1960년대 미국 선교사에 의한 한국기독학생운동의 세계교회와의 연대 기반 구축 — 제임스 레이니(James T. Laney)의 한국 활동을 중심으로 —

Abstract

In the 1970s, Korean Christian students led the Korean democratic movement. This central role was primarily attributed to James T. Laney, who was sent to Korea by the WSCF in the late 1950s. This article examines how Laney was able to build that foundation. After the mid-1950s, when the US and the Soviet Union competitively provided economic assistance to the Third World, the WCC, like the US government, began to implement its Third World mission strategy more aggressively. Amid these changes in the international order system, WSCF designed the LMC project in 1956. It was a college-centered academic ecumenical strategy. Future leaders of WCC and IMC led WSCF. Therefore, WSCF’s Third World mission strategy was consistent with the WCC’s mission strategy. Laney was sent as part of the Third World Mission Strategy of the World Church. After his visit to Korea, he introduced Walt W. Rostow’s theory of modernization, which is the direction of US’s Third World foreign policy, and played a leading role in helping future Christian leaders in Korea move in that direction. According to the ‘modernization theory’ of Rostow, many social problems arise when the Third World moves from traditional to modern society. Communists will intervene at this time, and the US predicts a need to prevent it. The solution was to have each part of the Third World deal with this problem on its own. Laney from WSCF played a role in Korea. In other words, Christians solved labor and urban slums that could be social issues when the economy grew. Laney trained Korean Christian students by unifying the Korean Christian Student Movement organization, which was distributed according to WSCF’s LMC project, and running various social problem programs. And he connected them with the world church organization, laying the groundwork for worldwide solidarity of anti-communism. Laney’s activities began to pay off in the 1960s when the Korean economy grew and gradually entered the modern world. Laney’s Christian students were encouraged to go to the labor and urban slum areas, centering on the unified Christian student movement organization, to guide them in the direction of modernization. Laney has formed personal connections in Korea through his activities in Korea. Laney’s actions in Korea, as part of the Third World Mission Strategy by the WCC, WSCF, and the American Church, resulted in the creation, expansion, and consolidation of forces in support of American liberals in Korea. This history has continued in Korea and the United States through Christianity to this day.