被綁架的人質：短宣。阿富汗。國際角力

兩個星期前，阿富汗的塔利班（Taliban）綁架了南韓教會短宣隊（cf. Wikinews），並且已經槍殺了兩名人質。只是，從阿富汗政府「第一次」發表拒絕「以囚犯換人質」的聲明（cf. Newsvine）來看，這件事恐怕難以平安落幕。

Taliban Clouding U.S., South Korea Ties這篇文章（cf. OhmyNews）為南韓、美國、阿富汗政府之間的權力關係，下了一個這樣的註解：

For South Korea, without any particular leverage to free the hostages, it goes without saying that one source of pessimism about the hostages is whether the Bush administration has the means and willpower to negotiate with the Taliban rebels, in an atmosphere complicated by rumors and ambiguous intelligence. Yet the problem is there is a fairly strong consensus view here in South Korea that remaining a detached spectator of the tragedy, the United States should stop opposing one version of “no negotiations with terrorists.”

這個綁架事件，在南韓內部引起正反兩方的討論（cf. Global Voices Online）。而或許對大多數的人來說，他們難以理解的是：為什麼這二十幾個南韓京畿道盆唐（Bundang）泉水教會的基督徒要在準備不周的情況下，不顧政府禁令地前往阿富汗？

嗯，除了「大使命」之外，恐怕教會界內部的（市場？）競爭也是個關鍵吧。Korean Missionaries Under Fire這篇報導（cf. Time）就說了：

Many of Korea's Christians are passionate evangelists, exhibiting the zeal of the newly converted. Evangelical Protestantism is a relatively recent arrival on the peninsula, having taken hold only after the Korean War. Now, fully one-third of the 45 million people in this traditionally Confucian society follow the practices of Jesus (about 10% are Roman Catholic). An estimated 16,000 Korean Christians were working around the world as missionaries in more than 150 countries last year. Most Korean missionaries work in China, and go there under the guise of being researchers, or businessmen, so they won't be imprisoned for proselytizing. Russia is apparently the next most popular destination for Korean missionaries, followed by Europe and South East Asia.

An unfortunate side to the evangelical movement in Korea is increased competition. Churches number in the tens of thousands here, and are competing so intensely for members that pastors feel pressured to engage in a kind of one-upmanship: sending congregants on as many overseas missions as possible. New markets and riskier missions tend to garner more publicity, which until now has translated into more kudos and ultimately more money for the pastor and the church.

雖然說，在去與不去之間，有時候實在很難取捨與評論，只是當我在youtube上看到這隻「據說」是南韓教會在阿富汗短宣紀錄的短片時，還是會忍不住碎唸：這是什麼跟什麼啊？！


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