Jung Myung-seok

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Korean spelling
Hangeul	정명석
Hanja	鄭明 析
Revised Romanization	Jung Myung-seok
McCune- Reischauer	Chŏng Myŏng-sŏk
See also : Korean name

Jung Myung-seok

Jung Myung-seok (born February 17, 1945 in Sŏngmangni , today's South Korea ) is a leader of religious groups. On the run from the South Korean law enforcement agencies since 1999 and wanted internationally for sexual offenses and embezzlement , he is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence on the basis of four rape convictions .

Life

Early years

Jung Myung-seok was born in a small village called Sŏngmangni (석막리). He is the third son of a fruit and ginseng farming family that was poor at the time and has four brothers and three sisters. He has been very interested in traditional mysticism since childhood and preferred to go to meditate and pray in the mountains than to go to school.

He spent most of his youth in the mountains, which are often visited by people for prayer and meditation. He then served in Vietnam , became prosperous and went back to his homeland. Here he was a member of the Unification Church for some time , worked as an instructor and taught the "Divine Principles" (the foundation of belief of the Unification Church), from which he later developed his own teaching.

Religious leader

In 1980 he left the Unification Church and founded his own congregation, Aechŏn kyohoe (애천 교회; 愛 天 敎 會) , together with some loyal followers . He was ordained a pastor by the Korean Methodist Church on November 29, 1983, but was expelled from the church shortly afterwards for repeated dissemination of heretical teachings.

From around the early 1990s, Jung's church grew worldwide. It spread from Korea to Japan , Taiwan , Malaysia , China , Hong Kong , USA , Canada , Brazil , Germany , Switzerland , France , Italy and Great Britain .

In 1989, the congregation, now called JMS , (Jesus-Morgen-Stern, or Jesus-Morning-Star or simply Jŏng-Myŏng-Sŏk) appeared in Germany for the first time. Here she was represented by Jung's then right hand Ahn Ku-Hyŏn. Ahn Ku-Hyŏn himself left the group in the late 1990s and is now a Protestant pastor in a parish in Seoul, where he looks after former members of the sect.

Both the community, which is often referred to as a sect , and Jung himself were and are active worldwide under various other names, u. a. as the Global Association of Culture & Peace (GACP). For example, the company founder traded there as Dr. Joshua Jung , on another occasion again as R (for rabbis ). These and other groups (including smaller, so-called cultural associations, e.g. in Germany) serve to recruit and introduce new members. Currently, the congregation globally calls itself Providence Church ("Church of Providence "), although other names are also used locally here. For example, the community in Japan is called Setsuri .

Similar to Sun Myung Moon , Jung is reported to believe that, legitimized by texts from the Bible, he himself is in favor of the second coming of the Messiah , which is currently being denied by Jung.

Escape and condemnation

Jung Myung-seok fled South Korea in 1999 after allegations of sexual assault on female parishioners were made, where he was charged in absentia in 2001. He was arrested in Hong Kong in 2003 but evaded deportation proceedings against him. He was only extradited to South Korea in 2008 after he was arrested again in Beijing in 2007 . In the same year, a South Korean court sentenced him to six years in prison for raping former followers on several occasions during his escape. Jung is currently serving his sentence, which was increased by an appeals court in 2009 by another four years to a total of ten years in prison.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Jeong Hyo-sik, Kim Soe-jung: Cult boss extradited to face sex raps  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved from: joongangdaily.joins.com, February 21, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2010  
2. ↑ ^{a b} S.Korea cult leader jailed for 10 years for sex crimes On: asiaone.com via AFP , February 10, 2009. Retrieved February 18, 2010
3. ↑ archived former GACP website  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) Retrieved February 19, 2010  
4. ↑ Providence Cult Watch - A Biblical Examination Of The Teachings Of Joshua Jung & Providence ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) Retrieved February 19, 2010  
5. ↑ Jung Myung Seok / Providence . From: apologeticsindex.org, December 31, 2006. Retrieved February 19, 2010
6. ↑ Seok the Messiah . From: apologeticsindex.org, December 31, 2006. Retrieved February 18, 2010
7. ↑ Bae Ji-sook: Cult Leader Extradited to Korea . On: koreatimes.co.kr, February 21, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2010
8. ↑ False Rumor # 1 Pastor Joshua Jung Myung Seok is a self proclaimed messiah . From: providencetrial.com, January 20, 2010. Retrieved February 18, 2010

Web links

• Current official website of Jung's Movement (English). Accessed February 19, 2010
• Page Jung Myung-seok critics (English)
• Page from Jung Myung-seok followers (English)

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Jung is the family name here, Myung-seok is the first name.