The Many Faces of Shinchonji- Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL)

1) In Which Scroozle Almost Gets Suckered Into Attending a ‘Cult’ Activity
2) Mannam- A Follow-Up Investigation
3) Mannam Part 3- The Unintended Trilogy
4) 2012 Shinchonji Olympiad
5) Is Shinchonji Actually Using Mannam to Promote Itself?
6) Mannam- The Statement and the Apology
7) Mannam, Shinchonji, and the World Peace Initiative (WPI)- Thoughts Around the Web
8) The Curious Case of the Disappearing Article
9) Shinchonji Sincheonji Shinchunji 신천지
10) The Book of Shinchonji
11) 24 Questions asked by Samsung’s Lee Byung-chul, Answered by Shinchonji’s Lee Man Hee, and rebutted by Crimson North’s Scroozle
12) Korea: Land of Prophets and Sects
13) What Is the International Peace Youth Group (IPYG)?
14) The Many Faces of Shinchonji- Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL)
15) What is the Summit for the World Alliance of Religions (WARP Summit Seoul 2014)?

I wrapped up our chat by asking Mr. Lee how we can promote peace every day. “You don’t have to be special,” he said. “I’m a man from humble origins, not a political or a religious leader. We can be a light to the people around us.”

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I want that quote to remain up there for posterity’s sake. The Mr. Lee in question is none other than the founder of the Korean Christian sect, Shinchonji, sometimes referred to as the chairman of its ever-changing volunteer services. Internally, he’s referred to as seonsaengnim (선생님)/SSN, the Korean word for teacher, a title afforded to people of respect. The quote comes from one of his overseas tours, where he met global leaders. For the past year and a bit he has been presenting himself as a volunteer and peace activist. Gullible state leaders have taken the bait, and given him the fodder he feeds his religious faithful.

This kind of thing isn’t a new development. If you go through that lengthy index at the top of this post, you’ll see how Shinchonji uses these interviews and photo-ops to sell their product to the flock. Non-Koreans are a valuable commodity to Shinchonji. They believe only the “promised pastor” (another Lee Man Hee nickname) can unite the world, and showing Lee touring the world and securing visits with heads-of-states fulfills this prophecy.

They’ve tried doing this in Korea as well, among the foreign population. They’ve held free Korean, cooking, and taekwondo classes in the past. Most of the participants didn’t think there were any strings attached to their membership, but they provided the sect with valuable photos they could share on their internet cafes and pat themselves on the back.

As is evidenced by the opening Miss Heard Magazine quote, most people still aren’t aware of Lee’s true intent, or how their names/images will be used in Korea. This has always been particularly troubling since I started researching Mannam and Shinchonji. From day one, I noticed their proclivity to pose with international officials, at embassies and what not.

Those three pictures are from when Shinchonji was using the name “Mannam” to secure meetings with delegates. The people in the pictures were no doubt believing they were posing with actual volunteers and doing some good in the communities they represented. Things weren’t that simple though, and that’s why the name “Mannam” isn’t in circulation any more. When Mannam was exposed for what it was, they went into hiding and came out again as the IPYG.

They went through a lot of difficulty in rebranding themselves as IPYG. They had promotional materials and new websites all lined up. However, just as they were gathering steam, they were stymied by a series of blog posts that nipped things in the bud. Their ship scuttled, they seemingly abandoned IPYG, much like they had done Mannam.

Yet, like the Marvel universe’s Hydra organization, if you cut off one head, two more will take its place. Shinchonji is never dormant, even if its plans sometime bear bitter fruit.

Rather than a single new start-up, we’re witnessing the birth of two.

The first is HWPL, which is referenced in the title of this entry. Man Hee Lee has been traveling under the HWPL banner for a bit now, and the “volunteer” organization has started cranking out videos. The faithful Shinchonji comment bots have also been hard at work, putting a positive spin on things.

WARP Promotion Video from HWPL on Vimeo.

How many of those people actually knew Man Hee Lee was the founder of a fringe Korean Christian sect? Most likely none. In the past, some of us have tried to get a hold of such individuals, but were not always successful in contacting them. If you don’t want to bother with adding to the video’s hit count, I’ll list them below for you:

Kjell Magne Bondevik, Prime Minister of Norway

Ion Iliescu, President of Romania

Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania

Tarja Halonen, President of Finland

Mari Kiviniemi, Prime Minister of Finland

Alvaro Arzu, President/Mayor of Guatemala

Enrique Jose Bolanos Geyer, President of Nicaragua

Ernesto Samper Pizano, President of Colombia

Dorin Cioaba, Romani King

Fidel Valdez Ramos, President of the Philippines

Hans Modrow, Prime Minister of East Germany

Alfred Gusenbauer, Prime Minister of Austria

Danilo Türk, President of Slovenia

Milan Kucan, President of Slovenia

Iveta Radicova, Prime Minister of Slovakia

Zoran Živković, Prime Minister of Serbia

Mirko Cvetković, Prime Minister of Serbia

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain

Marisol Espinoza, Vice President of Peru

Juan Gabriel Apaza Lonaseo, Incan Representative

Alvaro Colom Caballeros, President of Guatemala

Belisario Betancur, President of Colombia

Ricardo Lagos, President of Chile

Laura Chinchilla Miranda, President of Costa Rica

Jose Alberto Mujica Cordano, President of Uruguay

Lothar de Maiziere, Prime Minister of East Germany

Notice how the focus of many of those shots is on Lee Man Hee himself? None of this is truly about international cooperation, or peace. It’s just lip service to the Shinchonji churchgoers (who do you think is funding all these trips?) to prove their leader is indeed the promised pastor.

The second group is the International Women’s Peace Group. It’s seemingly headed by the former “head” of Mannam, Kim Nam hee (or Maria Kim). I put “head” in quotes, because it’s obvious she was never really the head of Mannam, she was just a Shinchonji placeholder for Lee Man Hee to officially take the reins.

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IWPG has been recruiting in Korean cities, although at first we went sure if they were connected to Shinchonji (despite setting off a bunch of warning bells). I feel sorry for all the people who were asked to pose in these photos, obviously unaware who was running the show.

If you’re wondering why the sudden rush of activity, it’s because of the upcoming World Alliance of Religions for Peace (WARP):

As of today, neither http://www.hwpl.kr nor http://www.hwpl.us are operationial. Maybe by the time September rolls around, Shinchonji will have crafted another name, and created brand new volunteer arms to replace HWPL, IWPG, and IPYG, just as they replaced Mannam, Mannam International, and Mannam International Youth Coalition (and the Serving Group long before them).

If any of the people in the above pictures thought their photos wouldn’t fuel the Shinchonji propaganda machine, they are sadly mistaken. A cursory glance of the the sect’s homepage tells you all you need to know:Look at all those non-Koreans, and global leaders, demonstrating that Lee Man Hee is fulfilling some obscure Biblical prophecy. Like I’ve said many times before, I don’t have any problems with people’s choice of religions or faiths. Shinchonji should be able to do their own thing in this world of incredible variety. However, as I’ve also stated, I strongly disagree with the dishonesty Lee uses to promote himself and his sect. He obviously meets people under false pretenses, and then uses those meetings for his own purposes.

If he straight-up told people he was the founder/leader/Chosen One of Shinchonji prior to their meeting, and those people chose to meet him anyway, I wouldn’t have had any problem. I strongly doubt people would have agreed to meet a man who makes the claims he does, which is why the sect is steeped in deception. If you attend this upcoming WARP summit, you’ll probably find there aren’t any Korean churches attending. That’s because Shinchonji is an ostracized fringe church, often called out for its practices in the press. If there are Korean churches attending, it’s a safe bet they are Shinchonji-affiliated churches.

One of the attacks used by SCJ (Shinchonji) proponents against blogs like this, is that we don’t want world peace, and must be in league with the devil (the latter is sadly not an over exaggeration. You’d think it was hyperbole, but church defectors have informed us otherwise). As someone who has actually studied foreign policy and international matters at the university level (not to mention religious history and philosophy), the over-simplification of Shinchonji’s peace initiatives are disingenuous at best, and dangerous at worst. A man claiming not to be a religious leader, but actually is, brokering “peace deals” in violence-prone areas is a laughable tale. It ignores centuries of inter-faith complexities and a host of social problems, and sweeps them aside. Lee signs pieces of paper, and then walks away, offering no solutions to past grievances. He doesn’t stick around to rehabilitate victims of the violence, or ensure they are well-looked after. All that matters to him is that piece of paper, and a photo of him shaking hands with whomever was duped.

You’ll notice that he never goes anywhere truly dangerous to provide his peace-brokering. The sectarian violence tearing Iraq apart could use the magic powers of Lee. He oversimplifies religions, as you can see from that video. What does a religious leader of Islam mean anyway? Shia? Sunni? Sufi? If you wanted to, you could break those three into further schools of thought. What does he mean, when he claims to have the ability to unify religions? If that were the case, then what’s his solution to sectarian violence the world over? He obviously doesn’t have one, and to be honest, it’s probably not all that necessary. His religious faithful probably don’t have the presence of mind to consider such questions. As far as Shinchonji is concerned, Lee isn’t really unifying religions; he’s stamping them out and heralding SCJ as the one true testimony of its god.

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