교양대학 데이비드 윌리엄 김(David William Kim)교수의 한국에서 일어나는 코로나-19의 확산, 정부대처 현황, 사회적 장애물에 대해 영국, 서유럽, 북유럽, (이탈리아), 미국의 경우와 상반대는 특징을 문화적 접근방법으로 해석한 최초의 논문이 우수연구로 인정되어 영국 옥스포드 대학교에서 출판하게 되었다. 아래는 원문의 일부를 소개하고 있다:

Public Trust Lost and a Sign of Retroflexion: 
The Socio-Political Ecology of the Korean Church during the COVID-19 Pandemic

 

 In the last two decades, the global community has experienced the transnational spread of unique viruses caused by wide movements of animals and humans. The socio-economic crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic likewise affected most nations. Among them, the outbreak in South Korea was closely related to Christian organizations, which generally have many weekly services and meetings. The first impact (February–March 2020) was fueled by the negligence of a Shincheonji member. Although the new religious group was not a part of the traditional Protestant churches, their false report in response to the Korean government’s request caused a loss of public trust and imperiled the future survival of the Korean Protestant Church, which also pushed keeping on-site services (on Sundays and Wednesdays) under the discontented supervision of the local government. The fact that ordinary people and health authorities could not distinguish Shincheonji’s cultic pattern of rituals from orthodox Christian churches was another problem that increased secular prejudice in the process of applying emergency prevention procedures. The Protestant Church, then, became the public scapegoat insofar as it was blamed as the primary spreader of the fatal disease. 
 

Breakdown of Cluster Outbreaks (KCDC: Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) on June 12, 2020.

 

When the second wave (August–September 2020) of the pandemic came to Korea, Korean society and media again suspected that the participation of the Sarang Jeil Church (SJC, a mega-conservative Presbyterian community: 4,066 followers) in an anti-government protest (ten thousand to thirty thousand protesters) might have accelerated the resurgence of COVID-19 nationwide. As a result, both Christian leaders (Man Hee Lee, founder of Shincheonji, and Kwang-hoon Jeon, SJC senior minister) were accused over the charge of the virus proliferation. Jeon, who was one of the main organizers of the Independence Day rally, was even known to have been infected and hospitalized. Nonetheless, these social patterns of infection imply that the Korean Protestant Church was unfortunate in its contribution to spreading the disease, given that COVID-19 outbreaks can happen at any time, in any place, and to any person—including prime ministers and national leaders.69 The first outbreak was an accident by a member of the new religion, while the leadership (like Jeon’s) of conservative Christians was blamed for the second wave. This article has demonstrated that some Protestant churches, in terms of a socio-cultural retroflexion, have tried to introduce the countermeasure of “re-church planting” for the post-COVID-19 era. Under such unprecedented circumstances, they believe that the practices of the untact ministry (= no-contact ministry) should be adopted by each local church through online media. They encouraged the principle of Ŭisasot'ong, by which they can establish a network of communication among churches, leaders, and members. The interdenominational suggestion of a “D-day” (Day of Normalization) represented a nationwide campaign to motivate individual followers when legally permitted. The cooperative ideas of a national management, united communication with the government, protection policy against anti-Christian groups, and social aid, were seen as the experimental model of grassroots churches across the world that must engage in a process of social recovery, particularly in Europe and America. 

For more details of the Journal of Church and State, please see https://academic-oup-com.eres.qnl.qa/jcs/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jcs/csab006/6283523?searchresult=1