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| South Korean Pastor Lee Jaerock was convicted of the multiple rape of eight female followers — some of whom believed he was God. — AFP |
- Religious devotion is widespread in technologically advanced South Korea
- South Korea has proven fertile ground for religious groups with strong, unambiguous ideologies that offered comfort and salvation
A South Korean cult leader was convicted Thursday of the multiple rape of eight female followers -- some of whom believed he was God -- and jailed for 15 years.
Pastor Lee Jaerock's victims were "unable to resist as they were subject to the accused's absolute religious authority", judge Chung Moon-sung told the Seoul Central District Court.
Religious devotion is widespread in technologically advanced South Korea, with 44 percent of people identifying themselves as believers.
Most belong to mainstream churches, which can accumulate wealth and influence with tens of thousands of followers donating as much as 10 percent of their income.
But fringe groups are also widespread -- experts say around 60 people in the country claim to be divine -- and some have been implicated in fraud, brainwashing, coercion, and other behaviour associated with cults worldwide.
Lee set up the Manmin Central Church in Guro, once a poor area of Seoul, with just 12 followers in 1982. It has now grown to 130,000 members, with a spotlight-filled auditorium, sprawling headquarters, and a website replete with claims of miracle cures.
But three of Lee's followers went public earlier this year, as South Korea was swept with a wave of #MeToo accusations, describing how he had summoned each of them to an apartment and raped them.
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| South Korean Pastor Lee Jae-rock arrives at the Seoul Central District Court to attend his trial on Thursday. | AFP-JIJI |
"I was unable to turn him down," one of them told South Korean television.
"He was more than a king. He was God," added the woman, who had been a church member since childhood.
Lee told another that she was now in Heaven, and to strip as Adam and Eve went naked in the Garden of Eden. "I cried as I hated to do it," she told JTBC television.
Eight women laid criminal complaints, and the court found Lee raped and molested them "tens of times" over a long period.
"Through his sermons the accused has indirectly or directly suggested he is the holy spirit, deifying himself," the judge said.
The victims believed him to be "a divine being who wields divine power", he added.
Lee, who denied the charges, stood with his eyes closed as the judgement was read, showing no emotion, while around 100 followers filled the courtroom to overflowing, some of them sighing quietly.
The 75-year-old's lawyers had accused the women of lying to seek vengeance after being excommunicated for breaching church rules.
- Second Coming -
South Korea has proven fertile ground for religious groups with strong, unambiguous ideologies that offered comfort and salvation that appealed strongly during times of deep uncertainty.
More recent versions have claimed a unique knowledge of the path to material and spiritual prosperity -- a message that resonates in a highly competitive and status-focused society.
According to a 2015 government survey, 28 percent of South Koreans say they belong to Christian churches, with another 16 percent describing themselves as Buddhist.
But according to Park Hyung-tak, head of the Korea Christian Heresy Research Institute, around two million people are followers of cults.
"There are some 60 Christian-based cult leaders in this country who claim to be the second coming of Jesus Christ, or God Himself," he told AFP.
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| AFP/File / MENAHEM KAHANA |
"Many cults point to megachurches mired in corruption and other scandals in order to highlight their own presumed purity and attract believers," he added.
On his own website, Lee says that God has "anointed me with His power" but the Manmin Central Church has been condemned as heretical by mainstream Christian organisations, partly because of its claims to miracle healing.
In one example on the church website, Barbara Vollath, a 49-year-old German, said he was born deaf but her bone cancer was cured and she gained hearing in both ears after Lee's daughter and heiress apparent Lee Soojin prayed for her with a handkerchief he had blessed.
South Korean cults can have deadly consequences: in 1987, 32 members of an apocalyptic group called Odaeyang, were found dead at their headquarters in an apparent murder-suicide pact, including its leader, who was under police investigation for embezzlement.
And they can influence the highest reaches of power.
Choi Soon-Sil, the woman at the centre of the corruption scandal that brought down her close friend president Park Geun-Hye, is the daughter of late religious leader Choi Tae-min.
The elder Choi became Park's spiritual mentor after establishing his own church, Yeongsegyo ("Spiritual Life"), combining tenets of Buddhism, Christianity and shamanism.
Source: AFP
On a mission from God: South Korea's many cults
The jailing of a South Korean religious leader on Thursday for the rape of multiple followers is the latest example of religious cults in the country.
The world's 11th-largest economy is technologically advanced but has a history of cult organisations and charismatic religious leaders, some of whom have amassed enormous wealth and influence.
Here are some groups that have previously attracted controversy or had brushes with the law. Pastor Lee Jaerock, a South Korean cult leader was convicted Thursday of the multiple rape of eight female followers. Here are other South Korean cult groups that have made headlines +4
Pastor Lee Jaerock, a South Korean cult leader was convicted Thursday of the multiple rape of eight female followers. Here are other South Korean cult groups that have made headlines
The World Mission Society Church of God predicted the end of the world would come on December 31, 1999.
However, being wrong has been no barrier to its fortunes, and an anti-cult group estimates that it has more than 200,000 followers, although it claims more than two million.
Its founder Ahn Sang-hong, who died in 1985, is worshipped as the Heavenly Father, who it says will come for the salvation of 144,000 souls -- the number appears in a biblical prophecy.
Ahn's wife Jang Gil-ja is regarded as the Heavenly Mother. Its aggressive evangelical activities in south east Asian countries sparked controversy.
Shincheonji, or the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, suggests that its founder Lee Man-hee has donned the mantle of Jesus Christ and will take 144,000 people with him to Heaven, body and soul, on the Day of Judgement.
But its adherents have long surpassed that number, and critics say they have to engage in endless loyalty competitions to earn credits to be included among the saved, sacrificing their everyday lives and leading to serious family disputes.
Shincheonji 'is the nation of God, created by Him to fulfil what is in heaven on this earth in today´s time', it says on its homepage, adding that Lee 'is creating God´s kingdom of heaven here on earth, exactly as he witnessed it in heaven'.
The female leader of a doomsday cult and three of her acolytes were arrested this year for allegedly holding some 400 followers captive in Fiji and subjecting them to violence and barbaric rituals.
Victims were hit hundreds of times in ceremonies known as 'threshing floors', defectors told South Korean media.
Shin Ok-ju, founder of the Grace Road Church, has gone on trial on charges of violence, child abuse, exploitation and incarceration, among others.
One of South the largest and best-known cults is Providence or Jesus Morning Star, also known by the acronym JMS -- which matches the initials of its founder Jung Myung Seok.
He set it up in 1980 as a breakaway from the Unification Church, also known as the Moonies.
Jung was released from prison earlier this year after serving a 10-year sentence for the rape and sexual assault of four female followers.
He told them to have sex with him to purge themselves of sin.
Guwonpa, or 'Salvation Sect', came to national attention when the Sewol ferry -- whose operating company was run by its leader Yoo Byung-eun and his family -- sank in 2014 with the loss of more than 300 lives, most of them children.
On the run from charges of corruption and negligence, Yoo's body was found in a field, so badly decomposed that authorities were unable to determine the precise cause of death.
In 1987, 32 members of an apocalyptic cult called Odaeyang, meaning 'five oceans', were found dead at their headquarters in the southern city of Yongin in an apparent murder-suicide pact.
Among them was the cult's leader Park Soon-Ja, who had been under pressure from her lenders over $17 million of debts and was under police investigation for embezzlement.
Police said Park's two sons and a cult official strangled her and 28 others before killing themselves.
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