Former Army officer Dan Choi has been a vocal proponent of gay rights.
A group of more than 400 Korean American Presbyterian churches have come out in opposition of a recent decision by a national assembly of Presbyterian churches to allow gay members to become ordained church officials.
The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. ruled last May to allow openly gay men and women in same-sex relationships to join the clergy; the ruling went into effect last Sunday.
While some churches have embraced the change, others are standing fast in opposition.
The National Council of Korean Presbyterian Churches, which is comprised of 430 Korean-American churches with more than 55,000 active members, held a three-day conference in June to discuss the new ordinance.
“We would not ordain active homosexuals,” said Pastor Tae Young Ko, the conference moderator and senior pastor at Good Shepherd Presbyterian in Rowland Heights, Calif. “This meeting reaffirmed that the Korean-American community would not support this and we will try to help local churches strongly reaffirm our conviction.”
The Korean American contingent constitutes the second largest ethnic caucus in the denomination.
However, not all Korean-American Christians are opposed to the amendment.
Former Army officer Dan Choi, known for being discharged from the Army National Guard after revealing his sexuality on national television, praised the change.
“I think it’s a great decision by the [Presbyterian Church] and I hope that all other religious denominations will recognize their fellow gay and lesbian congregants,” Choi told the Orange County Register. “Jesus would have us love all gay people and treat them as equal preachers of God.”
Choi, an Iraq war veteran, said he grew up in a strict Korean-American household and his father was a senior pastor in a church in Garden Grove. He said his public announcement in 2009 strained his relationship with his parents and they do not speak to this day.
Some Presbyterian churches have already seceded from the denomination as a result of the contentious verdict.
