Our newest world religion?

Credit: yeowatzup

Thomas J Belke is a member of Voice of the Martyrs, an evangelical Christian ministry specializing in missionary activity "beyond the Iron Curtain". It's spearheaded by Richard Wurmbrand from Romania, author of the controversial bestseller "Marx and Satan". In that book Wurmbrand argues, on the basis of very flimsy evidence, that Marx was a Satanist. Belke follows in Wurmbrand's footsteps, arguing that the official ideology of North Korea, known as Juche, is a "religion" ultimately based on Devil-worship. Since Belke believes that Satan is a real presence in today's world, this means that the North Korean regime is literally Satanic in character. Being ruled by evil spiritual forces, North Korea can't be expected to give up its irrational attempts to conquer and "communize" South Korea. Their ultimate aim, according to the author, might very well be global domination (!), since the North Korean authorities are trying to turn Juche into a "world religion".

I don't deny that the personality cult of North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il is bizarre, even by "Stalinist" standards and probably mimics the outer forms of Korean and/or Japanese emperor-worship. But is it an actual religion? On one level, that's a matter of definition. Belke regards secular humanism as a religion, a religion that exalts Man rather than God. Indeed, he claims that Juche is almost identical to the godless principles found in the Humanist Manifestoes! With a broad definition of "religion" like this, obviously Juche is a religion, too (ironically, so is "scientific creationism" and "Intelligent Design"). But what about the personality cults of Lenin (after his death), Stalin or Mao? Where they "religious"? They had overtones arguably taken from more regular religions: Lenin's mummified body in a tomb (compare the Egyptian Pharaohs), the halo-like light surrounding Stalin on some portraits (compare Christian icons) or the comparisons between Mao and the sun. Yet, Belke chooses to downplay this aspect, perhaps because he wants to paint the cult of the Kims as unique in the Communist world. Thus, he isn't using the broader definition of "religion" consistently.

Belke also operates with a more narrow, "normal" definition of religion, since he wants to show that Juche entails worship of gods, religious ritual, pilgrimage to holy places, missionaries, a belief in immortality, even a Trinity. These are all defining features of "religion" as seen from a modern, Western and Christian-inspired viewpoint. (The supposed "Trinity" consists of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung's first wife Kim Jong Suk.) Above all, Belke wants to prove that the 23 million inhabitants of the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" *actually believe* in Juche, in pretty much the same way as Christians in the pews believe in Jesus. Note again the supposed similarity between Juche and Christianity in particular! Do Buddhists "believe" in the same way as Christians? Belke wants Juche to be a kind of Satanic counter-Christianity, since this gives his own ministry a central role to play. If the North Korean people is under the sway of demonic forces, then Voice of the Martyrs and other evangelical missionaries are necessary to secure a victory over the regime. If the North Korean dictatorship is at bottom secular (albeit bizarre), then bringing it down is a job for politicians or soldiers.

The author has amassed a seemingly impressive array of quotations from official North Korean sources, "proving" that Juche is religious sensu stricto. However, most of the quotations fall apart on a closer inspection. Many use a quasi-religious rhetoric that could equally well be used by secular nationalists, Marxist-Leninists or even American politicians. Thus, the goal of national reunification is called "our sacred cause", Kim Il Sung is "immortal", etc. But didn't George W Bush call the war on terrorism a "crusade"? Yet, Bush isn't a Catholic! Other statements sound more remarkable, until the reader checks the sources. The people "praying for the immortality of Generalissimus Kim Il Sung" turn out to be a foreign delegation from Japan, presumably of religious believers. Startling statements such as "Kim Il Sung is god of the Korean nation" or "his work is a great bible" turn out to be coined by the Korean Christian Federation, a small "Christian" front for the regime. Other seemingly religious statements about Kim Il Sung come from North Korean propaganda leaflets directed at an audience in South Korea, where Buddhism and Christianity is strong.

Statements such as these only shows that the North Korean regime cynically wants to dupe Christians, not that the regime itself is "religious". Another example from Communist history would be Bolshevik leader Zinoviev calling for a "holy war (jihad) against British imperialism" at the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku in 1920, when attempting to recruit Muslims to the ranks of the revolution. Belke also quotes extensively from the opus of one Lee Wha Rang, who claims that Juche isn't Marxist-Leninist but an entirely new philosophy of life. While Lee's "spin" on Juche is interesting, this somewhat mysterious writer is a South Korean who presumably wants to sell the North Korean ideology to non-Marxist countrymen. When Belke quotes official North Korean sources, the Marxist-Leninist rhetoric is still apparent, especially in material directed at Third World nations. Yet, Belke claims that Juche is being transformed into a non-Marxist world religion!

I think it's obvious that the author's grounding in Communist ideology is pretty poor. His most humorous gaffe comes when he writes that Lenin was in charge of the de-Stalinization after the death of Stalin! He means Khrushchev, of course. Belke's garbled understanding of Marxism is also apparent from these lines: "Marx taught that every means possible must be used to seek to destroy the `exploiting class'. Meanwhile, a mythical class of working people called the `proletariat' would inevitably emerge to establish a utopian society. The problem is that the `proletariat' class never emerges under communism. Instead, wherever communism goes, totalitarian dictators resign and enslave the people". And no, Belke doesn't like Abraham Lincoln, at one point comparing the Union's war against the Confederacy with...North Korea's goal of national reunification under Communist leadership?!

To sum up, "Juche" never proves that the official ideology of the DPRK is a religion in the author's narrow sense of the term, is based on a questionable reading of the source material and is written by an author who is somewhat outside his league. In a sense, this is a pity, since the parallels between the symbolism of North Korean "civil religion" and various pagan or Christian traditions sounds like an interesting subject for study.