hankyoreh

March 3. (Cheong Wa Dae photo pool)　

By Ahn Chang-hyun, Staff Writer　

Fundamental questions have continued to arise about President Lee Myung-bak’s participation in the national prayer breakfast following the widely publicized prayer while kneeling down on his knees. Critics are charging that as the president’s religious biases have been placed in relief, cracks have begun to show in the “religious peace” in South Korea, where separation of church and state is the rule.

Politicians in ruling and opposition parties alike expressed their displeasure Sunday.

“It is not right that something that was not in the schedule took place while the people of South Korea were watching,” said ruling Grand National Party (GNP) Lawmaker Jeong Tae-keun.

Main opposition Democratic Party (DP) Lawmaker Kim Boo-kyum expressed concerns that “the religious pluralism and richness of South Korean society could be compromised.”

“It was extraordinary to demand that the president of a country kneel,” said another prominent GNP lawmaker, adding, “The Protestant world has become too arrogant.”

At a prayer breakfast on the morning of Mar. 3, President Lee and his wife Kim Yoon-ok delivered a “unity prayer” on their knees, prompting Buddhists to charge that they had “damaged national prestige.”

The history of prayer breakfasts has been marked by strong allegations of “transactions” between politicians and religious leaders. According to the book “Korean Protestantism and Anti-Communism” by Hanshin University Professor Kang In-cheol, the event originated in 1966 with a ”Presidential Prayer Breakfast” on the model of the U.S. event of the National Prayer Breakfast.

The first in Asia, it subsequently also changed its name to the “National Prayer Breakfast” in 1976. At the time of the event’s creation, Rev. Kim Joon-gon said, “God made the military revolution a success.” The 1973 prayer breakfast, the first since the launch of the Yushin system, was broadcast live on television, with Kim saying, “The revitalizing reforms of October must succeed with the blessings of God.”

Protestant leaders also organized a separate “Prayer Breakfast for the Country” in August 1980 together with Special Committee for National Security Measures standing committee chairman Chun Doo-hwan. This prayer breakfast was broadcast on KBS and MBC.

While the national prayer breakfast in the U.S. has been opened to other religious orders and groups besides Protestants, the situation has been different in South Korea.

“We have to reconsider whether this format is suitable in a situation where prayer meetings have become something akin to political rallies,” said Rev. In Myung-jin of Galilee Church. “In the interest of respecting and ensuring a personal religious life for the president, it would be better not to request his appearance at an open religious meeting, and for him not to attend.”

Some observers contend that the event is a threat to the Constitutional value of separation of church. President Lee, an elder at Somang Presbyterian church, has drawn continuous charges of “Ko So Young” appointments after seating connections through that church in senior government positions. Ko So-young is a famous South Korean actress, but the phrase is also a play on the words ko, for the president’s alma mater Korea University, so, Somang Church which he attends, and young, Yongnam Province, where President Lee received strong voter support in the last election.

“Religion is using politics to expand its influence, and politics has expanded its forces through religion,” said former DP Lawmaker Choi Jae-chun.

“The boundary between religion and politics has become indistinct,” Choi charged.

The Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) has avoided commenting openly on the matter. However, a key official there indirectly expressed displeasure with the Protestant leaders who directed the president to kneel, saying, “Questions are being raised about that even within the Protestant community.”

The Cheong Wa Dae is discomfited at the fact that the prayer breakfast situation has once again summoned up the image of President Lee’s being biased toward a particular region. The hope there is that after this situation, the Protestant world will be more cautious at future prayer breakfasts.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]