The emergency round-table discussion “How Should We View the LGBT Welcoming Ministry that Went to Court?”
By
Park Ju-yeon
Published
March 17, 2024
Translated
by Marilyn Hook
In December of last year, the
Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a declaration called “Supplicating
Trust” and allowed Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples. Pope Francis
also said, “God blesses everyone.” Many people applauded the sight of
Catholicism changing and moving forward with the times.
In contrast, on March 4, the Korean
Methodist Church in Korea decided to excommunicate Pastor Lee Dong-hwan for
holding a blessing ceremony at the 2019 Incheon Queer Culture Festival. It was
the result of proceedings that had been underway since 2020. If you look at Lee
as an ordinary worker, then not only was he fired, he was kicked out of his
entire industry.
 |
| On the 2023 International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), Pastor Lee Dong-hwan holds a sign reading, “As a member of the LGBT Human Rights Committee, I, Lee Dong-hwan, join the fight on the 2023 IDAHOBIT.” (c) Q&A (qnaforchurch.creatorlink.net) |
Why does the Korean church still cling to its hatred of sexual minorities? How can blessing someone be a crime? How was Pastor Lee’s ‘trial’ conducted, and how did it lead to this result?
An event was organized to summarize
this confusing situation and to point out the issues it raises.
Here, we report on the emergency
roundtable discussion titled “How Should We View the LGBT Welcoming Ministry
that Went to Court?” held jointly on March 12th by the “Joint Task
Force on Pastor Lee Dong-hwan’s Trial for LGBT Welcoming Ministry” and the
Christian Queer-Ally Movement Group Q&A.
A religious trial full of procedural
flaws, inappropriateness, and injustice
At the 2019 Incheon Queer Culture
Festival, Pastor Lee Dong-hwan conducted a flower-sprinkling blessing ceremony that
included the words, “We oppose stigma, hatred, discrimination, and exclusion
toward all the sexual and social minorities of this land.” Afterwards,
conservative pastors belonging to the Methodist Church submitted a complaint.
At the emergency roundtable, attorney
Shin Ha-na (Deoksu Law Firm), a member of the defense team in the trial of
Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, said, “At the time, reasons for ineligibility were found
among those who submitted the complaint, and the Gyeonggi Provincial Council
Qualifications Review Committee (which is the beginning stage of reviewing
whether to send the complaint to trial) dismissed the complaint.”
However, after dismissing the
accusation, the same review committee directly reported Pastor Lee Dong-hwan,
claiming, “The blessing ceremony conducted by Pastor Lee Dong-hwan falls within
the category of ‘violation of drug laws, gambling, and acts that praise or
sympathize with homosexuality’ (Part 7, Judicial Law, Section 1403, Article 3,
Paragraph 8), which are prohibited by the Doctrine and Discipline.”
Afterwards, Ms. Shin said, “the
Gyeonggi Provincial Council Tribunal sentenced him to a two-year penalty, which
is the maximum period of suspension that can be imposed pursuant to Article 5,
Chapter 1 of Section 1405.” Pastor Lee appealed the decision to the Methodist General
Assembly’s tribunal (which has the powers in these trials that high courts and the
Supreme Court do in ordinary legal proceedings), but it upheld the two-year
suspension in October 2022.
 |
| Attorney Shin Ha-na of Deoksu Law Firm presenting on the religious and social trials of Pastor Lee Dong-Hwan at the emergency roundtable discussion “How Should We View the LGBT Welcoming Ministry that Went to Court?”, held at Changbi Seogyo Building in Seoul. (c) ILDA |
The severe disciplinary punishment handed
down was a problem, but so was the trial process. Ms. Shin explained that
“there were various procedural problems” during the trial:
“Even though he had the right to a
public trial, they refused to hold a public trial due to COVID-19, and during the
second trial in 2021, it was discovered that the chair of the tribunal had
participated in the Gyeonggi Provincial Council Qualifications Review Committee,
so he was removed [from the tribunal]. In addition, the trial was postponed
several times, with the trial date being pushed back due to both the chair and
secretary of the committee, which was in charge of the indictment, failing to
attend as scheduled. Also, only one lawyer from the defense team was allowed to
attend the trial, so the right to receive [full] assistance from lawyers was
also violated.”
In the end, after the religious trial resulted
in the issuance of a two-year suspension, Pastor Lee and the defense team filed
a lawsuit in ordinary civil court to invalidate the judgment of the General
Assembly’s tribunal in February 2023.
This trial is scheduled to conclude on
April 3rd of this year. According to Ms. Shin, Pastor Lee’s legal
team is arguing, “This case is not a matter of doctrine, but merely a matter of
certain rules of conduct. Also, even if it is a decision made by a religious
community, [for Pastor Lee] it is a matter of professional conscience and one related
to [his particular] religious beliefs. Therefore, since there is a serious
violation of fundamental rights [in the tribunal’s ruling], it is subject to [civil]
judicial review. In addition, there were procedural flaws in the religious
trial process.”
Meanwhile, in June 2023, the Gyeonggi Provincial Council’s Qualifications
Review Committee again leveled accusations against Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, this
time for showing no remorse even after being sentenced to two years of
suspension, as well as for defaming the church and spreading evil propaganda.
However, Ms. Shin said, “There were procedural flaws in this [action] as well.”
She explained: “If the reviewer and
the accuser belong to the same local association, the reviewer should have been
removed, but this was overlooked and formal charges were filed.” Ultimately,
the decision was made to dismiss the indictments, but then the review committee
re-indicted Pastor Lee for the same incidents. This too was bound to be a
problem.
“Religious trials also rely on the
Criminal Procedure Act, and under the Criminal Procedure Act, if an indictment
is canceled, it can be revived only if additional important evidence is
discovered. However, in this case, the same case was simply brought back
without such procedures. Accordingly, the defense team said that, setting aside
the issue of new evidence, [the accusers] should at least submit new complaints
and indictments, but they just went ahead with the indictments without responding
to us.”
The subsequent trial process was similar,
marked by procedural errors that were ignored. In the end, both the Gyeonggi Provincial
Council and the General Assembly ruled that the accusations against Pastor Lee
were valid.
 |
| An image from a series of posts demanding a progress report on Pastor Lee’s trial and calling for solidarity with him. The text reads, “Resurrected Religious Trial: Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, who received a two-year suspension from the Methodist Church for conducting a blessing ceremony for sexual minorities in 2019, was again indicted in June 2023 on the charge of sympathizing with homosexuality and underwent a second trial.” © Joint Task Force on Pastor Lee Dong-hwan’s Trial for LGBT Welcoming Ministry |
How did Korean Protestantism become a home for hatred?
Why is something like this, that runs contrary to global
trends, happening in Korean Protestantism and churches?
Kim Hye-ryeong, a professor at Ewha
Womans University's Hochma College of Liberal Arts, explained at the roundtable
that "rather than an emotion that suddenly arises to detest a new target
that did not exist before, [hatred] is an emotion of detestation and loathing
that is already operating against a group in a society, whether the society’s
members realize it or not." She said that hatred is also “a form of hostility
toward a specific group in the social and cultural system learned in various
ways from a young age.”
One of the characteristics of hate is
that “even though a group is already discriminated against in society and their
rights as human beings are reduced or restricted, [other people] despise them
and, what’s more, cannot bear the fact that this despising is unjust.”
So, in many cases, “those who hate
want to locate the reason for their discrimination in the people who are being discriminated
against. Therefore, they consider the [supposed] moral problems and flaws of
those they hate as the cause of their hatred.”
This is what is happening within
Korean Protestant churches. Professor Kim diagnosed that Korean Protestants
“deny the very existence of sexual minorities and consider protecting their own
moral values more important than understanding and acknowledging the existence
of sexual minorities.” She also explained that hatred is arising from the
combination of elements such as “the mindset that acknowledges the existence (of
sexual minorities) but refuses to grant
them equal public rights and duties” and “the belief that, if it’s for the
purpose of maintaining the existing order in society or the church, the violation
of the human rights of sexual minorities is not a major problem.”
As for the reason why this hatred of
sexual minorities gained power within the church, she pointed out, “It lies in
the reality of Protestantism, which is trapped in a [20th-century]
thinking system and has lost its contemporaneity.” She explained that, “in this
day and age, a wide variety of disciplines, including modern medicine, animal
behavior, gender studies, and even modern theology, are operating with
contemporaneity, but Korean church leaders are ignorant of this,” and also
cited as a problem their “incomprehension of the principle of separation of
church and state.”
Lastly, she argued that two more major
reasons are “church power being privatized and the rational decision-making
system of the denomination collapsing [and second,] that ‘good’ Christians do
not like to fight and do not engage in struggles.”
Professor Kim concluded,
“Protestantism is [supposed to be] a religion of resistance, and reformation is
[supposed to be] important in the Reformed Church, but that has disappeared. It’s
in a situation where it’s only reproducing the old system and maintaining its own
existence.”
 |
| A daily prayer tent sit-in was held in front of the Methodist Hall in the Gwanghwamun area of Seoul Seoul for 26 days from June 21, 2021. In this photo, Pastor Lee Dong-hwan holds a banner reading, “Our lives, our breath, and the time we spend loving are all blessed by the Lord,” in front of the tent. © Joint Task Force on Pastor Lee Dong-hwan’s Trial for LGBT Welcoming Ministry |
Korean Protestant forces’ attack on
society is a problem for everyone... “please stand with us”
The impact of Korean Protestant
churches’ hatred of minorities is not limited to the expulsion of Pastor Lee
Dong-hwan. Korean Protestant churches have long campaigned against the
enactment of anti-discrimination laws and student human rights ordinances, and
have recently even come out against comprehensive sex education and books
promoting gender equality.
Jang Ye-jeong, co-executive director
of the Anti-Discrimination Law Enactment Alliance, explained, “They’re carrying
out an attack on all fronts of society, at a level that is by no means
ridiculous.” She said, “They’re more united than any other force, are spread
throughout all regions, and are carrying out their activities in the name of
faith.”
Esther Sim, who said she works as a
sex education instructor, spoke about the difficulties of providing sex
education in the current situation and expressed particular concern about the
repercussions of the words and actions of these ‘people of faith’: “For
example, if 30 parents are gathered together, 29 of them actually have no
particular opinion or rather think that sex education should change or move
forward, but when one or two people with strong religious beliefs express their
opinions and energy, the others are unable to speak up. In addition, many times
when sex education lectures are cancelled, it is due to complaints filed by a
few people, not the majority.”
Activism will be absolutely necessary
in overcoming this situation, and one opportunity for this will be standing
together and speaking out against what Pastor Lee Dong-hwan is going through.
Shim Ki-yong, a member of the steering committee of Dawoom, a sustainable
movement toward diversity, said, “I think one way to start engaging in
solidarity is to prevent homosexuality being used as a symbol in a socially
negative way, to shake the shoulders of those in the grip of insinuations like ‘homosexuality
is a problem’ and say, ‘That’s not true, come to your senses.’”
 |
| The press conference held on March 4, 2024, following the expulsion ruling by the Trial Committee of the Korean Methodist Church’s General Assembly. © Joint Task Force on Pastor Lee Dong-hwan’s Trial for LGBT Welcoming Ministry |
Pastor Lee Dong-hwan, who took the podium at the end of the
discussion, said, “As the number of people in the church who speak the truth
decreases, its anti-human rights attitudes will become more and more intense,” and
also, “I think that changing the church is no different from changing the
world.”
“I hope that through the struggle for my reinstatement, a
clear message will be delivered to the Korean church that has lost its love. I
hope that it gets the message that this society will not just sit by as
Protestantism acts as the biggest obstacle to human rights in Korea,” he said, concluding,
“Please stand with us.”
*Original article : https://ildaro.com/9861
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