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While 23 captives were shivering with growing fear in the hands of Taliban, a Korean site intentionally distributed images mocking a famous Islam prophet and posted the fact that no one was in fact a real doctor or nurse among the Saemmul church medical service volunteers.
The Internet post spread to world media, including Aljazeera, and led them to report on it. Many supposed that this could have effectively aroused the Taliban militants’ anger toward the hostages.
It has been over two months since the hostages returned home safely, but the anti-Christian torrent in South Korea is far from fading away. Everywhere from news coverage, newspaper editorials, to the Internet, are angry debates on the Saemmul church’s mission work in the government-forbidden region and ferocious protests about Korean churches _ some of them even verging on terrorism against Christianity itself.
Some extremist groups advocate reducing the number of churches in half or putting an age limit on those who can read the Bible. With almost 40 percent of its citizens becoming Christians over past 30 years, Korean Christianity has made unprecedented progress in size, many critics point out.
Despite the comment of Lee Myung-bak, former Seoul city mayor, on his dedication of the country’s capital to the ``Lord,’’ church related fraud covered by the local media, the aggressive and pharisaical behavior of some Christians, and the methodical and conservative orthodoxy of churches has provoked worry, disappointment and anger.
Lee Chang-dong’s latest movie ``Secret Sunshine’’ or ``Mil-yang,’’ which won an award at the Cannes International Film Festival this year, leaves us an elusive answer to the problem with Korean Christianity. The uncomfortably realistic portrayal of Korean churches in Secret Sunshine, at first drew criticism from these churches.
Scenes showing over-emotional and shallow church group meetings, the ``Christian’s’’ mean and aggressive ways of preaching and the adultery of a devoted church member were painfully realistic.
Secret Sunshine, by showing one woman’s tragic life, questions where humanity’s salvation comes from. The main character, Lee Shin-ae, moves with her only son to her husband’s hometown, Mil-yang, after he is killed in a car accident. But her son is also killed after being kidnapped and Lee, who is on the verge of losing herself, goes to church where she gets a moment of comfort. But after she met the person who killed her son, she hits the dead-end of human kinds’ unresolved questions.
Does God exist? If He is here, why do all these tragedies happen to me and why does this harsh and ugly world remain the same? Why does true salvation never comes? These are the questions that drive Shin-ae almost into madness and are the very same arguments that the anti-Christian movement uses when attacking Christianity.
Secret Sunshine ends by showing Shin-ae cutting her hair in her dirty yard. Dust and dirt, small gravel and scattered fragments of something can be seen in the swath of the earth. When the camera slowly moves to the corner of the yard, a bright side appears. However, the area, which warm sunrays landed on, is not different land. This sun shining area also has a pile of shaggy used bottles thrown on and this area, together with the shadowy part of the land, comprises of Shin-ae’s yard.
Though there is the sun _ God or God’s grace _ we still have to live on this dirt-covered earth and deal with the fragments of painful memories and daily injustice. And it is natural for people to stare only at one’s own shadow or linger on the dark side of the land and complain about the sun, while the sun is always there shining above everyone.
It is time to stop blaming the sun for everything while sitting in the shadow. Rather, it is just the right moment to get ourselves out of the shadow. We can save ourselves by stopping arguing over time consuming matters like some dirty spots left on our yard or the sun’s existence and try to understand the real side of the sun. The moment when saving oneself finally replaces blaming God or religion itself, is when the true reformation of Christianity can begin in South Korea.
dldbdms27@naver.com
Lee Yoo-eun is a senior student double majoring in journalism and English literature at Ewha Womans University.
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