My email inbox continues to receive US emails, including those from political campaigns I have connections to.
The latest from California says that Proposition 8, the constitutional ban on gay marriage to be voted on in November, is losing even more than before. 38% of likely voters support it, 55% are opposed. Some are calling the defeat of Proposition 8 "pretty much assured." That's a very good news to hear.
But sitting 6,000 miles away in Seoul, I know very well that the supporters of Proposition 8 have a huge advantage in one area - foreign support. The government of South Korea is channeling millions of dollars through the Unification Church into groups that are determined to pass Proposition 8 at any cost. Add the Korean-American churches to the support column, and the Yes campaign has a huge advantage that the No campaign will never match. The No campaign tells me that the Yes campaign is beating the No campaign in fundraising 3 to 2.
In a Facebook discussion, I attributed the South Korean obsession with banning California gay marriages to two factors: the South Korean Confucian need to repay the American Christian "grace" in spreading Christianity (and by extension, Western enlightenment) to Korea and in defending South Korea from the godless North Korean Communists, and the possibility that California's hundreds of thousands of South Korean nationals may start entering gay marriages and demand South Korean government recognition of such marriages.
I will make my contribution at a suitable time, certainly before returning to the US. This battle is too high-stakes, and when the Lee Myung-bak government would rather infringe on my American civil rights than improve the living conditions of his own subjects, I have to fight back.
