Building a religious dynasty in Korea

Rev. Kim Hong-do of Seoul‘s Kumnan Methodist Church

Rev. Kim Hong-do of Seoul's Kumnan Methodist Church announced during a sermon on Sunday that he will be handing over the position of senior pastor to his son, Rev. Kim Jeong-min. The senior Kim was recently found by the Supreme Court to have embezzled 3.2 billion won (3.2 million USD) in church funds.

"There are rumors these days that I am retiring, or that I am going to prison," he told parishoners before the end of one of Kumnan's Sunday worship services. "Those are all baseless rumors from the leftist regime and from radicals within the denomination." He then announced that church elders had recently recommended his son to take his place.

With 40,000 members, Kumnan Methodist Church is the world's largest Methodist congregation. Observers are predicting that the move will renew the debate over hereditary transmission of the position of senior pastor at Korea's largest churches, following similar moves that took place earlier this decade. Several years ago, Kim Hong-do's elder brother, Kim Seon-do, handed over leadership of Kwanglim Methodist Church, located in Seoul's Gangnam district, to his son, Rev. Kim Jeong-seok.

Kim Hong-do is said to have expressed his intention to exercise influence over Kumnan even after he steps down, increasing the likelihood of even more controversy.

Kim Jeong-min is the youngest of Kim Hong-do's four children, the other three being daughters, and is reportedly in a doctoral program in pastoral studies in the United States. The decision to give him Kumnan's senior position was made on May 14 by a "personnel committee conference" of a regional branch of the denominational organization, the Korean Methodist Church (KMC), which alone has the legal ability to make such appointments.

A minister with the KMC's headquarters said he believed the decision was made in response to the KMC Seoul Conference's disciplinary decision against Kim Hong-do for his embezzlement conviction. "There is talk about the change being made only on paper, however, and that Rev. Kim will continue to exercise the authority of senior pastor," he said. "We're looking into what the situation is."

On April 28 the Supreme Court upheld earlier court decisions, finding Kim Hong-don guilty of using church funds to quiet critics of his embezzlement activities, problems with the legality of some of his personal assets, and issues relating to womanizing. It sentenced him to two years, six months in prison, three years of a suspended sentence, and fined him 7.5 million won.

Kim Hong-do is no stranger to controversy. In 2004, he told church members to attend a right-wing political rally in support of South Korea’s National Security Law, where he declared that victims of the Southeast Asian tsunami "died because they didn't believe in Jesus."