Writer Heo Ji Woong has made a strong statement against churches (Shincheonji Church of Jesus) in Korea who are forcing their followers to continue gathering to worship despite the Coronavirus outbreak fears.
He made a post on February 27th that reads as follows: "There is a church (Shincheonji Church of Jesus) that is selling the name of their God by being reckless in their actions, regardless of the negative impact it has on the collective community. There is also a church putting their city in danger by saying they are holding a service on a large scale. God, please forgive those people. May they not be happy when this crisis is over by thinking that their prayers were answered. They don't know what kind of actions they're doing. Please give this country peace and give them shame. "
Some cults in Korea such as the Shincheonji Church of Jesus are continuing to ignore the severity of the outbreak and are hiding the fact they have the virus and continuing to hold public gatherings despite warnings from officials.
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Things to note for context:
1. Shincheonji is not a regular church. Its long been argued as a cult, and there has been a lot of issues with this partucular church in the past (mainly members going undercover into other churches to recruit vulnerable people). The leader sells himself as the second coming of Christ (basically like every other Christian-based cult).
2. Sincheonji is the root cause of the covid-19 outbreak in South Korea, following a woman attending a mass event whilst sick (former members have stated that the sect's services are mandatory even if you are sick). All members have chip cards that they swipe to prove gathering attendance. Sometimes thousands of people attend these gatherings.
3. Due to the secretive nature of the sect, there are many members who are not self-quarantining as asked by the government. Many police/government services are having to track people down exhausting public services.
4. Due to the sect having a high number of international members (around 30,000) that have been made to go to recent sect gatherings (notable gatherings such as the funeral of the leaders brother have occurred recently in South Korea), there is a strong risk that the virus has spread across borders (the sect has stations all over the globe, in all majorly populated continents including South Africa, US and Germany).
5. Its estimated that Shincheonji currently has over 200,000 members in South Korea... thats a lot of people potentially spreading the virus.
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