Currently, I attend one of the biggest Korean churches on the East Coast but what I saw growing up in a smaller Korean church shaped the way I viewed Christianity. I recently found my way back to church after decades of experiencing faith that was on life support. This is not to single out smaller Korean churches, or churches in general…but it’s just what I saw. Trust me, big churches have issues too (case in point my stripper + church story). One of the defining moments was how I saw the pastor handle a drive-by shooting at the church with my friend as the intended target.

To set the stage, I had a friend who occasionally came by to attend the church. It was mainly because of his niece who he came to see and he usually brought his girlfriend. Really nice girl, not your typical KTown chick I was used to seeing. He and I had dozens of mutual friends so we naturally hung out together outside of church and usually chatted with him after service.

We would drive around in his car smoking cigarettes while his girlfriend patiently sat in the back and listened to us shoot the shit. Who got arrested, who got into a fight, or who is dating who’s ex, who’s pushing any decent amount of weight, etc. Typical KTown crap. Anyways, for some odd reason, he happened to be standing in front of the church with his brother who had come to visit. I was still inside but it was dead time in between services and the building wasn’t as packed.

As he was standing outside, a car drove by that was apparently from a rival Hispanic gang. They saw my friend, did a U-turn, and fired a single round at him as they drove by. If I could describe the church, it was directly next to the street so they apparently were not good shots. Well, I take that back…anyone who shoots guns on a regular basis knows that is hard. Most USPSA competitors would probably not be able to make that shot in a moving car.

Anyways, the bullet went through of the church doors and hit a chair next to the nursery. Yes, a nursery, but it was luckily empty at that time. I was in the dining area and started to make my way back there when I saw the commotion.

My friend had already booked it with his brother because obviously they didn’t want to interact with the cops. You’d be surprised how even smaller city police departments have gang files on juveniles including Asians. But here came the head pastor out to see what had happened. He saw the bullet holes and the first thing out of his mouth was, “we have to make sure the congregation doesn’t find out.”

WTF.

That was literally his first reaction. It wasn’t…did anyone get hurt? Is everyone ok? How much damage was there? Are we in danger? No, it was to protect the reputation of him and his slimy ass church.

I don’t always see eye to eye with my dad, but I agreed with his reaction on this one. He came out and was stunned that no one had called the cops. “We need to call the cops, what on earth are you guys doing?”

Naturally, the cops came and took a report but did nothing else. They asked for my friend who the bullet had been intended for but he was long gone. I’m sure they’ve talked to him many times but not as a potential victim. Their only response was, “yup, that’s a bullet.”

Wow, real life Sherlock Holmes here. I’m not sure which one was more annoying to listen to, the cop or the the pastor.

I wasn’t surprised though, because the pastor had almost been beat up twice by two husbands in the church who claimed he was hitting on their wives. I mean, he was but I’ll save that story for another time.