Mr Yamaya has attempted to damage the reputation of Christian Today by referring to resolutions alleging heresy in the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches (TongHap) and the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches (HapSin). There are, however, some facts behind the resolutions which indicate that the Choi party is attempting to make them the official position of the Korean denominations.
The resolution in the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches (TongHap)
Pastor S K Choi, a member of the GAPC (TongHap)’s heresy committee, compiled a report about Christian organisations that are hostile towards him. In his report, Pastor Choi termed such organisations as “heretical” or committing acts of “heresy”. The organisations implicated included Christian Today Korea.
Following the release of the report, the former chair of the heresy committee Pastor Chang-Young Kim issued a letter of protest in which he criticised Pastor Choi’s allegations.
He pointed out four problems with the report:
1. The report was unauthorised
According to Pastor Kim, the report was never adopted by the committee. Instead, the paper was brought before the Annual Assembly of the GAPC (TongHap) under the name of the committee but without any prior agreement from other members of the committee. The report was therefore a reflection of Pastor Choi’s personal opinion rather than an authorised paper.
2. The resolution was submitted by a person without voting rights
Pastor Kim questioned the legality of the resolution submitted by Pastor Choi because he does not have voting rights in the annual assembly of his denomination. That is problematic, according to Pastor Kim, because resolutions must be submitted by an official assembly member rather than simply a member of a special committee.
3. Pastor Choi bears a private grudge
Pastor Choi has attacked Christian Today Korea since it first revealed that he was extorting money from smaller denominations by threatening to brand them heretical unless they paid him – the ‘tritheism’ scandal. One of his primary accusers was Pastor Gang Chung-Oh, whose newspaper Church Union Times was one of the organisations blacklisted in Pastor Choi’s paper. Pastor Kim believes that Pastor Choi only attacked Pastor Gang because he blew the whistle on the extortion.
4. Pastor Choi was expelled from the committee
Pastor Kim also pointed out that Pastor Choi was in fact expelled from the heresy committee as a result of the tritheism scandal and accusations of bribery against him. There has been no official move to reinstate Pastor Choi since then. Yet Pastor Choi continues to act in the name of the committee, disregarding the fact that he is no longer a member.
Pastor Kim concluded in his letter that Pastor Choi made the accusations of heresy because he looks down on the authority of the Assembly and its Chairperson. He said Pastor Choi’s actions were “deliberate, immoral and a vulgar criminal act which deceives God, the denomination’s 7,000 churches, and 1,500 assembly members who altogether represent three million believers across our churches, and which harms specific Christian organisations”.
The resolution in the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches (HapSin)
A resolution was put before the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches (HapSin) by Pastor H T Park. He is a member of Pastor Choi’s party and therefore shares a mutual interest in Pastor Choi’s heresy allegations. After being banished from the heresy committee of the Christian Council of Korea, Pastor Choi and Pastor Park have continued to make numerous accusations of heresy against Christian organisations.
Furthermore, Pastor Park is friendly with a particular media outlet and has used that outlet to post an article by himself denouncing certain organisations or denominations as heretical. In one research paper, Pastor Park said the media was reporting that such organisations were guilty of heretic behaviour. This paper was presented to his denomination, thus attempting to misappropriate his denomination’s assembly for his own personal use. His actions are completely staged.
