Costly Commitment | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2007 > September

Christianity Today, September, 2007 |

Costly Commitment

In wake of abductions, Korean Christians take heavy criticism.

Sarah Pulliam | posted 8/13/2007 09:00AM

2 of 2

"This situation will prompt churches to re-evaluate their missionary methods with the imminent dangers in mind," Park said. "The Afghanistan incident may halt Korean short-term missions in Afghanistan for a while, but will not stop the missionary movement of the Korean church."

Related Elsewhere:

Our coverage of the hostage situation includes "South Korean Politicians Blame U.S. for Taliban Hostages," "After Taliban Kills Two Hostages, South Korea Pleads for Compromise" (Aug. 2), "Afghanistan Kidnappers Kill Hostage as South Korea Debates Mission Work" (July 26), and "Taliban Kidnaps South Korean Christians" (July 20).

Christianity Today's March 2006 cover story examined the explosion of South Korean missions.

See our earlier coverage of Afghanistan and South Korea.

Recent weblogs have links to opinion pieces and editorials about Korean missions, including:

Church volunteers need to leave Afghanistan | Volunteer work is good. But in a multicultural and multi-religious age and especially in a place like Afghanistan, where there is a sharp hatred of Christianity, a deeper understanding of indigenous conditions must precede the dispatch of volunteer workers (Editorial, Chosun Ilbo, South Korea)

Korean Christians question their zeal after kidnapping in Afghanistan | The local Christian community has been caught up in a heated debate over its aggressive evangelical activities especially in Islamic countries as the news of the execution of one of the Koreans being held hostage in Afghanistan spread across South Korea Thursday (Yonhap News)

S. Korea negotiates for hostages in Afghanistan, while some resent their presence there | Park Eun-joo, a pastor at the South Korean church that sent the travelers, says it is inaccurate to describe them as missionaries. Park says his church respects Islam, and the members only went to Afghanistan to help people (Chosun Ilbo)

Hostage crisis fuels anti-Christian sentiment online | Some are fanning the flames of anti-Christian sentiment by posting insults to the victims and their families on the web (Chosun Ilbo, South Korea)

Devastating news from Afghanistan | Evangelical organizations still insist on going to the region for missionary and volunteer work. They should abandon such plans (Editorial, Chosun Ilbo)

Risky religious activities | Christians should refrain from inciting Islamic insurgents (Editorial, The Korea Times)

first page |

2 of 2

share this page

September 2007, Vol. 51, No. 9

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment

Reader Reviews are below

Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only.

If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.

Click here for international orders

2-for-1 Gifts!

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Displaying 1 - 3 of 4 comments.

See all comments

Ken C

Posted: August 14, 2007 7:58 PM

This is a matter of belief. If Christians truly believe we are right and the Muslim is part of lost humanity then going to them is an imperative. Go or not go is not the question--Christ commanded it. The only question that remains is whether the Korean government is obligated to protect those who put their life in dangerous situations for religious beliefs. This also is a matter of belief--does the Korean government feel they owe their citizens this protection? If they feel they do then they must act. If they don't feel they owe this then no action is needed--see ya next election! It is good to see people act upon their beliefs, even if it means danger. I find it interesting, we can't lash out effectively at the one's who commit murder "they're scary!" Let's lash out at the mild, committed Christians. Why they should have known better than to try and save people from hell. Some will get offended by the mention of hell, but the Christians in this story believed it and had to act.

David

Posted: August 13, 2007 8:55 PM


I think Paul and Barnabas got the same kind of criticism. Jim Eliot probably got it too. ...the world was not worthy of them

a critic

Posted: August 13, 2007 5:50 PM

"...missionary and volunteer activities in Islamic countries including Afghanistan not only harm Korea's national objectives, but also put other Koreans under a tremendous amount of duress." What exactly are Korea's national objectives in Afghanistan and central Asia? To make money? To exploit? The columnist from Chosun is an idiot who sits on his ass and hopes the world becomes a better place while all he can do is judge. If I knew who he was Id kick his ass. Sarah... your article is not clearly written. You make it sound like Eugene Cho is criticizing the missionary aid workers, when in fact he supports them fully. And is one of the only pastors in America who seems to give a damn about whats happening to the Christian brothers/sisters in Afghanistan.

The allotted time for commenting has ended.