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Providence (religion)
Encyclopedia
Providence is a Christian religious movement most notable for its bible study formerly called the 30 lessons, for the controversies surrounding its founder, and its fast growth. From the time it was founded 30 years ago in Korea
, Providence churches have been established in 50 nations including United States
, England
, France
, Germany
, Japan
, Taiwan
, Korea
, Canada
, Malaysia, Singapore
, Australia
, and New Zealand
. The movement was originally founded in South Korea
which is still where it has the most members. The organization has experienced a lot of negative publicity in Asia and is widely referred to by the media as a cult. Much of the publicity is about the controversies and the trial of it's founder Jung Myung Seok
.
Other names for the church include Jesus Morning Star (JMS) (the most known name in South Korea), Christian Gospel Mission (CGM, official name in South Korea), Setsuri (that means "providence" in Japanese), International Christian Association (ICA), Morning Star Church, The Bright Moon Church, Ae-chun Church, Young-dong Church, Nak-seong-dae Church, and Seoul Church.
Providence members also run various Providence secular organisations
for recruitment purposes.
Though Providence churches share fundamentally the same doctrines as most Christian denominations, it distinguishes itself by interpreting many traditional aspects of the bible far less literally. Rapture, resurrection, advent, and even the Lord's second coming are understood to have both a physical and mental aspect, but also a fundamental spiritual aspect - unlike most traditional Christian bible interpretations which teach a strictly physical resurrection, rapture, and second coming.
Due to a neglect of spiritual needs in the world Providence churches emphasize the daily responsibilities of living a life of faith. This directly influences the lifestyles of members who are known for waking up early for prayer and for attending service often.
One of the key differences between Providence and the churches of this time period is that Providence stresses that the Lord Jesus Christ will not come back in his physical body at the second coming, but will come in spirit and must be received in spirit.
A great controversy surrounds the organization because there exists a stark contradiction between what former public media broadcasts as well as what Internet critics say about Providence and what the actual teachings in Providence churches say about its founder, Joshua Jeong Myung Seok. In the past, news media broadcasts falsely labelled Providence as a personality cult and listed its founder, Joshua Jeong Myung Seok, as a "second coming claimant", creating a contradiction between public perception and actual doctrine preached in Providence churches. Pastor Joshua Jung Myung Seok often preaches only God and the Lord Jesus Christ can be considered "Lord", and that any person that claims to be Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, or the Lord of second coming is false and idolatrous. The contradiction between public perception and the organization's actual teachings often causes problems for the members of the church.
In Korea, Providence filed a suit against the Korean news and the court ruled in favor of the church, ordering the following: 1) the media must not use one-sided material provided by the informer and others; 2) the media must inform the organization 48 hours before broadcasting; 3) the media must guarantee 5% of the broadcasting time to [the Church] so that their rebuttal will also be aired; 4) if these orders are violated, the media must pay damages in the amount of 30 million won (about the equivalent of $30,000) for each violation. The court decision acknowledging the media’s errors and biased reporting was not made widely known to viewers. But a similar case was filed in Taiwan and the Taiwanese news media that broadcasted the report made a public apology.
These misunderstandings are now coming to surface as more and more Providence sermons are being made publicly available online.
, Japan on suspicion a senior member illegally obtained residence status. They also searched a facility in the city’s Chuo Ward. The police believe Jung used a room inside to sexually assault female followers.
The organization's international modeling group, Peace Model, did a 2 minute performance at the inauguration of the new U.N. Secretary General, Ki-Moon Ban, in January 2007.
One reported event was the attack on the 64-year old father of the founder of EXODUS
on October 23, 2003. EXODUS is an organisation formed by former members of Providence set up in response to the rape allegations concerning Jung. A doctor confirmed the victim's account that he was bombarded with weapons such as iron pipes, and concluded he could have been killed if the blows landed directly on his head. The attack permanently shattered his left facial bones, and severely damaged his facial nerves.
When interviewed in prison, the individuals responsible said they were not told to assault him. However, several other similar events have been reported in the Korean media. Police discovered that the culprits were all Providence members and had planned out the assault. This was the third attempt. It was ruled a retaliatory attack against EXODUS.
Seven Days reports that former members Young-Soo Kim, Doe-Hyung Kim, Choi and Park have all been attacked by Providence members. (Kim is a common last name in Korea.) The office of EXODUS has also been trashed.
A former member named Hyun-Jin Kim was attacked by Providence members, who he reports said to him, "how dare you speak ill of our teacher". As a result, he needed several stitches on his head. Kim said that he believes they were either trying to maim him to make an example out of him, or were trying to kill him.
Korean police confiscated a computer disc from the perpetrators. It contained plans to deal with critics of Providence. One section was labeled "sal sang boo" (list of people to be killed). The disc contained personal information, such as addresses, phone numbers, work places, and family member names of 206 people. The list included members of EXODUS, critics of Providence, as well as the producers of Seoul Broadcasting System.
commented on the Providence group (known in Japan as Setsuri) in their August 19, 2006 editorial. It reported that Providence is "causing serious social problems in Japan", labeling it as a "cult" and "sect". It reported,
that the church targets university students and in particular Christians to recruit on university campuses. He also said that the church has about 100 core members in Hong Kong, many of whom are medical graduates, while some are assistant professors. In church Jung is called "Joshua Jung", and leads church services via video stream. Geung found that the church gives Jung's photos to the members and asks them to worship the photos. When Geung finally left the church, he was threatened and harassed by the church's student members. Though the church has been in Hong Kong for years, the slow development made it fairly unknown until its media exposure to the public. To attract youth, the church tried to create an organisation to run various community activities, known as the United Culture and Arts Network (UCAN). The organisation's webpage was deleted in May of 2005.
There is also one reported case of the parents of a female medical student seeking help from Hong Kong Christian Short Term Mission Center. The parents complained that the student's behavior changed completely after joining the church and she left home and never came back. Instead, she devoted herself to church's development and donated all her income to it. Her family found a photo of Jung in her wallet.
: chéeng sīn hùei. The literal translation of Jesus Morning Star church), "攝理教" or "攝禮教" (shè lǐ jìao).
The organization itself rejects these common names, officially registered as "中華基督教新時代青年會" (China Christian Youth Association, CCYA), and sometimes calls itself "攝理教會", and Providence Church.
In November 2001 the Taiwanese version of Next Magazine
published the article "Korean cult leader raped over one hundred Taiwanese female college students". Allegedly involved National Taiwan University
, Fu Jen Catholic University
, and National Chengchi University
all denied the report, stated that there were no cult activities in their campuses at the time. NCCU acknowledged that there had been such activities many years ago. There had been similar reports in 1997. Members of EXODUS
soon came to Taiwan and held a press conference with an involved woman.
In October 2005 Apple Daily (Taiwan)
reported that many student clubs in National Central University
and other campuses are recruiting for Providence Church. These clubs hold a wide variety of activities including the "Eagle Cup" soccer tournament in Taipei city and regular model training. The paper quoted an undisclosed former church member, that the church's "modeling department" is in fact a channel of recruiting sexual partners for Jung Myung Seok. The paper obtained three audio recordings of dialogs of some female members, which say that Jung have had sex with ten female members by mutual consent, most of them college students from the modeling department.
In June 2006 Jung commissioned a friend to file a private prosecution against a former church member named Wang Wen-yi (王文益) along with many media in Taipei. During the trial Wang admitted that he released three unverified audio recordings to the media. Keelung District Court's judgment is that Wang's statements of "Jung sexually violated female college students" are defamations, media's reports during 2005 October 13 to 16 are untrue, and Wang was sentenced to 30 days of detention with two years of probation.
Since Japanese police opened investigation on the church's Japanese branch, they believe "the second in command" of the branch had fled to Taiwan in 2006 after allegations of rape were reported by Japanese media. She is currently wanted by Japanese police for immigration violations.
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Providence churches have been established in 50 nations including United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Malaysia, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. The movement was originally founded in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
which is still where it has the most members. The organization has experienced a lot of negative publicity in Asia and is widely referred to by the media as a cult. Much of the publicity is about the controversies and the trial of it's founder Jung Myung Seok
Jung Myung Seok
Jung Myung-Seok is the founder of an international organization called Providence. He is also known by the names of Joshua Jung, Joshua Lee Jung, Joshua Lee, and JMS....
.
Other names for the church include Jesus Morning Star (JMS) (the most known name in South Korea), Christian Gospel Mission (CGM, official name in South Korea), Setsuri (that means "providence" in Japanese), International Christian Association (ICA), Morning Star Church, The Bright Moon Church, Ae-chun Church, Young-dong Church, Nak-seong-dae Church, and Seoul Church.
Providence members also run various Providence secular organisations
Global Association of Culture and Peace
The Global Association of Culture and Peace , and other groups listed below are organizations that have been heavily criticized by Korean and Japanese media as a front groups for international fugitive Jung Myung Seok's controversial Providence new religious movement. They operate primarily on...
for recruitment purposes.
Theology
All Providence teachings center on the Lord's imminent second coming. The re-occurring theme is that the most critical thing to do in this time period is to be prepared spiritually by living a life of faith while physically alive in the body. Another common theme is that believers should prepare in our daily life of faith by maintaining a bride level relationship of spiritual love with the Lord as preached in the Matthew 25:1-13Though Providence churches share fundamentally the same doctrines as most Christian denominations, it distinguishes itself by interpreting many traditional aspects of the bible far less literally. Rapture, resurrection, advent, and even the Lord's second coming are understood to have both a physical and mental aspect, but also a fundamental spiritual aspect - unlike most traditional Christian bible interpretations which teach a strictly physical resurrection, rapture, and second coming.
Due to a neglect of spiritual needs in the world Providence churches emphasize the daily responsibilities of living a life of faith. This directly influences the lifestyles of members who are known for waking up early for prayer and for attending service often.
One of the key differences between Providence and the churches of this time period is that Providence stresses that the Lord Jesus Christ will not come back in his physical body at the second coming, but will come in spirit and must be received in spirit.
A great controversy surrounds the organization because there exists a stark contradiction between what former public media broadcasts as well as what Internet critics say about Providence and what the actual teachings in Providence churches say about its founder, Joshua Jeong Myung Seok. In the past, news media broadcasts falsely labelled Providence as a personality cult and listed its founder, Joshua Jeong Myung Seok, as a "second coming claimant", creating a contradiction between public perception and actual doctrine preached in Providence churches. Pastor Joshua Jung Myung Seok often preaches only God and the Lord Jesus Christ can be considered "Lord", and that any person that claims to be Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, or the Lord of second coming is false and idolatrous. The contradiction between public perception and the organization's actual teachings often causes problems for the members of the church.
In Korea, Providence filed a suit against the Korean news and the court ruled in favor of the church, ordering the following: 1) the media must not use one-sided material provided by the informer and others; 2) the media must inform the organization 48 hours before broadcasting; 3) the media must guarantee 5% of the broadcasting time to [the Church] so that their rebuttal will also be aired; 4) if these orders are violated, the media must pay damages in the amount of 30 million won (about the equivalent of $30,000) for each violation. The court decision acknowledging the media’s errors and biased reporting was not made widely known to viewers. But a similar case was filed in Taiwan and the Taiwanese news media that broadcasted the report made a public apology.
These misunderstandings are now coming to surface as more and more Providence sermons are being made publicly available online.
Police activity in Japan
Police have raided eight Providence facilities in ChibaChiba, Chiba
is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is located approximately 40 km east of the center of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay. Chiba City became a government designated city in 1992. Its population as of 2008 is approximately 960,000....
, Japan on suspicion a senior member illegally obtained residence status. They also searched a facility in the city’s Chuo Ward. The police believe Jung used a room inside to sexually assault female followers.
Media attention
This is the media attention concerning the religious organisation Providence. There is more media attention concerning Jung Myung Seok's crimes and alleged crimes, as well as mostly positive media relating to the events held by the secular organisations run by Providence.The organization's international modeling group, Peace Model, did a 2 minute performance at the inauguration of the new U.N. Secretary General, Ki-Moon Ban, in January 2007.
Korea
EXODUS (NGO)
EXODUS is a non-governmental organization based in South Korea. It seeks to bring international fugitive Jung Myung Seok to justice and to oppose what it sees as a destructive cult, his religion Providence...
on October 23, 2003. EXODUS is an organisation formed by former members of Providence set up in response to the rape allegations concerning Jung. A doctor confirmed the victim's account that he was bombarded with weapons such as iron pipes, and concluded he could have been killed if the blows landed directly on his head. The attack permanently shattered his left facial bones, and severely damaged his facial nerves.
When interviewed in prison, the individuals responsible said they were not told to assault him. However, several other similar events have been reported in the Korean media. Police discovered that the culprits were all Providence members and had planned out the assault. This was the third attempt. It was ruled a retaliatory attack against EXODUS.
Seven Days reports that former members Young-Soo Kim, Doe-Hyung Kim, Choi and Park have all been attacked by Providence members. (Kim is a common last name in Korea.) The office of EXODUS has also been trashed.
A former member named Hyun-Jin Kim was attacked by Providence members, who he reports said to him, "how dare you speak ill of our teacher". As a result, he needed several stitches on his head. Kim said that he believes they were either trying to maim him to make an example out of him, or were trying to kill him.
Korean police confiscated a computer disc from the perpetrators. It contained plans to deal with critics of Providence. One section was labeled "sal sang boo" (list of people to be killed). The disc contained personal information, such as addresses, phone numbers, work places, and family member names of 206 people. The list included members of EXODUS, critics of Providence, as well as the producers of Seoul Broadcasting System.
Japan
Providence was first reported in Japanese media in late July 2006. While most reports were about the sexual allegations, the Asahi ShimbunAsahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
commented on the Providence group (known in Japan as Setsuri) in their August 19, 2006 editorial. It reported that Providence is "causing serious social problems in Japan", labeling it as a "cult" and "sect". It reported,
Hong Kong
The religion has been reported about in Hong Kong, known as "月明教會" (The Bright Moon Church) there. In October 2006 a former member, under pseudonym "Geung"(阿強), told Oriental Daily NewsOriental Daily News
Oriental Daily News is a Chinese language newspaper in Hong Kong. It was established in 1969. It is one of the two newspapers published by the Oriental Press Group Limited , found by Ma's Family.-History:While Oriental Daily targets at a more mature reader group, Sun Daily Oriental Daily News is...
that the church targets university students and in particular Christians to recruit on university campuses. He also said that the church has about 100 core members in Hong Kong, many of whom are medical graduates, while some are assistant professors. In church Jung is called "Joshua Jung", and leads church services via video stream. Geung found that the church gives Jung's photos to the members and asks them to worship the photos. When Geung finally left the church, he was threatened and harassed by the church's student members. Though the church has been in Hong Kong for years, the slow development made it fairly unknown until its media exposure to the public. To attract youth, the church tried to create an organisation to run various community activities, known as the United Culture and Arts Network (UCAN). The organisation's webpage was deleted in May of 2005.
There is also one reported case of the parents of a female medical student seeking help from Hong Kong Christian Short Term Mission Center. The parents complained that the student's behavior changed completely after joining the church and she left home and never came back. Instead, she devoted herself to church's development and donated all her income to it. Her family found a photo of Jung in her wallet.
Taiwan
The organization's earliest activity in Taiwan was in 1988. The organization is commonly known as Jesus Morning Star church (JMS), "晨星會" (Tongyong PinyinTongyong Pinyin
Tongyong Pinyin was the official Romanization of Mandarin Chinese in the Republic of China between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for the Republic of China was being evaluated for adoption. The ROC's Ministry of Education...
: chéeng sīn hùei. The literal translation of Jesus Morning Star church), "攝理教" or "攝禮教" (shè lǐ jìao).
The organization itself rejects these common names, officially registered as "中華基督教新時代青年會" (China Christian Youth Association, CCYA), and sometimes calls itself "攝理教會", and Providence Church.
In November 2001 the Taiwanese version of Next Magazine
Next Magazine
Next Magazine is a Chinese weekly magazine, published in Hong Kong and Taiwan with different versions. Owned by Jimmy Lai , both magazines are the number one news magazines in both markets in terms of audited circulation and AC Nielsen reports...
published the article "Korean cult leader raped over one hundred Taiwanese female college students". Allegedly involved National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University is a national co-educational university located in Taipei, Republic of China . In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Táidà" . Its main campus is set upon 1,086,167 square meters in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taiwan,...
, Fu Jen Catholic University
Fu Jen Catholic University
Fu Jen Catholic University is a co-educational Catholic university located in Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City, Republic of China...
, and National Chengchi University
National Chengchi University
National Chengchi University is a prestigious public university at Muzha in Wenshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan. It is well-known for its concentration on the social sciences, law, commerce, communication, liberal arts and for its MBA programs....
all denied the report, stated that there were no cult activities in their campuses at the time. NCCU acknowledged that there had been such activities many years ago. There had been similar reports in 1997. Members of EXODUS
EXODUS (NGO)
EXODUS is a non-governmental organization based in South Korea. It seeks to bring international fugitive Jung Myung Seok to justice and to oppose what it sees as a destructive cult, his religion Providence...
soon came to Taiwan and held a press conference with an involved woman.
In October 2005 Apple Daily (Taiwan)
Apple Daily (Taiwan)
The Apple Daily is a tabloid-style newspaper printed in Taiwan and owned by Hong Kong-based Next Media. Next Media is based in Hong Kong and also prints the Apple Daily . The publication is well known internationally for its animated news stories on pop culture outside Taiwan.-History:Apple Daily ...
reported that many student clubs in National Central University
National Central University
National Central University is a national comprehensive university in Taiwan .National Central University was founded in 1915 and originated in 258 CE at Nanjing, China. After NCU in Nanjing was renamed Nanjing University in 1949, NCU was re-established in Taiwan in 1962...
and other campuses are recruiting for Providence Church. These clubs hold a wide variety of activities including the "Eagle Cup" soccer tournament in Taipei city and regular model training. The paper quoted an undisclosed former church member, that the church's "modeling department" is in fact a channel of recruiting sexual partners for Jung Myung Seok. The paper obtained three audio recordings of dialogs of some female members, which say that Jung have had sex with ten female members by mutual consent, most of them college students from the modeling department.
In June 2006 Jung commissioned a friend to file a private prosecution against a former church member named Wang Wen-yi (王文益) along with many media in Taipei. During the trial Wang admitted that he released three unverified audio recordings to the media. Keelung District Court's judgment is that Wang's statements of "Jung sexually violated female college students" are defamations, media's reports during 2005 October 13 to 16 are untrue, and Wang was sentenced to 30 days of detention with two years of probation.
Since Japanese police opened investigation on the church's Japanese branch, they believe "the second in command" of the branch had fled to Taiwan in 2006 after allegations of rape were reported by Japanese media. She is currently wanted by Japanese police for immigration violations.