My experience visiting a cult that worships Korean Jesus
During a fall semester at university, I was approached by a friend who, like me, had an interest in the strange and unordinary. My friend had recently started studying and even attending a relatively harmless yet malicious cult, and invited me to join him for an anthropological study early one Sunday morning.
The group, or “cult,” is called “The World Missionary Society of God.” They have about 3,000 churches worldwide and approximately 450 in South Korea, where they originated, and they appear to be growing.
My mission was to immerse myself in this bizarre world and study it.
Before agreeing to attend, I learned some basic facts about the organization, but nothing really prepared me for how bizarre the experience would be.
My friend had already attended twice for documentation purposes and was considered “safe” by the church leadership. Not only was I greeted without suspicion, but I also provided my buddy with some "cult cred" (whatever that's worth). My friend had to get express permission to bring me because the “church” needed to prepare. This is typical because the organization uses a face-to-face or door-to-door strategy of recruitment, requiring an invitation. They do this so they can prepare for your arrival and make it special.
And prepare they did.
The organization had recently relocated from a residential house in the Rochester suburbs to a much nicer renovated church, about a 25-minute drive from my university.
Upon arrival, the first thing I noticed was groups of families standing around holding pillows, blankets, and food, waiting for leadership to open the church. It was like they were unpacking for a vacation at the beach, only instead of a recreational weekend getaway, it was a casual weekend filled with Korean Jesus and mental conditioning.
While waiting outside in the cold, I began talking with several members of the organization (including children). I learned that many of the worshippers had traveled over two hours to attend and seemed intent on staying for the weekend. As a result, they all seemed tired but very positive and friendly despite standing in the cold after traveling long distances. I would later discover that keeping members exhausted and isolated is an important part of “The World Missionary Society of God’s” strategy for gaining compliance. For example, after attending for a single Sunday, I was asked to play basketball among other odd activities at times like 11 PM or 6 AM. Nothing like a casual 6 AM game of water polo with religious Korean zealots.
After arriving, chugging a coffee, and using the bathroom, I started noticing other strange things. Most notably, all the men had started or already had changed into suits, and all the women had donned strange, almost Muslim attire—think Muslim dress meets bridal clothing. It looked bizarre. Then the men and women separated and did who knows what for an hour.
I have no clue what they did during that hour because I was then brought to and confined in what is called the truth room, essentially an indoctrination ceremony where I learned... well, the "truth."
While I learned part of the truth during this indoctrination, it wasn’t everything. Apparently, much like other modern-day borderline cults, they need to keep the real crazy stuff hidden until later. However, I did learn that I used to be an angel who basically hit his head really hard during childbirth and subsequently forgot everything about my previous angel life, among other strange, but not quite as ludicrous, realizations.
Other beliefs include an evil pope who wants to destroy Christianity and a rejection of any symbolism referring to God or Christianity because they see it as an insult to the divine (so absolutely no cross necklaces). This also means that their place of worship is completely devoid of any religious decoration; they even went so far as to remove the church pews and stripped the walls of any divine glamour. I was taught all this from finding very specific verses in the Bible and then extrapolating fallacious and absurd conclusions while a Korean zealot instructed me with the enthusiasm of a Cleveland Cavaliers fan after a big win.
After my time in the truth room, I was allowed to attend the actual church gathering where everyone meets for worship. A rather drab place devoid of heat because they haven’t raised enough funds for a full renovation, probably because they spend so much removing church ornaments and destroying crosses. Nothing hangs from the walls, and large uncleaned windows allow the gray, bleak Rochester sunlight to funnel in, making the atmosphere all the more soulless.
Noticing the women’s worship attire again, I realized that men and women are not allowed to sit together, and children have vanished entirely, probably being herded into some children’s version of the truth room.
I was assigned a seat almost in the front row and was surrounded by the male church leaders, and in front of me sat a large TV that was positioned front and center. The television acts as the preacher because other preachers or messengers are not allowed, I’m assuming because they could distort the targeted messages the higher-ups are communicating. One particular leader, the one who eventually opened the church when I was waiting outside earlier, gave me a pat on the back and whispered, “This is really impressive,” into my ear.
So, it began—the TV started playing, and I wasn’t impressed. The first video played of the church praising themselves for awards they received, including one supposedly from Obama. Meanwhile, the local leaders surrounding me would proclaim things like “wow, that’s amazing” and “so cool!” as if they had never heard any of this before. It was totally creepy, knowing what they were doing and knowing that they had to know as well.
The funny truth is, most of these awards (if not all of them) are fake. Take for example their claim that President Obama awarded the Missionary Society Church of God with a “Call to Service Plaque.” I won’t go into the details about the organization's complicated and almost noteworthy processes of achieving awards, but if you want to read more, you can click below.
http://www.examiningthewmscog.com/archives/the-wmscog-awarded-by-president-obama/
The remainder of the service was filled with songs from “The New Book,” the organization's very own holy book about Korean Jesus. A woman on the screen spoke for about 40 minutes while groups just like the one I was in sat and listened all over the world, while she basically just praised the organization and reminded all the viewers about all the good they are doing around the world. It was one of the saddest religious ceremonies ever, with no morals, not even an interesting story about Korean Jesus. I was disappointed. After the leader turned off the TV, the collection trays started going around. The leader sitting next to me patted me on the back when the tray reached me and said, “it’s okay, this one is on me,” and threw in $10 for me. I’m not sure how much money they collected, but just about everyone gave.
The strangest thing out of all the strange things that I witnessed during my stay was that I personally knew someone who actively and passionately attended. It was this guy named Daniel who I had worked with at a job I was later fired from. I would like to note Daniel also was fired. He was always a nice guy, but seeing him in his suit, serenading the TV preacher with praise, disturbed me greatly. I was okay looking at these people as unfortunately misguided oddities that I could examine with almost scientific curiosity. But once I had to confront the idea that these could actually be people I know and interact with, I started feeling really sad for them. I almost told Daniel my true intentions while I shook his hand and thanked him for being so friendly, but didn’t.
If that’s not cognitive dissonance, I don’t know what is.
Alright, but what about the really weird stuff. I mean, if 6 AM basketball games and truth rooms aren’t strange enough, what is? How about a Korean Jesus from the 1980s?
So I want to make it clear that everything I learned after this, I did online and through research. I would have had to spend at least a few more hours in the truth room if I were to learn this.
After you become properly indoctrinated, you get access to some pretty juicy and ludicrous secrets, like the history of Korean Jesus, Ahn Sahng-hong.
Ahn Sahng-hong was a popular religious leader before his death in 1985. The really interesting part is he never actually proclaimed to be the son of god; instead, his followers after his death proclaimed him to be Jesus.
But like any self-respecting cult, there needs to be a supreme leader. For The World Missionary Society of God, it comes in the form of Jang Gil-ja, “The God Mother.”
She is the head honcho of the organization and is treated with demigod reverence. The cult believes in both a male and female version of god, and I think she is considered the messenger of the female god. So, Korean girl Jesus.
"Korean girl Jesus" should totally be a K-Pop band name.
They have also had several failed doomsday predictions, saying the world would end in 1988, 1999, and 2012. They actively deny and refute any evidence about these doomsday predictions and go through the painstaking trouble to eradicate any evidence of these failed doomsday predictions.
So overall, it was a very entertaining, if frightening, experience that I will not repeat. I did, however, receive phone calls and text messages for the next month at odd hours. God bless Korean Jesus.
Go bless Korean Jesus.