In South Korea, adult believers are being taken away by their families, cut off from the outside, and pressured to renounce their faith.
Human rights advocates connected with Shincheonji recorded 55 cases by mid-October 2026, 17 involving actual confinement.
The pastor at the center of this network was convicted by Korea’s Supreme Court in 2008. In 2025, his organization signed an agreement with left-leaning Japanese lawyers in Tokyo.
Religious scholar Massimo Introvigne @Introvigne argues that the Lee Jae-myung administration’s campaign against “heresy” has emboldened these pastors.
After years of decline, the numbers are rising again.
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