South Korean pastor jailed for adultery

[unreal.livejournal.com]

A SOUTH Korean Christian pastor has been jailed for 18 months for having a decade-long affair with a woman whose wedding he had officiated at, a court said.

Adultery in South Korea is a criminal offence punishable by up to two years in prison, but most offenders usually receive only suspended jail terms and imprisonment is quite rare.

The 51-year-old pastor, whose name has been withheld for privacy, had a secret affair with the woman, 41, for more than 10 years after conducting her marriage ceremony. She and her husband were both followers of his church.

The woman was also given a year-long jail sentence.

"The pastor, who officiated at the couple's wedding, should have prayed for their happy marriage life," the court in central city of Cheongju said in a statement today.

"Stern punishment should be meted out to the accused who greatly disturbed basic social order and left bitter feelings of betrayal among many others."

The court handed out the jail sentences yesterday.

The adultery trial started after the husband pressed charges against his wife and the pastor. The couple have subsequently divorced.

Source: heraldsun

Comments

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

How can adultery be a criminal offence? How severe punishment for people who rape women and destroy their lives? What about child abuse? I'm sorry but let's be equally stern.

[thebluemonk.livejournal.com]

well if we look at marriage as a legal institution, reneging on vows made under the laws of your country in some sense can be seen as criminal. Like breaking any other legally binding contract, but this one is to the state. i dunno. im just saying its in that realm.

and it never said he raped her. from what we have it looks like a consensual affair. unless i dunno, you wanna say he hypnotized her.

anyway, i dont think they'd punish her if she was raped. but then again its SK where women's rights are still kind of seen as lulzy.

[mandyyy.livejournal.com]

I think they are referring to rapists getting a light sentence of around 3 years if it's the first offense and they give adulterer's harsh sentences of almost the same length of time. There is no consistency in justice.

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

He hypnotized her with the Word of God~

Sorry, I meant no offense.

[love-keiko.livejournal.com]

i...dont even kno what to say about this article.

[qrizta.livejournal.com]

oh korea has a jail punishment for adultery too

[starsinshapes.livejournal.com]

How long were they married, I wonder. And do they have kids? 10 years is a long ass time to be cheating on someone.

[isinuyasha.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the pastor who was married, it was the woman, so we wouldn't know how long the woman was married. (Btw, not all Christian pastors are allowed to marry)

[isinuyasha.livejournal.com]

Yeah only catholic, that's what I meant with not all christian pastors, sorry, and you lose your licence (is it called that in english, I'm not sure?) if you get a divorce, at least where I live. Well I guess we'll never know for sure if he's married or not^^

[akita-ino.livejournal.com]

jail sentence? really? *side-eyes*

[rabu-parade.livejournal.com]

Seriously?

[ladypurr.livejournal.com]

I actually wish there was something like this in the US. Maybe then our divorce rate would go down if people knew that having some on the side would get you jail time. Either don't do the adultery and be faithful or don't get married and screw as much as you want...just make sure the other side is free too.

Though I do think S. Korea's rape and abuse laws should be stricter.

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

iawtc & smh at SK's rape and abuse laws :(

[prismboy.livejournal.com]

This is blasphemy! We all know pastors are saints and they would never be capable of such things!!1!! HE WAS FRAMED!

[thebluemonk.livejournal.com]

clearly it was the devil! he was possessed thats what made him do it!

[lil-rach-angel.livejournal.com]

Ridiculously old law needs to go. May have been useful back in the day it was first enacted, but really not needed anymore. Hopefully it'll be challeneged and repealed sometime soon.

[o-o-mai-o-o.livejournal.com]

I really question the SK justice system.

And I know it's also brought up, but how can he get 18 months while the people from that handicap school get out in less than 2 years. Smh.

[very-pinku.livejournal.com]

...this is so weird. Why is this woman jailed when other crimes that are worse, are not charged that much?

[she-devil666.livejournal.com]

damn, you can go to jail for cheating on your spouse?! but no one cares about rape and abuse victims :/

i wonder how the husband knew his wife was cheating on him? did he catch them in the act or did he call 'cheaters' to follow her around???

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

The Church is really unraveling at the seams in recent years, isn't it? First with all those paedophilia cases all over the place and I don't think this is the first case of adultery I've read about.

:/

[ghost-whisper.livejournal.com]

This is really nothing new at all. It's happened for centuries, it was just hushed up more back then because the Church had more power in the government/law, and because of things like the media, free speech etc.

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know, I just meant that it's really unraveling because of the bad press it's been getting. Yup, I know it's been happening for centuries :(

Kind of why I got fed up with the Church and became an agnostic. It's just so wrong to hush up terrible stuff like this.

[ababobaby.livejournal.com]

Questioning. :/

[yeli16.livejournal.com]

Good.