Shopping and Megachurches

This weekend, I had a Koreanized "Black Friday." I stormed all the major markets in Seoul as well as some of the famous bookstores. While people in the states were stampeding into Walmart, I was bargaining with street vendors at the markets.

Joining me for this expedition was Chelsea, a fellow international. We first went to the markets: Dongdaemun, Namdaemun, and Insadong. I have visited these markets on several occasions, but this was the first time to do all three in one day. It was epic! Between markets, we would snag some street food, which included pork and kimchi mandu (dumplings) and hotdok (a Korean pancake with cinnamon filling). All three of these markets have ancient roots, with Namdaemun and Dongdaemun paying homage to their historical roots in their names. "Nam" is south in Korean while "Mun" means gate or door, this market is located where the south gate of the ancient wall that surrounded Seoul stands. While the wall no longer exists, you can see the gate from the market. In the same way "Dong" means east in Korean, add "Mun" you get east gate, the place where the eastern limits of ancient Seoul were located.

After these three markets, we visited two bookstores in the city. The first was the Salvation Army Christian bookstore. I have wanted to visit this bookstore for awhile. It is the largest Christian bookstore in Korea and one of the largest in Asia. It was interesting to see some of the same literature that is in my dad's office being sold here. After this bookstore, we went to Itaewon to see "What the Book," a bookstore my friend who teaches here in Korea recommended to me. Basically, it is a large used bookstore that sells only English books. It is like a huge book exchange for foreigners. They also had a huge selection of books about Korea in English, now I've got quite a list of books to look for on Amazon! Chelsea was especially happy about this find: she's a literature buff and hopes to teach in Korea next year, I think she will spend a lot of time searching the shelves of this store!

After our shopping expedition we joined Ross and Victor, two of our classmates from school that were in Seoul for the day, for dinner in Itaewon. It was nice to swap stories from our day as well as to have dinner away from the Shinchang. Like any small town, after a few weeks, you grow weary of the same restaurants. Anytime we get up to Seoul, we like to eat something completely different.

We said goodbye to Ross and Victor after dinner and went to visit the Byeons. Kyunghye is finished with the Suneung (College exam) so we were able to spend time with her now that she has a break until February. We watched a Korean movie call "Sunny," which left me with mixed emotions. The storyline is basically about a group of seven high school girls who form a club called Sunny. The story is told in flashbacks of their "Sunny" days as students, and the present day where they are trying to find one another as one of the members is dying. Watching this movie as a person in the in between time (high school and middle age) I felt a bit of longing for the memories I have as a teenager with my own "Sunny" like group. It also made me wonder, fifteen or so years from now, will I be faced with the same reality as these girls: losing touch with those friends that meant everything to me as a teenager resulting in a search for them? While nothing can remain the same as it was, I still in a way mourn for those memories in that they will never return as they were. Oh, why is growing up so difficult! It was nice to see this movie with Kyunghye because even though it has been five years since she came to America and became a sister to me, we still have the same quirkiness as before, an indication to me that while our lives may change, friendship can remain with the knowledge that some things will change but others will hold the same.

On Sunday morning, me and Chelsea completed another thing off my list of things to do in Korea: we went to Yoido Full Gospel Church. Yoido is the largest church in the world, with over 1,000,000 members. If you asked 10 people in Seoul where they went to church, at least one would say Yoido. It is a monster of a church, with a huge stadium sanctuary on Yoido island right next to the National Assembly. I find it interesting that these two titans stand side by side: The Political power(Natl Assembly) and the Religious force (Yoido Full Gospel). They are the two forces that are deciding the future of this nation, from collective policy and individual conviction standpoints.

We were led from the main welcome area to the section of the stadium for foreigners. We were given headphones to listen to the translation of the sermon. It was very helpful for me to hear the more particular details of the pastor's sermon because I was very curious to finally hear a message from this controversial pastor (more on that in a minute). I also really enjoyed taking off the headphones for the rest of the service to sing with the 15,000+ worshipers at the service. Singing with a mass congregation in Korean was an incredible experience. In the course of 60 years, Korea has demonstrated that a nation can turn to Christ (less than 5% Christian 1950 to over 50% today.) What was mind-blowing about this church is the magnitude of the church. There were 15,000 people at this service, not counting the several thousand that were watching a live stream of the service from satellite churches outside of the city. In addition, this was the fourth service of the day, with an additional three in the afternoon. The church holds at least one service a day. Korea definitely likes to demonstrate extremes, this church is another example of that!

Now, to the actual message and some of the troubling things I found in this church. First off, the church is a perfect example of a church revolving around a charismatic senior pastor. I think I have mentioned this before, but a lot of Korea's churches focus their ministry around their pastor instead of their faith statement and community of believers. The founding pastor and his son pretty much run this place, and the majority of churchgoers regard their words as truth. Instead of emphasizing faith as an individuals journey that can be encouraged through the community of believers by means of church, Yoido focuses on a personality cult of sorts through Rev Cho.

Another fascinating aspect of this issue I have is that pastors in South Korea do not pay taxes on anything and do not have to report their income to the government. Can you see the potential for corruption? You have a congregation that believes you can do no wrong and a government that will turn a blind eye to any potential misguidance of income, what do you think the result would be? I do not think any human is capable with that much power to not turn to greed. The father son duo at Yoido have been accused of stealing millions from the congregation. However, the people are defending them and refuse to believe they have stolen from them.

I think what is more frightening to me besides the pastors stealing from their own members is the message they preach. The main message of this church is what they call "Three fold blessing: the blessing of spirit soul and body." They proclaim that physical health and financial gain are as significant to God's will for believers as the salvation of the soul. This message was preached in the sermon today, when Pastor Cho discussed the story of the ten lepers. He used the example that if we give thanks in all we do, we will be healed like the thankful leper. Now, first of all, all the lepers were healed before anyone said a thank you. Secondly, to put God in this small box of "if you do this, God will do this for you" is not only extremely disrespectful, it is harmful to yourself. With such a naive understanding of God, I do not know how a person would be able to deal with troubles when they come. Jesus promised that because of your faith, you would have troubles, never did he say that if you believed enough or gave thanks often enough would he bring you wealth on this earth. God is God, and while we may not understand some of the things that happen to us, we can count on Him to stand by our side, through the good and the bad. To promise people that they will be successful if they are good enough is completely contrary to what Jesus preached.

I pray that this church survives this scandal and comes out of it pursuing a message that is more like the message of Christ. I also pray that every member of this church forms individual convictions and a faith of their own, rather than a mass misinterpretation of the Bible.