Leaving Religion in South Korea

South Korea has one of the most intense Christian scenes in Asia, including some of the largest single megachurches on earth (Yoido Full Gospel, Onnuri, Sarang). The Korean Christian exit looks more like the American evangelical exit than like other Asian exits — dawn prayer meetings, intense pastoral authority, prosperity-adjacent theology in some streams, and tight social networks that punish defection. Korean Catholics generally have a softer exit, more like Italian Catholic exits.

There is also a major and growing exit happening from the Korean Jehovah’s Witness community, which is one of the largest per capita in the world, and from various Korean new religious movements (Shincheonji, Unification, Jesus Morning Star and adjacent groups), where the exit dynamics resemble high-control group exits elsewhere.

Korean cultural pressure around family obedience makes the family rupture piece sharper here than in many countries. The pillar pages on family shunning, on telling your family, and on the spouse who still believes will be especially relevant.