Hermit Shmermit

fThe BBC has a "Korea of yesteryear" piece worthy of Marmot's Hole's own Robert Neff. This one is about a missionary named Robert Jermain Thomas who became an important Protestant martyr in 1866 when he decided to spread the gospel from the deck of an American merchant vessel, the ill-fated Sherman, which was most unwelcome in the Hermit Kingdom:

In 1866 Thomas joined an armed US trading boat bound for the Korean city of Pyongyang, intending to spread the gospel in a country with little contact with the outside world.

When the ship ran aground on a sandbank, Thomas began to throw his consignment of bibles onto the shore.

As uninvited trading boats were forbidden in Korea, Thomas was executed along with members of the crew as the country's first Protestant martyr.

However, the bibles he threw overboard were picked up by locals and are credited with fuelling a revival of Christianity in Korea fifty years later.

And thus began a Korean tradition of getting yourself killed by going into inhospitable territory that isn't quite socially ready to accept your proselytizing.

The BBC is reporting on this because Koreans have been flocking to the good reverend's chapel back in England.

Meanwhile, sometime during the Japanese colonial period, the Thomas Memorial Chapel was built on the site where the Sherman was attacked. Though it was destroyed in 1946 (Communists, you may have heard, aren't terribly fond of churches, them being opium-dispensers to the masses and all), the site is now the home of the Christian-organized Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (where I would totally consider teaching once I get my PhD, at least for a while, just for the bragging rights).

JC on CC

[This is one of those posts that may make people rethink what they think about me.] 

I don't have cable TV, so I only watch programs like Jon Stewart's or Stephen Colbert's when I come across a good clip. I occasionally catch the watered-down-for-broadcast-television episodes of "South Park" that are stripped of the profanity, gore, gay sex, and animal orgies.

But I've seen enough to conclude that Comedy Central — and "South Park" in particular — pokes a lot of fun at Christianity and Christians (just as it pokes fun at just about everything). So it's no surprise that Comedy Central would be interested in making a half-hour comedy about Jesus, tentatively called "JC":

“A half-hour animated show about JC (Jesus Christ) wanting to escape his father's enormous shadow and to live life in NYC as a regular guy. A lot has changed in 2000 years and he is the ultimate fish out of water. Meanwhile his all-powerful yet apathetic father would rather be playing video games than listening to JC recount his life in the city. JC is a playful take on religion and society with a sprinkle of dumb.”

Actually, I could see them being so aware of their own ability to offend that they might go out of their way to be "religiously sound" and even relatively reverent in some respects, such that a lot of non-fundamentalist Christians (and even some fundamentalists) might actually enjoy the program.

Needless to say, some conservative Christian groups are not too happy. And they're not too happy enough that they're preemptively protesting the show:

Based on Comedy Central's long history of mocking Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, it is clear that this show is intended to further denigrate a religion practiced by 80 percent of Americans.

There is a very clear double standard in the way the media and the popular culture treat Islam with respect and deference while mocking and ridiculing Christians and Christianity at every opportunity.

I do take issue with their statement that "Islam and other faiths are treated carefully and respectfully by the media and Hollywood elite." Some of "the media" has been encouraging cartoonists to deliberately offend any Muslim who feels that it is wrong to depict the Prophet Mohammed, a big story they might have missed while poring over the Hollywood Reporter for the latest antics of Comedy Central.

TMTKR, despite some high-profile cases (also here) that occasionally occur, I feel that South Korea has a relatively high degree of religious tolerance, particularly for a place with as much religious diversity as Korea has. That has been encouraged through means that would almost certainly be considered unconstitutional in the US, including the official recognition of holy days from the major faiths as public holidays (Christmas, Buddha's Birthday, Ch'usŏk, Lunar New Year, etc.) and a heavy-handed approach when it comes to defaming various faiths. My point is that "JC" probably wouldn't fly if it ever made it out of a network brainstorming session.

By contrast, there are some who seem to relish the chance to skewer religious faith, for no reason other than they have the right to do so. I'm not making a value judgement one way or the other, just an observation, although I sometimes find myself agreeing with Patrick Buchanan's sentiment [HT to WC] — and God help me that I'm actually agreeing with Pat about anything — that while the Mohammed-related cartoonists should have every right to do what they did, maybe they ought to consider the ramifications of their actions:

If you wish to get along with a man, you do not insult his faith. And if you seek to persuade devout Muslims that al-Qaeda is our enemy, not Islam, you do not condone with silence insults to the faith of a billion people.

Can't we all just get along?

Next pope may speak Korean

It may be hard to believe, but in some sense I still do consider myself Catholic. And like a lot of Catholics and non-Catholics alike, I am following the news of Pope John Paul II's very poor health.

He is said to be near death and so, while thousands are praying for him, people are also speculating about who the next pontiff will be. Will he be Italian or "foreign"? Will he be conservative or liberal? Will he be a uniter or a divider? [February 2009 update: the original Yahoo! News link in this paragraph is dead, but here's a Wall Street Journal article from 2002, three years earlier, about future pope speculations.]

A few years ago, I had heard some serious musings that the next pope could be a non-European altogether. Let's not forget, it was a major step to elect a non-Italian to the papacy, so the Polish Pope may have been about as much shake-up as the Church wants for the next century.

On the other hand, choosing a non-European pope may be a way to galvanize Catholics around the world. After all the priest sex abuse scandals, American Catholics sure could use a boost. Some have also cited a Nigerian, and a long time ago I had heard that the cardinals of the Philippines and Korea would be in the running.

Some in the Indian media are suggesting the cardinal of India as a possibility. This has the added bit of interest -- to me at least -- that the next pope might actually be able to speak Korean.

Short of a Korean cardinal being chosen, this would be the biggest way to galvanize Catholics in Korea, where the faith has a strong but often quiet following. It could also bode well for religious tolerance, since Korea, with its healthy mix of Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, and followers of traditional other faiths, traditional beliefs, or no religion, is in many ways a model of religious tolerance.

Yes, you heard me right. Despite the fact that as recently as the 19th century Catholics were being martyred for their faith, Korea in its post-War period has shown a high degree of religious tolerance, especially for a country with such religious plurality. The major faiths are all recognized in the list of official holidays, the government tries hard not to favor one religion over another, and most important, people of all religions liberally interact socially with people of other faiths, including a high degree of interfaith marriages.

How true is this even in a constitutionally religiously tolerant nation like the US, where anti-Semitism still rears its ugly head and anti-Muslim sentiment is at an all-time high? Ireland has a mix of Catholics and Protestants, and they are killing each other for it. The same is true in the similarly religiously plural former Yugoslavia, where the Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats are essentially the same ethnic group but divided by religion (being Muslim, Orthodox Christian, and Roman Catholic, respectively).

I am not saying Korea is problem-free. Some fundamentalist groups are beginning to use employ some divisive discourse, and every now and then you get a group of Protestants chopping down the changsŭng that are traditionally found at the entrance to villages but also, in modern times, in parks, universities, buildings, etc. It's a delicate balance, yes, but things are still pretty good here overall.