COVID-19, New Religious Movements in the Outskirts of Cities
Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) has unintentionally exposed the most pressing societal issues and inequalities in many countries around the globe. In Korean society, deep-rooted discrimination has been cast into new light by making distinctions between full-timers and part-timers when distributing masks, and by excluding foreign workers when providing emergency disaster support funds. Another aspect that cannot go unacknowledged is the emphasis on certain religious groups. In the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, there were many media reports that some of the religious sects, most specifically the Shincheonji Church of Jesus (hereinafter Shincheonji) believers were super-spreaders of COVID-19.▼1 It was also revealed that many of the church’s congregation lived in apartments made exclusive to career women, built on the outskirts of industrial cities in the 1970s and 1980s.▼2 This was covered from a conspiratorial perspective at the beginning of the outbreak, but the ensuing discussion revealed that the purposes of building these exclusive apartments was to support and stabilise the lives of low-income women, in addition to addressing the sociological quirk that some of the low-income groups who were not welcomed by established religions had converted to Shincheonji. The believers in the new religious movement appeared to pursue a religious breakthrough or salvation in a new movement that has an existence peripheral to the existing social order and established religious customs.▼3
On the other hand, for me, who is interested in new religious movements in contemporary Korea, it was fascinating to see the Shincheonji facilities concentrated in the area of Gwacheon.▼4 As in most religions, this new religious movement established their holy land on the outskirts of Greater Seoul - the modern and contemporary Seoul. The Heavenly Father Church Evangelisation Hall Revival Association of Korea (hereinafter Chunbukyo)▼5 founded by Park Tae-Son, on whom this article will focus, established Mapo and Sosa in Bucheon as the formative holy lands. Unification Church founded by Moon Sun Myung established Sutaek-dong in the city of Guri as its primary holy site, building a Central Training Center and their corporate’s factories. Meanwhile, Shincheonji, which has its origin in the Temple of the Tabernacle▼6 of Yoo Jae-yeol, established its holy land in Gwachon, and it is regarded that it attained its current form and system through absorbing the believers and doctrines of the Chunbukyo and Unification Church.▼7 In this regard, Shincheonji is considered to be a collection of many Christian-affiliated new religious movements in contemporary Korea. Shincheonji’s strong attachment to Gwacheon, on the outskirts of Greater Seoul, is an interesting example as it reveals the the outskirts-orientedness of these Christian-affiliated new religious movements.
Again, as an atheist, the reason I became interested in the relationship between the spread of COVID-19 and Shincheonji is that some of the believers of the Christian-affiliated new religious movements in contemporary Korea were located at the peripheral reaches of Korean society and that some of these new religious movements have formalised the outskirts of contemporary Seoul or Colonial Period’s Seoul (Gyeongseong) as holy lands. Therefore, in this article, the conflict into Shincheonji has entered with established religions will not be scrutinised, nor will any valuation be made based upon their activities. Rather, by illuminating Park Tae-Son’s Chunbukyo▼8, which has vividly exposed the nature of these new religious movements in today’s Korea, first and most strongly in a visual sense, this article aims to provide a key to understanding the relationship between COVID-19, new religious movements, and those areas on the edges of Greater Seoul.
The Jeondogwan building in Daejang-dong, Bucheon
The Landscape of the Outskirts of Contemporary Korea as Instituted by the Jeondogwan Building
The area of Daejang-dong in the city of Bucheon, scheduled to be planed as a third new city, is a historical space that maintains the traces of Bupyeong Basin in the early 20th century. In front of the Daejang Branch School, which is a branch of Bucheon Duksan Elementary School, there is a path that leads directly to the Bupyeong Magistrate’s Office which governed this area in the Joseon Dynasty. Following the forsythia-tunneling path, in the 1920s the Dongbu Main Waterway was built to turn the Bupyeong Basin into farmland, while a bridge was built by the U.S. military to cross above. Beyond, there is a memorial stone dedicated to the 4H movement that arrived from the U.S. after the Liberation, indicating that this is the entrance to the village. Continuing to follow the old path passing by the 4H memorial stone, the marks of the Protestant Church and the Saemaeul Movement also begin to appear. These three aspects - the 4H movement, Protestantism, and the Saemaeul Movement - are the spiritual powers that guide contemporary Korea.
Nonetheless, when you walk a little north from the 4H memorial stone, you will encounter a gray building with a unique exterior. A large cross is engraved on three sides of the facade tower as if it was modeled on a medieval European castle, and the columns and windows are decorated on both sides of a rectangular-shaped central cloister.▼9 This neatly designed building is a Jeondogwan, which is a chaple built by Park Tae-Son’s Chunbukyo - a religious movement that used to be widespread at one point of contemporary Korea.
I often come across Jeondogwan buildings when I explore Greater Seoul and other parts of the country. The Jeondogwan, which were once said to amount to hundreds▼10 throughout the country, were largely constructed in one specific period in modern Korea and have created a unique landscape. In particular, as you can see in Daejang-dong in Bucheon, Jeondogwan were mainly placed on the outskirts of the city, and this gives a glimpse into the worldview of this religion, which has been in opposition with the established order that has been exemplified by Protestant customs and beliefs since 1955. An example of the propensity of outskirts-oriented Chunbukyo was heightened in the years from November 1957 in the Sosa Sinangchon (Sosa Faith Village) built on the wasteland of the boundary areas of Seoul, Bucheon, and Gwangmyeong.
A few of the Chunbukyo buildings that I have identified were located not only on the outskirts of the city but also in areas that enabled them to were adopt the stance of standing on top of surrounding hills and looking down at the city. Built between 1956-1957, the Seoul Central Jeondogwan was placed on a hill next to the end of the tram in Cheongam-dong, Yongsan, Seoul. The end of the tram line looked down at the old town from the outskirts of the city. Jeondogwan in Soongui-dong, Incheon, located on top of the Soebbul Hill on the outskirts of the old town of Incheon, was overlooking the old town of Incheon. Pangyo Jeondogwan was watching over the city from the top of the hill on the outskirts of the Pangyo Yukjeon Village in the old Janghang Line. Many other examples of this can be found, and in this context, the anthropologist James Scott said that ‘a group settled in the mountainous area on the outskirts of civilisation intentionally distinguishes itself from a group settled on flat land by choosing a different religion and language, and its members take a stance that they are purer and superior to the group living on flat land’.▼11
Till now, Chunbukyo has been mainly discussed from the viewpoint of a group that is derived and has deviated from Protestantism. Exceptional in this way, it is worth noting the study conducted by the religious scholar Choi Chung-hyun. Although he was affiliated with Sun Moon University, which is a foundation of the Unification Church, his research does not show any strong position in regards to specific religion or denomination. He indicates that ‘Park Tae-Son’s Chunbukyo is not an expression of temporary social pathology, but rather a part of the history of contemporary Korea.’▼12 Meanwhile, aside from religious-affiliated studies, there is also research in the field of geography, and but there are not many references made to the Jeondogwan building forming a unique landscape on the outskirts of the city in contemporary Korea. If the inside data of Chunbukyo is disclosed, it will be possible to learn about the specific construction background to existing Jeondogwan buildings in Korea, but ‘it is impossible for the non-believers from the outside, especially the researchers, who are not allowed to access due to their suspicion of the researcher’. The ‘current condition of Korean Chunbukyo, in which the access of outsiders, especially of researchers, is prohibited in order to uphold a ban on all study on Korean Chunbukyo’▼13 is blocking further research.
The Jeondogwan building in Soongui-dong, Incheon
Testimony from the Current Manger Yeon Taeseong about the History of Jeondogwan in Soongui-dong
Despite this situation, I had a chance to visit and see the inside of the Soongui-dong Jeondogwan in Incheon around April of this year and was able to interview Yeon Taeseong▼14 who is currently in charge of the building. Incheon Soongui-dong Jeondogwan is a large Jeondogwan built secondarily by Park Tae-Son, following the Seoul Central Jeondogwan (currently Twenty Thousand Altar) in Mapo. All large religious facilities, including the Twenty Thousand Altar, have been demolished, and now outsiders cannot access the religious facilities inside the three Religious Villages. So the Incheon Soongui-dong Jeondogwan is a valuable trace left behind through which we can better understand the unique landscape found at one point on the outskirts of cities in modern Korea. The so-called ‘Jeondogwan Zone’, which includes Incheon Soongui-dong Jeondogwan, has been confirmed for redevelopment, so this landscape will soon disappear as well, making this testimony even more valuable.
According to Yeon Taeseong, the length of the facade tower in the Incheon Soongui-dong Jeondogwan was twice the original length. The cross ornamentation on three sides was also extremely clear until 1980. In 1980, when Park Tae-Son declared himself a New God, the cross was filled in, and then a pastor insisted that he had dreamed that the tower would collapse, breaking the tower into a half. In 1981, a party of Jeondogwan sold this building to Korean Jerusalem Church founded by Lee Cho-Seok▼15. The Church moved into this building in 1987, and the auditorium was separated into two levels around October 1988. It was left empty for five to six years after the Jerusalem Church moved to the Gajwa area in Incheon, and it was opened briefly for the Ugak-ro cultural village project in 2011. It has remained untouched since the project ended around 2015 to 2016.
On the Way Out
This article has examined the characteristics and background to the founding of Chunbukyo’s Jeondogwan building, which have formed a unique landscape on the outskirts of Greater Seoul and other cities at one time in contemporary Korea. This study aimed at providing a lead to better understand the relationship between COVID-19, which has been spreading across the world since late 2019, and the Christian-affiliated new religious movements in contemporary Korea. Lastly, I would like to raise two tasks that can be conducted in the future:
First, it is necessary to make a comparison between the outskirts-orientedness of Chunbukyo (or Jeondogwan building) and the nature of other new religious movements, to see the similarities and differences. Potential cases for future studies to be considered are the Hoseng Prayer House, Temple of the Tabernacle, Shinchoeonji in Cheonggyesan Mountain, Gwacheon, Unification Church in Guri and Gapyeong, Sungrak Church and Manmin Central Church in Guro Industrial Complex, other religious movements settled in Bongchun-dong, the outskirts area of Siheung-goon and Yeongdeungpo, the Society Of The Gospel Of The Kingdom located near the street of Yangjaecheon that used to be the southern outskirts of Yeongdong and Gangnam.
Second, it is necessary to put together architectural reports on the old Jeondogwan buildings across the country. During the process of converting Jeondogwan into Chunbukyo, many Jeondogwan buildings were sold or destroyed, and the current members of the Chunbukyo do not seem to place much attention on these buildings. Therefore, from an irreligious position, it is not feasible to cover the old Jeondogwan buildings as a part of contemporary Korean history.
I hope this article helps to cast light on the outskirts of Greater Seoul and Korea, for those exploring and researching these peripheral reaches of our society.
==
1. ‘Similarities and differences between the ‘Super-spreaders’ of MERS and COVID-19’, Daily Medi, (23 Feb., 2020).