Evangelization Jesus' Way

In continuation of yesterday's blog there is a great deal to be said about evangelization:what to do and what not to do. We are not good carriers of the message that Jesus gave us. Catholics are not united as we should be, although in Korea we do have a certain type of unity; there are serious divisions among Protestants, and in recent times, not obvious in the past, fundemental issues separating Christians in the different Churches. The unity a very important part of Jesus' message is not considered important enough to make it central to our thinking.


This lack of unity is no help in the work of evangelizing that Jesus gave us to do. One has little difficulty seeing how mystified are those without religion looking upon us with religion. In Korea as in other parts of the world the numbers of those without religion is becoming one of the largest segments of society very likely most of the blame belongs to us.

In the presentation that was made at the symposium on Evagelization the conclusion was to do a better job in presenting our message. One of the suggestions was to use the three Cs approach to evangelization which is taken from the business world: Content, Community and Commerce. The case was made that in our world it is no longer duty that speaks but grace, gift. One has to experience the gift of grace or else we get nowhere. We have to use the operating methods of the market. The competition to bring people to Jesus is great, there are just too many out there doing what we do and those who do a better job in the marketing will get more followers, we are dealing with consumers.


The conclusion was to have a diverse spiritual product that fits the culture. We have to draw plans that fit the mental world of our people and build the future community.

This reminds me of Maryknoll's own attempt many years ago to use some of the know how from the business world to do a better job as missioners. I have forgotten the order but some of the words we were using were: aim, plans , targets and goals. We can learn a great deal from business and other areas of life but grace will always be what it is all about.

Catholics have to be the example of what it means to be persons of grace. The life of grace has to be seen: persons of joy, peace love... the gifts of the Spirit. The future will have the product speak for itself. It will not be words or our selling but the attraction of what we are. What we need is saints who can show us the way of grace. That will be attraction enough. It was Jesus' way.

Religion and Politics in Present Day Korea

An academic meeting on 'the relationship of the state and religion in the present society' was reported on by the Catholic Peace Weekly. Professor Kang of Hanshin University maintained in his delivery that the influence of any religion decreases in proportion to the growth of its political influence.

The professor mentioned that many who are of the conservative bent in religion feel that it will be profitable for them to get involved in politics but in doing so lose the confidence of the people and the good feelings toward the religion decreases.

He showed how this has worked out for the Protestants from the 1940s on. There was a decrease in the number of Protestants from 1940-1945. At this time many of the upper classes of Protestant society favored the Japanese: there was a drop in the number of Protestants.

In 1955-62 when Syngman Rhee was in control many of the Protestants who had studied overseas were given places in the government and again a decrease in the number of Protestants. In the United States Provisional Government of the 50 Koreans who were given high positions 35 were Protestants.

Again from 1995-2005 there was another drop in the numbers. President Kim Yong Sam an elder in the Protestant Church was followed by Kim Tae-chung and the Sunshine Policy and Roh Moo-hyun who continued that policy but most of the conservative Protestants were against the policy and we had another drop in the numbers.

The professor has cited two principles that he feels are necessary for a religion to get involved successfully in politics. One is the trust of society, the society has to acknowledged the virtue of the leaders of the religion. Secondly, mutual understanding between the society and the religion. They have to use words that both understand, and in harmony. The professor feels without this the religion is going to receive a death blow.

The Professor feels that President Lee Myung -bak as an elder of the Somang Church has involved the conservative element of Protestants and given the impression of selfish interest instead of the common good. He has also divided the conservative and progressive elements in Protestantism and brought division between religions and within groups in society.

There was a very serious period when the the Buddhist took to the streets which is not their way, after they felt and rightly so, that they were being discriminated against. There was a very noticeable pro- Christian bias in the selection of his cabinet and filling places in government, along with slights to the Buddhists. He has publicly apologised and has attended a Buddhist event for the first time since in office. It seemed to be a reconciliatory gesture aimed at mending the bridges. Korea has had a fairly good history of toleration and the President, belatedly has acknowledge the results of his actions and taken measures to remedy the situation.