Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
American Evangelicals’ Global Vision Began in Korea

American Evangelicals’ Global Vision Began in Korea

Last updated on: February 11, 2015 at 3:01 am by Miles Mullin

American Evangelicals’ Global Vision Began in Korea 2015-02-11T03:01:40-04:00 Miles Mullin

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

From the Archive. Originally posted March 14, 2013.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27[1]

The global vision of American evangelicalism began in an improbable place, 1950s South Korea, as Americans encountered people like Pun Hui Pak. The youngest of four children, Pun Hui Pak was born in a small town outside Taegu, South Korea, in 1949. In an agricultural economy, the Paks were better off than many: her family owned farmland and her father served as mayor of the small town. But that changed quickly during the summer of 1950. Supported by Mao, and given the green-light by Stalin, the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) swept across the 38th parallel aiming to unite all Koreans under the communist government of Kim Il-Sung. A hastily assembled coalition of South Korean (ROK) and American-led U.N. forces attempted to stall the NKPA advance, but their efforts seemed doomed. Victory upon victory punctuated the Soviet-armed NPKA’s advance towards Pusan.

Taegu, the headquarters of Lt. General Walton Walker’s Eighth Army and communications hub for what remained of the defensive forces, soon became the target of the NKPA. Provoking his troops, Walker issued his “Stand or Die” order, and somehow managed to defend the Pusan Perimeter in a brilliant tactical effort. However, casualties were high, not only for military personnel, but also for South Korean civilians. While the NKPA overran the smaller cities outside Taegu, city officials from Pun’s hometown hid in a nearby cave outside of the village. For several days, family and friends clandestinely brought them food. They were eventually discovered by the NKPA and none of them, including Pun’s father, were heard from again.

Already a poor country, the war ravished Korea. As for most South Korean families, life forever changed for the Paks. Left without a father, they were forced to sell their land to care for Pun’s ailing older brother. A couple years after the Korean Armistice Agreement, when Pun was six, the family moved to the city. A hard worker, Pun excelled in school in Taegu. She also first encountered the gospel there.

The history of evangelical Christianity in Korea begins in earnest at the end of the nineteenth century. Caught between Japan and China, the Korean royal family reluctantly ended its isolationist policies and signed a treaty with the U.S. in 1882. As usual, missionary activity followed trade, and, even as most evangelical groups remained focused on evangelizing China, some began ministry in earnest in the former “hermit kingdom.” Japanese imperial rule (beginning in 1910) and the burdens of World War II disturbed these efforts, but when China “fell” to the communists in 1949, many groups, such as the Oriental Missionary Society, pivoted towards Korea. At the onset of the Korean War, missionary personnel were vacated from the peninsula, but U.N. military successes and the eventual armistice brought a new era in the evangelization of South Korea.

In the aftermath of the fighting, life was completely different. Utter destruction characterized the South Korean topography, while widows and orphans made up a disproportionate percentage of its population. As they observed these new realities, the burden of James 1:27 began to weigh upon evangelicals both in Korea and at home. As missionary personnel and Christian soldiers reported the humanitarian crisis to their constituencies in America, concern for the physical well-being of downtrodden Koreans began to percolate through the evangelical subculture. As a direct result, the newly renamed World (née War) Relief Commission of the National Association of Evangelicals turned its attention to Korea, the inimitable Bob Pierce founded World Vision (f. 1950), and an unheard of Swedish Baptist evangelist named Everett Swanson returned from a trip to Korea determined to “do something.” The organization he founded is now known as Compassion International.

Although these new efforts resembled the medical missions in some regards, they demonstrated a marked concern with the deleterious effects of poverty itself, not just medical conditions. They sought to provide basic necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, and education. All the while, they maintained an evangelical commitment to share the good news, urging those they helped to be born again.

In Taegu, Pun Hui came in contact with just such an American evangelical group. As a small girl, the Presbyterian church in the midst of the city intentionally provided a safe place to play, off the streets. Each year Americans concerned with the physical well-being of little Korean girls and boys like her, sent clothes, Christmas cards, and toys that were distributed through the church. Although sized by age, the clothes were big and sweaters sometimes looked more like dresses, but they were warm and clean, and warm clean clothes were in short supply. Along the way, Pun memorized Bible verses and heard the good news about Jesus. In this way, her first encounter with the gospel came at the hands of American evangelicals who cared for her physical needs. Years later, after immigrating to the United States, the pastor of a small Baptist church in Patrick County, Virginia, shared the gospel with her again. This time she believed. Six months later, her husband also believed and both were baptized.

Following World War II, America’s role in the world was changing. Confronted with the communist advance across the 38th parallel on June 25, 1950, the experience of the Korean War jump-started a containment policy that had been articulated in NSC-68 less than two months before. Likewise, the experience of Korea catalyzed a change taking place within American evangelicalism. Increasingly concerned about the problems of society, culture, and the world, the Korean War and its aftermath provided both the stimulus and the opportunity for this “new evangelicalism” to express itself in action.

What emerged was a host of cooperative, pan-denominational, evangelical groups that aggressively sought to improve the lives of impoverished Koreans as they communicated the gospel message. Quickly, this would develop into a global vision for improving the lives of impoverished children throughout Asia, then Africa, and then rest of the world. Eventually, it developed into the sort of vision that typified many evangelical groups in the late twentieth-century as they moved beyond addressing individual needs to address communal issues as well. But it all began in Korea.

References:

Cumings, Bruce. The Korean War: A History. New York: Modern Library, 2010

Foley, Pun Hui Pak. Interview with author. November 27, 2012. Patrick County, Virginia.

Halberstam, David. The Coldest Winter: Americans and the Korean War. New York: Hyperion, 2007.

Hastings, Max. The Korean War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

Mullin, Miles. “Postwar Evangelical Social Concern: Evangelical Identity and the Modes and Limits of Social Engagement, 1945-1960.” Ph.D. dissertation. Vanderbilt University, 2009.

Noll, Mark A. and Carolyn Nystrom. “Sun Chu Kil.” Chapter in Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2011.

[1] New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Evangelicalism

Miles Mullin

Bob Pierce

Compassion International

Previous Post

February 10, 2015

Secularization and Scotland's Christian Heritage

Next Post

February 12, 2015 The Promises and Perils of Denominational History

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who died at the end of Genesis?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Joseph Jacob Reuben Simeon