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An increasing number of South Korean Christians are becoming disillusioned with organised religion and are leaving their churches, a recently published report says.
Greed, unthinking obedience, and hypocrisy among church leaders in recent years has led to a new phenomenon of ‘unchurched Christians’, the report says, who believe in the religion but avoid joining a congregation.
In a country famous for its zealous subway preachers and the largest church congregation in the world, the idea that you can be spiritual without being religious is novel.
An increasing number of South Korean Christians are becoming disillusioned with organised religion and are leaving their churches, a recently published report says.
Greed, unthinking obedience, and hypocrisy among church leaders in recent years has led to a new phenomenon of ‘unchurched Christians’, the report says, who believe in the religion but avoid joining a congregation.
In a country famous for its zealous subway preachers and the largest church congregation in the world, the idea that you can be spiritual without being religious is novel.
I would welcome a lively discussion here with a church -disillusioned 29% of the Korean population.
So people are ditching the religiosity for simple, honest faith? I can't say that I really blame them. We're seeing the fruits of purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive megachurches here in America: shallow faith, rising levels of atheism, religion focused on things of this world, etc.
Very interesting, for Korea was well-known as having a surprisingly large number of Christians for a non-"Western" country. I suppose in these days of connectivity and instant information, it's much harder to keep certain things under wraps and put on a fake face.
I would also like to think that this same connectivity gives people access to better resources concerning their religion, instead of having to rely on their Sunday School teacher alone.
Speaking of "Eastern" responses to Christianity, some might enjoy this reply penned to a preacher trying to convert Hindus. It's very interesting! It, too, speaks of the simplicity of faith, rather than of denomination (though as a commenter points out, Ghandhi was not the perfect saint that many think). Here it is. It reminds me of a story of a missionary who ran into a multitude of problems after translating the Bible into a certain African language, and finding that the readers of said Bible were very able to frustrate the missionary with their questions regarding the many textual problems in the Bible. The missionary is no longer a missionary, for these simple (and I mean that in the sense that they were members of a small tribe without access to what we would consider modern amenities) people were able to make him see the Bible with fresh eyes, and not through a glass darkly.
So people are ditching the religiosity for simple, honest faith? I can't say that I really blame them. We're seeing the fruits of purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive megachurches here in America: shallow faith, rising levels of atheism, religion focused on things of this world, etc.
If you were yourself to ditch religiosity and purpose - driven megachurches (or indeed, if you already have) I would think better of you old chum.
If you were yourself to ditch religiosity and purpose - driven megachurches (or indeed, if you already have) I would think better of you old chum.
I despise Rick Warren's purpose-drive theology. I don't like seeker-sensitive churches. Yes--we should be loving and accepting of anyone that walks through the doors, but we don't design our worship services for those that are not Christians.
What has happened is division and strife,cliques have been formed throughout the church vey perilous and pernicious thing, we are to be a body of one, the Bride of Christ.
Even if one could decide on a suitable all inclusive denomination, one would then have to tackle the pernicious divisions, strife and cliques that exist in the worship of the Abrahamic god, in their various ways.
I won't fall into the rather self -serving 'you are wasting your time trying' trap though. When threatened with a serious challenge of doubt to their authority, even mutually hostile creeds can stand together, united in maintaining Godfaith against the hellspawn who have no morals and want to fornicate in the streets.
Most of the Koreans I know only attend Church for the community. They aren't all that devout and Monday through Saturday you wouldn't even be able to tell they were Christians.
Most of the Koreans I know only attend Church for the community. They aren't all that devout and Monday through Saturday you wouldn't even be able to tell they were Christians.
Another difficulty for Western minds to understand. Like many other people in Oriental nations Koreans generally do not see any conflict to claim to be following several conflicting religions at the same time.
If you were to ask a Korean if he was a Christian he might answer yes, then if you ask him if he is a Taoist he might again answer yes and if you then asked if he was a Buddhist he just might answer yes again.
It is like asking an American if he was Christian, Republican, German and getting 3 yes answers.
I have found many people in the Orient to be very flexible and change incoming cultures to agree with their cultured.
I think Lin Yu Tang summed it up quite well when he wrote: " An invader can not conquer China, as when they invade the invaders adapt to Chinese Culture and become Chinese." (or word's very similar, going by memory)
In my opinion Christian churches in Korea will either adapt to Korean beliefs or fail to survive.
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