"Family deceived and manipulated into locking up and beating pregnant family member. 'Peace' will be found when truth is revealed." (Cheonji Daily 4th May 2020)

On 4th May 2020, Cheonji Ilbo (Daily) published an article entitled "Family deceived and manipulated into locking up and beating pregnant pregnant family member. 'Peace' will be found when truth is revealed." This is a translation of that article. 

The once unknown term 'forced conversion' became a serious topic in Korean society in 2008 after Pastor Jin-Sik Jin sent Mr. Baek-Hyang Jeong to a psychiatric ward in order to carry out forced conversion. He was later punished by law. At that time Pastor Jin, who headed up the Heresy Investigation Committee of the Christian Council of Korea (CCK), forcibly converted believers who belonged to denominations of the established church labelled so-called 'cults', including Mr. Jeong’s. Such cases began to rise in leaps and bounds. At first, pastors carried out ‘forced conversion’ (also termed ‘deprogramming’ or ‘coercive conversion’) themselves, but later altered their approach. Today, forced conversion pastors instil fear and anxiety in the families of Shincheonji Church members by slandering Shincheonji Church, so that families are deceived into believing their beloved child, wife or parent has fallen into a ‘cult’ and are prone to making immediate hasty decisions. In order to prevent this, forced conversion programs tainted by illegal practices that include kidnap, confinement and violence become the 'last straw' to save the family. In 21st century South Korea, where issues around religious freedom have been brought to the limelight, ‘forced conversion’ continues unabated. This paper intends to serialise the distressing appeals of victims who have had to endure human rights violations and oppression through forced conversion, and are otherwise unable to voice their plea.

• 'Dad has had a major accident' - lies. The place I was taken to by my brother was a church 
• I was 6 months pregnant, it was midsummer and I couldn't even wash for 3 days. When I resisted, they dished out verbal abuse and made me quit my job 
• Family verified authenticity of coercive conversion pastor's word. Husband and younger brother are now my strong supporters 

[Cheonji Ilbo = Reporter Kang Soo-kyung] Forced conversion mainly targets the socially disadvantaged. Among the biggest victims in today’s patriarchal culture are women and students. In particular, if only one family member attends a church labelled by the established church as a 'cult', he or she becomes a perfect target for conversion program by the established church. Even pregnant women are not exempt. The greater the anxiety and fear instilled into the family, the stronger the intensity of illegal acts committed upon the victim. The only way to break this vicious cycle is for families to detach from conversion pastors and engage in dialogue with the victim. During the six month of her pregnancy, Mi-Kyung Lim was made a victim of forced conversion and imprisoned in the Presbyterian Church. What follows is a full account of Mrs. Lim's experience. 

I am the wife of an ordinary family and the mother of two children. 

My name is Mi-Kyung Lim (pseudonym), a victim of forced conversion who was imprisoned at the headquarters of the Korean Presbyterian Church during my sixth month of pregnancy. 

I can find courage writing this article because I am hopeful that human rights violations against South Koreans will be corrected as soon as the identity of forced conversion pastors is revealed by the fact that victims of inhumane coercive conversion have resulted from the forced conversion program. Even at this moment, forced conversion is taking place through kidnap, drugging, handcuffing and imprisonment. 

August 2007 was a cruel and frightening summer that I never want to recall. Through family members who had received keys from the forced conversion pastors Revd. Kangmo and Revd. Immo, I was imprisoned for 3 days at the Presbytery of Maegokmo Presbyterian Church where I received forced conversion counselling. 

At 7am on the day of the incident, I received a phone call from my brother in a panicked and trembling voice. 

My father had been taken to the emergency unit following a motorbike accident at dawn. In shock hearing of the severity of my father's injuries, I rushed to the ground floor of my apartment and jumped into my brother's car. However, it wasn’t at hospital we arrived; but Maegokmo Presbyterian Church. My brother was so anxious that he pleaded with the pastor for us to enter the Presbytery. I followed without hesitation. 

Inside the Presbytery, the pastor had been waiting for us with a blackboard and desk in preparation for conversion counselling - not prayer. 

I was taken aback seeing them and looked for my cell phone to call for help, but my brother had already hidden my purse with my cell phone somewhere inside, so I couldn't. 

The door was fully locked with the door locks ‘missing’. There was no fax machine or telephone for contact with the outside world. Then my father, who I had been told was in the emergency unit, walked into the house with my mother who burst into tears as soon as she saw me. When I cried out loud asking what was going on, my brother shouted at me to be quiet as church members came in and surrounded me. 

At around 9am, Rev. Kangmo and Rev. Immo, businessmen-turned leaders of the Heresy Investigation Committee at Mother God Church, Gwangju, came in. More than a dozen people who had followed Rev. Kangmo sat opposite me, and the nightmare of forced conversion began. 

Roughly 20 people including my family members sat beside me and an overbearing mood for forced conversion began. 

The conversion pastor told me that I had been taken to their church to be ‘educated’ naked and bound, but they didn't and taught at the conversion pastor's home because I was six months pregnant. 

Conversion counselling was carried out like a religious witch hunt from the Middle Ages as the conversion pastors mocked me. 

Whenever I think about it, anger builds and my whole body sweats into paralysis. 

Even after such a long time, I still suffer from severe anxiety whenever I enter a confined space alone. 

I cried out, 'I don't want to be educated, please let me out.' 

This was an obvious imprisonment, so I shouted that when I got out of there, I would make sure they go to prison for confining pregnant women and teaching forced conversion. Whenever I refused conversion counselling, the evangelist glanced at my brother who, although having never previously sworn at me, immediately shouted all sorts of profanities and rants at me. 

Those who accompanied the conversion pastor threatened me until I agreed to receive conversion counselling. 

Conversion counselling is a religious modern-day abhorrence. 

Conversion pastors sat in hard steel chairs for more than 14 hours a day carrying out conversion counselling. 

Rev. Lim was so callous as he psychotically spewed out all kinds of slander and accusations at me. I sat there paralysed. 

In the sweaty hot summer, I was not allowed once to wash while confined. 

Gasping for air, I asked him to open the window for a short while, but he said, "We mustn't let the sound out." 

I pleaded for him to let me listen to the voice of my 5-year-old daughter at home, but he wouldn't. 

After three days receiving conversion counselling, my health began to seriously deteriorate. 

I felt that the life of my unborn was threatened. After finding an opportunity, I called an acquaintance for help and the police was dispatched. 

I told the police I had been imprisoned for 3 days, and pleaded with them to protect forced conversion victims. 

However, the police said, “Don't make such a fuss. I'll be back, so sort this out with your family properly. And don’t come back.” 

After the police left, my husband was agitated and dragged me back in, and also threatened me with a knife. 

My mother beside me stopped my husband in case he killed me, and my husband told me he wanted a divorce. 

Afterwards, my husband resigned from his job, drank alcohol every day and assaulted me. My daughter suffered severe emotional anxiety and experienced frequent convulsions. 

My body was exhausted, my weight severely reduced, and my child in the 'vertex' position because of stress. It was very difficult to give birth. 

At night, I suffered nightmares that brought back memories of conversion education, and I daily suffered tears and mental agony without joy. 

Our home was a peaceful and loving one before the conversion pastor intervened. 

After the intervention of the self-proclaimed 'conversion pastor', my husband quit his job and my daughter suffered emotional anxiety which led my family to a near break-down. 

My brother and husband, who watched me continue take care of my family despite these unfortunate events, came to my church to see if the words of the pastor were true or not. 

As a result, they realise that all the words the pastor had spoken were false, and now they are my strong supporters.

The main culprit in the destruction of the family unit is the conversion pastor. I am writing this article in the hope that the identity of conversion pastors who are greedy for money and commit human rights abuses will be revealed and brought to justice.

To read the full article as published in Cheonji Daily, please click here⇨https://bit.ly/3dbNlE5