Build Up Orange County: Korean American Evangelicals and the GOP

Summary

From Instagram reels to megachurch pulpits and the halls of Congress, Build Up Korea’s message is taking root in Southern California. Host Dr. Helen Jin Kim and historian Jane Hong trace this movement back through the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, Korean American churches, Cold War anti-communism, and Orange County’s powerful Republican networks. Along the way, they reveal the pastors, politicians, and translators moving Christian conservative politics between the United States and South Korea. What looks like a new social-media movement is actually the latest chapter in a decades-long story of immigration, faith, race, and political power.

Guest:

Dr. Jane Hong is the author of Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion (University of North Carolina Press, 2019) and a professor of history at Occidental College. Her next book, An Ambivalent Presence: Asian American Evangelicals and the Problem of Race, will be released by Oxford University Press in Fall 2027. 

Host:

Dr. Helen Jin Kim is Associate Professor of American Religious History at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Kim completed her MDiv and PhD at Harvard as a William R. Hutchison Presidential Fellow. She began her research at Stanford where she completed her BA in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and English. Kim is the author of Race for Revival: How Cold War South Korea Shaped the American Evangelical Empire (Oxford University Press, 2022), which won the 2024 Outstanding Achievement in History award from the Association of Asian American Studies. Her next book is tentatively titled ‘Woman Spirit’: Religion and Hidden Labor from the Korean War to the Age of K-Pop.

Brought to you by Axis Mundi Media, K-Spirits is a limited series from the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE) in partnership with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI). It is part of the Under Gods project, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. 

Host: Dr. Helen Jin Kim

Executive Producer: Dr. Leah Payne

Producer: Andrew Gill

Story Editor: Dr. Bradley Onishi

Original Score: David Bazan

Production Assistance: Kari Onishi

Cover Art: Eric Zwierzynski

See also:

• Jane Hong, “What the Election of Asian American GOP Women Means for the Party,” Washington Post, March 8, 2021: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/03/08/what-election-asian-american-gop-women-means-party/
• Jane Hong, Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion, University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
• Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.  
• Janelle Wong, Immigrants, Evangelicals and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change, Russell Sage Foundation, 2018.  
• David Yoo, Contentious Spirits: Religion in Korean American History, 1903-1945, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. 
• Marilyn Strickland’s instagram (@repstricklandwa)
• “The Backstory: Representative Marilyn Strickland,” April 13, 2021:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioqVNg0MARg 
• Derek Tran’s instagram (@derektranca)
• “Meet OC’s Newest Congressmen,” OC Forum, March 5, 2025:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW-z03HCBWQ
• Young Kim’s instagram (@repyoungkim)
• Former congressman Kaiali’i Kahele interviews Young Kim, January 20, 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnuY8KkQ-zo
• Mina Kim’s Youtube channel, “엠킴MKimTV [34%]”: https://www.youtube.com/@mkimtv
• Pastor Sam Kim interviews Mina Kim, “Why America Needs a Prayer Awakening”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iZJFhq83Z0
• Harvest International Ministry: https://www.harvestim.org/
• Che Ahn’s instagram (@cheahn) 
• Jaeseung Lim’s instagram (@paul_jae_lim719) 
• Michelle Steel, US ambassador to Korea: https://kr.usembassy.gov/070726-u-s-ambassador-to-the-rok-michelle-steel/
• Other Korean Americans serving in US Senate and House of Representatives: 
• Andy Kim’s instagram (@andykimnj)
• Dave Min’s instagram (@davemin_ca)
• Dan Koh’s instagram (@danarriggkoh)