wfn.org | White supremacist charged with shooting Korean student at church

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 6, 1999	News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.    10-30-71B{364}

By Tom McAnally*

The Rev. Byung Chill Hahn, pastor of the Korean United Methodist church in
Bloomington, Ind., was preparing for morning worship on Independence Day
when he heard what he thought were firecrackers outside.

Going to investigate, he found a small group of people surrounding the
motionless body of Won-Joon Yoon.

"As our congregation prayed, we learned that he was dead at the hospital,"
Hahn said. 

Yoon was the victim of a two-state shooting spree over the holiday weekend
targeting blacks, Jews and Asians. Charged with the death was Indiana
University student Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, 21, a former member of the
World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist group headquartered in East
Peoria, Ill. Smith shot and killed himself Sunday night, July 4, during a
police chase in rural central Illinois.  

Friday before the shooting in Bloomington, six Orthodox Jews were wounded by
a drive-by shooter as they left a synagogue in Chicago. A short time later,
a black man was killed while walking with his children in Skokie, Ill., and
an Asian-American couple in the nearby suburb of  Northbrook were fired at,
but not hit, while riding in a vehicle.  

On the morning of July 3, two black men were fired upon in Springfield,
Ill., but neither was hit.  Shortly afterward, shots were fired at six men
of Asian descent standing on a corner near the University of Illinois in
Champaign-Urbana, Ill. One man was hit in the leg.

Yoon was hit by two bullets in the back while he walked with a friend toward
the church, according to Hahn.

Yoon had been in Bloomington for two months after completing his master's
degree in economics at the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale. He
was planning to attend graduate school at Indiana University this fall.

In the short time he had been in Bloomington, Yoon was active in the
130-member Korean United Methodist congregation and was a ready volunteer
when work had to be done, according to Hahn.

"Because of our Christian faith, we believe he is in heaven," said Hahn.
"That is good for us.  That helps us cope.

"We couldn't overcome this kind of crisis without the love of Jesus," Hahn
continued. "We thank God, for God gave us love and shows us how to love."

A wake is planned at the church from 4 to 7:30 p.m. July 7, followed by a
memorial service at 8.  The funeral service will be at 10 a.m. July 8. 

A community-wide memorial service is being planned by representatives of the
city, Indiana University and churches for 7 p.m. July 12. Location has not
yet been determined, but Hahn said more than 1,000 people are expected. 

People in the community have been supportive, Hahn said. "They are shocked.
They are not white supremacists. They hate this too."

Of those who do hate, Hahn asked, "Why do they hate us as Koreans or as
minorities? Is it because we are Korean or because we have done something
wrong for them to hate us?  They must answer these questions. Their way of
thinking is wrong. They should be turned around from hate to love."  

The Rev. Duk Kyu Kwon, Elgin (Ill.) District superintendent and director of
the church's North Central Jurisdiction Korean Mission, said the timing of
the tragedy in Bloomington was significant. "This was the last July 4th of
this century.  We hope this is the last episode of racially motivated
killing and that the new century will be a new beginning of love,
understanding and tolerance."

Kwon expressed dismay at the shooting. "It is really a tragedy that a human
being had to be killed by another human being simply because he comes from a
different race." he said. "We as a church feel some  responsibility for
failing to make the society a better place where people live together
peacefully rather than hate and hurt each other."  

Indiana United Methodist Bishop Woodie W. White is out of the country, but
in a statement issued through his office in Indianapolis, he called the
death senseless. "That any human being would harbor such racial prejudice
and hatred is a reminder of how much is yet to be done in our nation and
society to tear down barriers of racism, and bring people together across
racial and ethnic lines."

White, an African American who was staff executive of the church's
Commission on Religion and Race before his election as a bishop, called the
1,500 United Methodist congregations in the state to "intensify their
efforts to be places of Shalom - where only the Gospel of reconciliation,
racial healing and inclusiveness is preached."    

# # #

*McAnally is director of United Methodist News Service, headquartered in
Nashville, Tenn., with offices in Washington and New York. 

 

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