“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.”
[Nov.29.2021]A result of a survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre, an American opinion survey agency, among 17 advanced countries around the world about meaning in life revealed that only Koreans responded ‘material well-being’ is the highest value in life.
Pew Research recently released the results of a telephone and online survey conducted twice this year among 18,850 adults in 17 advanced economies, including the U.S., U.K, France, Germany, and Japan.
The study found that the predominant thing that people said makes life meaningful for them is family. Participants in 14 of the 17 nations responded by saying that families made their lives meaningful more than any other factor. In contrast, in South Korea, ‘material happiness’ is marked as the top source of the meaning of life (19%). It was followed by health (17%), family (16%), general satisfaction (12%), and society and freedom (5% respectively).
In nine of the 17 countries surveyed, material well-being is one of the top three factors people cited, however, only in Korea it comes in the first place.
It is also notable that 62% of Koreans who took part in the survey responded with only one answer, which is twice the number of respondents worldwide who answered only one answer (34%). It can be analyzed that Koreans focus on only one condition of happiness in life.
In 17 advanced countries around the world, the most meaningful in life was family (38%), followed by work (25%) and material happiness (19%). Countries that did not choose family as their top priority in life were Korea and Taiwan (3rd) and Spain (4th).
In Taiwan, society (38%) is the top source of meaning, above material well-being (19%), and family (15%). In Spain, health is the top source of meaning in life, followed by material happiness (42%), work (40%), and family (36%).
Korea is the only country that ranked ‘material happiness‘ as the top priority in life, but 15 countries excluding the U.K and Greece (6th) also ranked ‘material happiness’ in the top 5. A Korean woman said, “Thanks to (material abundance), we can live comfortably without great difficulties even in difficult times like these days.”
In most of 17 countries, ‘work’ is ranked into top 3 as an important value in life, but in Korea, it ranked 7th (6%). This contrasts with other countries such as Italy, where work and family both came first place, and Germany, France, Sweden, Greece, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore (second place).
In the U.S and the U.K, ‘community such as friends’ (2nd place) is regarded as an important value in life, whereas in East Asian countries including Japan, Taiwan (7th place) and Korea (8th place), only 1 in 10 respondents choose friends or community. It is analyzed that in East Asia, communities such as friends and local communities are not considered as important values of life. (Source: Gospel Prayer News).
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can over your shameful nakedness; and slave to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. (Revelation 3:18-19)
Father God, please have mercy on Korea that regards material happiness as everything but overlooks eternal life. Most of all, let churches in Korea hear the voice of the Lord so that they may repent and cry out to the Lord, turning back from desiring secular values. Through churches of this land recovered by the Gospel, let the souls of the land who are wandering, bound to money and material wealth, find the everlasting treasure, Jesus Christ so that they may find true satisfaction.
Prayer 24·365
prayer@prayer24365.org
