Mistrust Towards Christian Churches Deepened Following Onset of Pandemic

SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The COVID-19 pandemic has reportedly exacerbated the longstanding distrust of Protestantism in Korea.

The church’s negative image has been associated with allegations of corruption, criminal activities, and fraudulent behavior by pastors, as well as reports of forced and excessive evangelism, collective self-interest, and negative publicity.

Over the past three years, as the pandemic has spread, this lack of trust in the Korean church has only intensified.

The Christian Ethics Movement (CEMK) conducted a nationwide survey of 1,000 adults over 19 years of age, which showed that 74 percent did not trust the Christian churches in the country, up by 10.1 percentage points from a similar survey conducted in January 2020.

According to the survey results that was announced on Wednesday, only 21 percent said they trust Korean churches, down by 10.8 percentage points from the 2020 survey.

“The poor response made by churches against the pandemic has hurt the trust,” the organization said.

Among the respondents, 74.6 percent did not trust pastors while 75.2 percent did not trust Christians. Another 78 percent disapproved of pastors inviting the President or politicians to pray for them.

In addition, 70.8 percent of respondents thought badly of Korean churches’ social contribution efforts.

At 34.2 percent, more than one third of respondents picked “the selfishness of Korean churches” as the source of mistrust, followed by “the lives of church leaders” (19.6 percent), “lack of financial transparency” (17.9 percent) and “bad attitude towards other religions” (17.3 percent).

“The lack of trust will affect various church activities including missions and social activities,” said Jung Jae-young, a professor at the Graduate School of Practical Theology. “It is the reality that the Korean Christian churches must face.”

According to the 2020 survey three years ago, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 60 percent of respondents expressed distrust towards Korean churches.

The survey revealed that respondents perceived the Korean church as lacking credibility due to its insular appearance, poor communication with the world, and failure to contribute to social integration.

In the Religious Reliability Survey, Protestantism was ranked last.

When asked which religion respondents trusted the most out of Protestantism, Catholicism, and Buddhism, only 18.9 percent of Protestants were chosen, compared to 30 percent of Catholics and 26.2 percent of Buddhists.

This percentage for Protestantism remained the same as in 2017, whereas in 2009 it was 26.1 percent and in 2013 it was 21.3 percent.

The survey also revealed that the level of trust in pastors and Protestants was consistent with the perception of the Korean church as a whole. Only 30 percent of respondents expressed trust in pastors, while 32.9 percent expressed trust in Protestants.

H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)