On Sunday afternoon, October 27, as many as 1.1 million South Korean Christians participated in a massive rally in Seoul to express their opposition to homosexual “marriage,” new pro-LGBT legislation, and a supreme court decision conferring some spousal legal rights on homosexuals.
Aerial photos show a staggering crowd of people packing Seoul Plaza, Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul Station, and Yeouido, which the Korea Herald described as “one of the largest religious gatherings in the country’s history.” The rally was organized by a number of Christian groups, including the Council of Presbyterian Churches and the United Christian Churches of Korea.
According to the Korea Herald: “The rally, held in the form of a church service, was against the legalization of [so-called] same-sex marriage and the passage of what participants have claimed is an ‘unjust law’ – a legally binding ordinance that would ban [purported] discrimination against an individual based on one’s gender, religion, age, race, academic background or sexual orientation. Different versions of the antidiscrimination ordinance have been proposed since 2011, but none have passed due to fierce opposition, mostly from among the conservative bloc and Christian community.”
Condemning the LGBT legislation as “against the law of nature and order in which the world was created” and an attack on freedom of conscience and religion, the committee of Christian groups passed out lists of 100 prayer suggestions at the rally; one read: “Let the people discern how dangerous and totalitarian the fantasy of achieving equality by everyone being the same – instead of all being equal before God – is. So that such antihuman law that depresses freedom of the most people would not be passed.”
Kim Jeong-hee, a spokesman for the organizing committee, also stated that the recent court verdict granting state benefits to homosexuals was unconstitutional because same-sex “marriage” is not recognized in South Korea.
“I think that would only be the starting point” for legalization of homosexual “marriage,” Kim said. “We see this not simply as a Christian issue, but as a huge crisis that shakes our country’s foundation.”
The committee “decried the Student Rights Ordinance adopted by several education offices across the country – including Seoul – as ‘encouraging romantic relations between students of the same sex and leading to sexual humiliation,’ urging the Ministry of Education to abolish the ordinance.” Signs at the rally also featured slogans such as “protect our children from gender pollution, gender confusion, and gender division destruction.”
A number of prominent South Korean Christians spoke in support of biblical marriage, and many noted what is unfolding in the West – that we are seeing the replacement of Christian values with the values of the Sexual Revolution. “The Christian faith is oppressed in the West, which has comprehensive anti-discrimination laws and where [so-called] same-sex marriage is legal!” stated one spokesperson. “South Korea should remain the last sacred country to never see the passing of anti-discrimination laws” or homosexual “marriage” legalization.
The committee also warned the gathered Christians that “If the legislative and judicial branches of our government are breached, not only will Christians be robbed of the freedom to pursue their faith but their freedom of speech will also be suppressed. If you believe that homosexuality is a sin, raise your voice high to say so.”
In response to condemnations of the rally by pro-LGBT groups, the rally organizers emphasized that they were defending Christian principles. “We do not hate homosexuals. We are not trying to tell them what to do and what not to do, but if these laws regarding [homosexual ‘marriage’] get passed in Korea, then the Christian church cannot stand up for what they believe in,” explained Hyun-bo So, senior pastor of Segero Church in Busan in an interview with Christian Daily International. The rally featured three sermons and speakers from the U.K. and Germany, who warned South Korea against following the Western path.
