Korea Warned at Crossroads on Religious Freedom

The three stages of religious persecution: Introvigne brings warning to a South Korea at a dangerous crossroads for religious liberty

A speech by Dr. Massimo Introvigne, managing director of CESNUR and editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter, at a press conference held at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club on 7th August 2026. The event was organized by Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) together with CAP Liberté de Conscience (CAP LC), FOREF, the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) and Bitter Winter.

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I’m a sociologist of religion and I have also served in institutional capacity, including as a representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for combating racism, xenophobia and religious intolerance.

When I was there, I co-authored at a conference in Rome what is called the Rome Model and is now widely quoted, a tool that predict that minorities, particularly religious minorities, are normally attacked through three stages: 1) intolerance – primarily by the media – 2) discrimination by courts of law, administrative authorities, and government, and then 3) persecution and violence.

This model applies to to both totalitarian and democratic states.

In fact, I’m not here to single out Korea.

This year I was called by the same OSCE to be a keynote speaker at a regional summit in Rome about intolerance and persecution of religious minorities in Western Europe.

There are only democratic countries in Western Europe, yet there are hate crimes.

And I discussed in particular the situation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, applying the Rome model and showing how intolerance led to serious hate crimes, including hundreds of instances in Europe of violence, in some cases of attempted homicide.

Coming to Korea, we see, as in many other countries, the three stages at work.

The first stage is intolerance, which is the prevailing depiction in the media of some religious minorities as “heretics”, “cults”, “false prophets”, etc.

And this is targeting in particular the Unification Church – now called the Family Federation – Shincheonji [See editor’s note 1 below], Jehovah’s Witnesses and others, relying largely on accounts by other religionists who are in competition with these groups, and apostate tax members.

The word “apostate” is not an insult. It is a sociological category designating the small minority of ex-members who spend their life attacking the groups they have left. Most ex-members are not apostates.

From intolerance, the step is short to discrimination by courts of law and administrative authorities.

And we are concerned to see in the Korean Parliament a draconian draft law allowing swift dissolution of religious organizations being discussed, one of the strictest in the world.

And we are also concerned by the selective and particularly harsh application of existing laws, particularly the Election Law (Public Official Election Act) to detain religious leaders, including the now liberated Pastor Son Hyun-bo (손현보), Mother Han (한학자) of the Family Federation and Chairman Lee (이만희) of Shincheonji [See editor’s note 1 below].

The last two cases are very surprising for me coming from European Union because Mother Han is 83, Chairman Lee is 95.

In the European Union we have laws mandating that such elder defendants, if they are not responsible of violent crimes or blood crimes [See editor’s note 2 below], should await trial under house arrest and not in jail.

There is a danger that intolerance and discrimination will lead to actual violence.

And we have seen the violence in Korea while in the course of forced de-conversion we have a case of people severely beaten and even killed, as you all know.

And that just proves how easily the slippery slope of intolerance and discrimination may lead to persecution.

So religious intolerance should be stopped when it starts. It’s not a problem unique to Korea. We have the same problem in the European Union. There is a similar problem in the United States.

But there are some specially alarming cases in Korea. And the media may play a role in in alleviating the suffering of members of religious minorities. If there are specific common crimes, they should be investigated and punished.

But the blanket discrimination and intolerance against minorities is something that put in danger the very values on which our democratic social societies, including Korea.

Thank you.

See also How Reliable Is the Prosecution’s Key Witness?

See also Yoon’s Changing Accounts Challenged by Defense

See also: Defense Mounts Broad Challenge to State’s Case

See also Yoon’s Independence Put at Center of Case

See also New Case: Claims of Political Mobilization

See also 2026 Mass Enrollment Case: Evidence Under Fire

Featured image above: Dr. Massimo Introvigne, managing director of CESNUR and editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter, at the Seoul press conference on 7^th August 2026. Screenshot from live transmission by HRWF, resolution improved by ChatGPT, 7^th Aug. 2026.

[Editor’s note 1: Shincheonji, officially known as Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, is a new religious movement founded in South Korea in 1984 by Lee Man-hee, who claims to be the promised pastor mentioned in the Bible’s Book of Revelation.

Shincheonji teaches that the Book of Revelation is being fulfilled through its church and that Lee Man-hee has received divine revelation to interpret it. He teaches that South Korea is the location where the prophecies of the Book of Revelation are actively playing out in real-time, making it the epicenter of the final harvest. Shincheonji focuses on filling the literal 144,000 slots of the 12 Tribes mentioned in Revelation. Once this number of truly sealed, flawless believers is completed, they believe they will rule as kings and priests over the rest of humanity.]

[Editor’s note 2: “Blood crimes” is a direct translation of a term used in continental European legal systems like Italy’s delitti di sangue, referring to homicides or crimes involving severe physical bloodshed.]

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