Stranger Things

Jan. 23, 2026: South Korea Indicts Cult Leader Who Abused Followers & Stepdaughter (Chosun Ilbo)

QuoteA man in his 60s who called himself "God," psychologically dominated his stepdaughter and female followers, and habitually committed sexual violence has been brought to trial. It was revealed that he even mobilized an incumbent public official to track down a follower who left.

The Namwon branch of the Jeonju District Prosecutors' Office said on the 23rd that it indicted A (68) under detention on charges including violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (forced indecent act by a family relationship), quasi-rape, false accusation, and violation of the Personal Information Protection Act. Follower B (42) and public official C (53, female), who illegally looked up the victim's personal information on A's orders, were also indicted without detention on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.

A smaller cult does allow for more direct control from above. There's no real place to hide when you share a home with an abusive cult leader, as in the following:

Dec 14, 2017: Prosecutors Arrest Cult Leader Over Couple Suicide (Korea JoongAng Daily)

QuoteProsecutors arrested a cult leader on Thursday for instigating the suicide of an elderly couple last month. They also arrested the couple's daughter for abetting her parents' suicide. The 83-year-old man committed suicide with his 77-year-old wife. . ...

In Korea, the couple rented a four-bedroom house in a small village in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi, together with five other followers, including their 43-year-old daughter. There, the cult leader constantly reminded her followers that she "was a prophet who had received God's revelations." She demanded complete obedience from them, forbidding them from speaking or even acting without her permission.

In the weeks preceding the suicide, however, the cult leader began convincing the couple that they were possessed with a "dragon," or the devil. She urged them to repent and go to where God was waiting for them.

On Nov. 11, she and the daughter drove the couple to a bridge overlooking the Bukhan River in Gapyeong, from which the couple jumped off. The father was found dead the next day in the river. Though the mother is still missing, she is believed to have been swept away by the currents.

On Thursday, the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office detained and indicted the daughter and the cult leader for abetting and instigating the suicide of the couple. ...

She also denied her role as leader of the cult, though records show that she was previously charged and found guilty of leading a pseudo-religious community several years ago. The cult leader did admit that she believed the couple to be possessed because she suspected them of engaging in immoral activities during their frequent, long visits to the bathroom.

She also admitted to making the husband watch "Pororo the Little Penguin," a Korean animated TV series for toddlers, so that his heart could be purified.

The daughter initially denied involvement, but when CCTV footage surfaced showing her helping her parents into the car and driving them to the bridge, she explained that she had lied out of fear that she would be punished for driving without a license.

2018: The Unification Church: A Kaleidoscopic Introduction (Eileen Barker)

QuoteSeveral members and former members have talked about smuggling money across national borders (Hong 1998: 173); I have been told by a former Unificationist that she was instructed to sew money into her petticoat; another said he had carried a suitcase packed with notes through customs. I have heard directly and indirectly of Unificationists entering into marriages that they had no intention of honouring in order to acquire visas for other Unificationists. In August 2006 it was widely reported that around 700 Unificationists had broken into the office of a newspaper company, destroyed the computers and other objects as well as violently attacking a photographer and a reporter. It has been alleged by several former Unificationists, and by his son, that the movement was responsible for the death of Professor Tahk (Tark) Myeong Hwan, a Korean scholar who was reportedly attacked on a number of occasions for refusing to stop publishing material exposing Moon and his Church.

Note 1: Professor Tark Senior has three sons all involved in some way with cult awareness/education, but I do not think Ji-il is the son mentioned above who believes the UC is responsible for his father's death.

Note 2: The reference "Hong 1998:173" is a reference to Nan-sook Hong's book In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family. I have more details here as well as a link to the text of the whole book, which is now sadly out of print. The reference to sending large amounts of cash illicitly into America was actually something I had been looking for. It was a detail that had stuck in my mind from reading the book perhaps around 20 years ago! I skimmed through my copy of the book recently - but failed to find it. Thank you, Eileen:

Circa 1986:

QuoteOne benefit of her enormous entourage was that Mrs Moon had plenty of traveling companions with whom to enter the country. I was given $20,000 in two packs of crisp new bills. I hid them beneath the tray of my makeup case... I knew that smuggling was wrong, but I believed the followers of Sun Myung-moon answered to higher laws. ... In the distorted lense through which I viewed the world, God actually had thwarted the customs agents. God did not want them to find the money because the money was for God.

Note 3: I was happily surprised to find mention of the above violence in a piece by Eileen, who is considered something of an apologist having written positive pieces after accepting money from the UC. More about that here. But in her defence, she attended my talk at the ICSA 2014 conference. Certainly, she is not nearly as bias as other "co-opted academics" as Dr Margaret Singer refers to them in her book Cults in Our Midst.

Feb. 27: How Novel Coronavirus Spread Through the Shincheonji Religious Group in South Korea  (CNN)

Note: Interviews with Kim Do-hyun, the leader's former translator, and Dr. Tark Ji-il. I talked to Do-hyun at some events while he was a member, and he was always warm and friendly and happy to discuss any SCJ-related issues. It was such a nice surpise to see he was out.

July 25, 2025: Troubling Korean Religious Cults (ABC Radio)

QuoteSouth Korea is one of the great success stories of the past 30 years, moving from military dictatorship to a strong democracy and economy. Last year, it weathered a serious test when the former president tried to declare martial law. He's since been removed.

But South Korea's also the home of a thriving number of troubling religious cults – some of them exported to Australia. Professor Tark Ji-il of Busan Presbyterian University understands this threat better than most. Not only is he a world-renowned expert, his family's been affected in a tragic way. He was in Australia recently, sharing his story.

Nov. 3, 2025: Korean Cults In Germany (Online Lecture - University of Heidelberg)

QuoteThe troubled socio-political environment caused by both the Pacific and the Korean wars provided a good soil for the growth of Korean Protestant churches as well as the rise of Christian new religious movements/cults in Korea. Notably, during the Korean War, the cults spread throughout the Korean Peninsula, and subsequently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they spread worldwide. Their new trends are categorized as, firstly, 'Hybrid Cults' which are active in both offline and online environments, secondly, 'K-Cults' which effectively use so-called K-Trends, such as pop, dance, food, beauty, etc., and lastly, 'Good Samaritan Cults' which play a positive social role, such as voluntary work, blood donation, environmental movements, etc. in surrounding societies. The Salvation Sect, Shincheonji, and World Mission Society Church of God, which are regarded as destructive heresies/cults in Korea, are active in Germany. Cult related problems are not only a religious matter but also a social matter, causing serious damage to family and society. The reason for doing my research is that my late father, who dedicated his life to preventing heresies/cults, was killed by a cult member

I recall reading articles about this issue some years ago, and after reading of a new development - March 25, I added that and another nine or ten more from a quick search. An unexpected and interesting surpise was finding an article about the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses during Japan's occupation of Korea last century. I'll add some more articles later, but I think this is a decent start:

May 13, 2015: A Life Sentence from Birth: Story of a South Korean Conscientious Objector (Amnesty International)

Oct. 3, 2015: South Korean Jehovah's Witnesses Face Stigma of Not Serving in Army (The New York Times/The Internet Archive)

Dec. 19, 2016: Is South Korea Thawing to Conscientious Objection? (The Korea Herald)

March 7, 2019: All Witnesses Imprisoned for Conscientious Objection in South Korea Now Free (Jehovah's Witnesses)

Nov. 11, 2018: S. Korea Eases Rules on Military Service (China Daily)

July 9, 2020: South Korea's Conscientious Objectors Are Getting an Alternative to Military Service (The Diplomat)

Oct. 19. 2019: Korea's Jehovah's Witnesses Saw Deep Hardship - Under Japanese Occupation (Hankyoreh)

Oct. 27, 2020: South Korean Jehovah's Witnesses Start Prison Work Terms (BBC)

Sept 2, 2022: Inside South Korea's Harsh Alternative to Military Service (Time Magazine)

March 26, 2023: Top Court Finds Jehovah's Witness Guilty of Evading Civilian Service (the Korean Herald)

March 25, 2026: Choosing Jail Over Enlistment. One Korean Man's Pacifist Stand (The Korea Herald)

Slightly different angle - the counselling of former members after exiting:

March 23, 2026: Why I Love Counselling Cult Survivors (BBC Radio - 41 Minutes)

QuoteWhen Gillie Jenkinson was 18 years old and studying at secretarial college, a woman approached her with a promise: God's eternal love. Captivated by the idea, Gillie threw herself into the evangelical charismatic Christian movement and eventually into a radical offshoot she calls 'The Community'.

Life inside was suffocating. Members surrendered all their money to the group, lived together under one roof, and obeyed their leader without question. Disobedience, or even the suspicion of 'sin', was met with physical punishment. Gillie herself was beaten with a bamboo cane. It was amid this brutality that she found an unexpected kindness in a new arrival named Tony.

After seven years of total devotion, Gillie saw The Community collapse. As it fell apart, Gillie confessed her love to Tony. They escaped together and married, but found themselves gravitating toward other churches she considered controlling. It would take another 14 years before they finally left.

Since then, Gillie has trained as a pastoral counsellor and earned a master's degree in Gestalt psychotherapy. After two residencies at the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, she decided to specialise in counselling cult survivors. She has also written a book, Walking Free from the Trauma of Coercive, Cultic and Spiritual Abuse.

April 26, 1976: Newsweek on the Many Korean Messiahs of the 1970s (Newsweek/Tragedy Of The Six Marys)
     

QuoteTahk Myeong-hwan, director of the New Religions Research Institute, has found at least 302 religious sects flourishing around Seoul, including 64 associated with the Christian faith; estimates of their followers run as high as 1.4 million.

I wasn't sure where to post this, but it does give an overview of the UC from its founding until circa 2020, and I like that it doesn't shy away from noting valid critisicms:

2021: Tzu-Chi and the 'Moonies': New Religious Movements in Taiwan & South Korea (Niki J. P. Alsford & Nataša Visočnik)

QuoteThere are many controversies surrounding the UC, sometimes derided as the 'dark side of the Moon', the most wellknown of which is undoubtedly their mass weddings where hundreds or even thousands of couples are married. Moreover, the UC's teachings are viewed unfavourably by most mainstream Christian churches, and those who join are allegedly subjected to 'heavenly deception' and various brainwashing techniques, and thus the UC is denoted as a cult. The public controversy over the group's methods raises questions as to whether this movement should even be treated as a religion.

March 2018: Undue Influence: The Gap Between Current Law and Scientific Approaches to Decision-Making and Persuasion

I was happily surprised when reading the above to see mention of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, a book I read back in the day. Here are some related videos and later, some articles etc.

The Science of Persuasion: Six Principles of Persuasion

First update here since 2018, and I had forgotten how many links I had posted eight years ago!

Aug. 6, 2023: Scientology's Devious Tricks to Hold its Members Hostage for Life (60 Minutes Australia)

Sept. 9, 2016: Not So Holier Than Thou: Religious Leader Crimes Top 5,000 a Year (the Korea Times)

QuoteReligious leaders commit over 5,000 crimes a year in Korea, according to Supreme Prosecutors' Office figures. There were 4,868 cases reported in 2010, increasing to more than 5,000 in 2012 and over 5,100 in 2014. The crimes range from sexual harassment and scams, to assault, drunk driving and hit-runs.

Compared with other professionals – including doctors, lawyers, professors, journalists and artists -- religious leaders have ranked in the top three for crimes over the past five years.

Experts believe the high crime rate derives from the religious leaders' use of their superior position to exploit followers. They also point out loopholes in the judiciary system that prevents law enforcers from handling such cases. ....

"A religious leader who commits a crime can simply change the name of the religious institute, be it a church or any religious entity, if it was operated like his or her private foundation," Lee Su-jung, a professor in the faculty of Liberal Arts at Kyonggi University, said in an interview with Yonhap news agency.

"Official procedure is needed to punish religious leaders who commit crimes."