Pastor criticizes YouTuber Park Wi over KTX incident, calling him 'arrogant' and 'selfish'

Amid a controversy surrounding Christian YouTuber Park Wi over a KTX incident, Pastor Park Yo-han has drawn attention by posting a video criticizing Park Wi. The pastor said Park Wi is someone who preaches "spreading good influence" yet acts selfishly.

Pastor Park posted a short-form video titled "Don't make me laugh with your 'good influence'" on his YouTube channel, opening with: "There is a young Christian man named Park Wi. He became disabled after injuring his spine. It's a tragedy."

He continued, "But this guy seems to be naturally positive. He overcame it well and started a YouTube channel. After a famous celebrity appeared on his channel, it blew up. He became well known, started giving lectures here and there, and his subscriber count surpassed 1 million."

Pastor Park then addressed the KTX controversy that recently erupted around Park Wi.

"He was getting off a KTX train on his way to give a lecture. To disembark in a wheelchair, a ramp has to be set up. A social service worker was holding down the front of the ramp with his foot because it was lifting up, and the wheelchair caught on his foot and tipped forward," the pastor said. "It was not intentional — that kind of thing can happen. Apparently the worker apologized profusely."

Pastor Park went on to criticize Park Wi directly. "He goes around lecturing about 'loving one another as Christians' and 'spreading good influence' — I dislike that kind of talk. People who say 'let's love each other' do not actually love. People who say 'let's spread good influence' are selfish."

He also said, "Unable to let it go, he scolded the young social service worker who was apologizing, then went to the station and pulled up the CCTV footage. Viewing it himself is fine. But posting it on YouTube is illegal."

"Apparently Park Wi has used KTX about 300 times. Each of those 300 times, social service workers came and helped him. Because that help kept coming, he fell into the illusion that it was his right," Pastor Park said. "The moment you mistake a favor for a right, you end up doing something this disgraceful."

He added, "The 300 times people helped him do not exist in his mind. One mistake took root as unbearable rage. He said he was 'so angry' — but what is there to be that angry about? It was a mistake. It is because he is arrogant. When you are arrogant, even a small mistake made against you makes you furious."

The video carried the caption: "I am ashamed of Park Wi as a fellow Christian."

Meanwhile, Park Wi found himself at the center of controversy on Aug. 21 after being accused of publicly targeting a social service worker.

In a video posted to YouTube at the time, Park Wi said he "suffered a fall while disembarking from a KTX train on Sept. 14" and released closed-circuit television footage of the incident.

Park Wi said he posted the video "to improve the mobility environment for people with disabilities and prevent similar accidents from recurring," but a wave of backlash followed as critics said he had publicly called out a social service worker who had helped him at the scene and apologized — doing so through a large YouTube channel.

Park Wi ultimately deleted the video and apologized as the controversy spread, but lectures and a talk concert scheduled at Seoul City Hall and the Gangnam Cultural Foundation were subsequently canceled, and his YouTube subscriber count, which had once exceeded 1 million, has been steadily declining.

Park Wi was declared fully paralyzed after falling from a building in 2014, and recovered through rehabilitation to the point of being able to move his upper body. In October 2024, he married Song Ji-eun, a former member of the K-pop group Secret.

yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com