Understanding Korean society and politics [2/3]
.
The religious landscape and politics in the
Korean society
The 2012 Machael Sandel lecture at Yonsei University, Seoul
He later reminisced
it was like the Athens gathering at the pantheon.
Prof. Michael Sandel, the author of “Justice”,
had “an unforgettable experience” when he made lecture in June 2012 of Seoul. The
tickets had been sold out readily and the organizer had to turn back many
young students, who couldn’t even get the ticket from the scalpers for the debate event held at the outdoor theater in Yonsei University. The heat of the debate
with the mostly young audience of fifteen thousand didn’t show the sign of subsiding
until it got completely dark in that balmy evening of early summer in Seoul.
The surge
of public attention on the issue of justice could well be ascribed to the
growing criticality of the “wealth redistribution” issue as their economy was bustling
through the corridor of middle-income countries towards the other end, but a certain
outcry for recalibration of the social justice could be heard as early as 20
years before the Sandel lecture at Yonsei. In 1992 a troubadour named Handol
released a song that had an unlikely title 조율,
pronounced Jo-Yul, which can be translated “Recalibration”. The song pleaded
the Heaven God, Haneul-Nim, to wake up from the deep sleep and recalibrate the
society, which had long gone astray. Apart from the message he wanted to carry,
the song-writer reminded many of the oldest Korean faith like a shaman invoking
the spirit of a god long forgotten.
The Hananim Faith, the Korean
monotheism
We
don’t know why, but almost always left out in the literature dealing with the
religions in the Korean society is the Hananim faith. Nothing would be more
helpful to get the grasp of the native deity than to know how the early
missionaries that visited Korea in the late nineteenth century found the
Hananim faith of the Koreans.
“Each religion furnishes its share to
the mythology of the country. At the head of their system of belief is Hananim,
whom the Chinese recognize as Shangti.[] Many would introduce as next
inferior to him Buddha (indeed, some go to the temples upon the death of a
relative to pray the Buddha to send his spirit to the good abode). Then come
the ten judges of hades, whose pictures may be seen in Buddhist temples.”
-Every-day life in Korea, published 1898, Daniel Gifford, P. 88-89
[] Shanti is the pronunciation of the Chinese word 上帝, which literally means 'Emperor above' or 'High Emperor'.
“Strange to say, the purest religious
notion which the Korean today possesses is the belief in Hananim, a being
entirely unconnected with either of the imported cults and as far removed from
the crude nature worship. This word Hananim is compounded of the words "
heaven " (sky) and " master," and is the pure Korean counterpart
of the Chinese word " Lord of Heaven."[] The Koreans all consider
this being to be the Supreme Ruler of the universe. He is entirely separated
from and outside the circle of the various spirits and demons that infest all
nature. Considered from this standpoint, the Koreans are strictly monotheists,
and the attributes and powers ascribed to this being are in such consonance with
those of Jehovah that the foreign missionaries (Protestant) have almost
universally accepted the term for use in teaching Christianity. The Roman
Catholics have adopted the term Chun-ju, a pure Chinese word of the same
significance,[] but open to the same objection, namely, that it was used long
before Christianity came, and may therefore be called the name of a heathen
god. But while in China it has been found that idols exist bearing the name
Chun-ju, the Koreans have never attempted to make any physical representation
of Hananim. He has never been worshipped by the use of any idolatrous rites, and
the concept of him in the Korean mind is, so far as it goes, in no way
derogatory to the revealed character of God himself. It is a moot point whether
the Koreans consider the physical heavens to be the person of this god. Some of
the more ignorant ones will deny that he is invisible, and point to the heavens
in proof of their statement ; but they attribute to him a fatherly care of
mankind in sending sunlight and shower, and a retributive power in striking the
wicked with lightning or other disaster.“
-The Passing of Korea,
published 1909, Homer B. Hulbert, P.404-405
[] “lord of Heaven” here is the translation of 天主, the Chinese word the Catholic created for the Chinese. It was not a common word the Chinese had used in their everyday life. They used 上帝 Shanti for the being.
Nobody knows when and how the Hananim faith was born at first, but many interpret the “Hwanin” 桓因 in the founding legend is the transliteration of Hananim. The being of Hananim is still alive in everyday life of Koreans. Modern Koreans mention Hananim as lord of the afterworld, to whose side all men return to when dead, and as the god of justice, who never fail to punish the wicked. Perhaps it may be unqualified as religion because no one worships the god, no temples or churches were ever built, no gathering ever happened for the being.
[] The idioms Koreans say in daily life
using ‘Hananim’ or ‘Haneul’ include the followings translated word for word: " Hananim, please stop!!", common exclamation at the sight of the unexpected accident or catastrophe like 'Oh, no, Jesus!!', “He
is ignorant how fearful Haneul is!”, when the wicked does the evil deed not
afraid of the punishment of Hananim. “Hananim
(or Haneul) is so mindless.”, When the wicked gets away with bad deeds or when
the drought gets unbearably long for farmers. “The punishment from Haneul is
waiting for him.”, as a curse for the wicked. “She is in Hanul (Hananim) nara.”
or “She went to the side of Hananim.”, or “He got the call from Haneul
(Hananim)”, all meaning they passed away. “I will see you again in Haneul nara.”,
saying farewell to the dead. The
idioms are in
Korean in the order of the enumeration above: “하나님 맙소사!", 하늘
무서운
줄
모른다!”,
“하늘(하나님)도
무심하시지.”,
“천벌
받을
놈!!”,
“그 분은 하늘(하나남)
나라에
계세요.”,
“그 분은 하나님
곁으로
갔어요.”,
“그는
하늘의
부름을
받았어요.”,
“하늘나라에서
다시
만나요.”.
The most important aspect in the character of Hananim would be that the
god is fair to all people and He does not ask to be worshiped, nor He rewards
the worship to Him. It is like a citizenship given to you as long as you are born human
and willing to stay human regardless of your loyalty to the being. It is a being
of parental nature for all. He cares for all not for any compensation. Most
Korean people, unless otherwise oriented, believe that they will go to a good
place after life as long as they have lived righteously and beneficently. So, Hananim
can be defined as God of Justice and Beneficence, whose hand works
indiscriminately. The existence has always resided in Korean mind making
the undercurrent, faring and scraping with the religions it
would come across down the aisle of history.
The chronicle of the religions in Korea
With the practice of the indigenous shamanism popular
among the common people throughout their history, the Buddhism has accounted
for the longest period as state religion and then as common people’s faith until
it came across the Christianity, Catholic and Protestant, in 19th
century. Today, Buddhism, Protestant church and Catholicism make the mainstream
religions in the Korean society while the shamanism is being practiced by
professional shamans (Musok-in) or by the people sporadically. The religious
chronicle would look like the following roughly:
-5C Shamanism, Ancestral worship
5C
– 14C Buddhism as state religion
(Period
of Three Kingdoms to Koryo Dynasty)
14C -19C Buddhism and shamanism coexisting with
Confucianism as state ideology (Joseon
Dynasty)
19C -present Christianity, Catholic and
Protestant,
coexisting with Buddhism and Shamanism
Shamanism
The most frequently
excavated relics in the ancient Korean sites are the bronze mirror along with
the dagger, which may suggest the theocratic nature of the rulers in the
ancient Korean society. Though the role of the royalty as secular ruler seems
to have been separated from the shamanistic practice from the early years, the
ritual for the Heaven was served as late as in the time of Koryo Dynasty
(918-1392). Yet the shamanism is still
alive in everyday life in Korea. The Korean shamans, called Mudang,
usually claim to represent a certain god or spirit, which can be a mountain
spirit or a spirit of a dead. They become Mudang at first suffering the “spiritual
sickness” that comes to a person, usually woman, like a destiny. Many confess the
only way to get out of the sickness was become Mudang through the ritual of receiving
the spirit in the person, called Naerimgut. After the rite they live their life as fortune
teller and spirit medium.
Apart from the modern-day professional shamans, the belief in the nature
gods is still in practice by the common people. Everything has a soul. The
ritual for the god of place, or Gosa, is still being served by
Koreans. When they open a new business or move to a new office, it is not rare
to see the executives in business suit bowing on the floor to the sacrifice as
colleagues are watching by. When they buy a new car, they don’t go to Mudang,
or Buddhist monks. They serve a gosa ceremony themselves, bowing to
the car and offering the traditional wine Mageolri. Those practices are
indigenous to Korean culture and have nothing to do with the imported
religions.
 |
| Gosa, ritual for the god of place, is being held in celebration of the opening of a new restaurant in Seoul. Many would feel insecure in the corner of their mind if they don’t serve the ritual when they open a new business or move to a new office. |
[]
According to the Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, Garak ( Gaya ) States 三國遺事 駕洛國記, the first Buddhist monk
accompanied the queen-to-be in 48 AD on her way to see the first king Kim Suro
of 金官伽倻 Geum-gwan Gaya. A small
pagoda 婆娑石塔 that she is said to have brought
from her place on the ship, made of a stone only found in India, is still kept
near Busan. Several temples that claim to have been built by the accompanying
monk are scattered around in the southern part of the peninsula. There are even
record on the Chinese side that the Buddhism came from Korea. 『山海經』 第18 海內經. 東海之內 北海之隅 有國名曰 朝鮮天毒 其人水居 偎人愛之 [朝鮮 今樂浪郡也. 天毒卽天竺國 貴道德 有文書金銀錢貨 浮屠出此國中也] Translation:
[[Shanhai Jing]] In the East Sea and in the corner of North Sea is
located Joseon. People live by water and they respect and love each other. [
Joseon is now the Lolang* area. They take ethics preciously, they have script,
books, gold, silver, coins and paper bills. Buddhism came out of this country.
] * Here Lolang樂浪 is assumed Chinese
bìngyīn 倂音 for the Korean word 나라 pronounced “nara”. [ … ]
part is an editor’s note by 郭璞 Guo Pu (276–324). The
original Shanhai Jing is ascribed to 3–4C BC.
It seems
that Baekje (18-660 AD), one of the Three Kingdoms, took the religion as state faith
as early as 5th century and propagated the religion to Silla and to
the Archipelago to be called Japan later. Since then, the religion from India stayed
as the official and mainstream faith until the end of Koryo Dynasty (918-1392),
for a period of about millennia. During
the time of Joseon Dynasty (1393-1910) it was repressed by the ruling literati
class, who were the fanatic followers of the Neo-Confucianism, and the social
status of the Buddhist monks were placed on par with the lowest class along
with the Mudang. Yet it stayed popular among the common people, especially with
women regardless of the social status. Many court ladies stayed fervent
Buddhist.
Buddhism sees the human as living in the Saha World 사바세계 娑婆世界 , the world of confusion and suffering, that comes from the human desire, delusion and hatred. It is only through realizing in you the state of selflessness that you can get the “awakening” and then you can become another Buddha to be free from Karma, the vicious circle of living the Saha World life after life. It asks people to live righteously and beneficently, so the philosophy of the Buddhism did not scrape with the indigenous Hananim faith of Koreans. In fact, the character of Buddha was compatible with Hananim in that the being does not ask for worship. The worshipping is only voluntary. It just suggests the way to get over the pain of life. And the eternal life of freedom and bliss is reachable by way of self-edification and restraint to get the “awakening”, not by acts of worshipping.
Apart from the Buddhism as philosophy, the religion also served as faith for blessing both for the state and individuals. It was when Koryo was invaded by the Mongols in 13th century that the Tripitaka, the Buddhist canon comprised of eight thousand woodblocks 팔만대장경, were made in the wish to get over the national tribulation with the power of Buddha. The Tripitaka had been regarded as the most precious treasure in the circle of the Buddhist countries in East Asia before the arrival of modern times.
 |
| Mothers praying for their child and grandchild to get the best result in the college entrance at a Buddhist Temple in Gangnam, Seoul (Photo by BBS, Buddhism Broadcasting System) |
The
Buddhism as faith for blessing also went hand in hand with the shamanism. Many
temples had Chilsung-Dang, Shrine for Seven Stars, a place for shamanistic
worship of the celestials, so that women could pray for their wish not only to
Buddha. Buddha only cared for them to be happy and it was in line with the
image they had of Buddha. The blending with shamanism shows well in the names
of many Musok-in (shamanistic fortune teller), who more often than not carry
the title Bosal, which means Bodhisattva, or the awakening seeker.
Given the length and depth that the Buddhism had in the Korean society, it would be only natural that Buddhism left a great impact in shaping of the Korean mind. The primary attitude Koreans look at others is that of compassion, 연민 pronounced Yeonmin, that they are all human comrades going through this Saha World together in the same confusion and pain. Others are as miserable and pathetic as I. That explains the important Korean sentiment called “ Jeong” or 정. They build up strong ties of attachment with the colleagues or neighbors who they spent years together with. Their attachment out of the Korean “jeong” would feel naïve and pure, excessive in some cultures, but if you understand the emotion stems out of the philosophical compassion embodied in the Korean mind, it would come much easier to apprehend. They are not stingy in giving help to total strangers in need either. Foreigner visitors often experience cool hospitality from Koreans in a manner unexpectable in the culture he or she is from. They don’t expect any reward. They just turn back after giving and go their way, thinking you would do the same to others in the next life, if not in this life.
The Christianity, the way it came to Korea
The
Roman Catholicism began to be known to the Korean society as early as in the
beginning of the 17th century by the people who returned from the
trip to China, but the diffusion of the new faith began in the late 18th
century by Koreans, who came back from Beijing as faithful Catholics. The
numbers of the Catholics reached thousands only through the network of Korean
believers, with no official church, when the first persecution was made in
1801. The early Korean Catholics were drawn to the idea of all people being
equal before God. They refused serving Jesa, the ritual of ancestry worship,
posing a great threat to the social order of the neo-Confucianism the leadership
of Joseon Dynasty cherished and imposed. It was after several persecutions, many
a martyr and a military attack from France that Joseon Dynasty lifted the
repression on the Catholicism in 1880s when the yet Confucian leadership
apprehended the political situation Korea was laid in where the repression
could be neither wise nor sustainable.
 |
The statue of the first Korean Catholic Priest and Martir Kim Dae Geon (1821-46) was dedicated in St. Peter Cathedral in Vatican in September 16 of 2023. |
[] Yonsei University is regarded as one of the two best private universities in South Korea along with Korea University, which was founded by Koreans. With Seoul National University, the three universities are often referred to as SKY, taking the initial from the three, as most coveted schools in Korea, like Ivy schools in USA.
In
terms of proselytization the Protestantism was much more successful than the
Catholicism despite their late arrival. It is known there were about one
hundred thousand protestants in Korea by the time the country went under Japan
in 1910. There were about four hundred thousand when Korea was liberated in 1945. It should be noted that the Protestant church was more successful in
Northern part, especially in Pyong Yang, than in the South before the division.
It could be because the northern part of Peninsula had been lesser beneficiary
of the Joseon regime than the south, making the departure from the old order
easier, or it could be because of the inherent cultural openness of the
northern people, who might have preserved more of the Nomadic temperament inside
than the southern people.
Some of
the critical differences between Catholicism and Protestantism in Korea should
be noteworthy here. Though Catholicism had started quite prohibitive of the
traditional practices such as Jesa and ancestral worship under the initiatives
of the early grassroot believers, the Roman Catholic church grew quite lenient,
even receptive of the traditional family rituals. The laborious recitations for
the dead in the Catholic portfolio of regimented rituals made the people less
guilty about not serving Jesa. In contrast the Korean Protestant pastors chose
to demonize those practices as idolatry quite stridently, which many church-goers
took as faithful to their belief. Some aggressive Protestant pastors even labelled
the Catholic as heretical for their leniency on the traditional practices on
top of the worship of Maria they condemned as idolatry.
Another difference was in the adoption of the name of the God. As soon as the American missionaries began the evangelizing activities, they took the Korean native word Hananim almost right away. The question arose to some whether it was ethical to use the proper name of the Korean native deity in place of Lord, Father or Jehovar, but the argument for the practical benefits in propagation from the familiarity of the name to Koreans prevailed, so the first hymn songs and Protestant Bible in Korean used the name Hananim, as most Koreans pronounced at the time, from the beginning.[] The Catholic churches on the other hand inherited the expression Cheonju 天主, that the Chinese Catholic adopted in direct translation of ‘Lord of the Heaven’. They also thought using the proper name of the Korean native god was not appropriate. It was only in 1977 that the Korean Catholic church adopted the pure Korean expression Haneu(l)-nim 하느님 in a slightly different pronunciation from that of the Protestants.
[] Horace Underwood was one of the early missionaries against using “Hananim” in lieu of Jehovah. According to the memoir ‘Underwood of Korea’ by his wife, Lillias H. Underwood, he thought to use the native name “Hananim” in lieu of Jehovah was as inappropriate as to call Jehovah Zeus in Greece because they could differ in nature. It could be a blasphemy to call Jehovah by other name than His own, too.
Intended or not, as result, the native name of the indigenous Korean monotheistic god, in the two ways most commonly pronounced, was taken up by two branches of the Christianity. The problem is that the nature of the native Korean god Hananim is not always compatible with the God of Christianity. The troubadour who called out to wake up Haneul-nim in his song “Recalibration” was trying to arouse the native god of justice as a solution to the loss of the indiscriminate justice and the moral chaos in which the Korean society had fell into, having forgotten where it came from. []
[] The video of the song "Recalibration" sung by singer Han Young Ae is available at this end of this article with the lyric translated.
Protestant
Churches under the Japanese rule
Though the Japanese were not friendly with the missionaries, the colonial situation would not work disadvantageously for the Christianity because the tribulation Koreans was undergoing could be easily likened to the biblical ones, the Babylonian Captivity and the Israeli sufferings under Rome, resonating with many Koreans. The Protestants were in the forefront of the national resistance against the Japanese rule in the beginning of the Japanese rule. Almost half of the 33 signatories for the Independence Declaration in 1919 was Protestants. However, the Protestant leadership went down the full spectrum of political stance as the Japanese grip of rule tightened towards the Pacific War. Around the end of the colonial period the Protestant pastorship, which now was led by Koreans, became the most proactive collaborators to the Japanese imperialists. They voluntarily carried out the campaign to donate the church bells to the Japanese military. They collectively bowed to the Shinto shrine and joined the ceremony of Japanese Shinto baptism under the oath of accepting the Japanese Supreme God Amaterasu. Some female Christian leaders encouraged the women to join the volunteer labor corps 朝鮮女子勤勞挺身隊 for the glory of the sacred Emperor. [] And all those opportunistic pastors and Christian leaders were to make the political base of the Rhee Syngman government after 1948 and flourish as social leaders.
[] Especially the Pyong Yang Presbyterian Church officially endorsed the Shinto shrine bowing in 1938 against the protests of some pastors, who were arrested by the Japanese police. The Korean Presbyterian church deprived the pastorship of those who refused to join the Shinto ceremony.
 |
| <Left>Two fighter aircrafts were named Joseon Presbyterian 朝鮮長老號 and Methodist Church 監理敎壇 respectively in recognition of the contribution the churches made. <right> Korean pastors in the Shinto baptism ceremony called Misogi Barai 禊拂い dedicated to Amaterasu. To be baptized in the name of the pagan god means apostasy from the viewpoint of the Christianity. They had signed the oath of loyalty to the Japanese God before the ceremony. They don’t look that much in distress. |
The Korean Catholic church was led by the foreign priests for the significant part of the colonial rule and the French bishops had been not that supportive of the resistance activities, most likely under the guideline from Rome. Korean priest, Noh Ki-nam, became the bishop for the first time in 1942, but during the four years under him, Korean Catholic church was not that different except that they were not so proactive as their Protestant counterparts and they didn’t participate in the baptizing ceremony of accepting the Japanese god.
The politicization of the Protestant Pastors
in modern Korea
The
history of the Christianity in the West couldn’t be discussed without its engagement
in politics. It is not a rare thing to find in the introductory stage of a
religion in the East either. The introduction of the Buddhism and of
neo-Confucianism entailed the political conflicts in Korea too, though
short-lived with much less severity. But what sets the Korean situation apart
today is that the politicalization of the religious body is way removed from the
teachings of its original faith and that they are at the forefront of the
political bipolarization of the Korean society, producing the political catchphrases
and demonizing their opponents, brandishing their ostensible liaison with the
overseas religious ally, especially in USA, potentially undermining the country’s
ability to set up its course of the social development and to achieve the best
national interest out of the complicated
international conflicts and opportunities.
Looking
back on the Korean history, the corruption of the religion led to the politicization
of the faith and vice versa, while the politicization often took place in
liaison with the foreign power. The archetypal case of politicalization of the
religion can be found at the end of Koryo dynasty in 14th century. Under the
rule of Mongols, many monasteries converted to the Tibet Buddhism, which was
inclined towards the pursuit of blessings and superstitious practices, and
became more blatant in accumulating the riches emboldened by the political protection
out of their exclusive liaison with the Mongol court in Beijing.[] Their
political connection with the foreign power worked as enabler of their
corruption. From the viewpoint of the foreign power the corrupt religious
counterpart was a useful window for the exercise of their political influence. The
corruptions of the Buddhism led to the rise of the neo-Confucian literati class
and to the founding of the Joseon Dynasty in 1393.
[]
The Empress Ki (1340-1369) of the Mongol empire in China was Korean.
The
sowers of seeds of terror in the modern-time Korea
In South Korea, the political scene was
always bi-partisan from the beginning. Right after the liberation, the
political picture was Rhee Syngman vs. Kim Gu. Both were exiled leader of the independence
movement, based in different countries, Rhee in the USA and Kim at the Interim
Government in Shanghai. They knew each other personally from the years of the
independence activities.
Rhee
Syngman, the graduate of the Mission school in Seoul, got the college education
at Prinston. It was during this time he gained the personal acquaintance with
the 28th US President Woodro Wilson, who was the president of the
university when Rhee got the PhD. He was a remote relative of the royal family of Joseon Dynasty, so in the early stage of the independence struggle his such status was special for his colleagues, for whom the country they were fighting to get back was Joseon.
On the other hand, Kim Gu was from the grassroot. At his age of 19 he fought in the Farmers’ Rising 東學革命 of 1894 as commander in charge of thousands of farmer soldiers under him. Six feet tall with a wide shoulder, he was not just a big man physically by the standard of his time. He was an outlier in his vision into the future, way beyond the reach of his human contemporaries. Kim Gu wrote in his diary published later that his only wish is to make this country a beautiful one with the high power of the culture and nothing other than the power of culture can bring the peace to the mankind. He thought Korea was the country with that power.
After the
Liberation, the Korean Protestant churches continued to cooperate with the
power in reign, being the first one to spring out to endorse the new power in
the name of Jesus. Like the way they did during the Japanese occupation, the Presbyterian
church became not just one of the key political bases for the regime of Rhee
Syngman, but its aggressive vanguard that prioritized the
anti-communism over the unification and even over the lives of the common innocent people. Throughout his struggle as independence
fighter Kim Gu showed the clear anti-communist tendency and tried to keep his
organization cleared of any communist influence. Yet he was nationalist and he
did not hesitate at the slightest chance for the unification of the country through
conversation with the North until he was shot down in his house by a terrorist in
June 1949. The assassin was a military officer, Christian born in Pyong Yang, a
member of Northwest Youth Association 西北靑年會, whose connection with
Rhee was never revealed, but who was pardoned by Rhee and reinstated in the military later, then he made a fortune as
a purveyor to the military. It was the first physical terror in the history of the
modern Korea after Liberation.
The biggest tragedy in terms of fatalities since the Imjin War 壬辰倭亂 with Japan in 1592 took place under the Rhee regime. The massacre in Jeju Island, called 4.3 incident, left the fatalities over thirty thousand, many of whom were children and young mothers, during the seven years of 1948 to 1954, under the flag of anti-communism. [] The vanguard force of the massacre was the band of young Christians mostly from Pyong Yang area patronized by the Pastor Han Kyung-Jik.[] They were not police, nor military, nor voluntary vigilantes. They were just untrained mob protected by the Rhee government who found the civil organization with no accountability handy to use in the island then secluded from the international attention under the war situation. They were also unpaid, so they had to extort money from the people by forcing the purchase of the national flag or the photo of President Lee. Pastor Han later talked about the band of young Christians from Pyung Yang area, 西北靑年會 Northwest Youth Association, proudly that the youths from his own church took the central role in organizing the youth body that helped eradicate the communists in Jeju. He never once apologized for the use of the untrained and unrestrained violence that unfairly ended the lives of thousands of innocent people, while the Democratic camp holds the memorial service for the innocent people sacrificed in the tragic massacre carried out under the flag of anti-communism on the third of April every year. Those mourning the gratuitous deaths are called Red 빨갱이 or Communist by the rightists.
[] The Fatality counts vary from fifteen
thousand to eight thousand. Prof. Bruce Cummings of Chicago University argued
at the forum held in 2016 that the Jeju governor reported to the US military the fatalities
having reached sixty thousand by 1949 and said the total fatalities during the
whole period could come to eighty thousand out of the three hundred thousand
population of Jeju. The force of South Labor Party, the Communists, was also responsible for about 15% of the fatalities according to the government investigation report made in 2003.
[] He once regretted participating in
the Shinto shrine bowing ceremony under the Japanese rule. After Rhee, he was
the first to endorse and pray for Park Jeong Hee and later for Cheon Doo Hwan,
who committed the Gwangju massacre, also called 5.18 incident, responsible for
six hundred fatalities in 1980, in the course of taking power after the
death of Park Jung Hee.
[]
In 2011, the supreme Court of South Korea officially nullified the original
verdict of death penalty on Cho at the retrial, and acquitted him of the
charge. The US Embassy report made in 1958 mentioned of the charge,” On
basis available information Embassy believes purported evidence against Cho is,
at best flimsy and that arrest and reported confession is administration
attempt to discredit Progressive Party.”
[] The former President Kim Dae-jung became the victim of the judiciary terror on the charge of the infliction of the National Security law, and of the physical terror under Park Jung Hee. Only the US engagement saved his life. Noh Moo-hyun became the victim of the political prosecutors right after his Presidential tenancy under Lee Myung-bak on charges designed to disgrace the great man. The current President Lee Jae Myung once carried total six charges under his belt, one of which was about the remittance to North Korea, for which the prosecution failed to produce one single evidence. The prosecution indicted the wife of Lee for embezzling the paramount value of 70 USD after more than one hundred sorties of search and seize, which means that the court had granted the warrant that many times studiously until the prosecution finally came across a discrepancy in one of her casual restaurant bills for a meal with her colleagues. The attempt for the terror to take the life of Lee was made in early 2024 while Lee was the chairman of the opposition party and the likely next President. The site for the assassination attempt was wiped out within 30 minutes after the incident by the police. The investigation didn’t progress after the person who drove the suspect to the site was a member of a church in Busan, the pastor of which was one of those outright opponents of Lee. Once in a public speech after the impeachment of Yoon, the over-politicized pastor said, “the country can survive only when Lee Jae Myoung die.” His name was mentioned by the Vice President of US at the meeting in Washington DC with the prime minister Kim Min-Seok in January 2026.
Protestantism and Politics
Not
all Christian Pastors were rightist. Under the Japanese rule, many pastors
refused to participate in the Shrine bowing. And in the struggle against the
dictatorship under the streak of the iron fist reigns of Rhee Syngman, Park Jeong-hee and General Cheon, the dissident pastors spearheaded the movements of
resistance and protest with the Catholic priests. Reverend Moon Ik-hwan of the Presbyterian Church was the
symbol of the resistance against the authoritarian administrations, which took
the advantage of the division of the country to maintain their power. Most of
the political conflict within the Korean society at those times were about how
to look at the North Korean regime. The nationalist camp tried to contact the
North Koreans to seek the conciliation and peaceful relationship to pave the
way for unification. The rightist administrations punished any contact with North Koreans under
the National Security law. You were charged as spy and for being communist once
you have contacted the North Koreans. Your passion for the unification was a
crime. []
[] Often those dissidents were labelled as anti-American. Actually, they turned anti-American under Chun’s dictatorship. The incident of the occupation of the US Cultural Center in Seoul 1985 by the dissident students was made in protest for the US endorsement of the military coup by Chun and acquiescence of Kwangju massacre of six hundred fatalities he masterminded.
 |
| Reverend Moon delights as he meets his cousins greeting him at Pyong Yang airport on the day marked in the photo. Reverend Moon spent 12 years out of his last 18 years in prison on the charge of espionage and infringement of the National Security law. |
The political conflict of the Korean society out of the Japanese rule came partly from the failure to hold those collaborators responsible for their deeds. Most the Christian pastors favored by Rhee Syngman were pro-Japan in the past, and now they became vanguard of the Rhee regime under the flag of anti-communism. The same happened in the non-religious fields too. Most of the detectives, policemen and military officers continued to work under the Rhee administration, even some notorious collaborators. The skills of torture and manipulating the charges were carried over to the police and prosecution bodies of the Rhee Syngman regime along with the colonist attitude of the judiciary in dealing with the people. Those who flourished under the Japanese occupation flourished under Rhee while most of the independence fighters and their children outstripped under the Japanese rule kept living impoverished in their liberated country.
Expansion and
vulgarization of the pastorship
The nationalist camp sees the overall nature of the Rhee Syngman regime as anti-democratic, using the anti-communism as tool of repression. On the other hand, from the rightist perspective, South Korea could remain in the free world fighting away the communist campaign to redden the whole peninsula thanks to Rhee. The two conflicting views are still persisting in the Korean society.
Rhee stepped down
from the Presidency and took exile in Hawaii in April 1962 after the big
student rally against the manipulation committed across the country in the
Presidential election in March 1960 so blatantly that the first rally of
protest happened in the afternoon of the election day. After some brief
political chaos, General Park Jung-hee appeared in front of the public as new
leader after the first military coup in May 1961.
Opinions on Park Jung-hee vary among the people. But even those who criticize him for the destruction of democracy for the military coup he committed in the course of seizing power and the abolition in his later years of the democratic election system to elongate his power, generally recognize the great achievements he led in the economic development during his extended tenure of 18 years as national leader and President(1961-1979).
 |
| Newsweek Cover of July 9, 1951 and of June 6,1977 |
And it was during the this time under Park Jung-hee that the explosion of pastorship took place, not because of his any support for the religion, but in an unexpected side effect of one of his measures for education. His administration set up the nationwide qualification test for college entrance in1969, wherein roughly half of the applicants passed, the other half failing, to prevent the deterioration of the quality of the high education. For many who failed at the test, the seminary schools were the only option to save face in their town. Most seminaries, not being registered as college, didn’t require the applicants to pass the test. The new seminaries opened here and there to meet the sudden increase in demand for the pastorship course. There were a couple of denominational theology schools which required the qualification for college study from the anticipant students, but even those accepted the students through the back door, because they couldn’t fill the capacity with those college-qualified and it helped financially. To this day the schools have refused to disclose the list of the graduates despite the repeated demand from the alumni to tell the bogus graduates. Those pastors are now in their mid-sixties to seventies, forming the most influential and politicized generation of pastors in korea.
The plethora of pastorship triggered a fierce competition. Small churches in the third or fourth floor in the neighborhood commercial building with less than twenty regular attenders became a normal scene. Then, there appeared the savior to those small churches on the line of extinction. Coming into the 1970s Pastor Cho Yong Gi of Full Gospel Church, the biggest Church in Korea, began to give out the materialistic messages to his followers. Quite bold messages such as “a poor Christian is not a good Christian” could be heard from the church pulpit while the verse "Store up treasures in heaven" (Mathew 6:20) became one of the quotes most frequently cited in the sermon. Especially his bold demand for the tithe as the duty of all believers not only made his church rich, but encouraged the small churches to do the same making the survival easier to attain on the tiny congregation.
Park Jeong Hee was not a Christian himself, rather inclined towards Buddhism, but the economic prosperity he brought provided the soil for the expansion of the Protestant churches too. Many pastors who came out of the period of Park’s administration was able to make middle-sized churches, and out of them would come outright political pastors notorious for their vulgar and violent speeches. Pastor Jeon Gwang-hoon, who is often called derogatorily Panty Pastor for his 2006 speech mentioning the underwear of the female followers while talking about their loyalty to the pastor. It was not a joke and it was made on the pulpit. He also said the blasphemies on the God as if He is under his command. Regardless, his church kept growing amidst his eccentric behavior and speech of blasphemy. Now, he is one of the two most politicized pastors in the Korean society. He sponsored many political rallies openly making political speeches in vulgar words in front of the crowd of mostly elders. []
[] As of the time of this writing, he is
in jail for instigating the mob who attacked a court building in the aftermath
of the Yoon’s arrest for the charge of the insurrection.
Why do they shake the Stars and Stripes?
You may have seen the strange scene of the mostly old crowd holding the American flag with the Korean one in political rallies. They are the rightist rally with most of the crowd mobilized from churches, the flags handed out to the people by the organizers, who are usually the politicized pastors.
![[서울=뉴시스] 리투아니아교황대사 정다운 몬시뇰과 만난 종지협 지도자들과 운영위원들 (사진=한국종교지도자협의회 제공) 0224.05.29, photo@newsis.com *재판매 및 DB 금지](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYdsEYqYq1BbxO3wfhGKNeSsSnmZk4E1S0_kxEbhiR21A9wR8CRoU4hznjQVkEz76FRfm9q0dmkWm4Zl0hcWi9vc5PCwo26445gjEjCtOi5-QLrgikCSDy1gp9q7NnN0q10ay6qh7fATLdfDJjtaNZb2bJpd0eZ4N9-2j-NVDfEHRBWN3vs_HAX83pIiY)
The religious leaders from seven religions in South Korea
including the Protestantism, Catholicism and Buddhism, posed together after
finishing the philgrimage event held in May 2024 in Lituania, Europe.
South
Korea is a multi-religious society. And no one religion is close to the
majority while half of them are non-believers. The Constitution of South Korea
stipulates the principle of separation of religion and politics out of their
historical lesson and for the sake of security of the society where the gaining
of dominant power by one specific religion would shake the social stability in
their religious landscape. The harmony and cordiality among the different religions
had been relatively well observed under Park Jeong Hee (1962-79) and the
succeeding five presidencies down to Noh Moo-hyun (2003-2008).
Then it
was from the time for the electoral campaign for the next presidency after Noh
Moo-hyun that the outright political intervention of the Protestant pastors
came back. The politicized pastors influenced
the convention held in 2007 to elect the party candidate, openly and under the
board, and played decisive role in making Lee Myung-bak President eventually in
2008. It is believed that it was from this time the religious bodies influenced the political party by way of secretly registering their church attenders as party members. The undesirable practice would be repeated in the next Presidential elections with the rightist party by various religious bodies including the Pseudo-Chritianity churches claiming New Messiah, such as Shincheonji Church of Jesus (SCJ) and Unification Church.
When Lee
was finally elected as President, the movement called New Right came forward to
reorient the whole society in favor of the Christianity. They had the
revisionist view on the period of the Japanese occupation. The collaboration
with the Japanese was nothing to find fault with because they were legally
Japanese citizens during the colonial period. [] They wanted to regard the launch
of Rhee Administration in 1948 as founding a new country and wanted Rhee
Syngman to be called the founding father of the country. So, to them South
Korea was a whole new country founded under the whole new spirit, so now South
Korea has nothing to do with the North Korea and the history of the time when
Koreans were non-Christian shouldn’t mean much. They didn’t like to see the
statues of King Sejong and General Lee Sun-shin at Gwanghwamun square. They
wanted to set up the statue of their founding father there. They just stopped before
declaring South Korea was Christian country founded by the Christian founding
father.
[] Japanese never took Koreans as Japanese legally. Schools in Korea were segregated and the only university in Korea had the quota for Koreans at a level less than 20 %. Discriminations were semi-official in bank financing and business licensing by nationalities.
The
political base of Rhee Myung-bak was the protestant Christians from his years
as mayor of Seoul. He dedicated the city to the Christian God (using the term Hananim
of course) while being its mayor. His such act was unthinkable in the Korean
society of the time and was unconstitutional too. Given that, it is very likely
he did that as a pledge of his loyalty to the New Right, who in turn promised
the support to him for his ambition for the Presidency. When he became the
President, there took place a boom of dedication of cities and counties to God by majors and heads of local government.
The
interest of the New Right didn’t stay in reorienting the thoughts of the
people. They were quite adroit in the opinion manipulation in the digital
environment of the social network. Many secret offices were in operation filled
with PCs and the keyboard warriors funded by the New Right force with the tithe money. Lee fell so
much for the piquancy of this unethical and insidious operation that he
expanded the stealth units to almost all arms of policing and intelligence
including KCIA, National Police and even in the military during his Presidency.
He served time for the abuse of power for the foul play.
The rally of protesters organized by the rightist block condemning the impeachment of Former President Yoon, using the Stars and Stripes for the intended effect of presenting their opponent as anti-American. They started to use the American national flag in 2016 at the rally from the time of Lee Myung Bak’s Presidency.
And it was during his tenure that the street
rally came to be more organized with the addition of the Stars and Stripes.
Since the time of the liberation, the street rally used to be the resort for
the democratic camp while the military force, prosecution and the judiciary
were the means in the hand of the rightists. Now they wanted to change the
street scenes too. New organizations specializing in manning the street rallies,
such as Korea parent Association 어버이연합,
were born sponsored by the rightist force, working directly with the Lee administration.
The difference between the rallies from the two camps was easy to see in the demographic composition of the people. The participants in the rally by the democratic camp are composed of all generations evenly, young women making the biggest demographic group with the whole family participating not rare to find while the rightist rallies are mostly of the seniors though the organizers tend to put young people in the front consciously these days. The democratic protesters use subway to get to the rally site while the fleet of church buses or rental buses transport those seniors to the rightist demonstrations.
Young
women account for the biggest demographic group in the democratic rallies in
South Korea since 2010s. The above rally in front of the Congress was held in
2024 to call for the impeachment of Yoon for his autocoup.
Nobody
knows whether it was because the people began to see the danger of the New
Right clearly during the period of Lee’s Presidency or it was simply because of
the natural cycle, but the Korean Protestant began to show the sign of decline
coming into the 2010s with a clear demographic shift within the body of
beievers.
According to the Korea Presbyterian Church (PCN), the number of the
total congregation culminated in 2012 at 2.85 million followed by stagnation of
five years and then the streak of decline for ten years down to the 2.1 million
level in 2025. The most conspicuous and steady change in the Korean religious
landscape is the increase of the non-believers and the decrease in the percentage
of church-goers in the young generation. According to Gallop Research, the
proportion of non-believers increased to 63.4% level in 2022 from 47% of 2004. What makes the picture direr is that more than
70% of the younger generation are with no religion. Yet, the worst news for the
Protestant church would be the favorability the general populace have on each of the
major three religions. The Protestantism had 34% favorability that contrasted with 54.4% for Buddhism and 52.7% for Catholicism in 2024 survey by the Korea
Research.
The decline of the Protestantism clearly corresponded with the fall of the rightist camp in terms of the share of representatives in the National Assembly. In the National Assembly of 2008, the year Lee Myung-bak took power, the seat for his rightist party was 153 over the 83 of the Democratic party. Then in the next assembly of 2012 the rightist party was holding to the majority of 152 against 127 of the Demographic, the gap much narrowed. From the assembly of 2016 the Democratic party kept the majority over the rightist in the streak of three elections. The rightist party secured 108 seats against the 187 of the Democratic camp for the current session of the National Assembly. Their approval rating now is regarded to be much lower now than in the last election of two years ago.
End of 'Understanding Korean society and Politics'[2/3]
to come by February 15,2026
'Understanding Korean society and Politics'[3/3]
Understanding the geopolitics of Korea
-Hangul and Americans
-China vs. USA
-The Korean mind and geopolitics
-Understanding the rise and implications of the Korean ammunition industry
-Asset or Ally
Closing remark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The translated lyric of the "Recalibration"
Flowers know they should fly away when May gets warm
Birds migrating know they should fly away when it 's time in the automn sky
Problem, what's the problem
We have been running not knowing where we are headed
Since when our minds, once so high and pure,
began to look the other way from the truth
[refrain] Please wake up, Haneul-nim, from your sleep and get up. Please recalibrate (this world) like the first hue in the olden time
The stream water, once so lovely, goes to the sea in black
Haneul, once so blue and high, hard to see behind the milky air
I fear our last love we have tended for so much would disappear like those
Hatred with love, wrath with foregiveness, loneliness with consolation, compulsion with patience,
if we all can go hand in hand,
the lingering lonely shadows would be able to share the comfort in heart
This land, Haneul and children are all I believe in
Please wake up, Haneul-nim, from your sleep and get up
And let them live out the true meanings of love
.
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