[KS] re: Catholicism and Christianity

[Donald Baker]

I don't know of any work on the differences between
how non-Christian Koreans view Catholicism and how
they view Protestant Christianity, but I could
hazard a guess why there is now a perception
that Catholicism is less antagonistic to traditional
Korean religions than Protestantism is.

Since the Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Catholic
Church has downplayed its previous doctrine that all
those outside the church will go to hell when they
die.  Instead, it has emphasized that all those
who are sincere in their religious beliefs, no matter
what those beliefs are, can be saved.  Moreover,
there has been a growing emphasis on an ecumenical approach
to other religions. For example, recently Catholic
nuns joined with Buddhist and Wonbul-gyo nuns
in some joint  social service activities. 

Korean Protestantism, on the other hand, still has many
highly visible leaders stuck in the non-ecumenical
attitudes of the 19th century. Thus it is Protestants,
rather than Catholics, who have been destroying sacred
Buddhist works of art. And it is Protestants, rather than
Catholics, who have been publicly condemning other
religions (even other Christian denominations such
as the Mormon Church) as heretical.  Not all Protestant
clergy are intolerant, but enough are to give
the Protestant version of Christianity a bad reputation
in non-Christian circles in Korea.

DON BAKER
Associate Professor, Asian Studies, Univ. of British Columbia




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