The first generation of Korean Christians became the main leaders of the independence movement, and they established a connection between Korean national identity and Christianity that has continued into the 21st Century. One of the main leaders of the independence movement was Soh Jae Pil. The March First Movement was a nonviolent revolution, a decade before Gandhi’s Salt March in India, that issued a Declaration of Independence and held nationwide demonstrations demanding an end to Japanese rule. Of the movement’s 33 organizers, 16 were Christians, at a time when fewer than 3 percent of Koreans were. Thus the first generation of Korean Christians made a great contribution to the March First Independence Movement,

이 글은 3·1운동에 나타난 기독교적 정신을 규명하고, 그 정신을 한국교회에 적용하여 한국교회의 선교적 과제를 제시하고자 한다. 3·1운동이 일제로부터 민족의 독립과 해방을 지향하는 정치적 운동이 었다면 기독교 지도자들과 교인들이 이 운동에 참여하기 위해서는 정교분리라는 교리를 넘어서야 했고, 천도교라는 이웃종교와 협력하고 연대하기 위해서는 배타주의적 태도를 극복해야 했다. 3·1운동에 나타난 신앙유형은 복음주의와 에큐메니칼 운동이 아니라 두 진영을 넘어서서 하나 되는 통전적 신앙유형이었다. 그러나 3·1운동을 실패로 규정하면서 기독교 신앙양태는 초월적 신비주의와 계몽운동으로 분열된다. 3·1운동에 나타난 기독교적 정신으로는 자주독립, 민주주의, 평화, 에큐메니칼 정신, 종교간 협력과 연대 등이 있다. 이러한 정신은 한국교회의 선교적 과제로 교회간 코이노니아와 남반부 교회를 강화시키는 선교, 교회내 민주화와 사회적 양극화를 극복하는 경제적· 사회적 민주화에 기여, 평화교육과 평화문화 배양과 평화통일에 기여, 복음주의와 에큐메니칼로 양분된 교회를 통전적 신앙양태로 회복, 위의 과제들과 지구생명공동체의 위기를 극복하기 위한 종교간 협력과 연대를 제시한다.

The peninsula-wide March First Movement in 1919 demonstrated the cohesiveness of the Korean people and served as the opening chapter to a new history; the entire peninsula was flooded with protests for independence, and shocked by their intensity, the Japanese colonial government engaged in indiscriminate suppression. The March First Movement propelled demonstrations to be held as well in Northern Jiāndǎo (“Puk-kando”), situated north of the Tumen River.Thousands of demonstrators gathered on March 13 in Lóngjǐng to read the Declaration of Independence as part of the demonstration. Although dozens of people were injured due to the suppression by the Chinese armed forces (seventeen were killed), numerous demonstrations (currently known are fifty-eight) took place throughout Northern Jiāndǎo. A frontier region, Northern Jiāndǎo was a unique cultural space wherein Koreans who crossed into this borderland formed their own communities; with active ethno-nationalist education and religious propaganda, the region served as a nexus of ethno-national and anti-Japanese consciousness. In addition, due to the frequent exchanges between the Korean peninsula and the Maritime Province, Lóngjǐng in particular served as the cradle of ethno-national independence movements.