Story by Coco Veldkamp/ABC News
A South Korean fringe religious organisation, accused of brainwashing members, is targeting pastors in order to recruit entire Australian congregations, a former member says.
Shincheonji, which has been described as an “apocalyptic Christian cult” whose members will be saved from an imminent apocalypse, featured prominently in the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into cults and fringe groups.
The ABC has previously reported that the church is using “special force teams” and aggressive tactics to expand its recruitment outside of Melbourne in an effort to grow its flock.
Matthew, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, spent nearly five years inside Shincheonji, and said the organisation was also targeting the pastors of other churches in an effort to recruit entire existing congregations through a “Pastor Evangelism Team”.
Matthew was a member of that team until he left the church last year.
“Our goal was to evangelise pastors and through them bring the whole church to Shincheonji,”
he said.
Matthew said at the time he left, there were 10 to 15 pastors who were in ongoing conversations with Shincheonji and about five who were “eager to join”.
He said at least three Australian pastors were flown to South Korea for Shincheonji’s graduation ceremony.
“It’s a very, very slow process, and we have been in contact with them for years,” Matthew said.
“We started off by emailing them or the church … we would cold call them and try to set up meetings.
“Slowly, we change their minds on certain topics, and that just builds up into accepting the Shincheonji doctrine.”
Matthew said the Pastor Evangelism Team was operating under the name Zion Christian Mission Centre, so pastors did not immediately recognise it as Shincheonji.
Shincheonji’s Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission page confirms it is affiliated with the Zion Christian Mission Centre.
He said the team explained Shincheonji in a positive way if pastors identified them and raised concerns about widely reported allegations of psychological abuse against the church.
“We sort of twist a lot of words … it wasn’t really great what I did,”
Matthew said.
“We told pastors, ‘You shouldn’t believe what is online, but come listen to us.'”
The ABC has made numerous attempts to contact Shincheonji, but has not received a response.
