South Korea is an embattled nation. Birthed out of brutal Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945 and then invaded by a Marxist army in 1950, it since has been threatened by North Korea, its totalitarian, atheistic, saber-rattling neighbor to the north. The understandable result has been a militarized nation that requires mandatory service for all men between the ages of 18 and 35.
According to Mennonite InterVarsity worker SeongHan Kim, this militarization has resulted in an intensely nationalistic Korean Christianity. Historian Timothy Lee writes, â??South Korean evangelicalism coalesced with the collective interests of the larger society: first with Korean nationalism and then with South Korean anticommunism.â? Churches often conflate the purposes of God with the purposes of the nation.
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