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| Healthcare workers conduct disinfection procedures at Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Tuesday, amid a surge of other church members testing positive for COVID-19. / Yonhap |
By Park Ji-won
A Protestant church ignited the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic last week, months after the country saw its case curve flattening with daily new infections in the single digits. Since the first member of the Sarang Jeil Church was confirmed to be infected, Aug. 12, 279 new cases had been reported by Sunday, the first three-digit infection figure going beyond 200 since March. As of noon Wednesday, at least 623 infections have been linked to the Sarang Jeil Church, according to data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
The Seoul-based church, led by Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon ― well-known for his sharp-tongued criticism of President Moon Jae-in ― has been likened to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus religious cult which sparked the first wave of infections here earlier this year.
Why, among other religious groups, have Protestant churches become the epicenters of COVID-19 outbreaks?
Lee Jin-gu, director of the Seoul-based think tank the Korea Institute for Religion and Culture, said the worship culture and the relatively loose denomination-local church relationships appear to have made Protestant churches more vulnerable to outbreaks than other religious groups such as Buddhists or Catholics. He said Catholics and Buddhists have been more cooperative than Protestants in government-led anti-virus measures.
Compared to Catholics, he said the worship culture in evangelical churches is livelier as people are crowded inside and sing hymns loudly while clapping.
"The way Protestant churches work can also explain why they are so vulnerable," he said. "Unlike Catholicism or Buddhism which have a centralized system with effective top-down decision-making, Protestant churches are decentralized. Major decisions are made in the general assembly but their decisions are not binding. Some local churches don't follow the rules set by the denomination. This difference may explain why Protestant churches are more vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks than Catholic ones."
Buddhist temples are mostly located on mountainsides and thus are not as crowded as churches. "There are some temples based in urban areas. But like Catholics, Buddhists have a centralized decision-making system and local temples faithfully follow the rules set by head temples," Lee said.
Rev. Choi Hwang-gyu, a pastor of a small church in Seoul, however, disagrees.
He said there has been no full-scale investigation to conclude whether certain religious groups are more vulnerable to COVID-19 and thus it's flawed to conclude that Protestants risk higher exposure.
Choi said he personally believe Catholics are more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection because of their worship culture. "During the Eucharist, worshippers are unmasked and contact directly with a priest who presides over the communion. The priest offers sacramental bread and sacramental wine to each worshipper in line. This direct contact makes Catholics vulnerable to infection," he said.
Choi said he was unconvinced by the news reports that Protestant churches are the epicenters of new infections.
He claimed the Moon Jae-in government's political motives are behind media reports about the connection between churches and infections.
"People in the Moon government are disturbed by Protestant churches, partly because of Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon. He's a vocal critic of the government and has spearheaded several anti-Moon protests," he said.
Pastor Jun is president of the conservative Christian Council of Korea (CCK). According to Choi, the CCK is more conservative than other Protestant church groups because some of its founding members, including Rev. Han Kyung-chik (1902-2000), had faced religious persecution in North Korea. So, Choi said, the CCK and the Moon government are not on the same page when it comes to North Korea, and this may have pitted them against each other.
Earlier this year, Jun was accused of violating the Election Law, as he allegedly instigated church members to support the opposition conservative political party. He was imprisoned in March and freed on bail in April. The Seoul Metropolitan Government pledged to file a complaint against Jun for allegedly obstructing government moves to contain the spread of COVID-19 and thus violating the relevant law on infection prevention. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 300,000 people have signed an online petition on the website of the presidential office calling for Jun to be detained.
Meanwhile, one member of the Kumnan Methodist Church, which is considered the largest Methodist church globally with more than 140,000 believers, was confirmed positive for the coronavirus Monday, according to the Seoul city government, Wednesday. Government officials said the person visited the Sarang Jeil Church and was confirmed positive. They also attended the Kumnan Methodist Church for evening services on Aug. 12 and morning services on Aug. 13 and 14.
In February, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, largely considered a cult, became the epicenter of COVID-19 infections in Korea. After the first case was discovered here Jan. 20, the number of proceeding infections was small until the middle of February. Then a member of the church who was infected, declined to be tested and visited the church, leading to a spike in the number of infections among members. The group's uncooperative attitude with the authorities after this worsened the situation. Out of some 245,000 members and 44,000 prospective members, 4,066 were confirmed positive, or 1.7 percent of the entire church membership as of March 3. The KCDC data later showed 5,210 infections were related to the church.
Lee Man-hee, the leader of Shincheonji, was arrested Aug. 1 for impeding the government's containment activities by turning in doctored documents about the membership in collusion with the church's directors. Lee is suspected of failing to submit the identities of 100,000 members and submitting fake information on 50,000. He is also suspected of omitting information on the location of some facilities the church ran.
According to the Gyeonggi Province government, 17.2 percent, or 64, members of Sarang Jeil Church were infected out of 522 who were tested as of Monday.
