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The Protestant Church As a Political Training Ground in Modern Korea* G G G Chung-Shin PARK** G G Introduction

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The Protestant Church As a Political Training Ground in Modern Korea* G G G Chung-Shin PARK** G G Introduction International Journal of Korean History(Vol.11, Dec.2007) 1 G G G G The Protestant Church as a Political Training Ground in Modern Korea* G G G Chung-shin PARK** G G Introduction A great majority of the personages on the political scene right after the liberation in 1945 were Protestant church leaders and members. In addition to moderate to left-wing leaders such as Kim Kyusik, Yo Unhyong, Kang Yang'uk and Ch'oe Yonggon, major personalities of the right such as Syngman Rhee, Kim Ku, Cho Mansik, Yi Yunyong and Yi Siyong were also church leaders or Christians. Especially after the emergence of two separate regimes in the north and the south, in the south, Christians came to occupy some 40 percent of political leadership positions, even though they constituted less than 10 percent of the south GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG * This article is a revision of my paper, which I read at the symposium on “The Impact of Christianity on Korean Culture' at the Center for Korean Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, held on Mat 7, 2004. It is based on my previous works, such as Chung-shin Park, Protestantism and Politics in Korea (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2003; Pak Chongsin (Chung-shin Park), Han'guk kidokkyosa insik (A New Understanding of Korean Church History), (Seoul: Hye'an, 2004), Han'guk kidokkto ilgi (A Historical Reading of Korean Christianity), (Seaol: Tarakbang, 2004) and so forth. ** Professor, Department of Christian Studies, Soongsil University 2 The Protestant Church as a Political Training Ground in Modern Korea G Korean population.1 It is interesting to note that at his inauguration as the first president of the Republic of Korea on August 15, 1948, Syngman Rhee took an oath of office with his hand on the Bible, a gesture unprecedented in Korean history.2 At the opening ceremony, over which he presided as speaker before the presidential inauguration, Rhee told the audience to rise and had Assemblyman Yi Yunyong, a Christian minister, led a prayer of thanks.3 The first National Assembly and the first presidential inauguration in a land steeped in Confucianism, Buddhism, and folk cults were begun with Christian ceremonies. All signs at the beginning of the Rhee's regime indicated the opening of a “Christian era,” as a prominent Korean historian says.4 This phenomenon is indeed an intriguing subject for research. For some reasons, however, the Christian background of these individuals is not mentioned at all, or only tangentially, in the literature. It would be an intriguing subject to see how these Christians came to assume leadership positions in the south.5 Some scholars have argued that the presence of the United States called forth a friendly response from Korean Christians and enabled cooperation between the occupation forces and the Protestant church. The stationing of American troops, they say, facilitated the advance of Protestant Christians to positions of responsibility.6 In fact, the US military government appointed many Christians to work in its offices. But one should not overemphasize this factor, for the American command did not particularly favor Christian elements over other political forces. According to Bruce Cumings, when the Americans arrived in Korea on September 9, 1945, they first sought support from collaborators with the Japanese, moderate nationalists, and generally well-to-do Koreans who later coalesced into the Korean Democratic Party (KDA), Hanmindang, of Kim Songsu, more than they looked for support from the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence (CPKI), Kon'guk chunbi wiwonhoe, of Yo Unhyong, which contained more Christians. For example, whereas five of twenty-six members of the cabinet proposed by the KDP were Christian, six out of ten members of the CPKI-proposed cabinet were Christian. The American Chung-shin PARK 3 G command named eleven Koreans, of whom four were Christian, to the Advisory Council it established on October 9, 1945. However, among these four Christian leaders, Yo Unhyong soon resigned and Cho Mansik was still in North Korea. In effect, the American command had appointed only two Christians to the eleven-member council. Most of the appointed council members from the KDP were landlords, businessmen and intellectuals.7 Scholars also have pointed out that the Christian community responded amicably to the emergence of Syngman Rhee as the first president of Korea, and cooperation between the two forces soon reached the point where a coalition between the secular and the spiritual was achieved. Rhee, Christians maintained, facilitated the advance of church leaders to higher government positions.8 It is true that Rhee tried to obtain the church's support in order to make up for his lack of a home base upon his return from a long exile. His maneuvering for Christian support worked well; not only was he the best- known Korean Christian leader, but his close advisers were also Christians.9 But we should not overlook the important fact that church leaders had already assumed leadership positions in Korea by the time of his return. It would be superficial, therefore, to say that Christian leaders were appointed to higher government posts on the ground of religion. Such circumstances as the U.S. occupation and the emergence of Syngman Rhee helped Christians merely to consolidate their leadership position in society. I have argued that Christians had already became a dominant political force in Korea by the time of liberation from Japan.10 In 1944, there were 5,497 churches on the peninsula with congregation totalling 450,000.11 There was simply no other group comparable in organization and number to the Christian church immediately after the Liberation. All other groups which would subsequently play a more significant role in politics, such as those for businessmen, bureaucrats, policemen, soldiers, and even politicians, were disorganized or at best in the process of regrouping. These group were under attack for their collaboration with the Japanese 4 The Protestant Church as a Political Training Ground in Modern Korea G during the colonial period.12 Church leaders, moreover, had better education, more experience in politics and administration, and nationwide organizational networks at the time. All these assets gave the Christians a formidable potential for political activity, especially during early years after Liberation. To understand the emergence of Christians as a dominant political force in the post-Liberation era more clearly, we should know more about the Protestant church community: programs, teachings, members, and so forth. From its beginning in late Confucian Korea, I have once argued, the Protestant church had been the main community which introduced such ideas as democracy, equality, individual rights, and so forth. It was also the first community where its members learned modern political procedure, usage, practice and technique through participating in a variety of church programs and activities. Politically trained, church members had been initiators, organizers and leaders in various social political movements and nationalist activism for independence since the late nineteenth century.13 In this paper, therefore, I will discuss the Protestant church as a modern political training ground in Korea. It is well known that early Christians first gathered in the sarangbang (guest room) church. Church members, whether they were yangban (gentlemen), sangmin (commoners) or ch'onmin (lowly people), sat down together for worship service and other church activities. This historical picture is indeed revolutionary, if one considers the Confucian Korean society where the four-class (scholar-official, peasant, artisan and merchant) system, the samjongjido (the way of three obediences) teaching and the namyoch'ilsepudongsok (boys and girls are separated at the age of seven) practice were major measures of social control. One may imagine that every Sunday, yangban and sangmin converts, men and women, old and young gathered for worship in the sarangbang church. This picture could not be real and unimaginable in Confucian Korea. However, it was real and happened in the early Christian community.14 Chung-shin PARK 5 G In a variety of gatherings of the early church, such as worship service and other church activities, the Choson Korean social values and practices came to be dissolved gradually, if not dramatically. One Korean yangban's reaction to early Christian teaching and practice was typical of the Korean experience of conversion: “Four month ago I was ashamed to be here at the sarang, and when the congregation bowed down to pray I felf queer, and sat up straight, but after a little while I began to bow down too, and the feeling of shame was all gone...To be sure, I am a Yang Ban (yangban), but God did not make one man a Yang Ban, another a Sang Nom (sangnom, common fellow). Men have made that distinction. God made all men equal.”15 While commoners, women, and children did not have any voice and were treated unequally in the hierarchical Confucian society, things were quite different in early Protestant congregations. Nobles and commoners, men and women, old and young sat together in one place as equals to hear sermons, sing hymns, read the Bible, and discuss matters of religion as “brothers and sisters.”16 Missionaries and early church leaders emphasized the difference between Confucianism and Christianity on the issues of social status and value of life, as wee see clearly in the following: “The (Confucian) sages of Korea taught the nation that woman is inferior to man. Christianity flatly contradicts this, and there is a clash. The sages taught that some men are better than other men, and again we have discord.”17 Furthermore, the early church even taught that Confucian society was “evel” or “heathen” and that it should be Christianized: “The evil of this (Confucian) customs is that it denies the right of man to freedom and creates a class standard of blood and instead of merit.
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