KCCC—Is it all you imagined it would be?

On Oct. 1, 2009, columnist Rajat Roy’s “Spreading the culture around” boldly asked us to “explain to [him] why over half of [his] student life fees dedicated to clubs are going to groups that invite neither me nor people not of their background to events where I can learn about their cultures?” Naturally, as one would expect from such an accusative article, equal parts hilarity and indignant grumbling ensued. Hanging off the walls, I listened for weeks as members of varied cultural groups scoffed and commiserated about how misguided Roy was—well, about them, at least. When pressed as to whether or not they thought any group resembled Roy’s description, most responded something to the extent of “well, maybe the Korea Campus Crusade for Christ. I mean, how exclusive is that? And they’re total loons as well!”

Implicated a year ago in one confirmed and a spate of rumored exorcisms, often confused with the various local Bible-thumpers and proselytizers, and generally, to borrow another publications description of them, “oft-maligned,” the KCCC gets a bad rap. They have not been especially proactive about responding to this negative press. It’s not that they haven’t thought about it, says KCCC student representative Derek Hou, CC ’10, but usually they find that a response would not be “timely,” or “appropriate,” given the situation. Unfortunately, whatever their reasons for silence, the KCCC is, for many students, as mysterious and cultish as Scientology.

The KCCC, via Hou, tells me they are fine with that situation. In Hou’s words, “we’re a religious student group, … we want to be good stewards … it’s unfortunate that we’re seen that way, but we’ve just got to suck it up.” But I wanted to go past the veil anyway. Unfortunately, things beyond the veil are just as confusing, if not more so, than before it.

To start, the KCCC is not really that Korean. Hou, for one, is Chinese and claims that approximately 25 percent of the membership is as well. Many are of varied Asian descent and some members are non-Asian. In fact, they are considering a name change to reflect their varied composition and distance themselves from the negative connotations of “Crusade,” like Columbia Students for Christ did (formerly the Campus Crusade for Christ, from which KCCC broke over a decade ago to focus on the special needs and culture of Asian immigrants). Additionally, Hou notes, a surprising number of their members are actually agnostic, or “spiritual,” and the bulk of their “evangelizing” is mainly word-of-mouth outreach. As Hou puts it, “There’s only one or two degrees of separation between me and you, so when we go out, we’re trying to bridge that gap,” not to proselytize or hand out Bibles. Hou and his fellows are not nearly so cultish as the campus scuttlebutt so often makes them out to be. If you’re looking for a cult to fear and avoid, though, Hou recommends the Moonies—ironically another small, young and misunderstood religious group who occasionally wander onto campus.

As for the exorcism issue, let us settle that here and now. The KCCC, according to Hou, was not directly involved in the event. The KCCC was aware of “the girl,” but, in deference to her privacy, they chose to keep their peace on the incident and fall on the sword of controversy. As to whether or not the girl was a member of the KCCC, that is hard to say. The KCCC keeps track of the couple-dozen individuals on its leadership board, but, as Hou notes, a fair number only irregularly attend meetings and often float between multiple campus Christian groups.

This point—floating, unofficial members—caught me. Upon further investigation, one may find that CSFC is now registered as an “Epic” ministry organization (“Epic” referring to the Asian American-focused CCC ministries). Additionally, this campus houses the heavily Asian Remnant Christian Fellowship, among other predominantly Asian and interdenominational groups. I understand catering to a cultural need, and certainly these groups turn around and open themselves to the Columbia community as a whole. But much of their programming (heavily sponsored by alumni, in KCCC’s case. Thank you very much, Mr. Roy) is highly redundant. Is there a case for such apparent redundancy in what are increasingly pan-Asian Christian groups, especially given the apparent migratory tendency of their “members”? And, if some services overlap and membership is shared jointly, isn’t that more the point of waste—if not for Columbia, then for alumni—than those points Roy raises? Doesn’t it make it hard to quantify need and properly assign funding? I have no real answers, but it is food for thought, and perhaps by re-centering our focus here, rather than on “KCCC is crazy,” or “clubs are wasting money,” we can actually hope to accomplish something organizationally, financially, culturally, and religiously beneficial.

Mark Hay is a Columbia College sophomore. Unusual, Unseemly, or Unnoticed runs alternate Fridays. opinion@columbiaspectator.com