Sex trafficking Facebook posts investigated in Clarence, Williamsville area

NEW YORK STATE POLICE 
Major Edward J. Kennedy
Troop A Commander

PRESS RELEASE
 
Sex trafficking Facebook posts investigated in Clarence, Williamsville area

On April 11, 2018, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) out of SP Clarence reviewed Facebook posts in which unknown female subjects approached individuals at local retail stores and spoke with them in an evangelical way causing suspicion. BCI located and interviewed store management and the evangelical subjects from the World Mission Society Church of God. At this time, no criminality is believed to be involved in the incidents posted on Facebook.

The public are reminded to report any unusual activity to law enforcement and not make any false social media claims that create perpetual rumors that are misleading causing alarm in the community.

https://www.nyspnews.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=61900

“God the Mother” Followers Aim to Proselytize Students

Andrea Wang

Oberlin Review

February 23, 2018

In recent weeks, dozens of Oberlin students have been stopped on campus by religious proselytizers claiming to be theology students in order to engage them in conversation about “God the Mother.” These missionaries are affiliated with a group called the World Mission Society Church of God, a fringe sect of Christianity that has been falsely rumored to have ties with human trafficking — often referred to as a cult by former members.

Safety and Security is aware of the visitors and has encouraged all students to notify officers if they encounter the missionaries, as they are unauthorized to be on campus.

“Anybody who wants to talk to students needs to be sponsored,” Campus Security Officer Tyrone Wicks said. “If they’re not sponsored by a student organization or a college-authorized organization, then they’re asked to leave campus.”

Wicks added that due to the repeated nature of the unauthorized visits, the visitors are considered trespassers.

“The first time, you can say, well that’s an accident, even though we know that’s probably not true, as a matter of policy as far as courts are concerned,” he said. “The first time you can tell them, OK — don’t come back here. And then the second time we can take stronger measures to make sure they don’t come back here. That might involve getting assistance from law enforcement, for example.”

WMS missionaries approached College junior Joanna Quinn on the second floor of Mudd library, introducing themselves as theology students doing a school project. They asked for a couple minutes of her time and led her through a picture book of illustrations of biblical scenes.

“At first I was kind of intrigued, because they were picking out parts of the Bible that made God sound very pluralistic, that God could be a he, or also a she,” Quinn said. “They asked, ‘Have you ever heard of God the Mother?’”

From there, the tone of the conversation escalated quickly.

“She turned the page and asked, ‘When our souls come to be judged, do you want to be saved forever, or go to hell eternally?’” Quinn said, adding that she then became more suspicious about their motives. “It seemed like the story didn’t match up. They later told me they were part of a youth group.”

The missionaries, two college-age women, said the group met “near Cleveland” but did not specify where and did not provide any informational materials, according to students they interacted with. No information could be found online about the group to verify the women’s story. The women requested Quinn’s phone number and encouraged her to attend a meeting. When she offered her email instead, the women insisted on a number.

In most incidents, according to students approached by the missionaries, one or two individuals first introduced themselves as students doing a project. Students reported that they were asked to read from scripture and if they knew about God the Mother.

Wicks said students often forget safety concerns given the intimacy of the College campus.

“I think the most important thing that we tell students every day is that the residence halls are your private space,” Wicks said. “But frequently we’ll find the doors propped open, or students will hold the door open for someone that walks up behind them, and that person may or may not be a student. If it’s important enough for you to be concerned about, it’s important enough for you to call us. You’re not wasting our time by asking us to investigate things that seem strange.”

Reports indicate that the group is becoming increasingly active on college campuses across the country, strongly trying to recruit students. Former members have described the group as a “doomsday cult” which uses “psychological control tactics” on its members, according to a report from People Magazine.

In the last two weeks, individuals have been approached by WMS members all over Oberlin’s campus, in places like Wilder Bowl, outside of dorms, by off-campus housing, and even at a Robertson Hall practice room.

College first-year Ella Mosher was approached by a WMS member around noon last week in a hallway in the Science Center. Mosher described the member as a 30-year-old who introduced herself as a theology student.

“She pulled out her Bible and had me read a verse about the Holy Mother and how it related to God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost,” Mosher said. “When I said I had to go, she asked for one more minute, and kept on trying to flip to new pages and have me read new verses. Later I found out a similar thing happened to my roommate.”

Mosher’s roommate had been using a practice room in Robertson around 11:45 a.m. when an older man and a woman knocked on the door and asked if they could ask her a few questions.

The WMS Church of God was founded in 1964 by Ahn Sahng-Hong. Ahn, now deceased, was believed to be the Second Coming of Christ by followers. WMSCOG followers believe in a Mother God in addition to the traditional Holy Trinity of Christian doctrine, and they claim that God the Mother and God the Father have a spousal relationship. The church is currently led by Zahng Gil-jah, a woman in her 70s deified by her followers as “God the Mother” or “Heavenly Mother.” WMS has approximately 2.7 million members in 150 countries worldwide and has received multiple accolades for its community service initiatives. WMS has obtained a religious tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service through supposedly fraudulent means and subsists through donations from its members.

Numerous posts warning college students to be wary of the group have been widely circulated on social media. Many people claim the group is associated with a human trafficking scheme, likely because of their aggressive recruiting practices on university campuses around the U.S. and tendency to target women. In January 2018 alone, Boston College, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Mississippi all reported WMS presence on campus. Over 70 percent of the group’s followers are women.

According to WKYT-TV of Lexington, KY, the rumors that the group is linked to human trafficking activity are unsubstantiated. Officer Jervis Middleton from the Lexington Police Department said that they, “have investigated the rumors and have found nothing to substantiate their potential involvement in any criminal activity.” The police departments of Kent, Ohio, and of Oxford, MS, released similar statements.

Although the human trafficking allegations may be baseless, many former members of the WMS have attested to their cult-like practices. In March 2014, former WMS member Michele Ramirez filed a lawsuit against the Church, citing emotional distress and financial ruin caused by the church’s deceptive practices.

Ramirez explained that members were expected to recruit new members, or “bear fruit” — an experience she found “humiliating and degrading.” She described a vicious cycle in which the more degraded she felt, the more she required support from the church. Ramirez also claimed the group misrepresented its teachings from the outset, coerced her to donate large sums of money, and used guilt and manipulation tactics to isolate her from friends and family members. Ramirez’s account has been corroborated by many former WMS members.

The group has been denounced by the Christian Council of Korea, a representative organization of Korean Christianity, as “heretical,” and the U.S. Cult Education Institute, based in New Jersey, actively tracks the group.

https://oberlinreview.org/15581/news/campus_news/god-the-mother-followers-aim-to-proselytize-students/

Controversial church group recruiting at Rider, other NJ schools

The office building above, located in North Brunswick, is one of New Jersey’s branches of the rapidly growing World Mission Society Church of God, whose members are known for recruiting on college campuses.

Students recall odd 'God the Mother' encounters

The office building above, located in North Brunswick, is one of New Jersey’s branches of the rapidly growing World Mission Society Church of God, whose members are known for recruiting on college campuses.

Gianluca D’Elia
The Rider News
February 21, 2018

A female student was walking back to her sorority house late at night on Jan. 24 when she was approached by a short, young Korean woman carrying a drawstring bag with Rider’s logo on it. What began as a simple interaction turned into what the student thinks may have been an attempt to recruit her for an alleged cult.

“She asked me for my number and I said yes because I didn’t want to be rude,” said Keara Prystash, a sophomore psychology major. “I assumed she was just from a campus ministry, so I wasn’t that worried.”

But then Prystash saw viral tweets that have been circulating the internet over the past month, claiming that a Christian group called the World Mission Society Church of God is a front for sex trafficking. Since the beginning of the semester, multiple students on the Lawrenceville campus have reported similar encounters, describing the group’s aggressive recruiters to Public Safety, according to Capt. Jim Flatley. Two of those were just this week.

Cristina D’Averso-Collins, Catholic campus ministry coordinator, said she has not heard of World Mission, nor has she seen them on campus. Flatley and Dean of Students Cindy Threatt and sent an email to students on Feb. 16 regarding the recent phenomenon. They said the religious groups are not affiliated with Rider and their meetings are not held on campus. TCNJ’s campus police contacted the church’s headquarters directly and told Rider’s Public Safety there is no credible threat of the church being involved in trafficking.

“Simultaneous to these reports, we have been made aware of social media chatter that one of these organizations, which solicits at TCNJ, Rider and William Paterson University, is a sex-trafficking group trying to lure women into the sex trade,” the letter said. “TCNJ police have shared with us that they have investigated these reports, spoken directly with people associated with this group and have found no cause for concern.”

According Rider’s student handbook, “solicitation is defined as the selling of a product, service or the collection of moneys. This does not apply to the distribution of leaflets or other sources of information.”

Rider students have reported encounters with recruiters in Cranberry’s, Sweigart Hall, the Science building and outside the bookstore, as well at the Shoprite in Ewing and the Walmart in East Brunswick.

A text conversation shows an exchange between a student and a woman from the World Mission Society Church of God, which is known for recruiting at malls and on college campuses. There have been two reported incidents at Rider in the past week.

Based on students’ recollections, most of the recruiters are connected to World Mission. The South Korea-based religious group preaches that there is evidence in the Bible of not only God the Father, but a female deity too: God the Mother.

Founded in 1964, World Mission started as one church, founded by minister Ahn Sahng Hong, who members believed to be the second coming of Christ. He died of a heart attack in 1985. The group also sought to introduce the idea of a “spiritual mother,” or God the Mother, embodied by a woman named Zahng Gil-Jah who is now in her late 70s. The church now boasts over 4,600 locations and 2.7 million members worldwide, according to its website.

In response to the frenzy of social media posts about the sex slavery rumor, World Mission’s headquarters released a statement online, emphasizing that they have no ties to human trafficking. They have also dismissed prior claims about being called a cult, claiming that labeling them as such is a form of “religious intolerance.”

In the statement, the church wrote, “Recently, we were made aware of a social media post in which someone appears to accuse the church and its members of being linked to a ring of sex/human trafficking. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are a church of Christian love and denounce any such activities, wherever they may be carried out.”

Although the sex trafficking rumor has led to a spike in attention toward the religious group, this isn’t their first time making the news. Former members of the Ridgewood church came forward with personal stories in the Bergen Record in January 2016, claiming the religious group is a cult. Seven of them who spoke to the media claimed that World Mission initially showered them with affection and praise, but then gradually started to micromanage their lives and isolate them from outside friends and family by using fear tactics and manipulation.

Ex-member Michelle Ramirez filed a lawsuit against the church in the U.S. District Court in Trenton in 2014. According to the case Ramirez v. World Mission, the church engages in three main activities: services, studies and recruiting. Ramirez claimed that members are subjected to a great deal of pressure to help acquire new members, some New Jersey churches having even imposed a recruiting quota.

Ramirez was first approached at the Jersey Gardens Mall in Elizabeth in 2006. After joining, Ramirez allegedly was not permitted to drive to the church herself the first time she went. A pastor picked her up. This came after months of pressure to attend services since she first encountered recruiters in the mall. The group allegedly grew increasingly demanding and manipulative, to the point where Ramirez even transferred to a college closer to the church. Her family tried to get her to leave, but fellow church members told her the devil was trying to speak through them, the lawsuit says.

Another lawsuit, filed by ex-member Michelle Colon, accused the group of fraud, infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. World Mission claimed Colon was lying and that she was just trying to build a career as a “cult expert” by defaming the church. The case was dismissed by Superior Court Judge Rachelle Harz in Hackensack, who said she could not determine a religion’s invalidity because of the First Amendment.

Despite the claims about the church, World Mission New Jersey has also been praised by former Gov. Chris Christie in 2014 for its cleanup and relief efforts following Superstorm Sandy. In a letter, he wrote that they were an “example of the positive impact of spiritual outreach in the community.” Over 1,000 of the church’s members participated in emergency response training following the storm, and state officials lauded their contagious enthusiasm.

According to World Mission’s official website, it has won awards from the American and South Korean governments, as well as from Queen Elizabeth II for its members’ participation in volunteer efforts such as disaster relief, environmental cleanups and blood donor recruiting. “The driving force behind these deeds is God the Mother,” the website says.

The sex trafficking allegations against the group may only be a rumor, but students’ uncomfortable encounters with recruiters have led them to believe what the tweets are saying.

Known for their aggressive recruiting, the church has been compared to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who often preach to people at street corners and train stations and canvass door to door.

Sophomore biology major Tolga Guven was sitting outside a research lab in the Science building during the first week of the semester when he was approached by a Hispanic man who appeared to be in his 30s, accompanied by a teenage girl who didn’t say anything.

“He asked if I read the Bible and if I’m a Christian, but I told him I’m Muslim,” Guven said. But even a difference in religion did not stop the recruiter from preaching. The man went on to explain that there is scientific evidence Jesus was once alive and that he resurrected, just like the Bible says. He then asked for Guven’s email, shook his hand and left.

“I didn’t think anything of it, but when I started to see the social media posts, I realized it was similar to what a lot of people were saying online,” Guven said.

Leah Corcillo, ’17, was sitting at a phone-charging station in the Quakerbridge Mall in Lawrence when she was approached by a man and woman almost a year ago. Similar to what Guven experienced, the young woman was silent and the man did the talking.

“I was scared it was sex trafficking because this guy, who was probably in his late 20s, was with this young Asian girl but he wouldn’t let her talk. She just kind of stood there and nodded along while he tried to recruit me. She looked really uncomfortable most of the time. He said she was new to the church.”

The man told Corcillo their group worships God the Mother. Corcillo, a Catholic, assumed they were talking about the Virgin Mary, who is often referred to as the Mother of God. The man encouraged her to check out their Bible study and commit to a time that she could come visit them. Corcillo said he also offered to have someone pick her up from the mall and drive her to the Bible study.

“In my head, I was like, ‘This guy is crazy,’” she recalled. “He asked me my name, where I worked, what school I went to — I lied about everything.”

The more aggressive and impatient he became, the less Corcillo wanted to talk to him. He asked for Corcillo’s contact information and she refused, but told him she was willing to take his. Then, he tried to take her phone so he could call himself and get her number, but she took the phone back and ran off.

In his attempt to recruit Corcillo for his group’s Bible study, he also gave her an address: 1440 How Lane in North Brunswick. A Google search brings up an office building that is home to a World Mission church, as well as a daycare center and a couple of offices.

In addition to the North Brunswick location, there are currently four other World Mission churches statewide in Bogota, Belleville, Ridgewood and Passaic, according to the group’s New Jersey headquarters’ website.

Corcillo said the man who she met at the mall also gave her a link to World Mission’s website.

“When I looked at it online last year, it was not as nice-looking as it is now,” she said. “It was way more sketch. But the whole thing still seems off to me.”

Encounters with pushy recruiters have occurred at TCNJ and William Paterson as well, according to Threatt’s letter. Nationally, there have also been recent reports at Kentucky State University, the University of Memphis, and Kent State University in Ohio.

Andrea Socas, a freshman biology major at TCNJ, recently posted in the school’s class of 2021 Facebook page that she was approached at the beginning of the semester. Two individuals walked up to her at a picnic table outside the dining hall while she was listening to music with her earbuds in. They told Socas they were theology students and asked if she had time to talk about God the Mother.

“They kind of cornered me so I wouldn’t be able to move or escape, and they started telling me about their off-campus Bible study group and a seminar they were having that evening,” Socas said. “There was a Hispanic-looking woman in her younger 20s and a fairly young-looking Asian man. The woman was the one talking to me, asking me if I believed in God.”

Corcillo said she hopes students will be vigilant about who they talk to.

“I’ll never forget it,” she said, looking back on her encounter at the mall. “The entire thing was so weird.”

Public Safety encourages students to stay in groups when going out, to use Student Escort when possible and to report any suspicious activity to their emergency number: 609-896-7777.

http://www.theridernews.com/2018/02/21/controversial-church-group-recruiting-at-rider-other-nj-schools/

KSU students, Twitter express concern over religious group touting ‘God the Mother’

Lucas Misera and Lydia Taylor

KentWired

February 12, 2018

KentWired received complaints of men and women approaching students on campus and at off-campus apartments talking about “God the Mother.”

A few students who reside at University Townhomes said two people — one man and one woman — talked about redemption, asked for contact information and then offered to meet at an off-campus location.

“It was a guy and a girl, and they said that they were theology students and asked if I had two minutes to watch a video about God the Mother,” said Delaney Honchalk, a junior nursing major. “I said no and shut the door and watched them. They knocked on our neighbors’ door, too, but no one answered them.”

Rumors around social media have associated the group with sex trafficking. Those going around talking about “God the Mother” are believed to be a part of World Mission Society Church of God, a church based out of New Jersey.

Despite rumors, Tricia Knoles, the community resource officer for the Kent State Police Department, said students are not at risk.

“We researched and looked into this group and (from) everything (we’ve) seen, it lacks credibility of any human trafficking ties,” Knoles said.

One source said the two women she encountered suggested they meet at Hunters Lake, perhaps in reference to an apartment complex on Hunters Lake Drive in Cuyahoga Falls.

Another source said one man and one woman offered to grab coffee off-campus later in the day.

These reports are similar to other university campuses, including Vanderbilt University and Kennesaw State University.

In December 2017, women in Lexington, Kentucky, reported people from the church walked up to them in stores and asked to join their bible study, but didn’t reveal details such as location or time.

TV2 reached out to the church’s headquarters, but they were not available for comment.

Knoles said despite this current situation, students should always take safety precautions.

“Always be aware of your surroundings (and) walk in groups. Anytime you are asked to come — whether it be to a bible study or just going over to someone’s house — just be cautious,” Knoles said.

Lydia Taylor is the editor. Contact her at ltaylo49@kent.edu.
Lucas Misera is the managing editor. Contact him at lmisera@kent.edu.

Gretchen Lasso contributed to this article. Contact her at glasso@kent.edu.

http://www.kentwired.com/latest_updates/article_842d4bfa-1059-11e8-9a57-6bcb4c5f754d.html

Fringe Sect Proselytizes on Campus

Ethan Starr
The Torch | Boston College's Catholic Newspaper
January 31, 2018

In the past few days, Boston College students have been approached by college-aged individuals asking if they would be willing to take part in a Bible study with them, with some students agreeing to do so. Those who accepted were introduced to the core beliefs of the World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG).

Within minutes, two individuals that the author met with delivered a well-planned lesson—complete with three scriptural extracts—demonstrating the unquestionable existence of “God the Mother.” This female deity, was not an alternative manifestation of God or a representation of the Church, but a separate, contemporary deity. The missionaries claimed that God the Mother and God the Father have a spousal relationship, from which the familial structure of humans on earth was derived.

Several representatives from the WMSCOG proselytized on and around campus throughout the month of January. This, however, is not the first time they have attempted to convert BC students. Representatives from the group have been visiting campus since the beginning of the decade. Equipped with biblical quotations, they preach their message in pairs, emphasizing “proof” that the Bible refers to the existence of multiple deities.

What exactly does the WMSCOG believe? Where did it come from? The group’s founder, Ahn Sahng-hong, cultivated a devoted, international following after he was excommunicated from the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1962. His followers claim that he was the second coming of Jesus.

Ahn died in 1985 in South Korea, but his organization did not perish with him, nor did it dissipate in 1988, 1999, or 2012, when the WMSCOG claimed the world was coming to an end. Still referring to itself as a Christian organization, despite its doctrine of bi-theism and rejection of the cross as an idol.

The first “unquestionable” proof for a second deity stems from Genesis 1:26, “Let us make human beings in our image,” demonstrating a multiplicity of gods. Disregarding the subsequent confirmation in Genesis that “God created human beings in his own image,” the missionaries questioned students as to how one should interpret the confusing plurality of pronoun usage. The “our” could be easily interpreted as referring to the Holy Trinity rather than God in the singular. From a linguistic approach, the original Hebrew expresses the pronoun using the ‘Royal We.’ The phrase is meant to express a hierarchical separation.

Missionaries also emphasized Galatians 4:26 in their argument for the Mother God: “The Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” This section is taken out of its context, where St. Paul differentiates Jerusalem from the Heavenly Kingdom. The so-called “Woman of Revelation 12” provides another reference to a female on which WMSCOG rests its bi-theistic teaching. While no one in the academy claims to have a perfectly consistent interpretation of the entire Book of Revelation, the female pronouns are most commonly associated with Jerusalem, Mary, or the Church Herself.

There is every indication that the WMSCOG could frequent Boston College’s campus for some time to come. Their beliefs can be found on their website, though their primary arguments have been listed above.

https://www.thetorchbc.com/2018/01/31/fringe-sect-proselytizes-on-campus/

University Of Memphis Bans Korean Mind Control Cult From Campus

JOSHUA GILL
Daily Caller
February 1, 2018

The University of Memphis banned a Korean mind control cult from campus after police said they were “aggressively discussing religion” and handing out literature.

The university announced via their emergency alert message system that authorities placed several members of the cult on criminal trespass following their attempts to aggressively proselytize students, according to WREG. The individuals belong to the Southaven cell of a cult known as the World Mission Society of God, which began in South Korea, professes belief in God the Mother as necessary for salvation.

“I just think it was a little awkward because I didn’t know them and they were, like, shoving their beliefs down my throat,” university student Jailyn Washington told WREG.

“They believe in some entity called God the Mother, and they tell you that in order to reach salvation you have to believe in God the Mother,” Washington added.

The cult asserts that God the Mother is incarnate in their elderly South Korean leader, Zang Gil-Jah, and that their founder, Ahnsahnghong, is an incarnation of the Holy Spirit that fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus’ second coming. Members of the cult, therefore, use their preach in their founder’s name and consider it one of the personal names of God.

Several ex-members of the cult alleged in 2015 that the organization was more nefarious than its public face belied. They claimed that the church is, in reality, a money making scheme and that the leaders isolate followers from their friends and family members, brainwash them, and use “a number of psychological control tactics…to prevent its members from exposing its criminal and tortious behavior.”

Former congregants alleged that the cult leadership would expect followers to spend all of their free time at one of the cult’s churches, deprive them of sleep, and actively work to dissolve marriages so that new members could then create marriages between Americans and South Koreans. They also alleged that leaders would shame women into getting abortions since birthing a child was, in their view, “pointless and selfish” given their belief that the world will soon end.

The Southaven cell of the cult is also connected with an official student club on campus called Elohist, named for the title by which they refer to the joined God the Father and God the Mother – the Hebrew name Elohim. The university administration instructed students to call the police in the event that they see members of the cult on campus.

http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/01/university-of-memphis-bans-korean-mind-control-cult-from-campus/

Cult expert: Pocono Dome church has cult markers

Howard Frank
Pocono Record Writer
March 29, 2017

A leading expert in cult organizations called the group hoping to take over the Pocono Dome specialists in brainwashing, ruining families and separating its members from their money.

The World Mission Society Church of God hopes to purchase the Pocono Dome in Sciota and convert it to a retreat. On April 4, a Hamilton Township hearing will consider the church's application for a special exemption to use the facility for its activities.

Rick Ross, an author and the director of the Trenton, N.J. based Cult Education Institute said the World Mission Society Church of God believes that their female leader is God. They call her Mother God and believe that God is embodied in her.

"They are responsible for bankruptcies because of excessive donations, and people have lost jobs because of the excessive demands of the group and because of excessive sleep deprivation," he said.

The members are often put up in group housing and shared apartments. They become estranged from family and friends, Ross said.

"There are families that haven't spoken to their adult children for years because of their involvement in the group. It's ended marriages. This is a very intense group and similar to the Unification Church founded by Sun Myung Moon, whose followers were called Moonies. Their techniques of indoctrination have often been compared with the Unification Church," he said.

Ross claims the group entered the U.S. and very soon thereafter established a hub in Ridgewood N.J., spreading its organizations throughout the northeast.

"Recently, they had a conference that thousands of people attended. The group has been spreading into Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, an aggressive group growing rapidly throughout the U.S."

He said the church recruits members in malls, on university campuses and have even attracted followers in Costco.

Ross said the group is lacking meaningful accountability of its leadership.

"It is run by a dictatorship from Korea," Ross said. "This organization takes in millions of dollars a year, which has been disclosed in court records. There is no financial transparency like a budget that discloses disbursements from funds collected annually."

Ross lists The World Mission Society Church of God alongside organizations like the Waco Davidians, Neo Nazis and the Manson Family in a database of cult groups (https://www.culteducation.com/group.html).

A representative for the church did not respond to calls for comment for this story.

Ross refers to himself as a leading expert on cult organizations. His book, "Cults Inside Out," has been translated into Chinese and Italian. He's a cult specialist, court qualified as an expert witness in 10 states and the U.S. federal courts as a consultant on authoritarian groups. He said he has given expert testimony and lectures at universities across the country and in Asia since 1982. He's also done more than 500 interventions across the globe, many regarding The World Mission Society Church of God, one as recently as Dec. 2016.

Ross said he has worked with law enforcement, including the FBI, the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms and as a consultant to the Israeli government, and has also been consulted by the U.S. Congress.

http://www.poconorecord.com/news/20170329/cult-expert-pocono-dome-church-has-cult-markers

Members of the World Mission Society Church of God volunteer to clean east Bakersfield

November 14, 2016
KERO

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Dozens of church members from the World Mission Society Church of God hit the streets of east Bakersfield to clean.

Mayor Harvey Hall attended to the start of the clean up to thanks the volunteers for their service.

The group said they were happy to give back to the community.

Church members regularly volunteer and go out to clean the streets of Bakersfield.

Some group members from Los Angeles also traveled into town to help.

http://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/members-of-the-world-mission-society-church-of-god-volunteer-to-clean-east-bakersfield

When a little-known faith divides families

Today Show
February 19,2016

Watch video


In TODAY's #Uncovered, NBC News investigative correspondent Ronan Farrow looks at the adverse effect some mysterious and secretive religious groups have on families that are divided in faith.

http://www.today.com/video/when-a-little-known-faith-divides-families-626225731540

Ho-Ho-Kus woman writes about the dangerous power of cult recruiting

JOHN PETRICK
THE RECORD
FEBRUARY 13, 2016

WHAT: "So Amazing," a one-woman show by Ho-Ho-Kus resident Diana Brown, based on her experiences being recruited into a local church she says was a cult that brainwashed her before she was eventually able to break free.

WHERE: Kraine Theater, 85 E. Fourth St., Manhattan.

WHEN: Tuesday at 7:10 p.m., Feb. 20 at 8:20 p.m., Feb. 24 at 5:30 p.m., Feb. 27 at 3:20 p.m., March 5 at 1:40 p.m.

TICKETS: $17; students/military, $12; Dramatists Guild members, $12.

Actress, playwright and cult survivor Diana Brown has a message for her audience: Watch who your friends are.

The 26-year-old Ho-Ho-Kus resident says her one-woman show, "So Amazing," is based on her yearlong experience being lured into a cult at age 23, brainwashed and eventually escaping to reclaim her life and reconnect with her family.

For some of us, it might seem impossible to imagine how anyone could take psychological and physical control over our lives against our will. But, she argues, that’s the point. This isn’t something that just happens to runaways or people estranged from their families, neither of which she says she was. This could happen to anybody. Everybody is vulnerable, to greater or lesser extents, she insists. And a cult’s recruiting tactics tend to be pretty universal.

"The first thing that is most prevalent is ‘love bombing’ – when someone wants to be your friend really bad, and everything they say is along the lines of, ‘You’re so nice, you’re so beautiful, you remind me of someone.’ They make you their best friend as fast as they possible can and they make you think they love you more than the people who really love you the most – your friends and your family," Brown says.

A graduate of Rutgers University (2011), Brown has performed earlier versions of "So Amazing" at TheaterLab in New York City and the International Cultic Studies Association conference at La Fonda on the Plaza in Santa Fe, N.M. She has performed stand-up comedy at Gotham Comedy Club and Eastville Comedy Club.

Brown is careful to straddle the line when talking about fact and fiction. For example, she insists the main character in her self-produced show is not her, but a fictitious character based on her. And the character’s name? The same as hers – Diana.

"It’s not an exact portrayal of my experiences. I don’t mention the name of any cult in this play. What this play says could be said of many cults out there. I don’t want to be pointing a finger at any particular cult. But I think the characters are all relatable in that the way someone gets recruited into a cult is pretty cookie-cutter and repeated throughout the world. I have met many cult survivors who have told me the exact same things. Who knew that me, a regular girl living in New Jersey, could have so much in common with a girl in California? This is how cults recruit. This is how people get brainwashed."

As heavy as some of the material may sound, Brown, who plays various other characters besides the one who is based on herself, says the piece is a comedy. She said her purpose here is to entertain — not just report. It is not a portrayal of the particular church of which she was a member, the World Mission Society Church of God in Ridgewood. The church is an offshoot of the South Korean World Mission Society Church of God, with more than 2 million followers worldwide.

Over the past seven years, the church has quietly gone about its business as its local membership expanded tenfold, and it opened what it called numerous affiliated churches along the East Coast. It was praised by political leaders for public service that included cleanup efforts after Superstorm Sandy.

But some former members have said publicly that the church has a largely hidden dangerous side, recruiting young people at malls and on college campuses and showering them with affection before eventually encouraging them to cut ties to family members who are critical of their new beliefs.

Two former members have alleged in lawsuits — one was dismissed and one is pending — that they gave substantial amounts of their money to the church after it drew them in without initially revealing its true theology. They alleged that they were pressured to spend most of their free time at the church and were kept so busy they did not get enough sleep, which made them more susceptible to the teachings.

The religion is rooted in a belief that a South Korean woman in her 70s is the physical manifestation of God. Some former members, as well as several experts, have gone so far as to call the church a cult.

Leaders of the church have publicly responded to its critics by saying in statements to The Record that the label "cult" is a form of "religious intolerance" used to denigrate groups with "certain views that are contrary to the norm." They denied preaching that the world would end four years ago.

And in a court filing, they said their "unfamiliar beliefs," which include devotion to Zahng Gil-Jah, or the Heavenly Mother, left them "vulnerable to persecution as any new religion throughout history." They called accusations made against them "fabrications."

Brown says writing the play was part of her healing process as she was reclaiming her life outside of the church. "It’s a very difficult group to get out of. I am just so lucky and thankful that my family was able to help me and counsel me and get me the help that I needed. At the time, when I got out of the cult, I was in need of extreme mental help. Writing this play was therapy, if you will, in terms of working through what I had experienced."

She says that of course the play has a happy ending, because she, herself, had a happy ending – she got out of the church and got her mind back. But the piece’s conclusion, without giving too much away, isn’t all hunky-dory, either.

http://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/theater/ho-ho-kus-woman-s-show-spotlights-the-cult-experience-1.1511432

Controversy engulfs Ridgewood church; officials praise deeds; ex-members call it a cult

JANUARY 16, 2016

BY ABBOTT KOLOFF AND CHRIS HARRIS

NORTHJERSEY.COM

STAFF WRITERS| 

THE RECORD

Two years ago, 1,200 young people wearing bright yellow shirts from churches connected to the World Mission Society Church of God in Ridgewood filled an auditorium to receive emergency response training, prompting Bergen County officials to praise their unbridled enthusiasm, which included a rendition of the wave.

“We love you,” they chanted in return.

Former church members say they, too, were overflowing with love when they joined the church, but at some point saw another side to a rapidly growing religion rooted in a belief that a South Korean woman in her 70s is the physical manifestation of God. These ex-members — from New Jersey as well as other parts of the country — offered similar, independent accounts of being lured into the church, slowly at first, without being told all of its beliefs, then frightened into devotion and donating large portions of their savings by talk of the impending end of the world — in 2012.

Some of them, as well as several experts, have gone so far as to call the church a cult.

Leaders of the Ridgewood church, an offshoot of the South Korean World Mission Society Church of God, which boasts more than 2 million followers worldwide, responded to its critics by saying in statements to The Record that the label “cult” is a form of “religious intolerance” used to denigrate groups with “certain views that are contrary to the norm.” They denied preaching that the world would end four years ago.

And in a court filing, they said their “unfamiliar beliefs,” which include devotion to Zahng Gil-Jah, or the Heavenly Mother, left them “vulnerable to persecution as any new religion throughout history.” They called accusations made against them “fabrications.”

Over the past seven years, the church has quietly blended into the North Jersey landscape as its local membership grew tenfold and it opened what it called numerous affiliated churches along the East Coast. It received accolades from political leaders, including Governor Christie, for public service that included cleanup efforts after Superstorm Sandy. Indeed, its website features a letter from Christie praising the group’s “spiritual outreach in the community.”

But former members say the church has a largely hidden dangerous side, recruiting young people at malls and on college campuses and showering them with affection before eventually encouraging them to cut ties to family members who are critical of their new beliefs.

Two former members have alleged in lawsuits — one was dismissed and one is pending — that they gave substantial amounts of their money to the church after it drew them in without initially revealing its true theology. They alleged that they were pressured to spend most of their free time at the church and were kept so busy they did not get enough sleep, which made them more susceptible to the teachings.

The Record examined court documents from three lawsuits, including one filed by the church against a former member. It also interviewed eight former members, including three from the Ridgewood church who requested anonymity and one who agreed to use her name. Four others, who also spoke for publication, belonged to West Coast branches that are not legally connected to the Ridgewood church but are offshoots of the South Korean church and practice similar beliefs, the members said.

Among the findings:

• One former member, Michelle Ramirez, who attended the Ridgewood church and now lives in Brooklyn, said in a pending federal lawsuit that she became pregnant in 2010 and that the church coerced her into getting an abortion. Other former members said the church discouraged followers from having children because they believed the world would end in 2012. Ramirez alleged that she was so emotionally distraught that she attempted suicide and had nightmares about the apocalypse long after leaving the church in 2012. She and her attorney declined to comment for this article.
• Ex-members said they agreed to donate 10 percent or more of their incomes in tithes and other offerings as a show of devotion to the Heavenly Mother. Several said it was widely understood that money was sent to her in South Korea, though the church said on a federal tax-exemption form that it did not send money to foreign organizations.
• Former members said it was common for people to give up dreams of careers and families because church leaders asked congregants to devote themselves to the gospel as the apocalypse neared. Brian Taylor, a former member of a Seattle-area branch of the church, said he dropped out of college after leaders there told him “our time was precious” and preparing for the “kingdom of heaven” was more important than school or saving money.

The Ridgewood church and its pastor, Dong Il Lee, declined interview requests but prepared answers to some questions and delivered them through an attorney, Steven Procaccini. The church denied encouraging abortions, saying that such decisions were a “private matter” and that many members had children. Many of its members, the church said, remain close to relatives who are not part of the church.

It also dismissed allegations of doomsday predictions, saying “you will find no church material proclaiming the apocalypse in 2012.” Instead, the church said, it comforted people confused by reports that an ancient Mayan calendar had predicted the end of the world, assuring them they could be saved “whether 2012 were true or not.”

The church said that it didn’t send money overseas and that “there is no evidence that any distributions have been made to a South Korean entity.”

Passaic woman sues

Michele Colon, a nurse from Passaic, said in a lawsuit filed in state court that church leaders had ostracized her and had contributed to the end of her marriage when she quit the church in 2011 while her husband remained a member. Her lawsuit was filed after the World Mission Society sued her, contending that she had damaged its reputation by calling it a cult on an Internet blog. A Superior Court judge in Hackensack dismissed both lawsuits last year, citing First Amendment protections. Colon is appealing the decision.

Colon said in interviews that she “trusted” the church when she attended her first meeting in Ridgewood in 2009 because people she knew told her it was “a non-denominational Christian church.” On the first night, she said, she was ushered into a shower stall to be baptized with a cup of water poured over her head. After six months, Colon said, she was told a South Korean woman is a physical manifestation of God, as was the woman’s late husband.

“No one joins a cult,” Colon said. “People are systematically influenced to join cults by members who are trained to manipulate and use fear and guilt as weapons.” She said she left the church in 2011 after she read more about it on the Internet: “I snapped out of it,” she said.

The New Jersey World Mission Society, which was recognized as a tax-exempt church by the Internal Revenue Service in 2009, told the federal government that it had 100 members in 2008. It told The Record it operates “numerous” other churches — mostly on the East Coast — from its Ridgewood headquarters, with a total of more than 4,000 members. It purchased its building in Ridgewood in 2006 from First Church of Christ, Scientist, for $5.8 million, according to tax records.

The church said in court records that in 2014 more than 1,000 people attended services at its three North Jersey sites — in Ridgewood, Bogota and Passaic. Those records listed an additional 18 churches on the East Coast. It is not clear whether all of them are operated from Ridgewood. The records also showed that the church more than doubled the money it received in tithes and other offerings over a two-year period ending in 2012, when it took in more than $7.5 million and had almost $21 million in total assets.

As the church has grown, it has gained a reputation for public service, including holding large blood drives that draw members from its East Coast branches and showing up at Bergen County picnics for the elderly. Church members, wearing their distinctive yellow shirts, took on difficult tasks, such as removing downed tree limbs after Superstorm Sandy.

“They were very helpful after Sandy,” said Kathleen Donovan, the former Bergen County executive, adding that she did not know details about the church’s beliefs. “They were wonderful.”

A World Mission Society video posted on YouTube shows a large contingent of members taking part in a day of Community Emergency Response Team training in 2013 as government officials, including Donovan, marveled at their boundless energy. County officials said the training typically was given to groups that requested it, and focused on preparing civilians to help first responders.

The church website displays a 2014 letter from Christie offering congratulations on the 50th anniversary of its founding in South Korea. In the letter, the governor praised the church as “an example of the positive impact of spiritual outreach in the community.” The governor’s office declined to comment when told that former members have alleged the church is a cult.

Colon and the seven other former members interviewed offered similar accounts of experiences with the church. They said some ex-members kept quiet because they had signed non-disclosure agreements. The church said in court papers that Colon had signed such an agreement, but a judge ruled it was invalid and noted that it was a one-paragraph clause tacked onto a larger contract about an unrelated issue. Colon said she had not read the clause.

None of those interviewed recalled witnessing a member being told to have an abortion, but one former California church leader, Ron Ramos, said that at his church, “It was insinuated. It was more like, ‘Why are they still having kids?’”

Colon said a church leader in Ridgewood had told her it was “pointless to bring a child into the world because the end is near.”

The former members said it was widely understood that some donations were sent to South Korea. “They were collecting money for Mother,” Ramos said, adding that members were told that “it was an expression of where your heart is.” Taylor, the ex-member from the Seattle area, said members were told donations helped “start new churches overseas.” Colon said Ridgewood leaders told her and others in a group that money was “sent to South Korea to be redistributed,” in some cases to other affiliated churches.

Ramos said he had been instructed to bring new church members along slowly because you “don’t feed a baby solid food.” They would be taught early on that the church observes Passover and the day of rest is Saturday, he said, but it might take months to mention the Heavenly Mother. “When everything else made sense, that made sense, too,” said Ramos, who lives in Texas.

Members were told not to tell their families details about the church’s teachings because “they wouldn’t understand,” Ramos said. And church leaders advised them to be wary of family members objecting to their new religion because it might be “Satan masquerading as a relative,” Ramos said. Monitors were assigned to watch over new members and report back to church leaders, he said. Those who asked too many questions, he said, were asked to leave.

Colon said she was ordered to sit apart from other members after returning to the church following a hiatus because talking to them would “infect them with my doubts. I was told I would kill them spiritually.”

Several parents interviewed said they were heartbroken over their children’s transformation after joining the church. They asked that their identities not be revealed for fear of further alienating their children.

“It’s like something out of that old movie ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers,’” said one mother who lives in another part of the country. “He and his church people are the only ones who have ‘the truth.’ … It’s like you have lost a family member. They aren’t dead, but they’re not there anymore, either. I miss him.”

A familiar look

Steven Hassan, a counselor who makes his living helping people recover after leaving cults, said the World Mission Society in general had a striking resemblance to a group he belonged to years ago — the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. Hassan said his old group believed that Moon, who died in 2012, and his wife were messiahs and the parents of mankind.

“It seemed they had stolen some of the ideology of the cult I was in,” Hassan said of the World Mission Society, adding it fits his description of a cult partly because of secretiveness and isolation of members from family. “The group does not tell people upfront what they believe. They indoctrinate them with fear. They are alienated from their friends and families very fast. … The key is a lack of informed consent.”

Hassan, who has been outspoken about the World Mission Society, has been criticized by church members in Internet postings, with at least two pro-church sites attempting to debunk him by pointing to a negative review of a book he wrote about cults. The reviewer, another cult expert named Cathleen Mann, said the use of her review by followers of the church was “disingenuous.”

“I agree they are a cult,” she said, adding that the World Mission Society has traits that she said are common to cults, like “deceptive recruiting” and isolation from family.

Some other groups that have been labeled cults by former members, like Scientology and the Unification Church, also have been granted tax-exempt status as churches by the federal government. Religion experts say such recognition gives them a legitimacy that is difficult to challenge in court and underscores the potential danger of trampling on their religious freedoms.

In dismissing Colon’s lawsuit, Judge Rachelle L. Harz of Superior Court in Hackensack wrote that the First Amendment prohibited her from “determining underlying questions of religious doctrine and practice” and that “the court may not give an opinion on the validity of a religion.” The church made similar arguments in its motion seeking the dismissal of the federal lawsuit against it. Last month, the church withdrew that motion and said in court documents that it planned to answer the complaint instead.

The Ridgewood church told the IRS in its tax-exemption application that it didn’t send money to foreign organizations, made no distributions, had no close ties to other groups and was not “part of a group of churches with similar beliefs and structures.”

Yet it told The Record that it operates other churches, and on its website does not hide its spiritual connections to the international World Mission Society. In its IRS application, it listed one of the founders of the international church, Joo Cheol Kim, who lives in South Korea, as a trustee with an address at the Ridgewood church. Asked whether those connections make it part of a “group of churches with similar beliefs,” church leaders said through their attorney, “We are looking into this.”

A California church member for 12 years before quitting in 2011, Ramos said he had nagging doubts about his faith after meeting ­Zahng Gil-Jah in South Korea about 15 years ago. He wondered why she needed a translator to talk to him and noticed she seemed startled by a fire alarm. “I was thinking, ‘Why would God be surprised?’” Ramos said.

Diane and Jeff Sims, ex-members from California, said they had a similar impression when they met the Heavenly Mother, wondering why she wore makeup, fixed her hair in a mirror and needed to be carried when her back hurt. “I put it out of my head,” Diane Sims said. “I wanted to go to heaven.”

Taylor said he began questioning the church after he said it abruptly altered its teachings when the world did not end in 2012. In November 2011, he said, he went home “terrified” one night after a church leader said “we only have two more months.” Later, he said, leaders backtracked, at first saying “the Heavenly Mother has blessed us with more time” and then denying ever predicting the apocalypse.

“People should have been jumping out of their seats,” Taylor said. “That made me think: ‘I’m in a cult.’”

Email: koloff@northjersey.com 

http://www.northjersey.com/news/controversy-engulfs-ridgewood-church-officials-praise-deeds-ex-members-call-it-a-cult-1.1493693

 

"So Amazing"the one-woman-show

"HBO’s Going Clear meets Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in this one-woman comedy that takes you along for the ride as main character, Diana, gets into and out of a cult. Based on a true story, Diana’s family does everything they can to rescue her as the cult holds firm control."

2016 FRIGID NEW YORK SELECTION

About the play

Typical northern NJ girl, Diana, had a normal life. She loved to sing and dance, had great friends and family who she could trust, and after graduating from college, she moved back to her hometown, where she'd lived her entire life, and started a Zumba fitness studio. Until, over the course of a few months and during the course of normal life activities, she became indoctrinated into a Korean cult. Diana is not Korean, far from it. And she's not someone you'd suspect would join a cult. But her Catholic upbringing and typical suburban profile were preyed upon by master manipulators who succeeded at controlling every aspect of her life, unbeknownst to Diana and her family, who she lived with. So Amazing is a story of survival, family, friendship, and the phenomenon of mind control (undue influence).

So Amazing is rated PG-13, viewer discretion is advised.

**TRIGGER WARNING** So Amazing contains depictions and/or portrayals of cult mind control, undue influence, cultic relationships, abusive relationships, assault and sexual assault, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you are unsure if this show will be a trigger for you, please read the About Cults page. This show is a COMEDY (but does not make fun of cults or anyone suffering from the effects of cults, cultic/abusive situations, or PTSD) and has a happy ending.

DISCLAIMER: So Amazing is based on a true story but is not a word-for-word telling of a true story. Throughout the play, you will see portrayals and depictions of systematic and deliberate behaviors that have been universally defined by authorities in mental health and law enforcement as mind control techniques. The use of these techniques is what makes a cult a cult. Therefore, this play does not target any one particular cult, including the cult that Diana Brown was formerly involved with. For the same reason, the resemblance of any part of this play to any real event or person is purely coincidental. Creative liberties are taken in this play to account for time and space of the production.

http://www.soamazingshow.com/so-amazing---the-play.html

Former Members Allege New Jersey Church, South Korea-Based World Mission Society Church of God, is Actually a 'Cult'

Chris Harris
December 12, 2015
People

For two years, Michele Colón believed with complete conviction that the end of the world was imminent and that an elderly lady from South Korea was God. For those same two years, Colon, a nurse, attended services at the World Mission Society Church of God in the New Jersey suburb of Ridgewood. 

Colón tells PEOPLE she defected from the World Mission Society Church of God more than four years ago. She says she did so because she believes she had been brainwashed into what she alleges is a doomsday cult. 

Colón further claims in a civil suit she filed against the 50-year-old World Mission Society Church of God, a copy of which was obtained by PEOPLE, that the group is a "profit-making" cult that "uses a number of psychological control tactics...to prevent its members from exposing its criminal and tortious behavior." 

In its motion to dismiss Colón's complaint, the church called her allegations "entirely fabricated." The motion states that Colon's claim is part of a larger effort by her to "position herself as a veteran of the 'cult war' and build a career as 'cult expert' to the detriment" of the World Mission Society Church of God's reputation. 

But interviews conducted with six other former World Mission Society Church of God members, including a former member of 12 years, echo Colón's claims. All seven former members tell PEOPLE the religious faction isolates its acolytes from their families and friends by controlling information and using brainwashing techniques. 

"Fear and guilt – that is what fuels this cult," Colón tells PEOPLE. "They fill you with this fear that the world is going to end at any moment and you feel guilty for not doing enough good before the end comes." 

In a prepared statement, the World Mission Society Church of God dismissed all cult characterizations as "religious intolerance" and urged any examination of it include "how the Church serves the community and how it adheres to the standard of Christianity, which is the Bible." 

Colon: Communal Living Encouraged, Members Deprived of SleepThe World Mission Society Church of God, which does not recognize Christmas or Easter, claims membership in more than 175 countries, with over 150,000 worshippers in the U.S. alone. 

The church's prepared statement says the characterization of it as a cult in Colón's suit stems from reaction to its non-mainstream beliefs: "If someone belongs to a group we disapprove, we call it a 'cult' or worse," the statement reads. 

"When we disagree and have difficulty understanding the reasoning an organization maintains certain views that are contrary to the norm or to what we expect, we label them as a 'cult.'" 

But Colón and the other apostates that PEOPLE spoke with insist the World Mission Society Church of God, whose leaders allegedly predicted that the world would end in 2012, bears all the hallmarks of a cult. 

"Before I left, they expected me to spend all of my free time there," Colón says. She adds that communal living was encouraged among members and that followers were prohibited from stepping foot inside another church. 

"We would be there until 1 or 2 a.m. some nights. It became totally consuming and I was always sleep deprived. Suddenly, the hobbies and people that were important to me before were no longer important." 

Colón alleges church leaders tried "micromanaging" her life, demanding she spend hours in services or studying the Bible. The church, she claims, controlled the music she listened to and forbade her from using the Internet. 

"They can't control you if you're not there," Colón explains. "Everyone is sleep deprived, and this group is constantly repeating things, and regurgitating things, and it becomes engrained in your head. They're opportunistic. They look to recruit people who're going through a transition period in their lives or have some void to fill – and they will fill it." 

'They Don't Tell You What They ARE All About Upfront, Because If They Did, No One Would Join Them'The World Mission Society Church of God is led by "Mother God," a gentle-looking doyenne in her mid-70s who's also known as Jang Gil-ja, Zhang Gil-jah, Chang Gil-jah, Heavenly Mother, God the Mother, New Jerusalem Mother, and Mother Jerusalem. 

Colón says it isn't until you're already committed to the faith that you're told of Mother God's existence. 

"They don't tell you what they are all about upfront, because if they did, no one would join them," Colón tells PEOPLE. "It'd be fine if they said, 'There's this lady we believe is God and we'll convince you to give up your family and your money and your hobbies.' If you still want to join after that, good for you. At least you're making an informed decision." 

Instead, she says, "you're spoon fed information when they feel you're ready to hear it. If you ask questions, they just tell you to 'Study more' and that all of your questions will be answered if you keep studying. They dangle a carrot in front of you." 

The church's prepared response claims "the biggest difference between our Church and other churches" is that "we believe in God the Mother as well as God the Father. ... According to the prophecies of the Bible, God the Mother is to appear in the last age of redemption." 

Gil-ja also serves as chairwoman for the We Love U Foundation and the New Life Welfare Foundation, both non-profits based in Seongnam, South Korea, the country's second largest city. Seongnam is also home to the World Mission Society Church of God's headquarters. 

Founded in 1964 as the Witnesses of Jesus Church of God, the World Mission Society Church of God was the brainchild of a man named Ahnsahnghong, who is believed to be Mother God's late husband. Former members say they were told Ahnsahnghong – who died in 1985 – was the second coming of Christ, and together, Ahnsahnghong and Jang Gil-ja are jointly known as "Elohim God." 

Upon "accomplishing his mission" to restore "the gospel of the new covenant," Ahnsahnghong "ascended to heaven," according to the church's website. Ever since, "our New Jerusalem Mother has been leading the gospel work of the Church of God to deliver the word of God from Zion to the world, just as was prophesied in the Bible." 

Allegations Leaders Directed Members to Get AbortionsColón and the other former members allege that church leaders would direct congregants to get abortions, telling women it was "pointless and selfish" to bring a child into a world so close to the brink of annihilation. 

The former members all claim that tithes of 10 to 15 percent of their salaries were mandatory, and that the church even encouraged members to donate possessions that were later sold at church fundraising events. 

They also allege that recruitment efforts targeted young Caucasians who appeared wealthy, and that members were dispatched multiple times a week to malls and colleges for recruiting drives. According to the former members, the church also emphasized recruiting recently-returned army veterans who might be more psychologically vulnerable.

Some of the ex members say they were encouraged to drop out of college, quit their jobs, and ignore their families so they'd have more time to recruit. They claim church congregants – even children and infants – were also expected to fast for days. 

The former congregants that PEOPLE spoke with allege the World Mission Society Church of God also worked to deliberately dissolve marriages between devoted members and their unconvinced partners in order to arrange weddings between American and South Korean church members. It even happened to Colón, she says; her ex-husband remains a member of the church. 

The church's statement to PEOPLE denied members have ever been encouraged to seek abortions or that recruitment efforts were geared towards specific races or vulnerable veterans. It also denied exerting control over members' lives or their sleeping habits. Additionally, the church claims it has never offered a timeline for the world's demise. 

Cult Scholar: Church 'Thrives on Financial the Exploitation of Its Members'Rick Ross, who has been cited internationally for his work on destructive cults, says he has met several former members of the World Mission Society Church of God who claim church leaders urged pregnant women to abort their babies, but isn't sure he can believe such claims. 

"If that is, in fact, true, the reason is they want total devotion," Ross explains. "They want no distractions. That's why everything must be permitted by the group, including who you marry, who you date, if you have children. They want the group to be maximally productive and a child is ultimately counterproductive." 

While not "physically dangerous" to outsiders, Ross is certain the church meets the cult criteria. 

"They're not talking about mass suicide or stockpiling weapons, but this group doesn't accept the idea that any other church might be valid, because they're the only valid church," Ross said. 

"It doesn't matter if you're the Pope – you're doomed and you're in need of Mother God if you're even remotely interested in salvation ... there is no alternative." 

Ross says the World Mission Society Church of God "thrives on the financial exploitation" of its members. He said that the church's communal living is designed, in part, to enable leaders to get free labor out of its followers. 

"The people in this church will ignore their own bills in order to give more to the church, which expects this of them," said Ross. 

He added, "This cult dominates a person's life so that they have no other life."

http://www.people.com/article/former-members-call-south-korean-church-a-cult?xid=socialflow_facebook_peoplemag

Public university forbids criticizing religious group as a cult

May 22, 2014
Eugene Volokh

Daniel Harper, a Cameron University (Oklahoma) student, was handing out fliers criticizing the World Mission Society as a supposed cult. (Naturally, I express no opinion on whether or not the World Mission Society is a “cult,” whatever exactly that term might mean.) The university forbade him from doing this, stating:

• Having reviewed policy 10.6 DISCRIMINATION (FOR OTHER THAN SEXUAL OR RACIAL/ETHNIC HARASSMENT) and having followed the procedures outlined at 10.7 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE in the Employee Handbook the finding in this matter is as follows:

• 10.7.7.3 DETERMINATION OF IMPROPRIETY

The basic values of religious freedom are provided to every citizen of our country. The determination in this case was that the distribution of a flyer that was specifically created to denounce another person’s religious beliefs by [publicly] displaying and distributing the flyer resulted in discrimination based on religion.

Well, yes, every citizen has religious freedom — but that means freedom from government suppression (and, one might argue, freedom from private discriminatory exclusion prohibited by certain statutes), not freedom from criticism. Indeed, freedom of religion and of speech itself protects the right to denounce religions. Religious beliefs and religious groups, no less than political beliefs and groups other beliefs and groups, are eminently proper subjects of criticism. A public university is forbidden by the First Amendment from trying to squelch such criticism, whether it’s of conservative Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism, Judaism or the World Mission Society.

Harper is suing (represented by Alliance Defending Freedom), claiming the action and the underlying university policies violate the First Amendment; I expect him to win handily. For more on the cases striking down such university speech restrictions, see this post by Greg Lukianoff of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Thanks to Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) for the pointer.