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26th August 2012, 11:36 PM | #1 |
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South Korean cult activity
Good news, everybody! Jesus has returned, and this time he has taken the form of... *rolls dice* ...a rich, elderly Korean man.
This is Lee Man-hee, founder of 300 Bible schools around the world, philanthropist, and yes, new Jesus. Just as the Old Testament apparently predicted the arrival of the first Christ, the New Testament predicted the arrival of Lee Man-hee. He founded his church, Sinchonji, in 1984, the year that the Universe completed its orbit. He's 81 now, and his followers are pretty certain he will never die. Anyway, moving on. There's a new volunteer group that's taking Korea by storm. They call themselves "Mannam" meaning "meeting" (but more on that later) and they lie in wait wherever foreigners are known to frequent, doing their best to recruit those of us who live in Korea but aren't ethnically Korean. I was approached by one outside a professional soccer game, and their free Korean language classes caught my eye (but for an article I was writing, not to actually attend). I know others who got involved in Mannam through their running club, various sports, photography club, and so on. Mannam does a lot of charity work, especially visiting hospitals and orphanages. Granted, they seem to put all their available money and energy into shirts for the foreign volunteers, rather than actually helping people. Here's a typical event, where they were meeting with elderly people. And at an orphanage. Generally at these events they act cheery and shout the slogan "When light meets light, there is victory!" You might also notice that interesting little salute they do. Same gesture, at an official Sinchonji event. Lee Man-hee is the honorary chairman of Mannam, which is starting to sound a bit suspicious. It's on a more practical level run by Kim Nam-hee. Here's an image of them together. Look at their names a bit closer. Lee Man-hee, Kim Nam-hee. It turns out the organisation name is a combination of their two names. Even their slogan is a clever word play on the two organisers' names as written in Chinese. "When light (Hui) and light (Hui) meet (Man-nam), there is victory (Lee Kim)." So, thanks to a lot of Internet sleuthing by a few people (I've been more or less along for the ride), the truth is out about Mannam. We've been confronting friends about it, and the reaction we get is hostile and distrusting. "They do good things!" "I can't argue with their message of world peace!" "Don't believe everything you read." Then, slowly, the foreigners they've suckered into becoming promotional tools start to realise what they've bought into. In most of these cases the foreigners got involved simply out of interest to volunteer, or connect more closely to their host country. Mannam has sent organisers to professional teaching organisations to recruit new teachers, who couldn't be aware of what they were getting into. In the past few days, Mannam has been shutting down pages and promotions in order to do damage control. In particular, Sinchonji is managing a massive event on September 16. The Shinchonji Mass Games Olympiad. Here's the previous one, held in 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMujBYY_qVo If this doesn't remind you of North Korea's Mass Games, I'll be surprised. Meanwhile, same day, same venue, this is happening: We've come to the collective conclusion that Sinchonji is using Mannam (and many other front organisations, including Serving Group in the US, to herd foreigners in for nice photo shoots to give the cult a more international feeling, with the ultimate goal being to recruit more ethnic/national Koreans. Anyway, I just thought I'd share some of our findings (this is really only the tip of the iceberg) and collect my own thoughts, and also see what everyone on here makes of all this. It's interesting to see how they're getting otherwise rational (and in many cases, religious and thus anti-cult) people on board. |
28th August 2012, 06:41 AM | #2 |
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Gee, we haven't heard much from Sun Myung Moon lately... I guess this guy is ready to step into his shoes. If he lives long enough.....
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28th August 2012, 06:52 AM | #3 |
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28th August 2012, 12:36 PM | #4 |
Insert something funny here
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South Koreans are gluttons for religion. Seems to be a great place to start one and gain converts.
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28th August 2012, 12:41 PM | #5 |
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10km is not a 'marathon.'
Fannies. |
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28th August 2012, 09:35 PM | #6 |
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Agreed. It's interesting to watch, if disconcerting. Along with religions, they also go for get-rich-quick schemes. Amway is huge over here.
I think it all comes from 50 years of cultural suppression under Japan, followed by near-total destruction in the Korean War. Everyone wants to find some kind of identity, and they're disconnected from the past. |
28th August 2012, 09:36 PM | #7 |
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1st September 2012, 09:26 PM | #8 |
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Hi DonJunbar!
Are you familiar with this site? http://www.jmscult.com/forum/ It has a Mannam section. |
1st September 2012, 10:17 PM | #9 |
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In Japan, "marathon" is used for any long distance running. I imagine that something like that is used in South Korea and maybe other countries. In fact, a lot of words that are used in South Korea were introduced by the Japanese during the colonial period. I remember reading some editorial asking why so many South Koreans are not very good at learning English and the answer, predictable for those who have experience reading South Korean newspapers is that it is all the fault of the Japanese; when the Japanese turned up in South Korea they brought with them their awful katakana English forever crippling South Korean understanding of real English.
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2nd September 2012, 08:51 AM | #10 |
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2nd September 2012, 12:58 PM | #11 |
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If you've got some citations for this lot wikipedia needs some serious updating:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Man-Hee |
2nd September 2012, 05:22 PM | #12 |
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2nd September 2012, 05:24 PM | #13 |
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3rd September 2012, 02:41 AM | #14 |
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3rd September 2012, 05:33 PM | #15 |
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4th September 2012, 07:42 PM | #16 |
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We just reached an interesting development. Someone decided to contact Al Noor Orphanage, the recipient of aid from this event:
http://www.kangwon.ac.kr/english/bbs..._id=549&page=4 and the orphanage swears it's never heard of Mannam or Sinchonji, and flat-out calls it a scam. Admittedly if you poke around a bit you'll see that Al Noor has had some complaints alleged against them in the past, but seem to have been cleared of most of them. In 2010, they were accused of doctoring photos. And if you dig a bit more, there are Mannam pictures described to be at Al Noor directly. http://mannamsouthafrica.weebly.com/events.html Odd considering Al Noor has never heard of them. I haven't made sense of it all yet, but I feel like we're getting into something criminal here. |
6th September 2012, 12:14 AM | #17 |
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6th September 2012, 12:39 AM | #18 |
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11th September 2012, 07:30 PM | #19 |
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If you've seen the viral "Gangnam Style" music video by PSY, here's a parody of it (these things are getting very popular over here) done by Mannam members.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pxL-egZx-8 |
17th September 2012, 07:55 PM | #20 |
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Well the big day came, I attended, and two days later my mind has somewhat recovered.
Thousands of foreigners were tricked into coming under the pretense it was a world peace event sponsored by the Korean government (and I even heard the UN). In actuality, they fooled the government's Ministry of Unification too, and they managed to pull out only two days in advance. Yesterday the Internet was quiet, but today the blogosphere is exploding.
Quote:
Quote:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08AMtIxyPoY My own experiences were much different, as I went in knowing about the Shinchonji connection and sat in the press section. While in the press section, I was attacked twice by guards, and we were given the option to either delete our pictures or sign a document promising not to say anything negative about the whole event. I gave them this ultimatum: (a) we walk out of here with our pictures, and publish them for others to see, for better or for worse but we make no promises, or (b) we leave with no pictures and write the angriest report of what happened, and disseminate it to as many people as possible through all channels available to us. They let us go. I'll be honest, I'm not going to criticise their beliefs, or their event (which was spectacular), but I will continue to highlight the link between Mannam and Shinchonji so that people who are approached by recruiters may make an informed decision about getting involved. |
17th September 2012, 08:23 PM | #21 |
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Well done, DonJunbar. Nice ultimatum!
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20th September 2012, 08:25 PM | #22 |
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I've included a full report with pictures of the event.
http://www.daehanmindecline.com/ http://www.daehanmindecline.com/2012/20120916.html So, how was your weekend? I went to a breathtakingly grand event at Olympic Stadium which, depending on which side you entered or how you were invited, was either the Shinchonji National Olympiad or the World Peace Festival. For the last several months, Mannam recruiters have been out wherever foreigners congregate, handing out pamphlets about Mannam's many activities and teasers of an upcoming World Peace event on September 16 that would break a world record. I was approached at the World Cup Stadium GS25 while my parents were visiting, and while I wasn't interested in expanding my social commitments, I saw the opportunity for a good news article for work. My first article about Mannam talked about affordable Korean-language classes, placing Mannam side-by-side with the Korean Cultural Centers and numerous migrant workers' centers. I had no problem giving the Mannam recruiter my contact info and receiving occasional event invitations; in the quest for fresh article ideas that belong on a government news website, I need to cast a wide net. Anyway, months later I started hearing that Mannam had ties with a Korean church outside the mainstream, Shinchonji. Evidence has been offered here and there, from first-hand accounts to analysis of their symbolism and practices, not to mention the presence of Shinchonji higher-ups in the upper echelons of Mannam, not the least of which is Lee Man-hee, leader of Shinchonji and honorary chairman of Mannam. This was not a hidden fact, but recruiters weren't up-front about it, and it wasn't long before a lot of the original pages supporting the link were made to disappear. I looked into it a bit, and was surprised to find how many of my friends had also been contacted by them. This group had reached a surprisingly large portion of the expat population, which is actually quite an achievement I can't imagine has been duplicated by anyone other than...immigration? |
26th September 2012, 12:09 AM | #23 |
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Here are a few videos to make it come alive a bit more for you.
Opening ceremonies, where everyone was doing the wave. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tTEYfAUmtk A closer look at how the sections work. You can sort of see the cheerdrivers instructing everyone to stay together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxY8Glm6Qd8 And the mass games, with thousands of people running out into the field. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Voqm29fsY Here's the climax of the mass games, when Jesus makes his appearance. The audio was messed up so I used a quick fix on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo08XK5XXqA |
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