The Sacralization of Political Legitimacy: Far-Right Protestant Discourse in South Korea

Scholars examine far-right religious mobilization through the lenses of Christian nationalism or religious populism. Yet they have paid less attention to how preaching converts political conflict into one with moral absolutes and, in doing so, weakens the democratic process. Focusing on South Korea, this research inquires how media-prominent far-right Protestant pastors have contested constitutional and political legitimacy, and reframed national identity throughout 2024–2025. Analyzing a corpus of sermons and political speeches on YouTube through topic modeling (LDA) and discourse analysis, we found that three discursive clusters recur. First, with victimhood narrative and anti-institutional sentiment, pastors portray constitutional conflicts as signs of moral breakdown, thereby recasting legal procedures as acts of betrayal rather than as democratic safeguards. Second, they ground political legitimacy in the sacralization of “freedom” and in the founding myths, supporting contemporary far-right claims while undermining common authority. Third, biblical eschatology shapes the criteria for judgment, which enhances the frame of the righteous versus the wicked. These clusters foreclose democratic compromise and place institutional restraint beneath higher religious imperatives. By tracing how pastors utilize religious language, this research contributes to debates on the relationship between religion and democratic backsliding even beyond South Korea.