http://english.watv.org/ I recently met some evangelists recently posed as university students on my way to the gym to play basketball. One of the "students" approached me saying she was with a local University (I believe Hankook) and asked me if I could help her with an assignment that had to with the response of foreigners to certain religious information being developed by her church. She was with two other people who were business casual dressed and had what seemed to be DVD players and questionnaires. I thought it was more along the lines of a simple survey type, and since I was in a hurry, I responded, sure and scheduled to meet them Tuesday.
Monday comes and I get a call from the girl. She has some free time and wonders if I can meet. I say sure, because I wasn't busy, and truthfully I was (and still am) very interested in learning about all the various religions in the region, just because I'm interested in religion (and arguing / debating religious views).
If you don't know too much of my past, you may not know that I was extremely religious in high school, and prayed and read the Bible daily. I used to be well-versed on the material, and to this day I still cannot forget the entire New Testament (except Paul). Because of this background and the fact that I am not religious anymore, I tend to blend in with the secular majority who are not that familiar with the Bible, and while they have not become religious for various reasons and could be possible targets for church recruiters, I chose long ago to reject many organized religions for various reasons.
Back to the story.
I go out to meet these people and they tell me they want to eat with me. I say fine, and we go to their church which has a cafeteria in it. It was actually very modern looking and quite big, and I'm sorry for the lack of photos but I was trying to be as respectful of their beliefs as possible. You can click on the links though for visuals.
http://english.watv.org/mission/korea.htmlIts the third down on the left. Bundang, Gyeonggi.
When I met up with the girl, she walks me to the church. On the way she is asking me about my beliefs, and many other questions. I explain to her that I believe in God, sure, why not. I'm just not sold on the Bible. And it's not even that I disbelieve it in its entirety, but I refuse to believe that it is the direct and absolute transcription of the word of God, which is what I found out these people were completely about once we started talking.
When we sat down and started talking, and I realized firmly that these people were not with any university, nor was I there to help them with any "research". Despite their claims to the contrary, they had really brought me there to try and convert me and save my soul, as well as make me a member in their church. We then sat there for 3 and a half hours, while they pitched me their beliefs which was actually quite radical.
They believe there are two Christian Gods.
Or at least two forms of God. A Heavenly Father and Mother. The Heavenly Father is the actual deity that most people believe in and the Heavenly Mother is the actual salvation, and is the form of Heaven, or the New Jerusalem that John the Baptist described descending from the sky in Revelations.
They believe this based on the specific translation of Genesis, where it refers to God in the plural numerous times, and later in Revelations when it refers to a Heavenly Bride. They also used the story of Abraham's son Isaac, in which they argued that since Heavenly blessing was not bestowed upon the his two son's through the male line of heritage but rather the mother's, that this was especially significant. They used Paul's Ephesians much as well, which was also brought up a major problem for me since they used the same passage that the U.S. government once used to justify slavery, quoting that the status of the mother would be passed unto the child.
They liked to use the story of Adam and Eve the most as a selling point for their views. They argued that the Bible quotes God as saying "
We will create man in
our image..." and that man was created in the Father's image, but that the plural is used to signify more than one presence. They said that the Mother God figure was needed to create Eve, since Adam was already created from
His likeness. They also spoke about the importance of the family structure, and how God gave the woman special power to be a mother which allows us to bring life onto the planet and how this was also one of the most important functions we have as humans and animals.
Of course all of this proved futile, since I don't believe the words of the Bible are concrete, so their nitpicking over exact translations and interpretations was having no impact in my thinking. The only thing I really came away with was the genuine appreciation in their interpretation of certain readings and passages.
Like I said; its an interesting theory.
Of course I explained (because they asked me to) my beliefs, and how I didn't agree with the general idea that God had to be gendered in the first place, which was something they kind of wavered on. They seemed to agree that God was above gender and sex, but maintained the argument that He was style trapped in a gender role, since the family structure had to come from somewhere.
Visit the website and let me know what you think...
