Various Remarks on Korean Christian Missionaries

Korean Missions in Muslim Lands

15,000 Korean Missionaries in the World

(Image from New York Times, 2004)

We often hear that merely 7 degrees of separation stand between any two individuals in the world, which means, for example, that I probably know somebody who knows someone who knows some person who knows some individual who knows some soul who knows some acquaintance who knows Bin Laden.

Sometimes, the degrees are more, sometimes less.

We're also told that we need not reach back too far in the geneological tables to find that everybody around the world is related.

Sometimes, the relationship is closer in time and space.

I thus read with some shock that Pastor Bae Hyeong-kyu, the first of the two Korean hostages murdered by the Taliban, is the younger brother to a brother-in-law of Peter Beck.

Who's Peter Beck? Well, I know him, having met him over dinner last January. At the time, I related an anecdote that he had told us over our meal in an Uzbek restaurant about his excursion to the very brink of North Korea, and he has since granted me the permission to identify him as the one who told the tale:

One of those present yesterday, an American (and I'm leaving him unidentified since I'm not sure if he'd want to be identified), told an anecdote about his near visit to North Korea. He was on a raft that was being poled on the Tuman River by two Chinese Koreans. The three of them waved to a North Korean border guard, who waved back. So ... they poled closer. The guard asked for money, so the American tossed some. The guard asked for more. The American said, "I'll give you more if you'll let me shake your hand." The guard considered this, but then shook his head no. So, the American asked, "Could I step on shore, then? I've always wanted to visit North Korea." Again, the guard considered but declined. The Chinese Koreans then poled away, back toward China, and they told him that the South Koreans who go rafting with them toss far more money and make no conditions.

The American telling the story then smiled and remarked to us that this neatly captures the difference between the respective policies of the United States and South Korea toward the North.

At the time that I met Peter, he was director of the International Crisis Group's Seoul Office, but he has very recently moved on to take on the position as executive director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and is now stationed in Washington, D.C.

As you might guess by the anecdote, Peter is hardly averse to taking some risks ... but he does draw some crucial lines, as he tells us in a recent column, "Understanding people of faith," written for the September 3rd edition of The Korea Herald:

When I learned that 23 Korean missionaries had been abducted in Afghanistan, I told my wife, "Looks like another group of crazy Korean Christians." It struck me as the height of recklessness and foolishness to take a group of inexperienced Christian relief workers into the heart of Taliban country.

Imagine his shock at the response of his Korean wife:

My wife responded by informing me that the leader of the group, Rev. Bae Hyeong-kyu, who would soon be the first executed, was a relative.

Coming to grips with this, emotionally, took some time for Peter:

As son-in-law No. 3, even though I am very close to son-in-law No. 4 (my family slept on his family's floor when we moved to Korea three years ago and we would move nearby), I had not met his younger brother, Rev. Bae. I did know that like my wife's family, he and his family are devout Christians. In fact, I am one of the only non-religious people in my wife's entire extended family. When word came that he had been killed and I was interviewed by America's most influential radio network, National Public Radio, I felt like I had been rather cold and detached. Indeed, a close friend who heard the interview would later inform me that my lack of religiousness came through the interview loud and clear. However, after spending that evening with my brother-in-law and learning about what amazing humanitarian work his brother had done in Africa and the risks taken and sacrifices made by Western missionaries to bring Christianity to Korea, the next interview I did for CNN was much more sympathetic. To my regret, I would receive dozens of messages about the NPR interview, but none about the CNN interview.

Peter does not tell us what humanitarian work Bae did in Africa, but he adds this remark about Bae's family:

As fate would have it, we spent our very last evening in Korea with Rev. Bae's parents and siblings. I was impressed with how their deep faith was guiding them through unfathomable grief. Rev. Bae's mother told me, "Our son is with God now. My concern is for the families who are waiting for their loved ones to return."

Many of us know from various news reports that Reverend Bae and the other missionaries have been accused of using poor judgement, and I agree with some of the criticisms. We don't know all of the details, of course, and I've been waiting to learn more before drawing a firm conclusion, but so far, I hold to what I said a few weeks ago.

First, I reminded critics that the Korean Christians, no matter how 'fanatical' they might be, were not the moral equivalent of the Taliban:

These Christians go to do volunteer work in health and charity services as well as to witness to their faith, which is by and large a peaceful one.

That seemed necessary to point out, given the harsh criticism that these Christians were receiving for doing missionary work in a Muslim country. Many people even seemed to think that the Christians deserved what they were getting at the hands of the Taliban, a reaction that I cannot understand.

My second point was directed toward the Korean government:

The Korean government should not negotiate with the Taliban over these hostages. The Taliban are murderous, violent, fundamentalist Islamist terrorists. Negotiating with them will lead to more hostage-taking -- especially hostage-taking of Koreans.

The Taliban themselves have since confirmed this point:

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi vowed to abduct more foreigners, reinforcing fears [expressed by many individuals and governments] that South Korea's decision to negotiate directly with the militants would embolden them.

"We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful," he told The Associated Press via cell phone from an undisclosed location. (Amir Shah, "Taliban free last South Korean hostages," Yahoo News, August 31, 2007)

This won't stop the missionaries, of course, no matter what the Korean government has agreed to with the Taliban about preventing any more Koreans from going to Afghanistan for any reason but especially for reasons of mission work. Indeed, Korean missionaries are already protesting the government's agreement:

The Korea World Missions Association, has expressed “dissatisfaction” with the agreement between the Korean government and Taliban banning missionary work in Afghanistan. It has also released a document that proposes setting up a crisis management team for overseas missionaries and lays out ground rules for crisis management. In other words, if there is an another hostage crisis, then these guys will take the lead in negotiating with the hostage takers. ("Missionary Work to Continue in Afghanistan?" Marmot's Hole, September 1, 2007)

Many will continue to criticize Christian missionaries, but as Peter Beck notes:

Only two types of people are willing to risk their lives to help North Koreans trying to flee the North: brokers working for money and missionaries working for God. At some point, we must each decide how much risk we are willing to take to help others. Those of strong faith tend to be more risk-taking than those of us with little faith.

Peter is not without his criticisms of Korean Protestant Christianity, and I can agree with some of his points, but my larger agreement is that Christian missionaries are "more risk-taking" than most other individuals.

And this is precisely the problem for the Korean government, for there are approximately 15,000 Korean Christian missionaries scattered throughout the world. I astonished several professors at the annual Kyung Hee University retreat two weeks ago when I told them this fact, for they had no clue that Korean mission work was so extensive. We had been discussing the hostage situation, and I had given my opinion that the Korean government should not be negotiating. They had disagreed, maintaining that the government could not refuse to negotiate for the release of Korean hostages, but when I cited this statistic about the 15,000 Korean missionaries, they immediately grasped the potential problem and began to see things my way.

Evangelical Christians, who supply many if not most of the missionaries in the world, tend to see themselves as being at odds with the world, with worldly culture, and with worldly power. If they truly believe this, then they should not be relying on the world to rescue them if they are kidnapped or otherwise persecuted. Worldly organizations can do so if they feel a humanitarian obligation, of course, but the missionaries should not expect this and, indeed, should make clear that they take risks without expecting rescue, that they will instead rely upon their faith in God.

I think that they'll be far more effective if they do so.