Spiritual Vacuum
The general trend is that North Korean defectors are drawn to Christianity, but the New York Times reports that this trend is far from universal:
After the service, the North Korean said, “Even when I pray, I’m not sure it comes naturally.”
Perhaps realizing that the South Korean missionary, Peter Jung, sat within earshot, the North Korean softened his words.
“When you’ve had the kind of life I’ve had, it’s difficult to believe in anything,” said the North Korean, who, fearing for his relatives in his hometown, asked that he be identified only by his surname, Park. “It’s even difficult to believe in myself.”
Mr. Jung made no attempt to hide his frustration after Mr. Park had left, holding himself “responsible” that the North Korean, after a year, had yet to “feel the Holy Spirit.”
What do I conclude from this? One never concludes too much from a single case. In my experience, I’ve found that belief is not inherently more complex than non-belief, although I expect the Times to associate nonbelief with the capacity to grasp nuance and question dogma. For another, my perspective as one who is functionally a deist, is that South Korean missionaries come on too strong. Yet their determination and defiance even of Chinese prisons is stunning.
I may be projecting too much into Mr. Park and this entire story, but what I take from it is nothing shocking: behind the mask of doublethink and forced devotion, North Koreans are people, just like we are. They aren’t automatons or zombies. They have hopes, aspirations, and the capacity for reason and skepticism like we do. Like all of us, they are individuals with the variations inherent in them.
This seems like a terribly trite thing to say, except for the fact that so many would tell us that North Koreans are somehow an exception to human nature. Indeed, the very idea that the regime is stable and capable of gradual change depends on the idea that North Koreans are content to accept what no other people on earth would. And while the regime can, to a degree, shield people from facts and familiarize them with the infliction and endurance of ruthlessness, those things probably only increase the skepticism of those to whom skepticism comes naturally. Certain thought processes are inherent in thinking beings.
If all of that sounds like barroom psychology to you–from a lawyer, no less–then read the story for the facts you can glean about the spread of Christianity in China and North Korea. I suspect that this trend could prove to be one of the most important of the next century, due to Christianity’s moderating and subversive influence, and the shift of humanity’s center of gravity away from a declining Europe, toward a rising Asia.