Cult Next Door Global Investigation Into And Other Dangerous Religious Cults Group

The Cult Next Door Spotlight’s global investigation into a dangerous ‘religious’ group. They were two young Aussie women, enticed by faith and friendship, welcomed into a community made to feel safe and loved. But things quickly changed. This week, in a Spotlight global investigation, for the first time the chilling true stories of the women who escaped a dangerous cult. Branded as a religious movement, Providence has been operating in Australia since 1997, and is accused of recruiting young women in local shopping centres and universities then brainwashing them to travel to South Korea to become spiritual brides of a criminal.Show more

Spotlight has uncovered allegations of serious crimes and brainwashing by the outfit which is registered as a charitable organisation in Australia. Europe correspondent Sarah Greenhalgh this week joins the Spotlight team and, in a world first, travels deep inside the secretive cult compound in South Korea to confront the leaders.

“We’ve been investigating this cult for six months and it has led us across Australia, to the US and South Korea,” said Sarah. “When we started, we knew there were serious allegations of coercive control and various forms of abuse, but we had no idea just how sinister this organization is. What we’ve uncovered now involves the Australian Federal Police.

“Providence was founded in 1978 by self-professed ‘messiah’ Jeong Meong-Seok (JMS). The group claims to be a Christian religious movement with more than 40,000 Korean members and a presence in more than 70 countries including Australia. The ‘churches’ we’ve visited in Melbourne and Sydney are just like those in South Korea – there’s no signage, no lists of services, certainly no standard, ‘open door’ church policy. Instead, the faithful meet behind frosted glass, using secret pin codes for access. “Providence is a cult. And the impact it has had on so many young women’s lives is enormous.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung_Myung-seok

Sex, cults and the bizarre world of Providence leader Jeong Myeong-seok Providence is a religious group founded in 1978 in South Korea by Jeong Myeong-seok. A self-proclaimed Messiah who sometimes refers to himself as Pastor Joshua, he is a former "Moonie" or follower of the late Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.

The group also goes by other names including Jesus Morning Star (JMS, which also happens to be the initials of the founder's name), Christian Gospel Mission and The Bright Moon Church.

Headquartered in South Korea, Providence claims to have 300 affiliated churches and more than 100,000 followers in its home base. The group also boasts a worldwide following of over 10,000 and operates in a number of other countries including Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Japan and Taiwan. Providence was set up in Australia in 1997 and has established branches in major cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra.

'Heavenly deception'
Providence's teachings are based on the so-called 30 lessons, or 30 principles, which state that only a Messiah can lead people to heaven. Recruits wanting to gain admission to the Providence congregation must study the 30 lessons and vouch that Jeong is that Messiah.

Like the Moonies before, Providence recruits new members using a method called "heavenly deception". Recruiters often lure new disciples into the fold by offering them modelling opportunities, Bible study classes or through participation in organized sport.

Female believers are taught that they are brides of God and by inference, brides of Jeong. They are drilled on the importance of looking good, keeping themselves slim and dressing well.

Recruiters are known to be active in and around shopping centres and university campuses and are said to target tall, attractive women to become spiritual brides for the leader.

Once they are inducted, new members are then encouraged to sever ties with friends and family and to live in a communal house with other members.

It has been reported that female recruits were encouraged to have sex with Jeong in order to attain purification.

In 1999, Jeong was accused of rape and fled South Korea. He was later charged with multiple counts of rape and in 2009, sentenced to 10 years in prison. His followers say he has been falsely accused.

He is due to be released on parole in early 2018.

Sexual objectives
Australian Peter Daley began following Providence when he arrived in South Korea to teach English in 2003. Daley gained first-hand knowledge of the way Providence operates when he was invited to a function at the cult compound. What he witnessed shocked and surprised him.

"The church seemed to really put importance in beautiful women," he told 7.30. "The leader wasn't there ... but his brother was there and he was surrounded by an entourage of women that looked like they had just stepped out of a magazine. I thought this is strange for a church to focus on."

Mr Daley, who has been harassed and taken to court by JMS, concluded that the organisation "is just existing to serve [Jeong's] needs as a serial rapist".

He has unearthed videos produced by the group which support this view. In one video, he says, four or five naked women are seen dancing around chanting "Seonsaengnim, we love you!" "Seonsaengnim" means teacher in Korean.

In another scene, a woman is shown licking a photo of Jeong before placing it close to her crotch.

Active from behind bars
Despite being in jail, Jeong has kept in contact with his flock. A number of recruits have told of how photographs of them, often dressed in bridalwear, have been sent to Jeong in prison. Others have spoken about being encouraged to fly to South Korea to visit him.

One former member of the cult, only identified as "Liz", appeared on SBS in 2014 saying she had been encouraged to write intimate letters to Jeong, who would reply in kind.

"So, he would say things like 'women are much more beautiful when they are naked' and he said my white skin arouses him," Liz told SBS. She also said recruits prayed to images of Jeong and Jesus and were given necklaces as symbols of their dedication to the founder.

Did JMS Leader Jung Myung Seok Abuse Maple And Other Foreign Nationals? Where Is Jung Myung Seok Now? There have been many fraudulent people who portray themselves as the messengers of God or the reincarnation of Jesus, but Jung Myung-seok, a.k.a. Jeong Myeong-seok, takes the cake because of his unabashed manner of dealing with things. Jeong Myeong-seok and the members of his cult tried their best to stop the Netflix documentary “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” from releasing, but the OTT giant won the case and showed the entire world the real face of the leader of the JMS (Jesus Morning Star). This lecherous man is neither ashamed of what he has done nor is he empathetic towards the plight of the women whose lives he has ruined. Those women are still haunted by what happened to them, but our self-proclaimed Messiah feels that he is just spreading God’s word. So, let’s see how Jeong Myeong-seok rose to fame and what events led to his downfall.

How Did Jung Myung Seok Gain Popularity?
Jung Myung Seok was a self-proclaimed messiah who, among many other outlandish things, could predict the future and had a cure for life threatening diseases that even science didn’t have a clue about. It was said that Jung Myung had read the Bible 2,000 times and saw it as a book of metaphors, for which he had his own unique interpretation. There are many reasons why such fraudulent people gain so many followers, and people start worshiping them, even though, to a rational mind, the malicious intent is clearly visible.

For Jung Myung, what helped was his scientific approach to dealing with things. He was the only pastor during the 1980s who was, firstly, not very conservative in his approach and, secondly, had a rational interpretation of things that the youth understood and could relate to. It was part of his game plan to target the youth of the country, and that is why he had a lot of followers from top-rated universities in South Korea. He captured the essence of the Bible and explained the metaphors in a manner that made sense to the masses. But apart from his scientific approach, he still needed a miracle to prove to the people that he was above the rest. People generally get brainwashed or start having blind faith in a person when they see that they are capable of doing something unimaginable. Myung Seok used to predict who would be the next president of the country during every election. After he had just opened the first JMS church in Shinchon, his prediction about the presidential election came true, and the masses were surprised at how he could do that.

After that, there were people apparently suffering from terminal illnesses like cancer, and the doctors had given up on them when Myung Seok told them that they would live. It didn’t take long, and the news spread through word of mouth like wildfire. How he was able to predict the future is still a mystery, but it did become a turning point in his life as people started to trust him and see him as an incarnation of Jesus. People are vulnerable and he knew how to take advantage of it. He knew that people needed someone to depend on, somebody who could tell them that it was not their fault, and he used it as a leverage to brainwash them and literally make them his slaves. He told them how important it was to earn their livelihood and work for the cause of the church, but behind all those big words and hollow promises, he was actually making them work for his own selfish interests. The followers used to toil hard and try to sell various merchandise to collect funds for the church so that it could keep working for the cause of humanity, but instead, all that money was being spent by Myung Seok to maintain his opulent lifestyle.

Myung Seok said that Jesus’ second coming would happen in the year 1945, and it was no coincidence that he was born in the same year. Myung Seok was quite different from the rest of the pastors in the country, mainly because he had a very unique perspective of looking at things. In addition to that he was fit, he was agile, he was promoting cultural and sporting activities, he had a scientific temper, and his ways and means were in stark contrast to those of his peers, i.e., very liberal, and that is why Jesus Morning Star religion, a.k.a. The Providence gained a lot of popularity in the 1980s.

How Was Jung Myung Seok Exposed? Where Is He Now?
The first cases of sexual misconduct against the messiah started surfacing in 1991. The Netflix documentary “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” made us privy and provided a platform to a lot of women who came and gave their testimony and told the world what he had done with them. Jung Myung Seok was a sexual predator who knew very well what he was doing. He had garnered so much popularity that he had started feeling invincible, and he thought that he could get away with anything in life.

Now, there have been many so-called messiahs who have been delusional enough to think that whatever they are doing is right and that it would actually take them closer to their desired goal, but Myung Seok was a lecherous man who was fully aware of the fact that it was not right to use his position of power to coerce people and that it had nothing to do with God or the message that he wanted to spread. Like every other Godman, he abstained others from having sexual relations with people, but obviously, the rule didn’t apply to him as he considered himself to be “Pure Adam”. The Messiah liked tall girls, and he had told the people on the recruiting team to look out for girls who were 5 feet 6 inches and above.

Whenever a new girl came to him for those hideous one-on-one meetings, the other women who had been through the same ordeal, instead of supporting the new recruit, told them that they would get used to it after some time, because they felt coerced to do so. So basically, by making the women enablers, he was making them part of a vicious cycle where the people who were victims were now perpetrators themselves and helping him brainwash more girls and lay the trap for them. The women started speaking against him, and the legal authorities of the country realized that there was something suspicious happening. That is when the authorities got a lot of incriminating evidence that was enough to prove that the Messiah had some twisted inclinations and was, in fact, a criminal who needed to be behind bars at all costs. Even when the court sent him to prison for ten years on serious charges of sexual assault and rape, it didn’t dissuade him from doing what he did. When Myung Seok could no longer prey on girls in person, his people started sending him pictures of young girls in revealing clothes in prison. A proper photoshoot was organized for the girls, and it tells us how desperate Myung Seok was and to what lengths he was willing to go to fulfill his carnal desires.

As soon as he came out of prison in 2018, he sexually abused a girl named Maple for almost three years, and that act was enough to prove that firstly, he had no shame for what he had done, and secondly, he had no fear of the authorities. He was meeting Maple while he was in prison, and he had the audacity to tell her that the media and the women, who probably had some ulterior motives, were unnecessarily defaming him. Jeong is awaiting trial right now on serious charges of raping a foreign national and another woman in Guemsan County.

Jeong still maintains the fact that the media is just trying to tarnish his image, though we all know what the reality is. Jeong is responsible for ruining the lives of multiple girls who unfortunately came in contact with him. He was such a pervert that even when he was on the run, it didn’t stop him from preying upon girls constantly.

Though Jeong had stopped calling himself the Messiah in public, as he had realized the ramifications of doing so, he still does not agree with the fact that he has assaulted anybody and, in fact, portrays himself as the victim. The people of the Providence Christian Movement still maintain that the testimonies of the women were not credible and that their leader was only trying to teach people to live a life of faith.

‘In The Name Of God: A Holy Betrayal’ Explained: Who Are Jeong Myeong, Park Soon-Ja, Kim Ki-Soon & Lee Jae-Rok? The new Netflix true-crime docuseries “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” is exactly what its title suggests: a collection about self-proclaimed godmen turning out to be shameless criminals. Perhaps the general subject of religion causing people harm would result in decades of footage for any series, and so this Netflix series is bound to just four cases in South Korea alone. It presents detailed accounts of investigations held against four religious preachers and the ultimate consequences that they and their followers faced. “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” is just outright disturbing to watch at moments due to the content it presents and can be considered a good overall coverage of the events.

What Is ‘In The Name Of God: A Holy Betrayal’ Docuseries About?
The name JMS was extremely popular among college students in the 1980s as the name of a new church and Christian new religious movement headed by the charismatic Jeong Myeong-seok. Young men and women flocked to the church both out of religious and spiritual interest as well as because of its comparatively liberal ideologies. However, the world of all JMS followers was shaken when their leader Myeong-seok was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in 2008 for having raped three of his female followers. While Myeong-seok’s prison sentence is now over, and the man continues to be a free preacher, the allegations of sexual misconduct against him have not stopped.

On the 29th of August 1987, people in the Gyeonggi-do province of South Korea were in for a shock when an under-construction factory was found to be a house of horrors. Thirty-two men and women were found dead together inside the ceiling of the cafeteria in the factory. What was believed to have been a mass suicide out of religious fanaticism did pose the possibility of being something more sinister. After all, the thirty-two men and women had been members of a religious group and trading business called the Five Oceans, a company which was suspected of having wiped out nearly ten billion won.

Around 1996, the South Korean police started to investigate a religious cult called the Baby Garden and its leader Kim Ki-Soon based on charges of extortion, physical assault, and murder, as reported by some former members. While the Baby Garden sect had existed since the 1980s as a commune of people earning and growing their own resources, there were claims of minors being sexually exploited and children being starved and beaten up. By the time Kim Ki-Soon was in police custody, more horrific accounts of the commune, which was supposed to have been a safe haven for children, had been revealed.

Lee Jae-rock and his Manmin Central Church are extremely well-known for their ability to magically cure and heal the toughest of sicknesses only through faith and religion. Although there had been claims of the Manmin Church being a stronghold of false and illegal activities for much of the past, the followers of this church showed their violent nature on one night in 1999. During this time, the Korean public broadcasting channel MBC had prepared a show based on the allegations against Jae-rock Lee and his church. Throngs of Manmin followers flocked to the MBC office that night to unlawfully stop the live broadcast. Unfortunately for these followers, the revelations about their leader that would follow later were enough to end their blind faith.

The Netflix original series “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” picks up on these four cases and presents a documentary telling of them. Making use of TV footage, interviews old and new, of investigators and victims, as well as records from anonymous contributors who were once part of these religious cults, the show drives home the scary possibilities of having faith turned blind in the hands of a self-proclaimed religious leader.

How Did Jyeong Myeong-Seok Take Advantage Of His Female Followers?
After having founded the Jesus Morning Star (JMS) church in 1980, Jyeong Myeong-seok’s first targets to preach religion to and therefore gain popularity with were the youth. Targeting college and university spaces, he garnered interest and support by conducting sports and entertainment events that immediately attracted teenagers and young adults. There was also the fact that, despite being a religious group, JMS was not as stringent and conservative with regard to clothing and behavior as the other churches. But Myeong-seok’s true intention was something more dangerous—he started preaching himself as the Second Coming of Christ. Interpreting the Bible as a symbolic tale of more probable events and principles to be followed, the JMS heavily used numerology to make tall claims. Jyeong Myeong-seok is known to have predicted the South Korean presidential election results, not just in terms of who would win but in terms of the detailed standings of first, second, and third. With an aura and charm that was greatly revered by many, Myeong-seok also preached internationally outside of South Korea as well. However, this decision to go international was also forced for a different reason.

Around 1999, allegations of sexual assault and harassment finally started to take a definite shape against the self-proclaimed godman. There were apparently more than 100 female followers who had claimed to have been raped by the religious leader, who kept telling them that they were doing God’s work. There have been reports suggesting that Jyeong Myeong-seok apparently also claimed to some of his close followers that it was his mission to have sexual intercourse with 10,000 women. Although he preached to his followers to stay away from such carnal acts, the man claimed himself to be “pure Adam,” meaning that it was just fine for him to have intercourse with his followers. The entire setup was such that most of the women willingly agreed when they were asked to go meet their leader in private in order to be blessed by him. There were even some women appointed to bring more women into the act, and sexual exploitation was almost institutionalized, with each individual having a role to play. After reports of such acts came out in the open, though, Jyeong Myeong-seok immediately fled South Korea, and the JMS officially claimed that he was now going international with his preaching.

Jyeong Myeong-seok took shelter in Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan and continued with his vile acts in all the countries. Through his religious façade, he would bring in college students as followers, call some of them for private meetings, and then rape them. Among all the women he had sexually abused throughout all the years and countries, many were minors as well. Soon his crimes were found out, and his passport was seized as well, but the man still managed to illegally flee to China. The followers at JMS, which included many extremely wealthy and influential Korean citizens, ensured that their leader was kept safe by threatening and beating up the family members of the victims. Finally, in 2008, Jyeong Myeong-seok was arrested by the Chinese authorities and sent back to South Korea, where he was given a ten-year prison sentence.

What is perhaps more shocking than whatever had already happened was the fact that Myeong-seok continued to carry on his sexual misconduct even while in hiding and in prison. With the help of an effective network of followers, he would literally choose out some women among his followers, who were then sent to Hong Kong or China or even to prison later on in order to have sex with him. None of the women knew before what was going to happen and were simply excited to meet the man they looked up to as God himself. Such was the stronghold of the JMS over them that nobody ever let out about all this to anyone else, and some even took on the role of enablers for more such exploitation while remaining victims themselves. It was finally a woman named Maple who spoke out about it to the public in recent times, after Jyeong Myeong-seok was officially released from prison in 2018. Over a period from 2019 to 2021, Maple had been sexually abused by the godman more than ten times. Maple features extensively in the Netflix documentary series, and there is even clear evidence of men following her around in cars, definitely on the orders of Myeong-seok.

At present, Jyeong Myeong-seok continues to be a free man and a rather wealthy one. Despite being questioned by the South Korean police so far, Myeong-seok and his church and followers claim his innocence. The JMS, which was also called the Providence, has been renamed the Christian Gospel Mission, but still continues to exist and preach its leader’s innocence. With the hiring of a large law firm, Jyeong Myeong-seok has succeeded in staying out of trouble so far, but his reputation is sure to take a hit after this documentary. In fact, Jyeong Myeong-seok and the JMS had also filed for a court injunction to prevent the release of the Netflix documentary, claiming that the tarnishing views presented in it against him are all fictional. The court has, however, turned down the injunction and allowed Netflix and MBC to air the show without any trouble.

What Was The Reason Behind The Five Oceans Mass Suicide?
The exact events of the Five Oceans mass suicide case are still being debated by different sides of investigators and witnesses, but the Netflix docuseries does a fair job of presenting them in its 70-minute-long episode. The Five Oceans company had originally started in Daejeon as a manufacturer of craftwork, appointing artisans and workers who were highly skilled but had no social or financial exposure. The founder of the company, Park Soon-ja, was considered not just a successful businesswoman but also a philanthropic and charitable person. She told her workers to bring their children along to work so that they could be looked after and cared for in a proper manner. Even when Five Oceans made the switch to a trading company, nothing seemed out of place or concerning. Park Soon-ja’s husband was a fairly rich and influential director of the construction bureau, and perhaps with the power and the wish to serve the common masses, Five Oceans was also made into a religious group. To the residents at the place, Park Soon-ja was like the Holy Mother, who toiled and sacrificed for their benefit. But there was also the fact that Five Oceans also asked for funds and donations from its members and anyone related to them. These funds were taken in the form of loans, with Park Soon-ja promising interest rates as high as 20% to 40%. As more people started to pour all their life’s savings into what they believed to be an investment, the shadier side of Five Oceans started to be revealed. It was when one man was beaten up when he asked for his money back that the police first started investigating the company. Soon after, the workers and their leader, Soon-ja, went missing from their usual address in Daejeon and were not found until the 29th of August, 1987, at the site of the mass suicide or murder.

While it is unanimously agreed that the site of the mass suicide was extremely strange and a number of details did not match, different sides have different views on it. The official police declaration was that 31 men and women had been strangled to death by the manager of the factory in Gyeonggi-do province, and the man then committed suicide by hanging himself. The lack of physical struggle suggested that the manager had been asked to kill the rest of the members before killing himself. However, the fact that Park Soon-ja had been killed first raised questions about the act being any sort of ritualistic suicide or murder, for in such cases, the leader always sacrifices themselves at the very end. The whole truth that came out later, or at least the official version of it, had more to do with money than any religious beliefs. Before the incident, the authorities had calculated that Five Oceans owed around 10 billion won to its innumerable creditors, and there was no sign of this money anywhere. By now, the police had announced Five Oceans to be a large-scale scam company hiding behind the façade of a Christian religious group, and they were on the lookout for the missing members. After an extensive investigation of the murder scene, it was found out that Five Oceans was actually working as a front for another trading company called Samwoo. This Samwoo business was owned by a popular man named Yoo Byeong-un, who was also the leader of the Evangelical Baptist Church of South Korea (Salvation Sect). After having founded the church, Byeong-un wanted to earn millions for himself, but doing so only through donations seemed impossible to him. He then started to raise money through illegal loans and branched out to various different companies and organizations to ensure this. Five Oceans and Park Soon-ja used to raise money for Yoo Byeong-un and transfer it to him from time to time.

Being wanted by the police, Soon-ja and her workers go into hiding at the factory, and they had also asked for one last final favor from Byeong-un. The man refused to help, saying that Samwoo was in financial distress too, making it clear to Soon-ja that she could not avoid the law. As an ultimate attempt to flee the law, Park Soon-ja decided and convinced her followers to commit suicide before being found out by the police. Despite these findings and theories of the police, the court could not find any evidence of murder against Yoo Byeong-un, and he was given a prison sentence of just four years for financial fraud. Yoo Byeong-un was later involved in the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014, and his dead body was found on a hill later that year.

What Were The Allegations Against Kim Ki-Soon And The Baby Garden?
Kim Ki-Soon was the charming founder of a Christian sect called the Baby Garden, or Aga (baby in Korean) Garden, for she called herself Aga and told her followers to do so as well. Unlike the other cults presented in the documentary, the Baby Garden sect targeted very normal and even downtrodden people without much financial backing. Also, unlike the other cults, this sect did not intend to bring in more members to grow in number but was satisfied with all they had. Kim Ki-Soon had been a follower of a preacher named Lee Kyo-bu, who had a fairly large number of followers. At one point in time, Lee Kyo-bu had been imprisoned for a few years, and Kim Ki-Soon instantly took on his role among the followers, claiming that Kyo-bu had himself asked her to continue preaching on his behalf. Ki-Soon quickly became popular among the followers and took on the entire crowd to her own new sect, called the Baby Garden. They initially started as a usual religious sect, with 200–300 followers, but within some time, they turned Baby Garden into a communion where all stayed together. Ki-Soon claimed that an apocalypse was soon going to hit human civilization, and only her followers would survive it and make it to the new world. There were a number of rules and regulations that felt odd to the resident followers, like married couples also not being allowed to stay with each other and children not being allowed to call their parents mom or dad. But the followers did not really take any of it too seriously.

But with rampant exploitation of labor in return for very meager food or facilities, some of the ex-followers decided to go public with their experiences after leaving the group. It was only around 1996, when a significant number of people had spoken out, that the real extent of the horrors at Baby Garden was revealed. Kim Ki-Soon had established herself as the one and only ruler and parental figure in the lives of each of her followers. What she said and wanted was final, and anybody denying following her orders was severely beaten up and physically tortured. Although she always preached abstinence to her followers, Ki-Soon herself sexually exploited many of the young boys and teenagers at the communion. She made them believe that they were lucky subjects who had been chosen to witness God, and none of them ever said anything against it. Ki-Soon would make many of her followers go out to the cities and sell food and other items, all the money from which she kept for herself. Each of the children at the communion was made to go out and beg, and the money from this was also kept by her. Not only were the beatings regular, but the Baby Garden sect had even murdered three followers upon the instructions of Ki-Soon.

First was a forty-four-year-old man named Yoon Yong-Ung, who just simply vanished from the place one day, never to be seen again. How or why he had been murdered still remains unknown, and Ki-Soon had only told his daughter that he had died after drinking pesticide. Next was a twenty-one-year-old woman named Kang Mi-Gyeong, who was popular in the communion for her gentle nature and beautiful appearance. Ki-Soon’s own son had grown attracted to Mi-Gyeong, and some claim they were lovers as well. Kim Ki-Soon was terribly upset when she heard of this, as she feared a scandal among her followers. She publicly shamed Mi-Gyeong for being romantically involved with a man and ordered her to be thrashed to death. Her body was then dumped somewhere inside the Baby Garden area. Third, and arguably most gruesome of them all, a five-year-old boy named Choi Nak-Gwi was termed possessed by the devil by Kim Ki-Soon. This was because young Choi had possibly wanted to be with his mother, who was out in the fields working, and he had defecated and thrown it on the walls. Choi was apparently very expressive about his dislike towards Ki-Soon, and for this reason, she wanted him removed. The little boy was tied up in the pigsty and kept without food for days before he was thrashed to death by some of the followers, including his own aunt.

Despite such heinous crimes, Kim Ki-soon got away easily by making use of her power and money. She made Choi Nak-Gwi’s mother sign a death certificate, which stated that the boy had died from a heart attack, and also made her testify to this as the truth in court later on. After staying in hiding for some time, Ki-Soon eventually surrendered to the police in 1997, as advised by her lawyers, who said that she would not get arrested at all. However, the police did detain her, and a court case followed, but in 1998, the court ruled that the death of five-year-old Choi was accidental and not intentional. The two other murders could not be charged since the bodies were never found. The court sentenced Kim Ki-Soon to a prison term of four years for charges of financial fraud. The series does not make any mention of what happened to Ki-Soon or the Baby Garden after this.

How Had Lee Jae-Rock Managed To Create His Cult Of Blind Followers?
Pastor Lee Jae-rock’s financial extortion and exploitation were arguably more systematic and planned than the rest of the cults, as his Manmin Central Church still exists with a number of followers. His specialization, and that of his Manmin church, has been spiritually healing patients and worshippers through self-proclaimed magical and spiritual powers. Jae-rock also claimed himself to be the Second Coming of Christ, and he often used camera and lighting tricks as well as psychological methods to make his followers believe that God came down to meet him. His words have been as ridiculous as his claim that the Holy Father and the Holy Son both come down to meet and walk with Jae-rock on a particular day every year, which is celebrated by the followers as the day of the spirits party. Along with throwing extravagant birthday parties for himself, Jae-rock also had an ill reputation for his sexual misconduct.

It was for these very reasons and claims that the MBC recorded a program on the pastor in order to expose the lies he spread through his sermons. By this time in 1999, the Christian Council of Korea had already ejected Jae-rock and his church, calling him a dangerous heretic and not a proper preacher of Christianity. However, the members of the Manmin church, a total of at least a few thousand at the time, flocked to the MBC office to forcefully stop the telecast. The Korean government cited this as a risk to national security, but nothing worthwhile happened with regard to stopping the pastor. Instead, his reputation, as well as his church, grew in size in the 2000s as he branched out internationally. Jae-rock conducted healing programs and sermons in places including Pakistan as well as the Madison Square Garden in New York.

Lee Jae-rock had a real tight-knit business plan in place at his Manmin church, for he had quite ironically managed to quantify one’s faith. All his followers were regularly assessed based on their religious scores and were handed out these scores based on five levels. One would obviously start from level one and wish to reach level five someday by earning credits through activities that proved their faith. However, it was quite apparent that those men and women who paid higher amounts of money through official as well as unofficial donations moved up in the rankings much quicker and more smoothly. It was all about making money for pastor Jae-rock, as he even charged millions of won to those who wanted to take photographs with him. The Manmin church had a number of stores set up across the country, in which photographs and items with the pastor’s blessings were sold for high prices. There was even one product called Muan Sweet Water, which was basically some holy water from a well that had been blessed by Jae-rock, and it was supposed to solve all problems, from complex physical ailments to a jammed door. Through his preaching and sermons, Jae-rock convinced his followers that going to a hospital for any illness was almost equivalent to committing a sin, and he even indirectly caused some deaths in this manner.

While Lee Jae-rock told his followers about the ill effects of sexual desires and claimed that he was devoid of any such distracting desires, his very disgusting sexual appetite led to his downfall. The man was eventually investigated by the police for having raped nine female followers from his church. What was perhaps even more perverse was the fact that all these women had grown up regularly visiting the Manmin church with their parents, meaning that Jae-rock knew them from the time they were babies. The pastor would call the women to his private house with the promises of special blessings and access to God and then sexually abuse them. He would also then give the women large amounts of money from the church donations, possibly to ensure that they would not talk about it. Even then, a significant number of followers stuck with the church, claiming his innocence and shaming the victims as simply promiscuous and evil. But what finally changed the perception was when a taped phone conversation of a prominent woman in the church ranks was leaked, in which she told another woman how Jae-rock had been sexually exploiting women followers for many years now. In 2018, the court also found the man guilty of the rape charges and sentenced him to fifteen years in prison. The very mortal signs of the corrupt and vile man, who once claimed himself to be immortal and ageless, were now out in the open. As Lee Jae-rock spends time in prison in a more comfortable fashion than any usual criminal, some of his ardent followers at the Manmin church still wish for his return and continue to honor him through cardboard cutouts of the man. “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” is a 2023 Crime Documentary Series streaming on Netflix.

Religious Cults That Are Extremely Dangerous For Humanity One of the greatest tragedies in mankind’s entire history may be that morality was hijacked by religion. ― Arthur C. Clarke

And this quote is at it’s starkest true self when it comes to religious cults. The belief in God may have its psychological benefits, but following a religious cult, blinded by superstition and misplaced faith can and has led to massive destructions, and not always moral!

Take these 13 religious cults for example. Their practice and belief are heavily contributing superstitious attitude of people, so much that it is actually proving to be dangerous for humanity.

1. Scientology
The infamous Church of Scientology was formed in 1953 by the writer L. Ron Hubbard. Arguably one of the richest cults, with high-profile members like Tom Cruise, it has remained controversial since its origin. This religious cult is based on the idea of clearing the human psyche of ‘negative’ emotions and memories, and bring out it’s full potential, with intense therapy sessions that often rely on the use of lie detectors. Claimed to be based on scientific research and facts, Scientology is known for its official litigations, and murky ways of shutting up its critics and apostates alike, often by killing them, rumour has it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology

2. The KKK
With beliefs rooted in white supremacy, the Ku Klux Klan is a particular cult of Christianity. Extremely violent in nature, from arson to cold-blooded murder they do not hesitate to go at lengths to establish its racist attitudes and torture Jews, Blacks and people from other races. Remember the movie A Time to Kill, starring Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey? That did have a pretty accurate depiction of this cult!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

The Democratic Party defended slavery, started the Civil War, opposed Reconstruction, founded the Ku Klux Klan, imposed segregation, perpetrated lynching's, and fought against the civil rights acts of the 1950s and 1960s.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/qnesrjodfi80/6bQdKPLDjyo2s0I8c60gA2/aec7a4feb53cdd469d9c59bc3dd5cc64/swain-the_inconvenient_truth_about_the_democratic_party-transcript.pdf

Formed in 1865 as a “secret lodge” by former Confederates in Pulaski, Tennessee, the Invisible Empire or Ku Klux Klan (KKK) has been and remains committed to white supremacy in America.

Klansmen, beside other diehard groups, violently resisted Reconstruction. Still defending the South, they fought Union Army occupation, Republican governments, and blacks’ freedom. Donning hoods and using secret titles, they took an oath to defend Christianity, the Constitution, and the white race, especially their women's purity. Loyal to the Democratic Party, the Klan enlisted men and women from all classes. Targeting Union Leagues (freedmen's political clubs), night riders harassed and often killed black and Republican voters and officeholders, burned black churches and schools, intimidated teachers, and stole elections. In the 1868 elections, alongside Knights of the White Camellia, they murdered 1,000 black and white Republicans in Louisiana alone. After its investigation, Congress passed the Ku Klux Act (1871). But undermanned Union garrisons rarely stopped the Klan's plunder. Its terrorism during the election of 1876 hastened Reconstruction's end.

Between 1877 and 1910 the KKK fueled Democrats’ push to establish one-party rule and Jim Crow. A coalition of Democrats, Klansmen, Red Shirts, Rifle Clubs, and White Leagues targeted freedmen and their allies, utilizing ballot fraud, intimidation, and murder. Some 1,751 blacks were lynched in southern and border states ca. 1882–1900 as black and white farmers’ alliances and the Populist Party coalesced for reform. Defeat of populists by ballot-rigging and terror enabled Democrats, as the Supreme Court instituted the “separate but equal” rule, to enact Jim Crow. The system disfranchised and terrorized blacks; it also persecuted Jews, Catholics, and nonwhite immigrants.

Klan people promoted white racism in the twentieth century. Early on they enlisted members with The Birth of a Nation (1915), a film glorifying the Klan's bloody defeat of Reconstruction. By the mid-1920s, the second KKK claimed several million members in more than a dozen states. Affiliates were strong in the Midwest (being more anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant there) than in the South. State and local Klans frequently attacked progressives prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which ensured the right to vote.

3. Children of God
This severely twisted cult, founded by David Berg and also known as Family International, is devoted to pedophilia and sex, to put it bluntly. The followers of this cult believed that sex with children was natural and right. Based on the belief that apocalypse is coming (doomsday cult), this cult uses “flirty fishing”(use of sex) to get new members for it. The children who were born as a result of flirty fishing were referred to as “Jesus Babies”. Rose McGowan, the American actor escaped from this cult and revealed some of its brutality later. It is rumoured that the female members of this cult are also forced to go into prostitution and sex slavery!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_International

The Family International (TFI) is an American new religious movement founded in 1968 by David Brandt Berg. The group has gone under a number of different names since its inception, including Teens for Christ, The Children of God (COG), The Family of Love, or simply The Family.

Former members have accused TFI of being an authoritarian cult which engages in the systematic physical and sexual abuse of children, resulting in lasting trauma among survivors. The group has also been accused of targeting vulnerable people.

4. Raëlism
Also known as Raëlianism, this is a UFO religion (they believe in the existence of extraterrestrial entities flying UFOs) founded in 1974. They believe that life on the earth was created scientifically by extraterrestrials, and prophets like Buddha, Jesus etc are just Elohim (this cult’s name for the ETs). Raelism strives for world peace, sharing, democracy and nonviolence, and also has a very liberal attitude towards sex. The founder of this cult, Claude Vorilhon, also known as Raël, claims to be in touch with ‘God’. According to this cult, through mechanisms like human cloning and mind transfer, humans can achieve eternal life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%ABlism

5. Bavarian Illuminati
Founded in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, this cult is one of the main Illuminati groups. Apparently, this cult was opposed superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life and abuses of state power, yet they remain known as the world’s biggest conspirators. Allegedly, there are many big shots in this cult who control world affairs, by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations, in order to gain political power and influence to establish rules of a new world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati

6. Aum Shinrikyo
It is a Japanese doomsday cult (the cults that believe in an impending apocalypse) founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. Though the belief system of this cult is based on elements of Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism, Asahara’s idiosyncratic interpretations have made this almost equivalent of a terrorist organisation. Claiming their main agenda is to get rid of sin, Asahara claimed that he could transfer to his followers spiritual power and ultimately take away their sins and bad deeds. This cult was responsible for carrying out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 that killed 12 and maimed almost 1000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo

7. The People’s temple
‘The People’s Temple of the Disciples of Christ’, commonly known as the Peoples Temple, is a religious cult founded by Jim Jones in 1955 in America. Jones was a twisted man, and using the idea that the Bible was only white men’s justification to dominate women and coloured people, he preached ‘socialism’ and solidified his ability of fake ‘faith healing.’ The people’s temple is truly a doomsday cult in nature, considering 918 people died at the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project in a mass murder and suicide, to reach ‘divinity,’ an incident that records the most number of determined civilian death in the USA before 9/11.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Temple#Recruiting.2C_faith_healings.2C_and_fund_raising

8. Heaven’s gate
Heaven’s Gate is another UFO religion cum doomsday cult found in the 70’s. Apparently, the founders of this cult claimed that they have arrived on the Earth in a UFO from another world. They also urged their members “to shed every attachment to the planet” to be eligible for ‘another level,’ as the earth was believed to be ‘wiped clean’ too. In 1997, the bodies of 39 members of the cult were found by the police. They had committed mass suicide believing that it would take them to an alien space ship that was behind the comet Hale-Bopp, and which in turn would take them to ‘another level.’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)

9. The church of euthanasia
Started by Chris Korda in the Boston, this is a relatively new religious cult. Apparently, the cult is “devoted to restoring the balance between Humans and the remaining species on Earth.” and excessively forbids its members to procreate. This cult also has four chief doctrines – suicide, abortion, cannibalism (of the already dead people) and sodomy (as the sexual act doesn’t lead to procreation). They boast of slogans like “Save the Planet, Kill Yourself”, and “Eat a Queer Fetus for Jesus”, which should give you an idea about how extreme this cult is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Euthanasia

10. Branch Davidians
Also known as the ‘Branch’, this cult was founded in 1955, led by David Koresh, who believed himself to be the ‘final prophet.’ As it was an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, there were power struggles between Koresh and its leaders. Koresh also had sexual relations with many of the female members of the cult, and sometimes even raped underage girls with their parents’ consent. Stories of acute child abuse by Koresh were also circulated though the state failed to collect enough evidence against him initially. Koresh also made his followers believe that the State was their enemy. In 1993, FBI tried to forcefully bring the Branch Davidians out of their Texas refuge, during which the building caught fire, and 80 members, including several children and Koresh himself, died.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh

11. Order of the solar temple
Started by Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984 in Geneva, The Order of the Solar Temple cult believes in the existence and ideals of the Knights Templar (an organization of the most powerful of the Western Christian military orders, that existed during 12th to 14th century). They believe in establishing ‘correct notions of authority and power in the world’ and assisting humanity through a great ‘transition’. They also believed in the second coming of Christ as a solar God-king. In 1994, Di Mambro ordered the killing of a 3-month-old infant, identifying him as Antichrist. This cult is known for the execution of mass murders and suicides in Switzerland as part of religious rituals. The dead believers left farewell notes claiming that they were leaving to escape the ‘hypocrisies and oppression of this world.’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Solar_Temple

12. The Manson Family
Manson Family famously murdered seven people over the course of two nights to start a race war. In the late '60s, Charles Manson brought together a group of displaced young people and called them his "family." They settled in Spahn Ranch, a sprawling former movie studio near Los Angeles, where drugs were free-flowing, mandatory orgies were enforced, and Manson pushed his ideas about an imminent race war.

The cult leader told his followers he wanted them to go on a killing spree. On August 8, 1969, a few members of the cult headed to a Beverly Hills home and murdered five people, including actress Sharon Tate. They wrote the word "PIG" in Tate's blood on the door. The violence continued the next night when Rosemary and Leno LaBianca were murdered in their Los Feliz home by Manson's followers on his orders. Rosemary was stabbed 14 times.

Manson was convicted of first-degree murder in 1971. He served out his prison sentence until he died on November 19, 2017, at age 83.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manson_Family

13. Cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, is the result of an effort which is made to create an idealized and heroic image of a leader by a government, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Historically, it has developed through techniques of mass media, propaganda, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies. A cult of personality is similar to apotheosis, except that it is established by modern social engineering techniques, usually by the state or the party in one-party states and dominant-party states. Cults of personality often accompany the leaders of totalitarian or authoritarian governments. They can also be seen in some monarchies, theocracies, failed democracies and even in liberal democracies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality

List of cults of personality And all in the name of religion! ? ? ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cults_of_personality

A number of presidents in American history have been noted by various historians as being supported by the effects of a cult of personality and other people too.

A new religious movement (NRM) is a religious, ethical, or spiritual group or community with practices of relatively modern origins. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may exist on the fringes of a wider religion, in which case they will be distinct from pre-existing denominations. Academics identify a variety of characteristics which they employ in categorizing groups as new religious movements. The term is broad and inclusive, rather than sharply defined. New religious movements are generally seen as syncretic, employing human and material assets to disseminate their ideas and worldviews, deviating in some degree from a society's traditional forms or doctrines, focused especially upon the self, and having a peripheral relationship that exists in a state of tension with established societal conventions.

https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/List_of_new_religious_movements

Designing Compelling Cult Leaders for Your RPG Campaign Creating a captivating and memorable cult leader can add a unique layer of intrigue and depth to your tabletop RPG campaign. In this guide, we’ll discuss the importance of crafting a well-rounded backstory, motivations, and appearance for your cult leader. We’ll also provide tips on how to make your cult leader stand out and encourage readers to use our cult name generator to come up with a fitting name for their charismatic antagonist.

The Importance of a Rich Backstory
A cult leader’s backstory is the foundation upon which their character is built. By developing a detailed history for your cult leader, you’ll not only create a more believable and engaging antagonist but also provide hooks for your players to uncover and explore throughout the campaign. When crafting your cult leader’s backstory, consider the following

Origins: Where did your cult leader come from? Are they using their birth name or have they come up with their own cult leader name? What was their upbringing like? Did they have a traumatic or transformative experience that led them to form or join a cult? Perhaps he/she is sick of the modern world and wants to create a political reform?

a political cult leader

Education and Skills: What kind of education or training has your cult leader received? Are they well-versed in arcane lore, skilled in martial arts, or charismatic speakers? Your leader will need to have strong leader abilities to be able to manipulate others into joining the cause.

Influences: Who or what has influenced your cult leader’s beliefs and actions? Have they been inspired by a powerful entity, a historical figure, or a personal mentor?

Motivations: The Driving Force Behind Your Cult Leader. Understanding your cult leader’s motivations is crucial to creating a compelling and believable character. By establishing clear and relatable goals for your antagonist, you can create a more engaging narrative and provide your players with a deeper understanding of the cult leader’s actions.

Some possible motivations for your cult leader might include:

Power and Control: Your cult leader may seek to gain power and influence over others, using their followers as pawns in a larger game.

Religious Zeal: Your cult leader may genuinely believe in the tenets of their faith and seek to spread their message to others, even if it means resorting to extreme measures.

religious cult leader

Revenge or Vengeance: Your cult leader may have been wronged in the past and is now seeking retribution against those who have harmed them or their loved ones.

Appearance: Crafting a Memorable Cult Leader
A cult leader’s appearance can play a significant role in making them a memorable and engaging antagonist. Consider the following when designing your cult leader’s appearance:

Clothing and Accessories: What kind of attire does your cult leader wear? Do they don elaborate robes or prefer more modest clothing? Are they adorned with symbols or artifacts that represent their beliefs? The setting will play a bit part in this but clothing goes a long way, particularly for the darker cults. You may want to keep the leaders face a secret?

shrouded cult leader

Physical Traits: What unique physical features does your cult leader possess? Do they have striking eyes, an imposing stature, or an unforgettable scar? Perhaps you want to go with a darker, less human form.

Mannerisms and Speech Patterns: How does your cult leader speak and carry themselves? Do they exude confidence and charisma, or are they more reserved and enigmatic?

Using the Cult Name Generator
cult origins

Before getting started with the leader, it is important to come up with a cult for this person to be the leader of. We have a really handy and easy-to-use cult name generator. This tool can generate a wide array of names that will add an air of mystery and intrigue to help you come up with a backstory for the origins of the cult and the person that is going to lead it.

Diverse Perspectives and Sources of Inspiration
When designing your cult leader, consider drawing inspiration from diverse sources such as history, mythology, and pop culture. By incorporating elements from various traditions and narratives, you can create a unique and engaging antagonist that will keep your players on their toes. You can read up one some of the more well-known cults in video games for some additional help.

Additionally, consider consulting resources such as The Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion for in-depth guidance on creating memorable cults and cult leaders in your RPG campaign.

Designing a compelling cult leader for your RPG campaign requires a thoughtful approach to backstory, motivations, and appearance. By taking the time to develop a well-rounded and engaging antagonist, you’ll not only enrich your campaign’s narrative but also provide your players with an unforgettable gaming experience.

Political parties are essential institutions of democracy. By competing in elections parties offer citizens a choice in governance, and while in opposition they can hold governments accountable. When citizens join political parties, volunteer their time, donate money and vote for their leaders, they are exercising their basic democratic rights. Participation of citizens in political parties offers unique benefits, including opportunities to influence policy choices, choose and engage political leaders, and run for office. However, in some countries political parties do not respect the rights of citizens to participate and are not accountable to voters. NDI supports the development of vibrant, accountable and inclusive multiparty systems that offer citizens meaningful choices and opportunities for political participation. The Institute’s work includes knowledge and resource sharing, and aims to expand the participation of marginalized groups including: women, youth, ethnic and racial minorities, persons with disabilities, and gender and sexual minorities. ​NDI's assistance reaches across party organizations, from ​grassroots party members​ to mid-level ​party officials and senior party leaders. ​The Institute is the only organization to have official standing in the four largest international groupings of political parties: Centrist Democrat International, Liberal International, Socialist International and Progressive Alliance. Through these networks, NDI fosters peer-to-peer exchanges and consultations. The Institute also facilitates constructive engagement between political parties and other institutions, such as civil society, the media and election management bodies.

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