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AR 30:11 - Korean cults and Fiji in a bizarre, parasitic embrace
In this issue:
AMERICAN RELIGION - evaluating "America's liberal democracy in the absence of a moral consensus or clear-cut spiritual foundation"
ETHICS - understanding moral distress and injury
GRACE ROAD - a third of South Korea is Christian, and "around a tenth [are] members of cults"
Apologia Report 30:11 (1,700)
March 20, 2025
Please note: We will be taking the next week off. Expect to see our next issue on the week beginning March 30th.
AMERICAN RELIGION
"Was America Founded by Heretics?" by Casey Chalk (Religion & Liberty 35:1 - Feb 18 '25) -- According to Chalk, the book American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liberal Order by Jerome E. Copulsky (Yale, 2024) <www.tinyurl.com/y6p762v7> "is strongest in recounting a largely unknown history of religiously motivated resistance to the nation's disestablished founding. 'From the outset,' writes Copulsky in the introduction, 'the American project was contested by religious voices who believed that democratic values were not an expression of Christian teaching but were rather false and dangerous; that religion should not be separated from the state but ought to guide political life; and that the protection, indeed celebration, of religious liberty was a violation of divine dictates.' It is 'a fascinating historical study undoubtedly unfamiliar to many readers, [but] American Heretics fails to interpret properly the framers' conception of religion and, in its attempt to present a coherent narrative from the revolution to 2024, ham-fistedly collapses into a single whole a diverse group of religious conservatives who often share little more than superficial commonalities.' ...
"Religious belief, defined as a protected category by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, means that it is a far surer bet to claim that faith, whether reasonably defensible or patently absurd, is the motivation for one's objection to attempts at coercing American citizens into consuming the fruits of the sexual revolution.
"Given this, it's obvious that, even in an increasingly secular, post-Christian society such as the United States, religious belief and practice enjoy a very obvious preferential treatment. Why is that? Might it be because the framers of the U.S. Constitution, and their successors in both elected positions and the courts, have been guided by a deference, and even a preference, for religion, so much so that they were willing to give latitude to citizens' beliefs not only when those beliefs transcend reason but even when they seem to be in blatant, even risible contradiction to it?"
Chalk explains: "The Founding Fathers, it should be noted, were concerned with this as well. The 1777 New York State Constitution asserted that liberty of conscience 'shall not be so construed, as to excuse acts of licentiousness.' ... The leading figures of the founding, far from seeing liberty as the means by which men could free themselves from religious obligation, were cognizant of, and sought to counter, concerns that their nascent republic's neutrality toward a single established church would encourage an areligious libertinism.
"Copulsky attacks many prominent religious conservatives of the 20th and 21st centuries, but perhaps his most insightful critique is of the National Conservatism movement."
Chalk asks: "Is American history one long fight against would-be theocrats, ever-present threats to 'religious neutrality'? If so, is it possible to preserve such a neutrality without squelching the rights of the very groups the Constitution is supposed to protect?"
Chalk looks at the process. "Copulsky himself acknowledges, it took 50 years after the founding for the last state to disestablish fully. Indeed, many states retained religious tests for civic offices and prohibitions on ministers holding civic office into the 19th century, a political reality that existed until they were declared unconstitutional in Torcaso v. Watkins (1961) and McDaniel v. Paty (1978).
"Although he never goes beyond a cursory discussion of the topic, Copulsky seems to appreciate that the founders were deeply influenced by natural law, noting "Lincoln's emphasis on the equality principle - a natural law concept whose origin can be traced at least as far back as Aquinas....
"Copulsky attacks many prominent religious conservatives of the 20th and 21st centuries - such as L. Brent Bozell, R.J. Rushdoony, and Patrick Deneen - but perhaps his most insightful critique is of the National Conservatism movement promoted by political theorist Yoram Hazony. <www.tinyurl.com/a2rj9r57> ...
"Natural law could be a help in navigating what constitutes legitimate and illegitimate nationalism (and, more to the theme of this book, state relations with religion), though Copulsky seems incapable of moving beyond a bland celebration of secular liberalism as the best means of ensuring a neutral, dispassionate state that will protect, but not favor, various religious traditions."
The Left - "a supposedly neutral and disinterested establishment" says Chalk, - "claims that our secular regime will always be a good-faith arbiter, [even though] it's obvious it has no qualms targeting religious persons who dissent from the establishment's opinions regarding abortion and sexuality. ... 'If it is to endure, America's liberal democracy will have to be sustained in the absence of a moral consensus or clear-cut spiritual foundation,' claims Copulsky." <www.tinyurl.com/mvp7cdvp>
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ETHICS
"When Your Moral Compass Is Compromised" by Christina Caron (New York Times, Feb 20 '25) -- Dr. Jennifer S. Wortham, a researcher at the Human Flourishing program at Harvard, <hfh.fas.harvard.edu> "suffered for years, feeling guilty and heartbroken over having unknowingly facilitated ... abuse. 'We never celebrated Christmas together ever again,' she said. 'We couldn't all be together.'
"The experience led Dr. Wortham to study the topic of moral injury, or the deep distress that can emerge when you feel that your values have been violated, either by yourself or someone else.
"The resulting feelings of powerlessness, guilt and shame can lead to mental health problems like anxiety, depression and even suicidal behavior.
"'Why are you experiencing all these feelings? It's because deep down, at your core, who you are is actually being challenged, threatened or violated,' said Dr. Tessy A. Thomas, a physician and bioethics researcher in Danville, Pa., who has studied moral distress among health care workers.
"In other words, she said, it can feel as though your very integrity is at stake.
"Egregious betrayals, like what Dr. Wortham and her family experienced, can create psychological distress - but so can 'relatively small, everyday events,' said Dr. Connor Arquette, a plastic surgery resident at Stanford who has researched moral injury. ...
"'Moral distress,' a precursor to moral injury, was coined in the mid-1980s in reference to nurses who felt they were being obstructed from doing what was morally correct while on the job.
"Later, in the '90s, the psychiatrist Jonathan Shay created the term 'moral injury' to refer to veterans who were psychologically harmed by carrying out orders that violated their beliefs, such as instructions to kill or harm civilians.
"The term has been applied to other groups as well," and she names several before adding that: "In the last five years, there has been 'an explosion of research' on moral injury, said Dr. Harold G. Koenig, Dr. Wortham's mentor and a psychiatrist at Duke University who, with his team, created scales to measure these emotional wounds.
"Dr. Wortham and her colleagues have proposed modifying the American Psychiatric Association's D.S.M.-5, psychiatry's classification of mental health conditions...." And, "after more than a year of review, the A.P.A. agreed. The change will appear in September. ...
"Dr. Wortham went so far as to meet with Pope Francis, who later spoke with a group of sexual abuse survivors, which included her brothers, and apologized for the failings of the church. ...
"When faced with moral injury, experts say that building moral resilience is crucial.
"Dr. Thomas does this with a daily ritual: Every time she washes her hands she thinks about the challenges that others may be facing. Then she finds a way to make a simple gesture, like checking in with a colleague who is having a stressful day. These small acts of compassion help bolster one of her core values: integrity." <www.archive.ph/ogCYE>
(Last, if you go on to read the article itself, linked above, we would be interested to know if how we presented it here biased your thinking in any way prior to reading the Times account.)
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GRACE ROAD
"The doomsday cult's guide to taking over a country: How a fringe South Korean church convinced Fijians to embrace its business empire - and ignore its dark side" by Pete McKenzie (Economist, Feb 7 '25) -- "Over the past decade, Fiji ... has become a haven for Grace Road, one of many shadowy Korean cults that have found footholds abroad." Since it arrived in 2013, "Grace Road has been accused by local and foreign police of forcing its 400-odd followers to work in its businesses, abusing them with violence and sleep deprivation, and kidnapping their family members. The cult has also been accused of corrupting members of Fiji's former government, which allegedly helped fund Grace Road's commercial ventures and resisted international warrants to arrest its members. ...
"The bizarre, parasitic relationship that has developed between Grace Road and Fiji exemplifies the risks that arise when a small, poor nation chases prosperity by sacrificing some of its sovereignty to mysterious outsiders - in this case, a cult preparing for the world's end - and the immense difficulty of expelling these groups once they have put down roots. ...
"In the latter half of the 20th century ... cults sprouted throughout the country. According to Tark Ji-Il, a professor at Busan Presbyterian University who is an expert on South Korean cults, the country's social and political troubles were 'turning points' that made doomsday messages particularly appealing to people who were desperately seeking stability. Most of the nascent cults had their roots in Christianity, but with an alarming twist: their founders typically claimed to be the modern incarnation of Jesus, demanded obsessive devotion and predicted the imminent end of the world. Today, about a third of South Korea's population consider themselves Christians; of that number, Tark estimates that around a tenth are members of cults."
This is followed by a short historical review of "cults" in South Korea and Asia, and then a much longer look at Fiji. <www.tinyurl.com/mrvut8zk>
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