Pursuit of life by death.

We are too comfortable.
You, me, our next door neighbor living in the house with the primly trimmed lawn.

Because my previous entry (mini-novel) was so heavy, I was going to make this next post light-hearted, but in light of recent events, I’m compelled to speak my mind on matters that I feel are worthy of mention.

I first found out about Roh Moo Hyun’s death while I was vacationing at Obx this past memorial weekend from someone who had received a quick text from a friend. “Who’s Roh Moo Hyun?” she had asked, “cause he just committed suicide.” This bit of news induced about 4 seconds of reaction from me, and that only because my dad had been a huge fan of this former-South Korean President, before I resumed my game of pool or whatever else it was that I was doing. When I returned home, I did a quick look-up of the details of his death on news sites such as news.yahoo.com and cnn.com. Bribery scandal, they said. He killed himself from the grief caused by corruption probes led by the opposing Lee Myung Bak administration. ‘Ahh, typical’ I thought to myself. ‘Just another case of the good president gone bad, feeling remorse for his misactions’. And then I went on with my life.

I was ready to never think about this particular news ever again, when my father brought it up during dinner. Unbeknownst to me, my dad was scheduled to prayed over a funeral-service-type-rally being held for ex-President Roh in Annandale in just half an hour from dinner. He proceeded to explain the circumstances and events of this tragedy and all the political strife and unrest brewing in Korea at this very moment.

It’s really astounding, how easy it is to live in ignornance, especially when all is peaches n’ cream in your own tunnel vision world. All the while there is a storm raging right outside that tunnel, and you have NO idea (This is a side, but this is the very reason why I am skeptical when it comes to church missions. Self-fulfillment is really what it becomes, if you’re not truly going with the vision of battling the storm, which, we can’t really know of too well in the first place because we are just so shielded and unexposed. But, this is another entry post all together).  I’m sure we’ve all heard about the nuke tests going on in North Korea right now. At least for me, I read about it, sighed and shook my head at the mass stupidity of everyone, then went on to the next article. Quite honestly, judging by the current cirumstances and tensions between forces, and knowing the insanity that is Kim Jung Il, we are at the brink of war. This means, we are at the brink of obliteration, annihilation. Probably not of America, but of South Korea. And my reaction: sigh and shake of head! In part, you can blame this numbing of heart on learned helplessness. What can I do, what can I in all my mere civilian power change by caring about this right? So let’s just hope for the best and go on with my own lives.

I wonder if we’ll be feeling the same once we lose all our family and friends living in Korea right now, our own flesh and blood.

Here’s another issue I want to address. What the hell is wrong with Korean Christians these days? It’s one thing not to be supporting the forgiveness and reunification of North and South Korea. It’s quite another to actually be supporting the OPPOSITE. It is the church that is instigating, brewing resentment, bitterness, hatred for our fellow brothers. They are the ones who are actually applauding the death of President Roh as necessary, labelling him as a communist and quitter, fueling this war, this divide! “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” -Matthew 5:9. Since when did the church forget the very core of the faith- GRACE?

It is very disturbing to know that my father was the only Korean pastor in all of the DC area that they could find to pray over the Roh funeral service. What comes to me as so natural in my beliefs as a Christian, is what causes others to call my father a bbal geng ee (red communist). But maybe that is what made President Roh so great. In the face of insurpassable opposition, he stood up for what he believed in. He didn’t operate with a political machine to back him up, he was fueled purely by his passion to work for the people, those with no voice or power, to destroy sects, and to reunify our country. It’s easy to say that you want to live your life abandoning comfort and wealth, and instead throw yourself into the fire of injustice with your bare hands, but it’s another thing to actually do. In my opinion, he didn’t die as a quitter.  According to an interview held “off the record” some years back, President Roh said that the reason why he loved President Lincoln so much was because his death led to the reunification of the North and the South.  Even up to his very death, he worked for a better cause; he was a peacemaker.  Maybe that was President Roh’s intent as well.  I don’t believe he feared death.  I think he wanted, in his death, to revive all that he had worked for in his life, all that he had believed in.

We need more fearless people like him in this world.

My respects to President Roh.