[Cheonji Ilbo = Reporter Kang Soo-kyung] A pastor advised a newlywed couple to divorce because of one spouse's differing religion to the other. What do you think about this? As a means of forcibly converting that individual, the entire family was brought together to undergo the coercive conversion programme with communist-like judgment. Does this make any logical sense? The reality is that, within the Korean Protestant Church, such barbaric acts are being carried out under the guise of 'orthodoxy', and their actions justified by condemning others as ‘heretics’. The lives of the newlywed Lims (Dalseo district, Daegu city) were torn apart by the intrusion of a conversion pastor. What follows is a full account of Mr. Lim's appeal.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am making an appeal to you about the victimisation my family has undergone.

After my marriage on June 5th 2004, we settled in Haeundae, Busan. I was hungry for an understanding of the word so I listened to the word taught by an instructor of Shincheonji Church in August that year. In January the following year, I began attending Shincheonji Church services. My wife received the same teaching in October 2004, but gave up halfway because she believed it was a cult and because of Pastor Jin of 'Church A' in Ansan. 

Pastor Jin and his associates instilled fear in my wife and sister by slandering Shincheonji Church and labelling it an outright cult. Through his words, the process of deception began.

Pastor Jin instructed my wife and sister to devise a plan to get me onto the conversion programme. Firstly, at the counsel of Pastor Jin, they gathered my parents-in-law together with their children, my nephews, parents and even pregnant sisters in a motel near Pastor Jin's church in Ansan during the bitter winter of 2005.

The entire family hurriedly flocked to Ansan as if there were a family bereavement. Up until then, we  had been living in peace as a newlyweds with mutual trust among our families. However, from the moment that we were brought to Ansan, our families were divided by irrational fear and gradually split.

As I write this, it pains me to recall this experience, and I resent Pastor Jin for having instilled such fear in my loved ones.

If Pastor Jin truly cared for, and wanted to save lives as a so-called 'pastor', he wouldn’t have done what he did. Pastor Jin had my family rob me of my cell phone, wallet, and other possessions, leaving me empty-handed. Moreover, he instructed my father and every male relative to monitor my every move.

During the coercive conversion programme held at Pastor Jin's 'Church A’, there was one person seated at a table positioned in the middle of a blackboard with family members on either side. At the back were all remaining family members, seated as they listened to the proceedings of the conversion programme.

All my relatives were fearful, and treated me as if I had some sort of incurable disease. When I objected to what they were doing, I was forcefully put down, yelled at and forced to listen to the conversion programme.

From morning to evening, the conversion pastor had three different people take turns to instruct me. Their content consisted mainly of slander against Shincheonji Church and its Chairman with no relation whatsoever to the Bible.

Halfway through the conversion programme, I asked Biblical questions in response to what they were saying, but they were unable to give me a response based on the Bible. Instead, they showed me accusatory videos mixed with rumours, at times yelling profanities that no pastor should speak.

What's most heartbreaking and disturbing is that they deliberately and successfully drew in all family members on-the-spot to listen to these lies.

Two nights and three days passed and the resulting impact on all our hearts and minds was severe. What resulted after these few days was a divorce; an unfathomable reality that no one could have predicted. Within just a few days, conversion pastor Jin had destroyed the family unit.

Both families opposed one another and said they would break all relations with one another because of this issue. Within a few days, the family unit had been ripped apart, causing irreversible damage.

The pastor showed no remorse, even after taking 500,000 Korean Won from my family as payment for what he had done.

Since then, my parents and in-laws have been suffering from severe physical pain, with my father-in-law developing a lump in his intestines just a few days later and having to undergo surgery.

You may know that once one's heart is broken, it is not easily recovered. Since then, my wife and I have suffered much hardship, caused by seeds of distrust and division planted by Pastor Jin. Had Pastor Jin not intervened, my wife and I would have overcome our religious differences smoothly and raised children in a loving home. 

It's mind-blowing that pastors like Mr. Jin continue to carry out this vicious money-making conversion programme the way he has done with our family. Where is the justice system within this country? Whom does our law protect? I'm truly puzzled as to the reasons why our country is doing nothing about these callous groups of people who manipulate and destroy peaceful family units for the sake of money. 

Their crime is not only the physical damage (beatings) they have caused, but acts that pierce the heart and destroy a stable family unit. Such acts must be treated as a felony and receive severe due punishment. Why is our justice system turning a blind eye to the dozens of families who endure such atrocities?

I sincerely ask you to take measures to eradicate these social evils as soon as possible so that justice prevails and the family unit remains protected.