One gyo-po's observations on the Afghanistan Korean hostage ordeal

Let's first summarize what appear to be the uncontested facts of this event.

1. Twenty-three Korean Christians went to Afghanistan despite a warning by Korean governmental agency telling them that Afghanistan was a dangerous place and that they should not go.

2. They were kidnapped by Taliban, and two male Korean hostages were killed.

3. The remaining hostages will be freed soon.

I asked an elderly Korean gentleman client over dinner the following question: "Why is it that so many Koreans are using this ordeal to post on internet negative comments against Christians?" It turned out that this gentleman client of mine turned out to be a former Christian (during his younger days) who "converted" to Buddhism (or left Christianity. Basically, he said that there is a lot of underlying resentment towards Christians in Korea for the following reasons:

1. They are too aggressive in trying to convert non-Christians to their religion. For example, some of them start preaching loudly in subway station and public places. Also, they emphasize that non-Christians will go to hell when trying to convert them.

2. Korean churches and ministers are not tolerant of other religions, in many instances indirectly criticizing other religions.

3. Since Christian churches do not condone the Korean form of 제사 (Jae-sa), a spiritual and cultural way of paying one's respect to one's ancestors by bowing to their spirits, he felt too uncomfortable in adhering to Christian practices. [In fact, said author knows many Christians who are Catholics because many Catholic organizations allow or tolerate this form of Korean Jae-sa.

I asked him why he left Christianity, and he told me that while he still has a lot respect for people who believe in Christianity (since the religion requires personal leap of faith which should be respected), he found many ministers' actions too zealous and full of hypocricy, even though he realizes that one should not turn away from a religion just because of a few "bad apples". When pushed on this point, he admitted that while he is still very sympathetic to Christianity concept, he found the church structure too stifling.

I think what can be learned by Korean Christians and churches from this ordeal is that there are many Koreans who resent Korean Christians for their too aggressive tactics, and that if the Korean churches were smart, they should try to be more inclusive in reaching out to others.