#CCK #HAC #Human_Rights
#Coercive_Conversion_Program #Rally #Jongno
On 11th January 2019, a rally with 1000s of participants was hosted by the Human Rights Association for Victims of Coercive Conversion Programs (HAC) outside the offices of the Christian Council of Korea (CCK) in the heart of Seoul, Republic of Korea. This rally resulted from the widespread abuse of human rights inflicted by pastors of the CCK through their coercive conversion programme, which has led to the death of Ms. Ji-In Gu on January 9th 2018 and 137 confirmed cases since then. It is an outright violation of human rights masked beneath the veil of religion. “Conversion program leaders call the practice ‘counseling,’ masking their true intent for financial profit and allowing them to systematically violate human rights beneath the detection of the law,” said Ms. Ji Hye Choi, HAC Co-President.
The corruption of the CCK is now
so widespread within South Korea. The horrors of the programme were evident
back in October 2007 after Ms. Sunhwa Kim was bludgeoned
to death with a hammer by her ex-husband for refusing to renounce her beliefs
and receive coercive conversion education from the aptly named ‘Korean Cult
Counselling Office’ established by the CCK. By deceiving victims’ loved ones,
pastors evade legal punishment. It was over ten years later that the horror of
coercive conversion became known when foreign press publicised the murder of young
Ms. Ji-In Gu, beginning with a full-page advertisement in the New York Times
entitled “Ban Coercive Conversion” (local police conveniently ruled her death as
a mere 'religious and family issue’, leading to limited media coverage within Korea).
Ms. Gu was a believer in Shincheonji Church of Jesus who had escaped her first
kidnapping from a Catholic monastery in July 2016 and pled to the
Korean president for justice through a hand-written letter urging for an end to
the programme and legal punishment for coercive conversion pastors. Her plea
fell on deaf ears and she was taken hostage again before she died of asphyxiation
at the hands of her parents during her struggle in resisting coercive
conversion education.
The
crimes committed by the CCK go beyond human rights violations hidden beneath
the veil of religion. Shincheonji Church of Jesus recently released statistics
about crimes committed by pastors of the Korean Church, which are expected to
make an impact nationwide shortly. Pastors were convicted of 12,000 crimes between
2008 and 2018. Over the last 3.5 years, 531 pastors in Seoul were sentenced for
crimes including fraud, burglary, forgery, defamation, drink-driving, arson,
sexual assault and even murder. In fact, the occupation responsible for
committing the highest number of sex-related crimes are (protestant) pastors.
The worst cases involved sexual intercourse with minors, beating to death of a
young girl and the stabbing of a fellow pastor. This is the reality of the CCK.
Yet this is not the first time pastors' crimes have been revealed. According to
the Public Prosecutor's Office published in 2012, the total number of violent
crimes committed by people stood at 25,485, of which 6414 (25.2%) were
committed by people with religious authority.
The
roots of the CCK are steeped in dark history. During Japanese colonial rule
(1910-1945), the majority (Presbyterian and Methodist) churches served as informants to
the Japanese occupiers, selling them weapons for use against their own people
and inciting pastors of minority denominations to do the same. They provided military
supplies to the occupiers including a battle plane named ‘Joseon Presbyterian
Aircraft’. They worshipped the occupiers’ Yasukuni Shrine and used church
buildings to sing the Japanese National Anthem (Kimigayo). The CCK was founded in
December 1989 on the teachings of the 16th century theologian, John Calvin, who
killed men, women and children who opposed his beliefs on predestination. Calvinism
forms the majority teaching within the mainstream (Presbyterian) Korean church
today.
In its attempt to hold on to
power and its congregation members who have been defecting to other Christian denominations
in high number, the CCK has been slandering Shincheonji church of Jesus for
years, distorting Koreans’ understanding of Shincheonji. In alliance with Christian
Broadcasting System (CBS), it broadcast the eight-part
documentary ‘People who fell into Shincheonji’, which the Supreme Court later
ruled as false and groundless, ordering CBS to pay damages of 50 million Korean
Won (c.£35,000). This is just the touch of the iceberg. It has obstructed numerous peace works designed to reunify the broken Korean
peninsula and interfered with Shincheonji church’s volunteer works in any way possible. CCK is becoming
increasingly divided as pastors jostle for power, selling positions of authority as chairman or pastor.
Through
the coercive conversion programme, conversion pastors deceive the parents of
Shincheonji Church’s youth, receiving weekly payments of approximately
600,000KRW (£420), educating parents on ways to convert their child, forcefully
feeding them sleeping pills, taking away their cell phones, handcuffing them,
confining them in isolated places, beating them into signing an agreement to
receive conversion programmes and forcing them to apply for a leave of absence
from school or work until they sign for conversion education. If children are
still not converted, they are then sent to psychiatric wards. Parents then
return to their child’s church and shout out all sorts of profanities, saying “give back my son (daughter)”. Thousands
of families have been divided through their deception.
As
news of the coercive conversion programme spreads, it is only a matter of time before CBS and CCK crumble and its
deeds are made throughout the world. There are likely many more victims of this
heinous programme suffering silently in remote locations throughout South Korea.
I hope you can feel the purpose and heart behind today’s rally and share news with
others to ensure that there are no more victims.
Rally Against the CCK
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