By Kwon E-youn
A tragedy occurred in Boseonge, South Jeolla Province, when a pastor and his wife three of their children, who had the flu, to death under the pretext of “expelling evil spirits” based on the Bible.
They were arrested by police following a tip off from a relative, while praying and fasting in an alleged attempt to revive the three.
The couple were identified as a 43-year-old pastor, Park, and his 34-year-old.
Police said the couple, who were running a small church in the town of Boseong, took their four children a 10-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, a 5-year-old boy, and a 1-year-old baby girl to a nearby children´s hospital in Hwasun County, after they developed flu symptoms on Jan. 16. They made two younger children take the prescribed medicine, while the two elder ones were made to take medicine at home.
But as their symptoms did not improve, the couple stopped providing food and medicine to the children on Jan. 23. Instead, starting Feb. 1, they made them fast, never allowing them to go outside. The husband and wife prayed without eating every other day in their children’s room.
Police investigators found that the couple beat the children, who were very feeble due to fasting, from Feb. 1 to expel evil spirits out of their body. The unreasonable practice came according to the passage of the Bible saying, “Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death,” in Proverbs (23:13-14).
They whipped their kids 39 times each with a belt and fly swatter. The beating continued for four times for two days, according to police.
The eldest son died at 10 p.m., Feb. 1. The eldest daughter and the younger son died early the next morning.
They concealed the death of the three children, just praying and fasting in an attempt to revive them. The couple held a religious service at the chapel with the children in a locked room on Feb. 5. Some believers asked about the bad smell from the dead bodies, but the couple explained it came from waste food.
The shocking incident came to light after a 53-year-old uncle dropped by the church to see his nephews and nieces on Feb 11. “When I entered the room, my brother-in-law got angry and said that he could revive his children with prayers and fasting. But I was disturbing him,” he told investigators.
The pastor leased a one-story building for 200,000 won a month, in March 2009, when he moved there from Jindo in the same province. The church has about 10 believers.
The writer is a Korea Times intern.
