CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/18/2024 (Questions and Answers, Legal, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, Kenya, Gateway Church, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Satanic Temple)

Questions and Answers, Legal, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, Kenya, Gateway Church, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Satanic Temple

WIRED: Former Cult Member Answers Cult Questions From Twitter

"Dr. Janja Lalich, a sociologist who used to be in a cult, answers the internet's burning questions about cults. How did Charles Manson get a cult following? What's the best movie about cults? Why did everyone in the Heaven's Gate cult wear Nikes? How do people get brainwashed?"

Agence France-Presse in Mombasa: Kenyan cult leader goes on trial on terrorism charges over 400 deaths

"The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult has gone on trial on charges of terrorism over the deaths of more than 400 of his followers in a macabre case that shocked the world.

The self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie appeared in court in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa along with 94 co-defendants.

Journalists were removed from the courtroom shortly after the start of the hearing to enable a protected witness to take the stand.

Mackenzie, who was arrested in April last year, is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to "meet Jesus".

He and his co-accused all pleaded not guilty to the charges of terrorism at a hearing in January.

They also face charges of murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, and child torture and cruelty in separate cases.

The remains of more than 440 people have been unearthed so far in a remote wilderness inland from the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi, in a case that has been dubbed the "Shakahola forest massacre".

Autopsies have found that while starvation appeared to be the main cause of death, some of the victims – including children – were strangled, beaten or suffocated.

Previous court documents also said that some of the bodies had had their organs removed."

The Roys Report: Gateway Church Settled Lawsuit Claiming Multiple Pastors Covered Up Sexual Assault of a Minor

"Dallas megachurch Gateway Church recently settled a lawsuit that accused several church leaders of concealing the sexual assault of a girl who attended the church.

The suit was settled in April, just months before Gateway Church founder Robert Morris resigned over the bombshell allegations that he sexually abused Cindy Clemishire when she was 12 years old in 1982.

The initial lawsuit, filed in Tarrant County Texas in 2020, claims that five pastors and a youth leader were aware that a member of the church assaulted the girl in 2018, when she would have been less than 12 years old. She was not yet 18 when the suit was settled this spring.

However, the leaders concealed this from the victim's mother and failed to report it to local authorities, according to the lawsuit.

The church leaders "collectively and independently engaged in a concerted effort to conceal the sexual assault accusations" to "subvert the accusations and avoid criminal investigation," according to the lawsuit."

Bang Premiere: Dan Reynolds gave up Mormonism as he thinks religion was 'harmful'

"The Imagine Dragons rocker, 36, was raised in what he says was a "really conservative" Mormon household and served a two-year Mormon mission in Omaha, Nebraska – but it has been several years since he quit his worship and he's now spoken out to slam aspects of the church.

He told People: "There's obviously parts of the Mormon religion that I feel pretty strongly are harmful, especially to our gay youth.

"At times I feel pretty isolated from my family, but I also love them and am close to them and see them, and there's no animosity there.

"I'm on a different path. I have to love myself enough to follow my truth."

Dan founded the LOVELOUD Foundation in 2018 in support of the young LGBTQ+ community and added he has "always struggled" with religion.

He added he spent his 20s and early 30s "really angry" at religion, as he felt he'd been "duped" by the Mormon church.

Dan said: "I saw a lot of the harm that came from it for me personally, but it also seemed to work incredibly well for my family, and they're all healthy, happy individuals.

"As I've gotten older, I'm not angry about it anymore. If something works for someone, that's really wonderful and rare, and I don't want to mess with it."

Dan has chosen not to raise the four children he has with his ex-wife Aja Volkman – daughters Arrow, 11, Gia and Coco, 7, and son Valentine, four – in the church, as he does not want to play with how their minds work.

He said: "My greatest goal every day is to not manipulate my kids. I really don't want to try to tell them what their spiritual path should be."

The Guardian: Satanists to volunteer in Florida schools in protest at DeSantis religious bill

Satanic Temple objects to the governor's push for more religion in schools and says members could act as student chaplains.

" ... Members of the Satanic Temple say they are poised to act as volunteer chaplains under a state law that took effect this week opening campuses to "additional counseling and support to students" from outside organizations.

Although HB 931 leaves the implementation of chaplain programs to individual school districts, and only requires schools to list a volunteer's religion "if any", DeSantis has made clear its intent is to restore the tenets of Christianity to public education.

Without the bill, DeSantis said at its signing in April: "You're basically saying that God has no place [on campus]. That's wrong."

The satanists see the law, which comes amid a vigorous theocratic drive into education by the religious right nationally, as an equal opportunity: if Christian chaplains are permitted access to students, often at the most vulnerable and impressionable stages of their lives, then so are they.

There are, however, no plans to introduce studies of the dark arts or satanic rituals to any classroom. The Satanic Temple champions Satan not as a literal, omnipresent demon, but as a symbol of rebellion and resistance to authoritarianism. It says its strategy here is to highlight flagrant violations of the constitutionally protected separation of church and state."

Mamamia: At 11, Joe Dageforde escaped from a notorious cult. The reason why is horrifying.

"Joe Dageforde's Canadian father was living in Australia, busking on the streets, when he met Joe's mum.

He invited her to a barbecue, run by his church group called, The Children of God. At the time, they were feeling disenchanted with the world and were desperately seeking a sense of belonging. They found it within the church.

That barbecue set the tone for Joe's life, and the life of his siblings, all of whom were born as active members of the church."

" ... The family was constantly moving, but always within the confines of the church, a global operation that still exists to this day.

"We lived in a caravan for a couple of years, communes, even in a tent for a while."

By the time he was 12, Joe had lived in 52 different locations. Each location had one thing in common though. They were cut off from the outside world."

" ... While the church painted a picture of devotion to God and each other, the reality was a sinister world dominated by physical and sexual abuse.

Joe says physical abuse was constant, with beatings and other punishments able to be administered by any adult who lived within the home.

"You could be punished for things as slight as running down the stairs, laughing too loud, being foolish, playing too energetically, not doing what you were asked to do immediately or to the standard deemed fit.

"If something happened and one of the kids wouldn't fess up, we could all be lined up and hit with fly swats, wooden spoons, paddles, bamboo, belts, anything. Sometimes the welts and marks left from spankings had to be covered up with longer clothing, even in summer, when we went out busking and fundraising. We lived in fear and constantly tread on eggshells."

Then, there was the sexual abuse, perpetrated under the guise of 'showing love' as instructed by God. "

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Kenyan court: Charge doomsday cult leader within 2 weeks or we release him on our terms

A Kenyan court has warned prosecutors that it will release under its own terms a pastor and others accused of being behind the deaths of 429 people believed to be his cult followers if they aren’t charged within two weeks


TOM ODULA 
ABC News
Associated Press
January 9, 2024

NAIROBI, Kenya -- A Kenyan court warned prosecutors Tuesday it will release under its own terms a pastor and others accused of being behind the deaths of 429 people believed to be his cult followers if they aren't charged within two weeks.

For months since the arrests last April, prosecutors have asked the court for permission to keep holding Paul Mackenzie and 28 others while they look into the case that shocked Kenyans with the discovery of mass graves and allegations of starvation and strangulation.

But Shanzu Senior Principal Magistrate Yusuf Shikanda noted that the suspects had been detained for 117 days since the last application for an extension and it was enough time to have completed investigations.

The defense has argued that the constitutional rights for bail for Mackenzie and the others were being violated since they haven't been charged.

The magistrate said the suspects had been detained without trial for longer than anyone in Kenya since the adoption of the country's 2010 constitution that outlawed detention without trial.

Mackenzie is serving a separate one-year prison sentence after being found guilty of operating a film studio and producing films without a valid license.

The cult case emerged when police rescued 15 emaciated parishioners from Mackenzie's church in Kilifi County in Kenya's southeast. Four died after the group was taken to a hospital.

Survivors told investigators the pastor had instructed them to fast to death before the world ends so they could meet Jesus.

A search of the remote, forested area has found 429 bodies and dozens of mass graves, authorities have said. Autopsies on some bodies showed starvation, strangulation or suffocation.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kenyan-court-charge-doomsday-cult-leader-2-weeks-106231083

Cult Leader in Kenya to Face 191 Charges of Child Murder

The authorities say Paul Nthenge Mackenzie told his followers to starve themselves and their children to death in the Shakahola Forest, where hundreds of bodies have been exhumed.
 

Mohamed Ahmed reported from Mombasa, Kenya, and Emma Bubola from London.

New York Times
January 17, 2024
 
A Kenyan judge on Wednesday said that a doomsday cult leader who the authorities say directed his followers to starve themselves must undergo a mental health evaluation before prosecutors formally charge him with the murders of 191 children.
 
The charges relate to the discovery last April of mass graves in the Shakahola Forest of southeastern Kenya, where hundreds of people had come to follow the teachings of the cult leader, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, a former taxi driver turned televangelist. Mr. Mackenzie had marketed Shakahola to his followers as an evangelical Christian sanctuary from what he claimed was the fast-approaching apocalypse. The Kenyan authorities say that he told members of his church to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus; more than 400 bodies were exhumed from the forest.
 
Mr. Mackenzie — who has denied the allegations — appeared in court on Wednesday in the Kenyan coastal city of Malindi. The judge, Mugure Thande, gave prosecutors until Feb. 6 to make sure that he and his co-defendants are fit to stand trial.
 
The prosecutor’s office shared with journalists a list of charges that it intends to bring against Mr. Mackenzie and 30 of his followers, including 191 counts of child murder.
 
The office said in a separate statement on Tuesday that 95 people in total would be charged with crimes in connection with the case, which it called the “Shakahola Massacre.”
 
Rights groups have protested previous efforts to prosecute Mr. Mackenzie’s followers, arguing that the accused should instead be helped.
 
The Kenyan government’s pathologists have said that many of the bodies exhumed from Shakahola indicated death by starvation, but some also showed signs of strangulation.
 
One former member of the cult told The New York Times that Mr. Mackenzie had preached that children should be the first to die — made “to fast in the sun so they would die faster” — so their parents could ensure that the children would reach heaven.
 
As Hussein Khalid, the executive director of Haki Africa, a rights organization that has closely monitored the case, said, “When adults died it meant their children had already starved to death.”
 
The discovery of the mass graves in the Shakahola Forest, an 800-acre region of sun-scorched scrub and spindly trees, prompted outrage and soul-searching in Kenya. Some of the bodies had been buried as early as 2021, raising questions from rights groups and observers about how the police and intelligence services had failed to prevent the deaths.
 
The case, which on Wednesday again dominated news coverage in Kenya, has also raised questions about whether the Kenyan authorities should regulate religious institutions and about how to address religious extremism in the country.
 
Emma Bubola is a reporter based in London. More about Emma Bubola
 
A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: Cult Leader Blamed in Children’s Deaths.
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/world/africa/kenya-cult-leader-murders-mackenzie.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
 

Kenya cult leader Paul Mackenzie faces terror charges over mass deaths

BBC
January 16, 2024

A suspected Kenyan cult leader is to be charged with murder and terrorism over the deaths of more than 400 people found in mass graves, prosecutors say.

Paul Mackenzie was arrested in April after the discovery of hundreds of bodies, some of whom were said to have starved themselves to death.

Kenyan prosecutors say that he and 94 others will be charged in court in Malindi on Wednesday.

The self-proclaimed pastor has denied responsibility for the deaths.

The bodies of 429 people, including children, have been dug up from grave sites in Shakahola, a remote forest about two hours' drive west of Malindi. Most showed signs of starvation, but some - children among them - may have been assaulted.

Mr Mackenzie is alleged to have encouraged members of his Good News International Church to move there and prepare for the end of the world.

One witness told the BBC that people were given instructions in January last year to begin fasting so that they could "get to heaven".

But Mr Mackenzie has said the deaths could not be down to him as he closed his church in 2019.

Investigators had asked for his time in custody to be extended several times as they continued their investigation.

They said their inquiries had now gathered enough evidence to charge him and the others with offences including murder, assault and "facilitating the commission of a terrorist act".

They are also facing a charge of "subjecting a child to torture", according to a statement from the director of public prosecutions.

The charges were listed a week after the court gave the prosecutors a fortnight's deadline to make them public or face the possibility that the suspects could be released.

Out of the 95 suspects, 64 had been found in Shakahola and were initially treated as victims and moved to a rescue centre.

However, investigators later found that many of them had children who had died in the forest.

Some of them had given false names and identities and failed to account for their children.

Mr Mackenzie was convicted last November of illegally operating a film studio associated with his preaching and distributing films without a valid filming licence.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-6799203

Why the police are finding it hard to prosecute Mackenzie

Mary Wambui
Nation

January 12, 2024

On April 14 last year, police officers who had been covertly trailing the activities of Paul Mackenzie following his links to the murder of two children in Shakahola were informed that 10 more people had died in the forest after starving.

The revelations kicked off a probe that would cast a spotlight on religious cultism in the country. Mr Mackenzie was released on cash bail but, out of fear that his activities would soon be exposed, began living in secrecy, sending his followers to buy him food and other necessities.

This is until they exposed his activities in the forest, leading to his arrest and detention.

Nine months down the line, however, Mr Mackenzie is yet to take plea for any of the over 400 deaths that have been documented so far.

Despite multiple evidence from his surviving followers and testimonies by relatives of victims, detectives probing the case are still trying to link evidence collected from the crime scene to murder.

The Nation understands that items collected as evidence included exercise books, Sim cards, title deeds, clothes and burial paraphernalia, which provide key clues such as names of members of a family that was living in one of the 220 homesteads located in the vast 4,000-acre forest.

Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor told the Nation all of the exhumed bodies could not be identified as they were badly decomposed .

Detectives discovered that, in a bid to aid faster decomposition of the bodies, the people conducting burial rites would wrap them in sheets or canvas.

Delays in prosecuting Mr Mackenzie and pressure from the public to have the case concluded saw senators tour the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) lab last October in search of answers.

To successfully prosecute murder, the investigating officer has to establish the suspect's intent to commit the crime and link it to the action committed that led to the victim's death.

According to a detective who cannot be named owing to the sensitivity of this matter, investigators probing the case explained that they had run out of key reagents for use in the DNA sequencing, and which are not available locally, therefore, none of the bodies had been matched by October.

Additionally, the fact that the DCI lab was not fully operational further hindered the probe.

Furthermore, orders from Director Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin that evidence of the murder charge be proven beyond reasonable doubt to avoid the risk of presenting half-baked evidence or conducting shoddy investigations have seen detectives scouring the vast forest thoroughly, one homestead after the other, the officer said.

To tighten their evidence, they had to fetch the coordinates of each grave and homestead for use by the judge handling the murder case in the event the hearing of the case requires them to revisit the crime scene.

Detectives also established that most of the children ended up in the forest with their mothers and, in cases where fathers claimed to have lost their children to the cult, investigators have to trace the child's roots through visits to their rural homes and with the help of the Children's Department.

This explains why, last month, Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Jami Yamina told a Shanzu court that, though 131 names of children suspected to have died have been found, they are yet to be matched with the bodies being preserved at the Malindi mortuary.

mwambui@ke.nationmedia.com

https://nation.africa/kenya/news/why-the-police-are-finding-it-hard-to-prosecute-mackenzie-4489084

 

CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/28/2017

Bikram Yoga, Scientology, Good News Church, Jehovah's Witness, Catholic Church, DRC, FLDS, Polygamy, Abuse-child, legal, Guam, Congo

News Analysis: Attorney Who Toppled Bikram Founder Could Take Over Yoga Empire

A California judge granted Jafa-Bodden’s request for assigned rights to payments from any licensing, franchise or intellectual property agreements owned by Choudhury or his yoga teacher college, including revenue streams from the studios, his “Bikram yoga” and “Bikram” trademarks, numerous domain names, and copyrights for his books and training courses.

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/news-analysis-attorney-who-toppled.html

Business Insider: How Scientology leader David Miscavige rose to power, according to insiders

"He’s a tough kid and smart," he continued. "Once [Scientology founder] L.Ron Hubbard died, he saw his opportunity and he moved right up and took power.”

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/how-scientology-leader-david-miscavige.html

Washington Post: Minn. pastor beat boy, 12, with electrical cord because child ‘wanted to test God,’ police say

"Dong Wook Kim admitted to using a “stick” — which police later discovered to be a two-by-four plank — to beat the boy 20 times with considerable force, according to the complaint. The pastor said that he “was really upset at the time” over the boy’s rejection of God."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/minn-pastor-beat-boy-12-with-electrical.html

Daily Post: 'Sly' Anglesey Jehovah’s Witness preacher jailed for sex with a child

"A Jehovah’s Witness preacher and elder has been jailed for having sexual activity with a girl of 14.

Family man Daniel Arthington, 46, of Llanddaniel, Anglesey, pleaded guilty at Caernarfon Crown Court and was sent to prison for two years and eight months."

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/sly-anglesey-jehovahs-witness-preacher-12361109

RNZ: Another lawsuit filed against the Catholic Church in Guam

Sixty-two-year-old Ramon Afaisen De Plata alleged that he was molested by Reverend Antonio Cruz, who is now dead, in 1964, when he was 10-years-old.

Mr De Plata's lawsuit is the 14th filed against Guam's Catholic Church since the government in September removed the statue of limitations that prevented historical cases from being prosecuted.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/321150/another-lawsuit-filed-against-the-catholic-church-in-guam

AA: 17 killed in DRC clashes between police, religious sect

"Police open fire on followers of a sect belonging to a man named Wami Nene, who claimed to have special powers."

​​

http://aa.com.tr/en/africa/17-killed-in-drc-clashes-between-police-religious-sect/712267

ENCA: Sect sees end of Kabila's term as start of apocalypse

"Seventeen people have been killed in clashes between DR Congo police and members of a cult that believes the end of President Joseph Kabila's mandate will usher in the apocalypse, a regional governor said Thursday.

Bienvenu Esimba, governor of DR Congo's northwestern Mongala province, said the clashes broke out Wednesday in the provincial capital Lisala when members of the sect burned dozens of houses and attacked a market before launching an assault on local electoral commission offices.

​​

https://www.enca.com/africa/sect-says-end-of-kabilas-mandate-is-start-of-apocalypse-clash-with-drc-police

​St. George News:  ​

First Short Creek Christmas light parade to benefit ex-FLDS community activist

“It’s the first parade of lights in Hildale,” said Donia Jessop, vice president of Short Creek Festivities, the organizing body behind the event. “It’s the first light show. It’s the first light anything.”

​​

http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2016/12/22/ccj-1st-short-creek-parade-of-lights-benefits-ex-flds-activist/

ABC News: Polygamous Leader Pleads Guilty in Food-Stamp Fraud Case

"A high-ranking Utah polygamous group leader charged in a multimillion dollar food-stamp fraud case agreed to a plea deal Thursday that secured his release from jail after six months."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/polygamous-leader-pleads-guilty-in-food.html

Broadly Vice: A Very Scientology Christmas: Inside L. Ron Hubbard's Winter Wonderland

Since 1983, the Church of Scientology has ran a Santa Claus photo-op on Hollywood Boulevard, where they hand out their founder's writings to visitors, but they deny using it to attract new members.

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/a-very-scientology-christmas-inside-l-ron-hubbards-winter-wonderland

​

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Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.

Please forward articles that you think we should add to CultNEWS101.com.

Thanks,

Minn. pastor beat boy, 12, with electrical cord because child ‘wanted to test God,’ police say

Samantha Schmidt
Washington Post
December 22, 2016

The wind chill was well below zero when the 12-year-old boy limped his way through the snow to a stranger, wearing only basketball shorts and a T-shirt.

“Help me,” the boy yelled. He later revealed a black eye, large whip marks, scabs on his back and bruises on his arms, backside and legs — one the size of a football, according to police.

The boy had been running away from a church in Minneapolis, where police say a pastor physically abused him over the course of four days, repeatedly beating him with a two-by-four wooden plank and an electrical cord as punishment for rejecting his faith.

Police charged the pastor, Dong Wook Kim, 51, with two counts of assault in the second and third degree, and one count of malicious punishment of a child, all felonies, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday. The pastor’s 19-year-old son, Joo Seong Kim, faces the same charges.

The boy told police that for two to three weeks, the pastor and pastor’s son would take him into the windowless basement of the church — called Good News Church — to discipline him. Dong Wook Kim told the boy’s father that because talking to the boy had not worked, the next step would be to use the “stick,” the pastor’s son told police. The boy reportedly told the pastor that he wanted to test God, which made the pastor angry.

On Dec. 14, the boy told police, the pastor made him hold a push-up position and plank for an extended period of time. When he could not hold the position, the pastor kicked him in the head and face. The next day, the pastor’s son made him get into a plank position again, hitting him in the back and on the foot with a stick — about 4 feet long — causing him bruising on his foot and bleeding in his big toe.

That day, at about 4 a.m., the pastor used an electrical cord to whip the boy more than 10 times, Dong Wook Kim later admitted to police, adding that the boy’s father had slapped the 12-year-old several times in the face.

On Dec. 16, the boy reported, the pastor’s son punched him in the head and stomach multiple times, causing him buzzing in the ears. The pastor also reportedly slammed the boy’s head into a door frame multiple times, injuring his head, face and ear.

On Dec. 17, when the boy’s parents called the pastor and his son to pick him up from home, the pastor’s son pulled the boy by his hair, taking him to the church’s basement. He once more instructed him to remain in a plank position while he whipped him with a stick. The pastor’s son then asked the boy to remove his sweatshirt and jacket while he retrieved an extension cord. It was then that the 12-year-old decided to run away, according to the police report.

Dong Wook Kim admitted to using a “stick” — which police later discovered to be a two-by-four plank — to beat the boy 20 times with considerable force, according to the complaint. The pastor said that he “was really upset at the time” over the boy’s rejection of God.

“I lost control,” the pastor said. He also admitted to not calling 911 when the boy ran away from the church, under-dressed for the freezing temperatures.

The pastor said the boy’s parents have always followed his leadership in the punishment of children. He also admitted to hitting the boy’s 4-year-old sister on three or four occasions, with her parents present, by delivering blows to her feet or palms with a paint stir stick, causing her to scream. The girl was taken into protective custody after the pastor’s arrest.

Both the Kims are currently in custody and being held on $50,000 bail.

A Google review of the church said the majority of the congregation is Burmese and “warm and friendly.” It hosts seasonal youth programs during the summer and Christmas seasons, the reviewer said, including morning Korean classes and soccer on the weekends, making it “great for elementary and middle school kids.”

In a letter given to local news station KSTP that’s intended for the judge in the case, the pastor’s wife wrote that her husband and son did not have malicious intentions when hitting the boy.

“It was out of greed of wanting to make him a better person,” she wrote. “We were like family.”

The pastor, a minister for 14 years, served in the Korean military for 16 years before moving to the United States with his family, his wife wrote.

Since both of the 12-year-old boy’s parents worked, her husband would pick him up every day after school and bring him to the church. The family would even eat dinner with the boy, she said.

“If it were any other child they would’ve never set a finger on them,” she wrote. She acknowledged that her husband and son did wrong, and asked for forgiveness.

“We wanted him to be better and be set to the right mind,” she said. “It was out of discipline, not rage.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/12/22/minn-pastor-beat-boy-12-with-electrical-chord-because-child-wanted-to-test-god-police-say/

Church warns flock

Sikeli Qounadovu
The Fiji Times
January 09, 2016

THE Methodist Church in Fiji has sent out a circular to all its circuits to be wary of a Korean cult sect that is in the country.

President of the Methodist Church Reverend Tevita Nawadra said they were given the warning through its Methodist partner in Korea, the Korean Missionary Fellowship in Fiji.

Mr Nawadra said its communications department was informed to ensure announcements were made in all Methodist churches of the presence of the cult sect.

"The problem with this Korean cult sect is that it is misinterpreting the Bible for its own gain, and this worries the church."

Mr Nawadra said it had a strong relationship with the KMF and therefore would not take any of its warning lightly.

He said word from its Korean counterpart that Good News Mission, Good News Church, International Youth Fellowship, Grace Road Church and Grace Road Company were a Korean cult.

A letter circulated by the Korean Missionary Fellowship had accused the church as a "cultic movement" and that the fellowship wanted to "sound an alarm to all Fijians to be wary."

"These churches have been announced by the mainline churches in Korea as cultic movements, hiding their identity they are now trying to expand their influence in Fiji.

"These cultic movements are already proven harmful in Korea."

Church superintendent and IYF mind educator pastor Kim Jinsung has denied these claims stating they were baseless.

Speaking through a translator, Mr Jinsung said many who entered their organisation had opened up their hearts and felt at peace with the teachings they received.

He said there were many people who criticised them without any reason, even in Korea.

Mr Jinsung added that a lot of people criticised Jesus as well, in particular the religious sect.

The letter further stated that the IYF had been deceiving its followers by misinterpreting teachings from the Bible to push their own agenda.

http://fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=336991