Government Restriction VS Religious Freedom in Times of Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case of South Korea’s Sarangjeil and Shincheonji

The large scale spread of COVID in South Korea began with a religious gathering, prompting the government to restrict religious gatherings from the world’s known religions to the New Religious Movement. The crisis has changed religious practices and gatherings from vibrant face-to-face communal gatherings to online gatherings. There are different responses on the part of every religious community; while others are silent about the government’s restriction policy, the protestants are not in favor of it and are calling for religious freedom. It is from this divided consciousness that this paper is written, especially on what, how, and when to use religious freedom. Richard Garnett’s contextual concept of religious freedom (freedom for, freedom from, and freedom within) is applied to analyze the cases of the Sarangjeil and Sincheonji churches. The finding says that the religious groups mentioned have violated the government’s health protocol and that the freedom they claimed does not contribute to civic peace and the common good. The reason the government gets into their premises is due to their violation of the health protocol. The government did not also violate their freedom within, as it does not “interfere in the church polity and religious affairs.” The research recommended a roundtable dialogue for the government and the church to cooperate with each other for the common good.