Protests Led By Religious Groups All This Week Mass Protests Pass Peacefully After the Candlelight Vigils, by Ryu Geun-il

The Korean National Council of Churches, a Protestant organization, is to hold a prayer meeting in the same location on Thursday, while Buddhist organizations including Lotus World are to hold a religious ceremony on Friday. With ordinary citizens beginning to turn their back on violent protests led by the People's Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease, it appears religious leaders are stepping forward with a view to reigniting the protests under a pious banner.

In Korea’s recent history, religious leaders have often found themselves at the forefront of political movements, for example against the draconian Yushin Constitution in 1972 with which the Park Chung-hee government attempted to cement its stranglehold on power. At the time, lawmakers were detained and tortured; legislators routinely stripped of immunity; schools shut in a bid to block campus demonstrations; the press muzzled through strict censorship and confiscation of copperplate for articles suspected of carrying anti-government messages; books banned; and periodicals closed.

It was then that religious leaders stepped forward, providing as they did the sole outlet for grievances at the time. If the CPAJ still enjoys some clout, it is as a result of the brave actions of Yushin-era Catholic priests.

But in today’s Korea, no lawmakers are muzzled, no schools closed, and the press freer from government interference than harassment from activists. It has been a long time since poems and novels were impounded for sowing sedition.

For sure, religious figures are entitled to speak about political matters. But they should try to keep up with the demands of time and place. Our current Constitution is a result of the painful democracy struggles of the people. Religious figures played a key role in making this Constitution possible. They should therefore call for an early resolution to the crisis triggered by a panic over the resumption of U.S. beef imports through the procedures laid down in that Constitution, which assigns the legislative, executive and judiciary branch each their respective role. They should appeal to the public to safeguard the principles of constitutionalism and democracy, telling them that a collapse of the constitutional order will eventually rebound on the people.

Some religious leaders rallied under the pretext of seeking a return to non-violence. But as we have seen, nobody can control the protests when they get out of hand. Will the priests assume responsibility when that happens from now on? Impossible.

The incompetent and irresponsible Lee Myung-bak administration, of course, is mostly to blame for a situation when religious groups feel again called upon to cross the fences. The administration's blunders cannot be denounced enough. Blame also goes to a divided ruling party that has forsaken its mandate to represent the public and opposition parties that are chasing street protesters while abandoning the proper forum where the public has elected them to work.

In Monday’s demonstration the priests’ association carried a placard reading, "Darkness has never prevailed over light." In religious parlance, light is good and darkness evil; politics, on the other hand, is a field where thousands of shades of gray jostle for space. Even on the beef issue, public opinion is sharply divided. Who will distinguish good from evil here? For the moment, representatives of Korea’s three main religions are shouting identical slogans as the activists. But if religions clash in the political arena over their respective assertions, there are countless examples from world history when politicized religions have caused untold suffering by dividing the people until death.

If religious figures blunder into division when trying to grapple with complex political, social and economic problems, it also threatens their authority in religious matters. Yes, religious leaders sometimes need to speak out about the great and final questions they are tasked with pondering. But this is not such a time: they should call on the executive and legislative branches to fulfill their respective duties with a view to mitigating public concerns and settle the situation before it develops into a crisis of constitutional rule. The words of religious figures carry greater weight when they are made in their proper place.