Five religious organizations \u2014 the Korean Christian Coexistence Council, the Korea Christian Leaders’ Training Institute, the Pastors’ Alliance for the Protection of Life and Human Rights, the Russian
\nEvangelical Alliance, and the Thailand Evangelical Fellowship \u2014 held the “1st World Pastors’ Joint
\nRevival Meeting” on the 13th, sharply criticizing what they described as serious violations of religious
\nfreedom and the erosion of the principle of separation of church and state currently occurring in
\nSouth Korea. About 2,000 pastors from major countries around the world attended the meeting online and in
\nperson. Speakers presented specific cases of administrative, tax, and judicial suppression of religion
\nsaid to be occurring across South Korean society generally, not limited to any single organization or
\ndenomination, drawing concern from the international community. “From taxing mission support funds to the corporate dissolution law \u2014 institutional suppression
\nthat ties the church’s hands” Speakers at the meeting pointed out that various institutional and financial pressure measures
\ncurrently being pursued or applied by the South Korean government and political circles are stifling
\nthe church’s pure activities of faith and mission. Particular criticism was directed at tax authorities’ practice of arbitrarily imposing gift tax on mission
\nsupport funds that churches send abroad for missionary purposes, and at discussions of a “Religious
\nCorporation Dissolution Law” that would open the way for the state to forcibly dissolve religious
\norganizations it disfavors. Kim Geon, head of the Yeongnam Presbytery of the Tonghap General Assembly of the Presbyterian
\nChurch of Korea, criticized the tax as “an unjust state intrusion into the church’s essential activity of
\ngospel proclamation and a financial strangulation operation,” adding that pursuit of the religious
\ncorporation dissolution law was “a dangerous idea that the state could decide the survival of any
\ndenomination or church at any time in the name of law \u2014 a blade aimed at others today will be
\naimed at every church tomorrow.” Pastor Lim Young-woong of the Presbyterian Church of Korea also warned that “discussion of
\ndissolving the religious corporation status of a particular denomination is not a problem for that one
\ndenomination or country alone,” and that it is “a dangerous signal that all of our faith and religious
\nfreedom could be stripped away by state power at any time.”
\n“Pastor Son Hyun-bo, Han Hak-ja, Lee Man-hee \u2014 successive detentions of leaders amount to trial
\nby public opinion”<\/p>\n
Participants also expressed strong concern over what they called excessive detention investigations
\nand judicial pressure being applied to major religious leaders regardless of denomination. They condemned the successive detentions or indictments of major religious leaders \u2014 including
\nPastor Son Hyun-bo (Segyero Church), who was recently detained after speaking out on social issues
\nand policy, along with Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja and Shincheonji General Chairman Lee
\nMan-hee \u2014 as “a result of the collapse of the constitutional presumption of innocence and the
\ncriminal procedure principle of investigation without detention.” Pastor Lee Dong-geun of the Baekseok Daeshin International Presbytery said that “detentions are
\nbeing carried out excessively, driven by public ‘social disfavor’ and ‘pressure of public opinion’ rather
\nthan by guarantees of a fair defense or objective evidence,” adding that “the excessive abuse of
\njudicial power \u2014 including the detention of a 95-year-old veteran and highly decorated leader \u2014
\nthat abandons even basic humanitarian standards is a clear violation of human rights.” Anglican priest Heo Jong-hyun likewise stressed that “public and mob anger must not become the
\nstandard for judicial rulings,” and that “witch-hunt-style trials driven by political calculation and
\npublic pressure rather than law and principle must stop immediately.”
\n“We will unite to restore the separation of church and state and defend universal religious
\nfreedom” Presbytery head Kim Geon said that “separation of church and state is a democratic bulwark that
\nprotects against state power improperly intervening in the domain of religion,” and that “for the
\nstate to investigate a religion’s internal activities and doctrine, or to pressure it through targeted tax
\naudits or forced dissolution, is to deny the spirit of the South Korean Constitution itself.” The final speaker, Pastor Rugagi Innocent of an evangelical church in Rwanda, Africa, said that “our
\nAfrican churches, too, have painfully experienced the tragedy that follows when state power tries to
\ncontrol the realm of faith,” and declared that “since true faith knows no borders, churches worldwide
\nwill strongly unite, transcending denomination and nationality, for the restoration of religious
\nfreedom in South Korea.” The meeting concluded with the announcement of a joint statement adopted with the signatures of
\nsome 2,000 pastors from around the world. The statement called for: an end to religiously biased
\nsuppression by the government and political circles; an end to trial by public opinion in the judiciary
\nand adherence to the presumption of innocence; and bail and immediate release for elderly religious
\nleaders. The organizers of the joint revival meeting stated, “The cases presented here are not the problem of
\nany single denomination, but a grave warning signal concerning religious freedom in South Korea as
\na whole,” and added that they “will continue to respond in solidarity with international human rights
\norganizations and churches worldwide until the government and judicial authorities return to the
\nprinciples of fair justice and separation of church and state.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five religious organizations \u2014 the Korean Christian Coexistence Council, the Korea Christian Leaders’ Training Institute,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"yoast_head":"\n