A struggle for reinstatement and the ‘message it sends to a Korean church that has lost its love’

The emergency round-table discussion “How Should We View the LGBT Welcoming Ministry that Went to Court?”

Park Ju-yeon | 기사입력 2024/05/04 [10:00]

A struggle for reinstatement and the ‘message it sends to a Korean church that has lost its love’

The emergency round-table discussion “How Should We View the LGBT Welcoming Ministry that Went to Court?”

Park Ju-yeon | 입력 : 2024/05/04 [10:00]

In December of last year, the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a declaration called “Supplicating Trust” and allowed Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples. Pope Francis also said, “God blesses everyone.” Many people applauded the sight of Catholicism changing and moving forward with the times.

 

In contrast, on March 4, the Korean Methodist Church in Korea decided to excommunicate Pastor Lee Dong-hwan for holding a blessing ceremony at the 2019 Incheon Queer Culture Festival. It was the result of proceedings that had been underway since 2020. If you look at Lee as an ordinary worker, then not only was he fired, he was kicked out of his entire industry.

 

▲ On the 2023 International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), Pastor Lee Dong-hwan holds a sign reading, “As a member of the LGBT Human Rights Committee, I, Lee Dong-hwan, join the fight on the 2023 IDAHOBIT.” (c) Q&A (qnaforchurch.creatorlink.net)


Why does the Korean church still cling to its hatred of sexual minorities? How can blessing someone be a crime? How was Pastor Lee’s ‘trial’ conducted, and how did it lead to this result?

 

An event was organized to summarize this confusing situation and to point out the issues it raises.

 

Here, we report on the emergency roundtable discussion titled “How Should We View the LGBT Welcoming Ministry that Went to Court?” held jointly on March 12th by the “Joint Task Force on Pastor Lee Dong-hwan’s Trial for LGBT Welcoming Ministry” and the Christian Queer-Ally Movement Group Q&A.

 

A religious trial full of procedural flaws, inappropriateness, and injustice

 

At the 2019 Incheon Queer Culture Festival, Pastor Lee Dong-hwan conducted a flower-sprinkling blessing ceremony that included the words, “We oppose stigma, hatred, discrimination, and exclusion toward all the sexual and social minorities of this land.” Afterwards, conservative pastors belonging to the Methodist Church submitted a complaint.

 

At the emergency roundtable, attorney Shin Ha-na (Deoksu Law Firm), a member of the defense team in the trial of Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, said, “At the time, reasons for ineligibility were found among those who submitted the complaint, and the Gyeonggi Provincial Council Qualifications Review Committee (which is the beginning stage of reviewing whether to send the complaint to trial) dismissed the complaint.”

 

However, after dismissing the accusation, the same review committee directly reported Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, claiming, “The blessing ceremony conducted by Pastor Lee Dong-hwan falls within the category of ‘violation of drug laws, gambling, and acts that praise or sympathize with homosexuality’ (Part 7, Judicial Law, Section 1403, Article 3, Paragraph 8), which are prohibited by the Doctrine and Discipline.”

 

Afterwards, Ms. Shin said, “the Gyeonggi Provincial Council Tribunal sentenced him to a two-year penalty, which is the maximum period of suspension that can be imposed pursuant to Article 5, Chapter 1 of Section 1405.” Pastor Lee appealed the decision to the Methodist General Assembly’s tribunal (which has the powers in these trials that high courts and the Supreme Court do in ordinary legal proceedings), but it upheld the two-year suspension in October 2022.

 

▲ Attorney Shin Ha-na of Deoksu Law Firm presenting on the religious and social trials of Pastor Lee Dong-Hwan at the emergency roundtable discussion “How Should We View the LGBT Welcoming Ministry that Went to Court?”, held at Changbi Seogyo Building in Seoul. (c) ILDA


The severe disciplinary punishment handed down was a problem, but so was the trial process. Ms. Shin explained that “there were various procedural problems” during the trial:

 

“Even though he had the right to a public trial, they refused to hold a public trial due to COVID-19, and during the second trial in 2021, it was discovered that the chair of the tribunal had participated in the Gyeonggi Provincial Council Qualifications Review Committee, so he was removed [from the tribunal]. In addition, the trial was postponed several times, with the trial date being pushed back due to both the chair and secretary of the committee, which was in charge of the indictment, failing to attend as scheduled. Also, only one lawyer from the defense team was allowed to attend the trial, so the right to receive [full] assistance from lawyers was also violated.”

 

In the end, after the religious trial resulted in the issuance of a two-year suspension, Pastor Lee and the defense team filed a lawsuit in ordinary civil court to invalidate the judgment of the General Assembly’s tribunal in February 2023.

 

This trial is scheduled to conclude on April 3rd of this year. According to Ms. Shin, Pastor Lee’s legal team is arguing, “This case is not a matter of doctrine, but merely a matter of certain rules of conduct. Also, even if it is a decision made by a religious community, [for Pastor Lee] it is a matter of professional conscience and one related to [his particular] religious beliefs. Therefore, since there is a serious violation of fundamental rights [in the tribunal’s ruling], it is subject to [civil] judicial review. In addition, there were procedural flaws in the religious trial process.”

 

Meanwhile, in June 2023, the Gyeonggi Provincial Council’s Qualifications Review Committee again leveled accusations against Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, this time for showing no remorse even after being sentenced to two years of suspension, as well as for defaming the church and spreading evil propaganda. However, Ms. Shin said, “There were procedural flaws in this [action] as well.”

 

She explained: “If the reviewer and the accuser belong to the same local association, the reviewer should have been removed, but this was overlooked and formal charges were filed.” Ultimately, the decision was made to dismiss the indictments, but then the review committee re-indicted Pastor Lee for the same incidents. This too was bound to be a problem.

 

“Religious trials also rely on the Criminal Procedure Act, and under the Criminal Procedure Act, if an indictment is canceled, it can be revived only if additional important evidence is discovered. However, in this case, the same case was simply brought back without such procedures. Accordingly, the defense team said that, setting aside the issue of new evidence, [the accusers] should at least submit new complaints and indictments, but they just went ahead with the indictments without responding to us.” 

 

The subsequent trial process was similar, marked by procedural errors that were ignored. In the end, both the Gyeonggi Provincial Council and the General Assembly ruled that the accusations against Pastor Lee were valid.

 

▲ An image from a series of posts demanding a progress report on Pastor Lee’s trial and calling for solidarity with him. The text reads, “Resurrected Religious Trial: Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, who received a two-year suspension from the Methodist Church for conducting a blessing ceremony for sexual minorities in 2019, was again indicted in June 2023 on the charge of sympathizing with homosexuality and underwent a second trial.” ©Joint Task Force on Pastor Lee Dong-hwan’s Trial for LGBT Welcoming Ministry


How did Korean Protestantism become a home for hatred?

 

Why is something like this, that runs contrary to global trends, happening in Korean Protestantism and churches?

 

Kim Hye-ryeong, a professor at Ewha Womans University's Hochma College of Liberal Arts, explained at the roundtable that "rather than an emotion that suddenly arises to detest a new target that did not exist before, [hatred] is an emotion of detestation and loathing that is already operating against a group in a society, whether the society’s members realize it or not." She said that hatred is also “a form of hostility toward a specific group in the social and cultural system learned in various ways from a young age.”

 

One of the characteristics of hate is that “even though a group is already discriminated against in society and their rights as human beings are reduced or restricted, [other people] despise them and, what’s more, cannot bear the fact that this despising is unjust.”

 

So, in many cases, “those who hate want to locate the reason for their discrimination in the people who are being discriminated against. Therefore, they consider the [supposed] moral problems and flaws of those they hate as the cause of their hatred.”

 

This is what is happening within Korean Protestant churches. Professor Kim diagnosed that Korean Protestants “deny the very existence of sexual minorities and consider protecting their own moral values more important than understanding and acknowledging the existence of sexual minorities.” She also explained that hatred is arising from the combination of elements such as “the mindset that acknowledges the existence (of sexual minorities)  but refuses to grant them equal public rights and duties” and “the belief that, if it’s for the purpose of maintaining the existing order in society or the church, the violation of the human rights of sexual minorities is not a major problem.”

 

As for the reason why this hatred of sexual minorities gained power within the church, she pointed out, “It lies in the reality of Protestantism, which is trapped in a [20th-century] thinking system and has lost its contemporaneity.” She explained that, “in this day and age, a wide variety of disciplines, including modern medicine, animal behavior, gender studies, and even modern theology, are operating with contemporaneity, but Korean church leaders are ignorant of this,” and also cited as a problem their “incomprehension of the principle of separation of church and state.”

 

Lastly, she argued that two more major reasons are “church power being privatized and the rational decision-making system of the denomination collapsing [and second,] that ‘good’ Christians do not like to fight and do not engage in struggles.”

 

Professor Kim concluded, “Protestantism is [supposed to be] a religion of resistance, and reformation is [supposed to be] important in the Reformed Church, but that has disappeared. It’s in a situation where it’s only reproducing the old system and maintaining its own existence.”

 

▲ A daily prayer tent sit-in was held in front of the Methodist Hall in the Gwanghwamun area of Seoul Seoul for 26 days from June 21, 2021. In this photo, Pastor Lee Dong-hwan holds a banner reading, “Our lives, our breath, and the time we spend loving are all blessed by the Lord,” in front of the tent. © Joint Task Force on Pastor Lee Dong-hwan’s Trial for LGBT Welcoming Ministry


Korean Protestant forces’ attack on society is a problem for everyone... “please stand with us”

 

The impact of Korean Protestant churches’ hatred of minorities is not limited to the expulsion of Pastor Lee Dong-hwan. Korean Protestant churches have long campaigned against the enactment of anti-discrimination laws and student human rights ordinances, and have recently even come out against comprehensive sex education and books promoting gender equality.

 

Jang Ye-jeong, co-executive director of the Anti-Discrimination Law Enactment Alliance, explained, “They’re carrying out an attack on all fronts of society, at a level that is by no means ridiculous.” She said, “They’re more united than any other force, are spread throughout all regions, and are carrying out their activities in the name of faith.”

 

Esther Sim, who said she works as a sex education instructor, spoke about the difficulties of providing sex education in the current situation and expressed particular concern about the repercussions of the words and actions of these ‘people of faith’: “For example, if 30 parents are gathered together, 29 of them actually have no particular opinion or rather think that sex education should change or move forward, but when one or two people with strong religious beliefs express their opinions and energy, the others are unable to speak up. In addition, many times when sex education lectures are cancelled, it is due to complaints filed by a few people, not the majority.”

 

Activism will be absolutely necessary in overcoming this situation, and one opportunity for this will be standing together and speaking out against what Pastor Lee Dong-hwan is going through. Shim Ki-yong, a member of the steering committee of Dawoom, a sustainable movement toward diversity, said, “I think one way to start engaging in solidarity is to prevent homosexuality being used as a symbol in a socially negative way, to shake the shoulders of those in the grip of insinuations like ‘homosexuality is a problem’ and say, ‘That’s not true, come to your senses.’”

 

▲ The press conference held on March 4, 2024, following the expulsion ruling by the Trial Committee of the Korean Methodist Church’s General Assembly. © Joint Task Force on Pastor Lee Dong-hwan’s Trial for LGBT Welcoming Ministry


Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, who took the podium at the end of the discussion, said, “As the number of people in the church who speak the truth decreases, its anti-human rights attitudes will become more and more intense,” and also, “I think that changing the church is no different from changing the world.”

 

“I hope that through the struggle for my reinstatement, a clear message will be delivered to the Korean church that has lost its love. I hope that it gets the message that this society will not just sit by as Protestantism acts as the biggest obstacle to human rights in Korea,” he said, concluding, “Please stand with us.” [Translated by Marilyn Hook]

 

-Published: March 17, 2024. *Original article: https://ildaro.com/9861

 

◆ To see more English-language articles from Ilda, visit our English blog(https://ildaro.blogspot.com).

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