#SOUTH KOREA RELIGION FREE#

Accordingly, Catholic and Protestant churches, which were openly hostile to Communism, gained both numbers and influence. Simultaneously, under the United States occupation a pro-American and anti-Communist standpoint developed as the dominant ideology in the country, and religious groups that supported that ideology obtained influence in society.

#SOUTH KOREA RELIGION FREE#

The American occupation force issued a decree of religious freedom, freeing religious organisations from state control and encouraging free competition between them. The end of colonial rule in 1945 and the following occupation of Korea changed the countryвЂ™s religious landscape. Among other characteristics, the increasing popularity of the programs which these groups offer reflects the changing religious needs in modern South Korean society in particular, the pursuit of individualism and the subjective objectives of religiosity. These groups differentiate themselves from the existing вЂnew religionsвЂ™ by their non- or less-hierarchical organisational structure. Emphasis will be given to Tonghak in this essay, along with вЂњNew AgeвЂќ religious groups, which have been expanding since the middle of the 1980s in South Korea. New Religious movements, which are usually conceived distinct from traditional, mainstream religions, have a long history in Korea starting with Tonghak (1860), the first Korean new religion.

South korea religion