Bamboozled!
Silly, silly Claire. I should know better by now how many things are lost in translation here. I should also listen to my gut instincts a little more closely.
So I'm walking home from the acupuncturist today, and I stop to wait at a crosswalk with a group of Korean women. They greet me, say they've seen me walking around that area, and that they are from the neighborhood. We chatted a bit and they were super friendly. Nice to meet some people from my hood right?
Then they tell me that their church is having a festival today, and they are there to invite people from the community to come and join them. To my credit, a tiny red flag went up here, but they did not have any pamphlets to hand out, they were all very fashionably dressed, and they weren't preaching. I was also slightly susceptible because I haven't exactly been excited about the church opportunities on base here, and it's hard to find English language services off base. So after verifying that the church was a protestant one and they did have English language services available, I thought what the heck. Besides, I was hungry.
Now, church festival in the south loosely translates to "good food." Be it a fish fry or a pancake dinner, all festivals have eats. In Korea, I learned that "church festival" translates to half hour propaganda video. So now I'm really hungry and slightly worried. Then the women start sharing their faith with me based on passages mostly from Revelations, and I realize that "protestant" loosely translates to "cult" in Korean. In the video, there was always an older Korean woman in Han-bok seated among the male preachers. I found out after about twenty minutes of bible study that they believe that Christ came again to Earth right here in Korea in the '40s, he died in the '70s, but his wife is still around for us to worship. They call her mother.
How did I end up here?! I can't really say that I'm pissed they fooled me into visiting their church. Really, I admire how well they carried it off. And I now have the pleasure of claiming I've been abducted by a cult! Honestly though, I think it's interesting to see how different beliefs get followings. If I had been a lonely soul, those women would have had me. They were so sweet and friendly. It would have been tempting just for the company.
So I interrupted the brainwashing session, thanked them kindly for their time, and left...glancing over my shoulder periodically as I went, and contemplating a circuitous route home. The conspiracy theorist in me also wanted to get home before the drugs I imagined they laced my tea with kicked in. It did taste a little funny........
So I'm walking home from the acupuncturist today, and I stop to wait at a crosswalk with a group of Korean women. They greet me, say they've seen me walking around that area, and that they are from the neighborhood. We chatted a bit and they were super friendly. Nice to meet some people from my hood right?
Then they tell me that their church is having a festival today, and they are there to invite people from the community to come and join them. To my credit, a tiny red flag went up here, but they did not have any pamphlets to hand out, they were all very fashionably dressed, and they weren't preaching. I was also slightly susceptible because I haven't exactly been excited about the church opportunities on base here, and it's hard to find English language services off base. So after verifying that the church was a protestant one and they did have English language services available, I thought what the heck. Besides, I was hungry.
Now, church festival in the south loosely translates to "good food." Be it a fish fry or a pancake dinner, all festivals have eats. In Korea, I learned that "church festival" translates to half hour propaganda video. So now I'm really hungry and slightly worried. Then the women start sharing their faith with me based on passages mostly from Revelations, and I realize that "protestant" loosely translates to "cult" in Korean. In the video, there was always an older Korean woman in Han-bok seated among the male preachers. I found out after about twenty minutes of bible study that they believe that Christ came again to Earth right here in Korea in the '40s, he died in the '70s, but his wife is still around for us to worship. They call her mother.
How did I end up here?! I can't really say that I'm pissed they fooled me into visiting their church. Really, I admire how well they carried it off. And I now have the pleasure of claiming I've been abducted by a cult! Honestly though, I think it's interesting to see how different beliefs get followings. If I had been a lonely soul, those women would have had me. They were so sweet and friendly. It would have been tempting just for the company.
So I interrupted the brainwashing session, thanked them kindly for their time, and left...glancing over my shoulder periodically as I went, and contemplating a circuitous route home. The conspiracy theorist in me also wanted to get home before the drugs I imagined they laced my tea with kicked in. It did taste a little funny........
posted by Claire | 7:45 PM
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