Quote:
Originally Posted by flying ^
|
Well, Korea is
one of my countries.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DonQuigleone
I've always found this really weird. Everywhere else in the world christianity is on the retreat, or finding it difficult to make any inroads (like in China, Japan). But Korea has had a christian movement spring up, with the vast majority of converts in the last 50 years. Very strange.
|
There are several elements, but if we condense them into two parts:
1. Neo-Confucianism: There is no focus on the afterlife in Confucianism, and Neo-C was really harsh. In this context, the possibility of there being Heaven under a loving God made many believe. This is in contrast to Japan (Shinto and its infinite kamis) and China (folk religion was actually similar to Shinto in decentralization, and Taoism also helped).
2. Nationalism: Unexpectedly for many in Europe/Americas, members of the church were also staunch nationalists who kept the flames of independence during the Japanese occupation (of course, the attempts at enforcing Shinto had a hand in this), and furthermore the churches were able to mobilize their organizations to demonstrate for democracy and human rights during the dictatorships. These two factors combined to make the churches popular and also even more organized.
But frankly, I don't see the religious status quo changing in Korea. Currently Christianity conversions are done between different churches rather than from different religions, and most of the energy for conversions are aimed at DPRK or overseas. Within Korea, there's a subtle "no more crossing the boundaries" rule among the different Korean religious groups.
That aside, frankly the anti-abortion movement is growing due to the abuses of abortion. Most of the arguments which the Republicans use actually applies to Korea, and thus a strong focus on moral ethics and responsibility is a major part of the Korean anti-abortion movement, which are being led by doctors who formerly did abortions. Quite ironic that the thoughts of the batshit religious right actually do apply in a different country from the US.