hankyoreh

nuns and believers hold a mass in protest of the Lee Myung-bak administration’s Four Major Rivers Restoration Project at Seoul’s Myeong-dong Cathedral

Campaigns in opposition to the Lee Myung-bak Administration’s Four Major Rivers Restoration Project have been spreading like wildfire throughout the religious sector, including Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists and Won Buddhists. Analysts say that the factors underlying this opposition fervor include the nature of religion, which is about preserving life and transcending material values, and a religious environmental movement that has been growing since the 1990s.

A religious public organization comprising the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK), the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK, formerly the KNCC) along with some one hundred Won Buddhist officials and the Jogye Order environment committee has lit the fuse with publicized opposition to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. Since the outset, the religious sector has witnessed an array of events, including large-scale masses, combined worship and purification ceremonies. At a mass held in the main hall of Seoul’s Myeongdong Cathedral on Monday, some 2,000 priests and believers gathered together to unanimously call for an end to the project.

On Tuesday, priests and ministers plan to gather for an all-night prayer vigil at the Dumulmeori Organic Farming Complex in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, where the thousands of riot police are expected to be deployed. On May 24, there are plans to hold a joint prayer meeting at Silleuk Temple in Yeoju County, Gyeonggi Province, where members of four major religious groups will urge an end to the project.

This opposition movement in the religious sector also appears likely to have an impact on the June 2 regional elections. Catholic priests and ascetics urging an end to the project said Monday, “There will be a clear judgment passed on the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project through voting.”

Despite the talk of a “judgment through the election,” the religious sector’s approach to the project has had more to do with religious logic than political logic. The “Life and Peace Masses Urging an End to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project” held at Myeong-dong Cathedral since April 26 have appeared no different from ordinary masses, with some 150 to 200 people attending each day, from teenagers to those in their sixties and from friends to family. Despite the fact that they are “political masses” in opposition to government policy, attendees have offered their prayers to “save the river of life.”

Christian Environmental Movement Solidarity for Integrity of Creation Secretary General Reverend Yang Jae-seong said this phenomenon “stems from the fact that the proper role of religion is to preserve and save life.” Yang said, “All of the destruction of life and the developmentalism that we have witnessed over the years requires much in the way of repentance, but the religious sector has stepped forward proactively because it can no longer stand by and watch the forceful push for the development of the four rivers.”

Also suggestive is the fact that the main stream of the Four Major Rivers “fighting ranks” have not been activists in religious groups. In the Catholic Church movement, the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice has taken a back seat to CBCK organizations like the Environmental Pastoral Committee and Justice and Peace Committee. Maeng Joo-hyung, head of the education department of the Archdiocese of Seoul’s Environmental Pastoral Committee, said, “The priests leading the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project opposition campaign are a far cry from the ‘movement types.’” Maeng also said, “The fervor of the Catholic opposition, including as many as 300 thousand signatories against the project according to an interim subtotal, should be understood at the religious level.”

Underlying the widespread participation of priests is the increasing establishment of an environmental movement that has grown since the 1990s. Environmental movements such as Christian green living campaigns and Buddhist life-saving campaigns have already become everyday practices at churches and temples. Even at conservative megachurches, it is not difficult to find environmentally friendly campaigns such as used-good markets and encouragement of organic agriculture. Yang Jae-seong said, “The individual green activities of churches are a fundamental aspect of the Four Major Rivers opposition movement.” Yang added, “Believers have a more awakened environmental understanding than the ordinary public.”

Previously, some within the Catholic Church claimed that the opposition campaign against the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project represented political involvement by religion, but these claims abated after failing to earn support in the face of other claims that the opposition movement was a religious campaign for life.

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