Perseteruan Buddha-Protestan di Korea Selatan

Sumber:
1. http://berita.bhagavant.com/2008/09/04/stop-diskriminasi-agama-di-korea-selatan.html
2. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10151314188548690&_ft_=fbid.10151314391198690
3. http://indonesia.ucanews.com/2008/07/01/korea-umat-buddha-tuduh-pemerintah-memihak-umat-kristen/
4. http://indonesia.ucanews.com/2008/09/01/korea-umat-buddha-berunjuk-rasa-menentang-%e2%80%9cdiskriminasi-agama%e2%80%9d-dari-pemerintah/
5. http://indonesia.ucanews.com/2009/10/22/korea-konflik-dengan-jemaat-protestan-itu-%e2%80%9dserius%e2%80%9d-kata-biksu-dan-biksuni/

Ringkasan

Puluhan ribu umat Buddha di Korea Selatan memprotes diskriminasi yang dilakukan oleh pemerintah Presiden Lee Myung-bak.

Mereka menuntut Presiden Lee Myung-bak yang beragama Presbiterian untuk menghentikan diskriminasi agama dan meminta maaf atas perilaku beberapa pejabat senior pemerintahan dan juga dirinya yang cenderung menganaktirikan Buddhisme dan menganakemaskan agama Kristen.

President Lee dikritisi oleh para demonstran karena mengisi Kabinet dalam pemerintahannya oleh anggota-anggotanya yang seagama dengannya dan Lee tidak mengirimkan pesan ucapan selamat di hari kelahiran Buddha, padahal mayoritas rakyat Korea Selatan memeluk Buddhisme.

Park Kwang-seo, wakil dari Institut Korea untuk Kebebasan Beragama, menyatakan bahwa pemerintah telah pilih kasih kepada agama Kristen dan mendiskriminasikan Buddha sejak Republik Korea didirikan tahun 1948.

Professor Buddhist di Universitas Sogang yang dikelola Yesuit di Seoul mengatakan bahwa umat Buddha mengalami diskriminasi di bawah presiden-presiden beragama Kristen. Lee bukanlah orang Kristen pertama yang menjabat sebagai presiden Korea Selatan. 4 dari 10 presiden negeri itu adalah orang Kristen. Tercatat ada beberapa nama lainnya termasuk Syngman Rhee, Kim Young-Sam dan penerima Hadiah Nobel Perdamaian Kim Dae-jung.

Pelayanan pastoral Kristen di militer dimulai tahun 1948, sedangkan umat Buddha baru dapat memulai pelayanan semacam itu tahun 1968. Sebuah stasiun radio Protestan mulai mengudara tahun 1954, tetapi stasiun umat Buddha baru diijinkan melayanan semacam itu tahun 1990.

Tentang berbagai masalah yang dihadapi agama Buddha Korea, 23,7 persen menyoroti diskriminasi pemerintah, sementara 50,1 persen mengatakan tidak adanya kepercayaan publik terhadap agama Buddha.

Sensus Penduduk 2005, umat Buddha berjumlah 22,8 persen dan umat Protestan 18,3 persen, sementara umat Katolik 10,9 persen 47 juta total penduduk Korea Selatan. Lebih dari 40 persen dari total populasi itu mengaku tidak beragama.

Lee Myung Bak dan persekutuan doa mendoakan runtuhnya kuil-kuil Buddha di Korea Selatan.

Ketika Lee Myung-bak masih menjadi walikota Seoul, ia menyatakan kota Seoul ”sebagai tempat suci yang dipimpin oleh Tuhan” dan warga Seoul sebagai ”orang-orang Tuhan”. Ia menyerahkan kota Seoul ”kepada Tuhan”.

Pada bulan Juni 2006, satu aksi vandalisme yang terbesar dan signifikan oleh Kristen adalah di festival "Again 1907 di Busan” oleh Kristen Korea. Para Kristen bersedia agar semua kuil Buddhis dan wihara di area Busan dihancurkan. Sebuah pertemuan jemaat injili di Busan berdoa agar “semua kuil Buddha dihancurkan.” Lee mengirimkan sebuah video pesan doa kepada sebuah perkumpulan Kristen dimana pemimpin kebaktiannya berseru kepada tuhan ”biarkanlah kuil-kuil Buddhis di kota ini luluh lantak”.

Banyak warga Korea kecewa saat Lee Myung Bak sependapat menanggapi event tersebut. Lee Myung-bak mengirim sebuah pesan berisi ucapan selamat untuk pertemuan itu. Ia kemudian meminta maaf, dengan mengatakan bahwa ia tidak tahu tentang doa itu sebelumnya.

Pada tahun 2007, seseorang melakukan aksi pelecehan terhadap biksu Buddha dengan meletakkan satu tangan diletakkan di kepala Biksu dan tangan satunya lagi mengacungkan salib.

Pada tahun 2008, Lee lebih memilih umat Kristen untuk bekerja dalam kabinetnya dan kantor presiden sejak pelantikannya pada bulan Februari. Dari 15 menteri, 10 adalah orang Protestan, 2 orang Katolik dan tiga lainnya tidak diketahui affiliasi agamanya.

Sekretaris presiden bahkan mengatakan dalam wawancara di sebuah surat kabar bahwa “cita-citanya adalah mengkristenkan semua departemen pemerintah.” Kejadian lain adalah menyangkut sekretaris presiden, seorang pendeta Kristen. Menurut laporannya, ia mengatakan dalam sebuah pertemuan kelompok Presbiterian di Seoul pada 5 Juni bahwa orang-orang yang mengikuti tuguran cahaya lilin untuk memprotes impor daging sapi impor dari Amerika Serikat adalah “segerombolan pengikut setan.”

Pada 24 Juni, Ordo Jogye, denominasi Budha terbesar di negeri itu mengeluarkan sebuah pernyataan yang menuduh sistem informasi transportasi di Seoul, yaitu Algoga (temukan jalanmu), “secara sengaja” tidak menyebut satu kuil Buddha pun.

Ordo itu menjelaskan bahwa peta online sistem itu (www.algoga.go.kr) tidak mencantumkan kuil Jogyesa dan Bongeusa yang terkenal dan dikunjungi banyak turis manca negara di ibukota. Departemen Urusan Darat, Laut, dan Transportasi mempertahankan peta itu yang katanya ada 20.000 pemakai internet mengunjungi peta online itu setiap hari.

Yang Mulia Seungwon, juru bicara Jogye, menandatangani surat pernyataan itu, yang berjudul kami benar-benar mengutuk tindakan-tindakan pemerintahan Presiden Lee yang pilih kasih pada agama tertentu. Dalam surat tersebut, biksu itu menuduh pemerintahan Presiden Lee Myung-bak memihak pada agama Kristen, terutama Protestan.

Pada tahun 2003, ketika pemerintah sebelumnya membuat sistem informasi online, kuil-kuil Buddha itu tercantum dalam peta. Namun, versi yang diperbaharui pada 9 Juni tidak mencantumkan nama-nama dan gambar kuil itu. Departemen itu, dalam konferensi press 23 Juni, mengakui ada suatu “kesalahan,” dan kuil-kuil Buddha itu muncul kembali di peta empat hari kemudian.

Namun, pada 25 Juni, semua 28 anggota yang langsung terpilih dari Dewan Pusat Ordo Jogye yang beranggotakan 81 orang itu mengeluarkan sebuah pernyataan lain. Mereka berpendapat bahwa tidak dicantumkannya nama-nama kuil itu dalam peta bukan hanya sekedar kesalahan, karena peta itu bahkan mencantumkan gereja-gereja Protestan yang kecil, yang ditandai dengan salib merah dan namanya. Kemudian, Menteri Chung Jong-hwan meminta maaf. Beberapa hari kemudian ditemukan juga pada peta informasi tentang Sungai Cheonggye yang tidak dicantumkannya informasi tentang vihara.

Pada tanggal 25 Juni 2008, Komisaris Polisi Eo Cheong-soo muncul bersama dengan seorang pendeta dalam sebuah poster yang mengiklankan sebuah acara yang diadakan oleh Gereja Injil Sepenuh. Poster itu dipasang di berbagai pos polisi di seluruh negara itu. Komisi itu menyatakan bahwa Eo Cheong-soo, kepala kepolisian nasional, terang-terangan mendukung anggota polisi yang beragama Kristen dalam “doa-doa puasa untuk Kristenisasi semua polisi.”

Insiden lainnya adalah penggeledahan mobil Y.M. Jigwan, pimpinan Buddhis Korea tradisi Jogye oleh polisi dan diperiksa polisi di depan kantornya. Wihara Jogye telah diawasi oleh polisi setelah enam aktivis penentang kebijaksanaan pemerintah mengenai impor sapi dari Amerika Serikat meminta perlindungan di sana. Yang Mulia Jikwan, pemimpin Sekte Jogye, Polisi memantau Kuil Jogyesa karena curiga bahwa biksu itu mengorganisasi protes pada bulan Mei terhadap keputusan pemerintah untuk memasukkan lagi daging sapi dari Amerika Serikat. Mobil dari Yang Mulia Jigwan yang pulang dari kantornya dihentikan dan diperiksa di dalamnya. Para penyelenggara protes berkemah di kuil itu sejak 6 Juli, setelah polisi memasukkan mereka ke dalam “daftar orang yang dicari” karena diduga mengorganisasi protes-protes jalanan penuh kekerasan.

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Pada 2010, seorang pendeta dan mahasiswa yang berkeyakinan Kristen menginvasi kuil Bongeunsa dan memulai ritual agar tanah tersebut kembali menjadi tanah Tuhan. Kejadian ini menyebar luas melalui youtube dan internet. Berbagai aksi vandalisme ini menimbulkan ketakutan akan diskriminasi Buddhis di Korea Selatan.

Pada Februari 2011, terdapat skandal lain dimana tiga pendeta datang ke kuil Jogye dan menyuruh para anggota monastik untuk "percaya pada Yesus, sebagai (warga korea) kita adalah anak Tuhan."

Pada November 2011, prasasti yang berada di stupa National Preceptor Jigwangguksa di Kuil Beopcheonsa, Warisan Nasional Korea No. 59 dirusak. Sebuah tanda silang besar digambar pada patung batu setinggi 5 meter dan diperlihatkan kepada publik pda laman facebook dan twitter seorang laki-laki kristen.

Hal yang mirip, dekat Haewundae di Busan, Korea. Empat kuil Buddhis dilaporkan dirusak dan diinvasi oleh komunitas Kristen Korea, mereka menyemprotkan cat pernis merah pada tangan dan muka rupang Buddha. Berbagai vandalisme pada properti budaya Buddhis dan kuil Buddhis, vandalisme dan perusakan warisan nasional Korea telah berlangsung selama beberapa dekade, dan aksi ini adalah akar yang menyebabkan disharmoni agama antara komunitas religius Korea.

Pada 20 Agustus 2012, seorang pendeta Protestan, Seong, melakukan aksi vadalisme di aula dharma Kuil Donghwasa. Pendeta tersebut mengklaim dirinya dari Gereja SoonBokEum, ditangkap saat megencingi aula dharma dan merusak lukisan Buddhis dengan penanda permanen. Tindakan tidak terpuji ini ditangkap pada CCTV yang dipasang di aula dharma.

Komunitas Buddhis sangat marah atas tindakan ini dan meminta pelaksanaan hukum untuk memperberat hukuman sebagaimana tindakan ini tidak dapat dikenakan hukuman invasi dan vandalisme biasa. Meskipun petugas hukum menangkap pendeta tersebut, mereka menganggap tindakan tersebut sebagai "tidak biasa" dan melepaskan pendeta tersebut dengan pernyataan bahwa ia berada dalam masalah disorientasi mental. Maka dari itu, komunitas Buddhis menjadi marah karena pemerintah Korea dan penegak hukum menjadi sangat lembut terhadap perusakan artifak Buddhis dan warisan Nasional.

Pada tanggal 4 Oktober 2012, seorang pelaku mencoba untuk membakar Gakhwangjeon Hall di Kuil Hwaomsa di Daerah Gurye, Korea. Untungnya, api hanya membuat kerusakan kecil pada gerbang aula dikarenakan tindakan cepat dari para bhiksu dan alat pencegah kebakaran yang dibuat pada tahun 2008.

Di CCTV, video menangkap seorang laki-laki menyebarkan zat yang mudah terbakar di sekitar aula, dan menurut saksi, mereka mencium zat yang sangat beracun datang dari aula sebelum orang tersebut melemparkan korek api untuk membakar Gakhwangjeon Hall.

Atas insiden ini, komunitas Buddhis Korea kembali terkejut dan memperjuangkan pelaksanaan hukum bagi para pelaku vandalisme dan pembakaran terhadap properti budaya penting Korea dan warisan Nasional.

Vandalisme dan pengrusakan terhadap kuil dan warisan Buddhis, dan properti budaya penting yang berhubungan dengan Buddhisme oleh komunitas Kristen dan Protestan Korea masih berlanjut. Meskipun beberapa hukum telah diubah untuk melindungi properti budaya dan warisan nasional setelah aksi pengrusakan tragis atas "Gerbang Namdaemun", Warisan Nasional No. 1, vandalisme terhadap kuil Buddhis dan warisan Buddhis tetap berlanjut di Korea.

Korean Buddhists, fired by allegations of religious bias from the Lee administration, take to the streets but the real reason lies much deeper.

korea-lee_myung-bak South Korean Buddhists are up in arms, accusing President Lee Myung Bak and his administration of showing religious bias against Buddhists and favoring Christians.

South Korea by law is a secular state, as clearly enshrined in its constitution defending the freedom of religion. It bars designation of any faith as state religion. Yet, a phenomenal rise in the size and power of the Christian community in recent decades has the Buddhist community here gripped by apprehension. In the course of the last five decades of Korea's industrialization and modernization, the role and size of Korea's once-powerful Buddhist population has significantly declined.

Internally, not only is the Buddhist hierarchy torn by schisms and squabbles over control of the large financial assets involving temple properties like land and buildings, its failure to attract new converts through renewal has resulted in their growing marginalization.

Their preoccupation with material assets, which are sometimes protected through hiring of mafia-like thugs camouflaged in monks' robes engaging in bloody gang wars, has alienated a growing number of socially and politically powerful younger generations who run Korea Inc.

Unfolding against that background of turmoil, some analysts regard the current uproar over the government's perceived slights and affronts against the Buddhists as a sign that it could be seeking a rallying cry to unite the flock. That could be the beginning of new political activism to revitalize the sagging momentum of Korean Buddhism, some
analysts say.

At a massive, traffic-disrupting rally of August 27 in Seoul at which over 200,000 lay Buddhists protested what they said was the government's "religious discrimination", they demanded the firing of the National Police Director by holding him responsible for a number of developments they claimed indicated his religious bias. One was his call to evangelize the entire police force, he being an ardent Presbyterian churchgoer. Another episode involved the riot policemen stopping and searching a temple abbot's car, which they said was necessary to look for anti-US demonstrators hiding inside a Seoul temple compound.

In a fit of rage, one Buddhist monk has slashed his stomach with a razor blade. It was not a life-threatening wound, but the incident was enough to poison the atmosphere of the confrontation. The Buddhist clergy now vows to hold a new series of demonstrations across the country unless President Lee, himself a Presbyterian elder, issued a statement of apology.

But tension has been building up since December, when newly elected president Lee began filling his first cabinet with Christians. At least a half of his new ministers were people professing to be Christians, with the prime minister, Han Seung Soo, said to be a Roman Catholic. Not a single cabinet minister professed to be Buddhist.

And when Lee was Seoul mayor, he himself stirred a storm of debate by saying he would "consecrate" his public service "to God," omitting the fact that he was there to serve the citizens. Other than making these statements which were considered religiously over-zealous, neither the President nor the police director has been specifically cited for taking discriminatory steps in their administration or leadership. Government officials say they may have been guilty of giving "wrong impressions" but harbored no actual religious bias.

There's no denying that Christians have become a powerful force in the Korean society. First is the numbers: people professing to be Protestants or Roman Catholics total more than 14 million or over 30% of the population. The once-dominant Buddhists have shrunk to a little more 10 million, according to the last government survey taken in 2005.

It's not so much this number as the Christians' rise in Korean society that is unsettling the Buddhists. Korean Christians boast higher education levels than their Buddhist peers. A recent survey by a Buddhist scholar showed that 23.1 percent of Presbyterians had a college or higher level education level (9.8 percent for Catholics) while for Buddhists, this was 10.8 percent. The perception has risen that Christianity represents a superior religion, a western faith withprogressive thinking while Buddhism is old and tradition-bound, at the level of folk belief, mainly sustaining itself vague promises of good luck and fortune, said Kim Yong Pyo, a professor at Dongkook Buddhist University in Seoul.

The younger generation is even more negative. "You don't want to go to a temple where all you do is recite sutra and bow before a Buddha image, and all the time mingling with oldsters," says a university student contemptuously, not wanting to be identified by name. To him, Buddhism is little more than a superstition, something far from modern theology answering today's problems.

Kwon Ki Jong, another professor on the same campus, said all this is a familiar refrain. The Buddhist establishment must find a better way of proselytizing the young, by appealing to rational, intellectual thinking, not mysticism. He suggests holding seminars and conferences using modern religious language and idiom to address issues of the
modern life and society. Otherwise, Buddhism will stop being relevant to the young, educated audiences of today's Korea.

Upgrading the quality of discourse is essential to revitalize Buddhism and make it relevant to Korea's young, Kwon said. He underlines this case with a number showing that educated Buddhists are deserting in increasing numbers.

Korea's economic prosperity in recent decades has meant that huge amounts of church donations have flowed into overseas missionary works. The Korean Buddhists have not been an exception: they too send out priests and laymen to Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka where Buddhism remains strong. Thus venality and vainglory run deeply in both Christian and Buddhist activities.

Like Korea's economic development, quantity has overwhelmed quality in the nation's spiritual life. The current stirrings in the Buddhist community may be a part of bigger picture that reform campaign is afoot in the nation's temples, just as Christian churches are now debating their own direction of growth.

Buddhism under Siege 1982-1996:
A Chronology of Fifteen Years of Incidents Against Buddhism in South Korea

The following is an incomplete listing of defamations, acts of vandalism and arson attacks against Buddhist temples and facilities in South Korea which have occurred since 1982 and which have earned the attention of the news media and the dismay of the Buddhist population in the country.

Buddhism under Siege 1982-1996 : Fifteen Years of Incidents Against Buddhism in South Korea including at least twenty temples or Buddhist shrines seriously damaged or totally destroyed by arson since 1986.

Sources :
Newspapers :
Dong A Ilbo daily newspaper (Seoul), May 2, 1990, p. 1
Pulgyo Shinmun weekly newspaper (Seoul), May 28, 1996, p. 4
Pôp Po Shinmun weekly newspaper (Seoul), May 15, 1996
Hyôndae Pulgyo weekly newspaper (Seoul), May 22, 1996
Kitokkyo Shinmun weekly newspaper (Seoul), July, 1996 advertisement
(Other major dailies and such weeklies as the Haedong Pulgyo and regional papers have not been consulted at this time.)

Reports :
We have also corroborated and compared reports of incidents with records maintained in the headquarters of the Chogye Order in Seoul and the official written police report on the incidents at Hwagyesa, Pônwôn Chôngsa and Samsông Am (Hermitage).
TV :
A cable TV report (BTN) of the Pônwôn Chôngsa and Samsông Am incidents was also consulted.

(The modified McCune-Reischauer system of transliteration as appears in the Korea Journal of the Korean National Commission for Unesco is utilized for Korean names)

1982 May.A man by the name of Myông Chinhong organizes religious gatherings in Seoul to publicly denounce Buddhism. He erects a banner "Jesus Heaven, Buddhism Hell!" He claims to have once been a Buddhist monk who has "repented," though no records can be found to support the claim of his ordination. Using this claim, he puts up posters claiming: "A Dharma Hall is a hall of demons."

1983 March 1. During a Christian revival meeting held on the occasion of Korean Independence Day observations, a woman falsely claims to have been the daughter of a famous Zen master and revered national independence hero, Paek Yongsông. She makes statements denouncing Buddhism.

1984 February. Red crucifixes are painted on priceless temple wall paintings at Muryangsa Temple and Ilsônsa on Samgaksan Mountain outside Seoul. Dirt is smeared on the paintings and on a statue of the Buddha located outside one of the temples. A large ancient carving of the Buddha chiselled into stone is damaged with axe-like instruments.

May. Ignoring the pleas of Buddhist leaders, the Roman Catholic Church invites Pope John Paul II to visit South Korea to celebrate the bicentennial of the church in Korea. This event happens to fall during the annual national Buddha's Birthday holiday celebrations. Because it is the first ever visit of a Roman pontiff to South Korea, and because the Vatican announces that 93 Koreans and 10 French missionary martyrs will be beatified as saints during the visit, the visit becomes a major national event. It is the first time that a canonization ceremony is held outside of Rome and the largest number ever canonized at one time. This ceremony gives Korea the fourth largest number of Catholic saints in the world. When the Pope tours the country, in the days immediately preceding and during Buddha's Birthday, there are immense traffic jams which diminish attendance at Buddhist events in several key cities. Buddhist leaders protest the timing of the event as "disrespectful" and "in bad taste" because the Korean and Roman Catholic Churches schedule the mass beatification ceremonies to take place during Buddha's Birthday celebrations, a day sacred to Buddhists and a national holiday.

November. In an official Korean textbook, Buddhism is called " a fading religion."

1985 April. Four major daily newspapers accept and publish advertisements which assert that the content of the Buddhist scriptures are "selfish" in intent.

May. A Protestant minister named Kim Jingyu publicly claims to have once been an ordained monk in the Chogye Order. Though there is no record of his ever having been a Buddhist monk, he hangs up banners which read "Why I Became a Protestant Minister," and organizes meetings to denounce the Buddhist faith.

September. An individual by the name of Kim Sônghwa organizes a series of mass gatherings to denounce Buddhism in the cities of Pusan, Taegu, Kwangju, and Taejon. (This individual and his wife Kim Mija regularly advertise their mission to convert the "25 million Buddhists of Korea" in the Christian Newspaper Kitokkyo Shinmun, July 1996).

October. An unidentified man disrupts a Dharma talk at the Nûngin Zen Center by driving nails into the tires of believers' automobiles parked outside. The perpetrator also pours corrosive chemicals into various car engines. An accomplice meanwhile uses portable amplification equipment to sing Gospel songs up at the Buddhist gathering, located on the third and fourth floors.

1986 December 6. Several days before the annual Buddha's Enlightenment celebrations, the Taejôkkwangjôn, the main Dharma Hall, a large building of ancient origin at Kûmsansa Temple is completely burned to the ground in an event which makes top news throughout the nation. The Hall is listed as National Treasure Number 476, and is the central hall in a temple which is a regional headquarters and major monastic training center for the Chogye Order. A man active in a local church is apprehended at the scene, but is released because the police claim that, since the fire consumed everything, there is "no evidence." Although he admitted to the crime, he is released without being charged. Discounting widespread opinion and belief, local police claim that "religious heretics" are not suspected. However, in an unprecedented move, the Korean government pays to have the building quickly rebuilt. It is widely believed that this unusual action was undertaken to preempt the possibility of interreligious strife.
(1 building)

1987 December. A fundamentalist Christian by the name of Yang Shinha from the Tamna Church on Chejudo Island is apprehended after setting fire to two temples - Kwanûmjôngsa and Taegaksa - completely burning them to the ground.
(2 buildings)

1988 September 25. In the early morning hours, a fire is set at Pômôsa Temple in Pusan, a major monastic training center of the Chogye Order and regional headquarters. The fire completely destroys the Myôngbujôn (Chijang Bodhisattva Hall- a funeral hall), taking with it 16 priceless altar paintings of the Buddha. The paintings were considered treasures and the hall a registered Cultural Asset. The cause of the fire is unknown but deemed "highly suspicious" by Pusan city authorities.
(1 building)

December 8. Several days before the annual Buddha's Enlightenment celebrations, the Chônggagwôn, the main Dharma Hall on the Kyôngju campus of Dongguk University is completely burned to the ground. Arson is suspected but no one is apprehended.
(1 building)

1989 January. A stone lantern and pagoda is destroyed and statements attacking Buddhism are painted on the temple's gates Okch'ôn Am Hermitage located in the Sôdaemun (Hongûndong), Seoul.

March. Several individuals enter Kupok Am Hermitageon Samgaksan Mountain on the outskirts of Seoul and destroy a stone lantern and stone pagoda, seriously damage a Ch'ilsônggak (Big Dipper Hall), and paint red crucifixes on a large gilded Buddha statue.

April. Five to six individuals destroy a Buddha statue and paint red crucifixes on a large outdoor Ma-ae Buddha figure carved into the rock on Samgaksan Mountain on the outskirts of Seoul. In all, some 10 temples are severely damaged or desecrated in the days immediately before and after the national Buddha's Birthday holidays.

April. The Hyangmok Committee of the Seoul City Government gathers military reserve forces under its control for a (taesônghoe) church service. Some of the members are compelled to attend even though they are not Christian.

July 29. The huge main Dharma Hall and a temple dormitory at Potasa Temple, Oksudong, Sôngdonggu, Seoul are completely burned to the ground. A 23-year old follower of the Taesônjillihoe (Great Conversion Truth Church) is arrested at the scene. Damage is estimated at $1.1 million according to the Chogye Order report.
(2 buildings)

October 27. The huge Taeunjôn, the main Dharma Hall, and a temple dormitory at Pohyônsa Temple in Taegu are completely burned to the ground. Though the modern buildings were erected in 1985, the police determine that each building must have suffered an "electrical short circuit," and no further investigations are conducted.
(2 buildings)

1990 May 2. Two men break into the Buddhist Broadcasting System (BBS, the first Buddhist radio station in Korea) in Seoul, two days before it is due to begin broadcasting a combination of popular music and Buddhist teaching and cultural programs. They tie up two guards, and proceed to destroy all of the radio station's recording and transmission equipment. They smash expensive electronic gear and tear up several state-of-the-art recording booths. At one point, they use a statue of the Buddha as a battering ram to break through several plate-glass recording booth windows and use the Buddha's head to damage computer equipment, sound boards, reel-to-reel decks, and screens. Damage is estimated in the millions of dollars, and delays the opening of the station by several months. No arrests are ever made.

November. A man by the name of Myông Chinhong falsely claims to have been a Buddhist monk some 20 years before, and organizes mass spiritual revivals under the heading, "Why I Became a Minister." In the course of his "revivals," this purported "ex-monk-turned minister" makes inflammatory and abusive statements about the Buddhism. There is no record of his ever having been ordained a monk, or living in any temple. (See May 1982)

Students and parishioners at a Christian theological school in Pusan misinterpret an ancient, traditional Buddhist death ceremony as being "slanderous" of Jesus Christ. The name of the ceremony, for many centuries called "Yesu-jae," sounds similar to the Korean pronunciation and Korean spelling of "Jesus" (Yesu), though the Chinese characters are unrelated to Christian vocabulary or sacraments. (It is a traditional merit-making ceremony in anticipation of death). The students and parishioners mail a letter of "warning" to Buddhist leaders at several area temples, schools, and organizations. The letters slander Buddhist teachings, and are plastered on the walls of Buddhist temples and organizations throughout the city of Pusan.

1991 April. Yun Ch'anggyu and Shim Yôngch'o, teachers at the Taesông High School in Kôch'ang, direct their students (many of them Buddhist) to recite Biblical passages and sing Christian hymns in class. In the same month, the Buddha statue of the Buddhist student club at Ch'ôngju University is vandalized.

Sept. 23. Pudo Am Hermitage at Tonghwasa Temple is destroyed by fire.
(1 building)

Oct. 15. Haeundae Buddhist Mission Bldg in Pusan is destroyed by fire.
(1 building)

October. The huge main Dharma Hall (Taeunjôn) at Pongwônsa Temple in the Shinch'on district of Seoul is totally destroyed by fire. The hall was registered as Seoul city Cultural Asset Number 68. This temple was the headquarters of the T'aego Order, the second-largest Buddhist sect in Korea at the time of the incident. A guard at the temple testified to seeing two men flee into the mountains behind the temple as the building burst into flames. Local police conclude that there is no evidence, that there was probably an "electrical short circuit," and the fire was quickly declared "an accident." Three large Buddha statues and altar portraits considered treasures are destroyed.
(1 building)

November. Military reserves stationed in Kyôngnam Province (many of them Buddhist) are forced to attend a Protestant revival meeting, presumably by a superior officer.

The Kwanûmjôn, the Kwanûm Bodhisattva Hall and a large Dharma Teaching Hall (Sôlpôpchôn) at Sôngjusa in Changwôn city are completely burned to the ground.
(2 buildings)

P'yo Ch'ajong, a member of the Pedel Church in Pusan, publicly declares that the world-famous Sôkkuram Buddha statue is a subject of "idol-worship" and the product of "a heretical religion". He attempts to damage the priceless statue, but is stopped. The Sokkuram Buddha was declared a "World Cultural Treasure" by Unesco in 1995, and has twice been renovated and preserved with Unesco financial and technical involvement.

1992 April. The Main Dharma Hall on the Kyôngju campus of Dongguk University is completely burned to the ground a second time. The event makes national news. No arrests are made.
(1 building)

December. An unknown assailant cuts the two arms off a statue of Maitreya Buddha at Puljosa Temple in Wonju. Various temple artifacts are burned and over 100 threatening phone calls are made to the temple office.

1993 February. Colonel (battalion commander) Cho Pyôngshik of the 17th Tank Battalion, claiming a lack of warehouse space, has the Dharma Hall on his base dismantled. The gilded statue of the Buddha is taken from the Hall, burned, and openly discarded behind the mountain. Taejon. The event makes national news.
(1 building)

April. Within two months of Cho's actions, the Dharma Hall and stone lantern are damaged at Kimhae Air Base.

The Yôngdo Church in Pusan organizes to prevent a temple from being built beside them, claiming that they "cannot accept the construction of a place of idol worship" near them.

May. At Hyundai High School, all students are required to attend church services, and their attendance at these services is reflected in their school records.

Lee Yun-sun, a teacher at the Paegun Primary School in Uidong, Seoul, teaches the Christian Bible in his class and declares that any Buddhist children in the class are "followers of the Satan," and excludes them from certain class activities.

Professor Im In-hûi rejects the admission application of a Buddhist student. He claims he was only following the orders of the board chairman of Taejôn Junior College Lee Pyông-ik.

Lotus lanterns prepared for Buddha's Birthday celebrations are destroyed at Pongguksa Temple and Chonjôngsa Temple in the Chôngnûng district of Seoul.

July. An assailant severely damages the Buddha statue and other Buddhist artifacts in a Buddhist meeting room at Sônggyungwan University in Seoul. Valuable religious objects are not stolen but thrown into a garbage basket.

1994 May. Before and after Buddha's Birthday, various acts of vandalism and desecration are inflicted upon the properties (especially the richly painted gates) of Daesôngsa Temple and Kwanûmsa Temple in the Saegômjông and Shinch'on districts of Seoul. Approximately 30 acts of vandalism against Buddhist temples in Seoul are recorded during this period.

The Rev. Yu Sûng-hwan of Yuchongni Church declares that Buddhism is "idol worship." He forcibly attempts to "convert" the abbot of Sudosa Temple to Christianity, even mentioning Korean President Kim Young-sam, a Presbyterian.

According to Dr. Pyôn Sôn-hwan, "the thoughtless speech and behavior of this minister who understood that the government was protecting Christianity simply because Kim Young Sam is an elder and the alleged remark by the President that he would make 'hymn songs reverberate throughout the Blue House' at the time of the presidential election damaged confidence in the government that was supposedly based on the principle of religion and state (politics).

June. A fundamentalist Christian enters Mirûk Chôngsa Temple in Kwangju and damages the Buddha statue and Dharma Hall.

1995 September. A fundamentalist Christian by the name of Pak Oh-Sun is apprehended after entering and causing serious damage to five temples on Chejudo. He burns Buddha statues at the temples, in addition to other damage.

A Protestant minister is apprehended after painting a large red cross onto the altar painting behind the Buddha at Mu-ûi sa Temple in Kangjin, Chollanamdo. He is released without charges. Later an unknown person carves a crucifix below the same Buddha image.

1995-96. Students belonging to a fundamentalist Christian group begin an aggressive campaign of proselytizing on the campus of Dongguk University (Seoul), Korea's main Buddhist university. The students proselytize directly in front of a large statue of the Buddha - the campus symbol and central meeting-point - making anti-Buddhist statements and handing out Christian literature to ordained sangha members.

1996. President Kim Young Sam attends services at a Protestant church located on the nation's central military base at Kyeryôngsan Mountain. In an event which sends shock waves throughout Buddhist and Catholic circles in Korea, many troops based there are compelled to attend the service in order to create the appearance of a larger number of Protestant troops. (Many of the troops are not Protestant Christians, and many are not even Christian.) Moreover, people attending services at a nearby temple and Catholic church are placed under virtual "house arrest," their religious sanctuaries being encircled with troops while the President makes what is deemed a "preferential" visit to the Protestant chapel. Those inside the Buddhist temple and Catholic church were made to remain inside for several hours while President Kim completed his visit. Buddhist and Catholic leaders lodge strong protests. Some Buddhist leaders perceive the President's actions as a license, a virtual "green light" for abusive actions to be taken against them, citing the centuries-old tradition in Korea of leaders signalling, through thinly-veiled actions, the unstated "allowances" that the government will make for actions which coincide with "non-legislateable" policies.

1996. The long-awaited tentative plans related to the new Education Law are announced by the government's Education Reform Committee. The plans are based on the educational system of the Renewal Church of Christ, and include plans to establish (with government money) a special graduate school for the education and training of Christian ministers. Buddhists lodge strong protests, which are initially ignored. Eventually the Committee agrees to restate their objectives at a later date.

TheWônmi ward office of Puch'on city near Seoul sends official letters to several Buddhist kindergartens, primary schools, and other Buddhist organizations and temples. Language in the letters beseeches them to find "the peace of God and the comfort of Jesus Christ.

The swastika - for centuries a symbol of good fortune throughout Asia, and also a Buddhist symbol of the same - is replaced on many flagpoles in Seoul with crucifixes.

A large red crucifix is painted in a concrete shelter used by Buddhist monks for meditation, located one hundred meters above Hwagyesa Temple on Samgaksan Mountain on the outskirts of Seoul.

A school teacher by the name of "Lee" at Songwu Primary School in P'och'ôn, Kyônggi Province, urges students to attend church services as part of their lessons. She forces them to sing certain Christian hymns in class to confirm their attendance, and does other "missionary work" in her capacity as schoolteacher.

April 6. Fires are set to the Abbot's quarters, the lawn (dried from the recent spell) and nine other places (out-buildings) at Pulguksa Temple in Kyôngju, the most famous Buddhist temple in Korea, seen on travel posters everywhere.

According to the report filed with the headquarters of the Chogye Order, a Mr. Kim Yông-shik was caught on the spot and reported to the police. The police transferred him to a Taegu city mental hospital. Although he admitted to the crime as "a follower of another religion," he was released without being charged because there was no material evidence.
(1 building)

April 19. Two temples on Samgaksan Mountain on the outskirts of Seoul are severely damaged by fires which are set within an hour of each other. The two-year-old large bell platform at Samsông Am Hermitage is burned to its foundation. The assailant(s) also cause damage to the Main Dharma Hall, burning holes in the locked doors while trying to gain access to the sanctuary containing the temple's main Buddha statue. Damage to the ruined bell platform is estimated at $250,000 according to police.
(1 building)

April 20. Two recently-constructed Dharma Halls at Pônwôn Chôngsa Temple are burnt to the ground, and another is severely damaged by flames, just after midnight. The Nahanjôn enshrined 519 wood statues of arhats and bodhisattvas, each of which was painstakingly hand-carved and hand-painted over a period of seven years. Damage at Pônwôn Chôngsa Temple is estimated at $5.6 million according to the local police. The unfinished buildings were not insured.
(3 buildings)

April 21. The next day, fire is set to the Taejôkkwangjôn, the main Dharma Hall at Hwagyesa Temple, also located on Samgaksan Mountain, within a short walk of Samsông Am Hermitage and Pônwôn Chôngsa Temple. Damage is minimal. Two police guarding the temple fail to catch the assailant, who is interrupted in his task when a monk spots him while walking to the outhouse. (1st attack on Hwagyesa, home of the Seoul International Zen Center and living quarters of more than twenty North American and European monks and disciples of most successful Korean Buddhist international teacher, Master Seung Sahn (Haengwôn Sûngsan sônsa).

May 12. Arsonists attack the main Buddha statue in the Taejôkkwangjôn at Hwagyesa Temple in Seoul for the second time. A lit candle is placed in a box of papers and wisk brooms under the main altar. The fire is quickly extinguished by a passing monk. At the time, more than 30 police and army are patrolling the temple in plainclothes in broad daylight, but fail to apprehend the assailant. (2rd attack on Hwagyesa)

May 14. Two days later, again with over 30 police and military patrolling the temple, a massive fire is set beneath the main Buddha statue in the Taejôkkwangjôn at Hwagyesa Temple in Seoul for the third time. Superb altar paintings, ornate woodcarvings and traditional wall paintings are lost. Damage estimated at about $775,000 according to the police.
(3rd attack, 1 building seriously damaged).

May. Rev. Pae Sông-ho, a Protestant minister, enters the main Buddha Hall at Ch'ôngryongsa Temple in Chinhae on the southern coast of the peninsula. He swings a microphone over his head like a bolo, smashing the main Buddha statue and damaging beyond repair the altar paintings hanging behind the main altar. Witnesses who apprehend him hear him shouting abusive statements about "idol worship" and that "now [he] will go to heaven for destroying these craven images." Though taken into custody by police, the minister is released within hours with no charges filed by the local authorities. Damage to the Dharma Hall is extensive.

May 22. Two days before Buddha's Birthday, the main Dharma Hall at Mangyông Am Hermitage in Sôngnam, a city bordering Seoul, is burned to the ground. Christian fundamentalists active in the area are suspected but not investigated.
(1 building)

http://buddhapia.com/eng/tedesco/2.html

Seseru2nya budha vs kristen di korsel ndak akan sampe spt muslim vs muslim, saling ngebom mesjid:

http://www.republika.co.id/berita/internasional/global/12/03/21/m18dvd-alqaidah-klaim-bertanggung-jawab-atas-bom-di-irak

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BAGHDAD -- Kelompok Alqaidah mengklaim bertanggung jawab atas serangkaian pemboman yang menewaskan 50 orang di Irak pada Selasa lalu. Pernyataan tersebut diposting dalam forum Honein jihad.

“Kami menyerang Irak secara bersamaan dan menargetkan pihak keamanan. Ini sebagai pesan pertemuan KTT Arab di Baghdad,” kata situs tersebut.

Serangan tersebut menghancurkan rencana kepala keamanan Irak dalam waktu beberapa jam. “Dalam beberapa jam, semua langkah keamanan pemerintah Syiah telah runtuh dan musuh terkejut,” kata situs tersebut pada Rabu (21/3). Sebelumnya, gelombang serangan senjata dan bom menewaskan 50 orang dan 255 orang lainnya luka-luka.

Serangan senjata dan bom tersebut mengguncang kota-kota kaya minyak di utara Kirkuk dan kota di selatan Karbala. Serangan paling mematikan terjadi di Karbala, dimana ledakan kembar di pinggir jalan di pintu masuk ke kota.

Ledakan juga terjadi di Baiji, Samarra, Tuz Khurmato, Daquq dan Dhuluiya, utara Baghdad, Hilla dan Latifiya di selatan. Polisi di kota timur laut Baquba mengatakan telah menjinakkan delapan bom.

Serangkaian serangan itu terjadi pada saat ulang tahun kesembilan invasi pimpinan AS ke Irak yang menggulingkan Saddam Hussein, dan terjadi hanya beberapa hari sebelum Baghdad menjadi tuan rumah pertemuan puncak KTT Liga Arab.

KTT Liga Arab dijadwalkan akan diadakan di Baghdad pada tanggal 27-29 Maret dan dihadiri 22 negara Arab. Untuk pertama kalinya Irak akan menjadi tuan rumah acara tersebut setelah lebih dari 20 tahun sejak Saddam menyerang Kuwait tahun 1990.

http://international.okezone.com/read/2013/01/24/412/751036/bom-bunuh-diri-hantam-irak-42-jiwa-tewas

Bom Bunuh Diri Hantam Irak, 42 Jiwa Tewas



SAMARRA - Pelaku bom bunuh diri meledakkan diri di sebuah masjid di utara Irak pada Rabu 23 Januari. Dilaporkan 42 orang tewas dalam kejadian ini.

Serangan yang juga menyebabkan 75 orang terluka, menyerang Masjid Sayid al-Shuhada di Tuz Khurmatu, sebelah utara Baghdad. Pelaku pengeboman bunuh diri menargetkan serangannya pada acara pemakaman dari keluarga seorang politisi Irak. Sebelumnya, politisi itu tewas terbunuh beberapa hari lalu.

"Jenazah bergeletakan di sekitar masjid," ujar Sekretaris Jenderal Provinis Salaheddin Niyazi Moamer Oghlu, seperti dikutip The News, Kamis (24/1/2013).

Sementara menurut Walikota Tuz Khurmatu mengatakan, pelaku pengeboman berhasil memasuki kerumanan orang yang tengah berduka. Dirinya pun kemudian meledakan bahan peledak yang ia bawa.

Hingga saat ini belum ada pihak yang mengaku bertanggungjawab atas peristiwa peledakan bom. Oghlu pun memastikan jumlah korban berjumlah 42 orang tewas dan 75 terluka.

Ledakan bom tersebut menambah panjang daftar rangkaian serangan yang terjadi di luar dan sekitar Baghdad. Aksi kekerasan terus berlanjut sejak Amerika Serikat (AS) memutuskan keluar dari Irak.

http://news.detik.com/read/2012/08/20/073406/1995170/934/masjid-di-yaman-ditembaki-tujuh-tewas?881101934

Masjid di Yaman ditembaki, tujuh tewas



Saat shalat Idul Fitri seperti inilah seorang laki-laki menembaki warga di selatan Yaman.

Seorang pria bersenjata menembaki sebuah masjid di Provinsi Dalea, 190km sebelah selatan ibukota Yaman, Sanaa pada saat shalat Idul Fitri digelar Minggu (19/8).

Insiden tragis itu menewaskan sedikitnya tujuh orang dan melukai 11 orang lainnya.

Sejauh ini belum diperoleh detail peristiwa itu namun Kementerian Pertahanan Yaman mengatakan pasukan keamanan kini tengah mengejar tersangka penembakan itu.

Pemerintah Yaman menambahkan sekitar 100 orang tewas dalam penembakan masjid selama tiga tahun terakhir.

Para pelaku penembakan masjid itu, masih menurut pemerintah Yaman, adalah mereka yang secara mental terganggu dan di tengah konflik antar suku.

Bom bunuh diri
Dalam sebuah serangan terpisah di hari yang sama, seorang pelaku bom bunuh diri yang diduga terkait al-Qaeda menyerang kota Mudia, Provinsi Abyan menewaskan tiga orang dan melukai dua orang lainnya.

"Salah satu korban tewas adalah komandan milisi lokal pro tentara, Nasser Ali Mansur," kata seorang pejabat Provinsi Abyan seperti dikutip Reuters.

Untuk memerangi kelompok al-Qaeda di wilayah selatan negeri itu, pemerintah Yaman menerima banyak bantuan dari Amerika Serikat.

Selain untuk mengurangi aksi al-Qaeda Semenanjung Arab (AQAP), Amerika Serikat juga berkepentingan agar aksi kelompok ini tidak menyebar ke negara tetangga Arab Saudi.

Tahun lalu, serangan pemerintah Yaman yang didukung Amerika Serikat mengusir kelompok Ansar al-Sharia (Pendukung Hukum Islam) dari beberapa kota yang mereka kuasai sejak memberontak melawan kekuasaan mantan Presiden Ali Abdullah Saleh.

http://news.detik.com/read/2013/03/22/033545/2200676/1148/bom-bunuh-diri-meledak-di-masjid-suriah-tokoh-ulama-sunni-tewas?9911012

Bom Bunuh Diri Meledak di Masjid Suriah, Tokoh Ulama Sunni Tewas

Damaskus - Sebuah bom bunuh diri meledak di sebuah masjid di pusat kota Damaskus, Suriah. Ledakan itu menewaskan pimpinan Sunni pro pemerintah dan 14 orang lainnya.

"Pimpinan Mohammed Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti tewas oleh serangan bunuh diri teroris di sebuah masjid di Damaskus," demikian dilaporkan stasiun TV Suriah yang diberitakan oleh AFP, Jumat (22/3/2013).

"Bouti tewas saat memberikan ceramah kepada pelajar Islam di masjid Iman," tambah pemberitaan itu.

Pengamat HAM Suriah mengatakan sekitar 15 orang tewas dalam serangan tersebut, termasuk Bouti. Belasan orang lainnya mengalami luka. Kantor berita SANA menyebut 14 orang tewas dan 40 lainnya cedera.

Pelaku masuk ke dalam masjid dan seketika meledakkan dirinya. Bouti adalah pimpinan spritual Sunni yang pro pemerintah. Setiap sekali dalam seminggu, televisi menyiarkan salat Jumat yang dipimpin oleh Bouti.

http://id.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120827223546AAc1ekE

@Kristen! apa tanggapan kalian terhadap kasus pembakaran kuil budha oleh kelompok kristen di india dan korea?

kristen menyerang dan membakar kuil budha secara serempak di india dan korea selatan, kabarnya pembantaian umat budha di korea dan india dialkukan serempak oleh sekeomlpok kristen yg dulunya minoritas, setelah kasus pembantaian dan teror yg dilakukan oleh sekelompok kristen kabarnya keadaan menjadi berbalik, agama budha menjadi minroitas disana. aku kutip ya !!

http://christianwatchindia.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/south-korea-a-chronology-of-christian-attacks-against-buddhism/

""... Now Christianity is the DOMINANT religion in South Korea and Buddhism is a FADING religion. This is how Christians subvert from within. And this how they commit genocide of pre Christian culture and religions. And that is exactly their intention in India as well...""

iya kan? kenapa seperti itu? apakah dengan seperti itu kristen mengumpulkan jemaat? dengan membantai agama lain? kejam sekali. apakah itu ajaran kasih yg dilakukan oleh kristen yg dibimbing oleh roh kudus? #aku tidak tahu. oh iya kalau mau lihat video-nya silahkan tonton disini :



coba kalihan baca salah satu komentar user di video tersebut, aku kutip ya :

""Christian all time agressive to another school or religius.... this event is not surprise =\

Kayandzi 7 months ago 4""

aku artiin ya, ""kristen selama ini kan emang agresif kepada agama, sekolah agama lain, udah gak heran deh !!""

Temples in Flames
Note: Please view with MS Explorer to read accurately the special characters for pronounciation of Korean words.

I wrote the following article with the assistance of my wife Jenny Lim in the the spring of 1996 shortly after arson attacks on Buddhist temples in Suyuri section of northern Seoul. I presented it at a panel entitled "Buddhist and Christian Cooperation for Social Action in Korea" which I organized and moderated for the 1996 Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies Conference "Socially Engaged Buddhism and Christianity" hosted by Depaul University in Chicago.

The panel was composed of Venerable Shin Bop Ta, abbot of Eunhaesa Monastery and chairman of the One Korea Movement; Venerable Pomnyun, leader of the Join Together Society and the Buddhist Academy for Ecological Awakening; Professor Kim Kyong Jae of Hanshin University, an ordained minister of the Korean Presbyterian Church and author of Christianity and the Encounter of Asian Religions (Bockencentrum, 1994); and Professor Chung Hyun-Kyung, a eco-feminist liberation theologian who teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Frank M. Tedesco presented the focal paper reproduced below.

The Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies was so moved by the revelation of fire bombings of Buddhist temples and tensions between the faiths in Korea that officially issued a Statement of Concern and Support for Korean Buddhists at the end of the meeting which was endorsed with signatures by hundreds of the participants at the conference. The SBCS has set up a fund to redress the destruction.

Unfortunately attacks on Buddhist sanctuaries have continued to be perpetrated throughout the country (1998). Protests and demands for justice within the Buddhist community seem to have inspired reflection among some liberal Protestant leaders in Korea who have apologized publicly for the acts of extremists who call themselves "Christians".



QUESTIONS FOR BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN COOPERATION IN KOREA
Frank M. Tedesco


1. Introduction: Religious Freedom in Korea

The Korean peninsula is known throughout the world for the stark bifurcation between the communist North and the capitalist South. North Korea (DPRK) is one of the most closed societies in the world where the public is prohibited access to international communication. Reports tell us that the North is a starving totalitarian state where the people have no freedom or civil rights and where the thought of the Great Leaders Kim Il Sung and his heir Kim Jong Il dominates all aspects of life like a ultra-nationalist cult. The major institutionalized religions of the North- Buddhism, Christianity and Chondogyo- have been subject to purges and are strictly subordinated to the state and its all pervasive ideology of Juche (self-reliance). Authentic interreligious dialogue and cooperation is a non-issue except for praise of the Great Leader. Survival of the original religious impulses and authentic traditions of the North is at stake after nearly fifty years of political repression. What is happening in the South?

South Korea (ROK), in contrast, is renowned as a economic superstar, an Asian industrial dragon, who rose from the devastation of the Korean War to host the very successful 1988 Olympics and join the club of developed nations in the OECD in record time. South Korea, too, has had its authoritarian leaders we know well (Rhee, Park, Chun, Roh...), but none have been so idolized like the father and son duo in the North. Quite the contrary, retired dictators in the South have been denounced as scoundrels and put behind bars for corruption in a sudden wave of democratic reforms propelled by the freely elected President Kim Young Sam, a Presbyterian elder and former dissident, despite their reputed leadership through the economic boom of the eighties.

A tradition of authoritarianism notwithstanding, institutionalized religions have fared much better in South Korea than in the North since the Korean War. Strongly influenced by Western democratic political ideals since the founding of the ROK government in 1948, the present Constitution of the Republic of Korea (Sixth Republic, 1987) guarantees privacy of correspondence and freedom of religion, conscience, speech, press, assembly and equality before the law regardless of religion. Free to follow their religious predilections without serious constraints on their behavior for the most part, the religious world of Korea is very rich. There is a wide diversity of religious options open to "spiritual seekers" and "society seekers" alike. They may choose from the oldest native and traditional folk and shaman beliefs and practices (nature worship and national foundation myths included) or they may investigate the over 1600 year old Buddhist tradition (and Confucianism if it is considered a religion). They may also opt for the relatively 'new' indigenous religions of Chondogyo and Won Buddhism and others or they may, as so many have done since the Korean War, embrace the recently introduced Western faiths of Catholicism and Protestantism with their various orders and permutations.

While South Koreans are free to follow whatever religion they wish, according to government statistics, only 54% of the population (43 million) in 1991 claim religious affiliation. Of this 54%, about 12 million identify themselves as Buddhist (51%), about 8 million as Protestant (34%), 2.5 million as Catholic (11%), roughly 2 % as Confucian and 2% others. The National Statistics Office indicates that Buddhists are the fastest growing segment of the religious population in Korea. Buddhists have grown from 46.9% of the religious population in 1985 to 51.2% in 1991 while the Protestant population has declined 3.3% and Catholics 0.2%.


The figures cited above vary widely from those published in the Religious Yearbook 1995 of a Protestant research group. This source estimates that Korea has "as many as 18 million Christians, or 41% of the population." Protestant and Methodist denominations account for the majority of the Christians. Following Shim, Jae Hoon in the Far Eastern Economic Review, the handbook says that the "total number of South Korean Protestants slipped O.4% to 15 million between 1991 and 1994, a sharp contrast to the growth of previous decades. The Roman Catholic Church says it has continued to expand, to 3.5 million adherents, but church officials say the growth rate slowed to 3.4% last year, down from 6.3% in 1991." We would like to add that the number of believers most commonly claimed on banners during demonstrations by Buddhist activists and in news by the Buddhist press is 20 million. The complex issues of questionnaire design and survey methodology cannot be elaborated on here but we will assume that there is a rough balance between Christians and Buddhists throughout the Korean population with about half the total populace claiming no strong religious affiliation. There is no other country in the world where these two religions are so equally represented in the general population.


2. Early Protestant Missionary Attitude toward Buddhism in Korea

Can we not learn something more about the nature of these major traditions in Korea by observing their interactions in close juxtaposition, millions of believers living in the same communities side by side? What may we expect for the future of Eastern and Western interreligious dialogue? No! Interdependent religious dialogue? No! Interdependent religious co-habitation, as our world grows closer and closer? How do Christians and Buddhists get along in Korea today? And how does their present relationship compare with what we know about Korea at the beginning of this century? What does this mean for the challenges the Korean people will face in the immediate future? And the rest of the world?

"Except for the religiously exclusivistic attitudes upheld by the vast majority of present day Korean Christians", Koreans were traditionally "generally flexible towards different faiths" states Professor Oh Kangnam in a recent article. He quotes a passage from an American missionary Homer Hulbert who went to Korea in 1886 to describe the Korean "eclectic or pluralistic attitude" which is "now hardly found among many Koreans, especially among Korean Christian leaders and their followers." Hulbert wrote : "...the reader must ever bear in mind that in every Korean mind there is a jumble of the whole, that there is no antagonism between the different cults... As a general thing, we may say that the all-round Korean will be a Confucian when in society, a Buddhist when he philosophises and a spirit worshipper when he is in trouble."

"A jumble of the whole... there is no antagonism between the cults!" Putting this insulting judgment aside, there is an element of surprise at the novelty (to Hulbert the missionary at least) that there is no conflict among the different belief systems in traditional Korea at the time of the advent of his missionary work. The religions seem to have co-existed in peace. Hulbert went to Korea at the end of the Yi Dynasty. The Confucian authorities had long ago driven Buddhist monks from the cities and into the mountains and controlled the government and all positions of influence in education, commerce and the military. The Buddhist sangha was at its nadir in Korean history. Shamanism, folk Buddhism and indigenous beliefs were the domain of the majority of the people - the farmers and women - but they were relatively powerless and also subordinate to Confucian men. Korea was just on the brink of defending itself against the political and cultural assault of Japanese colonial aggression which was to last until 1945.


Into this relatively placid, if not somewhat depressed, plural religious milieu entered Western missionaries with their undisguised goal to convert all Koreans to Christ, "forcing its way in after a fight of centuries," according to missionary scholar Charles Allen Clark. One of the most articulate and erudite among the American missionaries, Dr. C. A. Clark, author of the classic Religions of Old Korea, was a missionary in Korea for twenty eight years at the beginning of this century. Clark delivered lectures on Korean religion at a number of theological schools in the United States beginning with the Princeton Theological Lectures of 1921.

Clark's observations of religious life in Korea were very perceptive and informed with much reading in comparative religion of his day and reflections on religions in other parts of Asia where he traveled. He was convinced that his Christianity was the culmination of all the imperfect faiths "in various stages of mental and spiritual development" which had preceded it in Asia. Reviewing the history of religion in Korea, he saw the "religions of old Korea destined to pass away to make room for brighter things."

Clark sounded a death knell for Buddhism in Korea and damned it with mixed praise in the process. His concluding paragraphs on Buddhism from his classic book on Korean religions are worth citing for the attitude toward Buddhism they reveal. This, too, was taught and transmitted to Korean converts of the "modern" Western faith both in Korea and in seminaries in the United States.

Buddha's sun seems to be setting in Korea. Korea owes it a debt of gratitude. it came to Korea in 372 AD, and was vastly superior to the degraded spirit worship and Shamanism which it found. It gave Korea a moral code, more or less defective yet infinitely better than nothing. It has collaborated with Confucianism all down the ages, giving "sanctions" to make even Confucian ethics operative. It gave education of a sort and stood for education always. It has always had faults, glaring ones, but it also had a contribution to make to Korean life and culture in those dim ages of the past. Its sun rose in 372. It reached its zenith in the Koryu Age. It has steadily gone down ever since. Buddhism seems to have no message for the present age. Efforts will be made to keep it alive. It will not die all at once, but 'Ichabod' seems to have been written over it, and it must go.

As the sun of Buddhism sets, it should be a joy to all lovers of Korea that a greater Sun of Righteousness has arisen to give light suitable to this new day. May the Buddhists themselves soon come to see that a Messiah greater than Miryuck has come, a Savior more real than Amida, a compassionate Friend Who loves more than Kwanseieum or Chijang, and Who has power far all that of Taiseiji! Christianity coming now can thank Buddhism for making all these ideas familiar to the whole people, and for making it easier for them to receive them. May the whole land accept this new, true statement of those ideas as eagerly as it did the Buddhism in the Koryu Age, and may the whole people become one in serving Christ, our King!
Our revered elder brother, wise and all-knowing thankful teacher, who loves us and our nation more than we do ourselves, Clark intoned the last words at the funeral of Korean Buddhism, he hopefully assumed! Anachronistic as Clark's remarks may appear in this age of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, the self-righteous and anti-Buddhist sentiments he expressed unfortunately still prevail in Korea today.


3. Contemporary Protestantism in Korea and Interreligious Dialogue

A victim of this exclusivistic and imperialistic ideology was Dr. Pyôn Sôn-hwan, the late former president of the Methodist Seminary in Seoul, who was dismissed from the presidency of his school and also deprived of his professorship and ministerial privileges in 1992. He was virtually excommunicated from the church "mainly because of his sympathetic understanding toward other religions, particularly toward Buddhism. When he stated to the effect that there is salvation outside the church, he was severely criticized by his fellow Christians from almost every denomination in Korea."

Dr. Pyôn was the leading figure in Buddhist-Christian dialogue in Korea until his death in 1995. He was a frequent participant in international Buddhist conferences as well as Buddhist-Christian dialogue meetings such as at the Academy House in Seoul. He demonstrated in his own life the kind of personal honesty, openness, modesty and courage which is needed to make interreligious dialogue more than a pleasant academic exercise but a living interactive reality with others of different faiths.

The last meetings I had with Dr. Pyôn included an unexpected encounter on the grounds of Chogyesa Temple in Seoul in 1994 during the demonstrations of the reformist sangha to oust the former corrupt administrative head of the Chogye Order headquarters Sô Ûi-hyôn. We took 'refuge' in Venerable Bopta's One Korea Buddhist reunification movement office when the action at the Order's Headquarters seemed at a lull and it began to rain. We were both impressed with Ven. Bopta's North Korean experiences and his insights into Buddhism there. Our last meeting was at the Academy House when the famous Vietnamese peace activist Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh was invited to speak with a group of Christian leaders and demonstrate his form of mindful walking meditation (in the rain!) in April, 1995.


In an important article published in the spring of 1995 in Tabo, the quarterly journal of the Korean Buddhism Promotion Foundation, Dr. Pyôn addressed the United Nations 1995 announcement of the Year of Tolerance and Understanding. The UN called upon religious followers of the globe to play a decisive role in building a brighter future for the world by denouncing and eliminating any form of intolerance and discrimination caused by differences in religions and doctrines. Why is it, he asked, that while peace seemed to made significant progress in the Middle East with the truce between the Israelis and the Palestinian guerrillas, that while the Cold War between East and West seemed at an end, that even while the Roman Catholic Church had declared the decision of the Inquisition on Galileo was wrong, that while the troubles in Ireland might be over, why was there still no progress in dissolving tensions and making true peace between North and South Korea at the DMZ? And why is Christianity in Korea provoking public condemnation because of the missionary work of its aggressive, conversion-oriented Christian leaders who are following extremely conservative and fundamentalist theology from the States? Rev. Pyôn quipped "that Korea, once known as 'the land of the morning calm' was quickly becoming the 'land of the evening noise' or worse yet the 'land of the morning and evening noise' because of fanatical Christians who engage in combative conversion-hungry missionary work. Nothing is wrong with propagation or missionary work itself, only the exclusive and obsolete method that slanders and condemns other religions," he wrote. Dr. Pyôn then went on to cite newspaper and magazine reports to illustrate the breath and magnitude of insults and outright slander perpetrated against Buddhists by zealous Christians.


A more extensive listing of incidents against Buddhism including over twenty serious arson attacks against temples in the last fifteen years will be enumerated in the next section. Five arson attacks against temples in Suyudong, Seoul just prior to the year's (1996) Buddha's Birthday celebration has been the primary impetus for this compilation. Three assaults were made on the Seoul International Zen Center at Hwagyesa, the home monastery of one of Korea's major Buddhist leaders in interreligious dialogue and practice, world famous Zen Master Seung Sahn. Two closely neighboring temples were even more seriously victimized; a bell tower housing religious instruments was destroyed at Samsông-Am up the mountain from Hwagyesa and two extraordinary traditional Dharma Halls were burnt to the ground at Pônwon Chôngsa, cost: US $5.6 million. The latter two temples were attacked just past midnight the same night (April 20). The International Zen Center at Hwagyesa attacked repeatedly three times within three weeks of the April 20 catastrophes, the first time on April 21st!
We must be careful to point out that no one has been positively identified, arrested or definitely associated with any of these crimes as of this writing. We have interviewed the chief of police involved who is actively pursuing the cases and he concurs with general public opinion that it is probable that a fanatical or mentally disturbed religious extremist is connected with the incidents based on the nature of the crimes and the pattern of successful investigations and arrests in other cases of Buddhist temple burnings. These incidents may never be resolved but they have opened the topic of religious violence in Korea which should not be suppressed, slighted or ignored again.


4. Questions for Buddhists and Christians in Korea

Occasions of insults and violent assaults against Buddhist teachings and Buddhist images and places of worship, including the homes of Buddhist clergy in Korea like those cited above, had very little notice in the local or national press or other media in Korea. Why is this? Does someone need to be hurt or killed before it's "news?" They have only been reported in the small, private Buddhist press for the most part but almost ignored by larger agencies? Is there a policy to quash reports of incidents of religious conflict or attacks against Buddhists in order to keep a lid on the events?Are the incidents so sensitive that certain authorities fear a backlash from an informed Buddhist constituency?


Why aren't Korean Buddhists themselves more assertive about rectifying the ill treatment they have been receiving from certain factions within Korea? Why hasn't the Chogye Order Headquarters published a policy statement about this issue?
Why haven't more liberal Korean Christian leaders and congregations (including Catholics) extended sympathy and support to Buddhists who have been victimized by religious extremists or unknown assailants? If such basic neighborly concern is truly missing in the Korean religious world, isn't it time to actively do something about it and bridge the icy chasm of indifference which has kept Koreans separate and isolated from each other within their own small country? Who can blame the other for their aloof silence? Radical students and professors in South Korea righteously blame the United States and the USSR for the painful division of their country at the end of World War II. Can they really blame the superpowers for the religious tensions and alienation their own people perpetuate in the South?


These questions arise from a hope that the Korean Buddhist and Christian communities can help those of us who care about Korea get a clearer sense how inter-religious cooperation for effective social action can be implemented in Korea and other parts of Asia. A good place to begin is at the beginning. Just what is going on in Korea? Christians and Buddhists look at each other suspiciously over stony walls. Like the new tall buildings which have gone up everywhere in Seoul (and have come crashing down like Sampoong Department Store!), they wear a thin veneer of stone that hides a tempest of activity within. Can we not acknowledge this simple fact and recognize that we are all in our own private way trying to make sense of this confusing and ever more crowded and polluted world? Is it "ecologically correct" to pretend that we can really separate ourselves from others? An "ecological awakening" to our interconnectedness is in order. Don't we share the results of our karma and our interdependence with the natural world around us?

Buddhists and Christians alike need to seriously consider the description of the Christian critique of Buddhism which was written by Venerable Chi Myong in 1990. Dr. Pyôn selected his words as representative of a wise Buddhist response to the widespread Christian challenges and attacks. It can be summarized as follows.

Many Korean Christians claim :


1) Buddhism is superstition
2) Buddhism is idol worship
3) Jesus is God but Shakyamuni is (was) a human being
4) Buddhism is too difficult to understand. It is a philosophy, not a religion. Belief in Jesus is easy to understand and to do
5) Buddhism is baseless. It has no substance at its root. It is responsible for the wrongdoings of its monks and nuns.
6) Buddhism is an evil religion which must be eradicated from the face of the earth.

In response to these hateful accusations Ven. Chi Myông encourages people to:


1) Deal with clannish attacks perpetrated by followers of other religions (Face them. Do not ignore them. Engage them).
2) Set up an organization(s) to dissolve hostility and show bodhisattva action.
3) Eliminate one's own exclusivistic and aggressive inclinations. Fighting against violence is against Buddha's teachings. Refrain from habitual, nervous reactions.Practice the bodhisattva spirit in silence with friendliness without angry retorts. Avoid fighting provocateurs who want to see Buddhism disappear from earth. And the outraged Dr. Pyôn adds in aggravation: "People who damage and desecrate Buddhism. People who are bound to the letters of bible and church. Christian fanatics who attempt to destroy their own cultural assets and smash their own traditional religion. Puppet-like pseudo-Christians. These people are the enemy of the open democratic society toward which our nation is striving."


5. Steps toward Cooperation

In the face of the strong conservative Christian resistance which we have delineated above, and the caution of Buddhists who suspect a conversion agenda under the guise of dialogue, there yet occurs some very encouraging cooperative activities among religious leaders and their followers in Korea.

Most recently in the summer 1996 was the Religious Leaders' Pilgrimage for National Reunification which marched through eleven cities in South Korea from June 25 to July 4, 1996 and involved about 3,000 clergy in all. This was the first time that Protestants, Catholics, Buddhists and Won Buddhists actually worked together and walked together for a greater cause beyond mere ceremonial photo opportunities of inter-religious harmony and academic discourse. A very positive result of this pilgrimage was the establishment of nine new city branches of the Religious Council for National Reconciliation and Reunification (Chonggyo-in Hyôp-ûi Hoe) outside of Seoul.

We must also mention the activities of the Korean Conference on Religion and Peace (KCRP) which was originally initiated in 1965 as the Association of Korean Religionists. The present KCRP is comprised of members from the six major faiths in Korea: Buddhism, Confucianism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Won Buddhism and Chondogyo. The former AKR includes members from new religions like the Chonrigyo, Taejongyo and the T'ongilgyo (Unification Church) but not the Protestant and Catholic churches. The Christian members withdrew because they chose not to share in the organization with the Unification Church.

According to Dr. Kim Sunggon, a professor at Youngsan Won Buddhist Seminary, both the AKR and the KCRP "aim at improving mutual understanding and creating a better society by cooperation among religions, but there is no dialogue and cooperation between these two interfaith organizations. What an irony this is!" Inter-religious organizations must stand for more than theoretical understanding among the religions. Meetings and proclamations and books are not enough. The proof of an organization's effectiveness is in its ability to create new harmony among religious communities who hitherto were disinterested on account of beliefs in their own supremacy.

Perhaps Buddhism's great virtue in interreligious dialogue and cooperation is that it already had an acceptance of diversity of opinion and experience about the mental life of man from the inception of the religion with Shakyamuni. From the beginning, it never had to try to bridge differences with other paths since it had already recognized them from the beginning. This is its great "pangp'yôn" (upaya), expedient means of teaching Buddhist truths.

There are many serious issues in Korea to unite Christians and Buddhists. National reunification and environmental issues are critical without exception for the entire population of Korea. Resolution of these issues will require more than cosmetic treatment. The lives of all Korean people are at stake. Buddhist and Christian cooperation can provide an atmosphere for more openness and communication at the governmental level. Religious leaders among the Buddhists and Christians in Korea can make a difference in the course of Korean history as they have in the past as during the Independence Movement. But they should come together not just because they face a common enemy but because they realize their mutual interdependence and shared human concerns. Religions need not lose their identity when in dialogue and cooperation. They can demonstrate the greatest wisdom, love and compassion they are capable of when they move closer to their neighbors with whom they live. As the "sleeping wisdom" of modern Korean Buddhism awakens, it will be in a stronger position to share its virtues with people of all faiths in Korea and lead their mutually cooperative efforts for social concord.

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Chronology of Events January 1997- December 1998

January 1997. Minister of Government Administration, Han-gyu Kim who is a Christian elder announced that the national exam for public officials (Level 7) would be administered during weekdays. Buddhists called for rectification since it is a religiously discriminatory policy to set the exam date in consideration of a particular religion.

June 1997. Human feces were scattered around the Dharma Hall in the Special Forces¡¯ School under the Ranger-commando Force. Candidates for Noncommissioned officers who tried to attend dharma meeting had to write a letter of self-criticism. It was revealed that the officer in command forced the candidates without religion to believe in Christianity and applied unspoken pressure on Buddhist candidates. Buddhists organized Countermeasure Committee against Oppression of Buddhism and protested strongly. Defense Ministry issued an apology under the name of its minister. Lieutenant Colonel H i-man Park, head of the Special Forces¡¯ School was warned, and Commander, Lieutenant Chin-gyu Lee and Chaplain. Captain Siyong Chang were dismissed. ¡°Military Affairs Regulations¡± were formulated and directed to the whole army.

July 3, 1997. Fire, presumably arson, broke out at Kubog-am in Pyongch¡¯ang-dong, Ch¡¯onghak-sa and Samdong-sa in Chongnung 3 Dong. The origin of the fire is unknown.

July 8, 1997. Fire, presumably arson, breaks out at Kumgang-am in Tobong-dong and Pomjong-sa in Ssangmun-dong. CBS denounces Buddhism in a program called ¡°Make us anew (Saerop-ge Hasos ).¡± This incident is revealed during deliberations of Broadcasting Committee and a warning is issued to CBS accordingly.

July 26, 1997. Fire, presumably arson, breaks out at Kungnak-sa in Mang¡¯uri around 1:50 a.m. The main dharma hall and living quarters are burned to the ground. Estimated damages are 500 million won.

August 2, 1997. Attempted arson attack occurs at Inson-sa in Pyongch¡¯ang-dong. The masked perpetrator tries to set fire while threatening the abbot of the temple with a container of gasoline. He escape when interrupted by students. Inson-sa requests a thorough investigation by the police and supplies evidence used by the perpetrator.

August 3, 1997. Fire, presumably arson, breaks out at Homyong-sa in Inch¡¯on and destroyed main dharma hall.

August 18, 1997. Chairman of the Grand National Party (Shinhanguktang) Hoich¡¯ang Lee, in a special live program with presidential candidates organized by the Far East Broadcasting (Kukdong Pangsong), replies that ¡®Sundays should be avoided for national or group functions since Sunday is a day to rest¡¯ when asked a question regarding national exams administered on Sundays and the infringement of religious activities.

August 20, 1997. National exam for public officials (level 7) for the year of 1997 was held during the week instead of Sunday as requested by Christians. Chairman of United Liberal Democrats (Chaminnyon) Jong-pil Kim mentioned that if he is elected president, he would try his best to eliminate hindrances in religious life. However, it may be difficult to eliminate them all, regarding national exams administered on Sundays and the infringement of religious activities.

August 25, 1997. Fire, presumably arson, breaks out in a studio on the 1stt floor of the Buddhist Television Network (BTN). Evidence found at the scene includes partially burnt paper and traces of fuel. This is the second incident in which that the Buddhist media is targeted.

October 5, 1997. Fire, presumably arson, breaks out at Yongsan Pophwa-sa in Hyehwa-dong, Seoul around 2 a.m. It destroys the library in the basement. The fire is extinguished in two hours. Two people including a resident monk are treated for suffocation caused by smoke inhalation. Damage caused by another fire in 1991 amounted to 60 million won.

October 23, 1997. Inch¡¯ n Union of Christianity (Inch¡¯ n Kidokkyo ch¡¯ongyonhap) held a prayer service at Inch¡¯ n gymnasium attended by 5,000 ministers and lay followers demanding removal of the Buddha statue in Inch¡¯on Detention House. In an effort to press their demand, they make a protest visit to the Detention House after the service.

November 3, 1997. Munhwa Broadcasting Company (MBC) airs a program on monk Yongsan at PD Notebook (PD Such¡¯ op) which was derogatory against Buddhism.

November 1997. Presidential candidate Hoi-ch¡¯ang Lee printed ¡°an apostate monk mask¡± in his publicity leaflet as the symbol of deceit and lie. Even though this can provide enough ground for misunderstanding, the fact that they did not thoroughly check the leaflet is the indication of their lack of understanding of or prejudice against Buddhism.

December 30, 1997. Fire of unknown origin breaks out at Kimyong-sa in Munkyong, Kyongbuk. Three buildings including Solsondang Pavillion, and living quarters are burnt to ashes. Solsondang, a huge lecture hall built about 100 years ago, was the biggest wooden building in the country.

February 16, 1998. Marine Corps Commandant Tobong Chon says that he would make the Marine Corps soldiers of Christ at a ground-breaking ceremony of a church for the Second Division of the Marine Corps. Buddhists made a strong protest against the incident. Marine Corps Commandant sends a letter of explanation stating that the incident was found groundless through self investigation under the directives of the Chief of Naval Operations (March 13, 1998) and promises to prevent any recurrences of the kind (March 14, 1998).

May 7, 1998. President DJ Kim and the First Lady invite a Catholic priest and a minister to the Blue House for Mass and worship service. It was announced that President Kim could not attend mass the last two months. This is to save the President trouble of going out during the weekend and to avoid causing inconvenience to other parishioners. Buddhists express concern

1998. Joog-ang Daily Newspaper¡¯s Chicago Office publishes 1998 version of the Joong-ang Ilbo Korean Business Directory omitting four Buddhist temples including Pult¡¯a-sa, Pongbul-sa, Pulsim-sa Sonryon-sa in the religious category. Joong-ang Daily sends a letter of apology to the Chogye Order and promises to prevent any recurrences. Head of the Chicago office visits the temples and apologizes.

1998. Jae-sop Lee, head Minister of Joong-ang Holiness Church (Joong-ang Songgyol Kyohoe) in Taejon distributes leaflets denouncing Buddhism. Upon a protest by Buddhists, Minister Lee visits the Buddhist Association in Taejon and promise to run an apology statement in the daily newspaper.

1998. The government revokes its intention to engrave a dragon image on the handle of National Seal due to a strong protest by Korean Christians. Christians assert the ¡°animal symbolizes Satan¡± and should not be used in an image representing our nation.¡¯

May 16, 1998. Police investigator following a tip without evidence about organized gangsters barge into a dharma hall where a special ritual (Yesujae) is in progress, put handcuffs on a monk and take him to the police station without an arrest warrant using violent language in front of the worshippers. This case is now on trial.

June 3, 1998. A certain Kim breaks into the Main Dharma Hall of Podok-sa in Pangbae-dong and trie to destroy the Buddha triad. He is arrested but is later released without being charged due to the indifferent attitude of the Pangbae Policebox. The Kim had threatened arson attack against the temple several times during the past month. Pangbae Policebox rearrest the suspect who was found to be a Christian, upon strong demand by the temple.
Damage traces indicate that someone smashed a door of the dharma hall and tries to set fire to Hyangnim-sa, Yangch¡¯on-gu, Seoul. Temple residents catch two suspicious people including a wife of a minister who was wandering around the dharma hall and reported them to the police. Police find no evidence and they are released.

June 26, 1998. Su-jin Kim, a Christian, breaks into Wonmyong Sonwon (Zen Center) in Cheju Island, decapitates 750 granite Buddha statues and destroys a gilt bronze Buddha triad, gold-plated jade Buddha and many other Buddhist items. He is caught by people at the temple while breaking windows of the living quarters. Kim confesses at the police that he destroyed Buddha statues in order to convert the temple to a church.

June 27, 1998. Thirty Christian naval men from the First Division of the Marine Corps missionize in front of Seoul Railroad Station after attending a spiritual retreat. Only three months before the Chief of Naval Operations promises to prevent recurrences of such incidents.

July 1, 1998. Songsun Kim, ward chief of Sonpa-gu district and Chong-shik Chang, ward chief of Kangbuk-ku district are sworn in with their hands on a Christian Bible, which evoked public criticism. Kim apologizes later. Chang refuses at first but apologizes later when repeatedly demanded by Buddhists.

July 6, 1998. Someone intentionally sprays kerosene in the well at a Taego Temple, Wohyo-sa in Sadang-dong, This case is under investigation.

July 16, 1998. Leader of the Grand New Party Hwa-gap Han stirs up trouble when he states, ¡°if President Kim¡¯s reform fails, the future of the country will be grim. This government was given to us by God¡± in an interview with Sisa Journal dated July 16.

July 26, 1998. Two right hand fingers of the Shakyamuni Buddha statue and four left fingers of Manjusri Boddhisattva at Torim-sa in Cheju island are damaged. Police suspect a Ms. Yang who damaged Buddha images the same way in 1995.

July 30, 1998. Newsmaker which is published by Kyonghyang Daily uses an expression derogatory to the ordained clergy and Buddhism in an article, ¡®Money Loving Elite Worldly Desires Gone Astray¡¯ and ¡®Safe in hell, no keys¡¯, written by the reporter Kil-gon Chong. ¡°Once a monk acquires the taste of meat, not even a fly in the dharma hall will be spared.¡±

August 25, 1998, Two Buddha statues in Pohyonsa Temple in Ch¡¯ongju City are damaged by a Mr. Oh Pyong-gak, a member of a local church. He had a psychiatric history.

August 29, 1998, Four policemen from Public Security Division of Seoul Metropolitan Police rough up Ven. Song Kwang at the entrance of Chogyesa Temple, the main headquarters temple of the order in Seoul at 9:30 am. The police had been blocking the driveway of the temple and he asked them to step aside so he could drive in and park. They hit him and used abusive language in response. Outraged lay people struggled with the police and a few people received injuries. The police escaped the scene when the protest by lay people escalated. Immediately after the incident, Police Chief Kim, Yonghwa and Kim, Hongjun, Director of the Public Security Division visit Chogyesa to make formal apology and to promise that police involved in the incident will be disciplined. The four perpetrators of the violence visited Chogyesa later that afternoon and apologized to the victim and laypeople involved and performed many prostrations in the temple.

September 1, 1998, Rev. Kim An-shik of Kunbit Church in Ch¡¯ongju visits Ven. Wonbong, abbot of Pohyonsa Temple with a letter of regret for desecration incident committed by a former church member. Rev. Kim¡¯s letter states ¡®it broke my heart upon hearing of the desecration at Pohyonsa¡± and asks forgiveness of the abbot and hopes that these acts should never be repeated in the future.

September 4, 1998, Korean National Council of Churches (KNCC) responds sympathetically to destructive actions of some Christians against Buddhist shrines in previous months. There is a spectrum of reactions by Korean churches to the KNCC announcement as be seen in the following news report.

SEOUL (Yonhap) 980904 KST - In response to incidents of vandalism targeting Buddhist statues, the Korean National Council of Churches (KNCC) expressed concern about the destructive actions of some Christians.

The KNCC's announcement has eased the tension between Christians and Buddhists.


However, a Christian non-denominational weekly newspaper published by the Rev. Kim Chul-young ran articles justifying vandalism of Buddhist property.

The newspaper, Hanil-nara (Heavenly Kingdom), published on its front page a photograph of a decapitated Buddhist statue, with the caption from the Old Testament's Book of Judges urging the destruction of religious idols.

A page-two editorial, entitled "All religious idols should be eliminated," said, "The Buddhist community's criticism of the government over these incidents is unfair."

The editorial added, "The Buddhists' criticism of former President Kim Young-sam for holding Christian religious services in the Blue House led him to stop; and this refusal to allow the President to pray resulted in disasters.

"The recent flooding in Korea struck hardest those areas in which there were many Buddhist statues. There was no flooding on Cheju Island, where a Christian destroyed many Buddhist statues this summer."

In addition, the editorial said that "if people do not respect the one God, they will be subject to disasters." The editorial concluded that "it is unfortunate that it is illegal to destroy Buddhist statues."

In response to the KNNC's recent announcement, the editorial said, "Do you think God will be happy with your announcement? We fear his reaction." The editorial stressed that "since the current environment is accepting of all religions, Christians should prevent others from worshipping false gods and encourage them to worship the true God."

Earlier, Kidok Shinmun (Christianity Newspaper) said, "Buddhists are overreacting to these incidents." The newpaper printed a cartoon and articles suggesting that Buddhists were overly sensitive."

But another newspaper, Kidokkyo Shinmun (Christian Newspaper), a Presbyterian publication, expressed deep concern about conflict with other religions and dedicated a series of articles to the subject.

It said that because of certain incidents - including "continuous vandalism, Christians' open support for Kim Young-sam in 1992, Christians' destruction of totems at Yonsei University and Seoul's Noryang-jin area, and their opposition to building a memorial to Korea's mythical founder, Tangun" - that the public has criticized Christians for extremism. This criticism, it said, "has resulted from Christians' cultural insensitivity and failure to acknowledge other belief systems."

September 14-16, 1998. The Daily Sports Newspaper (Ilgan Sports) prints a cartoon series called ¡°Toshi-uhon with a sorcerer who tries to kill someone by using the mantra ¡°Om mani padme hum¡± as an incantation for three days in a row from September 14 through 16. ¡®Om mani padme hum¡¯ is frequently recited Buddhist mantra. Buddhists are shocked that this mantra was quoted as a curse to kill people. The newspaper prints a statement of apology on September 25 due to a strong protest by Buddhists.

September 23-24, 1998, One hundred and eighty Buddhist police chaplains participate in training meeting to deal with religious prejudice and prevent the desecration of Buddhism. They resolve to 1) to take initiative to overcome economic crisis and protect the national culture, 2) to make efforts to prevent religious prejudice and 3) to strongly urge the placement of policemen in charge of Buddhist desecration and arson in every police station to prevent future incidents.

November 3-11, 1998, The faces of Buddha statues and paintings in seven temples in Chungch¡¯ongbukto are attacked and severely damaged by razor. Witnesses indicate that a car with license plates from another region was spotted in the temple precincts.

November 27, 1998, Six Buddha statues are found severely damaged outside of Chongsu Am Temple in Pusan. They are decapitated, with damaged noses, and human feces are smeared all over them. Police assume the crime was perpetrated by 2-3 people weilding implements judged by the severity of the damage.

December 1998, Buddhist circles raise concerns about the so-called ¡°Historical and Cultural Tour for Youth¡± conducted by the Korea Youth Federation of Seoul April through August this year. According to the Seoul Federation¡¯s recent publication ¡° Visiting Cultural Sites of Seoul,¡± thr youth visited Protestant Chongdong Church and Catholic Myongdong Cathedral as representative cultural and historical sites while Buddhist sites, relics or remains were neglected. 20,000 youth in the Seoul area participated in the program over five months.

December 15, 1998, A Kwanum statue carved on a rock in Pukhnsan National Park on the hiking route between Hwagyesa Temple and Sansong Am (both of which suffered serious arson attacks in 1996) is damaged by public employees of the Suyu Branch Office of the National Park Authority. They were ordered to remove an artifact of ¡°folk belief.¡± After investigating the case, the National Park Authority delivers an official letter of apology to the Chogye Order Headquarters and decides to provide training for NPA employees on Buddhism and national culture.

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Aula Sanshin di Vihara Donghwa, Daegu, Korea Selatan. Foto: donghwasa.net

Seoul, Korea Selatan – Sebuah surat resmi permintaan maaf dikirimkan oleh Komunitas Protestan Korea kepada kepala Vihara Donghwa (Donghwasa), Y.M. Bhiksu Sungman, atas perilaku buruk pendeta Gereja Protestan Korea, Seong, yang mengencingi altar di sebuah aulanya, merusak buku puja bakti dan melakukan vandalism dengan menulis kata kasar di lukisan dinding dengan spidol permanen.

Seperti yang dilaporkan oleh BTN, Senin (25/3), komunitas Protestan Korea secara resmi meminta maaf atas tindakan buruk mereka dan berjanji untuk tidak mengulangi lagi kesalahan mereka.

Vihara Donghwa telah berulangkali meminta sebuah permintaan maaf resmi sejak terjadinya peristiwa buruk yang terjadi pada tahun lalu, saat Pendeta Seong tertangkap kamera pengawas telah melakukan aksi tidak terpujinya. Namun, Pendeta Seong maupun pihak gerejanya tidak memberi komentar dan menolak untuk memberikan permintaan maaf singkat kepada komunitas Buddhis ataupun Vihara Donghwa.

Ketua Dewan Nasional Gereja-Gereja Korea (NCCK), Pendeta Yong-ju Kim dan Ketua Gereja Sidang-Sidang Jemaat Allah Korea, Kil-hak Choi, telah mengadakan sebuah pertemuan dengan Y.M. Bhiksu Sungman di Vihara Donghwa dan secara langsung meminta maaf atas perilaku anggota mereka, Pendeta Seong, atas tindakan buruknya.

Selama pertemuan tersebut, Choi mengatakan, ”Kami sangat menyesal tindakan yang disebabkan oleh komunitas kami kepada komunitas Buddhis dan Vihara Donghwa, dan kami akan mendidik dan mengawasi komunitas kami agar tindakan seperti ini tidak terjadi lagi.”

Pendeta Seong melakukan aksi buruknya tersebut pada 20 Agustus 2012. Menurut Daum Media, Senin (3/9/12) narasumber Vihara Donghwasa mengatakan bahwa Pendeta Seong memasuki halaman vihara pada sekitar pukul 5 sore denga mengabaikan rambu-rambu yang menunjukkan bahwa halaman parkir terebut hanya untuk para pekerja vihara. Ia memarkirkan mobilnya di paling depan.

Seong melihat-lihat vihara tersebut selama 30 menit, memelototi rupaka Buddha dan merobek buku-buku puja bakti. Saat itu, para bhiksu dan pengunjung sedang melakukan puja bakti di dalam bangunan tersebut.

Kemudian Seong pindah ke aula Sanshin (aula Dewa Gunung) dan menggunakan spidol permanen untuk menulis penghinaan pada foto dan lukisan-lukisan dinding di sana. Ia kemudian mengencingi mangkuk dan pembakar dupa yang ada di altar di sebelah aula tersebut.

Pihak kepolisan telah menangkap Seong 10 hari setelah pihak vihara membuat pengaduan.

Dalam pengakuannya kepada polisi, Seong menyatakan bahwa ia adalah pendeta dari Gereja Protestan Korea dan merusak teks-teks Buddhis karena menurutnya penuh dengan kata-kata palsu. Ia juga menjelaskan bahwa peristiwa itu terjadi setelah ia bertengkar di rumah saudara perempuannya di Daegu dan kemudian mengendarai mobil ke vihara yang berada di wilayah Yeongnam tersebut dan melampiaskan kemarahannya.

Pihak kepolisian mengatakan bahwa Seong melakukan kejahatan tersebut tanpa rencana dan merupakan hasil dari kebenciannya terhadap Buddhisme.

Dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, vihara-vihara di Korea Selatan sering mendapatkan tindakan vandalisme yang dilakukan oleh oknum-oknum umat Kristen Protestan.[Bhagavant, 26/3/13, Sum]

http://berita.bhagavant.com/2013/03/26/perilaku-buruk-pendetanya-komunitas-protestan-korea-minta-maaf.html

Akibat pemberitaan disejumlah media di negara Korea Selatan yang cenderung memuat berita negatif terhadap kekristenan, umat Protestan Korea memprotes dan mengeluhkan porsi pemberitaan tersebut yang dinilai tidak seimbang kebanyakan berita tentang agama Protestan di surat kabar memberi citra negatif kepada publik.

Korean Association of Church Communication (KACC) memonitor 159 berita dalam sepuluh surat kabar sekular sejak Januari hingga 23 Maret 2011. Hasilnya 100 berita (63 persen) memberi citra negatif dan hanya tujuh yang menunjukkan citra positif. Sementara 52 berita bersifat faktual, demikian KACC.

Menurut KACC secara khusus, dari 52 berita terkait reaksi Protestan atas kontroversi sukuk (obligasi finansial Syariat) belakangan ini, media menurunkan tiga berita yang bersifat positif, 26 faktual, dan 23 negatif. Namun, menyangkut oposisi dari kelompok-kelompok keagamaan yang lain terhadap proyek sungai yang kontroversial dari pemerintah sebaliknya pers sangat tidak kritis.

KACC mengklaim bahwa sukuk "bukan masalah keagamaan" dan harus ditanggapi sebagai masalah sosial dan ekonomi., direktur Korea Institute for Religious Freedom O Do-sun, mengatakan dia curiga dengan klaim-klaim tersebut. "Pers lokal biasanya fokus pada fakta ketika menghadapi berbagai masalah keagamaan. Saya heran apakah ada dasar lain untuk mendefinisikan "berita faktual" dan "berita negatif" dalam hasil monitor tersebut." Ungkapnya.

http://www.jawaban.com/index.php/news/detail/id/91/news/110404172627/limit/0/Protestan-Korea-Protes-Berita-Negatif-Di-Media

http://news.liputan6.com/read/565498/ledakan-bom-di-kafe-anak-muda-baghdad-renggut-26-nyawa

Ledakan Bom di Kafe Anak Muda Baghdad Renggut 26 Nyawa



Sebuah bom meledak di kafe yang penuh dengan kaum muda di Baghdad, Irak. Ledakan yang terjadi pada Kamis malam waktu setempat itu diduga dilakukan oleh seorang pembom bunuh diri. Sedikitnya 26 orang yang berada di dalam kafe tersebut tewas.

"Pemboman kafe itu terjadi sekitar pukul 21.30 waktu setempat. Dua anak dan seorang wanita yang sedang melintas di depan kafe pada saat ledakan menjadi korban. Lebih dari 50 orang lainnya terluka," kata polisi di lokasi ledakan seperti dikutip USA Today yang dilansir Jumat (19/4/2013).

Kafe nahas tersebut berada di lantai 3 sebuah bangunan di lingkungan Amiriyah Sunni. Biasanya tempat hiburan itu memang banyak didatangi oleh kaum muda untuk sekedar bersantai, melepas lelah, maupun bertemu dengan teman lainnya.

"Kafe itu penuh sesak dengan kaum muda yang menikmati sisha dan bermain biliar," ujar polisi yang tak disebutkan identitasnya.

Sebelumnya, sebuah bom mobil menghantam konvoi militer di Mosul, 225 km sebelah barat laut Baghdad. Dalam insiden tersebut, 3 tentara tewas dan 5 lainnya terluka. Beberapa jam kemudian, 1 polisi tewas dan 3 lainnya terluka ketika sejumlah pria bersenjata menyerang sebuah pos pemeriksaan keamanan di Baghdad barat.

Aksi kekerasan terus meningkat menjelang pemilihan gubernur yang akan diselenggarakan pada Sabtu 20 April. Pemungutan suara itu diperuntukkan untuk pejabat lokal di beberapa provinsi di seluruh negeri, termasuk ibukota Baghdad.

Sementara itu, pejabat wilayah Kurdi mengatakan pemilihan parlemen dan presiden baru akan diselenggarakan pada Minggu 21 September.

Guna keamanan, pihak berwenang pun berjanji akan meningkatkan keamanan menjelang pemilu. (Tnt)

bukankah dulu Katolik dan Protestan juga saling perang?? :p

wildan99Islam wrote:bukankah dulu Katolik dan Protestan juga saling perang?? :p

Duuuulu... Jakarta huga hutan2..
Duuuulu... Indonesia dijajah jepang..

Skarang..?

terus??

iseng-iseng saya search engine:buddhist populiation in Suth Korea hasilnya? muncul beberapa website yang menampilkan penganut korea di korea selatan sungguh memprihatinkan. Kemudian saya cari agama presidennya dan ternyata Le myung - Bak beragama kristen lhoh! dan beberapa waktu kemarin ada unjuk rasa besar-besaran di sana sekitar 200.000 orang memprotes pemerintahan lee yang memasukkan orang kristen saja dalam aggota kabinet yang baru. menyedihkan 10: kesenjangan di bidang pendidikan antara buddha juga semakin jauh. Bagi kalangan muda di sana budha dianggap kuno, tradisional, mistik. Mereka umumnya banyak kena pengaruh dari Amerika. Di masa lampau yang agama buddhanya di korea selatan boleh dibilang mendekati 100% kini yang tersisa cuman 20% - an. ketika agama lain di tingkat dunia pertumbuhannya sangat pesat malah buddhisme yang dahulu kala mendominasi asia kini semakin berkurang.

Fakta sejarah telah menunjukkan bahwa di masa lampau agama buddha menyebar hingga ke Asia tengah, kita membaca dalam sejarah bahwa buddhiseme berpengaruh besar hingga ke afganistan. Bukti bahwa buddhisme mengakar kuat di Afganistan adalah patung budha raksasa di dinding batu setinggi 100 meter, luar biasa! namun kini? sudah diroket kemarin sama taliban sebelum taliban dihajar sama Amerika. Bukti-bukti lain adalah penggunaan tasbih oleh agama-agama semitik. bukankah agama buddha sudah lebih dahulu menggunakan tasbih? apa ini bukan pengaruh buddha? kemudian cara mereka sujud mirip dengan agama buddha kalangan kita yang dari tionghoa kan? saya pikir agama budha pernah berkembang hingga ke Eropa saat jengiskan menguasai asia yang tiada bandingannya sepanjang sejarah. Kenapa, setahuju Gengis khan itu kan masuk agama buddha Tibet?

Saya merasa kagum dengan Budha di masa lampau. dulu mayoritas Asia beragama buddha. Asia waktu jaman Gengis khan adalah mayoritas buddha. Kita membaca sejarah India di bawah pemerintahan Asoka dulu adalah mayoritas beragama Budha. Kini di tempat kelahiran Budha itu paling penganutnya cuma 0.2-0.3% dan itupun paling dianut oleh warga India yang masih berdarah mongoloid seperti negara bagian Anurachal Pradesh. Dekat-dekat Bhutan atau China. Indonesia kita yang tercinta ini yang sangat kaya raya ini dulu juga mayoritas Budha terbukti dari raja sriwijaya bahkan peninggalan candi-candinya. Kalau malaysia saya tak tahu sejarahnya, sorry. dan memprihatinkan sekali Indonesia kini hanya segelintir saja warga keturunan melayu yang budhist jika dibandingkan dengan proporsi melayu. Beruntung masyarakata Tionghoa masih banyak yang melestarikan budhisme.

di jepang kalau tak salah pada jaman Shokun Tokugawa berhasil mempertahankan budhisme dari pengaruh kristenisasi. Sekarang dewasa ini yang paling memprihatinkan adalah di Korea selatan dimana budhisme yang semakin menyusut. Salah siapa? Siap-siap saja vietnam menyusul kehilangan sejumlah besar penganut budhismenya kalau kita tak tanggap. masih mendingan di korea Utara walupun komunis tapi budhismenya masih 62 persenan.

Ada satu permasalahan di korea selatan ini bahwa nampaknya agama kristen itu simbol kemapanan, logis, realis. Tapi coba kita lihat atau buka kitab agama budha dan kristen. kalau dipikir-pikir budha itu logis. meditasi itu logis dan bisa diuji secara ilmiah, reinkarnasi juga logis banyak fakta kan? kemudian masalah karma juga kelihatan lebih logis. masa orang dari lahir kemudian ada lahir cacat itu sudah takdir atau cobaan. bandingkan dengan faham budha sebagai karma. Ini lebih logis kalau ditinjau dari ilmu bisnis sekalipun.

Dewasa ini bagi kita kalangan budhist sebaiknya kita konsentrasi di bidang pendidikan, kesehatan dan peningkatan finansial. kita sebaiknya mencontoh gerakan-gerakan missionaris kristen yang terbukti manjur banget. Untuk kasus korea selatan ini dibamana kabinet mayoritas dari kalangan kristiani dan udah gitu artis-artisnya juga cristian gimana tidak berpengaruh besar bagi kalangan mudanya? Kalau perlu para biksu kita selain dilengkapi dengan pengetahuan agama budha sekalian disekolahain juga tinggi-tinggi biar PhD sekalian trus aktif berbahasa Inggris dan Mandarin bahkan korea serta jepang sekalian. Sebab kita menghadapi tantangan global sekalian. Kita juga mesti memiliki lebih banyak Missioner Budha untuk mengembalikan Kejayaan Budha di masa lampau. Trus kita juga jangan terlalu mepersoalkan Tridharma. Kalau aku nih Budha, Konghucu, Taoisme itu jangan dipisahin deh.Tridharma (Budha, Konghucu,Tao) Ini udah pas Banget. Lebih baik kita bersatu saja. Kalau ada yang enggak tridharma juga ga masalah cuman kita jaga kerukunan aja.

Kita juga mesti bisa berbangga sedikit ternyata 10 besar konglomerat kita ada yang budhist lhoh! Murdaya Poo dan Sukanato Tanoto yang disebut peringkat pertama orang terkaya di Indonesia ternyata Budhist lhoh! Kita mestinya bisa berbangga juga dimana negara-negara budhist ternyata tak kena imbas resesi global kayak di amerika sana. China ternyata ekonominya malah bertumbuh, Vietnam, Jepang dan lain-lain juga. Kita yang masih beragama Budha sebaiknya jangan terlalu mengagung-agungkan barat deh dengan keunggulan ekonominya. disaat ekonomi mereka pertumbuhannya minus, China malah diatas 8% pertumbuhannya bahkan sempat melewati 2 digit.

Ada kabar gembira juga saya baca di internet, saat ini di Australia pertubuhan buddhisme tercepat dari agama yang ada di sana dan udah tercatat lebih dari 320.000 jiwa demikian pula di distrik Xinjiang China dimana dulu populasinya masih 6% warga han kini yang tercatat aja udah melewati 40% dan ini kabar gembira bagi komunitas buddhist. Namun saya merasa prihatin juga mayoritas yang jadi korba kerusuhan kemarin adalah warga han yang terbunuh hingga ratusan. Juta turut prihatin sama kaum budhist di thailand selatan yang banyak dibunuh. :thumbup: eh ada kabar gembira juga teman-teman, Emi kiyosaki saudara perempuannya kini jadi biarawati (bhiksuni) budha Tibet berkat kedatangan Dalai Lama kesana. Ternyata Tibet yang mengalami masalah yang menyebabkan ribuan warga Tibet mengungsi malah membawa berkah, warga Tibet malah semakin berkembang agamanya berkat banyak dari mereka jadi Missionaris agama budha tibet.

http://www.wihara.com/forum/topik-umum/4657-buddha-dharma-di-korea-selatan-memprihatinkan.html

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=89,6746,0,0,1,0

Buddhist groups in Korea plan to fight Christian bias in government
The Hankyoreh, July 4, 2008

Groups led by the Jogye Order will join protests and hang banners in an effort to call attention to their cause

Seoul, South Korea -- Buddhist groups, which have complained that the government of President Lee Myung-bak is more partial to his Christian religion, have decided to take action.


Members of a Buddhist coalition formed to urge President Lee Myung-bak to reconsider its bias toward Christianity shout slogans at Jogye Temple on July 3.

In a meeting with some 20 groups held at Jogyesa, the main temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, in Seoul’s Gyeonji-dong on July 3, they decided to take action against what they say is the government’s tendency to favor Christian groups. Since the inauguration of President Lee, Buddhist groups have felt a sense of alienation because Lee appointed a number of Christians to posts in the Cabinet and at the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae, or the Blue House. The decision came after the government excluded big temples from inclusion in “Algo Ga,” its new transportation information system.

The Buddhist groups plan to take an active role in Buddhist services set for July 4 in front of City Hall and Jogyesa, a move expected to have an influence on the candlelight demonstrations.

In a statement released the same day, the Buddhist groups said, “Government officials, who have to function as public servants, have carried out the activities of missionaries or forced people to believe in their religion by exploiting their official posts. These are unpatriotic acts that undermine national harmony, split public sentiment and trigger disputes among different religions. We will deal sternly with government officials who have been partial to a certain religion to keep the principle of separation of church and state, which is clarified by Constitutional Law Article No. 20.”

At the meeting, the Buddhist groups offered various cases that prove the government’s Christian bias. Immediately after President Lee’s inauguration, a worship service led by Pastor Kim Jin-hong was held at Cheong Wa Dae. Joo Dae-joon, the deputy chief of the presidential security division, publicly stated, “My dream is to bring evangelism to all government agencies.” Cheong Wa Dae “mistakenly forgot” to send a congratulatory message to the major Buddhist temples on Buddha’s Birthday. Choo Boo-gil, Cheong Wa Dae’s public relations and planning adviser described the candlelight protesters as Satanic.

In addition, the Buddhist groups plan to hang large banners, which highlight the government’s Christian bias, at each temple. At Buddhist services, they plan to publicize the issue and the importance of harmony among religions. They are also planing to place calls to Cheong Wa Dae, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and other related government agencies to protest.

The 20 groups brought together by the Jogye Order will form a coalition with the Cheongtae Order, the Taego Order and other Buddhist Orders.

The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 11 Issue 18, No. 1, May 6, 2013.
South Korea’s Christian Military Chaplaincy in the Korean War - religion as ideology?1

朝鮮戦争における韓国軍キリスト教チャプレン制度—イデオロギーとしての宗教

Vladimir Tikhonov

Summary: The present paper examines the military chaplaincy in the context of a problem which has long intrigued researchers, namely the reasons for the rapid growth of the Christian (Protestant and Catholic) churches in 1950-80s South Korea compared to Japan or Taiwan. The author suggests that, whereas a general answer to the question may be the use of Christianity as a de facto state ideology in the years 1948-1960 and its functioning as an ideology of capitalist modernisation in the 1960s-80s, a particularly important part of government-induced Christianization of South Korea was the institution of military chaplaincy. In 1951-1968, Christians – despite being a numerical minority! – monopolized the chaplaincy in the military, and fully utilised this monopoly, “solacing” vulnerable youth forcibly conscripted for military service and making many “church family members”. The loyalties won in such a way, often lasted for life, thus providing the churches with new recruits and the hard-core anti-Communist state – with docile anti-Communismt Christian subjects.

From its very beginnings in the wake of Japan’s defeat and US occupation, South Korea suffered from an acute deficit of political legitimacy. Its lack of nationalistic credentials was mainly due to the fact that the privileged layers of the colonial society, tainted by their collaboration with the Japanese, conspicuously retained their positions. While South Korea’s first Constitution (1948) promised workers a share in company profits (iik kyunjŏm), the reality of mass pauperism and hunger wages was only too obvious (Sŏ 2007: 22-43). One of the ways of compensating for the evident lack of socio-economic progress was to emphasise the “freedom and democracy” in South Korea – as opposed to what South Korean propagandists termed the “totalitarian regime” in the North. But the claims to “democracy” were belied by the authoritarian behaviour of South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee (Yi Sŭngman), whose regime was by 1952 routinely characterized as “dictatorial” even by his conservative opponents from the parliamentary Democratic Party (Pak 1998).

Facing a serious deficit of compelling ideology – aside from rabid anti-Communism and primordealist invocations of “Korean blood and glory” (Sŏ 1998) – the newborn pro-American regime turned to religious symbols to substitute for secular ideological tools. This turn was hardly new as such: Protestant Christians, together with indigenous Ch’ŏndogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way) activists, were among the main organizers of the March 1, 1919 pro-independence demonstrations, although none of them anticipated the degree to which the movement would eventually radicalize participants (Lee 2000), and the Protestant YMCA was among the many “cultural-nationalist” groups conducting rural reconstruction work in the 1920s and 1930s (Wells 1990: 98-162). Kim Il Sung’s father, Kim Hyŏngjik, was a Protestant nationalist, and, unsurprisingly, some elements suggestive of formative Christian influences surfaced in the chuch’e (self-reliance) ideology which substituted for Soviet “Marxism-Leninism” in 1960s-80s North Korea (Ch’oe 1986). Raising the status of religious – mainly Christian – ideology to that of state ideology was, however, somewhat new in late 1940s-early 1950s South Korea, although state Shinto of colonial times (Grayson 1993) did provide a blueprint of sorts. Syngman Rhee’s religious turn was greatly helped by a number of interrelated contextual circumstances:
1. The clashes between Protestant and Catholic establishments and North Korean authorities in 1945-1950 made the overwhelming majority of Korea’s Christians North and South into hard-core anti-Communists, and guaranteed their loyalty to Seoul regime. The conflict was hardly inevitable, since North Korea was originally planned as a “people’s democracy” where “progressive religionists” were ensured their rightful place as builders of a new society. Mao’s China conducted a broadly similar policy too in the early years of the PRC; in Stalin’s USSR, by contrast, the Orthodox Church was a target for state suppression in 1930-1941, although its position was strengthened as a part of the wartime “national reconciliation” policy in 1941-1945 (Fletcher 1965). North Korea’s initial, rather tolerant, position towards religion seems to have been influenced by the wartime improvement in relations between the Orthodox and the Soviet state. In fact, as a result of the People’s Committees’2 elections in November 1946, 2.7% of their members (94 persons) turned out to be “full-time religion practitioners” (sŏngjikcha); approximately the same share of pastors, priests and monks was among the People’s Committee members elected in June 1949 (cited in Kim 2012, 400). However, already in January 1946, Christian political leaders in the northern part of Korea, led by the chairman of the Korean Democratic Party, Cho Mansik, defied the Soviet occupation authorities on the issue of the Allies’ proposed trusteeship over Korea. The Soviet authorities – unwilling to establish a “friendly” state of their own in the North at this stage – were prepared to enforce the decision of the December 1945 Moscow conference of US, British and Soviet foreign ministers and put Korea under an Allied trusteeship for five years, something right-wing Korean nationalists opposed to (although in reality it could theoretically be one way to keep Korea intact. See Lankov 2001). When Cho was placed under house arrest, a sizeable number of his followers fled south. The conflict between the majority of the Christian leadership and the Soviet and North Korean authorities afterwards was ostensibly ignited by such symbolic issues as Peoples’ Committees elections on Sunday, November 3, 19463; in the background, however, lurked the conflict between mostly middle-class and richer Christians, who comprised only about 2-3% of North Korea’s overall population4, and the new power-holders themselves mostly hailing from and reliant upon the poorer majority of North Koreans (Han’guk Kidokkyo Yŏksa Hakhoe 2009, 45-50). In the end, around 25% of the Presbyterian and 59% of the Methodist pastors from North Korea migrated to the South, together with an estimated 70-80,000 lay Protestant believers and some 6,000 Catholics (Kang 2006: 410-431). Many of these migrants lost their possessions in North Korea, often due to the egalitarian land reform there in March 1946 (on the reform, see Armstrong 2003: 75-85), and that too strengthened their support of the anti-Communist regime in South Korea.
2. A large part of the new ruling elite in South Korea (?) was comprised of Christians, especially Protestants, in a society where only slightly over 2% of the population (500,198 out of the total population of 20,188,641 in 1950) were Protestants. The three most prominent right-wing émigré nationalists who returned to (South) Korea by late 1945 and were contending for leadership – Syngman Rhee (1875-1965), Kim Ku (1876-1949) and Kim Kyusik (1881-1950) – either were devout Protestants or at least experimented with Protestantism at some point in their lives (Kim Ku’s case), and all of them agreed that the “new Korea” should be grounded in “Christian ideals” (Han’guk Kidokkyo Yŏksa Hakhoe 2009, 41). 21% of the parliament deputies elected in South Korea in the first-ever separate elections on May 10, 1948 –elections that were seen as illegitimate and were boycotted by most of the Left – were Protestants, a large part of them being wealthier right-wingers. Among the administrative elite, the proportion of Protestants was even higher. 38% of the 242 persons who served as ministers or vice-ministers under the Syngman Rhee presidency in 1948-1960, were Protestants, a large part of them being wealthy individuals with either American or Japanese educational background (Kang 1996: 175-178). Small wonder that in such an atmosphere, the majority of Protestant clergymen identified “democratic spirit”, “anti-Communism” and “Christianity” as largely synonymous, and felt committed to “grounding our new country in the Gospels’ message”, with obvious encouragement from the political authorities who saw them as their strongest, most unwavering supporters (Han’guk Kidokkyo Yŏksa Hakhoe 2009: 43-44). The “inseparable alliance” between the new political and administrative elites and Christian, especially Protestant, leadership, was further cemented by the Korean War in 1950-1953, as right-wing Christians came to regard the South Korean authorities as their only protectors from the threat of “victimization by Communists”. Buddhists felt more estranged from what they – with good reasons – tended to perceive as “Christian government”, but the interests of the conservative sangha leaders, mostly abbots of the richer, land-owning temples, were well served by the very moderate South Korean version of the land reform (conducted in 1949-1950) which obliged the peasants to pay for the land they were to receive (Sŏ 2007: 38-43) and additionally protected the landholdings of the temples as long as they were tilled by the monks themselves (Kim 2000: 108-111). Some renowned lay and monastic Buddhist leaders (Chŏn Chinhan, Paek Sŏng’uk etc.) joined Syngman Rhee’s government too as ministers, although such cases were relatively rare.
3. Christianity was one of the main links between South Korea and its American sponsors. As Lee Chae-jin formulated it, South Korea as a separate state was a Cold War creation of the Truman administration which primarily viewed it as “a buffer to protect security and integrity of Japan in the larger context of America’s regional and global policies” (Lee 2006: 23). As a gateway to Japan, South Korea was a global asset of the United States; at the same time, the Joint Chiefs of Staff came by autumn 1947 to the conclusion that South Korea’s military-strategic value was relatively low. This conclusion was accepted by the Truman administration and was reflected in the famous January 12, 1950 speech by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, excluding both South Korean and Taiwan from the US “defence perimeter” in the Pacific, which otherwise included the Philippines and, very centrally, Japan (Lee 2006: 24-25). US entry into the Korean War, dictated by the general Cold War paradigm (Cumings 1990: 550), did cement US commitment to its military protectorate in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, but relations with the Syngman Rhee government remained strained on many counts (Park 1975). In such a situation, the image of South Korea as a “Christian country” could serve as an important element in appealing to the American public an important consideration in obtaining badly needed humanitarian help through Protestant and Catholic churches in the US and elsewhere in the western world. No wonder then that a prominent lay Catholic elder, John Chang (Chang Myŏn, 1899-1966), was selected as South Korea’s first ambassador to the US in January, 1949 (Lee 2006: 24). Another good example was the demonstrations organized by South Korea’s National Christian Council in June 1949 calling for the adoption of the Korean Aid Bill by the US Congress. “Let the churches of the world unite their forces to protect the church in Korea” was one of the slogans, together with more direct appeals to American Christian brethren (Haga 2012). The chaplaincy in the military – the topic of this paper– was to become yet another link between South Korea and it’s not fully reliable, but still indispensable American protector and sponsor. It was fully modelled on the American system – in fact, South Korea was one of the first non-European societies penetrated by American missionaries where such an institution took roots (Kang 2006: 346). US missionaries were also well represented among the pioneering chaplains in the South Korean army. For example, a US Maryknoller with Korea experience since 1931, George M. Carroll (1906-1981), was a chaplain to the United Nations’ forces from the beginning of the Korean War and concurrently a member of the committee for the advancement of the establishment of chaplaincy in the Korean army beginning in September 1950. He was later charged with training of the Korean chaplains and translation of the relevant regulations of the US Army into the Korean language. Another pioneer of Korean chaplaincy was William E. Shaw, a prominent Methodist missionary who worked in Korea since 1921 (Haga 2012; Kang 2006: 347). The US army employed 1618 chaplains by 1953 (Johnson 2013), and fighting side by side with it was a huge stimulus for the new-born South Korean army to develop a chaplain corps of its own, a key measure in uplifting Korean civilization.
As the above discussion indicates, religion in the Syngman Rhee government’s ideological policy, contained from the very beginning the seeds of a possible conflict between different religions. “Religion” meant first and foremost Christianity in both Catholic and (primarily) Protestant versions, but hardly “native” religions, Buddhism included. It is not that they were deliberately excluded: rather, the very situation in which Christian elites were to dominate the new state and obtain important advantages through their ability to communicate more directly with its chief international backer, led to marginalization of non-Christians. The dominant view of Buddhism as peripheral in relation to Christianity translated also into administrative measures which the Buddhist community perceived as religious discrimination. For example, US military government in Korea made Christmas an official holiday, but did not allow Korean Buddhists to take over the deserted Japanese Buddhist temples despite the fact that forty-three such temples in Seoul were taken under de facto control and management of Korean Buddhists after Japanese withdrawal. In the provinces, however, a number of former Japanese temples became the objects of embittered disputes between Korean Buddhists and other claimants (Taehan Pulgyo Chogyejong Kyoyug’wŏn Purhak Yŏn’guso 2008, 25). Nor was the Syngman Rhee administration any more flexible on this issue. However, it conducted the 1949-1950 land reforms in a way arguably less ruinous for the monastic economy than more confiscatory – and thus more egalitarian – reforms in North Korea, allowing the temples to keep the land within atwo km. zone around them. That was one of the factors beyond the willingness of the mainstream sangha to collaborate with the perceived “Christian” government, and to marginalize the few radicals – who protested against the establishment of a separate South Korean state, and wished Korea to remain unified at any cost – within its own ranks (Taehan Pulgyo Chogyejong Kyoyug’wŏn Purhak Yŏn’guso 2005: 162-174). In any case, the alternative – the North Korean regime, which was gradually radicalising on account of the general Cold War confrontation and especially Korean War – looked significantly worse, especially for monks who had collaborated with the Japanese colonial authorities, since the purge of collaborators was one of the main ways in which North Korea was establishing its nationalist legitimacy (on the collaboration between sangha and the Japanese colonial authorities, see Im 1993; on the purge of collaborators in North Korea, see Armstrong 1995). The only remaining realistic alternative was to emulate Christian successes - first and foremost, their success in proselytising. This pattern of institutional behaviour was clearly recognizable in the issue of establishing the Buddhist military chaplaincy, to be treated below.

A part of this “religious turn” in the military pivoted on the chaplaincy - initially purely Christian, established in 1951. The chaplaincy, a time-honoured institution utilized by the European powers and the US as early as the First World War, gained renewed significance in the global Cold War. In the US military, chaplains were not only expected to prevent demoralization and to assure that soldiers were not won over by radical doctrines. They were also to aid in the “moral strengthening” of the occupied areas of Europe and Japan through active proselytising, and to implement “moral training” programs instituted throughout the armed forces in 1951. These programs were designed to forestall criminal behaviour and venereal diseases in the ranks, as well as curbing rapes and attacks against civilians, to win the “hearts and minds” during the Cold War (Gunn 2009, 87-91). US military chaplaincy was the primary model for its South Korean counterpart; and, not unlike the US chaplains, especially Evangelicals, the South Korean chaplains also regarded their mission as a proselytising one, taking advantage of privileged access to youth experiencing danger and hardships. As for Korean Buddhist efforts at religious propagation inside the military, the pre-1945 Buddhist chaplaincy in the Japanese imperial military (Victoria 1997) was an obvious role model. While there were no Korean Buddhist chaplains during the Pacific War, pro-Japanese Korean Buddhist leaders actively encouraged younger monks to volunteer for the service in the Japanese imperial military – telling them, for example, that they were to “wield the sword which false refute the false and disclose the true, and become military missionaries of Korean Buddhism in battle” (Cited in: Im 1993, Vol. 2, 441). Most of these people retained their influence after 1945 and were keen to utilize once again the past experiences of the wartime collaboration with the state.

In the South Korean case, the establishment of the field chaplaincy was an initiative of Christian leaders, lay and ordained, including some leading military figures in the newly established South Korean army and navy. It was, however, quickly embraced by the Syngman Rhee administration, assumedly in hope that it would ideologically cement the army of the new state lacking nationalistic legitimacy and broadly perceived as externally imposed (oesapchŏk) (Chin 2000: 108-139). However, once established, the chaplaincy played several roles. In addition to spreading the message of Christian anti-Communism – which belonged to the ideological mainstream of the new state – it also functioned as a tool of Christian proselytising, and was partly responsible for the strong numerical growth of the Christian churches in the 1950s and 1960s. As Christians were enlarging their share of the religious market (on this theoretical approach, see, for example, Hadden 1987), their exclusive right to military chaplaincy was increasingly seen as an expression of unduly state favouritism – that is, unfair competition – by the Buddhist community, eager to emulate Christian proselytising methods. In the end, institutional Buddhism succeeded in establishing the military chaplaincy of its own, an event which signified further strengthening of its cohesive ties with the authoritarian anti-Communist state.

This paper shows how the military chaplaincy was established and functioned in the 1950s, how it fulfilled its ideological roles, and what were the competing influences in the process of its institutionalization. It will hopefully help to improve understanding of the role of such a state-sponsored institution as military chaplaincy in the functioning of religious markets under conditions of religious pluralism and relatively activist state building – but it was not fully able to dominate civil society (on “semi-competitive authoritarianism” in 1950s South Korea, see Han 1990). It will also shed some light on the role religion and religious ideology played in the global Cold War, on the forefront of which both parts of divided Korea found themselves by the late 1940s.

The Committee for the Advancement of the Establishment of the Chaplaincy in the Korean Army (Kunjong chedo ch’ujin wiwŏnhoe) was formed on September 18, 1950. Together with George M. Carroll, mentioned above as one of the “fathers” of the Korean chaplaincy, its members included the most prominent hard-line anti-Communists in the Korean church world, Rev. Han Kyŏngjik (1902-2000) from Presbyterian Church and Yu Hyŏnggi (1897-1989) from the Methodist Church. Both were refugees from North Korea, and were appalled by what they deemed a lack of fighting spirit in South Korean soldiers – forcibly conscripted by the government, which most still had difficulties to recognise as their own. The anti-Communist churchmen obviously hoped that the chaplaincy would strengthen the élan of the South Korean troops, and their hope was shared by Syngman Rhee who quickly endorsed their proposal. In fact, a de facto chaplaincy, under the name of “spiritual training” (chŏnghun), was already run by the South Korean navy from 1949 onwards, its chief, Admiral Son Wŏn’il (1909-1980), a son of famed Methodist pastor, Son Chŏngdo (1872-1931), being a firm believer in “Christian spirit” as the only way to effectively lead the South Korean military (Kang 2006: 348). In considering the plan, Syngman Rhee was, however, fearful of opposition within the ranks of the army commanders (Haga 2012). A large part of the middle- and high-ranking officers of the South Korean army were ethnic Koreans with Japanese imperial army experience. Among army officers who received military training before 1948 and eventually reached the full general rank, 226 served in the Japanese army, 44 served in the army of Manchukuo and only 32 fought against the Japanese, predominantly in Korean military units attached to the Guomindang (Han 1993: 130). Some of the former Japanese and Manchukuo officers, notoriously colonel (in 1952 promoted to full general) Paek Sŏnyŏp (b. 1920), infamous for his brutal suppression of the Communist guerrillas in South Korea in 1948-1950, were Christians, but the majority were not. Syngman Rhee feared possible negative reactions in the military ranks to what could appear to be imposition of his own faith onto the soldiers. Thus, when the Bureau of Military Religion (Kunsŭngkwa, later Kunmokkwa) was created in the Personnel Department of the Infantry General Staff on February 7, 1951 (general order no. 31), it was supposed to be staffed by civilians who were to be paid by their own denominations. The first Korean chaplains, trained by Shaw and Carroll, were dispatched to military units in early April 1952; the number reached 139 by June 1952 (Hwang 2008: 193-194).


A field church in the South Korean army, the early 1950s.

Rhee’s worries notwithstanding, the new institution quickly proved its usefulness to South Korean army commanders. Chaplains and their field churches were instrumental in increasing the number of active, practicing Christians inside the army – under conditions when being Christian practically implied being a committed anti-Communist, and thus, by extension, an active supporter of the South Korean regime rather than a passive victim of forcible conscription. The absolute majority of chaplains were Protestants, mostly Presbyterians and Methodists. By April 1954, out of 296 military chaplains, 35 were Catholics and the rest were Protestants, 209 of them being either Presbyterians or Methodists. The Protestant chaplains built 186 military churches, and succeeded in raising the percentage of Protestants in the army to 20%, almost five times higher than the share of Christians in the general population at that time (Kang 2006: 349). Especially important for Syngman Rhee’s anti-Communist cause was the ministry to the North Korean and Chinese prisoners of war incarcerated – under rather appalling conditions (Lee, Kang and Huh, 2013) - in a specially built concentration camp on Kŏje Island near the southern coast of Korea. There, Harold Voelkel (1898-1984, Korean name: Ok Hoyŏl), an experienced missionary who first came to Korea in 1928, and some twenty of his Korean colleagues in chaplaincy were busy converting the prisoners to Christianity and anti-Communism. The results were considered excellent: 15,012 out of some 140,000 North Korean POWs became believers by April 1952, and several tens of thousands more showed at least some interest in the evangelization activities in the camp, some evidently in hope of receiving better treatment, and some genuinely adopting Christianity as a personal way, both psychological and socio-political, out of the predicaments of national division, war and detention. Voelkel and his Korean colleagues made a sizable contribution to making more than 80,000 North Korean POW decide to reject repatriation to the North (Kang 2006: 349-351; Yi 2010). As a reward, the status of chaplains was quickly raised. On June 16, 1952, all 139 active-duty chaplains were given the status of salaried civilian employees of the South Korean military and in December 1954, were further promoted to active-duty military officers (hyŏn’yŏk changgyo) (Kang 2006: 347). By this time, the South Korean military chaplaincy fully resembled its US prototype. With one significant difference – while the US military had non-Christian (namely Jewish) chaplains already from 1862, South Korea – in which, unlike the US, Christians were numerically a tiny minority – at first did not allow any non-Christian denominations in its chaplaincy services. This fact testifies to the degree of Christian influence inside the South Korean elites of the 1950s, and also to the paramount importance of Christianity to Syngman Rhee’s state, as well as the degree of Christian loyalty to the militantly anti-Communist South Korean regime.


US military church and the US and South Korean chaplains together with Sunday school children. Late 1950s, South Korea.

Buddhists found themselves in incomparably more difficult circumstances than Christians during the Korean War for a number of reasons. First, they did not dispose of any comparable resources, since, unlike Christians, they received no significant financial or other help from abroad. Foreign humanitarian, financial and technical help was of huge importance in a country almost completely destroyed by the war, and almost half of the foreign aid organizations which joined the Korean Association of Voluntary Agencies (KAVA), were Christian. US Presbyterians alone raised USD 1,800,000 for Korea in 1950-1954 (Rhodes and Campbell 1965: 322), and much of this money was channeled through Korean churches, which gave them an enormous advantage in the domestic religious market. By contrast, institutional Buddhism lacked not only any aid from outside, but also international network of contacts aside from its leaders’ participation in the World Fellowship of Buddhists’ meetings beginning from the second meeting in Japan in 1952 (Taehan Pulgyo Chogyejong Kyoyug’wŏn Purhak Yŏn’guso 2000: 69). Second, as described above, the Buddhists were much more alienated from the new state’s power centres than Christians. Third, the three year war destroyed a large number of richer temples (Pongsŏnsa, Kŏnbongsa, Naksansa, Wŏlchŏngsa etc.) which before the war had contributed significantly to the Korean Buddhists’ Central Executive Committee (Taehan Pulgyo Chung’ang Ch’ongmuwŏn), further undermining its economic position (Taehan Pulgyo Chogyejong Kyoyug’wŏn Purhak Yŏn’guso 2000: 69). Finally, Syngman Rhee, in his populist attempts to position himself as a devoted anti-Japanese patriotic fighter, initiated on May 20, 1954, a campaign for expulsion of the married (“Japanized”) monks from Korean temples. Since the married monks were in the majority, the campaign opened the gates for embittered struggles between celibate and married monks over control of the temples, and left little room for other concerns until the early 1960s, when the state started to intervene more systematically to sort out the conflict (Taehan Pulgyo Chogyejong Kyoyug’wŏn Purhak Yŏn’guso 2005: 196-228). This explains why institutional Buddhism was in no position to forcefully protest the discrimination to which it was subjected as a result of establishment of a Christian-only chaplaincy in the country in which the majority of the actively religious population was predominantly Buddhist, especially in the countryside. The inability to protest on the level of organized Buddhism did not mean, however, that some individual monks, temples and monastic groups did not attempt to challenge the newly established Christian monopoly on such an important institution in a hard-core conscription society (Moon 2005) as military chaplaincy. Some of these attempts are also noteworthy for the ideology deployed to legitimise the state violence of the Korean War in the name of Buddhist religion and traditions. For example, the official mouthpiece of Korean Buddhism, Pulgyo Sinmun, editorialized in 1964 – in an attempt to persuade the military to allow the Buddhist chaplaincy in its ranks – that only Buddhism, “the essence of our national tradition”, with its “brilliant traditions of state protection”, had imbibed the “view of life and death acutely needed by the soldiers”. Buddhism – in addition to being a good “spiritual weapon” making soldiers more willing to die for the state – was also advertised as the “religion of harmony best suited to the military chain of command”, since, unlike Christians, Buddhists were not supposed to distance themselves from non-believers (cited in Hwang 2008, 206). In a way, Buddhist leaders were struggling for the attention of the military bureaucracy, begging to beutilized as a “weapon” in the anti-Communist crusade.
The first to attempt compete with the Christians in the field of military chaplaincy were middle-level Buddhist leaders based in Southern Kyŏngsang Province, especially those based in areas around Pusan, which were never occupied by the North Korean army and were the least devastated by the war. Mansan (O Kwansu, 1900-1971), a married monk who worked as a missionary at Southern Kyŏngsang Provincial Buddhist Executive Committee (Kyŏngnam Chongmuwŏn), took the initiative and secured the cooperation of several local monks, some of them, as abbots of temples in and around Pusan, were able to mobilize resources needed for chaplaincy. Some of these monks later came to play an important role on the Korean Buddhist scene – Yi Pŏphong, the Japanese-educated and married abbot of Pusan-based Kŭmsusa, is currently the spiritual head of Avatamsaka-sutra-based Wŏnhyojong (Wŏnhyo Order), and Tŏg’am (An Hŭngdŏk, 1912-2003), also a Japanese-educated married monk, was to become one of the leaders of the separate order for married monks, the T’aegojong (T’aego Order), which would be established in 1970. The activist monks were able to visit at least some front-line military units due to help rendered by some commanding officers who were either Buddhists or favourably inclined towards Buddhism. One of them, then colonel (later general) Ch’oe Honghŭi (1918-2002), became well-known as a systematiser of t’aekwŏndo (a Korean martial art) in the late 1950s; another, Sin T’aeyŏng (1891-1959), a lieutenant-general, was to become the South Korean Minister of Defense during the last period of the war (March 29, 1952 to June 30, 1953). Both had Japanese military experience. Sin, who entered the Japanese Imperial Army Academy in 1912, was often mentioned as one of the “elders” of one of the influential groups inside the South Korean military, namely the network of Japanese Imperial Army Academy alumni. Ch’oe, a Hamgyŏng Province native who was proud of his mastery of Confucian classics, seemed to intensely dislike the “Christian general” Paek Sŏnyŏp, who was especially favoured by fellow Christian Syngman Rhee. Yet another important helper was a married monk, Posŏng (Chŏng Tusŏk, 1906-1998, later the supreme spiritual leader of T’aegojong), who served as a Korean Army Academy teacher during and after the Korean War, and was seemingly alienated by Christian hegemony there. In the end, either pro-Buddhist sympathies or antipathy towards Christianity on the part of some important military figures laid the foundation for an “informal” chaplaincy conducted by some Buddhist clerics during the war. With the assistance of friendly commanders, they were even able to build the first, short-lived military Buddhist temple, Towŏnsa (Kangwŏn Province, Yanggu County), close to the DMZ, in a mountainous area where several military units were based (Ch’oe 1997: 301-302; Han 1993: 167-173; Hwang 2008: 192-198).

What was the message that activist monks sought to extend to the soldiers? The declaration of intentions drawn up by the 15 member-strong Society for Buddhist Missionary Work in the Army (founded March 7, 1951), mentioned such standard themes of South Korean propaganda as “sacred war” (sŏngjŏn) and “unification of the country through the destruction of Communism” (myŏlgong t’ong’il). It also mentioned, however, military chaplaincy as the “first step toward making of a Buddhist world” (segye purhwa), as well as the “spirit of hwarangs” as the “guiding philosophy” of the South Korean army (Hwang 2008: 197). It was indeed so, in a way. The Japanese-educated historian Yi Sŏn’gŭn (1905-1983), one of the chief ideologists of the Korean military (appointed chief of the Spiritual Training Department Chŏnghunkwa of the Ministry of Defense in February 1950), wrote and published in 1950 a book in which he – as an admirer of bushido – suggested that the hwarang organization of aristocratic youth in the sixth-tenth century Silla Kingdom (on this organization, see Lee 1993: 101-107), with its distinctive culture of battlefield self-sacrifice, was the source of a “genuinely Korean spirit”, as well as a “spirit of anti-Communism” (Yi 1950). Since two of the hwarang organization’s early seventh-century members were known to have received their “five commandments” from a well-known Buddhist preceptor, Wŏn’gwang (541-630?), and the fourth of these commandments prescribed never to retreat in battle (for English translation of the commandments see Lee1993: 100), the self-styled Buddhist chaplains would claim that the brave South Korean soldiers were indeed upholding Buddhist priest Wŏn’gwang’s “five commandments” (Hwang 2008: 197). In a way, the ample appropriation of Korean ancient history – in which Buddhism did play a crucially important role – for the sake of developing South Korea’s distinctive brand of cultural and historical nationalism helped the activist monks to root their claims to nationalistic legitimacy in the military’s own ideological guidebooks. The traditional-style Buddhist chant written and put to music by Mansan, Chonggun hoesimgok (The Melody of Converting one’s Heart while Following the Army), again mentioned Wŏn’gwang’s “five commandments” as the “greatest spiritual weapon” the South Korean army possessed. In reality, however, much of the “ideological work” by the Buddhist monks in the army was about distributing the amulets and pictures of Avalokiteshvara (Kwan’ŭm) and rings with Amitabha’s image, all supposed to assuage the loneliness and fear the soldiers felt, and conducting funeral services for fallen soldiers, 65% of whom reportedly were from Buddhist families (Hwang 2008: 198-199).

The enthusiasm of some Buddhist figures notwithstanding, the May 6, 1952 petition of the Society for Buddhist Missionary Work in the Army, in which it asked the Defence Ministry to grant Buddhist chaplains the same status as their Christian colleagues, was rejected. Given both the political and diplomatic weight of the Christian community and its unwavering support for the Syngman Rhee regime, it was deemed wiser to keep its lucrative monopoly on religion inside the army ranks intact. The Buddhist community was in no position to protest, for reasons enumerated above, and concentrated on missionary work in units whose commanders were supportive. Ch’oe Honghŭi was reportedly one such commander who used his military authority and connections to help rebuild an important temple, Naksaksa, in Kangwŏn Province. Yet another crucially important field of Buddhist missionary work was the Korean Army, Naval and Air Forces Academies, whose graduates could potentially help institutional Buddhism in a society in which the military was among the most dominant institutions (Hwang 2008: 200-201).

From the very inception of the service academies, Christians dominated them, and Buddhist activists had to fight an uphill battle. By 1966, at the most technologically advanced Air Force Academy, Protestants comprised 34.7% of the student body, and Catholics an additional 20.5%. In the largest and most influential Army Academy, Protestant students accounted for 24.2% and Catholic students for 17.1% of the total respectively (Kang 2006: 355). Christian churches were quickly expanding in the 1950s and 1960s, and by 1970, Protestants alone constituted approximately 10% of the South Korean population (Han’guk Kidokkyo Yŏksa Hakhoe 2009: 116), but even taking this into account, the share of Christians among academy students greatly exceeded that among the general population. The main reason for such a phenomenon was the strong position of Christians among the academies’ teachers, as well as among the South Korean elite in general; Christian faith counted as one of the factors of personal success. Sometimes, Christianity was even forcibly promoted – both by teachers and senior students (sŏnbae) who wielded significant power over younger students. Yu Sangjong (brigadier general) – the Buddhist officer who later made decisive contribution to the establishment of the Buddhist chaplaincy in the late 1960s – remembers that his school seniors made church attendance obligatory to him and his fellow students. Christianity was seen as “American/civilized religion” and a symbol of state loyalty. Buddhist monks could not enter the Army Academy unless they changed the traditional robes for “civilized” Western suits (Pak 2009). Despite all odds, and, significantly, with the help of the two future military dictators of South Korea, Chŏn Tuhwan (Chun Doo-hwan) and No T’aeu (Roh Tae-woo) – both were Yu’s seniors at the same academy at that time, and both were Buddhists – Yu succeeded in organising the first-ever Buddhist students’ society at the Army Academy in 1954. The Naval Academy followed suit in 1959 and the Air Force Academy – in 1960 respectively (Pak 2009). Some former members of this society – Pak Hŭido (b. 1934, the Army Chief of Staff in 1985-1986), Yi Sŏkpok (former commander of Army’s fifth division, currently chairman of the Buddhists Society for Defending the Republic of Korea Taehan Minguk Chik’igi Pulgyodo Ch’ongyŏnhap), Sŏn Yunhŭi (former commander of the South Korean military police) and others – later played central roles in developing cohesive ties between the military and Buddhist establishments (Pak 2009).


A prayer meeting of the Protestant military chaplains, 2011.

In conclusion, although the Syngman Rhee regime’s favouritism towards Christians in general and especially close ties with Protestants did not save it from a relatively easy demise in April 1960 as a result of a “student revolution” – grounded in the frustration of the middle classes, and especially younger, educated urbanites at the lack of socio-economic development, the “privatisation of power” by ruling groups and their underlings and subsequent corruption (Sŏ 2007: 266-300) - it did have important consequences. The number of Protestant believers alone grew thrice in 1950-1960 (Han’guk Kidokkyo Yŏksa Hakhoe 2009: 116), and the Christian chaplaincy system in the military contributed significantly to this growth. Under the “Christian president” Syngman Rhee, most commanding officers, their own personal religious affiliation notwithstanding, provided chaplains with privileged access to barrack life, and chaplains made use of the resources made available to them by their congregations to win soldiers’ “hearts and minds” (Kang 1996: 352-353). The soldiers who became Christians in such a way, tended to have long-lasting loyalty to the denomination they first encountered while undergoing the deprivations of military service, and, by extension, to become loyal to the hard-core anti-Communist state that the churches whole-heartedly supported. Consequently, the South Korean state, its initial externally imposed characteristics notwithstanding, was able to gradually win a sort of Gramscian “ideological hegemony” in society. “Christian presidents” did not emerge in South Korea after Syngman Rhee’s overthrow in 1960 and until Kim Young-sam’s (Kim Yŏngsam) assumption of presidential powers in 1993. However, conservatively interpreted Christianity, especially in the form represented by the “mammoth churches”, with their message that “God blesses the rich” and extreme anti-Communist rhetoric, did become one of the important ideologies of the quickly developing industrial capitalism in South Korea (Kim 2012). A small minority of left-wing Protestants in pre-1950 South Korea relocated to North Korea either immediately before or during the Korean War, as their survival in the anti-Communist “fortress state” in South Korea was close to impossible. Rev. Kim Ch’angjun (1890-1959), a US-educated Methodist pastor who ended up as one of the foremost critics of US war crimes in 1950-53 in Anglophone publications abroad, and was ultimately buried in the Patriotic Martyrs’ Cemetery in Pyongyang, is a case in the point. Interest in labour, human rights and unification reappeared among a minority of Korean Christians only in the 1970s, in the course of the struggle against the semi-fascistic Yusin (revitalization) system (1972-1979) (Yi 2001, 374-380).

Buddhists remained in the majority among South Korea’s religious population in the 1950s, but were in a comparatively weaker position due to their relative alienation from state power, relatively weaker economic position vis-à-vis the Christian churches lavishly supported by the Korean state and from abroad, weaker nationalist legitimacy (on account of their full-spectrum collaboration with the colonial powers from 1910 to1945 and the well-known images of the “Japanized” married monks), and preoccupation with internal affairs from the beginning of the purge against the “Japanized” monks initiated on May 20, 1954 by Syngman Rhee himself with devastating effects on institutional Buddhism. Thus, it lacked the negotiating power vis-à-vis the state needed to formally challenge the Christian monopoly on military chaplaincy. Some activist monks attempted, however, to make local, de facto challenges to the Christian monopoly by mobilising a network of sympathetic non-Christian officers, and by deploying Buddhism’s own version of religious legitimization for state violence, deliberately linked to state-promoted nationalistic discourses on “hwarang spirit”. In a way, instead of trying to resist the state which openly engaged in practices of religious discrimination in favour of Christians, Buddhists – the monastic establishment being just as anti-Communist as their Christian counterparts – entered a “competition in loyalty” of sorts against the Christians. The successes were limited in the 1950s, but more pronounced in the 1960s and 1970s when new, non-Christian military dictators, interested in winning the allegiance of the predominantly Buddhist rural and lower-class urban populations, entered into an ideological alliance with the conservative monastic establishment, allowing the latter to fully deploy its doctrine of “state-protected Buddhism” (hoguk Pulgyo). The Buddhist chaplaincy in the military was established in 1968, first and foremost because Buddhists were a significant group among South Korean troops sent to fight in the Vietnam War after 1966. It was calculated that Buddhist chaplains would “strengthen” their spirit and help them to build some understanding with the largely Buddhist Vietnamese (Hwang 2008: 212-241). For the anti-Communist monastic establishment, any criticism of the Vietnam War and Korean involvement in it was unthinkable. The establishment of Buddhist chaplaincy in the wake of the dispatch of Korean troops to Vietnam was celebrated as an “achievement” in the Buddhist missionary field, indeed as a “milestone” of sorts for contemporary Korean Buddhism (Taehan Pulgyo Chogyejong P’ogyowŏn 1999: 234).

The dominant paradigm of anti-Communism and “state-protective Buddhism” was challenged only by minjung (“People’s”) Buddhist activists in the 1980s, but even then, the legitimacy of the Buddhist chaplaincy in the military was rarely, if ever, questioned (Jorgensen 2010). While it was widely recognized that, as a matter of principle, Buddhists should totally abstain from bad karma-generating violence, even the minjung monks approved of “altruistic violence” (“for the purpose of saving other sentient beings”), and were perhaps too nationalistic to question the very institute of the national army – as opposed to the obviously “anti-national”, USA-dependant military dictatorship (Jorgensen 2010). Thus, not unlike mainstream Catholics and most Protestant denominations, the majority in the South Korean Buddhist community came to perceive the institute of military chaplaincy as a fully legitimate missionary tool, essential for “competition in the acquisition of believers” since religious loyalties gained in the military by the conscripts in their early twenties tend to stay long (Taehan Pulgyo Chogyejong P’ogyowŏn 2007: 203-205) – without much thought given to the Cold War origins of this institution in South Korea, its ideological underpinning, or its essentially problematic relationship to Buddhism’s original teachings on ahimsa (non-violence).

Vladimir Tikhonov (Korean name Pak Noja): Born in Leningrad (St-Petersburg) in the former USSR (1973) and educated at St-Petersburg State University (MA:1994) and Moscow State University (Ph.D. in ancient Korean history, 1996). Vladimir Tikhonov is a professor at Oslo University in Norway. A specialist in the history of ideas in early modern Korea, he is the author of Usŭng yō’lp’ae ŭi sinhwa (The Myth of the Survival of the Fittest, 2005) and Social Darwinism and Nationalism in Korea - The Beginnings, 1883-1910 : Survival as an Ideology of Korean Modernity (Brill, 2010). He is the translator (with O.Miller) of Selected Writings of Han Yongun: From Social Darwinism to Socialism With a Buddhist Face (Global Oriental/University of Hawaii Press, 2008) and editor (together with Torkel Brekke) of Buddhism and Violence: Militarism and Buddhism in Modern Asia (Routledge, 2012).

Recommended Citation: Vladimir Tikhonov, "South Korea’s Christian Military Chaplaincy in the Korean War - religion as ideology?" The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 11 Issue 18, No. 1, May 6, 2013.

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Notes
1 This paper was initially presented at the XXVII International Conference on Historiography and Source Studies of Asia and Africa «Local Heritage and Global Perspective», the Oriental Faculty of Saint-Petersburg State University, April 24-26, 2013. The research was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2007-361-AM0005) as well as PLUREL grant (Oslo University, Norway). I am very grateful for insightful criticisms and suggestions by Mark Selden, which contributed greatly in improving the paper.
2 Peoples’ Committees were the main type of elected authority in early (1945 to 1950) North Korea. They originated from the spontaneously formed local self-governing bodies which mushroomed all over Korea immediately after imperial Japan’s demise in August 1945. In the USA-occupied South Korea, however, these self-governing bodies were never officially acknowledged by the Occupation authorities. See (Armstrong 2003: 67-70).
3 The conservative majority of both Presbyterians and Methodists – which already regarded the new, egalitarian regime as “devilish” –opposed both doing anything other than prayer on Sunday and to the use of churches as polling stations in some districts. Kim Il Sung attempted to persuade conservative church leaders to collaborate in the “historical national enterprise” – with the help of his maternal relative, Rev. Kang Ryang’uk (1903-1983) – with little result (Han’guk Kidokkyo Yŏksa Hakhoe 2009, 48-49)
4 On the phenomenon of the predominant Christianization of the enterprising population of northwestern Korea in the 1900s and during the colonial period, see Kang 1999.

OMG sesama penyembah berhala pada ribut :D

yang satu agama lahir dari protes, yang satu agama narsis yang mengira dirinya adalah tuhan...

sama-sama anehnya