Originally posted by coolbluewater:
Though majority of Korean is Buddhist (22%), only 3.5% goes to
monastary regularly.
[b]Korea, Republic
of
International Religious Freedom Report 2006
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor
Section I. Religious Demography
The country has an area of 38,023 square miles, and its population
is approximately forty-eight million. According to a 2005
government survey, when the population stood at 47,041,000, the
number of adherents of the predominant religions were: Buddhism,
10,726,000; Protestantism, 8,616,000; Roman Catholicism, 5,146,000;
Confucianism, 105 thousand; Won Buddhism, 130 thousand; and other
religions, 247 thousand. A total of 22,071,000 citizens did not
practice any religion. The percentage of adherents of each faith
has remained approximately the same in recent years.
No official figures were available on the membership of other
religious groups in the country, which included Jehovah's
Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(Mormons), Seventh-day Adventist Church, Daesun Jinrihoe, and
Islam.
Buddhism has approximately twenty-seven orders. The Catholic Church
had sixteen dioceses. The Christian Council of Korea reported that
there were an estimated fifteen Protestant denominations, including
the Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Anglican
churches, and the Korean Gospel Church Assembly. Within these
Protestant denominations there were approximately 121 Protestant
subgroups, an estimated 80 percent of which were Presbyterian
subdivisions.
According to Gallup Korea's 2004 survey on the state of religion in
the country, 36.0 percent of those who practiced a faith reported
that they attended religious services or rituals at a church or
temple more than once a week, 10.6 percent attended two to three
times per month, 20.6 percent attended once or twice a year, and
4.9 percent did not attend services.
Of those who attended religious services more than once a week,
Protestants had the highest attendance rate with 71 percent,
Catholics 42.9 percent, and Buddhists 3.5 percent.
Foreign-based missionary groups operated freely. Protestant groups
included: Overseas Mission; Overseas Missionary Fellowship; Campus
Crusade for Christ, Youth Mission; Global Mission Bible Translator;
World Wide Evangelization for Christ; and Serving in Mission for
Christ. Catholic groups included: Missionaries of Guadeloupe;
Maryknoll Fathers; Little Brothers of Jesus; Claretian
Missionaries; Consolate Missionaries; Divine Word Missionaries; and
Missionaries of Charity Brothers. In 2005 the country sent more
than fourteen thousand missionaries abroad, making it the second
largest source of missionaries after the United States.
Released on September 15, 2006
[/b]
ya a sad fact of korean buddhism
but .... I remember Wilber famous words in the Movie "Meet the
Robinson"
keep moving forward !
