In an amusing quote Korea’s Chief Court Justice embroiled in a tax evasion (read possible bribery) scandal says he has always managed his money “Like a Christian“. Am I the only one scratching my head going “How does a Christian manage money?”. Or for that matter what about the opposite, if he managed his money “Like a Buddhist” it would be a liability?
It reminds me of a joke. Two orthodox jews are walking down the street. They pass a church with a sign that says “Be come a Catholic, get $50″. One of them decides to go in and see what the sign is really about. He comes out ten minutes later and says “Well I am a Catholic now”. The other looks at him and says “But did you get the $50?”. His friend looks at him straight in the eyes and says “Ach! What is it with you people and money?”
-
Sponsored Links
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
-
Recent Comments
- Inkevitch on Yongsan Garrison open to the public today?
- R. Elgin on Flavor of the Month
- NewYorkTom on Happy Great Tax Revolt Day!
- cm on Four Days Later, US Beef Still Selling Well
- cm on Four Days Later, US Beef Still Selling Well
- Alejandro Marivosa on Professor Defends His Woman in Seoul Restaurant, Lives to Write Story in NYT Magazine
- ElCanguro on ‘No Contempt for Koreans’
- Johnson on Flavor of the Month
- globalvillageidiot on Korea’s Colonial and Early Modern Architectural Heritage
- Sonagi on Korea’s Colonial and Early Modern Architectural Heritage
- dogbert on And in Today’s News…
- Sonagi on Professor Defends His Woman in Seoul Restaurant, Lives to Write Story in NYT Magazine
- Sonagi on And in Today’s News…
- Maddlew on Professor Defends His Woman in Seoul Restaurant, Lives to Write Story in NYT Magazine
- SkinnySteve on Yongsan Garrison open to the public today?
-
Contact
Want to drop me a line? Send your emails to Robert at marmotshole@gmail.com. -
My Flickr Photos
19 Comments
LOL. Great joke. I think even our Jewish brothers and sisters would love that one.
I think Lee is talking about Jesus’s statement: Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s, here Caesar is the Korean government.
He probably also meant that he had always striven to be honest about his taxes.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
But why would honesty on taxes by a specificly “christian” value?
It wouldn’t have to be, but that wouldn’t prevent him from saying it if he felt that it were also an important Christian value.
If I recall correctly, in The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s aunt tells the horrible neighbor who takes Toto, “I’d tell you what I think of you, but it wouldn’t be very Christian of me.”
This doesn’t imply that courtesy is a uniquely Christian value, just that as a Christian value (for Dorothy’s aunt, anyway), a Christian shouldn’t violate it.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
If Justice Lee really wanted to manage his money like Christ (after all, Christian means “Christ-like person”), wouldn’t he have given it all away? And then crawled through the eye of a needle?
Did Christ really give away everything he had or did he just not have anything to being with? What about his shirt? Did he own it? If he did, he couldn’t have given everything away. Or, did he just have the use of it? That is different than ownership.
Perhaps Justice Lee does not own the money in his account; he only has the use of it. Maybe that’s what he meant by doing his taxes in a Christian manner.
Guys, read the rest of the article. He paid taxes and tithes (a tenth of his income to the church) and kept the rest for himself. That’s what he meant about managing his money ‘like a christian’.
Perhaps he means that he (unwisely) left his finances to be overseen by accountants, much as a large part Christian world did before modern times (on the theory that money is ‘evil’ and ‘unclean’.) Hopefully though, he won’t go persecuting his accountants for heresy on the basis of their accounting errors. ;P
I think that his main point is here:
“Supreme Court Chief Justice Lee Yong-hun has denied he deliberately evaded taxes of W20 million in 2005 when he was a lawyer, saying he has managed his money ‘like a Christian’ and never deceived people.”
By saying that he managed his money like a Christian, he means that he managed it without deception, i.e., honestly.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I don’t believe that there is the least bit of evidence or other reason to think that Christians do things with less deception or more honesty than the believers of any other religion, or than those who do not believe in any religion.
That’s the sort of thing that a Supreme Court Chief Justice, or any other high government official, ought not to say in a modern nation. It can easily be read as an insult to the followers of other religions and the non-religious… and makes you wonder about the fairness of the judgments this Justice is rendering…
He had a lot of money sloshing around that year. An underpayment of W20 million, at the top marginal rate of 36% (I’m making a guess here), requires misplacing only W60 million in income. That’s like a rounding error.
Reminds me of a song from the 80’s:
“Like a Christian…taxed for the very first time!”
Or something like that.
So, he paid his taxes and someone found he underpaid, so he had to pay the difference. Why is this even news? Is the guy being railroaded out of his seat?
I agree with SomeguyinKorea.
I was in a similar situation once. I paid taxes at the employee rate when I should have paid at the independent contractor rate. A year later I got a nice little letter from the IRS noting the error and asking if I could kindly send them an additional $800. A check was in the mail the next day. Its no biggie.
sanshinseon,
There is nothing in Lee’s statement that says Buddhists (or anyone else) are theives. He was just stating that he follows Christian rules regarding money. There is nothing wrong with what he said and it is fine whether said in a modern nation or some monkey-eating tribe in the middle of nowhere.
That’s your reading of it, Andy. I only said “It can easily be read as an insult…” not that it definitely was one or was certainly intended as one — and in my experirence, Korean Protestants are in fact often quick to disparge non-Protestants. My real point being: unfortunately for them, high government officials suffer stricter standards than the rest of us on what they say in public, have to be more careful. Can you imagine if John Roberts made such a comment? — how much “clarification” the US press would compell upon him?
I guess that depends on the state. In North Carolina, I think folks would hardly notice.
America is the place where presidents of both major parties invoke God’s blessing at the end of many major speaches.
Just by coincidence, it was reported today:
“A survey by researchers at Villanova University has found that 85 percent of Roman Catholic dioceses that responded had discovered embezzlement of church money in the last five years, with 11 percent reporting that more than $500,000 had been stolen.”
“The Catholic Church has some of the most rigorous financial guidelines of any denomination, specialists in church ethics said, but the survey found that the guidelines were often ignored in parishes. And when no one is looking, the cash that goes into the collection plate does not always get deposited into the church’s bank account.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01.....ref=slogin
But of course many Korean Protestants don’t consider Catholics to be real “Christians” anyway, so this may not be relevant.
He seems to self-believe that he tithed to the church and want for his tithe to be scrutinized, which will show his income.
Many Korean church is a meeting place of someones and they seem to use it pertinetnly. Many marriages are made by the meddling of preachers. At one time, I seriously considered attending church, which I gave it up for my conscience in expense of the would-be grooms. I may know many who maneuver it well. Do they really believe in God and its ideal or just call for God for their benefit, I don’t know.
Sorry for many ‘may’s and ’seem to’s.
Think of it. If a church owner gets ten believers, he/she earns the average income of his/her believers.
Ok, he/she’s a self-employer, so we must deduct the expense. But he/she still gets collection every week. So, let’s end up my previous clumsy calculation. Sometimes, preacher and presbyter run church with partnership, or presbyter hires a preacher and runs it behind the curtain.
Not only Korean protestants. US Evangelicals are active in Catholic majority countries like Ireland, Mexico, and the Philippines.