Heresy Counseling

Overview

Heresy counseling is a ministry that helps people who have joined groups designated by Protestant denominations as heretical or pseudo-religious return to established churches, or that educates church members in advance so they are not drawn into such groups. It is also called "heresy response." It comprises exit (conversion) counseling, which helps those who have already joined such groups, and preventive education conducted within churches. In recent years in South Korea, counseling and preventive education related to Shincheonji have made up a large share of the work, though other groups such as the Unification Church are also addressed.

Counseling Methods

• Family members are reported to seek out a counseling center before the individual concerned does in many cases.
• The core of the counseling is doctrinal refutation, which involves examining and rebutting a group's biblical interpretations point by point. In Shincheonji counseling, the interpretation of the Book of Revelation is the main focus.
• Former members who have left a group sometimes serve as counselors or lecturers.
• There are also programs for training counselors. A heresy counseling ministry course has been established at the Lifelong Education Center of Chongshin University.

Types of Deceptive Proselytizing

The following are representative approaches that heresy counseling organizations warn against; they are known mainly from Shincheonji cases.

• Surveys: Using a street survey as a pretext, the recruiter obtains a person's name, age, contact information, religion, and place of residence, and later approaches the person again under the guise of a chance encounter.
• Psychological tests and counseling: The recruiter claims to be a psychology student or an intern at a counseling agency, administers a free test, and then arranges another meeting to explain the results. Cases in which such activities were disguised as public-agency programs have also been reported.
• Invitations to Bible study: After listening to a person's concerns, the recruiter says that "the root problem must be healed through faith" and introduces someone else as a teacher. The person is thus led into one-on-one Bible study (the so-called "gospel room") and then moved into the regular curriculum at a "center."
• Demands for secrecy: The person is urged not to tell others about the study and not to search for information about it on the internet.

Counseling Organizations

• Korea Christian Heresy Counseling Center Association: Pastor Jin Yong-sik serves as its president. Jin is a former evangelist of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. After leaving that church, he became a pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong), and he began heresy counseling in earnest when he planted Sangnok Church in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. The association operates regional counseling centers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, Yeongnam, Honam, and other areas.
• Denominations and ecumenical bodies: The general assemblies of major denominations and ecumenical bodies maintain heresy (pseudo-religion) countermeasure committees, which are responsible for researching heresies and handling counseling inquiries. Jin served as vice chair of the Heresy and Pseudo-Religion Countermeasure Committee of the Christian Council of Korea. In 2016 he was reported to have been elected chair of the Heresy Countermeasure Committee of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong).

Controversy

• Allegations of coercive conversion: Shincheonji and groups such as the Human Rights Association for Victims of Coercive Conversion allege that heresy counseling amounts to "coercive conversion" involving confinement and assault carried out with the involvement of family members. They have called for legislation to prohibit it. They have also cited the case of Gu Ji-in, a 25-year-old Shincheonji member, as a representative example and held protest rallies across the country. In January 2018, Gu was found asphyxiated at a vacation rental in Hwasun, South Jeolla Province, and later died.
• The counselors' rebuttal: Heresy counselors regard family conflict caused by Shincheonji as the root cause of the incident and counter that Shincheonji is posing as a victim. Analysis in the Christian press has also suggested that Shincheonji is targeting heresy counseling centers because they hinder its expansion.
• Academic perspectives: In a 2023 paper, religious studies scholar Lee Jeong-eun analyzed how Protestant heresy counseling and the conversion testimonies of former members together form a structure that reinforces the public perception of new religions as "pseudo-religions."