How I ended up in a Korean religious cultMartijn Bergsma
17 November 2014
http://www.yeu-international.org/en/publications/newsmail/small-stories-that-can-change-the-world/how-i-ended-up-in-a-korean-religious-cult"...Via a colleague I received an invitation to attend a ‘
world peace summit’, in Seoul,
South Korea, in my capacity as president of a youth organization in the Netherlands. The three-day event aimed to bring together representatives from governments, religions and youth organizations, in order to ‘discuss and create an interfaith constitution for peace’. The members of the youth organizations would also meet separately, to discuss peaceful actions in their communities. The organization, officially called ‘
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL)’, paid 80% of the plane ticket. ..."
"...The main speech was again from Mr. Man Hee Lee, where I found out the
real intentions behind the gathering. Previously Man Hee Lee spoke about “uniting all youngsters to achieve peace”, but now it became clear how exactly: by uniting
under his religion.
He explained that he was sent as a messenger from heaven to deliver this message and that uniting under the one true God was the only way to solve conflicts. Diversity was the problem. At that moment I was sure that this ‘peace summit’ would not have a meaningful contribution. Back in the hotel I started googling to see if I could find more about Man Hee Lee and the movement. Some blogs explained that
HWPL was actually a disguised body of the ‘Sincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony’, which Man Hee Lee founded in 1984. It is best described as
a Christian cult, with dubious teachings on the bible. The organization infiltrates schools and other churches, to recruit new members and to indoctrinate them. For foreigners they organize free Korean lessons and leisure events.
While these foreigners don’t know exactly who organizes these free activities, on photo and video material it seems that they support the Church. For similar reasons we were photographed so much in the stadium: we are excellent propaganda material for the South Korean people, showing them that Man Hee Lee has supporters from all over the world. ..."
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