Article from Yonhap News:

Only 2 out of 10 South Koreans Find Protestantism to be Credible, Poll Shows

The findings reveal that Catholicism is the most credible, followed by Buddhism and then Protestantism. The survey also showed that 74.6 percent are opposed to religious figures entering politics.

A recent poll found that only 20 percent of South Koreans find Protestant churches to be trustworthy, lagging far behind Catholic churches and Buddhists.

Asked about religious institutions or priests taking part in politics, 74.6 percent expressed opposition.

The Christian Ethics Movement(CEM) conducted a survey of 1,000 adults aged 19 or older before releasing its findings on February 4th. The report, entitled “Survey of Social Credibility for South Korean Churches,” found that only 19.4 percent of the respondents say they trust Protestant churches.

44.6 percent said that Protestant churches are not trustworthy, while 36 percent say they were ambivalent.

CEM compared the latest results with historic data from surveys conducted between 2008 and 2010, finding that 18.4%, 19.1% and 17.1% of those polled said that they trusted Protestant churches, showing a rough downward trend.

Catholic churches appear to be the most credible, with 29.2%, followed by Buddhist temples with 28.0%, and Protestant churches with 21.2%. Confucianism and Won Buddhism received 2.5% and 1.3% respectively.

For those respondents with no religious affiliations, credibility for Protestant churches plunged further to 8.6%, on the other hand, these respondents gave 32.7% credibility for Catholic churches and 26.6% for Buddhists.

In its analysis of credibility levels for religious and non-religious organization, CEM found civic organizations are considered the most reliable with 27.8%, followed by the press (10.6%), religious organizations (9.2%), and universities (8.7%). The government has 6.9%; the judiciary, 6.1%; corporations, 4.0%; parliament, 1.5%.

When it came to perceptions of social outreach by religious organizations, 41.3% found Protestant churches to be most active, 32.1% thought Catholic churches were the most active, and 6.8% thought Buddhist temples.

24% of respondents said that Protestant churches could improve credibility through changing their exclusive mindset against other religions (24.0%), 22.8% questioned transparency of church accounting, 21% focused on improving church leader, and 14.5% said they should change the obsession to attract more converts and believers’ behavior.

As for the question about whether religious institutions should be taxed, an overwhelming 85.9% said yes, with only 12.2% opposed.

The latest survey was commissioned to Cho Heung-sik, social wefare professor of the Seoul National University, and was conducted during November 10-11th of 2013. The margin of error was 3.1%p

Comment from Daum:

내가사께짬뽕:

Protestant churches can’t be called religious, they are no better than companies evading taxes.

peroica: [responding to above]

You try making a religion, why are you throw a stone at a booming business?[sarcasm]

천사회: [responding to 내가사께짬뽕]

I think only two out of 10 church ministers are real, the other eight are hustlers.

무한경쟁: [responding to 내가사께짬뽕]

Protestant churches are just pyramid schemes. Some on the bottom are just sales representatives to sell items and spruce themselves up to make a good impression, while others at the top swallow the money and run away.

엘레브모님:

I think a credibility level of 20 percent for Protestant churches is too high. Just hearing about Protestants makes me think of fraud, money and adultery!

박살공주님:

Korean Protestant churches are called Gaedok. Gaedok is a group of people who sell Jesus for personal gains.

거북이:

Are there people who still believe in this garbage religion?

마다: