Heresy Counseling: Edit history

Overview

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

Counseling Methods

• In many cases, family members reportedly contact a counseling center before the individual concerned does.
• The core of the counseling is doctrinal refutation, which involves examining and rebutting a group's interpretations of the Bible point by point. In counseling for Shincheonji members, the interpretation of the Book of Revelation is the main focus.
• Former members who have left a group sometimes serve as counselors or lecturers.
• Programs for training counselors also exist. A course for heresy counseling ministers 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 in what appears to be 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 programs of public agencies 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," bogeumbang) and then moved into the regular curriculum at a "center."
• Demands for secrecy: The person is urged not to tell anyone about the study and not to look up information about it on the internet.

Counseling Organizations

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

Controversy

• Allegations of coercive conversion: Shincheonji and organizations 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 participation of family members. They have called for legislation to prohibit the practice. They have also cited the case of Gu Ji-in, a Shincheonji member who was 25 years old at the time, as a representative example and have 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.
• Counselors' response: Heresy counselors regard family conflict caused by Shincheonji as the root cause of the incident and counter that Shincheonji is posing as a victim. Analysts in the Christian press have also suggested that Shincheonji is targeting heresy counseling centers because they stand in the way of its expansion.
• Academic perspectives: In a 2023 paper, the religious studies scholar Lee Jeong-eun analyzed how Protestant heresy counseling and the conversion testimonies of former members form a structure that reinforces the public perception of new religions as "pseudo-religions."