The Squid Gospel: How Netflix Sensation 'Squid Game' Critiques Korean Evangelicalism
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The opinions reflected in this OpEd are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of staff, faculty and students of The King's College.
(REVIEW) The horrifyingly addictive Netflix Korean thriller, Squid Game has become the number one television show in over 90 countries. The show follows Seoung Gi-hun, a debt-ridden gambler who is struggling to provide for his ten year old daughter and elderly mother. Desperate for financial stability, he finds himself playing games of life-and-death in an arena with over 400 participants. If you lose a game, you are gruesomely killed. If you win, you go to the next round, accumulating more money in the process.
The overall theme of the show is greed and asks how far one would go to be rich or out of debt. It also shines a light on elitism, specifically, how the richest of the rich have power over others. These themes are more obvious to all watchers around the globe. However there are other underlying themes that English speakers or non-Korean natives may miss when they first watch the series through. These themes include classism, xenophobia and religion in South Korea. This op-ed will focus on how Squid Game specifically critiques Korean Christianity and evangelicalism.
Approximately 29% of the South Korean population identifies as Christian, with three-quarters Protestant and one-quarter Catholic. An additional 23% of the population are Buddhist, and 46% have no religious affiliation. The Christian movement grew in the 70s and 80s, made possible by Western influence after the Korean war.
Although 29% is not a large percentage, the power and “zeal” that Christians have in South Korea, specifically Protestants, “overshadow” other religious affiliations, according to The Diplomat. South Korea sends out more Protestant missionaries than any other country besides the United States. Seoul holds more evangelical megachurches than almost any other United States city, except for Houston and Dallas. Some megachurches in Seoul have over 100,000 worshippers every Sunday.
The Conversation reports that “large Korean megachurches…support U.S. policy and, like many evangelical and prosperity churches in the U.S., believe that Donald Trump is God’s man.”
South Korea has avid street evangelism, which Squid Game highlights in multiple instances.
One street evangelist in the show shouts to passersby: “Believe in Jesus or burn in Hell!”
When a man with a suit and briefcase approaches Gi-hun on the subway, Gi-hun tells him, “I come from a very long line of Buddhists,” thinking the man is going to preach Christianity to him.
The man on the subway actually ends up being the man who introduces Gi-hun to the “squid games.” This is not coincidental. It is almost that he is preaching redemption to Gi-hun through the games, but ends up leading him to harm, fear and misery while playing the games. This may be a subtle statement in the series concerning Christian conversion: if you follow through with a newfound faith, you may be doing yourself and others harm.
While in the games, Gi-hun meets a religious player, Player 244. Player 244 prays to God for protection, and thanks Him for keeping him alive.
“God made a decision to help our team win. That’s why we’re here,” he said.
Another player, Player 240, scorns Player 244 for saying these prayers. “Our father who art in heaven, we worked as a team to [kill people] and send people to your side. Help us send a lot more to your side,” she prays, mockingly.
We learn later that Player 240 grew up in an abusive evangelical home. Her father was a pastor that severely abused her and her mother.
“When he hit her, and did the things he did to me, he would talk to God. He’d always ask for forgiveness,” Player 240 told another player. “He didn’t pray on the day that he killed her. That was even too much for God, I guess.”
Although Player 240 has a tainted view of Christianity, she still understands the importance of true sacrifice more than any other player.
Christian leadership has publicly failed in South Korea on the basis of Biblical legalism and moralism. Pastors in South Korea don’t believe that Scripture is redemptive, but rather “a topical, systematic framework.” In 2018, one leader of a Korean megachurch was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping eight female followers because it was “an order from God.” In 2014, the leader of the then world’s largest megachurch was convicted of embezzling $12 million. Most megachurch leaders are so wealthy that they have both theological and social power. They are able to get away with a lot of evil and still have blind loyalty from their thousands of followers.
Towards the end of Squid Game, we learn that the ultimate elite are the ones behind the games and the gruesome murders of individuals. We never learn why they choose to do this, except for additional gambling and entertainment. We also aren’t sure if they are religiously affiliated. However, most of the VIP elite watchers of the games are white men from America, the ultimate Christian nation to model after, in the eyes of South Koreans.
Christian evangelicalism is the rich man’s faith in South Korea, and the “prosperity gospel” is one of their reigning beliefs. If you believe in God, you’ll be rich, successful and happy.
When the Christian movement began taking off in the ‘70s and ‘80s, so did the economy. Korean people interpreted these coinciding trends as, “If you’re a Christian nation like America, you can be rich.” This philosophy bled into the Protestant faith and is still widely believed by Koreans, but it is also what is turning newer generations away from the church.
Even if it isn’t through following God, Koreans still choose to pursue money and wealth. Korean children spend up to 16 hours a day in school and working to get into the best universities so that they may succeed. The idolization of money in South Korea has led to it have second-highest suicide rate in the world, and reports of South Korean youth being the least happy in the world. Squid Game does an excellent job of speaking to the themes of greed and wealth in an ultra-dramatic yet an ultra-human way, which is why it has so much power in Korea and around the world.
Squid Game emphasizes the somber theme that all people are evil by nature, no matter what class you are in or what religion you believe in. No matter what side you’re on in the squid games, you’re a sinner. If you’re a player, no redemption can save you from death or the guilt you endure when you kill someone else. If you’re a watcher, you murder innocent people for something as trivial as entertainment.
The way that the series involves flawed evangelicalism under this overarching theme of greed speaks to the growing view of Christianity’s uselessness in South Korea. There is no God or religion that cares to save you from death or debt, because it only believes in the success and power of the individual.
You can give your life to something, a god or a game, that you believe will bring you success, but you’ll only end up in Hell.