Unacceptable Kiwi Christian group called a “cult” but unacceptable Muslim groups are ignored in New Zealand

After Auckland based?Sheik Anwar Sahib?and?Sheilk Abu Abdullah were exposed no one held any meetings to discuss their concerns that men like that are in our community with links to people involved in terrorism. They preached unacceptable things about women, gays, Jews and non-Muslims but no Christian organisations have expressed any concerns or attempted to do anything about them. They certainly did not call them a cult or the men themselves cult leaders even though they easily fit the description.

In contrast, to this willful blindness when it comes to confronting Auckland based Muslim leaders and Islamic sects, people are holding meetings to discuss their concerns about the Shincheonji, or the “New Heaven and New Earth” church in Auckland. They don’t have links to terrorism but they are considered a threat to local churches because they are using “deceitful” methods to lure Christian church members away to join their cult. Perhaps we need to start calling certain Muslim leaders cult leaders in order to get people to take the threat they pose seriously?

Pastors, police and concerned parents will meet to discuss the recruitment activities of a South Korean-linked group accused of teaching a “theology of deception”.

Shincheonji, or the “New Heaven and New Earth” church?has set up base in Auckland, and has allegedly been recruiting members from Christian churches and universities using “deceitful methods”.

A Shincheonji leader said this was not true, and religion was a personal matter that neither media or society can judge to be right or wrong.

What a ridiculous statement. A religious law that says that a woman who is raped should be stoned to death for adultery if there are not four male witnesses to her rape is clearly wrong as is a religious belief that a woman is not a man’s equal and should ask his permission before leaving the house. Media and society have every right to judge certain beliefs and religious laws and find them morally unacceptable and repugnant. A core belief of Islam is that the prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a six-year-old girl who he had full sex with when she was nine was both culturally and morally acceptable. Our society has every right to judge that with repugnance and to make child brides illegal in our anti-paedophilia culture.

The meeting is being called by University of Auckland chaplain Rev Dr Carolyn Kelly, but the date and location is being kept a secret amid fears of it being hijacked.

[…] People who will be at the meeting include church leaders, pastors, university chaplains, concerned family and youth leaders.

“There has been evidence and news reports of Shincheonji elsewhere…with churches responding to heightened activity and concerns for young adults being lured in,” said Kelly.

“These reports have exactly mirrored the anecdotal evidence I have heard in Auckland.”

Members of the group, also known as Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, believe that its founder Lee Man-Hee is the appointed successor of Jesus Christ.

Steve Worsley, lead pastor of Mt Albert Baptist Church, said his church had lost members, including some leaders to the group.

Worsley said recruiters, called “harvest reapers”, joined his church under the pretense of being regular attendees.

“But they are on the look out for people they can invite away to one of their?Bible?studies,” said Worsley, who will be at the meeting.

“It would be fine if they were another open and trustworthy denomination, they’re not – they teach that their founder is immortal and he teaches hatred towards outsiders.”

Worsley said recruits were not told who the group really is until they were “well down the track”.

“You have no idea that you’re part of a group that believe that a 85-year-old Korean man is the Messiah,” he said.

[…] “It is the tearing apart of family relationships that is the hardest to watch, but also the destroying of an individual’s future,” Worsley said.

“The process of thought reform is astonishing. People of good character end up deceiving people. Shincheonji teaches a theology of deception.”

[…] A police officer, who has been involved with gathering intel about the group, has confirmed that he too will be attending the meeting.

A New Zealand-European man, who proclaims to be a “devout Christian”, told the?Herald?that Shincheonji members had “brainwashed” his wife and other family members into joining them.

“For me the hardest part has been finding out just how much and how long they have been lying to me about where they were going…they have been taught to see the worst in my character and to leave me out,” he said.

“This has broken my marriage and threatens to pull our whole family apart.”

The group recruits mainly non-Koreans, and the?Herald?reported in April that one international student donated his entire university fees to the group after he was taught that earthly education was of no use to him.

Another, a law student at the university and a former Shincheonji church attendee, claimed members of the group helped his mate “escape his family” in Auckland and paid for his airfare to live with believers in South Korea.

[…] Earlier this year, the Korean Church Association, representing Korean Protestant churches, issued a warning about the group, calling it a “dangerous cult”.

This follows a formal alert issued last November by the Church of England to 500 parishes in London about the group’s activities there and called for vigilance.

SB

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