And in the Independent, Daniel Jeffreys writes on how Korea has turned against the “arrogant” Christian hostages. (HT to reader)
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And in the Independent, Daniel Jeffreys writes on how Korea has turned against the “arrogant” Christian hostages. (HT to reader)
11 Comments
Actually an ok article that just seems to report rather than push an opinion. And no mention of the US? What’s happening to the leftist rag? Are they turning soft in speaking truth to power? But then again, an article that paints Christians in a bad light is par for the course and to be expected in the Independent (When I first came across this rag while traveling in Europe, I was surprised at how lame it seemed and was surprised to later hear leftist friends praising how good it was-as far as I was concerned, it was little better than my hometown fishwrap).
The Independent has Robert Fisk on its payroll. What more needs to be said about it?
Writer didn’t do his homework:
> Korea was a Buddhist country 120 years ago
Jeez, even fresh-off-the-boat English teachers know that Korea was predominantly Neo-Confucian then, and Buddhism was quite weak.
> Christians now make up 31 per cent
> of South Korea’s population
That depends very much on how you count religious membership here — 31% is at the extreme upper edge of possible estimates.
I thought it was a balanced report. There was no opinion, and it just reported the way it is. The backlash against Korean Christians didn’t happen just in Korea. It also happened in the Korea related blogs. There just isn’t too much sympathy for them to be found anywhere.
Well, I felt the Buddhist resentment angle was a bit much. Lots of people I’ve spoken to about are Christian and for the most part they felt that the missionaries should not have been there in the first place (although the opinions varied quite a bit on why they shouldn’t have been there).
“That depends very much on how you count religious membership here — 31% is at the extreme upper edge of possible estimates.”
State Department has it at around 29% based on Korean government figures ( http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71345.htm ).
PBS has it at 51% ( http://www.pbs.org/hiddenkorea/religion.htm ). I suspect that those numbers are the difference between strict adherants and identifiers. So 31% is a pretty reasonable number.
Based on the same kind of comparisons, the USA is between 43% and 85% Christian.
BTW, A 1985 report lists Christians as being 21% of the population ( http://www.photius.com/countri.....o~197.html ). Most of the growth has since 1985 has been among Catholics (who are now over 10% of the population).
Tough crowd here at the Marmot’s Hole. If you guys don’t like the Independent, here is another article from the NYT that says much of the same stuff (but pulls more punches).
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08.....ei=5087%0A
May need subscription to view…
Andy,
Sorry if I’m getting caught up in the numbers, but according to a 1995 Korean National Statistical Office survey, 49.3% of Koreans had no religion, 26.3% were Christian (19.7% Protestant and 6.6% Catholic) while 23.2% were Buddhist, with 1.2% being other religions.
I have never seen these figures in official Korean publications. They always seem to count the number of believers only so that they come up with a 100% religious population. (51.9% Christian, 45.7% Buddhist, 2.4% Confucian, Chongdogyo and others)
Source:
http://kosis.nso.go.kr/cgi-bin.....p;SELITEM=
#7. Yes, that’s a more balanced piece.
A few comments:
From the NYTimes piece: “In 2004, eight Korean missionaries in Iraq were kidnapped but released after they pretended to be doctors and nurses…The government and Saemmul Presbyterian Church, to which the hostages belong, have emphasized that the captives, who are nurses, English teachers and homemakers, went to Afghanistan, an Islamic country, to provide aid at hospitals and schools, not to spread Christianity.”
Perhaps they were pretending to be English teachers, too. (A Korean English teacher–not exactly the best person to learn English from.) I assume they were all licensed teachers with real degrees.
Lastly, who cares about the exact percentage of Christians in Korea. Your own eyes will tell you the pervasiveness of Christianity in Korea. If you simply walk down a street in Seoul, churches and red neon crosses are abound and you won’t have too much trouble running into a missionary either.
Slouching Tiger,
Your comments about being English teachers is strangely irrelevant. Was it an attempt at a joke?
As for the percentage of Korean Christians, it is important for newspapers to get their facts correct. That is a basic rule of journalism.
You would probably have a different opinion of Korea’s religious inclinations if Buddhist temples and shrines also advertised with a red neon symbol at night. There is a visible, vocal and sometimes even aggressive Christian minority in Korea, but don’t be fooled into thinking they represent the entire country’s religious attitude.
(Apologies for being off-topic again.)