단상斷想

One of the persistent and controversial issues in Korean political history is the close relationship between political parties and religious organizations. In particular, the primitive theocracy and collusion between politics and religion that the People Power Party (2020) and its predecessors, the Grand National Party (1997), the Saenuri Party (2012), and the Liberty Korea Party (2017), have with or are presumed to have with the Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of Testimony (hereinafter Shincheonji) is a serious phenomenon that shakes the foundation of the Korean political system, going beyond political scandal.

Until the hypothetical martial law situation under Yoon Suk-yeol, there was an implicit social consensus that the national religion of South Korea was practically Protestantism, and Western religions were the trend. However, thanks to the character of Kim Keon-hee and Yoon Suk-yeol, we were able to discover ourselves living in other religions, immersed in beliefs leading to national ruin. At this point, it is necessary to check what situation the religious beliefs of Koreans are in.

Readers who have inherited the politics of Syngman Rhee a hundred years ago and transformed into pro-Japanese and pro-American, tasting the essence and peak of the national betrayal party identity in the Yoon Suk-yeol regime, may nod at this statement. However, it is necessary to know that behind the fact that 'Lee Bak School' is not punished and is released to slowly run away like a lizard with its tail cut off, waiting for the time to reappear someday, there are countless people belonging to pseudo-religious groups involved in the elements of the judicial, legislative, and administrative branches. In particular, the manipulation of the judiciary, which has the right and responsibility to punish, is beyond description.

The United States and Protestantism stood behind the Korean Empire, and their power has dominated South Korea to this point. One can only imagine how much doctrinal agitation there was until the pride of the National Foundation Day was swayed by Western religions, just by looking at the fact that many independence activists were Protestant believers. Over the past hundred years, the homogeneity of the nation that had fallen to the ground has disappeared like smoke, and now all that remains is ourselves, who are not surprised by all kinds of pathological phenomena and any crime. Here, groups like Shincheonji dug into the loopholes and contradictions of Protestantism and benchmarked it, so is it really just imitating Western religions? The rise of various emerging pseudo-religions under Japan's enormous expansion of church power after the war must have played a role, and benchmarking religious businesses such as the Unification Church, which exponentially increased its followers, would have been a piece of cake for spiritually gifted and shrewd Koreans. Just as Japan neglected and fostered a sick society by not being wary of the rise of pseudo-religions and only focusing on economic development, Korea followed in its footsteps. That is politics.

Shincheonji is reminiscent of Jesus showing evidence in the tabernacle, as if modern Korea is re-enacting a history book that recorded the Christian inclination of samurai in the Japanese Edo period hundreds of years ago. Shincheonji, which was established in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province in March 1984, currently has its administration in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, and Shincheonji believers consider this place a 'promised land' and a 'holy land' and use it as a key base. Gwacheon, where the government's 2nd Government Complex is located, is either apartments or government agencies. Because there are so many government offices, there were times when I was stopped and searched on the way, so it is a neighborhood imbued with the power of public authority. Gwacheon, where all kinds of civil servants' jobs are gathered, clearly has a pecking order for apartments, a pecking order for kindergartens attended by civil servants' children, and everything is a sanctuary for civil servants. Of course, it would be an outdated story since they can no longer enjoy real estate. The reason why pseudo-religious groups are so prevalent in areas with many government agencies is that the charismatic power of the cult leaders, who have absorbed the spiritually potent energy of the mountains that you can feel if you have experience hiking Mount Gwanak, is well received in the area. A pseudo-religious group in a civil servant group area to protect the country, it may seem contradictory, but in a way, it is a natural principle. What they want is politics.

Lee Man-hee, who suffered from Hansen's disease, is a religious entrepreneur who proved his talent for surpassing his teacher by imitating Yoo Jae-yeol's Tabernacle Temple follower, from being a victim of a pseudo-religion. The biggest characteristic of Shincheonji is its extremely closed and vertical organizational structure. Under the absolute authority of the leader, Lee Man-hee, all believers follow a strict hierarchy, and their solidarity and organizational power are incomparably stronger than other religious groups. Strangely, the behavior of conforming to this hierarchy, strengthening each other's solidarity, and increasing bonding and intimacy is one of the characteristics of Koreans. The genes that showed extreme obedience to the king or discipline in the pre-modern era, went through the adaptation and servility during the Japanese colonial period, and the rebelliousness that led to the war, so the souls who lost their way could not help but give meaning to Shincheonji, which paid attention to them.

The expansion of Shincheonji's religious power employs a unique proselytizing strategy called 'cultivating the political field.' They do not simply pursue religious salvation, but have made systematic efforts to secure political influence for the survival and expansion of the denomination. This strategic approach suggests that Shincheonji has a strong character as a political interest group beyond a simple religious group. If the Unification Church touched the personal realm of family and marriage, Lee Man-hee skipped all modernity and went straight to politics.

The suspicion of collusion between pro-Japanese parties and Shincheonji began to be seriously discussed publicly during the Saenuri Party era under the Park Geun-hye government. The starting point was the issue of the 'party name (黨名)', which can be said to be a very symbolic face of the party. A video was released of Lee Man-hee, the head of Shincheonji, saying at an internal event that 'I gave the name Saenuri Party,' causing a great stir in Korean politics. The basis of this claim was linguistic similarity. When 'Shincheonji (新天地)' is translated into pure Korean, it means 'new heaven and new earth', that is, 'new world' and 'new land'. Lee Man-hee claimed that this was in line with 'Saenuri'. In another sense, it is a name that makes good use of the tangled and confusing identity of the Baekdal people and the Maitreya ideology that will bring about the enlightenment of the nation or the spiritual liberation of the nation, such as the New World, Bright Land, Saenuri, and Onnuri.

Some readers may have heard in the news at the time that the leader of a pseudo-religion named a leading Korean political party, but it did not lead to a decisive social scandal. This is because the media did not make it public. If this is true, it is a shocking story that South Korea's ruling party used a name derived from the idea of a specific religious leader, and it is evidence that all politics is done in a way that the press filters or emphasizes on its own. At the time, the Saenuri Party immediately and strongly refuted this. The party explained that it was a purely original work led by Cho Dong-won, then head of public relations planning, during the Emergency Response Committee in 2012, and even filed a complaint against Chairman Lee Man-hee for defamation. In 2020, the prosecution decided not to indict Chairman Lee Man-hee on the grounds that the 'public performance' of his remarks being spread to an unspecified number of people was not proven, and as a result, the spark of suspicion remained unextinguished. The pro-Japanese and pro-American stances of Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee, the crimes of the judiciary and its members, and even Lee Park School are all buried in media politics by the skills of the press and broadcasters that are forgotten over time.

In early 2020, during the first major COVID-19 pandemic, suspicions at the local level rapidly emerged as a national concern. As the Shincheonji Church of Daegu was identified as the epicenter of the mass infection, the response of the then-main opposition party, the United Future Party (the predecessor of the People Power Party), came under scrutiny. The core of the problem lay in the dualistic attitude of the United Future Party. At the time, the opposition United Future Party was vehemently criticizing the government's initial failure to contain the epidemic. However, they showed a relatively lenient attitude towards Shincheonji, the direct cause of the mass infection. This simple yet contradictory political stance, combined with public insensitivity and the COVID-19 situation, turned suspicion into anger. In particular, the response of Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin sparked much controversy. The Daegu city government took a considerable amount of time to secure a list of all believers from Shincheonji and seemed hesitant to take strong quarantine measures such as forceful facility closures or search and seizure. This was in stark contrast to the swift and decisive responses of other regions. There is nothing that requires a more serious and sincere response than matters of life and death, but Koreans have become a nation where politics takes precedence over life. Even in the initial response to COVID-19, people moved on without being angered by the political interests involved. Haven't the people themselves proven that there is no media outlet to expect thoroughness in infectious diseases? During the past years, when they fell into the abyss of trot music and lost sight of everything, we must remember the years when the politics of Yoon Seok-yeol and Kim Keon-hee matured. South Korea's mass media, politics, and religion are truly a trinity, excelling at nurturing reckless and foolish masses.

The suspicions that had been dormant since COVID-19 resurfaced in July 2025 through the mouth of an unexpected figure, in the most concrete and shocking form ever. The main character was none other than Hong Jun-pyo, the mayor of Daegu, known for the pig libido enhancer scandal. Mayor Hong Jun-pyo posted on his SNS, "During the People Power Party's presidential primary in 2021, approximately 100,000 Shincheonji followers joined as party members under the direction of Lee Man-hee and systematically helped candidate Yoon Seok-yeol at the time." This was not a simple speculation or raising of suspicions, but rather, Mayor Hong presented the content of conversations he had directly with Lee Man-hee as the basis, increasing the credibility of his claim. The significance of this revelation is enormous. If true, it means that a specific religious group directly intervened in the most critical process of democracy, the presidential primary of a political party, and distorted the results.

Hong Jun-pyo's revelation is a very serious matter that can be interpreted as a challenge to the system itself related to the creation of the Republic of Korea's regime, going beyond the corruption of political-religious collusion that was vaguely felt. The opposition party immediately called for the introduction of a special prosecutor, calling it a 'presidential election intervention scandal corresponding to national discipline disruption,' but time is always the answer even for election law violations and serious criminal acts that shake the legitimacy of national administration itself. It would be good to keep in mind at least one result: the practice of being washed away like flowing water over time has led to rare prostitute politics in human history.

Circumstances supporting Hong Jun-pyo's claims were also re-examined. In the past, the content of testimonies by former Shincheonji executives, stating that "the perception that then-Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol prevented the search and seizure of Shincheonji spread within the religious group, and public opinion was formed that he should be protected," was brought back into the spotlight. This was interpreted as suggesting that Shincheonji had a special liking for Yoon Seok-yeol, and that it may have led to organized support. The People Power Party leadership dismissed Mayor Hong's claims as "groundless," but the repercussions within the party were significant. Opinions were divided even among the runners competing for party leadership, and voices demanding an investigation into the truth emerged among ordinary party members. This showed that even within the conservative camp, the seriousness of this issue was being recognized.

Shincheonji strongly denied the allegations, claiming that they were subjected to oppression, including the arrest of church members, even after the inauguration of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. Their logic was that if they had really helped Yoon Suk-yeol, there should have been corresponding compensation or privileges, but rather they were oppressed. We urge them to clearly reveal who in the Shincheonji organization was politically oppressed, and the facts regarding the circumstances of the organized membership of a pseudo-religion for a specific candidate should be verified through the disclosure of the party member list. If the political machinations of pseudo or non-pseudo religious groups are not rooted out and made an example of, someday, instead of a prostitute first lady, the entire nation may be reduced to a country where people have to make a living through prostitution.

The relationship between Shincheonji and conservative political forces is being raised as potentially extending beyond the party level to the media realm. In the case of Kim Seong-dong, the current EBS Vice President who used to be the editor of Monthly Chosun, he published an article in Monthly Chosun in May 2016 entitled 'HWPL Chairman Lee Man-hee Interview - The Reason I Jumped into the Global War Termination and World Peace Movement'. This article focused on the activities of 'HWPL (Heavenly Culture World Peace Restoration of Light)', a representative disguise organization that Shincheonji puts forward for proselytizing, and described Chairman Lee Man-hee as if he were a 'pioneer of the global peace movement'. Disguise organizations spreading in this way are trending towards even radical feminist groups who want to seize power. In a country where politics is a gutter, it's a sight to behold all kinds of parasitic creatures running rampant, truly a terminal phenomenon of the species, a trend of the times where anyone can jump in and grab a piece.

Even at the time of Kim Seong-dong's interview with the Monthly Chosun, there were criticisms from religious circles and civil society that a prominent monthly magazine had promoted the Shincheonji cult leader, who was causing significant social controversy, without criticism, but it did not lead to significant public discourse. As active public discourse on social issues was blocked, Kim Seong-dong's subsequent actions went from bad to worse. He faithfully served as a spokesperson for Yoon Seok-yeol and Kim Keon-hee in the Monthly Chosun, and was appointed as the vice president of EBS in the Yoon Seok-yeol administration in recognition of these contributions. Considering that a large number of Yoon Seok-yeol supporters have flowed into the People Power Party, this is not a simple coincidence, and we urge the party to be dissolved as soon as possible for internal rebellion.

An analysis that these allegations, as claimed by the People Power Party, have aspects of a 'political offensive' that is repeated every election without clear physical evidence is a 'reverse conspiracy' phenomenon. By using the negative public opinion of the Shincheonji, they can proactively use it as an easy means of attack to frame the opposing camp. In fact, Shincheonji-related allegations tend to be raised intensively during sensitive times ahead of elections, leaving room for interpretation that political timing was targeted. However, it is often based on circumstances and testimonies rather than concrete and decisive physical evidence, making it difficult to draw a definite conclusion. It is explained in almost the same logic as a harmful creature that failed to be eradicated in the early stages becomes rampant, but the Korean Peninsula has geographical characteristics that make it difficult for harmful creatures to take root. National sentiment can also be achieved if you set your mind to it. If you haven't made up your mind yet, we urge you to carefully consider it for the sake of your descendants.

There are limitations to these political offensive theories. If it were truly baseless speculation, how could such specific and consistent suspicions persist for nearly 20 years? Even if it's not Hong Jun-pyo, someone, someday, will still have these questions. If a specific group mobilizes its organizational power to exert undue influence on a political party's decision-making or election results, it should be taken as a sign that there is no future for South Korea. If these suspicions are repeated and the public's distrust of political parties and the electoral system deepens, the lives of the people will become more tiresome, and they will only immerse themselves in trot music. This is the establishment of a nation of pigs and dogs that the Chosun Ilbo desperately desires. Regardless of the substantive truth of the allegations, the suspicion that a particular group can distort a political party's decision-making is itself a limitation on party democracy.