Korean missionary work garnered international headlines last year, when Korean missionaries were abducted by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Nineteen of the missionaries were released and two were killed.

Ho Chung, a former Garden Grove city councilman and a well-known Korean American community leader, tried to sum up the value of missionary work. Being a follower of Christ, he said, means taking up the cross every day. "Sanctification," he said, "is a continuing journey -- of repentance and redemption."

Election showed nonwhite voters' growing power

Election showed nonwhite voters' growing power
Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, November 8, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama attracted tremendous support from African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans, and the strong turnout among black and Latino voters in key battleground states helped push him to victory, exit polls show.

The prominent participation of nonwhite voters - and their preference for Obama - is a demonstration of the increasing electoral strength of a multicultural America, a potency that will grow in coming years, analysts say.

Political analysts are studying exit polls and voter turnout data from Tuesday's election and beginning to discern who voted where and for whom.

While Obama attracted more support from white voters than did Sen. John Kerry in 2004, he garnered just 43 percent of the white vote while drawing almost all black voters and 2 out of 3 Asian and Latino voters, according to CNN exit polls.

"The playing field of presidential politics has changed," said David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a research center in Washington focused on the African American electorate. "There was a great deal of discontent with the state of the country and the economy; that was a big part of it. But this was a historic occasion with Obama being the first black major-party nominee."

Obama inspired African Americans to vote in record numbers this year, and analysts believe that will continue as more closely contested elections in Southern states are likely to keep black voters engaged. And the growing political muscle of Latino and Asian voters signals that, after decades of robust immigration, immigrants and their children and grandchildren are becoming full participants in the American political process.

All three groups turned away from the Republican Party definitively this year.

"That's something that should be very concerning to the Republican Party: They are losing support from both Asians and Latinos, the fastest growing population groups in the country," said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of political science at UC Riverside.

If Republicans can't regain their appeal to those groups, they might become a party of white voters in an increasingly minor role, said several analysts.

"The tenor of the Republican party's rhetoric (on immigration) was clearly a turnoff," said Gregory Rodriguez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. "We know the electorate will become increasingly nonwhite. Presumably Republicans will go back to trying to be 'big tent' Republicans, because if they want to resurrect the party, they can't be the white party."

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In 2004, an estimated 2.5 million Asian American voters went to the polls. This year, that proportion of the electorate remained steady at a bit over 2 percent, said Ramakrishnan, but just as turnout increased for all voters, it did for Asians as well.

"Not only is the Asian population growing, we'd also expect turnout to increase," he said. "As immigrants stay longer in this country, they're more likely to become citizens and vote."

The big story about Asian American voters, he said, is that they are shifting dramatically and steadily toward the Democratic Party. Sixty-two percent voted Democratic this year - double the rate in 1992. And they had a role in handing two closely contested states to Obama: Virginia and Nevada.

The fact that Americans of every race and ethnicity are celebrating Obama's victory, Rodriguez said, "puts an end to the idea that the emergence of nonwhite Americans will somehow veer America away from what we know it to have been."

Churches Reach Out As County Diversifies

Churches Reach Out As County Diversifies
New Congregations Entice Immigrants

By Patricia M. Murret
Gazette Staff Writer
Thursday, October 23, 2008; Page GZ05

Three years ago, José Mercado was a businessman attending Grace Community Church in Virginia, where he led a small Bible study group. He loved his church, but praying there did not always come naturally.

"The hardest thing for me to do in English is pray; it's extremely hard," Mercado said. "It's something that comes so deep from [within] you that your language just wants to be part of the flow of it."

So when church leaders approached him about a possible pastoral calling, the Puerto Rican-born Mercado said he would like to lead a church of Spanish-speakers.

Grace Community Church and Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, a congregation with more than 3,000 members on Muddy Branch Road, sponsored Mercado through pastoral college. Last month, the congregation helped him found Iglesia Gracia Soberana, a "church planting" three years in the making.

As Montgomery County's population changes, Christian churches are adding facilities and reaching out to the international community and immigrants in various ways, church leaders and observers said. According to 2006 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the county's population is about 14 percent Hispanic and 13 percent Asian. An abundance of new faces from West Africa, South America, Asia and other parts of the world signifies for some a chance to spread the Gospel.

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New Covenant Fellowship Church, a nondenominational evangelical Christian church on Waring Station Road in Germantown, was founded in fall 1990 to reach out to immigrant Koreans and the community at large. Nearly 20 years later, the church still holds services in Korean and English.

"Just like any other immigrants in the past, there's a language gap between the first generation, second generation, third generation and so forth," said Senior Pastor Jamie Kim. "But by providing different services in different languages, they can still come and share the common background that transcends language."

For many immigrants, the church becomes "almost like a community center," Kim said. "We not only keep our identity as Korean Americans, we can foster the sense of community where they can belong and kind of share common history, culture, background, tradition."

Asian Americans Feeling the Power

Asian Americans Feeling the Power
Ethnic Groups See Opportunity to Affect Outcome of Presidential Race in Va.

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 21, 2008; Page B01

Asian American voters in Virginia, highly organized and registered in record numbers, have become energized by the presidential race and the role they see themselves playing in this tightly contested state.

"This is the first time I've seen multiethnic coalitions forming around an election. The margin is razor-thin in Virginia, so we could still be a swing vote," said Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive director of SOS Boat People, a nonprofit group in Falls Church and a center for get-out-the-vote efforts, including phone banks and weekend canvassing. "Asian Americans realize this election is their opportunity to really get noticed."

According to leaders of the large, affluent communities of Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans and Indian Americans in Northern Virginia, sentiment among those groups favors Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), although Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) enjoys a core of loyal support among older Asian refugees who suffered at the hands of communist regimes.

There are more than 160,000 Asian American citizens of voting age in the state, and an aggressive registration drive is adding several thousand voters. Partisan activists and public interest groups said Asian Americans could play as important a role in this national election as they did in the 2006 Senate race in Virginia, when they helped Democrat James Webb, a Vietnam war veteran, defeat incumbent George Allen.

"Our community once shunned politics, but now the younger generation is very involved," said Il Ryong Moon, a Korean American lawyer and Democratic politician in Fairfax County, who remarked that many Asian Americans feel that Obama will "open the door" to minorities. "Virginia could be the state that decides this presidential election, and Asian voters here could determine its fate."

In Virginia and many other states, considerable attention has focused on the potential impact of African American and Hispanic voters on a historic and divisive presidential contest that includes the first-ever African American nominee and second female vice presidential nominee by a major party. Both groups are expected to favor Obama.

The nation's fast-growing Asian American population of nearly 15 million has been often overlooked as a political factor, even though in some states a higher percentage of Asians than Hispanics are U.S. citizens who can legally vote. Asian American voters also have a track record of high turnout in elections.

In Virginia, for example, the Hispanic populace, at more than 250,000, outnumbers Asian Americans. But most Hispanic residents are relative newcomers and a minority are U.S. citizens. By contrast, more than half of Asian American residents in the state are U.S. citizens of voting age. African Americans are by far Virginia's largest minority group. In 2006, blacks accounted for 19.9 percent of the state population; Hispanics, 6.3 percent; and Asian Americans, 4.8 percent.

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Korean Church's Relocation To Centreville Causes Unease

Korean Church's Relocation To Centreville Causes Unease

Residents Fear Traffic; Worshipers Feel Less Than Welcome

By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 11, 2007; Page C03

With kimchi and steaming cabbage soup for 1,200 in the kitchen on Sundays and an influential evangelical preacher at the pulpit, Korean Central Presbyterian Church seemed to have it made.

As the spiritual home of more than 4,500 Korean Americans, the church has prospered for three decades on a dozen acres shoehorned into a corner of Vienna.

Now it is preparing to move to Centreville, where it will construct the second-largest church in Fairfax County. It will break ground this month on a sprawling worship center with a school and two sanctuaries totaling 2,100 seats.

The move has prompted an emotional debate in Centreville, where the Korean population has greatly grown in the past five years. And it has peeled back the cover on the discomfort that some longtime residents experience as immigrants pour into and transform the county. Nearly one in four of the 1 million residents is foreign-born.

Barber Nick Xereas points across the street to one of several strip shopping centers dominated by Korean businesses in town. "I talk to people, and they don't feel comfortable, especially when they see all the name changes to Korean," he said. "This is America; it's not Korea."

Xereas shook his head. "This area has changed too much."

Opposition to Korean Central Presbyterian has also come from civic groups, the county's building department and residents concerned about the growth of an immigrant population expected to follow its church west.

"We've got other large places of worship in western Fairfax, and they operate like really good neighbors there, but this one we just thought was too big," said Ted Troscianecki, president of the Western Fairfax County Citizens Association, which represents 50 homeowners and civic associations. It opposes the church out of concern over its impact on traffic and the environment.

Church leaders and members say they are trying to assuage the community's misgivings. But, said senior pastor Danny Ro: "I'm sure some of the people are still concerned. It's not like 100 percent of the people are welcoming us."

Launched 34 years ago by members of the first wave of Koreans to reach the Washington area after immigration laws were loosened, the church -- a member of the conservative wing of the Presbyterian Church -- attracts diplomats, students and members of the prosperous Korean middle class.

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