“Intolerance and Discrimination Against New Religious Movements: An International Problem” was held by Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) from Italy and Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) from Belgium on Nov. 19th.
Internationally authoritative groups and scholars pointed out the issue of coercive conversion through this seminar, held in Seoul, S.Korea, and the conversion was already banned worldwidely.
Coercive conversion (or Forced conversion) causes human rights violations by kidnapping and detaining innocent believers labeled as cult. Usually, conversion pastors act the conversion for their profits because they think other denominations steal their believers. But it’s “Deprogramming action.”
Actually, in S.Korea, the conversion pastors have managed the Korean Christian Heterodox Counsellor and they only want to make money ignoring the conscience of believer. The brutality caused by them is as follows : 1,338 leave of absence from school or work, 13 forced hospitalization to psychiatric hospital, 3 killing and so on. It is offensive that such acts happen in the Republic of Korea which is a democratic country. But Korean government just looks on.
In “Intolerance and Discrimination Against New Religious Movements”, about 80 legal experts, journalists, and civil society representatives reviewed the current situation of forced conversion and discussed solutions to defend the freedom of faith and human rights that have become the norm of the international community.
Massimo Introvigne, Managing Director of CESNUR as well as an Italian sociologist, stressed that forced conversion is conducted through the mainstream by saying, “Korean deprogrammers are specialized pastors from the mainline churches, most of them Presbyterian.”
“The protests that commemorate the victims from forced conversion were mentioned in the 2019 U.S. State Department Report on Religious Freedom, including violations of religious freedom in the year 2018. However, there were new cases of deprogramming even after their death,” he criticized.
Now, Korean government should lead out to solve the conversion that violates human rights.
Shocked and disgusted that this is happening today in the Republic of Korea. The problem is coercive conversion programme leaders label this practice ‘counseling,’ which masks their true intent for financial profit and allows them to systematically violate human rights beneath the detection of the law. Perhaps the UK papers can follow suit and make this known to people here.
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