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| Rev. Lee Dong-hwan, the pastor of Glory Jeil Church in Suwon who was suspended from duty after holding a "blessing prayer" at the 2019 Queer Culture Festival in Incheon, poses during an interview at The Korea Times office in Seoul, April 23. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Park Ji-won
Instead of delivering sermons and rubbing shoulders with his congregation, Rev. Lee Dong-hwan, a Methodist pastor in Suwon south of Seoul, spends most of his time these days discussing legal plans with his attorney and strategizing with a group of activists who banded together to support him.
Lee has been accused by the Korean Methodist Church (KMC) of disobedience and an ecclesiastical tribunal upheld that allegation, suspending him from being a pastor for two years. His crime: holding a blessing prayer at the Queer Culture Festival in the western port city of Incheon two years ago.
"If holding a blessing prayer for sexual minorities can be a punishable sin, why doesn't the church punish those pastors who blessed Chun Doo-hwan, who was behind the May 18 massacre? Why doesn't the church punish a male pastor who raped many female churchgoers? I don't think blessing can be a sin in any case," Lee, pastor of Glory Jeil Church in Suwon, told The Korea Times in an interview, Friday.
The Korea Times interviewed Lee to ask about the Korean church and its disciplinary process, his own beliefs and sexual minority issues.
Lee was referring to the Gwangju pro-democracy uprising in 1980 in which soldiers fired on protesters leaving an estimated 600 people dead.
The 41-year-old pastor has found himself in conflict with his denomination, the KMC. At the first tribunal, it found Lee guilty of "supporting and agreeing with homosexuality" by attending the festival held on Aug. 31, 2019, and holding a blessing prayer for the people there while wearing his religious robe. Such an act is a punishable offense based on the church's Book of Doctrines and Discipline according to the KMC. Lee, however, has been claiming that offering blessings is a pastor's duty and cannot be a sin.
On Oct. 15, the tribunal ended up suspending Lee of his duty for two years, which is the third-highest punishment in a five-tier system, for violating the regulation on homosexuality. He has filed an appeal and is waiting for a date to be set for it.
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| Rev. Lee Dong-hwan gives a prayer of blessing for the LGBTQ community at the Queer Culture Festival in Incheon, Aug. 31, 2019. Courtesy of Joopeter |
"I didn't expect the blessing prayer for sexual minorities could be an issue because it is just a pastor's job to bless someone. I was a little bit hesitant at first when I was asked to do it because I knew rules were created by the denomination regulating homosexuality in 2015, but I accepted the proposal since one of my churchgoers was a sexual minority and I have been blessing the person many times. So I didn't see a huge difference between blessing the person in my church or at the festival," he said.
At the festival, he scattered flower petals while showing solidarity with the other attendees. He said, "The world will change when you and I join hands at the moment. I oppose the stigma, hatred, discrimination and exclusion against sexual minorities and other minorities in society," according to a document submitted to the tribunal.
It has become the first church tribunal against someone for blessing sexual minorities in Korea. It also drew huge media attention amid an ongoing debate on an anti-discrimination legislation movement initiated last year by the progressive Justice Party which aims to pass the bill banning all types of discrimination including on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill has not been passed yet, as Christian groups largely oppose the details of the proposed law and most Protestant churches oppose it citing the fact that it affirms homosexuality.
Anti-gay rule
The KMC, which is considered one of the largest Protestant church groups here, had been largely categorized as centrist or liberal for many years as they have been raising voices on many social issues. However, in terms of homosexuality, the denomination took a conservative stance by adding some rules to its Book of Doctrines and Discipline in 2015, stipulating that one can be punished for agreeing with or supporting gambling or homosexuality, or violating drug laws. The initiative was the first of its kind in Korea, leading other denominations to take similar steps.
But Lee, who had considered himself to be just an ordinary conservative pastor who saw homosexuality as a sin, grew to believe that sexual orientation is something people are born with and cannot be "fixed" by any kind of conversion therapy.
His perceptions shifted in 2015 after a member of his congregation came out to him as a sexual minority. The confession put him in agony but it didn't take long for him to come to the conclusion that homosexuality cannot be a sin and that sexual minorities are God's children who are vulnerable in society, and that Jesus would have stood with them.
"When I was a young churchgoer, there was a crossdresser in my church. He was an outsider. When he approached me, I just ran away. I was full of prejudice, thinking homosexuality was a sin and teaching that to my churchgoers. But that prejudice was broken down when I actually met a sexual minority. After attending my church for about a year, one of my churchgoers came out to me. At first, it was hard to accept it because I have to reverse my long-held beliefs. So I looked over the Bible again and pored over psychological and medical research papers. I gradually came to see that people are born with a certain sexual orientation, which is made by God, and that cannot be altered even by conversion therapy."
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| The Bible / Korea Times photo by Han Jin-tak |
He pointed out there are about seven parts in the Bible that mention homosexuality, but they are not opposing homosexuality itself but rape. "After studying the Bible, I realized that there was no concept of homosexuality as we know it today back when the Bible was written. The Bible prohibits rape made between male individuals and sexual intercourse between individuals who have different power in society like an adult and a minor. As we don't literally follow every word written in the Bible ― for example, we don't make food and garments in the exact way the Bible instructs anymore ― so the teachings should be interpreted differently according to the current situation. If that is the case, I want to question why homosexuality in the Bible should be literally applied in the present and suggest that we should talk about it."
He added, "People in the church community appear to have deep-rooted prejudice and hatred against homosexuality, but lesbians are not at all on the discussion table, and they despise gay males and especially the thought of anal sex. I think the Korean church strategically picked homosexuality as a common enemy to gather people together in the community as it has done with communists and Muslim refugees."
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| Rev. Lee Dong-hwan, the suspended pastor of Glory Jeil Church in Suwon, poses during an interview at The Korea Times office in Seoul, April 23. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
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| Rev. Lee Dong-hwan, the suspended pastor of Glory Jeil Church in Suwon, speaks during an interview at The Korea Times office in Seoul, April 23. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Conservative backlash
Given the fact that most Korean churches are outspoken against homosexuality, he has faced a huge backlash from them. Some Christians and pastors of the KMC released a statement asking the church tribunal to expel Lee, saying he mocked their faith by blessing homosexuality. Many people in the denomination even started to accuse him of being gay himself.
As soon as the tribunal proceeding started, Lee said he faced "unreasonable" demands. Many of his senior pastor colleagues started to pressure him to give up the case and urged him to say he was wrong about homosexuality. When he was asked by a member of the tribunal to write a statement about what happened, he wrote about his belief that he acted based on his religious faith, but others from the tribunal asked him to write a letter of oath pledging not to offer such blessings in the future and the tribunal would take the letter into consideration in its decision.
"At first, I was going to change my mind and write the letter for the church. But I wasn't able to do so to get out of trouble because I felt I hadn't done anything wrong based on law and my religious beliefs," he said. "If I wrote the letter, I thought I would not be able to preach and talk about God's love in front of my churchgoers where I know one who is a sexual minority."
He also mentioned the hearing was to be held behind closed doors without any witnesses, which is a rare practice.
"Based on the rules, we have the right to be judged in public. So, I boycotted the closed hearing and won the right to get a public hearing with two witnesses from my side. But a funny thing was the tribunal was like one team. The head of the judges had also been on the investigation committee, which is equivalent to having the police also serve as judges in court."
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| A group of supporters backing Rev. Lee Dong-hwan scatters flower petals in a show of protest of the tribunal ruling against Lee near the headquarters of the Korean Methodist Church in Seoul on June 24. Korea Times photo by Kwon Kyung-sung |
But he was not alone. As the tribunal started its proceedings last June, an emergency committee for Rev. Lee Dong-hwan's tribunal was voluntarily made participated by lawyers, his colleagues and activists helping him with the proceedings and mental health.
He also received several letters of support. For example, the United Church of Canada sent a letter to the National Council of Churches in Korea on Jan. 19, expressing concerns over the decision by the Methodist tribunal and the punitive measures against Lee. "We have written directly to Rev. Lee to express our support for the decisions he made to serve and care for members of the Korean LGBT+ community," the Canadian church said in its statement. "We share his compassion for the community, whose people have suffered discrimination from society and now a Christian institution. The United Church of Canada believes that it behoves all Christians to follow the example of Jesus by caring for such oppressed as these, and that love expressed by Rev. Lee would be a part of the outworking of God's call upon any minister of the gospel."
He also won a special prize of the International Amnesty Media Award in March this year for contributing to society by showing conciliation and love despite the punishment from his denomination, according to the human rights organization.
But the incident caused a tremendous amount of stress and Lee ended up suffering multiple health problems including facial nerve paralysis. When asked why he keeps going, he said the actions of conservative Christians sabotaging the festival shocked him and made him guilty as a Christian.
"The sabotage by the so-called conservative Christians almost stopped the Queer Culture Festival. After the incident, many participants of the festival had to seek treatment citing psychological difficulties. When I watched the video of what happened later, I had to cry and shudder as it was so disastrous. I wasn't able to believe the fact that Christians who talk about love could do that. I felt guilty about everything."
In fact, the effects of discrimination on the mental health of sexual minorities has become a major social issue here. There have been a number of high-profile suicides of transgender people this year, including Korea's first transgender soldier Byun Hee-soo. Also, after the ruling against Lee in October, the member of his church who is a sexual minority became suicidal.
Lee stressed that he is trying not only to take a step toward protecting the socially vulnerable, but also make changes in the conservative church community and contribute to the betterment of society in the end.
"Some told me to just leave the Methodist Church and preach on my own and quit participating in a fight that I have no chance of winning. But I was proud of being part of the KMC and I thought this problem would remain in our community even if I quit the fight, while the sexual minorities will continue to suffer. They are suffering more than I am. Changing the Korean church would not be different from changing Korean society. Even though my effort may not make a huge difference, it may spark debate and lead to small changes in the community. So I don't know when I could stop, but I will not give up. If I lose in the church hearing, I will bring it to a civil court and fight until I can prove I was not wrong and that offering blessings is not a sin."
"The God I believe in doesn't discriminate against anyone. God's love is universal and equal regardless of race, gender, disability or education. As a person and pastor myself who believes in God's love and tries to follow the path of Jesus, I couldn't and cannot selectively show his love toward anyone even though the person is gay. Jesus always stood next to the poor, victims and patients and was crucified to death for that. The only thing I regret about the blessing in the Queer Culture Festival is the fact that I didn't smile. When I have the chance again, I will make a big smile."
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| Rev. Lee Dong-hwan, the suspended pastor of Glory Jeil Church in Suwon, smiles during an interview at The Korea Times office in Seoul, April 23. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
