Shamanistic Influences In Korean Pentecostal Christianity: An Analysis

Is Cho a Pentecostal Shaman?

Spring 2000
By Jeremy Reynalds

However, not everyone shares quite such an optimistic view of Korean pentecostalism in general and Cho in particular. In his classic 1995 book Fire from Heaven, Harvard professor Harvey Cox expressed a number of concerns about some of the activities at Cho's church. Cox said that even someone used to Pentecostal worship might be quite surprised with their first encounter with Cho's church.

Take what is called 'Hallelujah-robics. It is a form of dancing to hymns played to an ear-piercing rock beat by an ensemble of electric organ, drums, accordion and other instruments. The dancing is led by enthusiastic teams from the church's youth division. When the music stops temporarily the congregation takes up what sounds like the religious equivalent of the cheers used at an Ohio State football game. At full volume they shout 'Aboji Hananim' (Our Father, who art in Heaven) and then with hands raised many begin praying in word and phrases of no known language. Then more singing begins ... and the people move faster and faster until, no longer able to keep it up, they stop in happy exhaustion (Cox 1995:223).

Cox went on to say that when the singing, dancing and shouting has finally finished, the minister prays in a way that is reminiscent of an incantation (Cox 1995).

He repeats over and over again, sometimes a hundred times or more, such phrases as 'Hallelujah!' or 'O Lord!' or 'the Spirit fills!' while the congregation joins him ... The ministers keep assuring everyone that whatever their illnesses or infirmities might be, they will certainly be healed ... As the service ends, the people who believe they have been healed shout out short prayers of gratitude and stream out of the church, leaving behind those who are still caught up in the fervor and continue to sway and pray until evening comes, the lights are extinguished and the building is closed. To a visitor schooled in shamanism, the worship at the Yoido Full Gospel Church bears a striking resemblance to what is ordinarily known as 'shamanism' ... (Cox 1995: 223-224).

Cox says that when similarity is pointed out to Korean pentecostal ministers, they deny any similarity. It is not only the Korean pentecostals who disclaim similarities between Korean pentecostalism and shamanism.

Lee Wanak, a United States missionary working in the Philippines as Dean of the Asia Graduate School of Theology and Director of the Ed.D. program said although he is not of Korean descent he has nonetheless worked with a number of Korean missionaries and occasionally preached in Korean churches. He has found no evidence of a link between Korean pentecostalism and shamanism (Wanak, e-mail to the author, 2000).

After receiving the hypothesis for this paper, Wanak suggested a more "open-ended approach which would include the interviewing of Korean pastors and lay people in an attempt to discover their "motives, values, dreams and desires" and thus allow the Korean people "to speak for themselves" (Wanak, e-mail to the author, 2000).

He suggested that the hypothesis of this research be changed to read: "Korean church growth is a complex of factors including emphasis on sacrifice, prayer, hard work, evangelism, courage in the face of persecution, economic growth and biblical preaching and teaching, not to mention the sovereign work of the Spirit of God (Wanak, e-mail to the author, 2000).

Wonsuk Ma, the Academic Dean at the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in Baguio, Philippines was initially hostile about the suggestion of a link between Cho and shamanism, writing that the abstract for this research appeared to be "very biased and misinformed" (Ma, e-mail to the author, 2000).

Ma said in an attempt to properly understand Cho, it is important to consider the beginnings of the Christian faith in Korea. Ma said that Korean Christianity began "under the harsh rule of the Japanese" and as a result was initially "extremely other-worldly" with a "strong martyrdom mentality." Ma said that thousands of people gave their lives in a deliberate refutation of "the traditional ancestor worship which combines Confucianistic veneration of ancestors and Shamanistic idea of 'blessing' through the ancestor spirits. There was a deliberate distancing from these religious ideas and this brought much sacrifice of lives"(Ma, e-mail to the author, 2000).

With that in mind, Ma said Cho's message "is not to bring the Christian message to the animistic motif of blessing, but with social changes (after the liberation and much poverty) the other-worldly outlook had to change and the Lord used Cho to bring this long-neglected part of God's message to the Korean churches" (Ma, e-mail to the author, 2000).

Ma concluded his first communication to this researcher with a warning to be very careful in criticizing another Christian or church. If one does criticize, Ma said it is important to understand the church being criticized in the context of its struggles and difficulties (Ma, e-mail to the author, 2000).

In addition, Ma said: "You need to be a good friend of the Korean church to be able to offer a constructive criticism for the good of the church. Otherwise, it will be like throwing a stone to the pond unmindful of the frogs in there. Indeed, I would dare say that we are not frogs. Perhaps Asian churches may have good dose of advice to the western churches" (Ma, e-mail to the author, 2000).

After receiving Ma's first e-mail, the author consequently assured Ma that the proposed paper was going to be legitimate academic research (that would attempt to answer the question as to whether or not there is a relationship between the gods of shamanism and Yonggi Cho) and not a polemical ad hominem attach against Cho.

In subsequent correspondence to the author, Ma appeared to have changed his opinion of Cho, writing that not only was he not trying to justify Cho; he had even been somewhat critical of him on several occasions. Ma said that in his opinion, Cho is not a consistent theologian; he is rather a pastor and evangelist whose book The Fourth Dimension (1987) "is almost like either positive confession or kind of will-power religion"(Ma, e-mail to the author, 2000).

Ma said that while he feels bad about some of the terminology used in Cho's book, and he has no defense for it, one thing is clear. "His 'faith' message, as very similar in outlook, has a little different root than let's say Robert Schuller at one point. It is (only after) his healing experience (only those who were so close to death and dramatically saved/healed can understand its full implication and impact), that his preaching became (that of a ) 'good and able God'" (Ma, e-mail to the author, 2000).

Ma added that he also regrets The Fourth Dimension being the best known of Cho's books when Cho has written more than one hundred other titles in Korean (Ma, e-mail to the author, 2000).

Interestingly, one correspondent with this researcher still has bad feelings about The Fourth Dimension even though it has been more than 10 years since she first read the book.

She wrote that in the book Cho asserted:

there is a fourth (spiritual) dimension that can be tapped into by either legitimate means (through Christ and his church) or illegitimately (through Satan and false religions). He proposed that this spiritual dimension of power was available two both the good and the evil, but that God proposed the parameters with which the dimension may be accessed. I left the Wesleyan Church over ten years ago over the propagation of his works. Cho is Baaaaaaad News (Julie, e-mail to the author, 2000).

Dr. Mel Robeck, professor of church history at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California believes that there are some shamanistic elements in what Cho does (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

I think they are conscious decisions that he makes to play that role. (For example) The role of ancestor worship and his response to the people who want to go out on ancestor worship celebration days with their families to participate lead me to believe that he's trying to function in the way that shamans function within traditional Korean religions. He plays the role but at the same time tries to Christianize what he's doing giving different explanations for what's going on (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

According to Robeck, if asked by one of his congregants whether it is appropriate to participate in certain traditional shamanistic religious practices such as ancestor worship, Cho might well say:"'You can participate if you understand this about it.' There's a sense in what he's trying to do is to take what I would consider a phenomenology and give it a different meaning within the Christian context that allows that to serve a legitimate function rather than not" (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

Robeck said that there is nothing wrong with veneration in any branch of the Christian church and "if you can look at it as celebration of the veneration rather than worship then that's a very different kind of thing. But the problem is that if you get people who are around Roman Catholicism they can't understand that because it's easy to cross that line between veneration and worship" (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

Using his wife as an example, Robeck pointed out that it is quite appropriate for her to adore him, but not to worship him, which is reserved for God alone (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

"Veneration and adoration are two different things and I think that's what Cho is trying to say in ways that because there may be the giving of fruit or whatever lying there on the grave that it has the trappings of looking like a Buddhist fest or some kind of an animistic celebration" (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

This researcher asked Robeck for his perspective on the Korean pentecostal practice of attributing illnesses to "dead relatives and ancestors who never accepted Christ and are therefore angry and troubled. They return to afflict the living, so they have to be sent packing (Cox 1995:224).

Cox points out to his readers that this practice by Korean pentecostals "does not always assure their western brethren that they are operating within the usual parameters of pentecostal practice (Cox 1995:224).

However, Robeck says he is unable to find anything basically wrong with the practice. He asked why that should be considered any different from the sins of the fathers being visited upon the third and fourth generations (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

I know that it gets pushed to extremes in some charismatic circles. I know that there's been some concern in the administration here about Korean students and that particular theory. What they've gone into is whether you can break a generational curse and I suppose that it's possible in some instances. I think prayer does help. I'm not sure that casting out of demons and all that stuff necessarily helps. It might (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

Robeck said that prayer, commitment and spiritual maturity are in his opinion the most important elements in breaking any generational problems. He cited his own father as an example, saying that he was a child abuser. "He beat us senseless. It was terrible" (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

Robeck said that he made up his mind never to do that. "And also never to hold rancor against my dad. I understand what he did. I don't think that it's right, but I understand it. I think with the Lord's help we 'broke the curse' in a sense. My kids haven't had to live with that, so I think that's possible (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

However, Robeck said he does have some reservations about the way the ritual is practiced in Cho's church."My sense is that it has developed into some kind of a system that has been pushed further even than what Cho had wanted and clearly further than what the Old Testament is suggesting" (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

Robeck says he personally considers Cho to be a very "shrewd" (sic) person who knows exactly what he is doing. What it has enabled him to do is to speak to a broader constituency and in a sense reel them in ... What he is doing is connecting with these people and helping them to move from that conjuring culture in which divination takes place apart from God and brings them into a charismatic experience which is very directly in relation to God (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

Robeck said that during 1999 he was a speaker at Cho's church and he addressed the issue of shamanism to congregants. "I tried to explain it even to them and they were all going 'Yes, that's right, you've got the take on it,' whereas most external readers, especially if they're unsympathetic to begin with, would come in and simply say, 'He's nothing but a Korean shamanist.' I don't think that's true" (Robeck, interview with the author, 2000).

Neither did Young Hoon Lee, president of Bethesda Christian University and Theological Seminary in Anaheim, California. "Dr. Cho preaches on salvation, prosperity and healing as a result of the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross. He knows the danger of shamanistic concept in Christian faith. He often preaches about this. He emphasizes sound doctrine based on the Bible" (Lee, e-mail to the author, 2000).

It is, perhaps, important to point out that Cho is the chancellor of Bethesda Christian University where Lee is the president as well as being one of Cho's associate pastors at Yoido Full Gospel Church.

Commenting on the allegations of Christian shamanism raised in Cox's book, Lee said that four years ago after visiting one of the services at Cho's church and being a conference lecturer, Cox realized he had been mistaken about the concerns he had raised in his book and admitted the same in a press conference with "all leading daily newspaper reporters" (Lee, e-mail to the author, 2000).

"At that time he admitted that he made mistake in the book about Korean church (Yoido F.G. Church). He had to rely on the written material about Korean church. He never came to Korea before. Also he mentioned that he will rewrite chapter 11 (Korean church part). I have a good relationship with him since then (Lee, e-mail to the author, 2000).

However, Cox said he did not make any mistakes. While acknowledging his reliance on secondary sources, Cox wrote that he "found them sustained by my visit. The paradox is that the Korean churches do preach against shamanism, but at the same time they incorporate and Christianize elements of the shamanistic world view and practice"(Cox, e-mail to the author, 2000).

But Cox said that he did not find the incorporation to be a problem, writing that absorption of elements of other religions is routine for Christians. "There is a difference between rhetoric and practice. As I say (concerning) other expressions of Pentecostalism in Fire from Heaven, one of the great strengths of Pentecostalism is its capacity to integrate pre-Christian cultural expressions into a Christian practice" (Cox, e-mail to the author, 2000).

I wondered what Young Hoon Lee would have to say in response to the statement from Cox. Lee wrote that Cox has a "strong socio-religious aspect on Korean pentecostalism. He has a positive concept on the religious function of shamanism. He thinks that shamanized Christianity is acceptable. I do not have any objections on his personal view. However you must understand his point of view" (Lee, e-mail to the author, 2000).

The author realizes that there are two opposite points of view presented in this section of the paper; both of which are colored to some extent by the individual researchers' personal prejudices. To help better illustrate the complexity of academically analyzing whether there may be shamanistic influence on Cho's ministry the author made a conscious decision to present one researcher's point of view and then present a rebuttal from a scholar with an opposing viewpoint.

However, in the face of denial how does one verify possible shamanistic influence on a Christian ministry? It becomes something very difficult to address. After all, it is not an investigation of whether or not Cho has denied the basic doctrines of the historic Christian faith. That is a much more objective issue, and something that would be much easier to quantify.

It is rather an investigation of whether Cho's utilitarian approach to his faith (referred to above) combined with a shamanistic propensity for prosperity has contributed to Cho's success. This then becomes a much more subjective investigation; one which not only revolves around the use (or not) of shamanism but in addition centers around whether in an attempt to make the proclamation of the Christian gospel more effective it is a legitimate pursuit to intertwine the gospel message with Korean shamanism.

The researcher's conclusions will be dealt with in the final section of this paper.

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