When Japan withdrew from South Korea, the South Korean society had to solve several urgent issues. These issues included how to replace the vacancy of Japanese leadership and how to realize and accomplish “a new system of democracy,” which even Japan had not developed yet.
The burden of solving these problems naturally fell on Christianity since American missionaries had already brought up many potential nationalistic leaders through modern education. Since many Christians were recognized as the main body of a national movement and there were countless students who had studied abroad that were Christians, Christianity created a stable relationship with the United States. Furthermore, the close contact between Korean churches and American churches was more than enough to support this stability. However, this did not mean that Christianity fully dominated Korean politics; at that time the strong influence of indigenous religions of Korea that had greatly contributed to the independence movement of Korea could not be ignored.
Right after the liberation of Korea, the Korean political situation was filled with conflicts between Christianity and native religious forces such as Dajonggyo and Chundogyo(The Heavenly Way) as well as other conflicts among Christian nationalists divided between two forces known as the Kihoand the Northwest. Such conflicts had been incessant since the creation of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Koreain Shanghai. The ideological conflicts between Christianity and native religions continued until the era of former President Park Jung Hee.
Even though he professed Christian national salvation and American democracy, Rhee Sung Man stuck to his nationalism that Korean Christianity denied.
He did not carry out the ideal of American democracy based on Christianity. It was because he chose Ilminjui(One People Theory) from Daejonggyo for his ruling ideology even though he selected a few Christian members who followed him.
In Yun who was under the tradition of Christian nationalists, anti-Japanese or anti-communism sentiments can be found so easily, but any narrow nationalism cannot be discernible. Neither did he have any intention to accept dictatorship through the notion of a national father or long-term seizure of power. He thought that democracy could not be an instrument for nationalism; liberal democracy is the universal value that cannot be divided racially or regionally. He regarded these thoughts as coming from Christianity.
In the meantime, the conflicts within the Democratic Party, namely between the old line and the new line was that between the traditional Northwest and the Kiho. Thus the conflicts between Jang Meon and Yun Posun had this history. The Kiho nationalists which were classified as the old line resisted against the Northwest nationalists which were classified as the new line because of their unilateral monopoly. The historical conflicts since the Shanghai Government continued this far.

• 김명구(한국교회사학연구원) | Kim, Myung Koo