Tag: religion

Just another example of Korea’s expanding cultural influence even within the Catholic religion:

A mosaic depicting the Virgin Mary dressed in the traditional Korean outfit of “hanbok” was unveiled in the Vatican Gardens on Friday, marking the first time a Korean artwork has been installed in the historic site.

The “Korean Virgin Mary of Peace” mosaic, measuring 100 by 150 centimeters, was installed as part of a collection of Virgin Mary mosaics from around the world on the “Bastione Maestro,” a wall that serves as the border of Vatican City. 

The mosaic, which shows the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus dressed in hanbok, is intended to symbolize a hope for peace and an end to war, according to artists Shim Soon-hwa and Yun Hae-young, who created the piece.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

How did someone like this ever become a priest in the first place?:

A priest of the Anglican Church of Korea has been disqualified for openly wishing for President Yoon Suk-yeol’s plane to crash during his ongoing trip to Southeast Asia.

The Daejeon Diocese of the Anglican Church of Korea announced the disqualification of Father Kim Gyu-dong as a priest Monday after he called for a nationwide prayer for the crash of the presidential plane in his social media post.

President Yoon Suk-yeol accompanied by first lady Kim Keon-hee began a trip to Southeast Asia on Friday to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Group of 20 summits, and they are scheduled to return home Wednesday.

Kim recently uploaded a social media post about Yoon’s Southeast Asia trip, saying he wants the presidential plane to crash and wishes the entire nation would pray for the accident. Kim deleted the post later after his church was flooded with protests, explaining that the post was intended as a personal memo but was disclosed by mistake.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I would think he understood the ramifications of giving the blessing prior to the festival, so his suspension shouldn’t be too surprising:

“A hundred years from now, the church will have changed. And when that time comes, I want you to be sure that you won’t be embarrassed of your own decisions. Don’t be a sinner in the face of history.”  
   
When Pastor Lee Dong-hwan began to doubt his decision to give a blessing at the second Incheon Queer Culture Festival last year, his wife was the one who encouraged him to stand strong not only in the face of history, but also God.  
   
On Aug. 31, 2019, Lee, who is part of the Korean Methodist Church, took to the stage of the queer festival, clad in a white robe to bless those in attendance, throwing flower petals and offering a prayer. Just three days afterward, he was required to attend a meeting at a gathering in Suwon, Gyeonggi, where his church is located.  
   
A day later on Sept. 4, he was reported by the Incheon Pastor’s Gathering for Healthy Society (represented by Pastor Seong Jung-kyeong) and the Chungcheong Annual Conference of the Korean Methodist Church (represented by Pastor Lee Gu-il) to the Gyeonggi Annual Conference for violating the Book of Doctrines and Discipline by advocating and agreeing with homosexuality.  
   
On Oct. 15 this year, he was sentenced to two years of suspension of duty by the Korean Methodist Church. He appealed that decision but a retrial date has yet to be set, leaving Lee in limbo as he cannot preach.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is definitely not a good look for churches in South Korea:

Hundreds of South Korean Protestant churches pressed ahead with their worship services Sunday, defying the government’s repeated appeals to call off large gatherings and deepening fears of coronavirus cluster infections.

Most churches tried to comply with infection prevention guidelines, such as wearing masks and keeping a certain distance between worshipers, but raised the ire of quarantine officials focusing on a stepped-up social distancing campaign.

Amid the defiant religious services, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun warned of a “stern” legal action against any breach of the government’s quarantine guidelines or orders — in his latest plea to rally public support for the anti-virus efforts. (………)

Despite the government’s call for restraint, many churches, including some nearly 540 churches in the southeastern city of Busan, have held their weekend services with their masked members singing hymns and saying prayers in close proximity to one another, raising fears that they could cause an increase in cluster infections.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but with parliamentary elections coming up expect more articles like this scapegoating churches and foreigners for the continuing spread of the coronavirus.

When it comes to religion, Koreans can be quite aggressive in promoting their churches, but this particular church seems pretty extreme:

For a Korean woman surnamed Seo, 29, the last two years and three months have been traumatic. 

Her passionate, can-do spirit drove her to leave her country, to pursue an ultimate goal to “take over” foreign countries by recruiting foreign members for Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (SCJ).

A former nurse, she was a strong believer until just a few months ago. According to her, when she left Turkey, there were about 60 SCJ members in Istanbul alone, and the number was increasing rapidly.  (……..)

“I want the Turkish people to know what the group has done, and still is doing,” she said, as if confessing. 

She said for two years and three months, she was one of “them” in Turkey. 

With very little support, without telling her parents, her life was all about recruitment. All team members shared the same room, having only one or two meals a day. Some members were even forced to marry Turkish people, she said. 

“Single members were often targeted for brainwashing, including me,” she said. 

Korea Times

You can read the rest at the link.

This is something that I wish that we would do in the US because these megachurch leaders living opulent lifestyles should be taxed:

Picture of South Korean church steeple from Flickr user Knigel. 

In a sweeping revision of Korea’s tax system, the government plans to tax religious leaders for the first time and change regulations governing “corporate cars.”

The revisions were proposed at the taxation subcommittee of the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly on Monday.

In a move to be approved by the National Assembly on Wednesday, the government said it will begin collecting income tax from pastors, clergy and monks starting in 2018. The decision comes after long-standing discussions on the sensitive issue over the past 50 years.

“We decided to take the next two years as a time to prepare for the new rule, since it is the first time that Korea has implemented such a law,” Rep. Kang Seog-hoon of the ruling Saenuri Party said. “During the two years, we will keep communicating with religious groups so that the policy can settle down without turbulence.”

The revision categorizes income of religious leaders as “religious income,” instead of what is currently classified as an “honorarium,” and it will be collected under the same conditions as regular workers’ income.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

Today I had something really weird happen. This afternoon there was a knock at the door my wife answered the door where she began to engage in a conversation with a middle aged Korean woman. They began to argue and I asked my wife what they were arguing about. I came to find out that the woman on our door was a Scientology recruiter trying to enlist my wife. My wife is a die hard Christian so she was getting worked up by the Scientology sales pitch.

The recruiter was happy to see me though because she must of realized she wasn’t getting anywhere with my wife and tried to convince me about the wonders of Scientology. One of her claims were that Scientologists were some of the first people on the scene in Taegu after the subway fire a few years back and they rescued many lives. I checked out her claim on the internet and she is slightly correct:

In the same month Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers went to the aid of the Sakhalin victims, they also served in the aftermath of the huge explosion that rocked Taegu, a large city in southern South Korea. A construction site gas main had blown up, killing and injuring scores of people, including children.

One Scientologist and a student from the university where he teaches English were among the Volunteer Ministers who hurried to the scene of the accident to give assists. Dozens of children who were distraught at the start told the professor and his student after the assists that they were calmer, relieved and no longer afraid.

She also claimed that Scientologists were aiding with the tsunami disaster. Which I also found to be true. However, when I asked her if the Scientologists were just aiding the disaster victims to gain more members, she just commented that if people in the region wanted to join after their aid efforts that is perfectly acceptable. I personally find it reprehensible that any religion would use the tsunami relief effort as a method to recruit more members to their religion.

So what exactly is Scientology? If you are interested you can clikck here to find out more about it, but it appears just to be nothing more than a cult based around the teachings from the books by L. Ron Hubbard. I found a Fox News report about Scientology that claims that the Scientology is a cult and brings up the names of many of the movie stars that practice Scientology such as Goldie Hawn, John Travolta, and Tom Cruise. Allegedly Scientology is what broke up his marriage to Nicole Kidman.

I was curious about Scientology in Korea and I asked the woman how many Koreans practice Scientology and she just told me many are joining every day. I take that to mean not many. So I checked it out on the internet and found on a Scientology website that there is in fact 443 Scientologists in Korea. 401 of them are based out of Seoul.

During my research also found out that Hubbard had a connection to Korea. He was a military policeman here in 1946 and was discharged from the Navy following his tour here. While here in Korea he preached his Scientology philosophy and worked to create converts. It looks like they are still trying to create converts here; it just isn’t going to be me.