Advice for current SCJ members.
1 Work of the spirits is not infallible. I've seen and experienced plans fail despite its participants being completely obedient to a plan beforehand. Similar to Christianity, you will constantly be looking for rare coincidences to call them work of the spirit without hard evidence. It probably isn't work of spirits if you only succeed 1/20 times.
Do not follow ridiculous plans from overbearing leaders and expect success.
2. The date that Shincheonji is completed is unknown. Everybody is constantly saying soon but its a load of rubbish without hard evidence, nobody actually knows. 3 years ago MHL was saying it'll be completed in 3 years. I heard a decade ago people also believed it was going to end soon. This drives people towards doing a massive sprint then collapsing and acting confused when nothing happens. It's actually the worst...
Do not plan your finances/anything for a short time frame and expect it to be fixed on completion.
3 Services are simple and dumb. The message is almost always along the lines of "This is why Shincheonji/evangelism is important" or "This is why Shincheonji is amazing". People somehow find some minor mention and explain their amazing perception. But the reality is that the service overall message is extremely repetitive, impractical and boring over time. 3 hours wasted yet somehow it is still better than the local church...?
Do not be surprised when you realise that service sucks and you aren't perceiving anything.
4 Shincheonji has a culture of over-commitment and its not a good thing. As a result people are lacking in sleep, finances, hygiene, food, health (physical and mental), and just about anything essential you can think of. While it can be considered a sign of devotion to forego these things, the end result is that people are less effective without enough food/health/sleep etc. Long-term or extreme conditions will basically ruin your life (no money, crash your car, no job, borderline homeless, unstable mental). I've seen people completely run out of resources and God doesn't come help them.
Do not follow the culture of over-commitment when unrealistic.
5 Shincheonji members have no time for hygiene. People don't have enough time to bathe or wash their stuff sadly. It used to be considered mandatory to come to service even when you are bedridden sick, not sure if it still is anymore. It was genuinely challenging to find time for laundry while I was around. This is disgustingly horrifyingly unhygenic and dozens of people will get sick at a time because of it. Yet somehow people do not learn and still go crazy with touching and hugging.
Protect yourself from viral/fungal/bacterial infections.
6 Nothing in Shincheonji is actually mandatory. They make it seem like it's the end of the world if you don't go to that education/service/evangelise etc. The reality is that you can refuse/explain/lie about your situation and not go. Ideally give a good excuse for your leader who has to endure the headache of also reporting up the chain of command. Or you could just say you slept in after going MIA.
Refuse SCJ events when you need to avoid sacrificing something important.
7 There is a culture of shaming and making you feel guilty and it's bad. Reporting goals and results, daily plans, attendance all come with an aspect of shame and guilt if you fail. Leaders are constantly rebuking people, sometimes singling them out. LMH was telling people to leave purely out of frustration and anger. While this can be motivational, it doesn't reflect accurately on the number of hours and sacrifices each member has made since joining. It is also harmful towards people who are unable to meet those expectations and drive people towards feeling insignificant and poorly about their abilities. This is surprisingly similar to having asian parents...
Remember that making people ashamed and guilty is actually counter-productive in some cases. Not working hard enough is the last insult I could think of for any SCJ member.
The list could go on but I think I covered the most important ones, maybe comments can cover the rest? Sincerely hope you guys take care of yourselves. Peace out.
Disclaimer: Post is limited to my personal experiences and observations of SCJ. Not meant to defame SCJ or members but give genuine advice that will help people in the long-term.
Edited out any words that might come across as offensive...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Shincheonji/comments/hcqfce/advice_for_current_scj_members/
