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I found an article in the German language, so I translated it using Google. That treanslation leaves much to be desired… Is it pro or anti WMSCOG? If anyone hear has ever studied German perhaps theyt could shed some light, as this article looks fascinating.. You can read it here…
Great, another article I can't read ..
Wow, great find @What is truth. And the article appears to be fresh.
A friend of mine is translating it for me and evidently, the author didn't need much time to realize what a destructive cult this is. In Germany stuff like that just doesn't fly. The government has low tolerance for sectarian groups and people in general are more suspicious and wary.
Here's the article. I'll post the rest when I have it:
***How a bizarre baptist Cult wanted to convert me***
Cult experts warn about the “World Mission Society Church Of god” and their aggressive evangelizing. Members of the church tried to convince the author of this article in the existence of god the mother as well.
Photo: This is where members of the WMSCOG go to worship in South Korea. The church in Hamburg isn’t quite as pretentious.
In the middle of Hamburg on a cold Thursday evening, which had gotten a lot colder than it was to be expected in the morning, I lost my salvation.
I was on my way to work that morning, when two young girls stopped me at the exit of the subway station. The younger girl was holding a cardboard sign saying “God the mother is love”, while the other started questioning me if the term “God the mother” rang any bells. I said that it didn’t, but even though it was really cold and slippery I tried to stay on my feet, so I could find out more about this “God the mother”.
I was disappointed. It turned out it wasn’t so easy to explain, as the girl with the sign put it. She handed me a flyer, whilst smiling at the new people coming out of the next train. There was nothing about “God the mother” on the flyer, only a cell phone number and the information that I was apparently dealing with members of the “World Mission Society Church of god”. A cult originating in South Korea, which due to its aggressive recruiting had found a place in a lot of headlines.
A couple of representatives from the Center for Sect Issues have also written articles on this cult: The author quotes a couple of german articles, I’ll see if someone can translate them.
http://jetzt.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/558436/Die-Badewannentaeufer
As the name suggests, there’s a certain level of urgency accompanying the evangelizing process and members also resort to unusual methods.
They pretend to be students, who allegedly have to write a paper for their university. Only instead of a paper, what follows is an intrusive attempt of conversion, which often ends with the proposition of being baptized straight away and becoming a member. The baptizing, as the students (who are actually members of a cult) said, should preferably be done right away in the nearest fountain or at home, in the bathtub. This brought them the nickname “the bathtub baptizers”. They only mean well, as I later found out, because when someone has been exposed to the “true teaching” during a presentation, that is not really a presentation, they have to become a member of the congregation. Otherwise they’ll find themselves in hell after they die. At least that’s what the group (which is actually a cult) thinks.
I wanted it too, the Truth. And because neither the girls looked dangerous, nor were they too eager to baptize me in the nearest fountain, and because none of it actually was written on the flyer, only on the internet, I decided to call Katja*. She was the girl from the subway. The one without a sign. She appeared to be glad that I had called, and immediately asked if I wanted to attend service at the church. All my questions would be answered there, she said. Prior to the service they usually ate together, which was normal in the group, and I was also invited. Quite sincerely at that. Sure, I said; and went to the church that same evening.
*All names have been changed to protect the identity of those herein.
WIT
THis is a great find indeed! Can't wait for the rest of the translation.
Ah, this german guy wrote a whole novel -_-
It looks like there's going to be a part III of the translation. In the mean time, here's part II:
The congregation can choose- Heaven or Hell
The temple of the WMSCOG is a well-heated apartment with five rooms and is situated in a shabby tenement building on a main street in Hamburg. There are no name plates on the doorbells and most of the windows are covered. The flat belongs to a man, who they call pastor. A tall, good looking korean man in his mid 40s wearing a sharp suit. There were 14 people in the church that day, mainly south koreans. And Katja and Lukas*. Both are in their early twenties and are making an effort to make me feel comfortable.
It’s very nice here. Everyone is so kind. To me – the new guy, the guy who has to make a choice tonight – heaven or hell. It can be as simple as that, but at this stage I don’t know it yet. There’s spaghetti carbonara on the table with a weird sauce with olives, which is a bit uncommon, but other than that everything seems normal.
Lukas is majoring in law, he told me. He’s got pretty bad skin, but he’s wearing a suit. “It’s because of the service.” – he said to me, which made me a bit uncomfortable that I wasn’t wearing a suit. The attendees call themselves “brothers” and “sisters”, even though they’re not related, at least not in the biological sense.
As I was walking around the room with my plate, like everyone else seemed to be doing, I discovered a framed picture of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. “Zis is Leon du Vinzi” – a korean girl told me. “But not the original” – she added apologetically.“It’s nice nevertheless” – I said, and commented that I hadn’t even noticed that it wasn’t the original. At that moment came Lukas and asked me to leave the room, since it was to become a temple and the women were to rearrange it.
As I came back in the room a couple of minutes later, it had already been turned into a temple, even though it still looked the same, apart from the chairs being positioned in rows and a few candles burning here and there. Then the service began.
The congregation split in two – on the left side the women, now wearing a headscarf, and on the right side – the men. All eyes were on the pastor who began his sermon in a german which was quite difficult to understand. Sadly, I understood very little, only that it had something to do with the mission, but everyone kept nodding, so I just nodded occasionally too. One of the brothers, the one sitting next to me, looked especially happy as the pastor was talking in those words I barely understood and he asked me if I could feel “it”? “Yeah, totally…” – I lied, because I didn’t want to ask any further questions, and somehow knew that this would be counted towards my sins.
As soon as the pastor had finished talking, he put some sort of a Karaoke DVD in the DVD-player, an instrumental started playing in front of an abstract blue background and the congregation began to sing. The songs were about how the message had to be preached throughout the whole world, and that’s why they would preach throughout the whole world so everything would be alright in the end. A half an hour later the service was over.
The temple was once again rearranged into a living room and I was sent off to a different room by Lukas. There, I was about to be brought into the truth, he promised, and I was glad, since that was the reason I came in the first place.
Yeah, the Amen really creeped me out. I've been to many churches and never have I heard anyone say it the way WMS members say it. Really sinister and chilling. All that's missing are the hoods.
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