Christian missions in Iran emerge as touchy diplomatic issue

• Published Jul 4, 2016 1:16 PM KST
• Updated Jul 4, 2016 1:16 PM KST

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Park Hyon-do, a research professor at the Myongji University Institute of Middle Eastern Affairs in Seoul, had the rare experience of flying with Christian missionaries during his recent business trip to Iran.

Park realized they were missionaries heading to the Islamic country on a secret mission to spread the word of God after overhearing their private conversation on the plane, which included a prayer and sharing of Bible scriptures.

“In fact, I did meet Korean missionaries in Iran years before the nuclear-related sanctions were lifted,” he said. “I knew they were Christian missionaries because they declined to answer what they were doing for a living in Iran when I spoke to them. It’s highly likely that Koreans, who decline to mention their profession in the Middle East, are Christian missionaries.”

Park said the plane that he took was crowded with groups of Koreans from diverse backgrounds, including business travelers.

Following the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions in January, Iran has emerged as a hot market for Korean businesses. Government officials rushed to the Islamic country to strengthen inter-government relations to benefit Korean companies in future construction bids. Tourists have joined the move and headed to Iran to explore the less beaten track.

There is another group set to expand its activities in post-sanction Iran — Christian missionaries. The Seoul-based Met-Middle East Team is one of the most active Christian organizations that have expanded its missions in the Middle East. The inter-denomination missionary group was founded by 51 members in 1984.

Christian groups seeking to perform missionary work in the Middle East formed the so-called Islam Partnership, an initiative to share their experiences and know-how about religious activities in the region.

Prospects for their missionary activities in the Middle East, however, are far from rosy. Just like in other Middle Eastern countries, spreading non-Islamic religions is prohibited in Iran. Missionaries who are caught doing so are forced to leave the country.

Religious minorities, such as the Armenian Prelacy of Isfahan, are based in Iran. According to Park, religious believers other than Muslims are allowed to stay in Iran but their religious activities to influence and convert Muslims to their religions are prohibited.

Rev. Lee Man-seok of the 4Him Church in Seoul’s northeastern district of Mia-dong returned to Korea in 2004, 19 years after his clandestine mission in Iran. He was deported by the Iranian authorities after they discovered his missionary work.

Lee said Christian missions in post-sanction Iran are as tough as they were in the past when multilayered sanctions were still in place. “It’s impossible to imagine that Iran will allow foreign missionaries to perform religious activities in their land in the foreseeable future. It may happen if the Islamic government is overthrown someday. But at the moment, expecting Iran to allow freedom of religion in the country is unrealistic.”

Lee had lived in Tehran for for 15 out of his 19 years in the Islamic country. He said he went to Iran because he was called upon by the Lord to spread his word there. Asked how he was able to live up to his commitments for such a long time, he said there was a small number of Iranians who were close to him, and after he gained their trust through years of friendship, they gradually opened their hearts to the Christian belief.

“People ask why I did such a risky mission in Iran. I say we Christians are supposed to spread the word of God despite a myriad of challenges. Many early Christian missionaries and believers lost their lives after the Western religion came to Korea. But the early Christians were fearless and lived up to their religious commitments,” he said.

He said to his knowledge, there are few Korean missionaries in Iran at the moment. “We have no accurate data on the number of missionaries sent to the Middle East, though, because of the clandestine nature of their missions there.”

Lee established the 4Him Church in 2005 to share God’s word with Iranians living in Seoul. According to him, 11 Iranians now attend his church.

Park expressed worries about Korean missionaries in Iran, saying the consequences of their religious activities don’t stop with their deportation.

“Their violation of the local law would negatively affect Korean companies operating in Iran or those who are planning to enter the emerging market, because the Iranian authorities will be suspicious of all Koreans who attempt to enter their country,” he said.

“Iran allows Christians to travel in the country, but spreading their religious beliefs or trying to convert Iranians into religions other than Islam is strictly banned.”

He said not only businesspeople, but also student visa holders will find it tougher to enter Iran.

Park said that if the number of Koreans who were asked to leave Iran for their religious activities there increases, Korea-Iran relations will inevitably worsen. According to him, Koreans’ religious activities have been a touchy issue in the Middle East for the past 10 years.

As of 2011, some 20,000 Koreans are serving as missionaries in 117 countries all across the world. About 23 percent of them are based in Islamic countries, including in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the 2012 Islam Institute of Korea report. They have been sent by tens of Christian groups to expand the influence of their churches or groups to foreign lands.

Those Christian missionaries enter the Middle Eastern countries with visas issued for humanitarian workers, nongovernmental organization volunteers or sometimes students. They perform missionary work secondary to their main job or purpose for traveling there.

Lee Jin-gu, a senior research fellow at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Religion and Culture, said conservative fundamental Christian churches have prioritized expanding their churches in Islamic countries, like they did in the former communist states after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.

“Their initial priority was on the Commonwealth of Independent States following the demise of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s,” he said. “Under the name of Northern Mission, some Protestant church leaders rolled up their sleeves to expand the influence of their churches there. Their endeavors often resulted in clashes with the CIS governments, and there were some outstanding issues related to their missionary work in Russia.”

According to Lee, Islamic countries have become their next missionary target.

“Islamic countries are uncharted lands in the eyes of the Christian groups for a different reason. Although Christians are allowed to enter those countries, most of the Islamic governments have never allowed Christian missionaries or activists from other religions to spread their religious beliefs in their lands,” he said.

“Islamic countries were and still are important for the Korean Christian groups because their populations account for a considerable part of Asia.”

Lee said Korean churches began to look to overseas missions after the 1988 Seoul Olympics. After the Olympics, the government started to ease travel regulations, enabling Koreans to travel abroad freely without permission from the government. Before the Olympics, Koreans had to get permits from the government in order to travel to foreign countries.

“Foreign missions require missionaries or Christian activists to travel overseas freely. This is one reason Korean Christian groups have been active in foreign missions since the Olympics,” he said. “The other reason for that is more intrinsic. Korean churches had grown fast, perhaps the fastest in the world, in terms of the number of Christian believers during the 1970s and ‘80s. After the ‘80s, churches realized that the pace (of growth) had slowed down, so they turned their attention to foreign countries.”