Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 2012

1

How Christians Responded to the East Japan Earthquake:
Voices from Leaders of Christian Denominations and Local
Churches Who Were in Charge of the Disaster Relief
Administration.
by Akira Watanabe
Research Context
March 11, 2011, the earthquake created a massive tsunami which caused
tremendous damage in the Tohoku and Kanto regions.

It also caused the Fukushima

Daiichi nuclear plant disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster caused
damage beyond the scale of any natural disaster.

Relief teams were immediately sentby administrations, volunteer organizations, and notably, from the Christiancommunity.

It has been a year since the incident, and in order to decide the future

activities, it is important to summarize what the churches have done thus far.

The

activities of each church are highly diverse and because many churches have done relief
simultaneously, it is impossible to report every activity.

In order to capture a generalview, interviews were done with Christian leaders of several Christian denominations
which could be taken as representative examples of the disaster relief.
Those interviewees are leaders of United Church of Christ in Japan, Japan
Baptist Convention (JBC), Southern Baptist Convention, Japan Baptist Church
Association, Japan Baptist Union, Japan Alliance Christ Church, Japan HolinessChurch, and Japan Assemblies of God.

These denominations actively organized theirrelief teams, and their leaders have been directly involved in administration of relief
activities.

Interviews were usually one-on-one, but there were cases where an on-sight

coordinator joined the conversation.

Each interview was about an hour long and theinterview was conducted using a rough interview guide asking about their experiences
and opinions of this disaster relief effort.
2012 to early May 2012.

The interview was conducted from January

All the interviews were recorded with an IC recorder.1

Regarding JBC, we asked not only the leader of the convention, but also the
Evangelism Pastor of Tokyo Baptist Church (TBC) which is a member of JBC.

I

interviewed the pastor of TBC also because their activities were unique andindependently done from JBC.

1Only exception is Southern Baptist Convention.

and recorded in field notes.

Interview was made in July, 2011

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 2012

2

Defining Four categories
Groups were categorized into four groups.

The vertical axis indicates thegroups whose interest in social issues is global or micro.

Global interest is defined by

the fact that the group sent protest notes to the government, or gave public warnings
that March 11th was a divine punishment for the decadence and idolatry of Japan.
The groups which have global interest have tendency for the relationship with thevictims to be distant.

To the contrary, micro interest is the type of people who decide ona particular community and commit to that community, making a personal relationshipwith those in the community and providing relief.

Whether a church belongs to theglobal interest or micro interest was decided by the answer to the question “Does yourgroup send the government protest notes, or do lecture meetings on the nuclear
problem?”This categorization may determine if the group is distant with the victims

or the group has a personal relationship.
The horizontal axis indicates the groups’ opinion toward evangelism. There
are groups which evangelize boldly, clearly proclaiming about repentance and salvation
to the people in the affected areas. At the same time, there are groups which only show
Christ’s love in a loving manner and do not evangelize at all.

One group suggests that

their spoken messages are more valuable, and others seem to place more value in theiractivities.

This category was made by asking the question in the interview, “Does yourgroup evangelize verbally, stating the importance of repenting of sin and believing inChrist during the relief effort?”Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 20123

The four categories are below: Type A(First Quadrant): Group thatemphasizes Divine Judgment and seeks repentance of people, but it is not done in apersonal relationship but by public words as a proclamation.

The people who need torepent are the Japanese citizens and rulers who are responsible for the morally corrupt
culture.

As an example, Christian Shinbun (Christian Newspaper) reported the factthat the members of heretical groups which come from Germany went to churches inTokyo, Osaka, and stricken areas, and even refuge camps, and confused the scene.
They declared “This Disaster is the punishment by God,” “Punishment is the love ofGod,” and “Christians who do not speak of the punishment will be punished” duringsermons and after they finished their speech they left.2
A was available to be interviewed for this research.

However, no church from TypeType B(Second Quadrant): Like A,

type B is global but is more interested in social-political issues, and they protest toward
the government and government agencies.

This group is more interested in public

speeches and symposiums rather than having personal relationships with the victims.
Type C(Third Quadrant):Spends time with the victims and supports them mentally andphysically while avoiding verbally sharing the gospel.

Type D(Fourth Quadrant): Like

Type A, they put forth their religious identity but the method is more personal and they
support the victims personally.
Even though they were categorized, the categories do not indicate that TypeB does not do food distribution or mental care.
also supports them with necessary goods.

Type D not only does evangelism but it

Also, we see that as time progresses, Type C

becomes more like Type D, and Type B becomes more like Type C.
Also, the categorization is not done by overall assessment of the group, but
by interviewing an individual. Also, for the sake of anonymity, each group is not named
but labeled with their category and if there is more than one group in the category, it isnumbered(Example B-1, B-2, C-1,C-2, and so on).

If there is more than one

interviewee from a certain group, the interviewee is recognized by labeling in thefollowing way (B-1-1,B-1-2).
Process of the Disaster Relief
After the confusion caused by March 11th, each church started its relief
activities from scratch.
in the Tohoku area.

Most groups first inquired about the safety of related churches

While information was still confused, some pastors went to the2「注意。
『神のさばき』『あなたの罪のせい』主張のグループに被災地困惑」

http://jpnews.org/pc/modules/mysection/item.php?itemid=223

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 20124

disaster area to see first hand what was going on.

A pastor in Type B talked about

their first time trip, saying, “We went to northern Japan via Route 6.
lane was crowded with cars of victims going south for refuge.

The opposite

The press propagatingthat volunteers should not go to the disaster area and there were voices from our groupthat going to the disaster area would just cause annoyance but when we got there, there
were so many things to do that they would borrow the hand of a cat” (B-1).
The churches in the disaster area were in deeper confusion. A pastor fromType C said, “In the midst of all that was happening, we had no clue to what was goingon. News came in a couple of days after the occurrence.
tossed around by a monster or a giant.

It was as if we were being

It took till midnight to confirm our church

members’ safety and taking the childcare children to their parents.
from my local community.

Many have diedIt was time of confusion and stress” (C-1).

The Fukushima nuclear disaster added another layer of confusion. Type D
who sent supplies to Iwaki district said, “While we had no information, we wore
radiation exposure meters when going to churches in the affected area.
we visited did not know about the radiation.
exposure and everybody was tense”(D-1).

The churches

We were worried about radiation

Even outside of Fukushima prefecture, theaffected area could not get accurate information so everything was confused. “Theinformation about Onagawa(nuclear site) was a threat for us. We could only get
fragmented information regarding Fukushima.

There were false rumors that this area

was also dangerous because of the Fukushima nuclear explosion.

There were rumorsthat the Self Defense Force actually didn’t come to our area and this means we were in
reality abandoned. When we got an e-mail from overseas, all it said was “Evacuate!.”The mood was intense, and it continued like that until June”(C-1).
In such confusion, many Christian groups quickly established headquarters
for Tohoku disaster relief.

They received funding from their local churches and sent

information, relief supplies, and volunteer workers to the disaster areas.

In the earlier

stage, information gathering and relief activities were done within the samedenomination, but eventually, activities were taken collectively beyond the boundary ofdenominations.

In creating a network beyond denominations, leaders from Type B

said that “Face book and Twitter became a very powerful tool, and a pastors’ networkfrom a seminary allowed the network to happen” (B-1),
In some cases, the postmortem examination of Great Hanshin Earthquake
was effectively used.

“We regret that following the Great Hanshin Earthquake, we did

activities only within our denomination.
denominations.

We thought there is a need to act beyond

So we created new relief support manuals and sent them to all local

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 20125churches in our denomination showing the need to help the churches outside of own
denomination.

Thus, we were able to react quickly compared to before.” the leader ofType C said (C-2-1).
The primary action taken by the churches was supplying food andnecessities to the shelters.

When Christian NGOs entered the affected area, a numberof churches and Christian denominations supported them by sending volunteers.
Churches in the affected area offered beds, housings, and even office rooms to help
volunteer workers.
As the season approached summer, relief moved from shelters to temporary
housings.

At the same time, necessities of those whose house was still usable became

evident.

As roads were fixed and logistics for food was restored, support moved fromfood distribution to debris removal and restoring broken buildings.

As the end ofsummer came near, those activities started to settle also and activities moved onto handmassage, counseling, and helping children’s education.
material supply to mental care.

The support moved fromEntering year 2012, the number of volunteers within

the country and overseas decreased and support changed from immediate help to longterm support.

In the midst of this change, churches must think over the way they aregoing to continue support from now on.
Encounters with The People
The leader of Type B considered their support as “restoring a relationshipwith God”, “restoring relationships between people,” and “restoring a relationship withthe people facing inconveniences because of the nuclear power plant”(B-2-1).

Theywent to the affected area in order to “Serve Jesus Christ and serve people in need.
Jesus Christ was already at work so we went to find Jesus.”confirm Jesus’ presence in the affected area”(B-2-1).

He also says, “We went to“We are not going to go to pity thevictims but by restoring our relationship with the victims, we wanted to change ourlives.

We should discover the best way to live in Tokyo (where the earthquake did not

directly hit”(B-2-1).

As we saw, the motivation for the support was not only serving

people but also the opportunity for self-examination as Christians.
When I asked, “Which Bible verse has the most significant meaning when
doing relief activities?” an interviewee in Type B responded saying, “(Jesus) first felt thepain of man and wept.

He took the same action (as the victims) and prayed to God.

Thus, Jesus’ prayer resonated with the people”(B-2-1),

A different leader from thesame group referred to Acts 27, saying. “Even after a ship wreck, Paul believed without
any evidence that he would arrive at some island.

This caught my eye.

He wanted toJapan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 2012

6encourage and cheer up the people who were in anxiety.

We want our works to be likethat”(B-2-2).
As we saw, this Type emphasizes the fact that during their relief activities,
they stand beside the victims and share their pain.

Also, for all the interviews withType B, I felt that they were having a more macro view than a personal relationshipwith the victims.

When they talked about the relationship with the victims, they said,“The early honeymoon stage continued, but we realized that every time we went to thearea, the community leader was exhausted.”
became detested by their group.

The leadership that they had supported

They realized with regret that “Because we supported

the community leaders, we have destroyed the community,”
realized that the fishing villages were rivals”(B-2-2),

They also said “We

The view of this group does not

focus on having a personal relationship but rather it focuses on investigating the
dynamics of the entire community.
Type B considers physical support as one of their many activities.
11th relief should end and end early.

“MarchWe need to make a situation so that relief would

be unnecessary and then we would be able to support people with other needs such as
the homeless.

But homeless support is also coming to an end since administrations are

doing more.

Then we would find something else to do, such as making something new;

Then we would handover the job to non-Christians and start praying for the next groupof people that needs healing”(B-3),

These words basically sum up Type B’s opinion.

Aleader in Type B said that they “tried to go to different places in order to have a big
perspective” and “Changed partner organizations often”(B-1),

However, this kind ofstrategy seems to reduce their opportunity for building personal relationships.

In fact,

B-1 said, “Because we decided to go to any place that asked for help, there were many
places we went only once, so in many cases we couldn’t make deep human relationships
with the people in communities because we could not go there again.”
When type B groups meet victims, they try to be thoughtful of their privacy.
They kept rules like “No cameras,” or “Do not ask too many questions and listen to what
they have to say.” They would not instigate talk because “We didn’t want to remindthem of their shocking memories”(B-2-1),

Almost all church relief workers tried to beconsiderate of this point, but when it is taken too far, volunteers are unable to talk withthe victims and church relief becomes bystanders carrying supplies.
In contrast, Type C leader talked about a more personal relationship withthe victims.

“In the early stage there was a personal encounter.

A child was talking

with a person, smiling for the first time since the disaster and the mother was grateful”(C-3).

Such experience directed their further support.

C-3 says, “Because of theJapan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 20127

mother’s request, our group put an emphasis on child support and educational support.”
The project leader of the church in Type D also spoke of a personal
experience.

“I said ‘Hello’ to every one and shook hands.

To people in hardship I

could not say ‘How do you do?’ but to ladies I said ‘You are lovely’, ‘You look wonderful’,‘How old are you?’, ‘You look young’ and we were able to make them start giggling.

I

did not ask about tsunami but I took hands of those in the food distribution lines andprayed. Our church members gave a short Bible speech there.
are from a Church.

The member said ‘We

We want to begin this food distribution with prayer’ and nobody

was adverse to it”(D-1).

He also said, “Our group actively spoke about the gospel andin May 2011, one of the victims became a believer and as people were waiting in the food
distribution line, within the debris, the baptism was done.”(D-1)
Different Approaches toward Evangelism
It was February 2012 when I interviewed B-2-1, and B-2-1thought handingout evangelism tracts was too early.

He said “I saw volunteers from missions overseas

handing out evangelism tracts and I thought it was wrong to do that.”“giving a Bible with food is taking advantage of their weakness.

He thinks that

We don’t want to be

seen as though we are taking advantage; we want to draw close to the victims andevangelize through understanding their pain.”C-3 and his on-sight coordinator think the same as B-2. He wants to “Show
his Christian lifestyle and belief at the affected area and support them by showing an
example.”In other words it means “walking together.”He emphasizes the fact that,“They want the victims to recover” and “We are not leading them because they are theprotagonists.”(C-3)

We could see from those words that they don’t want to make theirfaith something absolute.
Considering evangelism strategy of Type B and Type C, they take a similarbasic stance.

The leader in Type B says “They do not want to cultivate a church in theaffected area”(B-1),

Another leader of Type B claims that “Churches should occur

naturally”(B-2-1),

In the same way, Type C does not work actively in forming churches.

“There were not too many situations where we became close with the people of the area.
Rather, we want the churches located in the area to become close with the people of the
district.

We are going to withdraw in two years so we don’t want to evangelize there.

If the people ask ‘Why are you here?’ we may say ‘because we are Christians’ but ourpolicy is not propagation of our faith.
evangelize people there”(C-2-1).
not evangelize.

Also, the churches in the area told us not to

Another leader of the same denomination says “We do

If they ask for the gospel we would love to teach them, but theJapan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 20128

importance is working diligently without words.

We consider our activity as planting

seeds for the future”(C-2-2),
Avoiding evangelism was completely nailed down for some groups of type B
and type C.

For example, if there were supplies with cards written with scriptures, theorder was to take them off before handing supplies to the victims.
decision was made by the field coordinator (B-2-1),

In some cases such a

In other cases they did it because it

was part of a directive from an alliance group (C-2-1).

A leader said “The word,“Easter,” on an Easter egg is a Christian term so we took the words off and simply givethem as boiled eggs”(C-2-2).
In contrast, Type D says “Now is the time to start churches since the door
will be closed in a short time” and showed his strong determination to start a new
church in disaster area.

Another leader in Type D also said “From the beginning wewere considering evangelism.

We were planning that the support centers were to

become evangelism centers eventually”(D-3).

D-3 added, “When we first arrived, I

introduced myself as a Christian but I was unable to evangelize at that time.

But after

we built personal relationships, we started getting opportunities for evangelism.

After

half a year, our monthly food distribution center became something like a Christianhouse church”(D-3).

And D-3said “After we built relationships with hand massages, I

asked if we could meet again and invited people to the church”(D-3).

Another leader in

Type D said, “From the beginning the idea was to take the gospel along with
supplies”(D-1).

“By September, we made it clear that we were going to evangelize

while doing hand massages and we gave the volunteers evangelism training.

However,the shelter had no negative feelings about our change to evangelism.

From thebeginning evangelism with words and support was a set and it was easy to make thechange.

Currently we have 20 new believers, and we hold services at the local meeting

place,” D-1 says.
Type D seems to differ significantly from Type B and Type C but as we
continued the interview, it became obvious that even though Type B and Type C decided
not to evangelize, when they were given the opportunity to evangelize, they embraced itwith joy. When they went to the victims with Christmas presents, they were asked by
the victims, “Because you are with us always and since you are Christians, we want tohear a story from the Bible.”

At a different opportunity the victims told them “I believein the God you believe in.”Members of Type B are happy to hear those confessions

from the victims(B-2-1).

This is the same as members of Type D.

Type D groups

emphasize evangelism but the opportunity is scarce while they serve among the
temporary housing.

One day because of rain it became difficult to do the planned mud

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 20129raking so the leader of the temporary housing said, “Since we cannot mud rake, we want
to hear about your faith” and the volunteers were overjoyed that they could comply with
their wish(D-1).

As I pointed out, the two groups have different stances towardevangelism but each finds joy in the same experience.
Also, right after the March 11th disaster, most churches were hesitant toevangelize but gradually they became freer in speaking of the God they believe in.

Apastor in the affected area said, “People asked, ‘Are you doing this support forevangelism?’ and I would like to answer, ‘Yes, we want you to believe in Christ.’ but I
feared they will reject the message and I was unable to do so.

I pondered what

‘supporting for evangelism’ was as we carried on with the relief activities.

Now I cananswer that we are not doing this for evangelism but we are doing relief because God
gives us refuge and we want to do the same for others.

Now a year has passed andthere are more opportunities to share the gospel directly.

At first I did not know the

relationship between the relief activity and evangelism so I was troubled.

Now when I

meet new people I can say ‘God has blessed me and I am thankful so I am doing thisrelief.

It is not ‘to convert the people’.

The importance is ‘why.’‘To make others

believe’ or ‘Because of what drives us’ is a big difference”(C-1).
Operation with other religions
Different opinions and attitudes were observed among Denominations
concerning working together with other religions (especially with Buddhism).

These

differences were observed especially in incidents relating to the treatment of the dead.
Considering a relationship with Buddhists, Type B took partnership, Type C wasambivalent, and type D refused partnership with Buddhists.
The leader in Type B said, “90 percent of the citizens in this area are
Buddhists. Thus, Buddhist funeral should be provided. While we pray together withpeople from other beliefs, we need to present how Christians pray.

When we were

holding emotional counseling at a .crematory there were some people who asked for us
to pray, and we delightedly answered their request"(B-2-1).

Another interviewee inType B said "Any religion needs an answer to the problem of death.
affected areas they may ask, “Who are you?"

When we go to theIf we tell them, “We are Christians, "they

do not know what Christianity is and it would be pointless to tell them that theirreligion is wrong"(B-1).
Another leader in Type B talks of pity towards the dead and said, “We
ponder that maybe the weakest and most brought down low are the dead under the pileJapan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 2012of rubbles.

10

We wanted to at least cover their bodies."3

why they focus on cremation.

There are also tactical reasons

The leader in Type B said, “What we worried about wasthat people might commit suicide to follow the dead relatives,

due to lack of care forthe dead."(B-3) 4Type C said that as a church it is difficult to work together with Buddhists
but as an individual he/she would like to have partnerships with other religions.
According to the leader, a relief Christmas party was held by Catholics, Protestants,
and a Buddhist group working together and the Buddhist priest helped the Christmas
party by wearing a Santa’s costume.

However, the leader said, “As a single church wemight be able to work together with other religious groups but at the denominational
level it would be difficult"(C-3).

Another leader in Type C said, "I wondered how‘Tomurai’ (burial condolences) matches the Christian worldview but if it’s cremation, it
makes sense and we could help them out.

There was a time where a church member’s

mother died, and there were many corpses at the morgue.
bodies that my heart ached.

We saw so many dead

When I asked the undertaker if I could pray for the deadas a pastor, the undertaker thanked me.

We were giving words of comfort.

We don’toffer weddings for non-believers but we can do funerals because anybody wants to bevitalized by God"(C-3).

In these words we can see the feeling that they want to be

involved in funerals for unbelievers although they have some strangeness in their words.
Also, I heard cases where the Christians were asked to look for mortuary tablets.
interviewee in Type C did not reject their request.
help you because we are Christian.

An

He said, “We never said, ‘We can’t

We believe that searching for their Buddhist altar	
 would connect to evangelism.

This volunteer work may bring an evangelistic

opportunity in the future"(C-2-1).

We see that to build relationships they acknowledge

any effort as a support and do whatever is requested.
Type D agrees that they would not work together with other religions.
have not worked with other religions and we didn't even think about it.
the point of working with other religions" says interviewee D-1.
cremation and he answered, “The dead are already dead.

“We

We can't see

I asked about

Rather than focusing on thedead we want to work together with the living and support them in other ways"(D-1).
Contrary to Type B who says" We ponder that maybe the weakest and most brought
down low are the dead under the pile of rubbles," Type D wants to care for the living.
However, even in Type D there is a case in which they did not completely

3This comment is cited not from the interview with B-3 but from his words seen on his

church’s website.
4Ibid.

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 2012

block out other religions.

11

D-2 said "When the community leader realized that they

were making the Christian volunteers clean the Buddhist temple for the Obon festival,
he apologized for making Christians do such a thing.
as volunteers and your job is our job.

He was very grateful.

and building a relationship is the key"(D-2).
with D-2.

Then we answered that we cameThat is what we wanted

But at the same time D-1 did not agree

We asked interviewee D-1, "What would you do if you were asked to searchfor Buddhist altars and to clean the temple?" and he answered, “Idol worship is not
Biblical so we would explain carefully and would decline the request."
Relation with the Government Arm
In order to support Tohoku efficiently it is necessary to work together with thegovernment branches.

Most organizations worked as a volunteer organization that

responded to the request by the prefecture and municipal governments, doing
distribution of materials, mental care, and debris removal.

Also, organizations thatworked with the government were able to attend meetings that allowed them to collectinformation.

But it was obvious that as a religious organization, there wererestrictions when working with the government.

One pastor said “I know it is difficult

for the local government to collaborate with religious groups who are beyond their
responsibility.

So I made a disaster relief NGO which is independent from my churchand entered the community saying my organization is just a disaster relief
organization”(C-1).
Government branches responded differently about Christian organizations
doing relief work. “In one relief site, religious organizations were banned because there
was a church that suddenly came in and started handing out tracts.

In such places

there was tension but, on the contrary, there were relief camps that said “Churches do
an awesome job for us” and were very welcoming”(C-1).

As church group worked

together with the government, their support activities diversified.
worked with a local council of social welfare.
purpose was not religious propagation.

B-2-1 said “We

The officers asked us to confirm that our

So we tried not to give them any trouble.”Groups from Type B and Type C which only did volunteer activities followed the
instruction of the government and they went to temporary housing and evacuation sitesthat were officially registered, but type D went to places that the government did notreach, like people who lived in houses hit by the tsunami, living in the habitable second
floor since the first floor was damaged (Since these people decided to stay in the affectedsite, they did not get support from the government).

Type D’s basic strategy was tosearch for acquaintances of church members who were hit by the tsunami and laying a

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 201212stronghold with them and sending support teams there.

With that activity, they would

build relationships with the leader of the site, and with the support of the leaders, theywould do food distribution and material distribution (D-3). D-1 who worked in
Ishinomaki built a relationship with the site leader who was an apartment owner, andin order to help him, they rebuilt his apartment and held worship there with the peopleof the district.
But some groups who pushed on with evangelism were not accepted by the
council of social welfare and they were not able to expand their activity and would only
be able to do activity at certain areas.

D-1 wanted to do support work for people who

evacuated from Fukushima but because they were slow in submitting their applicationand since they were a Christian organization, they were not allowed to have personal
contact with the people and all they were able to do was give a donation to the city.
the contrary D-3 already had a relationship with a public facility.

On

When refugees camethey were able to start support at that evacuation site smoothly. They built
relationships with the people at the site and when some people were ready to leave thesite, they were able to hand some support materials as a personal gift.
Theological Prospect
One thing that aroused my interest was the fact that a type D would taketheir theology as it is but Type B and C seem to try to critically evaluate their own
theology.

First, Type B and C tend to reconsider the traditional ways of their own

evangelism.

As a matter of fact, all groups in Type C are Evangelicals but they want toovercome their mindset on evangelism.

One of the interviewees said, “At the time of

the Hanshin Great Earthquake my denomination could not make any effective disaster
relief.

Through learning The Lausanne Covenant, we realized that we need to change

our structure through a holistic way”(C-2-1).

C-3said, “I was thinking of therelationship between evangelism and relief activity while I was doing relief.
concluded that I did not want to use one for the sake of other.

And I

I want to makesomething beyond traditional evangelism which only focuses on God, sin, andforgiveness”(C-3).

These ideas become evident when they are doing actual relief work.

“When we consider what we could do for the public, we need to reconsider our view onsalvation.

A man attacked by a burglar was saved by a Samaritan who is gentile.

a Jew that was an unbelievable story.

For

When we were doing relief work, we saw

non-Christians doing better service than Christians.

When we think of this, as

Christians I want to be more humble in doing my work”(C-3).

Type C pastors quote

The Good Samaritan(Luke 10:30-37) and Jesus saying in verse 37 “Go do likewise”.

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 201213

Type C seems to be attracted by active evangelism in contrast to traditional evangelism
only by word.

When C-3 says, “I want to be the Good Samaritan, and God’s love isthere,” he may think that the ultimate purpose in evangelism which is accepted bypeople is action.

In short, Type C tries to define Christian by a functional definition

based on the social component which consists of social interaction, not by a substantive
definition based on the ideational component which consists of belief and doctrine.5
Secondly they want to treat non-Christians fairly.

A Type B Church leader

said about their experience of the Hanshin Earthquake, “Back then, we used our church
as a refugee camp accepting victims but we did not evangelize the refugees since wethought it would be taking advantage over them.

We started evangelism only when

they could go back to their homes”(B-2-1).
Type B logically concludes that they should show respect for others’ beliefs,
and not evangelize non-believers aggressively, which is a line that type C pastors would
not cross.

B-3, after considering their activity at the Hanshin Earthquake said “When

Korean missionaries went to Kobe, their forceful methods caused confusion in theaffected area.

Koreans have a monotheistic background so they do not feel quirky

about religions going against each other.

On the contrary, Japanese culture is

influenced by a syncretistic fusion of Shintoism and Buddhism, so Japanese people
value harmony.

They become intimidated by competitive arguments and even become

aggressive against the exclusive religions. But when they see harmony among religions
they value it.

When we collaborated with Buddhist priests to have a cafe for the

refugees, we introduced the Buddhist priest when the people wanted to hear Buddhist
sermons.

The Buddhist priest also told them, ‘The Christian pastor also has goodstories to tell’ and he introduced me.
show harmony we gain”(B-3).

We lose when we fight each other, but when we

I asked B-3 if there is a line of defense that he cannot

retreat as a Christian and he answered, “I take a position of agnosticism. I told a
Buddhist priest, ‘Although I don’t know what enlightenment you have, I respectyou’”(B-3).

Also on his website he shows his own standpoint.

According to his article

on the website, an Anglican patriarchvisited Sendai in June, 2011, and preached,“There are many people who don’t know church and who don’t have Christian friends.
When such people died, Christians have to clearly say to their relatives, ‘OK.
in heaven now’.

In this way the true faith is tested now.”

They areI asked B-3, “What do you

5This kind of idea was already found in traditional Japanese theology.

For example, in
his work,DaihyotekiNihonjinn [Representative Men of Japan](koudan-sya,2002),KanzoUchimura tries to find that an essence of Christian life was vital in actionsof Japanese non-Christians who could not become Christian because of historical andcultural restrictionJapan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 2012

think about that idea?.

14

He replied to me, “It is wonderful.”

B-3 is studying thetheology of Forsyth in order to reevaluate purgatory which “Modern Christian Theology
has forsaken.”After the Interview
After March 11th, many Japanese churches have entered the affected areawith integrity and did relief work.

We found through this research that there aremany churches that decided not to do evangelism.

Some pastors say, “We don’t want it

to seem as though we came here just to evangelize”(B-2-1) and other says, “We did notcome here for commerce, we are not thinking about getting church members”(B-3).
This idea has been evident not only to social gospel groups but also to evangelicalgroups.

I understand that through The Lausanne Covenant, Evangelicals have started

thinking about social responsibilities in evangelism, but they will be using the practices
of social gospel groups if they do that.

There are several reasons affecting this.

There

are cases that the church was small and when they worked with Christian NGO’s they
were asked not to evangelize and they followed that request(C-2-2).

C-3 said, “We

think that normal people may think ‘Christians are gathering only by their group’”(C-3)
and does not want to display their faith too strongly in order not to be considered
strange.

He also said “We want to work with the local government and make ouractivities known”(C-3).

As a group works closely together with government agencies,

they would have to mute their religious nature.

In such situations, it becomes more

important for evangelicals to synthesize social ministry with evangelism through words.
Unless they do so, the Japanese Christianity would lose its diversity and head the same
direction as non-Christian groups.
When I review the interview, I could see the process of privatization
occurring in Japan.

Privatization denoted here is a term in the sociology of religion

meaning “The process by which certain institutional spheres (including religion) become
removed from effective roles in the public sphere.”6
the process of privatization in Japan.

There seem to be two directions inOne, like seen in type D, separates from thegovernment and focuses on personal faith and mental care and reduces their activity
domain. For example, D-1 was not able to work with the local council of social welfare
since they wanted to evangelize, and then they had to stay away from the domain where
the government agency had influence.

D-1 went looking for areas that had receptivity

to the gospel and focused on such an area.

Their activity was private and considering

6Meredith B. McGuire, Religion: The Social Context, (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

Publishing Company, 1997), 58 and 315.

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 201215society as a whole, their impact and influence was limited.

The other direction is seenin type B, which diminishes their voice and faith in order to work with the pluralistic
society and other religions.

In other words, when they pursue this direction, theywould become religiously invisible, loosing their uniqueness. 7

They are given theopportunity to work with people in many areas but their activity becomes basically thesame as those done by non-religious groups.

They are unable to show their own

Christian identity to the public.
As for type C, they are timid about voicing their religious belief and they
accept the society the way it is and, like type B, push forward the process ofprivatization.

Also they avoid social activities at macro level and focus on personal

relationships. They emphasize the privatization process done by type D as well.
Privatization continues without any barriers in the way, and Christianity has lost its
role in the society.

What is now wanted from Christianity is only hand massage andcounseling.
Given these positions and ideas, I would like to conclude this report with
one case study a group has experienced.

This is an experience of Type C-1.

After theearthquake, the church first started giving well water that was drawn from a church
member’s home to neighbors.

First they were going to share the water only withchurch members but they eventually gave it away to non-Christians as well.

They firstfeared the well would run dry, but the church member said “If the well water was going
to run dry, just let it” and the church agreed to do so.

When they started giving thewater away to the community, the well did not run dry, but actually water started towell up in it.
The local senate heard that the churches were giving away materials andthe pastor and the senators went to Minami-Sanrikucho for inspection.

When theytalked with the victims they started hearing about the income of the victims.

Theywondered if they could provide some manual piecework that they could do at home,mainly for the wives.

The victims of the area not only were hit but were isolated andhad nothing to do.

The church decided that they could provide a place forcommunication and active work for them.

They thought leatherworking would be easy

to start, so the church and the victims worked together to develop products and findsales methods.

The senators they met were involved as well.

Currently there are 10

leatherworkers.

The people of the region would talk about this process with tears intheir eyes and by Christmas in 2011, the locals were able to have a good community
7This phenomenon can be observed not only in Christianity but also in Buddhism.

learned this through the interview with B-3.

I

Japan Evangelical Theological Society
June 18, 201216

relationship with the church members.

C-1 says that “We focus on building thecommunity through working together along with making leatherwork products.”
says that “Among us there no boundaries between supporters and users.
members and victims are one as fellow workers.
project with one goal”(C-1).
future.

He

ChurchWe are one team working on the sameC-1 desires to start a church at Minami-Sanrikucho in the

Currently they are working at Ozika peninsula to help the fishermen farmfish.
C-1 says that “As we get involved in the Tohoku region, we are not focusing
on evangelizing individuals but the entire community.”
careful with timing.

At the same time, they were

One way was in making their boundaries clear.

C-1 said, “Wewould not do relief work on Sunday morning, and it was important for them tounderstand our position”.
As we could see here, Type C mixes type D and type B in a way since theyvalue personal relationships and clearly communicate their identity yet support a
community basis of living at a macro level.
an evangelical church.

It is important that such work was done byThis support work has deepened the support work done byother churches, and such work should be the key to stop the privatization in Japan.
Appendix
It is obvious that it is important to include the voices of the victims in thisreport. We did indeed get some voices for certain groups but we could not get acomprehensive report from the victims.

It is inappropriate to take only a few groups’

opinion which relate to a certain Christian group’s relief activities.
lack of objectivity in this report.
victims are not represented.

It may create aThus, unfortunately in this report, the voices of the