Why people still stay in SCJ?
Hey guys,
I'd like to share some of my experience on various reasons people stay in SCJ. I was a leader there for a couple of years. As a leader I got to learned about members and had in depth understanding of their lives, particularly reasons for staying in SCJ. I think having a good understanding of SCJ people allow us to better help them.
As much as SCJ always emphasised it's the kingdom of heaven and good proportion of people joined because they believe SCJ has the "Truth", but it's not entirely true. I found some people join for other reasons, and their motivation to stay changes over time. Apart from believing SCJ is the "truth", I'll list some other reasons I encountered.
Friendship - there is good amount of people stay because they suddenly had many friends. It is common right after the centre class. They are love bombed by their leafs and teacher. This creates an illusion that they're loved and being important. This prevents them from seeking truth and making them to overlook verbal and psychological abuses in the church. And people are afraid of losing friends made over course of months and even years.
Boy/Girl relationship - SCJ is heavily against romantic relationship and has many education on it. They have strict law on dating and marriage. However, I noticed quite a lot of young people have crush in the church, even they cannot openly confess. This relationship, however, is fragile. They don't know top leaders have power to make or break a relationship in the name of "God". Nonetheless emotion can be more powerful than reasoning.
Leadership position - SCJ educates leaders in believing the position is God given, and they have power to manage people. The feeling of superiority they may not have experienced outside the church. Perhaps the reason why they want to be 144000 instead of just Great multitudes. SCJ hooks our ego.
Promise of wealth and prosperity - one of the strategies SCJ used to encourage quitting jobs and studies. They promised that when revelation prophecies are all fulfilled, SCJ people will have money and fame given by great multitudes. Unfortunately they are not specific about when they will be all fulfilled. Another ego-centric tactic.
Their family members are in SCJ - whether to save their family out of the church or have no options to leave. They are enduring. I think they are quite miserable.
Escape from abusive family - some members' parents are alcoholic and abusive. They found SCJ as an escape or a refuge. SCJ is at least "better" than their original family.
"Unique" personality - this is rare but I encountered one member who stay just because it is a cult. Apparently this makes him feel special in a sense.
This list is not exhaustive, there are a lot more reasons or combination of reasons as why people staying in SCJ. I believe some SCJ people already know they are in a cult, but having difficulty to overcome potential problems if they leave. I think it's beneficial to address them, perhaps we can be a better help to them.
On Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Shincheonji/comments/j0g5q7/why_people_still_stay_in_scj/
