Opaque citizens: the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Christianity, and the South Korean state

Abstract

In this thesis, I use digital ethnographic methods and media content analysis to examine the particular ways in which members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus (hereon Shincheonji) are understood to be problematic citizens who unsettle the South Korean state. As I discuss in the thesis Introduction, this twin methodological approach was necessary due to the church and its members employing ‘opacity’, which I define as a tactical mode of presentation made up of the behaviours and actions used to protect members’ personal information and the church’s exclusive knowledge of biblical truth. To respect and account for this opacity, I used a combination of interviews and correspondences with Shincheonji members, participant and non-participant observation, and analysis of news and documentary-style media.

Drawing from Shaul Shenhav’s concept of social narrative (2015), I argue that portrayals of Shincheonji and its members from mass media sources and public discourse feature an overarching social narrative of problematic citizenship. In this narrative, Shincheonji is understood as being incompatible with South Korea’s model of idealised citizenship and its members are conceptualised as previously good and loyal citizens misled by their church.

Following the Introduction, the second and third chapters contextualise citizenship in Korea and the relationship between Protestant Christianity and political power in South Korea. The first half of Chapter Two provides the history of what I call ‘official Christianity’ from the late 19th to early 21st centuries. This history addresses the links between foreign-missionary affiliated Protestant denominations, especially Presbyterianism, and political and social capital. I then trace Shincheonji’s lineage, which consists of local millenarian Christianities unaffiliated with official denominations, which I call ‘unofficial Christianities’. Chapter Three first outlines the major themes within the study of citizenship in South Korea and explains why this thesis focuses on the affective dimensions of citizenship before demonstrating the development of the concept of the ‘citizen’ in Korea by tracing the different terms used to express this idea from the 18th century to the present.

Chapters Four, Five and Six are devoted to three social narratives supporting problematic citizenship's overarching narrative. These chapters analyse news articles, news broadcasts, and documentary-style programmes to demonstrate how these narratives operate and are perpetuated. I also include accounts from my participants to reveal how these narratives impact their everyday lives and citizenship experiences and to show how their behaviours and actions conform to many aspects of idealised South Korean citizenship. Chapter Four addresses the ‘secretive cult’ narrative, which states that the church is institutionally deceptive and secretive and convinces its members to engage in this potentially dangerous behaviour. I argue that this narrative was most clearly seen during early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, as their opacity was seen as incompatible with good citizenship and a danger to the public. Building on the previous chapter, Chapter Five discusses the ‘bad religion’ narrative, alleging that Shincheonji is an illegitimate religion that harms Protestantism. The ‘bad religion’ narrative also alleges that Shincheonji steals Christians from mainstream Protestant churches through deceptive evangelism methods. This narrative specifically suggests that Shincheonji targets university-educated young Protestants, turning promising young people into problematic citizens. Chapter Six focuses on the ‘homewrecker’ narrative, which accuses Shincheonji of destroying families by creating negligent wives and mothers and disrespectful children who fail to uphold the civic virtues of familism and filiality. This chapter also contextualises the highly gendered nature of citizenship in South Korea, which renders women in Shincheonji especially vulnerable to family members who disapprove of their religious affiliation.

Following chapters Four through Six, I come to three main conclusions. First, these social narratives are not separate from the everyday personal and interpersonal experiences of Shincheonji members. Secondly, Shincheonji is an excellent case study to examine citizenship in South Korea since it reveals the affective dimensions of citizenship, going beyond its legal, cultural, and ethnicised dimensions. Thirdly, while the social narratives analysed in this thesis are about Shincheonji, they also express deeper anxieties about demographic change that will continue to mark the South Korean mediascape and the everyday lives of South Korean citizens and residents.