Mihee Kim-Kort
Mihee Kim-Kort is an ordained Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister and serves as co-pastor with her spouse of First Presbyterian Church in Annapolis, MD. She is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at Indiana University with degrees in divinity and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary and English Literature and Religious Studies from the University of Colorado-Boulder. She juggles various other jobs, including raising three children, itinerant preaching and speaking, writing, hanging out with young people, struggling with being an Enneagram 7, and trying to maintain some semblance of sanity.
She is the author of two books, Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith and Making Paper Cranes: Toward an Asian American Feminist Theology and co-authored Stories of a Clergy Couple in Marriage, Family, and Ministry with her husband, Andy Kort.
Born in Seoul, Korea, she and her parents immigrated here shortly after her birth. Settling in Colorado, she was baptized in a Methodist church before her family joined the local Korean Presbyterian (PCUSA) church. It was here that she learned the faith from an African American man, who was a respected Elder and teacher in the church, and from a little old lady that was the wife of the former pastor of the white Presbyterian congregation that shared the building with the church.
She says: "In all times, the Church, whether the local church or the seminary, gives me hope. I don't understand it most days, this hope, how it comes from something that seems so fallible and imperfect, but I do know in my bones and cells that it is because God is present there in the places that I least expect and always, in those places that are the most human. It's these places and people that teach me to keep hoping, keep looking, and keep showing up, and that always stays with me."
A FEW OF MIHEE’S TOPIC
“Making Paper Cranes”
Based on my first book, I talk about Asian American Feminist Theology, and how it is relevant and applicable to the wider faith community? I share stories about Asian American struggles and identity, feminist theological narratives, and a theology of the body, presence, and Holy Spirit, and what it means to do this work in solidarity with other people of color theologies.
Keywords: Asian American, Holy Spirit, feminism, identity, church
"Purity Balls and American Exceptionalism"
What does purity culture have to do with US national identity? Looking at the phenomenon of purity balls, which were debutante-style, coming-of-age parties for mostly adolescent daughters centered around virginity, I explore how purity is not simply about gender or sexuality, but about race, too. In academic-style that is accessible and interesting I offer a way to think about how religion and the secular are inseparable, and why it is important as the church to engage in these questions.
Keywords: purity, evangelical Christianity, gender and sexuality, race, justice, secular
"Outside The Lines"
How do we live our faith outside the lines of category and definition? I share stories -- personal, historical, cultural, and theological --- about the boundary-breaking love of God and what it means for us as followers of Jesus as we try to work and move in meaningful ways through this world.
Keywords: Hospitality, Solidarity, Mutuality, God's Kingdom, The Woman at the Well, (Queerness, if applicable or desirable)
VIDEOS OF MIHEE KIM KORT
