Government Officials’ Obstruction of Worship in South Korea
2020-8-27, Coramdeo.com [TRANSLATION]
Last Sunday (August 23, 2020), government officials entered some churches in Seosang-myeon (서상면) (district), Hamyang-gun (county) (함양군), (South Gyeongsang Province) without permission during the worship service, and forced the pastors to sign documents to comply with the [province’s] executive order for Coronavirus prevention. These acts are shocking the religious world.
[Note: South Gyeongsang Province Governor is Kim Kyoung-soo (김경수), a close adviser of President Moon Jae-in. Kim was found guilty in the “Druking” case of massive online public opinion manipulation to influence the 2017 presidential election in favor of Moon. Kim was jailed, but now he is out on bail.]
It is common sense to contact and visit the church on their working day, if the goal is to deliver and confirm the executive order documents. Even if it was urgent, they could have avoided the worship time.
However, the fact that public officials deliberately came in the middle of the worship service and asked the pastor, who led the service from the pulpit, to sign the document reminds us of the North Korean military’s bullying behavior that occurred during the Korean War.
It occurred in other churches too. On the same Sunday, the same incident occurred in three churches. According to the data provided to this office, the official in charge at the church D of Goshin (고신), a government official came to the front of the pulpit at the public prayer time around 11:15 and forced the pastor to sign a document, of which the pastor did not even know the content. At Church O, an independent religious body, it is said that the government official went up to the front of the church to demand a signature, just before the start of the sermon.
It is said that the reason the pastors were compelled to sign the documents at that time was that they [were in the middle of their sermons and] were unable to stop the worship service. [Truncated]
Executive Order by the South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo
On Monday, the next day, the pastors who signed the documents were called to the Myeon (county) office and were threatened with criminal charges if they have another in-person worship at the church, since they signed the document stating they would follow the executive order. The congregation members, who have witnessed this incident and learned the situation in person, are shocked, scared, and anxious.
Rural churches are very small churches with a small number of members. Most churches have 2-30 people attending Sunday worship, and even the large rural churches have only 70-80 people. In addition, almost all of the congregation are elderly, so online worship is impossible [unable to use technology for video teleconferencing]. Asking them to not worship in person is like saying to shut down the church. Additionally, in the countryside, an almost perfect quarantine can be achieved just by wearing a mask and practicing distance [since the population density is low]. In fact, it is said that only one confirmed Coronavirus case has emerged from the beginning [of the pandemic] until now in Hamyang-gun. [Truncated]
Currently, the government is putting almost all responsibility for the re-spreading of COVID-19 on the church. And the president [Moon Jae-in], the prime minister [Chung Sye-kyun], and even the justice minister [Chu Mi-ae] have stepped up to threaten and press the church. [Truncated]
Source: http://www.kscoramdeo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=17687
