Bittersweet relations between politics and religions
Politicians, religious leaders need each other to increase influence
By Jung Da-min
For political parties, religious groups are often an important support base in winning elections or pushing ahead with their policies. Politicians like lawmakers and high-ranking government officials often make official visits to leaders of various religions to pay respect and gain their support for their policy drives.
Religious groups, especially Protestant Christian ones, also take advantage of their social influence in expanding their presence and drawing more congregants. For example, close relations between political heavyweights and the head of a church or a temple are often a drawcard that helps bring more followers.
Such a cooperative relationship between politicians and religious groups, however, could become tricky as seen in the recent controversy over the relations between the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) and “far-right” Christian group Sarang Jeil Church led by pastor Jun Kwang-hoon.
The firebrand pastor has been leading far-right, anti-President Moon Jae-in movements in recent years. His influence was magnified when his rallies were joined by another anti-Moon group, the UFP's predecessor Liberty Korea Party (LKP).
Former LKP leader Hwang Kyo-ahn and other party leaders often participated in demonstrations led by Jun's church. By joining hands with the religious group, the party could win over the church members as its supporters, while Jun could gain more party-affiliated conservative connections for the church ― a win-win game.
But Jun's church came under fire recently for holding a massive rally in central Seoul on Aug. 15 despite concerns over the spread of COVID-19 and the resulting spike of new cases across the country.
Some former and incumbent members of the UFP, including Rep. Hong Moon-pyo and former lawmakers Min Kyung-wook and Cha Myung-jin, also either attended the rally or came into contact with the rally participants. Among them, Cha has since tested positive for the virus.
As the church and Jun became public enemy No.1 due to the coronavirus spread, the current UFP leadership is now trying to distance the party from Jun, because close relations with the church group would no longer help the party gain support from conservatives but rather make it lose support from a majority of the public.
“The UFP drew a line between itself and the church although there was still room for controversy. The party was being cautious not to rouse the church whose members are still supporters of the country's conservative bloc, although they are rather ultraconservative,” political commentator Yu Chang-seon said.
Religious groups' influence on politics
Once they create a relationship, politicians and religious groups can become good partners. But if the relationship is soured over a controversial issue, the specific politician or party could lose a huge support base.
Although more than 56 percent of Koreans said they did not have a religion according to a 2015 survey by Statistics Korea, the number of people of religious persuasion is still large, with 19.7 percent of the total population being Protestant, 15.5 percent Buddhist, and 7.9 percent Catholic.
“About half of the people are religious. They are believers and, at the same time, citizens of the country, meaning they are voters,” said Choi Young-il, a political commentator and adjunct professor at Kyung Hee Cyber University.
“To gain votes, politicians try to get close to large religious groups and particular churches that have a large number of congregants. This also applied to some new religions, such as Shincheonji Church of Jesus and Salvation Sect.”
Shincheonji was linked with the first wave of COVID-19 outbreaks in Korea starting in February, and Salvation Sect was set up by Yoo Byung-eon who was linked to the Sewol ferry tragedy of 2014.
Choi said such ties have prevented politicians from pushing for policies that could get on the nerves of a specific religion.
One such issue was taxation of the clergy. While clergy members had not paid income taxes “customarily,” previous administrations had attempted to impose them but withdrew the plan multiple times due to strong opposition from religious groups. A bill on taxation was passed at the National Assembly in 2015 but the implementation of the law was delayed also due to clerical backlash and only made possible in 2018.
Another issue is an anti-discrimination law which the liberal bloc has been trying to enact. Since 2007, the government and progressive political parties have been trying to set up a law to ban all kinds of discrimination based on gender, disability, age, language, country of origin, sexual orientation and any other reasons. But the attempts failed as anti-gay Christian groups have claimed such a law would normalize homosexuality and thus have been strongly protesting the moves.
Worrying about being labeled as supporters of sexual minorities and losing support from Christians, most lawmakers have refused to join the moves, and a handful of lawmakers who have submitted the anti-discrimination bills had to suffer a barrage of angry phone calls from conservative Christians.
As for Buddhist groups, there have been continuous calls from the public to ban some temples from collecting entrance fees to national parks from mountain hikers. People say it is unreasonable for them to pay such fees when they just hike the mountains but don't visit the temples there. But despite the years-long public calls, the government and political parties have skirted the issue which could irritate the Buddhist community.