South Korea’s Christians losing faith amid coronavirus outbreaks linked to churches, pastors say
- Church-linked coronavirus infections have led the public image of churches to fall drastically in South Korea
- Christianity has become more unpopular over the years, due in part to church leaders getting into trouble and a view that the religion promotes old-school values, pastors say
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“The livelihoods of many people are in critical condition right now, [yet] there are people still attending church services like everything is normal,” said 36-year-old Lee. “Such people are close-minded and don’t care that they are hurting those around them.”
The Seoul government and national health services have said they would sue the church for 15 billion won (US$12.6 million) in indemnity costs.
Sarang Jeil has faced accusations of being a cult by mainstream Christian groups for well over a decade, and some critics have blamed critics have blamed the main Christian denominations in the country for not acting quickly enough to classify it as such.
“Jeon and his church were able to remain in the Christian community because big churches with shared political principles sided with them,” said Jo Mit-eum, the director of Bareunmedia, a media group that educates people about religious cult groups.
Pastor Jeong Jae-dong, a minister in the Presbyterian denomination, said the overall trust in churches had been declining since the 1980s and 1990s, when the country had as many as 10 million congregants.
“Every year, about three to five per cent leave the church, so I would say there are about 6 to 8 million in churches today,” Jeong said. “Low birth rates is a big proponent of this phenomenon, but social issues and the absence of healthy churches have been at the forefront of the problem.”
Jo Sung-don, a professor at the Graduate School of Practical Theology, said there was a perception that churches were not as relevant to young people as before, as Korean society had evolved socially over the years.
“The church used to be a very progressive engine where women and the youth came to act as initiators of social activism in the past,” the professor said. “However, it’s now hard to find young church leaders as most church leaders are seen as elders who are at least in their 60s.”
He added: “It has become embarrassing to be identified as a church-goer nowadays.”
Bareunmedia’s Jo Mit-eum said conservative churches in the country had been closely linked with right-wing administrations for decades.
“President Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee gave benefits to churches in the form of funding and buildings, and churches, in turn, have been some of the biggest proponents of conservative politics,” he said.
For instance, conservative Christians recently held a protest to oppose an anti-discrimination bill.
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The religion has also been given negative headlines in the past for controversies concerning its leaders and management of money.
Earlier this year, a pastor of a 100-year-old church in the provincial city of Iksan was in court for charges of rape and sexual assault towards 11 female members of the church.
Nevertheless, many South Korean churches have been trying to be relevant to younger worshippers while conducting online services during the pandemic, with some coming up with creative content for their congregations.
For example, educators from the Christian community and the South Korea Educational Volunteer Corps have launched the programme On Jesus to provide online services that include youth mentoring, career counselling on top of making an environment for community activity during these times of social-distancing.
“The church needs to return to being a place that makes sense to people and responsive to society’s problems,” Jo Sung-don said. “We need to find back the essence of a church.”