Time Magazine article: Korean Missionaries Draw Fire at
Home
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1647646,00.html
A couple of interesting things I've noticed about this article.
First of all, there seems to be more criticism from within Korea
than anywhere else.
Secondly, there seems to be little coverage on this within the US.
This story doesn't appear on Google News front page nor does it
appear on CNN or USA Today.
Extracts from the article that I found interesting:
...the Seoul government has had to ask Korean bloggers to back
off from online attacks on the hostages. Critics were particularly
incensed by photos posted of some of the young women missionaries
posing in front of an Afghanistan travel advisory sign at Seoul's
Incheon International Airport. Family members of the missionaries
as well as members of the Sammeul Community Church south of Seoul,
which sent the mission also issued public apologies for causing
the country so much grief.
It seems there's a certain amount of pride related to the
willingness to place oneself in harm's way in order to offer
aid.
But non-evangelical Koreans are still scratching their heads
over why the Saemmul church group trotted off to such a volatile
region, thumbing its nose at government warnings not to enter
Afghanistan.
I also thought this paragraph was very telling"
An unfortunate side to the evangelical movement in Korea is
increased competition. Churches number in the tens of thousands
here, and are competing so intensely for members that pastors feel
pressured to engage in a kind of one-upmanship: sending congregants
on as many overseas missions as possible. New markets and riskier
missions tend to garner more publicity, which until now has
translated into more kudos and ultimately more money for the pastor
and the church.
I think we've all seen this kind of thing before - where your
faith is measured by what you are willing to do or sacrifice. You
are a 'better' Christian if you are willing to give up a greater
percentage of your income to the Church. You are a better Christian
the more time you spend doing Church activities. You are a better
Christian if you only listen to Christian music and not secular
music. So on so forth.
It reminds me of when I heard a pastor tell the congregation, "you
are supposed to tithe 10% of your income. But that's the bare
minimum. If you give the minimum to God, how can you expect God to
do anything more than the minimum for you? If you want great things
from God, you must first be willing to so great devotion to
God."
Of course, 'devotion' here means cold hard cash.
"It will definitely lead to a purge at churches" on the
peninsula, says Douglas Shin, a pastor involved in missionary
activities with North Koreans. "People will wonder if it is worth
the risk now, and donors will probably withhold more funds because
they fear they could be causing someone harm." Though Shin believes
the Afghanistan mission was sincere, he expects that what he calls
"camcorder missions" assignments that are more or less photo ops
for groups looking money for supporters to wane in the near
future.
