What is a cult?
An unorthodox, deviant religious group, which is devoted to a person, thing or set of ideas. Attributes include:
- A strong leader
- Revelations/apocalyptic vision
- Good works
- Use of scripture from an established religio
- New or revised doctrine
- Control and rules
- Indoctrination
- Isolation
- Close relationships
- False teaching/prophecy
People who join cults are often dissatisfied with the world or unsure of their place in it. Cults offer answers, asserting that the world is corrupt and unreliable. It can be difficult to leave a cult. The world outside can seem frightening and evil.
What do they teach their followers?
Usually how to behave, live, think and sometimes how to use their money, what to wear and where to live.
What do they require?
Most cults require worship of or dependence upon the leader and encourage dependence upon other members or the whole group. Some demand a promise of commitment, an initiation ceremony, financial input, active evangelism, participation in ritual.
Moonies
The Unification Church
Founded: 1954, Korea, by Rev Sun Myung Moon.
Based on: Christianity, Korean religions.
Membership: 3 million, mainly in Japan and Korea. Moon’s Confucian parents became Christians when he was ten. Five years later he had a vision of Jesus instructing him to finish establishing God’s kingdom on earth.
Teaching: Moon believes he is the Messiah of the Second Coming and his wife the Holy Spirit. They are believed to be the first couple able to produce children with no original sin, since sin is based on genes. Nature is dualistic: male and female, positive and negative, internal and external. An aspect of God called the Universal Prime Energy created the cosmos. The Unification Church sends out missionaries and holds mass weddings.
Use of Christian teachings: Jesus is not God but a “true person.” The Bible is accepted as Scripture but the Trinity is not recognized. The thieves crucified with Jesus represent democracy and communism. The fall was caused by the sexual sin of Eve and Satan. Moon has been involved in occult practices, owns over 300 businesses and financial institutions and uses politics and philanthropy to gain followers.
Mormons
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Founded: 1830, by Joseph Smith.
Based on: Christianity, teachings of Smith/others.
Membership: Over 10 million worldwide, two million in Asia. The world’s fastest growing “Christian” cult.
Teaching: Joseph Smith claimed that when he was a teenager in New York State, he had two visions from God, in which he was told not to join a denominational church, and to translate the Book of Mormon, written on golden plates buried near his home. Smith published the Book of Mormon in 1830. He also claimed that John the Baptist ordained him to finish restoring the true church by preaching the true gospel, which had been lost from the earth. Mormon teaching describes God as “an exalted man,” with a human body and Jesus as the firstborn of God’s spirit children, a god in flesh. Lucifer was the second. All humans followed. The Trinity is three gods.
Scripture: The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Watchtower Tract and Bible Society
Founded: 1879, America, by Charles Taze Russell.
Based on: Christianity, teachings of Russell/others. Sometimes considered a sect rather than a cult.
Membership: Over 3 million worldwide; prominent in Japan.
Russell was born in 1852 in Pennsylvania. He organized a Bible study class when he was a teenager. He had no formal theological training but was made “pastor” of the class. In 1879 he began publishing the magazine Zion’s Watchtower, in which he discussed his interpretations of the Bible.
Teaching: The Watchtower Society claims that it is the channel for the flow of biblical truth to the world. There are no articles of faith or written doctrines as such; all beliefs are made clear in their publications. Followers do not believe in the Trinity and therefore do not believe that Jesus or the Holy Spirit is God.
Aum Shinri Kyo
Founded: 1986, Japan, by Ashara Shoko.
Based on: Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Christianity.
Membership: Estimates vary from 1,000 to 5,000.
Teaching: Suffering can eliminate bad karma. True faith can enable believers to fly and meditate underwater without breathing. Responsible for the deaths of 12 people and injury to 5,000 in an attack of sarin gas on Tokyo’s subway in 1995.
Scripture: Writings of Ashara, based on Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist ideas and Christian apocalyptic vision (Revelation).
Suma Ching Hai
Founded: 1982, Taiwan, by Master Suma Ching Hai (real name Hue Dang Trinh).
Membership: 300,000 in Taiwan; millions worldwide.
Based on: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity. Suma Ching Hai claims she is Christ and Buddha reincarnated.
Teaching: All religions teach the same truth and are based on the inner Divine Presence. “The Word” in John’s Gospel refers to “the Inner Sound,” which is within all life and heals and sustains the universe. Practices include prayer, contemplation, meditation, vegetarian diet and following five precepts.
Scripture: Bhagavad Gita, Surangama Sutra, the Bible.
Cults in China
Many groups in China have grown out of the house church movement. These include:
The Disciples
Founded: 1989, Shaanxi, by Ji Sanbao, called “the living Christ.”
Involves: Hierarchy, secret code, faith healing, raising the dead, belief in an imminent Second Coming, tithing, false teaching. Based on: Christianity.
Lightning from the East
Founded: Probably Henan.
Involves: Evangelism, often by women, targeting entire families and rural areas.
Other cults in China
The Shouters (the first cult to make a nationwide impact in China), the Lingling cult, the Cold Water cult and the New Testament Church.
New religions
Most new religious movements in East Asia are syncretistic and exclusive, including elements from new and old philosophies, secular movements, established religions and nationalism.
New religions in Korea
There are more than 240 new religions in Korea. Most have grown out of the Tonghak Movement (see below). Membership ranges from ten to 600,000. Most involve the worship or following of a divine leader, dead or alive. Most are syncretistic, some are nationalist.
Ch’ondogyo
Religion of the Heavenly Way formerly the Tonghak Movement
Founded: 1860, by Ch’oe Che-u.
Based on: Nationalism, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Roman Catholicism, shamanism.
Involves: Grew out of the Tonghak Movement of the 1860s, a rural revolution against the government and reaction to the “Western Learning” of Roman Catholicism. Tonghak taught that “man and God are one.” Ch’ondogyo teaches that all human beings are equal, “contain divinity” and deserve respect.
New religions in Japan
Soka Gakkai
The Creation-Value Education Society
Founded: 1930, Japan, by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871- 1944), Josei Toda (1900-58).
Membership: Japan six million, Hong Kong 45,000.
Based on: Nichieren Shoshu Buddhism.
Involves: Buddhist practices, promoting education, pacifism.
Soka Gakkai was founded as a society dedicated to educational reform. Followers hope the world population will convert, bringing world peace. Opponents describe it as corrupt and intolerant.
Shinreikyo
Founded: Japan, 1947, by Kanichi Otsuka, Kunie Otsuka.
Based on: Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, possibly Christianity.
Beliefs: Followers believe in something they call the Divine Power, which emanates from the ultimate Truth, the one principle of eternal immutability. It cannot be described, only experienced. Followers believe that God came to earth, became one with a human body and founded Shinreikyo. This allows the followers to receive Divine Light, to become spiritual beings.
