For the past few months, my girlfriend has been hanging out with a friend from work and her church group on the weekends. She says she has been learning a lot that has changed her views on things, but doesn't go into a lot of details. She says the things she has been taught would "sound crazy" if she told me because she isn't well versed enough to really back them up with evidence but that she is impressed with how much this church seems to have answers to questions. She also has not told her parents about these things. Strange, but no biggie. I try to be open minded about things as I am not religious at all, but I don't claim to have any big answers either about god or anything like that.
Tonight I found out she has some "special meeting" with someone important in the church. With further probing I found she is meeting with someone from Korea in the World Mission Society Church of God. I know very little about this group, but from what I can tell they are relatively culty and tend to aggressively recruit young vulnerable/lonely women going through a big life change. There are some past controversies with the group possibly being a doomsday cult, but idk how big that plays into their belief system really, they seem far less scary of a group than Scientology but something gives me the impression that they are manipulating her. I am already trying to tow a fine line of not pushing her away as we have been struggling with other relationship/mental health issues, but I really don't want to let her go deep down a rabbit hole here if it is something that is dangerous. FWIW, it also looks like this group does a decent amount of legitimate charity work.
Alright, I spent a couple minutes digging into this and they are checking the boxes for being a cult.
Do your own research, but here’s a subreddit of people who have gotten out of the cult or are dealing with losing people to it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WMSCOG/
Note: The first pinned post on there mentions the cult is monitoring that sub and is pissed that it exists. Assume any mention of them will eventually get on their radar, so don’t dox yourself if you do post there. If the cult is aggressive enough, they will eventually capture that sub and use it as a way to identify and dox critics.
Quote from one of the threads:
I have five years experience inside this cult as a devoted believer. I have now been out of it for a little over a year and a half. As long as your are confident that you won’t be swayed by their teachings, you would be fine with even doing “Bible studies” with them. Their “Bible studies” can seem quite convincing to someone unfamiliar with the Bible. But if you take it all with a grain of salt and don’t intend to actually gain any religious/spiritual information from it, you could do very well as an undercover infiltrator.
They will try to love bomb you. They will seem like the nicest people you could find. They will invite you to numerous events. Just make sure you don’t agree to be baptized. Once baptized, you’re locked in and then the love bombing ends and the guilt shaming begins. Also don’t agree to sign anything or fill out any forms with personal info. They don’t need your info so don’t provide it.
If you want access to any of their books or more intense studies, you will likely be required to be a baptized member. Don’t do it. It is possible to leave and just walk away after being baptized, but it will be harder and then they’ll have your info. If you need specific info about them, DM me and I will provide what I can.
They are only dangerous to someone willing to allow themselves to truly believe and follow their teachings. For an undercover infiltrator, it would just be annoying having to pretend all the time that you are a real believe since real believers are expected to do a lot for the church. They will want as much of your time and money as they can get.
So yeah, none of this is standard for a normal religion / faith. Pulling at the edges of their actual beliefs, it’s a korean cult that believes their current living leader is “god the mother”, the reincarnation of the Christian god. They utilize some version of the Christian bible and publicly identify as Christian.
Thing to especially watch out for with cults is them being jealous of your time and attention. They try to bring people in and then pry away / alienate the person’s other social supports so that the victim is isolated and dependent on them.
It sounds like you’ve caught this early enough you can potentially help your girlfriend get away from it. Read up on cult deprogramming steps, etc. Don’t blame yourself if it doesn’t work, cults either get very good at recruiting or they collapse.
They are a cult, and any 'legitimate' charity they do is off the backs of people they are exploiting. I don't think you should go to a meeting if you're not well versed on religion- a lot of people who get recruited to cults are ones who show up to argue but don't have the same verbosity of the people making the extraordinary claims.
@FidelCastro pretty much nailed it: Get support but don't dox yourself, and don't blame yourself it you can't stop her from getting into it.
a lot of people who get recruited to cults are ones who show up to argue but don’t have the same verbosity of the people making the extraordinary claims.
Really good point, thanks for highlighting that. Debating a cultist is like debating an anti-semite, they’re not going to engage in good faith and they’re also going to already have extremely rehearsed responses to any arguments you might have.
Exactly. I was raised very Evangelical and there were never any conversations I had with people from Atheists to Wiccans which I would have ever taken their arguments even if they were perfectly logical. People who were raised Christian but had no interaction with religion beyond Christmas and Easter were people who could easily be pressured into 'accepting Jesus' just because it sounded close enough to what they knew, and they were the people most easily pushed to fundamentalist ideas, too.
Similar vibes, except devout catholic. Now agnostic bordering on pagan, but I'm thankful for having that religious background. I wish it hadn't been with the catholic church, but whatever.
It taught me to pull at threads and build an internal "theology". Running into someone with a conversion mindset now raises the hair on the back of my neck. Most people with those goals are selling something, and it's rarely harmless.
A person with only a passing familiarity might be more vulnerable to someone mimicking parts of different religions, you're right. With that said, it really can still happen to anyone. You've got to stay aware and trust the people in your life if they flag something you've missed.
I feel where you're coming from- I'm a Taoist now and enjoy the extensive religious knowledge I have because of my past but really wish the initial spark wasn't so awful. It is nice to have that sixth sense of someone who is trying to sell something while pretending not to.
Fully agree, nobody is beyond getting their buttons pressed and when we aren't sure the best move is to run it past other people
Yeah, I came back to the Catholic Church after some time as a reddit atheist and then a Pagan, but a proper familiarity of the internal theological structure of Tradcaths and other zealot-style groups (and why it's deeply flawed) is a good inoculation to have.
anti-semite[s are] going to already have extremely rehearsed responses to any arguments you might have
Really? My impression of antisemites is that they're some of the dumbest people out there.
Memorizing a specific response to any argument out there can't be easy though. If it were the same response to every argument that would be different, but I think he was implying they were verbose.
I think the 1st step is finding out what kind of itch exactly this group is scratching. Young vulnerable women can be anyone really. Find out what she finds attractive about them without blaming her. Whom exactly are they trying to help? What do they want to achieve? How? You don't have to be blunt about it, just ask what they wanna do, maybe you want to help even. The more information you have the more room for the argument you have, if it's inconsistent of course.
Just to piggyback a bit, this is to the OP, don't underestimate the idle hands theory. Maybe you can redirect this into a book club or exercising group. Alot of people really long for just any kind of community. Also, might be hard to hear but this might be her way of exiting the relationship. Sometimes people can't be straight up and then they come up with convoluted ways of making life moves that maybe partially true but also down play their responsibility in simply advocating for an ending.
Brilliant point! Please read OP! Try reaching out to your gf, see what she is quote unquote 'lacking' in her life, and try to help her fill that void minus cults!
Go to a meeting with her and preferably some neutral party. I wouldn't try to debate religion though, you can't reason with faith. Maybe just try to observe for now. Might help to understand why she's interested in this group and what they offer to her. If you find it's something kinda of dangerous you should at least let her family or friends know. Idk amateur advice here
If you do this, just make sure to not also get roped in. Go from a place of “wanting to understand”. If the church tries to stop you from attending that’s also a huge red flag.
Yeah, I wanted to specifically name it because I had a now ex-friend who wound up in a fucking pyramid scheme after he went in with an “open mind”. Can’t do that with cults and other scams that have manipulative recruiting strategies.
Agreed. That's mest up. My intention was OP would be a dissenting voice, but if they're in relationship problems that could also be counterproductive hence the neutral party suggestion a friend or relative perhaps. Even if not a directly dangerous position also watch for financial scams 4 sho! Good point again.
Yeah, I really feel for OP with this. Pulling someone out of a cult is a really fucking hard thing to navigate. The person who is being targeted is being preyed on by the rest of the cult and gradually groomed until they’re dependent on them. I thought that shit was just in horror movies until I saw it in real life.
Full disclosure when I started participating in left wing politics whether mutual aid or more explicitly political organizations. Many of my friends were cult sceptical of my interests. Tbh, around 2007 that wasn't an unfair assessment in many respects.
There are definitely left wing cults, so it's good your friends were keeping an eye out.
Any ideology with a strong mission has the potential to be exploited by cranks or turn inward.
Perfect example despite the memes:
:posadas:
Did you wind up in a full-on cult or was it more of an overzealous org? The line between those two can sometimes be grey.
Either go to a meeting with her, or get her to bring an existing friend to the meetings. I think involving a friend is probably the better option - if she's feeling cut off from people (relationship issues + cult recruitment makes it sound like she is), then bringing her friends into the solution will also address the underlying problem.
i.e. "Hey this place sounds really culty and I'm worried, can you bring Samantha with you to the next one of these?" Where Samantha is ideally her most hard-nosed anti-authoritarian friend.
This is a good way to build support against the cult. Make sure Samantha is on the same page about it being sketch though or she’ll also get roped into it.
Edit: just saw you mentioned going for the anti-authoritarian friend. Awesome.
Oh fuck I'm pretty sure these weirdos randomly called us once, trying to get the word out about "human rights abuses in SK due to COVID-19", pretty sure it was some denialist shit. Not 100% sure it was them or some other SK cult. But looking them up it seems like they are indeed a doomsday cult so yikes.
Remember them showing up at my doorstep about a decade ago and making me watch some video about the god mother. Was annoyed and hung over, but I usually just let these recruiters do their spiel and take the pamphlet to get rid of them.
Not surprised that they're sketchy, they seemed like it compared to the usual Jehova's Witnesses or Mormons and they're already bad enough.
My dad had a good system for these sorts of people, he just told them something like "no thanks, we're Muslim/Buddhists" or something like that, which tilted them quite a bit and then they left.
I feel like of they are going through the trouble of being a cult they could do better than being based in Christianity.
I think though, this is a difficult situation and you should be emotionally prepared for if she does go into the cult. If that happens, it isn't your fault.
I feel like of they are going through the trouble of being a cult they could do better than being based in Christianity.
Many cults are based on Christianity because it is something more people can accept easier.
*nvm, seems people have brought up good points on not going in yourself.
Is there some way you can tag along for a day to see it first hand? Maybe it will be more obvious in person
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Mission_Society_Church_of_God#Criticism_and_controversy
