South Koreans grieve the slaying of a pastor in Afghanistan and now question overseas mission work by Korean Protestant Churches.

Taliban rebels in Afghanistan killed Reverend Bae Hyeong-gyu on July 25. His bullet-riddled body was found in Ghazni province in Afghanistan, six days after they kidnapped him and 22 other South Koreans, 18 women and four men.

All the hostages belong to Saemmul Community Church in Seongnam, near Seoul, where Reverend Bae was vice-pastor. The Protestants were in Afghanistan to provide free medical and educational services. They arrived in the Muslim country on July 13 and were to leave July 23.

Auxiliary Bishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong of Kwangju, president of the Korean bishops' Committee for Promoting Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue, sent a condolence letter to Reverend Kwon Oh-sung, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea, on July 26. He wrote: "I offer deep condolences to his bereaved family and Church community. I also pray to God for the safe return home of the 22 young volunteers."

The Christian Council of Korea, an umbrella group of conservative Protestant Churches, released a statement on July 26 expressing sorrow over Reverend Bae's death. Besides urging Christians to pray for the other captives' safe return, it demands restraint of Church social-work activities in dangerous places and appropriate safety measures for all overseas Church aid workers.

The Taliban Islamic extremists threaten to kill the hostages if the Afghan government fails to release the same number of Taliban prisoners in exchange. The Taliban that ruled most of Afghanistan until the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 also demands the immediate withdrawal of 200 South Korean non-combat troops serving as medics and engineers. They are set to return home in December.

Local media are debating the "hot controversy" among Koreans about reckless overseas mission work by Protestant Churches. Korean-language newspapers such as Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang Shinmun say in their editorials that aggressive mission work undertaken by Korean Protestants is "inappropriate."

Benedict Park Young-dae, director of lay-run Woori Theology Institute, told UCA News on July 23, "I feel pity, but Protestant Churches need to review their unfriendly mission attitude to other religions."

"Protestant Churches may tacitly regard the brutal death as martyrdom," he added, "but I think he (Reverend Bae) is just a victim of Protestant Churches' overseas mission policy." The Churches should review their mission policy in accord with the prevalent culture and religion of a particular area, he said.

Monica Lee Ji-yun, a 32-year-old office worker, told UCA News she feels deep sorrow "for the innocent death," but questions the reckless missionary activities of the kidnapped group. "Their missionary work was disguised in the name of volunteer service," she said, so she is also wondering if their short stay affected the life of the Afghans.

However, Son Jung-eun, a member of Somang Presbyterian Church in Seoul who did two-week mission trips to Taiwan and India last year, argues that mission work must continue because it is "a must for Christians."

Witnessing to faith in one's daily lives may be the best way to do mission work, she told UCA News on July 26, but it is hard to obtain conversions this way. "So, we need to go out to just sow the seeds of evangelization. The Holy Spirit will grow the seeds."

Imm Min-hyuk, a 34-year-old office worker who professes no religion, agrees that Protestants need to do mission work. "However, they should have paid more respect to the culture and life of the country (Afghanistan)," he told UCA News on July 27. "Unlike South Korea, where religious plurality is admitted, Islam is their culture and life in Muslim countries. It would be better (for Protestants) to spread their truth in a passive way than by offensive and direct mission work," he said.

As of 2006, according to the Korea World Missions Association, Korean Protestants Churches dispatched 14,086 missioners overseas, including some to Islamic countries that ban Christian missionary work in their territories.

Source: UCAN

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A third of non-practicing Catholics in a South Korean diocese cite confession as their reason for staying apart from the Church, according to a recent survey.

The Preparatory Committee for the Cheongju Diocesan Synod interviewed 661 non-practicing Catholics in seven randomly selected parishes of the diocese from March 1 to April 15 and has published the results. Cheongju, where the diocese is based, is 115 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

The synod, scheduled to begin Oct. 1, will mark the diocese's 50th anniversary in 2008. The agenda is being prepared.

According to the committee, this is the first survey in the country for which only non-practicing Catholics were interviewed. The Korean bishops use the term "non-practicing" for Catholics who go three or more years without making the pre-Easter or pre-Christmas confessions the local Church requires.

To the survey question asking for a Church-related reason why they left the Church, 32.6 percent of respondents said they find confession "uncomfortable." Another 10.6 percent cited problems with other Church members. Eight percent pointed to "meaningless/tiresome liturgy," while 7 percent said it was an "economic burden to support the Church."

In another question, the respondents were asked to give a personal reason for leaving the Church. The two most common responses were "having to work on Sundays," at 20 percent, and pressure to "behave well in society like a good Catholic," at 15 percent. Nearly 10 percent said they could not find a convenient Catholic church after relocating to another neighborhood while roughly the same number said they were hampered by the "grim realities of their life" in practicing their faith.

Asked about what keeps them from returning to the Church, 21 percent answered that they feel "afraid to make a confession," 18.5 percent said they have to work on Sundays and 15.1 percent replied that conflicts with pastors or other parishioners had not yet healed. Nearly 12 percent categorically stated they have no intention of returning to the Church.

Conversely, 86.5 percent of the non-practicing Catholics interviewed said they believe in God, and 90.3 percent acknowledged the validity of the Catholic Church.

"The survey clearly shows that non-practicing Catholics have scruples about confession and it urges us to address their concern," Father Casimir Song Yul-sup, committee secretary, told UCA News on June 25. "It is human nature to hide our own faults and feel reluctant to reveal ourselves to others," he added. "However, we have to overcome this human weakness to receive God's grace. That is our faith."

Priests need to make an effort to help people see the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a grace from God and make it easy for them to confess, Father Song suggested.

Francis Xavier Park Jung-sub, the information technology professor at Cheongju University who led the survey team, told UCA News June 20 that it was not easy to conduct the survey, which used face-to-face interviews. "Since we didn't know their whereabouts and they tend to avoid Church people, it was not easy to locate them. Most of those who left the Church more than 10 years ago refused to join the survey," he said.

According to Father Song, the rate of non-practicing Catholics in his diocese is higher than the national average. "So we raised the matter as an important subject for the synod."

According to the statistics released by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, the number of the non-practicing Catholics in Cheongju diocese as of the end of 2006 was 59,138, or 43.1 percent of the 137,344 baptized Catholics. The national figure is 36.7 percent of 4.8 million Catholics.

Source: UCAN
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