THE KUKMIN DAILY

“Human rights is a mission.”

Rev. Won Hyeong-eun (62), pastor of Light and Salt Church and former non-standing member of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, emphasized this point during an interview with Kukmin Daily on August 13 at the Korean Church Centennial Building. He said the Korean churches should take the lead in respecting human rights and should work for the improvement of human rights in Korean society.

“In Korea, human rights discourse began in the churches, so if you are a pastor, you must guard human rights.” The Biblical concept that human beings are noble because they were made in the image of God had considerable influence on the formation of human rights discourse in Korean society. During the dark era of dictatorship and in the course of democratization, the Korean church was the last bastion of human rights, following the Biblical Word.

Now Rev. Won wants to become a protector of human rights in the church. He hopes to change the reality in which women are denied permanent positions and discriminatory language is used in sermons. He commented, “Anti-human rights behavior comes from thinking that a person who is different from me is wrong.” But it is important to correct such problems through dialogue, one by one, rather than through discipline. That is because dialogue, understanding and empathy alone go a long way.

Currently Rev. Won works to solve problems of discrimination experienced daily by former North Korean residents, migrant workers, children, and elderly persons. For five years, up until last year, he operated the “Majungmul (priming water) Community” for North Korean defectors, through which he was in direct or indirect contact with 400 of the 1,000 some former North Korean residents living in the Busan region. Rev. Won said, “Talking about ‘human rights’ may sound grandiose. But the human rights problems that worry people usually start with trivial matters. Day by day, I’m happy to listen to their small voices and solve their problems.”

Rev. Won joined the NHRC as a non-standing member in 2005, upon the recommendation of former President Roh Moo-hyun, and for the next three years he worked to protect the human rights of North Korean defectors. He came to pay particular interest to human rights issues through the “Sowing Seeds” program of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK - Tonghap). In 1983, the PCK Tonghap Social Mission Division opened a leadership program for social mission and dispatched pastors to various fields of work in society. Rev. Won was ordained in 1985 and soon joined the Busan Clergy Conference for Justice and Peace, resisting interference by government power in church affairs. Then in 1998, he established the Busan Human Rights Center and worked to support marginalized persons.

*Photo: On August 13 at the Korean Church Centennial Building, Rev. Won Hyeong-eun poses with ornaments named “Five Loaves of Bread and Two Fish,” made by North Korean residents in the Rason Special Economic District.

Article and photo by reporter DongWoo Kim (love@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)

Original Article in Korean:
“교회 안 인권 지킴이 구상하고 있습니다”: 전 국가인권위 인권위원 원형은 목사