Christian communities respond negatively to Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon's support of same-sex marriage

Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon grabbed the attention of both South Korea and the world when he said during an interview in San Francisco that he hoped Korea would be the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage. However, ever since his bold statement he has received major backlash from Christian communities within the nation who disagree with his stance.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) homepage has been flooded with complaints, asking the mayor to change his statement. Various Christian communities reportedly have been encouraging members to vocalize their opposition against Mayor Park's ambitions through phone calls and online comments. Despite these efforts, on October 14, SMG released a statement saying that the mayor stood by his words.

During his interview, Mayor Park had expressed his concern that the influence of the Protestant churches in Korea would prove to be a great obstacle to legalizing same-sex marriage. Currently, Christians make up 30 percent of South Korea's population. The largest Protestant organization called the Christian Council of Korea, representing around 40,000 churches, has made it clear that it opposes gay rights in general.

Back in 2013, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey and found that 59% of Koreans surveyed were against homosexuality. However, there may still be hope for the mayor's campaign as this number is actually a significant drop from the 77% of Koreans surveyed against homosexuality back in 2007.

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