By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Koreans are guaranteed with the constitutional right to any religious belief, but some schools and civil service offices have been found to have practiced religious bias, the government said Thursday.
Forty-five cases of such bias have been reported to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism since October last year, showing that religion is becoming a social conflict factor here.
Christianity took the lion's share of 26 complaints, of which 11 came from classrooms against teachers.
According to the ministry, teachers at two public middle schools forced their students to pray to Jehovah in the middle of their class. Another teacher at a different school forced their students to pray during morning assembly, which caused huge resistance from students and parents.
In front of Shindorim community center in Shindorim-dong, southern Seoul, a tablet was erected in front of a building reading: ``We hope God blesses everyone visiting the center,'' stirring criticism.
The center explained that a Christian community donated the building for the center and erected the installment to commemorate it in 2006. The head of the center said it had no intention to favor any specific religion. But a local resident, identified as Lim, said she felt that the government preferred Christianity.
In four cases, administrative leaders made public comments about religion. A head of a metropolitan government showed up at a ``Heresy Seminar'' at a protestant church in his district and said, ``May God's glory and honor flow to the whole nation from right here, in this city,'' to the attendants.
The ministry, which vowed to root out religious acts in the public sector, said those leaders were already questioned and whether they will be punished will be decided by the end of the month.
The culture ministry runs a center to abolish discrimination according to religious beliefs, and anyone who feels treated unequally due to religion in the public sector can report complaints there.