The only religion one joins not through baptism but by passing an exam had to spend decades in confronting a furious opposition.
February 20, 2025
Shincheonji’s services are offered twice a week, on Wednesday and Sunday. Shincheonji members kneel during prayers and other parts of their worship services, therefore, there are no chairs (except for the elderly and infirm) in their churches. This is, of course, not unique to Shincheonji: mosques and Hindu or Buddhist temples normally do not have chairs or pews. Churches are often located in large buildings where other floors serve different purposes. This happens both because securing government permission for Shincheonji places of worship is difficult, and land prices in some metropolitan areas are extremely high and exceed the financial possibilities of the local congregations.
Devotees wear white shirts (to offer worship before God in clean and proper attire) and signs of different colors corresponding to their affiliation to one or another of the Twelve Tribes (Revelation 21:19–20). The services mostly consist of singing hymns and hearing a sermon, often preached by Chairman Lee himself and broadcast all over the world. The themes come from the entire Bible, but the Book of Revelation is emphasized.
Once a month, a Wednesday meeting includes the sharing of information about Shincheonji’s main activities in the month. Once a year, a General Assembly reports on the year’s activities in Shincheonji and includes a statement about the church’s finances.
Special services are held four times during the year, for Passover (January 14), the Feast of the Tabernacles (July 15), the Feast of Ingathering (September 24), and for commemorating the day when the church was founded in 1984 (March 14).
Shincheonji does not hold celebrations for Christmas or Easter, arguing that these are not feasts mentioned in the Bible but are days that people have arbitrarily decided to commemorate. However, they do teach the meaning and significance of Jesus’ birth and resurrection, while also instructing believers on what they should practice today as Christians. They believe this carries more significance than holding events such as Christmas or Easter.
Shincheonji regards itself as the only church where one enters not through baptism, but by completing a Bible study course (for which it refers to Revelation 22:14). This is an extremely serious matter for the members. They should follow through Zion Christian Mission Center, across all South Korea and abroad, a course of at least six months divided in beginners’, intermediate, and advanced stages, and prepare for the exams. The courses can now be followed also via Internet, in different languages.
The Zion Christian Mission Center exams, in written form, are uniformly described by members as difficult and severe. They consist of questionnaires with questions about the Book of Revelation. It is not uncommon to repeat them several times. On average, women score better than men. The highest scores for age cohorts are by those in their 40s, but there are cases when students older than 80 graduated with a high score. The graduation is celebrated in style, as the graduates are regarded as “walking Bibles,” ready even for the harshest missionary fields. Although there are few full-time missionaries, each Zion graduate is expected to devote some time to proselytization activities.
All the organization of Shincheonji is articulated through the Twelve Tribes created according to Revelation chapter 7, each with a tribe leader: John, Peter, Busan James, Andrew, Thaddeus, Philip, Simon, Bartholomew, Matthew, Matthias, Seoul James, Thomas. The Twelve Tribes oversee more than 60 churches in 25 countries. As mentioned earlier, missions outside South Korea are also distributed among the various Korean tribes.
Shincheonji’s rapid growth largely happened as people from other Christian churches, dissatisfied with their teachings, coldness, and lack of missionary zeal, left them, and joined Chairman Lee’s movement. To prevent this significant hemorrhage of members, they reacted by accusing Shincheonji of “sheep stealing,” “heresy,” and being a “cult.” South Korea is a country where old stereotypes about “cults” survive, promoted by both secular media and conservative and fundamentalist Christian churches.
Apart from “heresy,” an accusation liberally traded between Christians since the times of the Apostles, Shincheonji has been accused of dissimulation and “brainwashing.” The idea that new religious movements use “brainwashing” has been debunked decades ago by Western scholars of new religious movements but is still used by popular media and seems to maintain supporters among Korean mainline Christian churches.
Because they were “brainwashed,” opponents of new religious movements claimed in the 20th century in North America and Europe, “cultists” needed to be “deprogrammed,” i.e., kidnapped, confined, and submitted to intensive anti-cult indoctrination. By the end of the 20th century, deprogramming had been declared illegal in the West. It survived for some years in Japan, until courts there reached the same conclusions. The only democratic country where deprogramming is still largely practiced is Korea, and Shincheonji’s members account for the largest cohort of victims. The first cases of deprogramming happened in 2003. In 2018, Gu Ji-In (1992–2018) was bound and gagged by her father while she was trying to escape deprogramming, which caused suffocation and eventually death. The incident generated massive street protests and was mentioned by the U.S. Department of State, who asked South Korean authorities to put a halt to the illegal practice of deprogramming. To no avail, as deprogramming still goes on today.
The issue of dissimulation reemerged often during the coronavirus crisis. Indeed, Shincheonji did admit that Christians and others invited to its meetings were not immediately told that the organizer was Shincheonji, that some of their street stalls did not use the name Shincheonji, and that members did attend incognito meetings and services of other churches, hoping to make friends there and invite them to Shincheonji courses. The movement justified this by explaining that opponents of Shincheonji spread derogatory information through seminars organized by conservative and fundamentalist Christian churches and media outlets, thus causing a vicious circle. Because of the media slander and conservative-fundamentalist propaganda, few would attend events if the name Shincheonji would be mentioned, as the movement was described negatively as problematic to society. In turn, the fact that the name of the church was not immediately advertised was used by critics to claim Shincheonji was a “cult” that practiced “dissimulation.”
There was also, Shincheonji claimed, a Biblical justification for this behavior. Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 prophesied that at his second coming Jesus will come “as a thief in the night,” which Shincheonji interprets to the effect that the harvesting will be very difficult due to organized opposition, which suggests a cautious approach. And it is also true that introducing religious movements on the streets, particularly when they have been slandered by the media, without disclosing their name or by presenting first their non-religious cultural activities, is comparatively common in South Korea and not unique to Shincheonji.
Be it as it may be, in these times of quick access to information via the Internet, alternative names were easily connected to Shincheonji through a simple two- minute Google search. Opponents claim that most converts to Shincheonji were “deceived” into joining it. They insist that they did not know they were going to a Shincheonji meeting the first times they were invited to a Bible study course. However, even those who agreed to attend a service or meeting without knowing the organizer was Shincheonji, obviously realized which religious movement they had encountered once they started listening more carefully to sermons and messages. By the time they “joined” Shincheonji, which happened after completing the courses and passing the exam, they obviously did understand what organization they were joining.
A decision of the Supreme Court of Korea dated August 11, 2022, i.e., one day before the one by the same Supreme Court exonerating Chairman Lee from the COVID-related charges, mentioned these circumstances and declared that “covered” evangelism as practiced by Shincheonji is perhaps unethical but cannot generally be regarded as illegal.
On the other hand, already before COVID Shincheonji members were conscious that “covered evangelism” perpetuated a vicious circle. It was mentioned by opponents as evidence that Shincheonji is a devious, deceptive “cult,” generating more hostile media coverage and, in the eyes of the devotees, the need for an even more cautious approach. For these reasons, the movement started moving to “open evangelism,” using the name Shincheonji from the very first contact with potential converts.
That this is the case is recognized also by Shincheonji’s opponents. Australia and New Zealand are countries where the movement is present and has also encountered a strong opposition. Peter Lineham, a scholar from New Zealand who is critical of “cults” and Shincheonji, acknowledged in an interview of July 7, 2022, that, “This was a group that had previously operated under cover names, and now the advertisements are very boldly Shincheonji. It was very clear who that was and no disguise whatsoever… This is a distinct change of strategy to openly proclaim who they are.”
The issue may thus soon become totally moot but will probably remain for years a pillar of anti-Shincheonji propaganda. These accusations and the threat of deprogramming are serious problems for Korean Shincheonji members. However, the international protest against the practice of deprogramming, before the COVID-19 epidemics hit South Korea and the movement, was growing, and it was becoming difficult for South Korean authorities to ignore it.
At age 93, Chairman Lee continues to be active. What the future may reserve to a movement who expects his leader not to die but to guide his followers into the Millennium remains to be seen. Sociologists, however, know that there are many different ways, some of them unexpected, in which prophecies may “come true” for those who sincerely believe in them.
At any rate, our research has led to the conclusion that the campaigns against Shincheonji are largely slanderous and malicious. Shincheonji members are law-abiding citizens and the movement does not represent a threat to society.
Source: bitterwinter.org
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