Theologians Don't Know Nothin' About My Seoul

Jesus is bigger than Jesus over here. I see him all over town and I have started collecting pictures of him.

One thing that has surprised me is the fact that Jesus is always Anglo-Saxonish. I am under the impression that the actual Jesus did not look like he was from Ohio, yet the majority of Jesuses over here look like they work for an insurance company in Cleveland. In the middle-East Jesus has darker Arabic skin, in Africa Jesus has black skin but in Asia there is no yellow skinned Jesus. Despite this fact, the country I reside in is overwhelmingly Christian.

Koreans, if you allow me to stereotype for a minute, love rules, hate thinking outside the box and can be quite superficial. It seems to me that this makes them likely candidates to belong to one of the hundreds of glitzy mega-churches that fill this city. They find the church that looks the biggest and most holy with the biggest neon cross glowing atop the steeple and walk right in.

At night, the skyline lights up with hundreds of neon crosses like beacons of hope calling souls to the Lord (or to an all-you-can-eat buffet.) I will admit that at first I was a little shocked at all of the neon crosses, but I now realize that it is very Korean to mix the ideology of your religion with the advertising tactics if Vegas. On my first night in this town, I was picked up by my boss. I had been awake for over 24 hours and I had just entered the strange surroundings of Korea and the first thing that caught my eye was a neon cross. Then another, and another and another. I couldn't figure out what they were. At first I thought the cross was a symbol for a casino. Then I began to think that maybe it was a hospital symbol - that seemed more logical to me. When I asked my boss what they were, she laughed and said, "Don't churches in America have crosses too?" It may sound crazy, and to be honest I was in a crazy kind of mindset, but it never occurred to me that they could be churches. I am used to it by now, but it still seems incredibly gaudy (not "God"-dy) and a little bit sacrilegious. And speaking of sacrilegious, there are ATM's in the lobbies of some mega-churches over here. I am sure it happens at some of the mega-churches in the States too, but I find that a little bit repulsive.

Anyway, allow me to share a few Jesuses with you from around my neighborhood. I have others, but today I want to share three of my favorite.

The first, at the top of this entry is a Jesus statue that happens to be on a ladder. This steeple overlooks the tennis courts I play on with some regularity. I always check to see if Jesus has moved but he is usualy in the same place. It is still up for debate whether he is climbing up or down, but either way, when you can find a savior that is willing to do janitorial work around the church, I say you've picked a winning religion.



This Jesus is on a building at the university that is across the street from me. With some regularity, I see people too drunk to walk, literally kneeling at Jesus's feet. This piece of divine art is made up of hundreds of small, different colored stones. Koreans, unoriginal in thinking and style, must be able to relate to the sheep in this picture.



I walk by this virtually every day. I think it is cool-looking, but you must admit that it bears an uncanny resemblance to similar homages to Bob Marley and Che Guevera. Don't be too surprised if this image ends up on a t-shirt being sold at the Gap.

Even though the oddities of this country become more and more normal each day I live here, there are some things that still boggle my mind daily. I definitely thought I would be living in a country dominated by Eastern religious thought, but that could not be less true. There are some Buddhist temples around, but Jesus seems to be everybody's homeboy over here. It's weird that I moved away from the Bible Belt (where evolution is something the kooky non-believers made up) to a place where Jesus is more prevelant. Go figure.

I'm not sure how God will feel about this entry, so just to be on the safe side, pray extra hard for me when you are at church this morning.

Much Love from Seoul