RAS Lecture: Southern Presbyterian Church Missionaries in Korea

by Robert Koehler on February 10, 2009

Dr. John Linton will be speaking at the RAS tonight to discuss the accomplishments of the Southern Presbyterian Mission in Korea.

NOTE: On Sunday, I visited some of the old missionary sites in Gwangju’s Yangnim-dong area — I’ll be posting the photo essay tonight.

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

1 CactusMcHarris February 11, 2009 at 5:32 am: Another very nice-to-look at photo set, Robert. The school’s seal was, for me, a very intriguing bit of design. And the main building is pretty tremendous. I look forward to the essay.

I find it somewhat ironic that there’s a 양님/림 동 in Gwangju. I remember being shown a lot of apartments in Seoul, and the first six or so made me feel like I was being show homes in the 양놈동 area of town.

Before Sonagi (thank you!) or someone else corrects me, I would also guess that 양님 has different characters than that of ‘honoured Westerner’.
2 Tom Coyner February 11, 2009 at 4:31 pm: Just to rub it in, but for those of you who missed last night’s lecture by Dr. Linton, you really lost out on an incredible lecture. I have seen and Linton speak twice before, on North Korea, but this time was a first ever, anywhere. The insights Linton provided were often nothing less than astounding on what was happening between the missionaries and the communists.

If you have Tuesday nights open, chances are you owe it to yourself to check out the RAS lectures that normally take place on the second and fourth Tuesdays.

The 108-year-old RAS has regained its stature as the premiere community organization for those who really want to understand Korea. To borrow the phrase, RAS Sparkling!
3 Wedge February 11, 2009 at 5:37 pm: So, Tom, fill us in. What happened between the missionaries and the commies? Thanks.
4 dda February 11, 2009 at 6:38 pm: It’s 양림동, 림, not 님 — even if it’s pronounced 양님동. The sinograms are 楊林洞. Willow-Forest-Neighbourhood.
5 CactusMcHarris February 12, 2009 at 12:06 am: I thought it was like that, DDA, but thank you for the specifics of the Hanja. I like puns, the poorer the better, and it seemed to me that 양림동 would be ripe for plucking that fruit.
6 dda February 12, 2009 at 12:23 am: Cactus: probably in online games and chat rooms, yes.
7 Tom Coyner February 12, 2009 at 12:41 am: Wedge,

Essentially, one of the primary N Korean propaganda points is that the Christian missionaries and their followers bowed in front of Japanese Shinto shrines, unlike Kim Il-Sung. And in fact, those of the Northern Presbyterian Mission, to a tune of some 160 leaders, did do so in now N Korea in 1938, with the assistance of about 100 accompanying Japanese policemen.

The politically weaker and financially poorer Southern Presbyterian Missionaries, who had been assigned among missionary groups to the less desirable Cholla and Chungcheong provinces, refused to bow to the Japanese shrines and consequently paid significant sacrifices repeatedly for this form of disobedience.

Most Communists do not know it, but after Dr Linton pointed out his family’s commonality with the Communists’ refusal to be co opted by the Japanese, in subsequent trips to N Korea he has been treated much better, presumably because in between trips the Communists had had the opportunity to verify his claims.

In short, there was a dichotomy in degrees of political expediency between the richer missionary groups centered around the “Jerusalem of Asia,” Pyongyang, and the more humble missionaries in the very southern part of Korea countryside. To this day, there is a political legacy exploited by Pyongyang about the less principled actions of the Northern Presbyterian missionaries who were assigned to what is now North Korea.
8 CactusMcHarris February 12, 2009 at 1:03 am: #6,

Not in this boy’s lifetime – heck, I’ve never played a game of online Scrabble.
9 sewing February 12, 2009 at 2:01 am: Tom Coyner:

Thanks for filling in some of those historical details from Dr. Linton’s lecture.
10 Wedge February 12, 2009 at 1:27 pm: Thanks, Tom.