“Conversion Pastor Caused Newlyweds to Divorce, Promoting Division and Conflict Among Both Families”

On 9th September 2020, Cheonji Ilbo published a harrowing article, in Korean, concerning coercive conversion, entitled “Conversion Pastor Caused Newlyweds to Divorce, Promoting Division and Conflict Among Both Families”. This is a translation of that article.

The once unknown term 'forced conversion' became a serious topic in South Korean society in 2008 after Pastor Yong-Sik Jin sent Mrs. 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 Mrs. 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. 

Families filled with fear and worry 

Enforcement of Communist-style Conversion

[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.

https://bit.ly/35hqCpp

Full Coercive Conversion Reports

Drugged and Abducted, Chained and Imprisoned...Yet Police Respond to Three Separate Appeals With the Words "We Can't Help You"
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/09/drugged-and-abducted-chained-and.html

“Adult Male Kidnapped, Drugged, Handcuffed & Forced into a Suitcase for the Purpose of Coercive Conversion" (18th June 2020)⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/06/adult-male-kidnapped-drugged-handcuffed.html

'Counselling Education'? No - 'Coercive Conversion' & Human Rights Abuses. Controversy Surrounds YTN As Its News Anchor Becomes Head Speaker at CBS' 'Shincheonji Counselling' Programme (June 25th 2020)⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/06/counselling-education-no-coercive.html

Coercive Conversion in Present-Day South Korea: Amoral Pastors Who Deceive Parents for Money
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/06/coercive-conversion-in-present-day.html

"Mum’s Piercing Words, 'Get out of the House, you Bi*ch!' Yet Later Protested 'Bring Back my Daughter!'" (Cheonji Daily, 10th June 2020)
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/06/mums-piercing-words-get-out-of-house.html

"It’s because of 'Shincheonji Church' Vs. 'It's Parents Who Kidnap and Confine their Children'. Who's to blame?" (Cheonji Daily, 5th June 2020)
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/06/its-because-of-shincheonji-church-vs.html

“Kidnapped & Confined: Coercive Conversion Abuses Parents’ Love & Must Be Eliminated”
(Cheonji Daily 2nd June 2020)
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/06/kidnapped-confined-coercive-conversion.html

“Coercive Conversion Pastor Treated me like an Animal and Instigated Mistrust Within my Family”
(Cheonji Daily 1st June 2020)
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/06/coercive-conversion-pastor-treated-me.html

Is This A Communist ‘People's Court'? The Deception of Coercive Conversion
(Cheonji Daily 21st May 2020)
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-this-communist-peoples-court.html

Restrained with Sleeping Pills…Resisted Forced Conversion, but was Assaulted and Eventually Fainted
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/05/restrained-with-sleeping-pillsresisted.html

Drugged, Handcuffed, Kidnapped, Confined; it’s OK, they Belong to Shincheonji! Today’s ‘Cult Framing' that Violates Human Rights and Tears Families Apart
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/05/drugged-handcuffed-kidnapped-confined.html

“Kidnapped and Confined Without Shower or Food, and Sexually Shamed”
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/05/kidnapped-and-confined-without-shower.html

"Family deceived and manipulated into locking up and beating pregnant family member. 'Peace' will be found when truth is revealed"
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/05/family-deceived-and-manipulated-into.html

"They forced me to remove my underwear in front of relatives in a car. I'm a 30 year-old woman”
(Cheonji Daily 28th April 2020)
⇨http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/04/they-forced-me-to-remove-my-underwear.html