South Korean sect feels coronavirus backlash

[soryang]

'We're treated like criminals': South Korean sect feels coronavirus backlash
Nemo Kim in Seoul The Guardian

Thu 27 Feb 2020 23.03 ESTLast modified on Fri 28 Feb 2020 05.52 EST

As testing begins on thousands linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, members fear being blamed amid recriminations over the outbreak

Had it been any other week, Ji-yeon Park, a 26-year-old nail artist, would have been at her twice-a-week bible study with her fellow Shincheonji worshippers. Instead, she says, her life has come to a halt as she worries about her church and if she, too, has been infected.

Jiyeon is one of 230,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a doomsday sect at the heart of the Covid-19 outbreak in South Korea, and she says she is scared of being found out about her faith.

Authorities believe a large number of cases are members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus or have been in contact with someone who is. With about 80% of the 1,766 cases connected to the sect, fear and hatred towards the church is on the rise.

Much more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/28/were-treated-like-criminals-south-korean-sect-feels-coronavirus-backlash

The beginning of this article starts with a perspective sympathetic to the secretive cult. A full reading of the article is leads to a more balanced perspective. Having hundreds of thousands of followers instilled with a delusional culture concerning health and persecution is a major barrier to government efforts to control the outbreak. The group is resented for several reasons, chief among them now the threat their willful negligence presents to the wider community.

https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2020/02/shincheonji-cult-and-explosion-of-covid.html