Shincheonji Church of Jesus

The group is apocalyptic[10] and messianic in character,[11] and has been described as a doomsday cult.[11] The group's founder and leader Lee is a self-proclaimed messiah.[12] Known for its secretive nature, adherents believe that Lee is the returned Jesus Christ[3] and that the Bible is written in secret metaphors which only Lee can correctly interpret.[4] The group believes that on the Day of Judgment, Lee will take 144,000 adherents to Heaven with him,[13] where they will enjoy eternal life.[14]

The group is known for its aggressive, and deceptive proselytizing practices. With a poor image in mainstream South Korean society, Shincheonji leaders have at times instructed their members to lie about being adherents of the group, although the group has said that doing so is not its official policy.[15] The group is regarded as heretical by mainstream Christian denominations.[15]

In 2014, it was estimated to have over 120,000 members,[16] while a 2020 estimate put membership at around 200,000.[17] It was once the fastest-growing religious sect in South Korea.[18]

In March 2020, health authorities of the Government of South Korea investigating the COVID-19 pandemic officially declared to the press that they obtained an exact list of 317,320 registered Shincheonji members.[19][20]

protest against shincheonji, Wonju-si

The sect has been accused of actively infiltrating other churches to convert other churches' members.

• South Korea – Its members have been sighted in Myeongdong Cathedral, often pretending to be pious believers seeking to lure other Koreans or foreigners into their own religious meetings.[21]
• United Kingdom – In November 2016, the Church of England issued a formal alert to around 500 parishes in London about the activities of a Shincheonji affiliate known as Parachristo. Parachristo, a registered charity in the UK, runs Bible study courses in London Docklands, and was using these courses to recruit members of the Church of England.[22]

"Those who become involved [in Shincheonji] gradually withdraw from friends and family and actively lie about their real lives."[22] Further warnings were issued by Nicky Gumbel, vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, and John Peters, rector of St Mary's Church, London.

• India – In August 2019, the Baptist Convention in Manipur, India, warned worshippers to be wary of Shincheonji. "Their leader Lee Man-Hee claims to have access to secret knowledge of scriptures which other church pastors do not know. Moreover, he claims that one can truly know God only by following and listening to the teachings of Shincheonji. Once they are into this group, they spend most of their time inviting people to join Shincheonji group and spend less time with their families, friends and churches and neglect and quit their studies or work."[23]
• Singapore - In late February 2020, Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam announced that the Ministry of Home Affairs would be investigating the local Sincheonji chapter for fraudulent activities including creating front companies and using deceptive methods to recruit young people into their sect.[24][25][26]

In 2017, Shinchonji was reported to be evangelizing students in the University of Aucklands to be members.[27]

Cases of the Shincheonji cluster

The sect became involved in controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic, an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infections followed from the participation of a SARS-CoV-2 infected person, "Patient 31", at the organization.[28][29] A dozen Chinese members of the sect from Wuhan were also connected to the Daegu Shincheonji outbreak.[30][31]

In Busan, a 61-year-old Daegu resident is believed to have spread the virus.[32] By 20 February 2020, 53 new cases were Shincheonji attendees or their families,[33] reaching over 300 by 23 February, over half of all cases in South Korea.[34] With an additional 4,000 cases of COVID-19 within two weeks, and roughly 60% of the total infections nationwide having stemmed from the church,[35] the Seoul city government asked prosecutors to press charges against the religious group's founder and senior members for murder, causing harm, and for violating the Infectious Disease and Control Act.[13] Interviews have occurred with all 230,000 members of the religious group and nearly 9,000 were said to be showing symptoms of the virus.[36] After a lawsuit was started by the Mayor of Seoul, the police raided the church premises to check whether the list of members supplied by Shincheonji pursuant to a request by the authorities was, as the Mayor argued, not complete. The authorities checked the list seized during the raid with the one Shincheonji had supplied, and concluded that discrepancies were minor.[37]

In March 2020, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expressed concern that religious freedom rights of Shincheonji members may be violated in South Korea by "exaggerating the church's role in the outbreak," and stated that, "USCIRF has received reports of individuals encountering discrimination at work and spousal abuse because of their affiliation with the church."[38] USCIRF reported that South Korean "Vice Minister of Health Kim Kang-lip has publicly stated that the Shincheonji church has cooperated with authorities."[38] The Belgian NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers and CESNUR released a "White Paper" claiming that, although it did make "mistakes" in its management of the crisis, Shincheonji had also been discriminated against because of its status as an unpopular group in South Korea.[39][40]

• Choe Sang-Hun (10 March 2020). "'Proselytizing Robots': Inside South Korean Church at Outbreak's Center". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020. Even before the coronavirus scourge, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus was viewed suspiciously. Now it has become the most vilified church in South Korea.

• Official website