Guest
Lucas E.
Lucas tells us how he was targeted for a year by the Shincheonji cult. How coordinated are they in their recruitment tactics?
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Notes
- Characteristics of Cults – Keep in mind that you can say most any religion exhibits some of these, but cults do each one of these to the extreme.
NOTE: Compare to the Moonies, North Korea, and Samsung- Extreme zealousness towards leader
- Dissent is punished
- Mind-numbing practices to the extreme (speaking in tongues, chanting, excessive work routines)
- Kneeling stiffly straight with heads bowed while listening to lectures
- Leadership dictates all details of members’ lives
- Elitism – Leader is a Messiah
- Lee is Jesus
- Us vs. Them mentality
- Leader is above authority and the law
- Glorious ends justify all means
- Leadership uses peer pressure to induce shame for control
- Cut ties to family and friends and radically alter personal goals
- Preoccupied with getting new members
- Preoccupied with making money
- Members devote excessive time
- True believers believe there is no life outside the group
- Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony
- Founded March 14, 1984 by Lee Man-hee
- Lee Man-hee (b. 1931)
- (1967) Member of Tabernacle Temple
- Chun Doo-hwan’s “religious purification policy”
- Moved to Presbyterian
- (1971) Left
- Olive Tree
- Removed from his biography
- Started by Park Tae Son (1956) after he was expelled from the Presbyterian church for starting a schismatic organization – Jesus Christ Congregation Revival Association of Korea (한국예수교전도관부흥협회)
- Faith healer
- Gave special 안찰 healing massages
- Followers would drink the water he’d washed his feet in
- Claimed he was one of the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation, called Olive Trees
- Became one of the largest cults in Korea in the 1960s with over 2 million members
- Had good relations with Syngman Rhee
- Built three communal villages
- Accusal – Women had sex with him to attain purity (sexual healing?)
- Arrested a lot
- (Dec 1960) 2,000 members attacked The Dong-a Ilbo for calling him a fraud
- Sparked Korea’s first anti-cult movement
- (1980) Changed message
- 95% Bible is wrong
- Park was the real Messiah and the real God
- The God in the Bible was really a king devil
- Claimed he would never die
- (1990) Died.
- Still continues under the name The Church of the Heavenly Father 천부교
- Some members formed the cults Victory Altar and Shincheonji soon after his change in 1980
- Started in March 1984 in Anyang. Moved to Gwacheon.
- Divided into 12 tribes and 24 departments
- “PD Notebook” aired a piece on them in 2007, but they generally were under the media radar until right before COVID-19
- Gaining attention on YouTube, more active recruitment and rallies
- (1967) Member of Tabernacle Temple
- Recruitment
First off, have a puke at this promotional video
- System
- First target friends and family
- Don’t mention Shincheonji. Just build negative feelings about the targets’ current churches – conspiracy transmission
- First target friends and family
- “Harvesters” focusing on universities
- Students have more free time and are away from their parents (read: vulnerable)
- Take over clubs and study groups, Kakao chat rooms (# region & hobbies)–ID harvesting
- Even hagwon teachers try to recruit individual vulnerable students
- Interfere with their studies
- Ex: “There is a special event at the same time as your exam. Wisely choose which one God will like.”
- High percentage drop out of university
- Infiltrate other churches, including Myeong-dong Cathedral
- Disguise as regular church members
- Sow discord with the pastor and recruit the lost sheep into Shincheonji
- “Conquest of Canaan” or “Mountain Moving”
- Female membership is high at 3:7
- White top, black bottoms (“monami look”)
- Bully their members. Described as gangsterism.
- Street surveys and psychological tests
- Including those boards where they ask people to put stickers to show their positions on topics
- Or psych test asking to draw a tree or some other drawing with instructions (based on Baum Test and HTP Test)
- Dating survey and tests on “spiritual intelligence”
- They use these to harvest personal info
- Use logos of unaffiliated universities and institutions
- “Spoofing” – Lying that is justified
- Grade recruits based on how much money they have
- Will sometimes use intros like “I’m in a university film club. Can you help me come up with a topic?”
- After getting contact info and engaging a bit (like coffee), they are referred to a “mentor” to get psychological counseling in the Word Room
- Recruitment→ Word Room (Vision School)→ Completion of Theological Seminary (7 months)
- Basically, anything that requires someone’s dedication for seven months is Shincheonji
- Interviewed after Word Room for heresy
- If you fail, they cut ties–after demanding money for textbook copies
- 4 hours/day Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
- 2 absences→ expulsion
- Do work
- Outposts
- Bible Academy near Chungmuro Station
- Vision Room in Soongshil University
- Fundraising
- Lots of tithes, and they are given in envelopes with their established member number on them
- Doctrine
- Apocalyptic / Doomsday
- Day of Judgment – 144,000 believers will go to Heaven
- Messianic
- Lee is self-proclaimed
- “Chairman Lee”, “The Promised Pastor”, “The one who overcomes”, “The Advocate”
- Believe he is Jesus
- Only Lee can interpret the Book of Revelation
- Lee is self-proclaimed
- Multi-level marketing style of organization
- Pressure to attend events and do chores to ascend the hierarchy
- Lee Man-hee will never die
- Apocalyptic / Doomsday
