RICHMOND, July 1 - “We must be faithful in politics as the servants of God,” former Moderator Rev. Syngman Rhee told members of the Association of Retired Ministers, Their Spouses or Survivors (ARMSS) during the group’s Assembly luncheon on Thursday.

While the retired ministers and spouses group may have gathered for fellowship, what they heard from Rhee was a call to action on the North Korean Human Rights Act.

“I am asking you to be political Christians and contact Congress immediately,” Rhee said. He hopes Presbyterians reading this article will do the same. Here’s why:

Many Presbyterians have heard the story of Rhee’s difficult childhood growing up in Japanese-occupied Korea. “I cannot begin to say how horrible it is to be occupied by another power,” he said Thursday. “There is no experience so dehumanizing as to have your identity taken away from you.”

Korean children were forced to study in Japanese and were brutally punished if they spoke their native Korean language even on the playground. Even Korean family names were changed to Japanese ones.

What many of us don’t realize, Rhee said, is how the church brought hope, even during those times of occupation. One of the reasons the Korean church has grown so phenomenally is because of the role it played in preserving national identity as well as spiritual identity during the occupation.

Rhee also shared his story of escape from North Korea as a young man during the Korean War. In South Korea, when church leaders struggled for human rights under military dictatorship and for reconciliation and reunification, U.S. church leaders came to South Korea to stand with Korean Christians facing persecution, he said.

And when South Korean President Kim Dae Jung initiated his “Sunshine Policy” in 2000, resulting in a historic summit meeting and a slow opening of doors between North and South, it was his Christian faith that pushed him to work for reconciliation, Rhee said.

Now, he added, people of faith must act again.

“There is a bill currently before the House Judiciary Committee known as the North Korean Human Rights Act. Unfortunately, in the name of improving human rights in North Korea, it is pushing North Korea further and further into isolation. It is a hard-line bill which threatens to withdraw even humanitarian aid.”

Rhee explained that if the act is passed, it may undermine the painstaking negotiations for reconciliation on the entire peninsula. The policy could create a large refugee exodus from Korea into China, which would further destabilize the situation. He supports alternative means of nudging North Korea on human rights.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the acts on July 8. Rhee is urging that people write their representatives in Congress opposing the bill. “I am urging Presbyterians to fax letters expressing deep concern that this is not the way to improve human rights in North Korea,” he said. “This is urgent and critical.”

A sample letter and the list of key representatives to contact is available at www.pcusa.org/korean/letter.htm.