They said that not all members are full-time missionaries who decide to devote their life to the church, saying many members work in secular jobs or are studying full-time at university. Lawyers for New Heaven New Earth/Shincheonji said they object to being called a cult, seeing the term as a “derogatory, stereotyping label” which had been abandoned by scholars of “new religious movements”. After all, that is the easiest target for them.īut for us, our journey with them is over, and I am glad for it. I’m worried that this cult will grow while they keep recruiting curious Christians. It will likely go unspoken and perhaps that is the best way for him to deal with what has happened. I don’t know how to address that, and I don’t think he will be able to himself. To this day there is a little part of him that feels worried that they are right and everyone else is wrong. I love him and seeing him slowly starting to lose control of his schedule and assurance in his own judgment was frightening. I thought something was seriously wrong when I asked him if he would leave me if they told him to. First, it was two to three months, then it was six to eight months. Most importantly there was no specific end date to the course. There was no transparency in the group – no website, no physical location. Soon I started to notice there were gaping inconsistencies in what they said. Any sessions missed had to be made up, yet there was no apparent structure to the course. We spent our Valentine’s Day evening listening to the bible study because he was too afraid to miss it. The grasp this cult has on people is unlike a normal church, they require dedication in ways I have never seen. This cult is not like one you’d see on TV it appeared to be much more sly and easily hidden. My boyfriend was hungry for the word of God, but I believed he was being misled. They seemed to prey on fear and I felt they didn’t promote typical Christian values of love and generosity. The teachers were young with unknown credibility, yet they were the only ones who were delivering the words of the bible. The teachings sounded strange and apocalyptic, nothing like I was used to. We spent a lot of time together as a couple and I had heard him do these bible studies for months. I put that in quotation marks because I don’t think it was a bible study.Īs a Christian myself, who has grown up in the church and been exposed to a number of denominations, I didn’t consider the teachings were from God. He said that he never felt as connected to God as he did during the time he was going to these “bible study sessions”. I even grew to respect her to a certain extent and could see she was an inspiring influence for him. Her career achievements were what many students aspired towards and he shared a lot in common with her – the same university, same motivations, same faith and same race. It was a course run by an alumni of a top London university – a woman who became almost like a mentor to my boyfriend.
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