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‘Cult’ megachurch suspected of spreading coronavirus in South Korea

Members of a controversial South Korean megachurch labeled a “cult” could be responsible for spreading the deadly coronavirus throughout the country, according to a new report.

Authorities are eyeing the Daegu branch of the secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus, where a 61-year-old woman known as Patient No. 31 is believed to have attended Sunday services despite developing the illness, The New York Times reported.

“Her behavior is not surprising to people familiar with the church,” Chung Yun-seok, an expert on religious cults who runs the website Christian Portal News, told the Times. “To them, getting sick is a sin because it prevents them from doing God’s work.”

Patient No. 31 had visited Cheongdo, a city near Daegu where 16 patients and medical staff at a hospital have tested positive for the coronavirus and two of them died this week, according to the report.





Some church members are also believed to have attended the funeral for the brother of the sect’s founder, Lee Man-hee, 88, in Cheongdo early this month. South Korea’s Newsis News Agency reported that Patient No. 31 had not visited the hospital or attended the funeral, but she did use a public bathhouse while in Cheongdo.

On Tuesday, she was confirmed to be infected after checking into a government-run clinic for a coronavirus test.

“We need a thorough investigation of the people who attended the church services and the funeral,” President Moon Jae-in said during an emergency meeting Friday.

Hwang Eui-jong, a pastor who has researched the church, told the paper that members of the congregation had also been attempting to convert ethnic Koreans in northeastern China, and invited many to South Korea.





However, the woman insisted she had not recently visited China or made contact with anyone known to have the infection, according to the report.

Chinese health officials were unable to reach more than 340 church members Friday, hoping to screen them for signs of coronavirus, according to the report.

“Shincheonji members know of their bad image and they usually hide their affiliation from non-church members, even from their parents,” Hwang told the Times. “No wonder many of them are unreachable. They must be huddled together somewhere, praying that this will eventually go away.”





Former member Lee Ho-yeon told the Times that some of the church’s practices may make members particularly susceptible to infections.

“Unlike other churches, Shincheonji makes its members sit on the floor tightly together during services, in neat, military-like ranks and files,” said Lee, who left the church in 2015. “We were not supposed to have anything on our faces, like glasses or masks. We were trained to sing our hymns loudly.”

“We were taught not to be afraid of illness,” she added. “We were taught not to care about such worldly things like jobs, ambition or passion. Everything was focused on proselytizing, even when we were sick.”

But the church brushed off those criticisms Friday as “slandering based on the prejudices among the established churches.”





It said its members only sat close together on the floor because local authorities would not provide it permits to build larger churches.

Church leader Lee Man-hee urged his followers on Friday to “follow the government’s instructions,” avoid gatherings and proselytize online instead of in public, according to the Times.

“This disease outbreak is the work of the devil, which is hellbent on stopping the rapid growth of the Shincheonji,” he said in a message to his followers.





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