“In such critical moments, our church knows instinctively its priestly and prophetic role,” said a south Korean church official to a visiting U.S. church delegation last month.
Those words were spoken even as south Korean authorities were detaining 27 Korean priests and prophets for “attempting to overthrow” the government of President Park Chung Hee. The charges stem from a “Declaration for Democratic National Salvation,” which Christians presented March 1 following a worship service in Seoul’s Myongdong Cathedral.
The declaration states that, despite heavy ordeals, the Korean people have never lost their hope for and belief in freedom, liberal democracy, and dignity.
Yet, “once again our people are bound by the iron chains of a dictatorial government,” said the dozen signers. They called for 1) abolition of Park’s “emergency measures” and restoration of free speech and press, 2) separation of the three branches of government (now totally controlled by the president), including free elections and the recovery of parliamentary politics, 3) sound economic development which would benefit all the people and not just a few rich, and 4) a peaceful, democratic revolution which they say is not only “the way to defeat communism” but also a shortcut to reunification of the tragically divided Korean peninsula.
The Seoul District prosecutor has formally indicted 18 Christians for their roles in the democratic declaration. 11 of those indicted have been imprisoned since March 10. They include four Protestant pastors, three Catholic priests, three Christian professors and south Korea’s most famous Catholic layman, Kim Dae Jung.
Kim was an unsuccessful candidate for president of the Republic of Korea in 1971. He received 46 percent of the vote. According to the head of the U.S. State Department’s Korea desk at the time, he would have won if the election had been free of corruption, including the Gulf Oil Corporation’s $3 million contribution to Park’s campaign.
Most observers say that President Park’s march toward authoritarian one-man rule began with his disenchantment over the democratic processes which nearly unseated him in 1971. But equally important, they say, were Park’s fears that south Korea might become another south Vietnam. Since 1972 President Park has shown a rugged determination to be a stronger, if also more ruthless, dictator than former south Vietnamese President Thieu.
President Park’s major problem in gaining absolute obedience from the 35 million south Koreans is that many of the country’s four million Christians ultimately march to a different drummer: worship of the Risen Lord precludes blind obeisance to the earthly rulers. But more than that, the theologically conservative and biblically fundamentalist Korean Christians have a long history of social involvement -- a history rooted in Old Testament hope and New Testament faith. The Korean Christians, out of a depth of commitment that bears all the scars of thorns and all the assurance of resurrection, have since the days of Japanese colonial rule dared to publicly insist that Jesus died to set all free.
Thus, for more than 50 years, Christians consistently have been the front-line of resistance against those who would steal a Korean’s political birthright or rob one of just wages. Every time a Korean rises in confrontation to foreign exploiters or domestic oppressors, one can usually assume that he or she is a Christian -- or is standing next to a Christian. This year’s March 1 declaration was no exception.
The prophets of the Korean Christian struggle insist even from their prison cells that President Park is repeating the mistakes of Vietnam -- rampant corruption on top of heavy repression. They say that Park’s rationale -- national security in the face of north Korean communist threats -- is in fact fostering a fertile seed-bed for communist revolt in the south. In short, the Christians fear that Park, by trampling upon human dignity and undermining national will, is serving the anti-Christ.
Today the whole world, including leaders in Washington and President Park himself, is being forced to take these courageous Christians very seriously. Since the U.S. government is intimately related to the Park dictatorship, President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger are hoping that news of arrests imprisonment will die down -- especially in a U.S. election year. But Senators Kennedy and Cranston recently demanded a “full review of U.S. economic and military assistance” because of what they call “the clear drift of the Park government towards a policy of systematic repression.”
The Park regime tried to undercut the force of the March 1 declaration by accusing the signers of being “irresponsible and cowardly” people “devoid of any religious conscience.” Why? Because, said the government, the signers were Christians who used the church and “took advantage of a religious ritual” in releasing their statement.
The imprisoned priests and prophets believe that if they are “taking advantage” of anything it is the Bible. It is the certain knowledge that Jesus Christ died so that others might live. It is also perhaps the instinctive sense that, at this critical moment in Korean history, some faithful servants finally have no choice: God is “taking advantage” of them.
Surrounded by Korean CIA agents and informers, life in Park’s police-state is a constant loyalty test. There is little question about the loyalty of the Christians. As a result, Park feels he must crush them. What Park doesn’t know is that he can imprison some bodies yet never cage the Spirit.
When this article appeared, Jim Stentzel was a missionary and journalist with a deep knowledge of the Korean situation.
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