It’s Friday, October 9th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Adam McManus
South Korea’s troubled election and Christian persecution
Something stinks in South Korea.
After the suspicious election of Lee Myung as South Korea’s new president on June 3, 2025 in which there was a drastic shortage of paper ballots, which some have claimed mounts to election fraud, there has been ample evidence of growing hostility to Christianity.
For example, South Korean authorities detained six Americans on June 27, 2025 after they attempted to send 1,600 plastic bottles containing miniature Bibles into North Korea by sea, reported International Christian Concern. The Americans were investigated because they allegedly violated the law on disaster management when they reportedly threw the bottles, which also included USB sticks, money, and rice, into the sea, hoping North Koreans would eventually find them washed up on their shore.
Then, South Korean Pastor Son Hyun-bo of Segero Church in Busan was arrested on September 8, 2025 for interviewing a Christian School Superintendent candidate, Jeong Seung-yoon, during a church service and uploading a video of the conversation to social media. The Christian was running against a South Korean government candidate who supported sexual perversion in the school curriculum. For that, Pastor Hyun-bo was jailed for 145 days, without conviction, as he underscored the need for Christians to vote their Biblical convictions.
In a CBN report, the South Korean pastor expressed alarm at what the government is doing.
HYUN-BO: “When the left-wing government came into power, freedom of religion is being suppressed. There is an amendment to the civil code that has been proposed that states: ‘If there are religious speech or beliefs related to politics, the government will be granted the power to disband or dissolve the church and revoke the permit of the church.’
“Investigations and inspections can be conducted without warrant, and assets and properties of the church can be transferred to the government.”
2 Timothy 3:12 says, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Plus, since June 2026, Morse Tan, the former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large during President Trump’s first term, is being detained in South Korea by Lee Myung’s administration, unable to return home to the States. Tan is scheduled to face trial in South Korea on October 16th.
He is being detained because, while on American soil, he claimed that there was election fraud in the June 3, 2025 South Korean presidential election. Parenthetically, Tan has a young family and is dean of the Liberty University Law School in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Sam Brownback, who served as Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom, has urged President Donald Trump to intervene on behalf of Morse Tan, reports Metro Voice News.
Write a polite, 4-sentence note to the South Korean Ambassador to America, Kang Kyung-wha, asking that she urge President Lee Myung to release Morse Tan and stop persecuting South Korean Christians. Send it to the South Korean Embassy, 2450 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20008.
Increased GOP voter registration might save the midterm election
The political pundits seem to believe that the Republicans are doomed going into the November 3rd election and likely to lose both the House and the Senate.
And it’s easy to see why: Between the deeply polarizing Iran War, an economy that’s still struggling to find its footing, and whatever toxic fallout remains from the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, conservatives are about as split as they’ve ever been over the last decade. Only it may not be the slam dunk that Democrats are hoping for, reports the Western Journal.
Much of the polling, such as that from RealClear Polling, still demonstrably favors the blue party in the midterm election. If you’re a GOP voter, there is still ample reason to get out and vote.
But according to CNN’s data guru, Harry Enten, the GOP can hang their hats on at least one thing: voter registration.
ENTEN: “You can see in the key swing states that we normally look at in presidential elections that the Republicans are gaining versus where they were eight years ago during Trump’s first midterm election.
“Take a look here: GOP gains in party registration margin versus Election Day 2018. In Arizona, the Republican margin versus a Democrat: Republicans are up four points. How about Nevada? Republicans up five points. How about North Carolina? Republicans up eight points. How about the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania? Republicans up seven points.
“So, when you take a look at how people are registering, this is not polling data, compared to where we were eight years ago, Republicans are doing considerably better in what are the swing states at least normally in presidential elections.”
Compare that to their Democratic counterparts, who have seen zero gains in those four states since 2024.
Christian TV preacher Jim Bakker died at 86
And finally,
THE PTL CLUB ANNOUNCER: “The PTL Television Network presents Jim and Tammy.”
THE PTL SINGERS: “Praise the Lord. See the things that He has done. Praise the Lord for the battle has been won.”
THE PTL CLUB ANNOUNCER: “Come on now, let’s have a great big welcome for Jim and Tammy Bakker.”
JIM BAKKER: “Hello. Welcome to Heritage USA. It’s nice to have you here.”
That was the introduction to The PTL Club back in 1986, hosted by Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye. After debuting in 1974, it became the highest rated religious show in the country.
On October 5th, Jim Bakker died at the age of 86.
While hosting the Christian television show and founding Heritage USA, a Christian-themed waterpark in Fort Mill, South Carolina, he fell from grace.
In March 1987, Bakker resigned from the PTL ministry over a cover-up of $279,000 of hush money to church secretary Jessica Hahn for an alleged rape.
Plus, Bakker and his PTL associates sold $1,000 “lifetime memberships”, entitling buyers to an annual three-night stay at a luxury hotel at Heritage USA, reported the New York Times. According to the prosecution at Bakker’s fraud trial, tens of thousands of memberships were sold but only one 500-room hotel was ever finished, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. Bakker sold “exclusive partnerships” which exceeded capacity, raising more than twice the money needed to build the hotel. Much of the money paid Heritage USA’s operating expenses, and Bakker allegedly kept $3.4 million.
1 Timothy 3:1-3 says, “Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.”
Convicted of fraud and conspiracy in 1989, he served nearly five years in prison before being paroled in 1994.
According to the Christian Post, Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, posted a statement on X, saying he was “saddened” by Bakker’s death.
Graham wrote, “Jim was responsible for giving Samaritan’s Purse our first major television exposure, and I will be forever grateful for his support and help. He showcased many ministries on his program and introduced numerous preachers of the Gospel to a much broader audience.”
Harold Hunter, chairman of the board of regents at Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary in Evansville, Indiana, took to Facebook to respond to Bakker’s death.
Hunter wrote, “To me, the major reason for the fall of Jim Bakker is prevalent in the fall of many ministries and churches. His Board of Directors was packed with celebrity preachers, evangelists, etc., who were very experienced in their various callings but woefully lacking in good business organizational skills and solid financial acumen.”
And Pastor Jeremiah Johnson of The Altar Church wrote on Facebook, “As I’ve read headlines describing [Jim Bakker] primarily by his disgrace, my heart has been grieved. Accountability matters. Sin has consequences. Repentance does not rewrite history. But neither should failure erase redemption.”
Johnson added, “After prison, Jim rebuilt his life and eventually returned to Christian television and ministry. I knew him in those later years. I encountered a man who had been through the fire, carried the scars of his story, and was still preaching Jesus.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview on this Friday, October 9th in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I’m Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.