#CCK #HAC #Human_Rights #Coercive_Conversion_Program #Rally #Jongno

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

http://scj.so/cckout_en