Talk:South Koreaball/@comment-36165848-20180929012409/@comment-26192486-20181005200738

In response, I'll do my best to not be too biased.

Okay. So according to the links you've used to back your statement, Misin tapa undong is a movement to topple native Korean beliefs, with waves started in the 1890s by the rise of Protestant preachers in Korea. This term was adopted by the Japanese then empathisised by missionaries. So yes, the thing with movements like these destroying shrines of folk religion is bad. But also 'cults'. I don't know the specific cult they were destroying but when I hear the word "cult" I immediately think of them as "bad". F*** cults.

During the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Japanese enforced State-Shinto onto the natives. The Koreans had to use a religion to rebel against the Japanese and boost Korean nationalism. They couldn't use Buddhism since both Korea and Japan were buddhist countries and it could easily be refashioned by the Japanese to become more prone to pro-Japanese sentiment. Korean shaminism was out of the option because they were banned by the Japanese colonial law which suppresses Korean culture. So they picked Christianity as the religion that suits them and use against the Japanese. During the March 1, 1919 independence movement, many of the protesters were Christian.

You talk about religious persecution by Protestants as something new in Korea. You do know religious persecution was nothing new in Korea. During the Joseon times, they persecuted Buddhists when they made Neo-Confucianism a state religion. In late Joseon-ages, they persecuted Catholics by executing them with beheadings in 1801 and the 1860s. Both Buddhism and Catholicism were foreign religions to Korea. Korea's earliest religion was shaminsim. Buddhism was introduced in the 4th century. Christianity made its present in the 17th century.

In general, persecuting religions with violence is bad. Just bad. But let's move on to westerniztion.

You guys talk about westernization as a bad thing just because they 'erase' the native culture, which is partly true, but that's it. Heck, the Korean Empire tried attempts to 'westernize' since they were aware that to keep up with other countries that were much more powerful, they must make the attempt. But that didn't happen because 'you know what happened next in 1910'. Japan westernized for the same reason and as a result, became an Imperial power. A brutal one, at least.

After their indepence in 1945, South Korea became one of the poorest countries at that time and man, was it hell. This went on from 1945 to the 1960s. Heck, my grandfather was there and experienced all of it, telling me that he'd never imagined that his country would ever get to where it is now. It was THAT poor. Dirt poor to be exact. Even North Korea was doing a lot better economically thanks to Soviet-provided imports. To this day, he still values food as he always told me, "God provided food" (not sure if he means the Abrahamic one, but whatever). Today, South Korea is one of the world's economic powerhouses. You have a give westernization partial credit for getting them where they are today.

You guys need to acknowledge that South Korea went through ALOT to become a democratic country. They went through a military dictatorship, a bloody uprising in Gwangmu, the 1997 asian financial crisis, and much more that I didn't mention. "The military dictatorship and the Gwangmu uprising were backed by the US!" Well, no shit. Same can be said with the South American countries during the Cold War. Remember, I'm trying my best not to be too biased in this situation as I appose the religious persecution of native cultures, how the Americans promoted the dictatorship and more of what you've mentioned. But the past is the past.