Speaker A
How about your classes, William? Are you, um, is this your last week, or do you kind of have classes scheduled for, you know, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday?
Explores U.S. Presbyterian missions in Korea, focusing on racial prejudice, colonial politics, and missionary strategies from 1884 to early 20th century.
Key Takeaways
- U.S. Presbyterian missions in Korea navigated complex racial and colonial politics while balancing evangelism and civilizing efforts.
- Missionaries were divided between focusing on medical/educational work and direct evangelism, reflecting broader 19th-century debates.
- Korean Presbyterianism grew significantly by the early 20th century, playing a role in national independence movements.
- The legacy of these missions involves both cultural exchange and tensions related to colonialism and religious identity.
- Understanding this history helps contextualize contemporary Korean Christianity and its global connections.
What the video covers
- The video discusses the arrival of the first American Presbyterian missionaries in Korea in 1884-1885 and the country's historical isolation.
- It highlights the tension between civilizing (education and medical work) and evangelizing approaches among missionaries.
- Key figures include Horace Newton Allen, who prioritized medical and educational work, and Horace Underwood, who emphasized evangelism.
- The Korean government initially restricted direct evangelism, allowing missionaries to focus on education and healthcare.
- By 1890, restrictions eased, but missionary efforts remained divided on strategy, leading to new mission stations like Pyongyang.
- The video covers the growth of Korean Presbyterianism and its role in religiously based political activism, including the 1919 independence movement.
- It addresses the challenges missionaries faced in balancing cultural respect, political realities, and religious goals.
- The discussion includes the ongoing legacy of U.S. missions and their complex relationship with Korean Christianity and colonial history.
- The session includes a Q&A segment to engage with viewers on these historical and theological topics.
- The presentation is led by Dr. William Yu, an expert in American religious and cultural history and Korean mission history.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Opening Remarks
- 07:24Early Presbyterian Missionaries Arrive in Korea
- 11:58Missionary Strategies: Civilizing vs. Evangelizing
- 16:38Expansion of Missions and Pyongyang Station
- 20:38Korean Political Context and Independence Movement
- 25:06Missionary Challenges and Cultural Negotiations
- 28:46Legacy and Continuing Dialogue on Missions
- 34:30Q&A and Audience Engagement
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Oh yeah, thanks, Fred. No, we're, this, yeah, we're done tomorrow and then we'll meet back after the holiday.
Speaker A
Yeah, I should probably just be quiet for the next few minutes, but I can't help myself. Um, yeah, that's, uh, that's good to hear that you're, um, you're gonna be having classes still. Um, is it, are you guys, you're doing things entirely remotely? I, I presume?
Speaker A
Yes, that's right, Fred. Yeah, you, you [Music] you foreign.
Speaker A
Okay, I think it's, uh, two o'clock, so, uh, I think we should go ahead and begin. Um, hello everyone and welcome to PHS Live.
Speaker A
PHS Live. Uh, my name is Fred Tangerman and I'm the director of communications at the Presbyterian Historical Society. Today we're going to be talking about the history of U.S. Presbyterian missions in Korea and its relationship to race and colonial politics.
Speaker A
Leading that conversation today is going to be Dr. William Yu. Dr. Yu is an associate professor of American religious and cultural history and director of the Master of Divinity program at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.
Speaker A
He is the author of American Missionaries, Korean Protestants in the Changing Shape of World Christianity, 1884 to 1965.
Speaker A
William is also a member of the PHS board as well as a member of the General Assembly Committee on Representation. So a couple of programming notes before we go ahead and begin: my communications colleague Kristen Gatos is moderating.
Speaker A
Rob is moderating the chat today, so if you have any questions that relate to the session, we'd encourage you to go ahead and click the Q&A button. Um, William will go ahead and start responding to the questions that you might have in 15 minutes or so.
Speaker A
Um, you can also participate in the conversation using the webinar's chat button. Both of those can be found at the bottom of your screen for those of you who are seeing this session live, of course, and on Zoom. As I just alluded to, we are recording today's session so that if you miss any part of it, you can go ahead and watch it.
Speaker A
Um, after we post the video on the PHS website in about two weeks.
Speaker A
So without further ado, let's go ahead and welcome William to PHS Live. Welcome, William.
Speaker A
All right, thank you for inviting me. It is a real privilege, honor, and an honor to be here. I'm going to start with about, as Fred noted, a 15-minute presentation and then afterwards I'm hopeful that the remainder of our time we can have, um, lively and robust dialogue, answering questions, uh, receiving insights and comments from those who are with us on Zoom or on Facebook. So I'm going to share my screen momentarily for about the first 15 minutes or so.
Speaker A
In 1884 and 1885, the first American Presbyterian missionaries, Horace Newton Allen and Horace Underwood, arrived in Korea. Despite their uncertainties about Korea, the missionaries were eager to begin their work. For centuries, Korea remained largely secluded from the rest of the world. Western merchants and missionaries had entered other Asian countries from approximately the 16th century, but Korea maintained an isolationist policy until signing its first foreign treaty with Japan in 1876 and Western nations in the 1880s. Some of the earliest Western reports called Korea "the hermit nation" and "the forbidden land."
Speaker A
In 1885, George William Knox, a Presbyterian missionary in Japan who had lobbied his denomination to send missionaries to Korea, conceded that he thought Korea was not nearly as attractive a mission field as Japan because Korea was not, in his words, a great empire with a great history but a rather weak people in comparison to our stronger neighbors, Japan and China.
Speaker A
The Korean government allowed U.S. missionaries to enter their nation but prohibited direct evangelism. Thus, Underwood and other missionaries engaged chiefly in medical and educational work during their first several years.
Speaker A
But Underwood, as a pastor, was eager to pursue evangelism and preaching. Underwood believed God did not call him and other Presbyterian missionaries to Korea to primarily work in schools and hospitals but rather to evangelize a nation through their preaching.
Speaker A
Horace Newton Allen, on the other hand, was a doctor and he advocated a cautious approach to evangelistic work. Allen wished to build trust between the U.S. Presbyterian missions and the Korean government. Moreover, as a medical physician, Allen wanted to establish a modern hospital in partnership with the Korean government. Allen also believed that the potential for mission work was great in Korea, but he promoted modern education and public health, which became known as a civilizing approach.
Speaker A
As the right tools, Allen rebuffed other missionaries who sought to evangelize to Korean patients receiving medical care. But Underwood began to preach to Koreans, distribute Bible pamphlets, and plan itinerating trips with colleagues to do more evangelizing. This disagreement over these approaches, unknown at that point in time as civilizing and evangelizing approaches, was not unique to Korea. American missionaries in and beyond the Presbyterian church debated over these two strategies throughout the 19th century.
Speaker A
After inspecting overseas mission work in 1844 and 1854 and 1855, Rufus Anderson, a main leader of the multi-denominational American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, otherwise known as the ABCFM, shut down English language mission schools in various countries such as India and Sri Lanka because Anderson thought that they detracted from evangelistic work. In Korea, Allen and Underwood came into conflict over the two approaches. Each threatened to resign from the U.S. Presbyterian mission because of the other. Underwood thought Allen was too concerned about his hospital and his profile as a medical doctor. Allen thought Underwood was turning a blind eye to the real needs of the Korean people.
Speaker A
As missionaries, Dr. Allen believed that they were bearing Christian witness in Korea by providing educational and medical facilities. He also compared the many hours he spent in hospital administration and patient care to the other missionary schedules, which Allen thought was too easy with their ample time in his mind for language training, religious study, and leisure.
Speaker A
In 1890, the Korean government eased its restrictions on evangelism. Despite their newfound freedoms, some U.S. Presbyterian missionaries actually did not have great initial success in evangelizing. Samuel Austin Moffatt, a Presbyterian missionary who arrived in Korea in 1890, discovered in his first months in Seoul that their mission struggled to sustain their educational, even evangelistic, and medical endeavors. Though Koreans appeared to be growing more receptive to the missionaries, Moffatt reported back home that missionaries remained fiercely divided between the civilizing and the evangelizing approaches.
Speaker A
After 10 months in Seoul, Moffatt wrote the U.S. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions for permission to establish a new mission station in Pyongyang in present-day North Korea. Moffatt wished to leave the missionary community in Seoul and begin afresh in northern Korea without the arguments about strategy. Unlike Allen, Moffatt prioritized evangelism over education and medicine. Some of Moffatt's missionary colleagues agreed with him, and they almost refused the gift of ten thousand U.S. dollars in 1900 that was earmarked to establish a medical school affiliated with the mission in Korea.
Speaker A
Between 1895 and 1909, U.S. missionaries had greater success in Korea with, in their minds, increased numbers of Korean conversions to Christianity. By 1900, the U.S. Presbyterian mission station in Pyongyang alone counted over 10,000 Korean members. According to James Gale, a Presbyterian missionary, a part of the northern U.S. Presbyterian denomination who originally hailed from Toronto, Canada, he said the number of Korean Christians rose to approximately 161,000 in 1909 after a wave of revivals two years earlier in 1907.
Speaker A
In 1905, the United States closed their embassy in...
Speaker A
freedoms some u.s presbyterian missionaries actually did not have great initial success in evangelizing samuel austin moffatt a presbyterian missionary who arrived in korea in 1890 discovered in his first months in seoul that their mission struggled to sustain their educational
Speaker A
event evangelistic and medical endeavors though koreans appear to be growing more receptive to the missionaries moffatt reported back home that missionaries remained fiercely divided between the civilizing and the evangelizing approaches after 10 months in seoul moffat wrote the u.s
Speaker A
presbyterian board of foreign missions for permission to establish a new mission station in pyongyang in present-day north korea moffett wished to leave the missionary community in seoul and begin afresh in northern korea without the arguments about strategy unlike alan moffat prioritized
Speaker A
evangelism over education and medicine some of moffat's missionary colleagues agreed with him and they almost refused the gift of ten thousand us dollars in 1900 that was earmarked to establish a medical school affiliated with the mission in korea
Speaker A
between 1895 and 1909 u.s missionaries had greater success in korea with in their minds increased numbers of korean conversions to christianity by 1900 the u.s presbyterian mission station in pyongyang alone counted over 10 000 korean members according to james gale a presbyterian
Speaker A
missionary a part of the northern u.s presbyterian denomination who originally hailed from toronto canada he said the number of korean christians rose to approximately 161 thousand in 1909 after a wave of revivals two years earlier in 1907.
Speaker A
in 1905 the united states closed their embassy in korea in recognition of the japanese protectorate which is which was established after japan's victory in the russo-japanese war the us was the first western nation to acknowledge both korea's independence in 1882
Speaker A
and japanese rule in 1905. u.s president theodore roosevelt supported japan's takeover and believed that japanese conquest with would curb russian power in asia and also benefit koreans with civilizing reforms u.s magazines also contrasted the modernizing japanese to primitive koreans in their minds for
Speaker A
example in 1905 a us correspondent in east asia compared the two nations quote the first thing that strikes a traveler in going from japan to korea is the extraordinary contrast between the cleanliness good order industry and general prosperity of one country
Speaker A
and the filthiness demoralization laziness and general wreck and ruin of the other american missionaries held an ambivalent view of korea their accounts initially resembled reports by u.s diplomats visitors and journalists they saw korea as underdeveloped impoverished and caught in an intricate web of
Speaker A
geopolitical struggle in east asia with japan china and russia all seeking hegemony over korea until japan formally annexed korea as its colony in 1910. however as the missionaries experienced extraordinary growth in their ministry among koreans they believed the work they were doing
Speaker A
there had global ramifications missionaries began calling korea quote the palestine of the far east end quote in the biblical era god's message emerged from palestine a weak nation surrounded by larger ones similarly they thought korea the small and feeble from a geopolitical
Speaker A
perspective held great promise as a nation where u.s missionaries could preach the gospel heal the sick and potentially transform an entire society yet one area of tension for the american missionaries concerned politics and the korean independence movement while sympathetic to korea's
Speaker A
geopolitical plight american missionaries insisted that korean christians focus on religious expansion rather than political resistance whereas some korean presbyterians were inspired by the liberating message of christ as deliverer to fight against their imperial rulers u.s presbyterian missionaries believe
Speaker A
the most faithful approach was to imitate the example of christ's earthly ministry in which he traveled throughout the roman empire healing and teaching people without interfering in imperial politics at the end of the first world war u.s president woodrow wilson's calls for
Speaker A
international justice and self-determination encourage korean seeking independence president wilson's 1918 14 point speech championed a free open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims in january 1919 korean exiles in shanghai sent an unofficial delegation to the paris peace
Speaker A
conference in which diplomats from over 30 countries set the terms for the defeated central powers one month later 600 korean students in tokyo demanded korean independence in korea 33 representatives plan to sign a declaration of independence and stage
Speaker A
a non-violent demonstration in seoul on march 1st at the event koreans took to the streets waving korean flags and shouting long live korean independence or in korean manse news of the protest ignited similar events throughout the country a protest movement known as the march
Speaker A
first movement more than two million koreans appeared at over 1 500 demonstrations the massive korean uprisings in 1919 surprised the u.s missionaries who had underestimated the intensity of korean resistance especially among the female students at their mission schools
Speaker A
as koreans gathered in seoul to protest the teachers at one mission school for young women stopped students from participating in another mission school 100 korean female students defied their american missionary teachers and marched toward the city gates with
Speaker A
hymn books and one hands and bibles in the other to pledge solidarity with their compatriots although christians at this time comprised little more than one percent of the korean population in 1919 65 approximately 65 of the korean woman arrested during the
Speaker A
uprisings self-identified as christian in 1928 uh helen kim a prominent korean methodist uh leader gave an address at the international missionary council meeting in jerusalem she advocated for the korean independence movement in stating how the gospel had empowered korean women to be bold
Speaker A
leaders in her words quote in all walks of life not only in domestic life but also in the in the industrial commercial political and international life of humanity korean christian female students in the united states joined in their nation's push for
Speaker A
political liberation at the student volunteer movement for foreign missions convention in iowa in 1920 one korean student lobbied for u.s support by calling for american christians to more directly help the country resist japan she praised jesus christ for inspiring young korean
Speaker A
women like her to leave the shelter of their homes and march for justice on the streets as korean students continue to address the student volunteer movement convention each year its delegates began to take notice african-american theologian howard thurman recalled an
Speaker A
indelible indelible moment from when he attended the svm convention as a seminary student in his book jesus and the disinherited in his recollection a young korean woman defied the organizer's instructions to speak on her impression of u.s education
Speaker A
and instead delivered an impassioned appeal for korean political liberation concluding her speech with this comparison if you see a little american boy and you ask him what he wants he says i want a penny to put in my bank
Speaker A
to buy or to buy a whistle or a piece of candy but if you ask a little korean boy and you ask him what he wants he says i want freedom from japan thurman in his book jesus and the
Speaker A
disinherited then compared koreans to the outcast jewish minority in the roman empire and african americans in the united states arguing that the quintessential question of the disinherited in every age was to discern the right attitude toward the rulers who controlled and
Speaker A
oppressed them so fred and kristen i'll conclude there and i hope that we can open up the remainder of our time for questions answers and further comments and observations that's great william thank you so much um you you went through i think uh a lot of
Speaker A
history there in a great way so that we can sort of get a handle on some of the central tensions that are you see in a number of mission endeavors um but you spoke with detail to the korean mission um endeavor i as a
Speaker A
as a first question i have kind of to follow up with you i'm very curious about if you wouldn't mind jumping forward a little bit more into um we you talked about the march 1st 1919 movement and how there's a kind of
Speaker A
political dynamic to the um to the tension between the mission organizations in the united states and and koreans um can you talk a little bit about the korean war which seems to me it also has a political dynamic to it
Speaker A
in the way that uh there there arises tensions between the um the denomination in the united states and koreans korean presbyterians at that time so can you i know you've written about that in other places would you just speak to
Speaker A
that a little bit as well oh sure thanks for that's a good uh hard complex question i hope not to go on too long you know um so yes the korean war so that's we're fast forwarding approximately 30 years
Speaker A
from the march first movement so you really do have these um three separate eras might be too strong a word but to help understand not general korean history which is far broader i don't want to say korean history and
Speaker A
conflated with u.s presbyterian history and activity in the korean peninsula but certainly you have this one era from first encounters which i shared about with alan and underwood in 1884 until about 1905 1910 when it became increasingly clear
Speaker A
that korea would be under japanese imperial rule and then you have this other era from 1910 to 45 when korea was colonized by japan and missionaries the presbyterian and methodist u.s missionaries as well sought to do their work and and
Speaker A
negotiated and balanced the different tensions they had with how do we support the continuing religious work that our mission is trying to do while also trying to steer clear of disturbing the japanese imperial rulers because they wanted to remain in the
Speaker A
country and they recognized that they had to in some ways walk on this tightrope of supporting koreans while also not falling on the wrong side of the japanese imperial officers in korea and then you're right to note uh after a
Speaker A
korean national liberation in 1945 you had these tumultuous years that that really escalated with the korean war from 1950 to 53.
Speaker A
i think um certainly throughout that time period there were a lot of um geopolitical and internal korean politics uh happening and such that you had this kind of larger battle between communism and democracy and the ways in which uh korea was
Speaker A
divided really against any koreans will into two countries and one thing i'll briefly say is i think during the korean war and its immediate aftermath for the american presbyterians they were deeply committed to humanitarian work a nation in ruins in
Speaker A
south korea they no longer had access to north korea um and so that was really what consumed them initially for example even you had um walnut presbyterian you had billy graham at the beginning of kind of his ministry visit korea uh preach
Speaker A
to um not only u.s troops stationed there but also preach in korean churches he preached at the church of probably one of the most prominent korean presbyterian pastors of the second half of the 20th century reverend kyungshi khan
Speaker A
and then and then you had also the bob pierce who i believe founded the world vision ngo non-governmental organization which really was founded in korea i think pierce recalls in his memoir um he sees the uh the the ruins and the
Speaker A
aftermath and the poverty of war and i think he says something to the effect of writes in his bible or journal let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of god um so you had some of that but fred to
Speaker A
your question and i'll stop here but what you also had especially let's say about 10 years after the end of the korean war you did have this interesting moment where there were more dialogues and conversations about who has ownership of the korean
Speaker A
presbyterian church now let me explain what do i mean by ownership so i don't this is obviously koreans had ownership of their churches but i think it was a question of influence like i think you had increasingly uh both overtly and
Speaker A
perhaps in some ways more subtly the emergence of korean presbyterian leaders both in korea and those who had uh transnational experience really um being more critical but in in ways that wanted to maintain fellowship with notions of missionary paternalism
Speaker A
that we can no longer be treated as spiritual children to missionary parents we really need to grow and develop not so much on our own but we really need a phrase they used is we really need the first place
Speaker A
of evangelization or the first place of church growth and i think i will say for us presbyterian mission uh missionaries in the 60s they really did wrestle with that you know fred and kristen at one level they they recognized yes
Speaker A
you know we've been here for several decades and certainly ultimately what's the goal of the mission the goal of the mission is not to hold power over but to be in partnership with but in some ways that was the public kind of declaration
Speaker A
and preaching and maybe that was even what they said to one another in conferences and in letters back home to the mission boards but i will say in diaries and letters they really wrestled with that in their hearts
Speaker A
they really thought for example you know would like what do we do when the material of resources i don't when the majority of the material resources come from u.s presbyterian financial resources that we're giving to the korean mission
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like who controls the majority of those resources do we simply hand it over to the korean leaders do they in their minds and this is perhaps where their paternalism shone through you know do they understand financial budgets do they
Speaker A
understand how to kind of manage all this money or should there still be a kind of hand-holding and shepherding process and even there were questions about uh theology questions about uh human authorship of the bible like how do we wrestle with more
Speaker A
progressive notions of what's known as historical critical approaches to interpreting the bible that move away from literalism that recognize that there are several human authors to the pentateuch and that it cannot all simply be ascribed to the pen or the hand of moses
Speaker A
like how do we help our korean siblings negotiate those things isn't there still a place for us as u.s missionaries and i will say some missionaries thought yes perhaps his partner walking alongside but i will say even into the 1960s other
Speaker A
missionaries did believe not alongside but ahead of that i am still teacher to pupil so i think fred that engages some of your question so i'll stop there yeah that's that's a great answer uh william and that is a tough one to
Speaker A
answer in a succinct fashion isn't it if we had about three hours you could probably go on and fill up that entire time i'm going on with that um it strikes me that maybe a discussion for later that i'm fascinated
Speaker A
by is the the reverse mission process that sort of begins later into the 20th century and how the influence starts to kind of the wave starts to move in the other direction some of these questions are arising about the um
Speaker A
you know the work of the christian church in the united states and and how korean presbyterians can help with that and so let me just put that down there and ask chris kristen to go ahead and bring in some of
Speaker A
the quest questions that we have from either the q a or the chat that we've been fielding so kristen you want to take it away sure um we have a couple questions about the korean presbyterian church in korea um joanna said that it's second
Speaker A
in size only to the presbyterian church in the u.s and she was wondering why um koreans were so receptive to presbyterians to presbyterianism as opposed to countries like japan which is where her great-grandfather was a missionary oh yeah thank you um that's a great
Speaker A
question um again there is no one direct answer there are a lot of answers but i hope despite the complexity that i can shine some clarity to this complexity if you will so one um [Music] one answer that i've seen in
Speaker A
scholarship on world christianity scholarship on korean christian history scholarship on the u.s world missions in korea is geopolitical in the sense that um korea was unlike many other nations in the 19th and 20th centuries korea was colonized by an east asian
Speaker A
country rather than a western nation for example a lot of the european nations and their unjust involvement in the continent of africa such that um christianity did not um if some in some ways carry the same kind of political
Speaker A
cultural philosophical baggage where the identity of the missionary and the missionaries religion was the same as the identity of the imperial conquester the conqueror's religion so it was hard to determine you had european missionaries come to certain countries and
Speaker A
some officials were using christianity or appealing to christianity as justification to colonize and roll over whereas you had other missionaries saying no no no we're here to teach the gospel of jesus christ and christian principles but they also wrestled with
Speaker A
how do we teach these principles while also um existing in a country where that is colonized by my home nation for example european countries in africa again so you didn't have that in korea so at one level that's one answer
Speaker A
i don't think that's the answer i think we can't ignore um in addition to political cultural reasons uh that something about the liberating message of jesus christ and the promises of salvation and really appealed to koreans like some of
Speaker A
it may not be cultural and political it may be spiritual it may be religious others note that some uh korean uh traditional uh religious cultures did practice a kind of monotheism such that it was not difficult for uh early
Speaker A
christian leaders not only the u.s presbyterians but local korean leaders to really help kind of move that idea of monotheism to christian monotheism so i think there are several reasons one thing i will note though is that um you know much of the growth in korean
Speaker A
presbyterianism certainly is anchored in the u.s presbyterian mission but much of the growth numerically actually happened after many of the missionaries left you know the growth and the explosion if you will of korean protestantism really happened in the in the 1970s and
Speaker A
1980s and the 1990s and now there's a little bit of a decline but that's after kind of the mission many of the missionaries had either left or assumed positions of religious authority um we have a question uh from human he
Speaker A
was wondering if there was any effect in korea of from the boxer revolution in china and how that may have interacted with uh the mission stations in korea oh thanks that's a good question i don't know with any real
Speaker A
precision so i can share it real briefly more broadly i do think the again i don't mean say the local korean uh presbyterian and protestant and other christian leaders but i will say from a u.s presbyterian perspective u.s presbyterians were mindful of larger
Speaker A
political developments happening throughout asia and particularly east asia and they did really wrestle with the the recognition that among uh protestants largely again presbyterians and methodists even in mission schools and mission state stations there was what one korean
Speaker A
scholar notes that despite their intent being religious uh some of these mission stations and mission schools actually became a kind of hotbed or seabed of korean political independence movements and so for the u.s presbyterian missionaries at one level
Speaker A
they wanted to support koreans in protesting against what they saw as human rights violations for example against police brutality that happened in the form of for example after the march first movement in 1919 japanese police officers brutalizing uh korean woman in particular korean men
Speaker A
as well so they wanted to be mindful of that and support koreans but at the same time they did not want to actively participate in the korean liberation movement for a number of reasons for some one is i think they recognized what's
Speaker A
known as this phrase the real politic i think they recognize and i've seen it in some letters that some of the missionaries wrote back home to the u.s presbyterian northern and southern mission boards they did really think that japan was too
Speaker A
powerful and there was not enough broad international support for the korean independence movement to gain the momentum it needed to succeed in any real way so they thought even if i were to support this movement it doesn't really have a chance to
Speaker A
succeed and then secondly they were as i shared earlier really concerned um about the their missions being too closely identified with political endeavors and i want to be careful about how i say this but i do think this has broader more general
Speaker A
kind of application with kind of u.s world mission history so i think at one point chorus underwood writes that um there's uh a notion that the u.s presbyterian missionaries they don't want rice quote-unquote rice christians in korea now what's meant by that is they don't
Speaker A
want people attracted to their mission and attracted to the presbyterian religion because of the material offerings that the missionaries provided in this case rice for people in korea who are hungry we want to we want to help meet the
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physical needs of the korean people but we don't want that to influence why if they convert to christianity that that's not the reason why we want it truly to be because of the spiritual promises of salvation so similarly
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we don't want korean independence movement christians we don't want people attracted to our presbyterian schools and our mission stations because they believe that this is a vehicle primarily for political liberation we really want people to come so that they can truly experience the
Speaker A
grace of jesus christ and have a spiritual conversion and i recognize getting back to the box of rebellion question that is um that's quite i think controversial in 2020 and i will say even beginning in the 1930s if not earlier
Speaker A
it was controversial in u.s um protestant missions in china in china there was a real movement that the narrow for what they saw as a narrow parochial focus on kind of religious conversion wasn't what missions were supposed to be about kind of back
Speaker A
to horus allen's notion missions really is about meeting social needs and through meeting social needs that can be our christian witness like what determines success in a mission field is it the number of converted local people in this case korean
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or is it people who are healed who may never come back to the mission station to pray to the christian god is it people who are educated in schools so that they can access successful careers not in religious
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endeavors but in secular society like what's the true mark of what determines a successful mission and i will say in the current in the u.s presbyterian missions in korea they really saw the the what in their minds the most
Speaker A
faithful marks even into the 1950s and 60s was that notion of religious conversion not that schools and hospitals are bad but we got to keep the main thing the main thing which is christian education and in some ways keeping track of the
Speaker A
number of con converted local korean persons richard asked um who the korean christians involved in the march 1st 1919 declaration were were they pastors were they lay people um were they men and women um or were they not were they
Speaker A
disaffected christians um and as a follow-up to that question he was wondering um if the missionaries in korea at the time were divided or united in their support of the independence movement oh the the latter question i i don't
Speaker A
know that's a good hard question too um in terms of the again i don't want to present korean presbyterians or korean christians as a monolith they're a diverse multifaceted group in the same way any other group of christians
Speaker A
are or were but i will say i i don't have it exactly at the top my head but i think approximately half of the 33 signers of the korean declaration of independence in 1919 self-identified as christian whether protestant presbyterian
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methodist or roman catholic so that's again a high number if again i don't know how accurate the best estimates are but let's say approximately one percent of the korean population in 1919 self-identified as christian to have approximately 50 of the signers
Speaker A
of the declaration of independence in 1919 to self-identify as christian that's an astonishing number and it does reflect the religiously based political activism of at least some a good number of korean protestants including korean presbyterians um so that yeah i can i can share that
Speaker A
and i hope that helps to to answer that question i will say again i think largely for for at least some and i know more about the transnational uh korean protestant leaders who were educated at least maybe like a few years in the united
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states like helen kim who was i think the first korean woman to receive a doctorate from colombia teachers college in new york city in the early 1930s uh the reverend kyungsha khan who was one of the first maybe not the first but one of the
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first korean students to receive a degree from princeton seminary in the 1920s i think i do think and maybe this again has broader implications too i don't think at least these korean protestant presbyterian leaders i don't think they bifurcated or had the
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dichotomy or the separation between what is political and what is religious or like what is christian and what is independence um nationally or geopolitically i do think it was more integrated because i'm a christian because i believe in the promises of christ
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i'm also motivated to fight for my national liberation that that's what god wants for me and our people god wants us to be free not only free spiritually but free politically um and i think that gets to a larger
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tension that we're seeing that we've seen not only in the korean peninsula but all over u.s presbyterian world missions and i will say getting back to fred one of your earlier points even race relations in the united states
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like what is religious what is spiritual what is political and how different um presbyterians for example some really have clear boundaries for me what happens in my church is religious and can't be political for others to note what is religious and what is political
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they're almost one in the same like evangelism has to care deeply about about the person's soul but evangelism also cares deeply about the body that that soul inhabits and cares deeply about access to equal access to educational opportunities right equal access to
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employment opportunities equal access to public facilities which was denied persons of color and particularly just the the long history of anti-black racism in this country like access to clean water a living wage like all these things that are both spiritual but how do we
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get what are the means to get access to these very uh moral issues it happens through political involvement so how do you know how do religious people how do presbyterians people of faith engage that and i think that's a question
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in which the u.s missionaries there in korea and at least some of the korean presbyterian leaders themselves they disagreed on right the us missionaries had these boundaries that some korean presbyterian leaders really saw as not sustainable um bets was wondering if you could talk
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a little bit about um the different missionary groups that were in korea um around 1884.
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um he was wondering if the jesuits were there and um i know in our collections we have a map that um kind of depicts the different um the different religious groups that were in korea at the time and it
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breaks it up and i know that's that's one that you had mentioned before yeah thanks kristen and to beth i think if that's your question thanks i yeah um [Music] i think in 1884 1885 there were u.s presbyterian u.s methodist
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missionaries in the korean peninsula i think there were also jesuits from europe and i also believe jesuits or roman catholics from japan as well in korea and i think certainly um by 1910 you had a number of you had
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australian presbyterians and protestants you had canadian protestants you had british anglicans all in korea doing mission work so you had several different um denominations and also denominations across different western if you will nations in korea and so by i think i can't
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remember the exact date but early in the 20th century they did begin to have what became known as these comedy c-o-m-i-t-y not comedy as in haha funny but they had comedy agreements in which different groups recognized it's confusing
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to have all of these different mission stations for and mission stations if you will in the same regions so in some cases for example between u.s presbyterian missions and u.s methodist missions and there were four because the methodist and presbyterian
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traditions in the u.s were still divided regionally but not just regionally but regionally with divides over enslavement in the u.s civil war so for example you had the methodist episcopal church and the methodist episcopal church south mec mecs you had the pc in the usa
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northern presbyterian and uh the pc us the southern presbyterian you had all these groups there so certainly so in some ways they agreed that we would different from the ways in which africa was divided unjustly politically but you did have these ways in which we
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agree our mission will be in this region in northern korea or in southern korea and so your group your denominations mission group doesn't need to be here so one level i think they talked about how one mission station after the comedy
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agreements some of the korean members of this mission station were wait we were presbyterian but now we're methodists kind of because the presbyterians agreed to leave and go elsewhere and so there too i don't mean to say that's like a
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religiously motivated colonialism but you do i think we do need to grapple with um kind of some of those notions that they held in the early 1900s about kind of religious authority and what it means to divide a country as different mission
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fields that do we really think that's the most faithful and just way to engage and approach what we do in other countries for the sake of the gospel of christ and now i just want to jump in for a
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second to say that um we have a lot of great questions so um william if you if we can almost do like a little bit of a speed round thing that would be great so that we could get through some more
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of these um so kristen let me turn it back to you sure um just as a follow-up to that beth was wondering uh what was happening in korea korean politics in 1884 um that relaxed relationships uh with the west
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oh i in many ways it was not by choice by coercion it was kind of running into the inevitability of continued western encroachment all over asia and in east asia so my sense of it is while not being expert
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in modern korean history was it was not willingly um initially and it was a recognition that uh this is something these treaties we have to sign it's something that we have to do and certainly i do think some of the
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easing of restrictions on direct evangelism between 1884 and 18 90 1891 through some soft soft maybe subtle maybe not so subtle pressure from western countries who were looking to sign and enforce these treaties with korea that promoted both commerce
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and also sought to increase freedoms for western missionaries to do their work matthew was wondering about the 1960s he asked if there was a formal agreement between the american missionaries and the korean church and were mission institutions like schools and
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hospitals they remain independent from the church oh thanks you know i don't actually i don't know that's an easy one for me to answer because i don't know in fact the answer to that question so i'm just gonna
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before i ramble on further we can move on um was there a difference in the religious affiliation of 1919 leaders versus the participants and you may have talked about this earlier and did the composition change over the years after 1919.
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what i can say is i think some korean protestants uh including korean presbyterians remained committed to this religiously based political activism uh um i think some were more vocal than others but what i will say and i'll quickly do this i do think
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what's fascinating to me is um the ways in which by the 19th even by the 1950s and 1960s there became a kind of i don't want to say it was like this over bad attempt but there was this kind of
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attempt to rewrite the earlier mission history and to present u.s presbyterian and other protestant missionaries like uh horace underwood uh to present them as champions of the korean independence movement once korea was liberated and once this became clear
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after the second world war that autonomous kind of self-development in nations is the way to go i will say there was that to i i've seen articles in kind of u.s uh magazines like christianity today which was founded
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uh through the help of billy graham in the 1950s really i was maybe i shouldn't be surprised surprise is not the right word but i did see it illuminating to see in magazines like christianity today in the christian century
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this notion that the u.s missionaries had always supported korean political independence all along when in fact that's not true that simply wasn't the case um during japanese rule that there were assimilation policies implemented um and randy was wondering how uh korean
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christians and missionaries um navigated their faith during that time oh certainly yes the with persecution martyrdoms of korean christians who did not relent in their practice of the christian religion did not recant there was um yes that was
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rampant maybe perhaps not the right word but that was present and so certainly through prayer and through community uh through um worship there yeah it was really uh cries for not only freedom and independence but cries to god asking god to help sustain to help
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protect to help protect on two levels one is the physical body but two is to protect my spiritual soul so that in the face of uh pressure i will not give up my christian faith all of that certainly was happening in
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korea one other thing i'll say so what um what the the presbyterian missions and other missions what they struggled with certainly was that wanting to protect and wanting to support um uh korean christians and in some ways and figuring out a way and some actually
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did end up uh closing down because they refused to follow all of the japanese imperial policies that mandated um enforcement of some kind of maybe not obedience to but recognition of of shintoism uh the japanese one of the japanese
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national religions at the time so certainly that was present as well and that was another factor that the u.s presbyterian missions were wrestling with how do we respond to increasing by the 1930s and 40s increasing pressure from the japanese imperial government
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against christianity um miriam i think she was looking for clarification she was she thought that pyongyang in pyongyang the presbyterian church planned to turn over uh ruling of the church to koreans in 1907 um and she was just wondering if that
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was the case or if that was not the case oh thank you um yes and no i think yes in the sense that i agree that that was an agreement that was something for example that samuel austin moffatt who
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probably became the preeminent u.s presbyterian leader in the u.s presbyterian mission in pyongyang but really it was uh difficult in practice especially as the pyongyang mission really grew i think some called it the jerusalem of korea recognizing all of the spiritual growth
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and also even all of the schools and hospitals and everything else going on there and the the the western style homes that the missionaries lived in so yeah even as so 1907 certainly that's right there was or around that i don't know exactly when
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there was this idea we've got to turn it over but even into the 1930s moffitt was reluctant like it's that kind of double-edged sword as it continued to grow it was evidence that koreans were excited and interested and invested
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in the mission state station as a christian kind of community but the recognition of not wanting to give it up because it kept growing and there the the management of it became more complex you know if you will and i think i've
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seen in some private interactions that were recollected in diaries and letters some korean uh presbyterian leaders did kind of maybe gently but call out someone like samuel austin moffitt and say like in some ways you're kind of becoming
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one of the hindrances to korean christian leadership in our own country because you won't leave and you won't give up authority but it was one it's like one thing to give up authority it's another thing to give up property
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and i think there's where you had kind of the rubber meets the road and you have to understand western these western style missionary homes even as early as 1890s they really were seen by the larger korean public as fairly
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kind of luxurious and glamorous compared to existing korean standards that was actually a pretty heavy criticism that other westerners who had visited korea i think there was a journalist named angus hamilton i might not get the first name right
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but when he was from britain and he went to korea he was like these american missionaries this is wild they are living like like queens and kings here in korea they have the nicest homes in korea and and it seems like that's like
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that doesn't seem to be something that's helping the mission but it seems to be a stumbling block because it is connecting christianity with material wealth and even one um and i promise that the last thing on this question even one um
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i think it was a methodist a u.s methodist woman missionary i think her name is maddie wilcox noble i might not have the name exactly right but even i think she recounts in her diary that she had a a korean um
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kind of um helper someone who helped with household chores in her western-style missionary home and and sometimes some of the other koreans wanted to visit the home to look inside and see it and they were just mesmerized by how
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glamorous it was and i think she recounts something like the the korean woman who was working for her kind of scolded the other koreans who wanted to see the home and shoot them away and say something like yeah this is a
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beautiful home and it's a beautiful home because the missionary who lives here believes in jesus christ kind of like you know and so there was i think that was a real reality again to get to your question of
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why one reason why of many that the u.s presbyterian and methodist missionaries were reluctant to follow through on their commitment of handing over authority and handing over property to local korean leaders when they were ready i think we have time just for one more
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question um bill laws was wondering uh how we can use pan-asian appreciation uh to counteract the heavy baggage of u.s and u.s connections colonial mistakes in korea oh that's so i think that's a a deep and complex question
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too i think i think at one level we could say that the united states did not have colonial or formal imperial impact if you will in the korean peninsula in fact u.s south korean relations well i don't want
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to present it as like a utopian perfect model it really is the recognition of reciprocity and um and gratitude and partnership for the ways in which the u.s military and political forces might be too strong award but persons and realities really did help
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contribute to the upbuilding of south korean democracy and also economic growth so i will say that i think i think to me what i will share is i think against yes a one-level pan-asian and certainly it's important to
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recognize and affirm and celebrate the ways in which uh diverse presbyterians of different races ethnicities national origins and socio-cultural economic backgrounds have interpreted the presbyterian tradition in different ways such that there's much that we agree upon in our presbyterian
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church polity and our theology but there are also rich differences in how we interpret that polity and theology and i think we need to celebrate both the unity and the diversity and recognize some of the differences i will say this i think one of the
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differences that we can recognize is the ways in which some not all but some presbyterians of color for example black indigenous and other people of color who self-identify as presbyterian that they're they have understood and interpreted the presbyterian tradition
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to be far more active outspoken deliberative and direct about engaging unjust social and political realities that if there's an unjust law such as what some presbyterians believe are unjust laws against immigration or the need for comprehensive immigration reform in this country
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i think that we can be mindful that these are other approaches and attitudes rather than being defensive and saying that's not my presbyterianism perhaps that's not my presbyterianism but that there is a presbyterianism that extends beyond me and how do i have a move from a posture
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of defensiveness to a posture of openness and really learning from one another and seeing through someone else's eyes and feeling through someone else's heart and hearing through another person's ears i think that will help move us forward let's say in this
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country for example in our very partisan and very divisive kind of political culture that we are all living in today yeah well um that's so true william um spoken good words from somebody living in georgia right now where
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a lot of the national attention is gone around those domestic tensions that are political in nature one of the things um i want to do first off is apologize to anybody who we did not get a chance to field your question or to
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ask it pass it on to william i think one of the things that lets us know at phs is that there is a lot of great interest around this topic and that we're going to be turning to william
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and seeing if he'll do another one of these sessions in the future because this is such an important history in history that is really well represented in the collections at phs which is why this seems to be a good venue for this discussion um and
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one of the things we'll be doing as well in the future is sharing out some of the resources that phs has developed some things that william steers our way that he thinks are important to share with you all so that you can take a deeper
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dive into this history one of the things i was going to ask you william as a kind of wrap-up question you've already spoke to which was you know how do we balance the remembrance of this history honoring figures that were missionaries
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in korea early founders of the korean church versus you know in a in an honoring way versus sort of the interest of trying to get at the most comprehensive history that works in a 2020 sensibility as well and i think you spoke to that one when
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you said the way to really do that is to use the history to go find the history and to see how the history informs the discussions that presbyterians are having around the country today whether it's at the national level
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at the mid-council level or at a congregation or other worshiping community so thank you for saying that better than i just tried to wrap it up but um really appreciate you being with us today william on phs live
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kristen thank you for your awesome moderating and and going through all those questions and and giving people a chance to ask them of william um as we wrap up one thing i wanted to um to do real quickly is um
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get back to uh doing what we like to do at the end of all these sessions which is to remind all of you good people who are here today how much we appreciate you being with us on phs live sessions
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and letting you know that the thing that makes these sessions possible are the donors and supporters who have been helping out phs through the years so thank you for making a gift of support this year if you've had a chance to
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or in the past we do greatly appreciate it if you want to make a gift to phs right now or in the coming month or so you can go ahead and visit us at www.history.pcusa.org give and that's something that kristen
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might get a chance to put into the chat um and uh and go ahead and let us know that you appreciate this work happening that way so um for all of us at phs for william for the phs board thank you
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so much for being with us today we hope you have a great rest of your week and a very happy and healthy thanksgiving so thank you everybody
Topics:Presbyterian missionsKorean Christianitycolonial politicsracial prejudiceHorace Newton AllenHorace Underwoodevangelismmedical missionsPyongyang missionKorean independence
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