Slouching toward Shincheonji

By Jon Dunbar

Shincheonji is a name that is familiar to any foreigner who was living here in 2012. That year, the church used its front group Mannam to lure in foreigners for all manner of activities.

There were language classes, parties, sporting events and more. It was incredibly generous and attractive, but some of the bigger Mannam events made foreigners uncomfortable. Many suspected they were being lured in as seat-fillers, simply to elevate the organization with their foreign faces.

When it was revealed that Mannam was wholly operated by the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the foreign members abandoned their Mannam clubs. A few stayed, either unwilling to believe they had been tricked or in on the grift themselves. Many said they had never been approached with religious offers, and if they had, they would have been out of there.

It became clear Shincheonji's endgame was to bring foreigners to its quadrennial Olympiad, an event held in Seoul Olympic Stadium which featured a full day of sports competitions, a massive parade and even North Korea-style mass games, in which members in the bleachers functioned as human pixels holding up colored cards to produce massive images.

The event, on Sept. 16, was said to be tied closely to the U.N. International Day of Peace, Sept. 21, but it was clearly to mark the Sept. 15 birthday of its octogenarian leader, Lee Man-hee.

Most people were repulsed by this, but I was intrigued, having witnessed the North Korean mass games in 2010, and decided to attend in the media section, having no interest in Shincheonji's religious teachings.

Other foreigners in Mannam shirts were bussed in from everywhere across the country, some not knowing what was in store and some still in denial about Mannam's true nature ― until it was too late and they were in a stadium filled past capacity with identically dressed Shincheonji members.

Some were even marched into the stadium and made to stand in the very middle in view of over 100,000 worshippers while various presentations and speeches were made.

All the while, it was clear both sides were being kept separate and given different messages in their respective languages. In English it was the World Peace Festival, with the name Shincheonji only ever appearing in Korean.

It was clear the foreigners were being told “Cheer if you like world peace ― here's some free stuff,” while the Korean worshippers were given a message more like “See how our leader's message is reaching people from around the world!” It was a grand deception.

The mass games were spectacular, but I left before the end of the day when it was made apparent we were not welcome there. On my way out, I passed by the real victims of Shincheonji: Its young Korean recruits sitting on the pavement outside the stadium. It was they who gave their money to the church to put this spectacle together, and they who donated their time to march and hold up color-coded pixels.

It was for these kids that Mannam ultimately existed ― to convince them the church was growing worldwide and to give them more work to do. So while the foreigners were lured in with Mannam and all its free stuff, they were there to further victimize the Korean followers themselves.

Since then, Shincheonji scrapped Mannam and created other front groups, with names like the International Peace Youth Group (IPYG), the International Women's Peace Group (IWPG) and Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL).

After Mannam collapsed, the church refocused its attention on people who hadn't been warned about them, and became quite active in developing countries. There, they could say what they wanted about themselves and their leader, and everyone would just take their word for it because there was no one saying otherwise online.

Korea is host to a number of these predatory religious groups, and one of the reasons they've been able to spread so successfully is that no one will speak up. Everyone knows what they are, but they remain silent for fear of retaliation. And then foreigners are easy pickings for their recruitment tactics.

It is only when these groups fall into extreme disfavor ― Yoo Byeong-eon's church following the Sewol sinking, Manmin Church's Lee Jae-rock's rape conviction and now Shincheonji's role in spreading the coronavirus in Korea ― that anyone ever actually does anything about them.

Jon Dunbar is a copyeditor at The Korea Times. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not represent the editorial direction of The Korea Times.