Having said that there clearly are traces of ultra-dogmatic Adventism within the Korean Adventist community that is caricatured in the show. But like Zane said, the traces of that is found throughout Adventism. (Besides, the authorities that are invoked by these ultra-dogmatic Adventists in all cultures is usually Anglo American Adventist leaders!) And I think for the most part the show does a good job of showing that it’s not the Korean-ness that makes the Kim family weird, but it’s predominantly the Adventist-ness.

I think the Kim family could easily have been White, Black, or Latino, or Native American, and the caricature would’ve worked just as well—or poorly.

Korean churches, for the most part, as well as most ethnic churches, seem to operate fairly independently of direct conference supervision (due to language/culture), and are therefore more susceptible to certain types of theology and their expression.

For example, where I grew up, a lot of the young adults and youth leaders were very influenced by the theology coming out of an independent institution that was purportedly Adventist, but not really run by the Adventist church.

To the lay person, this is all very hard to differentiate, as everyone seems to be quoting Ellen White and certain sections of Daniel and Revelation. All of it is experienced as “Adventism.”

The eastern part of the US, particularly the Northeast, seems to be heavily influenced by Adventism of the “historic” stripe.

The west, less so–much more “evangelical.”

This is probably a gross over-simplification, and I think things are changing, so I stand to be corrected…

Also, I’m following your lead and starting a blog of my own. It won’t be anywhere near as provocative and academic as yours, but I hope you don’t mind me listing you as a friend and fellow blogger.

The type of Adventism described here is mostly alien to me–my family never adhered to regulations with such a vengeance. I’m sure it happens though. Have you noticed a tendency towards very strict Adventism within the Korean community?

As to your comment on Adventism’s us vs. them mentality, I think the tension between our Christianness and our Adventistness is a healthy one to maintain and an over-emphasis on one leads to loss of our historic identity.

Did Helen mention anything about why the SDA’s in Gilmore Girls worshiped on Sunday? If she wanted to point out the quirks of SDA’s that seems to be a big one.

Also, it seems that from its beginning Adventism fostered an us versus them mentality. The concept of needing to come out of Babylon was a part of the preaching of many Millerites. In fact, after the Great Disappointment each splinter group began to accuse the others of being Babylon. These tendencies seem to be a part of SDA’s even to this day (i.e. Reformed Adventists, Historical Adventists).

Thus, it seems that the desire to be separate and different than the world is ingrained both in our history and our theology. So my question is, is that desire unbiblical? Is that a tendency that we should fight? Do we, like Mrs. Kim, need to be re-educated?