The Korean Christian Crux

By Deauwand Myers

The last thousand years are replete with Christians doing nasty, naughty things across the globe. So effective was the conflation of racial/cultural superiority and Christianity within the European geopolitical sphere and its colonial dominions, entire peoples, cultures and religions were obliterated. The world was awash in the blood of the conquered and the vanquished on a scale never seen before.

Most shamefully, perhaps, it was a predominantly Catholic, Christian Europe and Protestant America, that watched as a fascist Germany perpetuated the Holocaust, which brought the Jews to near extinction, systematically slaughtering over 6 million people in the single worst case of mass murder in all of human history.

The Christian Right of America, of which evangelicals and fundamentalists are core and powerful constituents, carry on the imperialist tradition of their faith, albeit in more subtle ways: in opposing reproductive rights for women; affirming patriarchy by asserting men as divinely ordained to be leaders of the church, the home and government; encouraging homophobia and stigmatization of homosexuals; and resisting gay civil rights. Succinctly, the nascent reinterpretations of Christianity contemporaneously wish to supplant secular government with a theocratic one.

And, unfortunately, much of Korean Christianity has copied the worst elements of their American counterparts when it comes to social issues.

Christian groups now hold more sway in Korean politics with the Lee Myung-bak administration, whose Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, as cited by The Korea Times, recently tightened restrictions on an already strict abortion law, further eroding women's reproductive rights.

An official close to the revised abortion law was quoted as saying it helped ``respect life," code anti-abortion rights advocates use in their pursuit to utterly criminalize women making their own decisions about their own bodies.

Anti-discrimination legislation first announced on Oct. 2, 2007, by the Ministry of Justice, once included sexual orientation, the handicapped, and women, etc., as groups that could not be discriminated against. The current version excludes many of these groups, though it was supposed to augment the National Human Rights Commission Act, which already bars discrimination against minority groups within the Korean social strata and beyond.

In particular, the inclusion of sexual orientation was vigorously resisted by zealots of Korea's new Christian Right. Sections of the business community and The Congressional Missionary Coalition, a group of Christian National Assembly members, opposed the law, and another Christian group, called the Assembly of Scientists Against Embryonic Cloning, sent out a petition against the new anti-discrimination law to every branch of government, which said, in part, ``[homosexuals] will try to seduce everyone, including adolescents; victims will be forced to become homosexuals; and sexual harassment by homosexuals will increase."

This flagrantly homophobic and uneducated point of view helps feed violence and hatred already prevalent against one of Korea's most vulnerable minorities ― the gay population ― and furthers their isolation.

Androcentrism, misogyny, patriarchy and homophobia existed long before Christianity came on the scene, and they'll survive in some form after it's gone. Unfortunately, these attitudes and prejudices are reified by some Christian interpretations of Scripture, thus enshrining biases and bigotry as ``divine" law.

Ridiculous. The Christian Right misses the prophetic, life-affirming message of the Bible to bend it for sociopolitical motives. Jesus, in becoming the Christ, was a social radical. Accounts of his life and his parables ― of feeding the 5000 with fish and bread, of the poor widow giving her last to charity, of fellowshipping with a racial minority (in the woman at the well) ― show humans being humane and inclusive. Jesus never speaks of abortion, of men being rightful leaders of the earth, or of the ``sin" of being a lesbian. Matthew 25:40 teaches us ``…I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you do unto me."

Good has come from Christianity, no doubt. Some Christians help the poor and sick. The American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s mainly took place at churches. Two of its greatest luminaries, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, were ministers and men of faith.

Korean society, Buddhist, Christian and otherwise, should seriously interrogate social norms and try understanding, engaging, and dare I say, loving, those they fear, disagree with or misunderstand. A true Christian never endeavors to deny another person dignity, safety or freedom. A true Christian recognizes the humanity, indeed, the God, in all of us, regardless of skin color, nationality, gender or orientation. Galations 3:28 says as much: ``There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

I'm a liberal Christian. But sadly, as I've learned through living, a true Christian is hard to find.

The writer is currently an English professor at Shingu University. He has written novels and poetry, and can be reached at deauwand@gmail.com.