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Greetings to you all from the National Council of Churches in Korea,
I pray the God of hope is present with you these days. Here in Korea we are particularly in need of God’s hope and in need of your solidarity. One continuing dispute particularly weighs on my mind as this month marks five months since the SEWOL Ferry disaster. Yet, our Korean government continues to refuse the requests of bereaved family members of the victims to create a law that would allow for a full investigation of all people that were involved in creating a situation where the SEWOL tragedy could occur and where rescue forces were ill-equipped to make a successful rescue. I want to invite you, our international partners, to join us in this discussion. Join us in this theological search for the will of God amidst a disaster such as SEWOL. I think that this situation is related to many of your situations as well.
This government refuses to even grant a conversation with family members seeking to know the full truth of the disaster despite the efforts of people like Kim Hyung-Oh, whose daughter died in the ferry, even though he carried on a hunger strike for 46 days until taken to a hospital. Now others are taking up a relay hunger strike in his place, and two pastors, Rev. Bang In-Sung (60 years old) and Rev. Kim Hong-Sool have pledged to hunger strike for 40 days. They hope their efforts will finally persuade the government to grant a meeting with the family members.
As this debacle continues, I fear more and more that SEWOL is a sign of the continued suffering of our people under a state system that treats common human beings as disposable. Since Korea’s liberation from Japan we have struggled to modernize our society in terms of education, economy, and political systems. Immediately our leaders accepted capitalism and the assumption that we must make money, economy, and profit a priority over the well-being of our people. First military dictatorships suppressed democratic participation to achieve this kind of “development.” Even after we fought for a degree of democracy and won anti-dictatorship laws in 1987, money and economic development continued to take priority over human dignity. Both dictatorships and democratic regimes taught us that if only we could establish our economy, then we will be able to have everything we need, that we would be able to do anything. We achieved only a kind of “economic development,” but we sacrificed our freedom, solidarity, and our safety, and this is the situation where a SEWOL disaster is likely to happen.
I believe the SEWOL victims are a harbinger of our future Korean society if we continue along our current path of corruption and deregulation. SEWOL was not just another accident. As the church, we must ask some heavy questions about ourselves as well as our government. What is the true cause of this disaster? What systems made this more likely to occur? What was our behavior during the rescue and after? What was the government’s behavior? What was the behavior of the Korean Navy and Coast Guard? A suspicion is growing that they had enough time to save more lives, but they held back for some other reason. Most importantly, what is the Word of God saying to our nation and our people about this disaster?
Many of the families of the SEWOL victims continue to weep. The message of the ruling party of our government to them is only, “Stop weeping.” They accuse the victims’ families of slowing down the economy because of their calls for justice. We have lost the ability to receive the pain of our neighbors as if it is our own pain; but this is a fundamental task for the Christian community. So long as money and profit are a higher priority than the pain and dignity of our neighbor, then we will treat our neighbor as if they are an enemy rather than a sister or brother. Then there will be another disaster like SEWOL. We must be able to uncover the full extent of everyone who is truly at fault for creating a situation or a system where a disaster like SEWOL is more likely to occur. This search must include the bureaucracy, our politicians, and our economic system. This is why the Special Bill for the SEWOL Investigation Committee is so important. When we find the true source of the fault, we must work for a transformation of the system, not just cosmetic changes of a few personnel. We must seek the renewal of our system and a transformation from our current pariah capitalism into a humanitarian capitalism. As a church, the NCCK must lead a theological search as well; please join us in this search for what is the will of God amidst a disaster like the SEWOL Ferry.
General Secretary Kim Young Ju
National Council of Churches in Korea
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