The Present Status and Task of Daesoonjinrihoe's Social Welfare

대순진리회의 사회복지사업 현황과 과제

Religious organizations execute various social welfare programs on the basis of their religious ideology and faith. Their practice vividly aim at mission, propagation, edification, and spreading, but also is practised as a way of philanthropy, an universal value. Daesoonjinrihoe's social welfare program can be understood in this respect. This paper investigates on which idea Daesoonjinrihoe's social welfare program takes its basis, and examines the current situation and tasks of the social welfare program. Daesoonjinrihoe runs their social welfare program on the idea of 'Resolution of grievances for the mutual beneficence of all life[Haewonsangsaeng: 解冤相生]' and 'Boeunsangsaeng(報恩相生)'. Their program is concentrated on medical welfare, welfare for elderly people, and youth welfare. It is noteworthy that Daesoonjinrihoe's welfare program is not subsidized by government as much as those of other religious organizations. This paper looks into the tasks for Daesoonjinrihoe's social welfare program in terms of operational system and hardware, and suggests that we need to show interest in multicultural welfare systems and support it as Korean society is becoming a more multicultural society.