SEOUL — Facing a barrage of allegations regarding illegal election interference, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus issued a sweeping demand on Tuesday for a formal government inquiry to cross-reference its entire membership database with the rosters of South Korea’s major political parties.
The move is an aggressive countermeasure to recent reports and political rhetoric suggesting the religious group systematically infiltrated the People Power Party to sway the outcomes of presidential and general elections. In a lengthy statement, the church dismissed these claims as speculative fiction based on the unilateral testimony of disgruntled, expelled former members.
Church leadership asserted that the organization has never issued instructions to its congregants to join any political entity or engage in coordinated voting blocs. They characterized individual political activity as a private constitutional right and claimed the church maintains no internal records of its members’ partisan affiliations.
To settle the matter, the church proposed that the Joint Investigation Headquarters conduct a simultaneous, transparent audit of both the People Power Party and the Democratic Party of Korea. Representatives for the church stated they are prepared to hand over membership lists, pending member consent, to facilitate a direct comparison with party rolls.
The demand for a joint inquiry is paired with a request that investigators look into the specific circumstances under which any dual members joined their respective parties. Church officials argued that if systemic collusion actually existed, the organization would not currently be facing ongoing administrative blocks on the use of its legally purchased properties for religious services.
In a final challenge to the broader religious and political establishment, the church called for the investigation to expand beyond their own organization. They urged authorities to apply the same level of scrutiny and methodology to other major religious bodies, including Protestant, Buddhist and Catholic denominations, to determine if political-religious collusion is a systemic issue in South Korean society.
The Joint Investigation Headquarters has not yet indicated whether it will accept the church’s proposal for a cross-referenced audit.
