Update: The title of the online version has been changed from Korea’s Christian Soldiers to Korea’s Christian Warriors. Perhaps someone complained about using the word ’soldier’ considering the context of the story.
Of course, the original title comes from the old English hymn Onward Christian soldiers. According to Wikipedia, the title of the hymn was derived from 2 Timothy 2:3, which says “Thou shalt endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” The word ’soldier’ in both cases is clearly a metaphor and, especially in the Biblical verse, pretty appropriate for the article. In any case, I don’t think the change is anything to get worked up about.
Original post:Since everyone else in the Anglophone Korea Bloggerland has put in his or her opinion on the hostage situation, I figured I might as well add mine.
One of the disadvantages of writing these kinds of pieces for a newspaper is that I end up getting behind the information curve. The “why do some folks seem to hate those missionaries*” talk was pretty big last week. I got the article in on Monday or Tuesday and it was printed today. But now the buzz is all about Korea seemingly wanting to pin responsibility for fixing the crisis on the US.
Anyway, the piece ties in Afghanistan, North Korean refugees, the underground railroad helping them escape China, Chung dong-young and the 2007 presidential election. I also threw in a quote from Seneca the Younger. There is no mention of a kitchen sink.
BTW, I hope to get back to some more regular posting on Korean politics in a week or two.
BTW2, this was my first Korea Times piece that got comments. Perhaps my election-related stuff is a bit too dry to get some fired up enough to comment on it.
*Some folks seem to have gotten hung up on whether they should be called “aid workers” or “missionaries.” In my experience with missionaries who go to underdeveloped countries, that is a false dichotomy. They tend to be both. However, if your only experience with a missionary was back home when you met some guy with a bike and a Bible, I can understand the confusion.
8 Comments
The Christians who help N.K. refugees seem to be different than the ones who go to the Middle East and elsewhere–their main goal is to get the refugees to a safe country, and the evangelical part is secondary. The others are more like straight-up proselytizers who use “aid” as a pretext. I’ve got a lot more respect for Tim Peter’s group and others who help the refugees and little respect for the Christian tourists who could do real aid by donating to established NGOs like the Red Cross, but don’t.
Seriously Michael, how much did you know about Korean Christian missionaries to the Middle East, before all this happened? For me, I didn’t even know there were any Korean missionaries in Afghanistan or the Middle East for that matter. But now all of a sudden we’re all experts in here about them.
One of my coworkers has been on a couple “missions” to the M-E and others in the office are Christians who have told me what their churches do overseas. That said, I’m not claiming expertise, it’s just my opinion.
i know tim peter’s personally and he does a lot of good for people who really want it. i wouldnt want people trying to use food and medicene in order for me to get my relgious beliefs in line with theirs.
i know tim doesnt tell people (refugees) hey do you want help getting out of here ok here is what you need to do. read this bible!!!
aid work and missionary work are different but can be construed as the same thing along a very thin distinction
#2. The difference is in the labels. We are not talking about aid-workers but missionaries. Their intents are self-evident.
“*Some folks seem to have gotten hung up on whether they should be called “aid workers” or “missionaries.” In my experience with missionaries who go to underdeveloped countries, that is a false dichotomy. They tend to be both. However, if your only experience with a missionary was back home when you met some guy with a bike and a Bible, I can understand the confusion. ”
Sure, but in some cases the aid worker part is probably just a pretext, kind of like how Scientologists set up tents at Ground Zero in order to ‘help’ the rescue workers.
Any church group that goes anywhere that is lacking in Christianity is doing it for one thing. Tim Peters may do good work, but ultimately, his goal is to let people know that Christians are good people who you should come hang out with, because we came in your time of need. If these people went to countries, did their work and never mentioned their religious beliefs, prayed in public or gave out slips of paper with telephone numbers of church groups to contact when they leave the area, that would be honest caring. Christian missionaries are never anything more than that…I was involved in it as a kid…
Well, no matter how ‘insincere’ most missionaries supposedly are towards those they help, at least they are there in usually poor conditions trying to do something to help out, which is far more than the vast majority of people ever do, who wouldn’t cross the street to help a dying beggar or dog.