Why “YouTube for JMS” began is to ensure a fair trial with accurate and reliable evidence. And this is to prevent further damage caused by public opinion generated by inaccurate and distorted reports. We are not asking those who have never seen Pastor Jeong Myeong Seok to believe that he is innocent no matter what.
Please consider this: Looking back on our past history, please don’t forget that we’ve suffered great damage from fake news, and there have been innocent victims as a result.
Please do not be misled by unchecked evidence and decisive media reports so that a healthy media culture can be established and protected into the future, not only for Pastor Jeong Myeong Seok but also for the victims of fake news who have been harmed in the past or even now.
This is what we earnestly wish from everyone.
——
Prof. Kim Chang Yong at Inje University also wrote about the 5 characteristics of fake news:
First, provocativeness. Provocative content and titles often appear to catch people’s attention.
Second, hate or loathing. Incites hatred towards a particular object or person.
Third, one-sided. Ignores cross-validation for fact-checking and relies on one-sided information.
Fourth, connection. Forcibly links irrelevant facts to each other and presents it as if there is a connection.
Fifth, fatality. By linking a person’s death to an incident, the intense impression that death gives makes people believe it even before confirming the facts.
Please see the following youtube video and series, from Busan Providence, and turn on english subtitles (“CC” button)
Netflix’s “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” featured an audio clip from Maple Yip, the main accuser against President Jung Myung Seok. This audio recording was produced by Maple, who claimed that she secretly recorded this while being raped by President Jung. The recording purports to show President Jung asking Maple if she had “cummed”, and President Jung saying that he had “cummed” a grand total of 50 times.
There are several striking problems with the audio.
First, the audio is not accepted as evidence by the Korean court in the ongoing court trial against President Jung, as the Korean National Forensic Service confirmed that as the audio file is not the original copy and that the audio’s authenticity cannot be proven (see here). As the recording was not an original file, the court asked Maple for the original file so that they could verify the authenticity of the file. However, Maple was unable to produce the original audio file. She claims that she lost the original audio file because she transferred the files from her original phone onto iCloud, and then downloaded the files from the cloud onto her new phone, and after which she got rid of her original phone (see here). However, it is unthinkable that Maple would go to all the pains of making a secret recording and then dispose of the handphone, which is the very piece of evidence that is needed to prove that the recording was genuine (see here).
Second, there are multiple analyses showing that Maple’s audio was in fact manipulated. There is a video analysis (see here) showing how parts of Maple’s audio was in fact cut from President Jung sermons where he was speaking about love, but in a completely different context (about spiritual love, not sex). There is also a report from an authoritative voice related research institute (MuScene Voice Forensic Laboratory) that has served the US Secret Service, FBI, CIA amongst others. It used various waveform data analytics and confirmed that the voice recording was edited in a disjointed fashion and that it was not downloaded from iCloud (see here).
Finally, there are also eyewitnesses (see here) who confirmed that the audio about President Jung stating that he had “cummed” 50 times was actually an audio recording from 2018 when President Jung jokingly mentioned that he had urinated 50 times as he had drunk so much mineral water (the Korean word for “urinated” is the same as for “cummed”), and where President Jung had stated that he would often check the mineral spring to see if the mineral water was “coming out” properly. In the same video earlier, an eyewitness also said that she noticed Maple recording the remarks from President Jung next to the medicinal spring, and pointed out how Maple took it out of context and manipulated it to make it seem as though President Jung was asking how many times she had “come” (the Korean word for “coming out” is the same as “cum”).
Anybody claiming that the audio clip is true needs to be asked:
Were they at the alleged scene of the rape? If not, they are not a witness to the truth of this audio recording and are merely spreading what another has claimed.
Are they a certified forensic or audio expert? If not, they have no way of verifying if this audio recording is original or not. Leave it to the experts (e.g., Korea National Forensic and MuScene Forensic)
This video is a summary of all the problematic issues with the current trial, including the odd fact that in spite of claims of the accusers do not have any other form of evidence but this problematic audio file. (See here)
Thank you for examining both sides, and we believe that God will bring the truth to light.
It is hard to imagine that in the 21st century, witch hunts and lynch mobs still occur.
But it is happening right now–to Christian Gospel Mission, also known as Providence, or JMS.
A small group of anti-Providence activists, led by Kim Do Hyung, have used the modern age witch hunting tools of press conferences, mainstream media (e.g., news outlets like JTBC and MBC in Korea), social media, streaming services (e.g., Netflix), and audio editing tools to condemn Providence and its founder Pastor Jung Myung Seok as a criminal organization.
This is not the first time it has happened. Even in the 2008/2009 trial, the same Kim Do Hyung had used similar tools (press conferences, media) to start a witch hunt of Providence, influencing the court trials and resulting in Pastor Jung’s conviction, despite there being no concrete evidence and even contradictory verbal claims from accusers.
SERIOUS DOXXING IS HAPPENING
Many articles are published about how doxxing is morally wrong and dangerous, yet, it is an increasingly common social phenomenon. Doxxing is a tactic used by online hate groups to destroy more than just a person’s online presence, but their job, their house and personal property, their family and friends, their bodily safety. (see article)
Providence members are being doxxed. With their identities exposed and published online, they are shamed and condemned. This includes K-pop stars, families, public servants, and business owners. Ordinary, law abiding citizens who contribute positively to the society are seeing their lives torn apart by the doxxing.
Whoever speaks up for Providence is also doxxed. In any criminal case, the accused has the right to an attorney. This is not only a right afforded to them by many Constitutions but also common sense. After all, in a system where the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, an attorney can be essential in ensuring that the defendant’s rights are protected. (see here.) Yet, the law firm that was hired by Providence to defend its case had to quit out of public pressure because the lawyers defending Providence had their identities revealed online, and they received flaming from the public for being corrupt and out for profit. (see here.)
Even an influential Korean YouTuber Kim Won Hee is being harassed by MBC and the public for speaking out against the one-sided claims against Providence. (see here.) Kim Won Hee is being accused of “secondary victimisation” although what he is doing is scrutinising the “evidences” provided by Netflix and Maple – that is not secondary victimisation.
THE COURT IS INFLUENCED BY PUBLIC OPINION
How can it be that the Attorney General has already said publicly that he will ensure Pastor Jung gets a heavy sentence for his crimes, when the court trial is still ongoing?
How is it that the judge, after watching the Netflix series when it was released mid-trial, could suddenly make decisions like not wanting to hear all 22 testimonies defending Pastor Jung but reducing it to only 5 people and a 3 hour slot? (In comparison, each accuser was given at least half a day to testify.) Why is the court pandering to public opinion instead of focusing on the veracity of the evidence provided?
STOP THE WITCH HUNT
If one believes that Pastor Jung is indeed guilty, then let the courts examine the evidence objectively, and let God judge him. Instead, many are trying to play judge and God. There is already a long list of explanations to show how the evidence presented in the courts are highly questionable. (See videos below)
Please stop this 21st century witch hunt, and let the trial take place fairly. That is all we ask.
Turn on closed captions (subtitles) for English if needed:
The documentary broadcast by Netflix contains an audio recording by an ex-CGM member, Maple Yip, who claimed that she had secretly recorded the audio while being raped by President Jung. Based on the findings of an independent forensic laboratory, there is strong evidence to show that Maple Yip, who provided the audio recording, had lied about the source of the recording. Further analysis also shows that the recording itself had been edited and is not authentic.
The recording purports to show President Jung asking Maple if she had cum, and President Jung saying that he had cummed 50 times. It had been submitted as proof in the Korean court and also used as the key evidence in the Netflix series.
In order to ascertain the authenticity of the audio recording, Taiwan CGM engaged an authoritative voice-related research institute [(U.S. business-related) MuScene Voice Forensic Laboratory] to conduct forensic testing on the recording. The (U.S. business-related) MuScene Voice Forensic Laboratory is an impartial third-party laboratory commissioned by law enforcement agencies for identification, investigation, and laboratory testing. It conducts inspections commissioned by the courts, prosecution agencies, and national security teams (the military) from all around Taiwan and the US (including CIA, FBI, State Department, Secret Service). It has a rich academic base, a large amount of forensics hands-on experience, and cutting-edge technical knowledge. It is an authoritative research institute that conducts in-depth research on sound synthesis and modulation testing and identification, sound signal enhancement, acoustic fingerprint-sound identification, file conversion and sound compression through scientific research, and data analysis methods.
After detailed analysis using waveform data analytics, the results revealed that the voice recording was edited in a disjointed fashion. It also revealed that the audio was not downloaded from iCloud, contrary to Maple’s claim that she had lost the original file but retrieved the backed up copy from iCloud (where iPhone-generated media data are backed up). The forensic report showed that the voice recording used in the Netflix film did not have formatting or characteristics of iPhone origins and was not downloaded from iCloud. Audio files that are recorded using an iPhone app or the default audio recorder would contain inherent characteristics, but the Netflix voice recording does not have any of those characteristics.
Here is the detailed forensic analysis:
On March 3, 2023 Netflix released the documentary In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal. In the 3rd episode of the series, titled JMS, Messiah with electronic anklets, from the 40:00 to 41:07 mark, an audio file claimed by Maple Yip to be the recording of an alleged sexual assault (henceforth called “Netflix Maple audio file”) was examined for authenticity by a third-party Voice Forensic Laboratory, and compared with the audio file previously aired by Korean media JTBC News on July 12, 2022 Jung Myung Seok Voice Files (정명석 ‘육성파일’) (henceforth called “JTBC News audio file”). The following are the findings:
Evidence that Netflix Maple lied about the source of the audio file that was produced and broadcaston the Netflix platform
1. An environmental sound spectrum evaluation revealed a dark band at 8 kHz which would not be generated in the room mode* of a spatial environment. The spectrogram above 8 kHz was also very clean with no traces of spatial noise found in normal spatial recordings. Hence, it is inferred that the original frequency response of the Netflix Maple audio file should be 8 kHz and the sample rate should be 16 kHz. (Figure 1)
Figure 1: The sound spectrum of Netflix Maple audio file.
2. During the South Korean court trial on February 13, 2023, Maple claimed that the audio file was uploaded to iCloud for backup before the phone was sold. It is reasonable to infer that Maple had used an iPhone to record the audio. However, according to the spectrum data verified by the Voice Forensic Laboratory, it can be seen that the frequency response of the Netflix Maple audio file is not consistent with 16 kHz and that this evidence (Figure 2) is also inconsistent with the iPhone native app recording spectrogram characteristics (Figure 3). It can be confirmed that the recorded file of the Netflix Maple audio file was not recorded by an iPhone native app.
Figure 2. Spectrum diagram of Netflix Maple audio file verified by the Voice Forensic Laboratory
Figure 3. Spectrum diagram of the iPhone native app, which is characterized by a frequency response that can only reach 16 kHz
3. There are two main conversion methods for digital audio files: resample** or convert. The conversion method used by Netflix’s professional audio-visual platform is mostly “resample”. Aside from Netflix’s conversion of the Netflix Maple audio file using their professional audio-visual platform to resample, it is assessed that before being provided to the Netflix platform, the file had gone through “convert”. The sampling rate was likely to be 16 kHz, then converted to 44.1 kHz, finally resampled to a 48 kHz audio file by Netflix’s post-production. The sound spectrum characteristics of a typical “resampled” file using professional audio-visual post-production software is shown in Figure 4, while the sound spectrum characteristics of a “converted” file is shown in Figure 5. The sound spectrum characteristics of Netflix Maple audio file is shown in Figure 6, which is similar to Figure 5, but not similar to Figure 4. This evidence shows that the Netflix Maple audio file had gone through “convert” processing, and it cannot be ruled out that the file could have been modified or edited. Hence, it is doubtful that one could show or restore the content of the original recording of the Netflix Maple audio file.
Figure 4: The special sound spectrum characteristics of “resample”
Figure 5. The sound spectrum of “convert” will generate mirrored sound information
Figure 6: Spectrum diagram of the Netflix Maple audio file [Footnote 1]
Comparing the recording content of the Netflix Maple audio file with JTBC News, the recording content of the second audio file raises suspicion that the Netflix Maple audio file had been altered.
The JTBC News audio file was originally “God chose you like this; it is God’s will.” In the Netflix Maple audio file, the last sentence was deleted, and the content was changed to “God chose you like this, so don’t touch other people’s… ” at the 40:59 mark of the Netflix series (Video timing of 0:11‒0:21 in Footnote 2’s link)
The JTBC News audio file was originally “Don’t touch other people’s “this”, because it belongs to God. Do you understand? God is the teacher’s, and it is God’s will. Do you understand? This is God’s will.” Then, the Netflix Maple audio file was changed to “Don’t let others touch this (woman’s moaning sound added) because this is God’s (woman’s moaning sound added).” (Video time 0:30‒1:39 in Footnote 3’s link)
The JTBC News audio file was originally “Don’t touch other people’s this, because it is from God. Do you understand?” A male responded with “네” (yes), but the Netflix Maple audio file deleted the male’s response and added a woman’s moaning” (Footnote 2 video time 2:09‒2:17, note 3 video time 1:40‒2:15)
At 40:31 and 40:32 in the Netflix Maple audio file, in addition to the sound of “쌌어?” (Have you had diarrhea/cummed?)”, there were two consecutive male exhalation sounds at the same time. In the same span of time and space, a person cannot simultaneously exhale while speaking. So it is reasonable to infer that there was a third person at the audio scene of the alleged sexual assault. (Video time 2:16‒2:56 in Footnote 3)
Conclusion
The above mentioned frequency spectrum analysis showed that Maple had lied about the source of the audio recording, which was not from an iPhone. This is of particular significance because she had attempted to admit this recording as the only physical evidence of the alleged crime, but the Korean legal forensic team were unable to verify the authenticity of the recording, as the original iPhone that Maple allegedly recorded the audio was no longer available. The detailed analysis clearly showed that the recording was never recorded on an iPhone and that it had undergone multiple stages of resampling and conversion. Further analysis of the audio waveform itself clearly showed that this audio file is not authentic and has been edited. It cannot be used as evidence, let alone be used to guide public understanding of what actually happened.
* A room mode is essentially a “bump” in a room’s frequency response that is facilitated by the room’s dimensions and the way those dimensions cause soundwaves to interact with each other. There are three types of room modes: axial, tangential and oblique.
**Resampling, in terms of audio files, is also known as Sample Rate Conversion. This is done when you need to convert a digital audio file from a given sample rate into a different sample rate. Sample rate is the number of samples of audio carried per second, measured in Hz or kHz (one kHz being 1,000 Hz).
[Footnote 1] This recording file has been verified by forensic laboratories. The dark band with a frequency of 8 kHz in the sound spectrum is not present in the room mode* of a spatial environment.
Many disproven past allegations were resurfaced in the Netflix documentary, In the Name of God: a Holy Betrayal. The article below unlocks the truth behind many of those false allegations.
A hidden meaning behind his trial, the unknown truth.
Otto Warmbier fell into a vegetative state due to false accusations by North Korea. There are many people in the world who have suffered as a result of unfair trials, such as Joan of Arc who was witch hunted, and Pastor Jung Won Seop, the real-life protagonist of the movie Miracle in Cell No. 7.
There is another person who became a criminal because of public opinion: Jung Myung-seok, the president of the Christian Gospel of Mission (CGM).
March 20, 1993 “I Want to Know” broadcast manipulation by SBS:
The SBS broadcast distorted sermons of Pastor Jung Myung-Seok (Evangelism → Evangelism of Women)
*Edited so that only women were visible on the screen; portrayed the Wolmyeongdong training center, which is open to many people, as a place where esoteric rituals occurred.
In response, the court made a decision recommending a settlement (compensation for damages and a ban on broadcasting), but the SBS broadcast [still] aired three times (in 1999, 2002, and 2007, three episodes each year), and at the start of the airing, SBS [only] included a short subtitle stating that the broadcast had a court deliberation.
In the end, the truth was obscured and the public opinion towards [Pastor Jung Myung-Seok] worsened.
Due to the influence of the doctored broadcasts, President Jung was falsely accused of sexually assaulting members in 2009 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Amongst lawyers, president Jung Myung-seok’s trial is often recognized as a criminal trial that went against the basic principles of a fair* trial.
Why? Let’s examine the trial process.
*[Unfair] means lack of evidence and unreasonable adoption of evidence, contrary to the principle of presumption of innocence.
An incident that occurred in China on April 4, 2006:
On April 4, 2006, Ms. Jang and Ms. Kim, who claimed to be victims of sexual assault, filed a complaint against Pastor Jung Myung-seok in China.
In China, where sexual assault offenders are regarded as serious criminals like drug offenders, Pastor Jung Myung-seok was harshly investigated for 10 months.
Despite the investigation, the verdict was that he was innocent of sexual assault.
[However], at the request of the Korean prosecutors, he underwent [further] investigation for the trial in China, [upon his return to Korea]. And, there weren’t just one or two questionable areas in this case. There were 12 contradictions that raised questions.
First, there were no signs of sexual assault.
On April 4, 2006, shortly after filing the complaint, the two women were examined at the Central Hospital of Anshan City, China.
The results of the checkup from Central Hospital in Ansan City, China on April 5th and the checkup by the Korean Police Hospital on April 8th were the same:
“There is no semen detected by way of chemical testing. Normal result. There are no signs of rape.”
“There is absolutely no damage to the vaginal opening, vaginal lining, hymen, and its surroundings, and there is no indication of sexual assault in any way.”
National Institute of Scientific Investigations’ semen test results were negative.
*Sperm can survive between 5 to 14 days in the cervix.
However, all of these test results were not admitted into court.
The plaintiff, Ms. Kim, did not acknowledge the examination results. She had a checkup at the police hospital again on April 10th, and the doctor’s opinion was that, unlike the first time, “a laceration was found.” The laceration was not the severe tears as what was claimed by the complainant, but was “a wound that could have been caused by skin rubbing or riding a bicycle,” as stated by the doctor who had conducted the checkup.
Second, there was the adoption of evidence that should not have been considered official evidence.
There are three requirements for medical records to be formally adopted in court. These are the official chart, a photo of the affected area, and examination by two doctors.
The April 5th Ansan City Central Hospital (China) and the April 8th Korea Police Hospital medical records which state “no wounds or traces of injury” (formal charts, photos of the affected area, 2 doctors’ medical examinations) contrasted with the April 10th single doctor’s opinion written on regular paper [outside of the formal chart] stating, “a laceration was found” (no chart, no picture of the affected area, 1 doctor’s examination).
However, at the trial, the sole opinion from the one doctor was adopted and not the formal medical records [from the two doctors].
Third, medically unfounded statements:
Ms. Kim presented a picture of her own abdomen as evidence that water was forcefully inserted into her vagina at the time of the sexual assault and her abdomen was inflated as a result. The Korean Police Hospital doctor who treated Ms. Kim testified in court that her claim was “medically impossible.”
“Due to the body’s anatomy, water in the vagina is blocked [by the cervix] and could not enter the uterus or abdomen to cause abdominal bloating. In addition, if the abdomen were inflated, then there would still be water in the abdominal cavity during examination the following day, but the [ultrasound] findings of the Chinese hospital showed that there was none (water).”
*From the Chinese written medical opinion: no black zones [(hypoechoic areas)] caused by fluid were seen [on the ultrasound of] the pelvic cavity (for both Ms. Kim and Ms. Jang).
Fourth, CCTV evidence contradicts the victim’s claim:
The victims testified, “I was severely assaulted during the interview and suffered deep wounds that made it difficult for me to walk.”
However, according to CCTV, on the day of the incident and the next day, the two victims were seen laughing and joking around. And contrary to their statement, their gait did not look uncomfortable at all.
Fifth, the testimony of the interpreter at the time of the Chinese hospital check-up.
The interpreter who helped with Chinese interpretation at the Chinese Public Security on the day of the incident [(alleged assault)] and at the hospital, attended as a witness during the Korean trial.
Interpreter: After the examination, the doctor said that Ms. Kim was a virgin and that Ms. Jang was not. When the doctor asked Ms. Jang, “When did you have sex?” Ms. Jang said, “I was assaulted when I was 16 or 17.” (Ms. Jang was in her 20s at the time of the [alleged] incident).
*Source: Seoul Central District Court record of the examination of a witness (part of the 8th trial report), Case 2008 – 2*
Attorney: Did the doctor say they had cuts and bleeding?
Interpreter: No. The doctor said both of them were clear of these findings. The doctor said that Ms. Kim was menstruating at the time. It seems that Ms. Jang started her period while at the public security office around 9:00 PM that evening.
*Source: Seoul Central District Court record of the examination of a witness (part of the 8th trial report), Case 2008 – 2*
Sixth, the statements of Ms. Kim and Ms. Jang were different before and after the hospital examination.
Ms. Kim and Ms. Jang, who testified that they had severe stomach aches and bleeding due to the severe sexual assault, gave different statements when they returned to the public security office after being examined at the hospital.
Interpreter: At first, both of them said that the defendant Jung Myung-Seok had inserted his penis and ejaculated, but after going to the hospital, they changed their statement. There was no penile insertion, and they reversed their statements to say that they did not know whether there was ejaculation.
*Source: Seoul Central District Court record of the examination of a witness (part of the 8th trial report), Case 2008 – 2*
Seventh, the source of the photo is unclear.
The body picture presented by Ms. Kim as evidence did not indicate the date, place, nor photographer. There was no objective data from which to confirm [the date, location of and who took the photo], but this photo was accepted as evidence at the trial.
Eighth, the trial ended without the China judgment material being submitted to the court:
During the trial, lawyers asked the Korean prosecutors for the Chinese investigation records, but the prosecutors, for some reason, did not provide them at the time.
In addition, although this trial became a public concern, it was conducted without any on-site verification and lie detector procedures. Defendant Jung Myeong-seok was questioned by the judge at the court, and the victims participated in the trial in a separate space.
Ninth, was it a judicial trial? Was it the Inquisition*?
The Christian Council of Korea, who regarded the CGM as a heresy, filed a petition, and some of the judges were Christian elders and deacons.
[*Starting in the 12th century and continuing for 100s of years, the Inquisition was established by the Catholic Church to root out and punish heresy throughout the Americas and Europe.]
The ruling mentions “the unfounded JMS religious doctrine” in addition to the “testimony about the case of sexual assault” as the basis of the ruling.
Defendant Jung Myung-seok summarized and quoted the doctrine of the Unification Church since around 1980. He organized a religious group called “Jesus Methodist Church” (Jesus Morning Star, also the English initials of Jung Myung-seok, hereinafter referred to as JMS).
Defendant Jung Myung-seok also called himself Jesus, saying, “I am Jesus of the Second Coming sent by God, I can bless or curse people, and I can heal all kinds of diseases…”
(Actually, JMS has never been used as an official name, and the Christian Gospel Mission teaches that “a person cannot be God.”)
Tenth, involvement of anti-JMS groups?
On April 4th, the day of the [alleged] incident, Ms. Jang and Ms. Kim returned to Korea right after filing the complaint in China and completing a few hours of medical check-ups. Then, on April 7th, they filed another complaint in Korea. However, in the complaint filed, Ms. Kim’s name was only typed via Microsoft Word, so there was no signature seal.
Also attached to the complaint were materials produced by an anti-JMS group called Exodus, who was not directly related to the incident. It creates suspicion that Exodus and Ms. Kim were in contact before she went to China.
Then, who are they [(Exodus)], and why would they sue an innocent person?
In the Netflix documentary, “In the Name of God: a Holy Betrayal,” the mosquito net incident was portrayed as “evidence” of Jeong Myeong Seok’s alleged sex crimes. In this interview, one of the two women captured on camera that day gives her genuine account of what actually happened.
A comparison between the Netflix audio clip released in “In the Name of God: a Holy Betrayal” and the JTBC (Korean broadcast) audio clip released in 2022, reveals that both are clearly related and edits have been made.
Please click on the subtitles icon to show the English subtitles.
Disclaimer: This is an independent opinion piece that does not represent the views of Jung Myung Seok or Providence
Abstract
On 3 March 2023, Netflix broadcasted a so-called “documentary” named In the Name of God, which paints a picture of Jung as a monstrous beast who had raped over 100 university students in Taiwan and who had raped and had sex orgies with girls from all over the world including Korea and Hong Kong. These allegations are unproven, and had been investigated and dropped by the prosecution. There is also no concrete evidence to prove these accusations. Instead, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education had investigated the claims and published a statement stating that there were no victims. There are also many newspapers that had already previously publicly apologised for making these incorrect accusations against Jung. Whatever the case, these are matters that should be dealt with through the judicial process and not on Netflix. The show has unfairly prejudiced ongoing legal proceedings by swaying public opinion.
Netflix is at its heart an entertainment company, and the producers’ main aim is to gain viewership. They included fictional scenes, and interviewed only a select handful of ex-Providence members in order to paint a one-sided and biased picture of Jung. They omitted to mention any of Jung’s remarkable achievements which would show a more complete picture of Jung, and how he was in 2008 found to be an innocent victim of a false allegation of sexual assault by the court. The broadcast even contains footages that are taken completely out of context, as well as footage of unknown provenance that may have been altered or completely irrelevant. There are also many questions and inconsistencies about the true motive and conduct of the main accusers in the show. Furthermore, the remainder of the accusers are anonymous, or merely conveying hearsay and rumours which they do not have first-hand information of. These serious accusations ought to be left to the judicial process, and the irony is that while Netflix accuses Jung of claiming to be God, it is actually Netflix that has played God by trying to prejudge the truth before it has been decided by the judge.
The perils of mob justice
On a quiet night in 1933, a black young man, Tom Robinson, walks alone down the street towards his home. The street is deserted except for a flock of ravenous birds circling the skies in search for prey. As Tom rounds the corner, multiple silhouettes emerge from the alleyways, brandishing steel baseball bats and thorny whips. Tom tries to run but he is surrounded on all sides. He does not know them, but they know him. They accuse him of raping a young white girl, Mayella Ewell. Tom protests his innocence, but they would not listen. Tom was black, and Mayella was white, and thus Mayella must be telling the truth as there was no reason for a white girl to frame a black man. There is no need for a judge, as the mob had decided that Tom is guilty, and thus he must die. The mob lynches him mercilessly, and by the next morning, Tom’s body would be found hanging on a tree. It is only many months later that the mob realises that Mayella had been lying. But it was too late. Their prejudice had caused the death of an innocent man.
A lynch mob scene adapted from Harper Lee’s award-winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird.
In the 19th and 20th century, several thousands of Tom Robinsons were killed by vicious lynch mobs without a court trial. Many of them were innocent but never had the chance to tell their side of the story or have a fair trial. The people, having heard the accusers, had already pre-decided that the accused were guilty and deserving of punishment. They would gather together in mobs, enraged and furious, and taking justice into their own hands, lynch the accused to death. What caused such abominable behaviour?
For one, the mobs arrogantly thought that they were better administrators of justice than the justice system itself. They arrogated to themselves the role of judge and executioner, as though they knew what justice was when they saw it. The crowd also easily jumped on the bandwagon because everyone was doing it, and it was all too easy to simply join in the crowd in pointing the finger at a defenceless, isolated, victim. It perhaps even gave them a sense of superiority to be part of the supermajority, and a feeling of power to be able to condemn a helpless person. Most importantly, they had preconceived stereotypes of whites and blacks, that led them to be biased against blacks and to pronounce them guilty before they could even speak.
Lynching was finally criminalised in the 20th century, as people realised the grave injustice that could be caused by judging and punishing someone without a fair trial. Such conduct should never be condoned. Nobody, not a black, and not even a beggar, should be condemned without a fair trial. Justice should be left to the judicial system, and not the mob. Alas, the criminalisation of lynching only solved the problem on the surface but did not eliminate the fundamental problem – lynching has simply evolved in the 21st century into what we know now as flaming and doxxing.
The internet lynch mob; Netflix – courtroom or entertainment company?
On 3 March 2023, Netflix broadcast a so-called “documentary” titled In the Name of God, with the first three episodes about Jung Myung Seok (Jung), the founder of Providence. The show was primarily narrated by three ex-Providence members, with several other ex-members hiding in the shadows and making remarks behind a veil of anonymity. Together, they paint a picture of Jung as a monstrous beast who had raped over 100 university students in Taiwan and who had raped and had sex orgies with girls from all over the world including Korea and Hong Kong. Jung’s goal, according to them, was to rape 10,000 women. They also accuse Jung of claiming to be God, of living in extravagant palaces overseas, and of other heinous acts including kidnap and assault.
Documentaries are meant to be factual, but as of the time of Netflix’s broadcast, none of these stated extreme accusations had been proven through the court process, and there was minimal (if any at all) material or objective evidence to substantiate these allegations. The accusations were based mainly on the words of these naysayers. The only exception was that Jung had in 2008 been convicted of assaulting 4 women. However, even that judgment was based purely on the bare allegations of those women, as there was no material evidence to prove the assault. The judgment had later been criticised and is unsound (see here for an opinion piece of why the judgment was flawed; see here for a news article criticising the judgment).
Neither Jung nor Providence members were given a chance to watch the film or respond to these unproven allegations before Netflix broadcast its show, despite multiple attempts by Providence members to engage Netflix to hear their side of the story. This is shocking. Any producer aiming to film a factual and accurate documentary about a subject would surely want to hear from the subject himself and feature what the subject says, in the spirit of objectivity and offering a balanced perspective. It is clear that objectivity was not the producer’s top priority. Providence also attempted to persuade Netflix to stall the release, and have the allegations dealt with through the judicial process as they should be, to no avail.
The response to the show was as expected. The internet erupted in flames, with many condemning Jung to go to hell. Jung and his members received death threats, hate mails, and Jung becomes public enemy number 1. The mob has already decided that he is guilty, even though he has yet to be proven so. Jung is mercilessly lynched by the textual whips of a mob of keyboard warriors. The identities and addresses of Jung’s members and churches are divulged (this is also known as doxxing and is a form of cyber-bullying), causing them to be condemned along with Jung (see e.g. here and here). As a result, students are afraid to go to school for fear of being bullied and mocked by their classmates. Employees have lost their jobs. Members with famous backgrounds such as celebrities, sculptors, and lawyers, have their faces splashed all over the news and are being flamed with hate speech. These people, who are simply regular human beings like anyone else, now have to fear for their privacy and personal safety. They have been severely victimised as a result of the Netflix broadcast, and are being persecuted for their religious beliefs in violation of their human right to religious freedom.
Was it correct for Netflix to air these allegations before they were tried and tested in court? Was Netflix objective and impartial? What was Netflix’s motive for broadcasting this show?
There is a reason why trials are conducted before a judge and not before an angry mob, and why justice is served in the courtroom and not on the internet. In the judicial process, thorough police investigations are conducted, witnesses are cross-examined under oath, evidence is forensically examined, and both sides have a fair chance to present their side of the story before an impartial judge. It is a calm, objective, and methodological process.
But on the internet, malicious actors can easily spread false information while hiding behind the veil of anonymity, without being held accountable for what they say. There is no way to verify the truth of their accusations as they are not cross-examined, and they do not have to provide evidence to back up their claims. Information spreads if it is sensational and not necessarily because it is true, but the more the news spreads, the more people come to believe that it must be true. The other party is also not given a chance to speak to present his side of the story.
Netflix is neither a courtroom nor an investigation agency. At bottom, it is merely a profit-making entertainment and media company which generates income from subscription fees paid by viewers, and in order to keep viewers subscribing, they need to continually broadcast sensational and riveting content to keep viewers interested (see e.g. here and here). Netflix has in recent years been criticised for making money off the fictionalisation of real-life crime (see here), the abuse of others’ identities for self-profit (see here), and even for presenting an incomplete picture of the truth (see here).
Jung’s case is no different. In the show, the producers only selectively featured a handful of ex-Providence members who bear grudges against Jung, in order to support their sensational narrative of him being a sex-crazed rapist. These ex-members, having left Providence, are biased against and opposed to Jung, and present only a very myopic and one-sided perspective of Jung. They constitute only less than 0.1% of the total Providence membership, as Providence has tens of thousands of members worldwide. If the producers were concerned about objectivity and providing a balanced viewpoint, they would have interviewed some of the tens of thousands of existing Providence members who would have readily testified that Jung is not the person that the producers color him to be (see various testimonies here, and here). Jung received several national awards for his exemplary conduct and for risking his life for his nation during the Vietnam War (see here), and published a four-part book series titled War was Cruel; Love and Peace, describing how God protected him during the Vietnam War (see here). Jung composed 1,700 songs, published multiple poetry books and was featured in the Great Dictionary of Korean Poems (see here), delivered over 10,000 sermons, and wrote over 50,000 proverbs. He also built a beautiful natural church to honor God (see here), and positively changed the lives of tens of thousands of people (see here, here, and here).
As the producers had no actual footages to prove the supposed rape and sex orgies and the extravagant palaces, they hired actors and actresses to enact fictional sex scenes. They even hired an actor that resembles Jung and featured him making voodoo movements, painting Jung as a psychopath or lunatic. All these were done for the sake of drama and sensationalism, and are not a realistic portrayal of Jung. See here for criticism of Netflix’s fictional re-enactments. See also these fictional scenes, clearly intended to portray Jung as a psychopath:
Worse still, the producers broadcast allegations that are already acknowledged to be false. For instance, the show claims that Jung escaped overseas to avoid arrest for sexual assault and that he remained at large until he was arrested in 2007. However, since many years ago, Yonhap News, MBN News and Chosun News had already made a public apology for falsely claiming that Jung sexually assaulted female members before fleeing to foreign countries. The truth was that Jung had travelled overseas lawfully beginning in 1999 and returned here to Korea several times between 1999 and 2007. The producers also claimed that Jung systematically had sex with close female members of Providence. However, in 2014, Ilyo Journal had already publicly apologised for claiming that Jung had sex with female followers of Providence and had admitted that this was not the truth. The producers had published all these false and unproven accusations for sensational impact, prioritising viewership over accuracy and objectivity. The producers also omitted to report the court judgment that Jung was in fact a victim of a false sexual allegation (see here), as this would cast doubt on their portrayal of Jung.
Finally, the producers broadcast wildly exaggerated claims that have no resemblance of realism. If Jung had raped 100 university students in Taiwan, why is it that till date, there has not been a single piece of material evidence or a single charge or conviction against Jung for raping a Taiwanese? (Taiwan’s Ministry of Education had in 1994 investigated if there were any victims of sexual assault and in 1995 published a statement stating that there were none: see here) If Jung teaches that one must have sex with him to gain salvation, why is it that there are tens of thousands of members in Providence, including males, when surely it would have been absurd for all of these persons to have sex with Jung? If Jung’s organisation goal is to rape 10,000 women, why would he dedicate his life to writing dozens of books and preaching tens of thousands of sermons? These fanatical and biased claims disclose the producers’ true motive in making the film – to gain the most viewership that it can.
Netflix is at its heart an entertainment company, but has arrogated to itself the role of a judge in pre-judging the truth before these accusations are determined by the judicial process. By so doing, it has unfairly prejudiced and influenced ongoing legal proceedings by swaying public opinion and putting huge pressure on the prosecution and the judge to convict Jung. So huge is the pressure that the Attorney General made a public statement stating that he would do his best to ensure a tremendous sentence even though Jung has yet to be proven guilty (see here). In the eyes of the media mob, Jung is now guilty until proven innocent, and he will continue to be lynched by the harsh criticism of undiscerning netizens. Any judge who dares to acquit Jung will face the full wrath of the public and perhaps even be accused of corruption (which is relatively common here in Korea). A lynch mob is happening all over again.
The other side of the story
Given all that Netflix has broadcast, it is only fair that viewers get to hear the other side of the story. As written in Proverbs 18:17 – The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.
Let us first begin by understanding more about the three main narrators of the show. This is important as to judge a person’s credibility, one has got to know his character and his motives.
Kim Gyeong Cheon
Kim Gyeong Cheon (Kim) is one of the three main narrators of the allegations against Jung. The show portrays Kim as some kind of heroic whistle-blower that reveals all the wrongdoings that Jung has committed. However, is what Kim saying the truth? What is his motive for featuring in the film?
As Kim himself alludes to in the show, he was a huge leader in Providence for close to 30 years before leaving in 2009 (Kim even claims to be the Vice-President). During his time in Providence, he was extremely close to and trusted by Jung, and was constantly by Jung’s side. He was also entrusted with handling Jung’s external affairs. Given that sexual allegations against Jung began as early as the 1980s before erupting in the 1990s, Kim would have been completely aware of all of these allegations. Despite this, he remained beside Jung for decades, assisting him.
There are many suspicious points about Kim’s behaviour. If the accusations were true, why did Kim not leave earlier? Why did he remain as Jung’s trusted partner? One might think that this was for money, but as Kim himself says in the show, Jung had no money, and Kim even had to fork out huge amounts of money to help Jung. And if the accusations were true, wouldn’t Kim have been an accomplice in covering up the crime, helping Jung to “escape”, and aiding Jung to commit further crimes? Shouldn’t Kim then be prosecuted for his role in covering up and abetting these crimes? Why is no action taken against him? If Jung is a monstrous rapist, isn’t Kim as Jung’s Vice-President at least half as guilty? Why then would the producers trust the words of a crook like Kim, and why should the public trust him? Further, shouldn’t Kim have far more concrete evidence of Jung’s crimes, such as actual negotiation agreements with victims, letters or messages showing Jung’s instructions to him to cover up crimes, and such? Why does he not have any of these proof despite staying beside Jung for close to 30 years? Finally, why did Kim only finally leave Providence in 2009, some 20 over years after the start of the accusations?
Kim stayed in Providence all these years because he genuinely believed in Jung’s teaching and because he knew that the allegations are false. He left in 2009 because in that year, Jung appointed another member, Joeun, to be his right-hand assistant. Kim, who desired to be Jung’s top man, was jealous of this. Kim even told others: “If Joeun is Jung’s right-hand person, what am I? I worked for Jung for 30 years and now he appoints someone else”. Kim thus left, bearing a huge grudge against Jung, and from then on, began opposing and criticising Jung on various platforms.
Kim Do Hyung
Kim Do Hyung (Hyung) is the second main narrator of the show. Hyung was never a member of Providence and his involvement with Providence was limited to attending a few public Providence events. Despite this, he puts himself out to be an expert on Providence. He is the founder and leader of Exodus, an anti-JMS organisation, and had even published a book criticising Jung’s teaching.
Is Hyung telling the truth? What is his motive in targeting Jung? What is his motive in appearing in the show?
Hyung’s own role as the leader of the opposition betrays his prejudice and opposition against Jung. He is not a neutral and objective reporter, but a biased contestant. As Hyung himself admits in the show, he used to constantly call Jung’s church looking for Jung, would hurl vulgarities at Jung, and had even bought a gun with the desire to kill Jung. This speaks volumes about Hyung’s character.
Hyung features in the broadcast making allegations that Jung had sexually assaulted many female members. However, Hyung does not have any first-hand knowledge and is not in any position to comment on this. Hyung was neither the person allegedly assaulted nor was he present at the alleged assault. All Hyung has is hearsay and rumours that he heard from other unidentified members, who may have in turn heard those rumours from other unknown actors. Hyung does not have any evidence to prove the assaults. Critically, Jung has never been charged or convicted for any of these hundreds of so-called sexual assaults, apart from the 1 sole case already explained above.
Hyung also claims that his girlfriend was a member of Providence and that his girlfriend told him that he was sexually assaulted by Jung. However, there is likewise only his word for this. His alleged girlfriend never asserted this in public, it is not known if she ever filed a police report, and Jung has never been charged, let alone convicted for assaulting his girlfriend.
A deeper look into Hyung reveals that he had wrote an apology letter to Jung in 1999 for defaming him, and two more similar apology letters in 2005 (see here). Notwithstanding these apologies, Hyung later had a change of heart and demanded 2 million USD from Jung, in exchange for dropping the charges that he had filed through the victims. Hyung’s conduct of threatening Jung is proven by an audio recording of the conversation and testimony made in court (see here). Hyung’s conduct raises many suspicions about his character. If Hyung wanted justice, why he is threatening Jung for such ridiculous sums of money instead of seeking justice till the end? Further, why does he have the power to decide whether the alleged victims should continue to charge Jung or not, when he is not the alleged victim and not even a relative of them? The truth is revealed in a 2008 court trial where one of these so-called victims (Jang) testified in the courtroom that Hyung had organised “camps” where he coached these so-called victims to make false accusations against Jung. Jang testified that she herself had been coached by Hyung, and that other females too had been coached by Hyung and were lying. The transcript of Jang’s testimony in the courtroom is here. The important segments are reproduced in this table:
Question
Answer
Q: Is it true that you had heard from the JMS believer, Kim Ji Oon (this is a different Kim), words such as: “can Teacher insert his fingers into your vagina? Can you go to the God’s room and take off all your clothes? Pluck off all your vaginal hair”.
A: I never heard these.
Q: Didn’t you testify like this in the investigation agency?
A: I do not remember well. At that time, Kim told me to testify like that; that is why I simply testified according to what Kim told me.
Q: Is it correct that you cancelled the complaint?
A: Yes, because I wanted to, I cancelled it.
Q: If what you say is true, and if the complaint was false, then the accused Jung Myung Seok has been very wrongfully imprisoned, isn’t it?
A: Yes. That is why my heart feels nothing but apologetic.
Q: During this period of living together, did they (Exodus) prevent you from contacting outside persons?
A: Yes. At that time, Kim said not to contact others, even my mother, as much as possible, and she also said that she would also not contact others. And she also said not to inform (anyone) where I was.
Q: During the camp, did Kim Do Hyung and Kim talk to you and teach you what to testify and how to act during the press conference and investigations?
A: Yes
Hyung continues to coach so-called “victims” even today, including Maple.
Maple Yip
Maple is the main character of episode 3 of the Netflix show. Her main role in the show is to accuse Jung of sexually assaulting her between 2018 and 2021. These allegations were still under the court process at the time of the broadcast and had not been proven.
Maple admits that before coming to Providence, she used to smoke, drink, and meet guys. She shares pictures of her younger self with heavy makeup in a bar / nightclub sharing drinks with her friends. She also had depression at that time due to family problems and being bullied in school. She did not know what love was, and did not know the meaning of her life.
Maple then explains how, after coming to Providence, Jung helped her recover from her past by showing her love and care that she did not know before, sending her letters to encourage her, and giving her autographs.
Jung would also drive her around and constantly praise, encourage, and reassure her, despite being extremely busy.
Jung also invested in Maple’s development by giving her a lot of opportunities to grow and showcase her talents. Jung helped her fulfil her dream of becoming a singer and later a newscaster, and later even appointed Maple as a pastor and gave her opportunities to preach on stage, despite her young age. Maple also began to give testimonies in public and even on YouTube about her faith in God.
It therefore comes as a shock that Maple claims in the Netflix show that she was somehow coerced to do these against her will. Those who knew Maple personally knew that Maple loved performing, acting, and being on stage, and she loved the attention and the glamour. Maple did all of these gladly and willingly. This is also apparent from her genuinely radiant and joyous expression in these pictures.
During this period that Maple was in the limelight and constantly receiving attention (from early 2018 till at least early 2020), Maple was happy in Providence and there were absolutely no allegations by her that Jung sexually assaulted her.
Things changed during the COVID situation when Maple was unable to be on stage and unable to meet Jung or Providence members. She had to be isolated due to the lockdown and anti-COVID measures, and lost her chance to perform on stage. She felt left out, lack of love, and severely depressed, similar to how she was before coming to Providence. She began falling back to her old lifestyle before coming to Providence. She also felt a lot of resentment towards Jung for not showing her more care and attention during COVID (Jung was unable to do so as he was extremely busy looking after the multitudes of other members who were facing difficulties). Maple thus complained to her close friends that she felt that Jung did not care enough for her (there are text messages to prove this, which have been presented to the judge as evidence). Maple thus became progressively more depressed.
Maple had a psychological disorder during the COVID period and resulted to self-harm as she felt alone and lack of attention. Maple herself reveals pictures of her self-harm in the documentary. Persons with Maple’s psychological disorder tend to have a victimisation complex, feel left out, want attention, and self-harm is a common symptom of this condition. When persons with this condition feel that they are not being given enough attention from someone that they want attention from, they may start to perceive that person as enemies. Their perspective of others also tends to swing from one extreme to another extreme. There are even cases of persons with this psychological disorder murdering their loved ones in the course of a dispute or a relationship spat.
It is in this context that Maple began to accuse Jung of sexual assault, claiming that he had sexually assaulted her between 2018 and 2021. This includes the period from 2018 to 2020 where Maple can be seen perfectly happy while receiving attention on stage in various roles, and where Maple had spoken positively about Jung in many public platforms. Maple can also be heard to be laughing and enjoying herself in an interview on 31 May 2020 about her Providence life, and Maple readily professes that she was really happy in Providence. In March 2021, Maple can also be seen basking in the limelight while performing and singing on stage at a large scale Providence event.
Why did Maple only begin to make such allegations in 2022, almost 4 years after the allegations supposedly began? Why did she not leave earlier? How could she look so happy and so supportive of Jung while being sexually assaulted? These questions need to be answered.
A few weeks later, in March 2022, Maple is on stage again, but in a different role. She appears at a press conference and reads word by word off a script that Kim Do Hyung hands to her, telling a full room of reporters how Jung had sexually assaulted her. Jung is then investigated and put on trial.
Merely a few months after, Maple enters into a romantic relationship with Alex Fong, a Hong Kong actor more than 12 years Maple’s senior (see here). At best, this was only around a year after the period where she was allegedly sexually assaulted 18 times. How did she get to meet Alex Fong? Why did she choose to date a celebrity 12 years her senior? Would she not be traumatised by men, especially those older than her, after what had allegedly happened to her? These questions have yet to be answered.
Yet a few months after, Maple appears in Netflix’s show as the main character. She is in the limelight once more and getting the attention that she used to receive. She tells her story and accuses Jung of sexually assaulting her. Just as in the actual trial itself, there is no evidence to prove her claims, except her bare word, and an audio clip that Maple claims to be a secret recording of Jung having sex with her.
At the time of the Netflix broadcast, the judge had yet to accept the audio recording as valid evidence. As the recording was not an original file, Jung’s lawyers asked Maple for the original file so that they could verify the authenticity of the file. Maple was unable to produce the original audio file. She claims that she lost the original audio file because she transferred the files from her original phone into the cloud, and then downloaded the files from the cloud onto her new phone, and after which she got rid of her original phone (see here). Nobody can prove that the audio is real. The Korean National Forensic Service even confirmed that the audio clip could not be proven to be unedited and authentic (see here). Why did Maple get rid of her original phone, when it was the only device that could prove that the audio was real? If she truly went through the painstaking efforts of trying to secretly record an audio that would prove, once and for all, that Jung was raping her, would she not preserve that audio as best as she could? These are important questions to be answered.
Anyone who is familiar with Jung’s voice will know that the audio does not sound like Jung’s voice, and the audio needs to be strained to be interpreted as what Maple claims it says. In this digital age where audio recordings can be easily “deepfaked” such that a person’s voice can be substituted with another (see here) In this digital age where audio recordings can be easily “deepfaked” such that a person’s voice can be substituted with another (see here) or edited from different original clips to form a completely different conclusion (see here and here), one has to be more discerning before believing that an audio recording is real.
Shortly after the Netflix broadcast, Alex Fong makes a press release stating that Maple is his girlfriend and that they had been dating for some time. He says that he believes that she is telling the truth. Did Maple know in advance that Alex Fong was making this press release? Did Maple tell Alex Fong to say that he believed her? Did Maple intentionally date a famous person like Alex Fong so that she would have a famous person on her side? These too, are questions to think about.
Do we know enough to prove that Maple is lying? No. But do we know enough to be sure that Maple is telling the truth? The answer is also no. The wisest thing to do in such a situation is to refrain from judgment and to let the matter be decided through the judicial process, as it should be, instead of having it made into a drama for the whole world to see.
Anonymous persons and unidentified footages
There are various anonymous persons who accuse Jung of sexually assaulting them. Similar to the above, none of these are proven and there is also no evidence of this apart from bare allegations. Not much can be said of these unknown individuals as they have chosen not to reveal their identities. It would not be fair or proper to simply believe their account when we do not know who they are, they have not been questioned, and they have not revealed the precise details of their allegations such as when, how, and where they were allegedly assaulted. It also ought to be pointed out that if these individuals genuinely wanted justice to be done, they would have gone to the police, and not to Netflix.
The Netflix broadcast also features several audio recordings of unknown provenance. The producers describe the recordings as showing Jung engaging in sexual talk with female members, and female members complaining about Jung and his followers. However, these recordings are not reliable. It is not known who made these recordings, who were speaking in these recordings, and what was the context of the remarks made in the recordings. Therefore, it is not known if the recordings are genuine or not, and even if they are genuine, what the meaning of the words in the recordings are. They could very well be deepfake recordings manipulated by Kim or Hyung, and their band of anti-Jung followers.
Nude photos and videos
The broadcast features nude photos and videos of women and asserts that Jung had asked his female followers to send him nude photos and videos of themselves. The nude footages shown in the broadcast are blurred such that the faces of the persons are unrecognisable. Nobody can tell if they are Providence members or porn-stars, and if these are manipulated deepfakes. The women featured in the nude footages themselves also do not appear on the film to explain what the nude footage was all about. The narrative is done by someone who is not a first-hand witness to the nude footage and who can only speculate what these nude footages are about.
On the contrary, there are countless female members in Providence who will readily attest that they have never heard Jung asking for nude photos and videos, and that instead, Jung has always asked members to dress modestly.
Even if these nude footages are somehow true, it does not mean that Jung had solicited them. People do crazy things in the name of God, Jesus, and Allah, such as terrorism and mass killings – does it mean that their God requested or sanctioned them? Trump’s supporters have also done crazy things for his sake but does it mean that Trump directed all of them? One should not assume what the truth is until one has investigated the people involved and gotten to the bottom of it.
Kidnap and violence
The broadcast features various allegations of kidnap and violence. Likewise, these have not been proven in the courtroom as a fact, and Jung has not even been charged for these. At the time of these alleged violence, Jung was actually overseas. Even if these were somehow true, there is no evidence that Jung had anything to do with these, and as already pointed out, not everything that a member does is sanctioned by his leader. Peter cut off the high priest’s ear, but that went against what Jesus told him to do, which was to love his enemies.
Jung has always taught Providence to obey Jesus’ teachings, to love our enemies, to resolve all things peacefully, and never to resort to violence. In around 2005, there was an arts performance in church where Jung was present. As part of the stage performance, some teenagers began taking out toy guns and shooting each other. Jung immediately took the microphone and halted the performance. He made it very clear that there was to be no guns or violence in church. As Jesus said, those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Jung made it clear that anyone who considers himself to be a member of Providence should never carry weapons.
When Jung was in Los Angeles in 1994, there were huge gun crime problems and 14,000 people were being killed every year due to gun violence. Guns were legal in the US and people had the right to carry guns under the 2nd Amendment. It was so bad that people were afraid to even go out at night. One night, Jung wanted to play sports in the park. His followers approached him telling him that it was dangerous, and asked if it was fine to carry a gun for protection as they were afraid of being attacked. Jung firmly replied in response: “No one who carries a gun can follow me. If you want peace, the one who wants peace must throw away the gun.” This was the same belief that Jung had fervent held since his time in the Vietnam War, where he saved dozens of comrades and even the enemy.
When Jung heard about America’s gun situation, Jung began praying fervently for America. Months later, a miracle happened. For the first time in American history, the US President (who was at that time Clinton) signed an assault weapon ban. The Senate finally approved the decision with a vote of 52 to 48, after having failed 3 times in previous attempts to ban assault weapons. From then on, there was a steep decline in gun violence. God had answered Jung’s prayer.
For a fuller understanding of Jung’s views of the use of arms and violence, read Jung’s four-part autobiography of his experience in the Vietnam War: War was cruel; Love and Peace, which is available on Amazon here. See also further below for video evidence of Jung’s abstinence from violence (filmed by none other than Hyung himself).
Distorted media
It is impossible and unnecessary to address the seemingly endless number of unproven claims that the accusers have launched against Jung, given that there is no evidence for them to begin with. What will be helpful, however, is to highlight a few select examples to show how the producers have taken material completely out of context and used them to paint a distorted picture of Jung.
First is a clip filmed by Hyung and his gang in Hong Kong. The clips show Hyung and the cameraman walking towards a translucent mosquito tent in an outdoor area surrounded by trees. Jung and two other persons can be seen to be in the tent. Upon nearing the tent, Hyung shouts “Come out, you bastard!” The Netflix subtitles also record Hyung as threatening Jung: “Come out! before I kill you”. Jung looks understandably shocked, as he was being ambushed out of nowhere by a cameraman and an angry Hyung who was threatening to kill him. Jung’s shirt is unbuttoned and he was only wearing swimming trunks, as he had just been swimming. Likewise, the other two members in the tent were in swimming attire. Jung emerges from the tent and asks what Hyung was doing. Jung does not want to be filmed, and thus attempts to block the camera. At this, Hyung slaps Jung in the face. Jung does not retaliate, but instead walks off. The narrator is heard calling Jung a pathetic coward. Jung is then arrested by the Hong Kong police, but is later released by the authorities. No charges were brought against Jung in Hong Kong and he was never proven to have committed any wrongdoing in Hong Kong.
It is not understandable why this clip is being used to portray Jung as a perpetrator of crime, when it is clear from the face of it that Jung is the real victim in this incident. What was going on was that Jung and the two members had just had a swim, and were having a normal conversation in a mosquito tent that was next to the swimming pool. Here is a picture showing the location of the tent relative to the swimming pool.
These events happened in broad daylight, in a relatively public area where people could easily enter (as did Hyung and the cameraman), and not behind locked doors. Jung then attempted to stop the cameraman from filming, which is an entirely natural reaction when one is being filmed without permission. When Jung was slapped, anyone in his shoes would have retaliated and fought back, and all the more so when there was no doubt that Jung would clearly win Hyung in a fight – Jung was a decorated special forces soldier that had fought in the Vietnam War (see here). However, Jung had the incredible moral resilience to simply walk away. This footage is in fact the best evidence of Jung’s tremendous moral fibre, and his commitment to avoiding violence at all costs. Hyung just looks downright bad as he was the perpetrator who had first resorted to vulgarities and violence, when none of this was called for.
Furthermore, as Hyung himself admits to in the show, this clip was filmed after Hyung had been stalking Jung for about a week, trying to film incriminating footage. If this was the best that Hyung managed to film after stalking Jung for a week, there must have really been nothing going on worth mentioning.
Second is a footage of a man claiming that Jung always brings a lot of women around with him, followed by various footages of Jung with women. These footages are selectively cropped and shot at an angle to make it seem as though Jung is only with women. If the full footage is reviewed, one will see that there were also many men at the scene. There are also claims that Providence only has female members. This is untrue. There are tens of thousands of male members in Providence. There is also a blurred-out footage of women in bikini partying on a boat. The women are not recognisable from the footage and it is not clear who these women are, whether they are even Providence members, and what they were doing on the boat. No explanation is given and the clip is just used for sensational effect, alongside all the other dramatized and fictional scenes portrayed in the show.
Third is a footage of Jung convulsing in the courtroom. Kim himself describes Jung as foaming at the mouth, but then goes on to accuse Jung of putting on a show. But the narrators are not in any position to comment on this. They are not medically trained and also did not examine Jung’s medical condition at the time.
What was not revealed in the show is that, just immediately prior to Jung returning to Korea and put on trial, he had been tortured for 10 months in China by the police during investigations. The torture included the psychological torture of being confined alone in a completely dark and isolated room with minimal food and water, and being subject to mind games where the police would cock their guns at him threatening to kill him, as well as the physical torture of being hung from a tree in a gunnysack while being beaten, and other conventional torture methods such as the electric chair and finger torture. Jung thought that he was going to die in China. After 10 months of such torture, he was severely psychologically traumatised and his body was also physically devastated by the effects of such torture. Despite such torture, Jung protested his innocence till the end to the Chinese police, and at the end of 10 months, they decided to release him.
Jung decided to return to our homeland of Korea, where he was immediately arrested and investigated without any chance to recover from the mental and physical torture. In was in such context that he broke down in convulsions. Again, perfectly understandable.
An anti-Jung activist then alleges that he was an observer in the prosecution’s interrogation of Jung and that during the questioning, Jung got down on his knees and pleaded for mercy. If this is indeed true, one seriously questions why an activist was allowed to be present during the prosecution’s investigations, why he is allowed to reveal the process of these confidential investigations to the public, and what the prosecution had been doing to Jung to cause him to have to kneel down to beg for his life. Furthermore, even if we assume that this is true, Jung had every good reason to act in this way, being under the psychological trauma and influence of being subject to the most inhumane torture in China. It may be that if he had not begged for his life in China, he may have already been killed without a trial. After 10 months of torture in a confined space, one may not be able to differentiate whether one is in China or in Korea.
There are a host of other allegations about Jung bribing Hong Kong officials and absconding without a passport, none of which are proven.
This is not the first time the media has distorted the truth to paint a biased picture of Jung. In around 1999, SBS Broadcasting Station manipulated a video of Jung saying: “evangelise one person out of ten” to make it sound like “evangelise one woman each”, trying to paint Jung as a sexist. The court ordered SBS to stop reporting false material and that information provided unilaterally by Hyung (who was also involved in that incident) must not be aired (see here). However, leopards do not change their spots.
Conclusion: who is really playing God?
The producers accuse Jung of claiming to be God, but the irony is that it is they themselves who are playing God by attempting to judge matters which they have no concrete evidence of and by taking justice into their own hands when no decision has been reached by a court of justice. As a wise person advises in Acts 5:38-39, “Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Justice belongs to God and to the judges who are called by God. An entertainment company should stick to its role of providing entertainment and leave justice to those called for the mission. 2000 years ago, Jesus was crucified due to a lynch mob. Nothing has changed in 2000 years.
About the writer:
The writer is just an ordinary human being with a semblance of common sense and a healthy dose of skepticism. The writer also does not condone any form of sexual assault or violence, and firmly believes that such actions must be punished, but that this should only be done after a fair trial with the required evidence. You may choose not to believe a word of what the writer said, but equally, don’t believe a word of what the media says, because they may be lying to you. Check and verify the evidence for yourself and then judge, for then your judgment will be founded on solid grounds. As Jung often says, wisdom is to check and check again, and to check until the end. The writer hopes that all who read this article will check to the end and receive the wisdom of discernment.
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the religious organization “S,” that caused the second wave of spread of COVID in South Korea, became an issue. As a result, national resistance to heretical religious groups exploded along with resistance to Christianity. On the internet, I Am Jesus, a parody of I Am a Singer, which was a composite of religious leaders calling themselves “the Second Coming Jesus,” was circulating.
Among them was Pastor Jung Myeong-seok (Christian Gospel Mission, so-called JMS). Why is President Jung Myung-seok, who has lived the life of a “religious/faithful bride of Jesus,” being treated as a “self-proclaiming Second Coming Jesus”? Is it because human nature seeks stimulation? Instead of the Word of God that resolves life’s problems, or wholesome and touching stories, the propagating power of stimulating rumors and criticizing content is much more overpowering.
This time on Netflix, a documentary called In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal was aired and spread secondary and tertiary content, once again infringing on President Jung Myung-seok and CGM members. Hold on. Here you can just press the “Back” button, saying “Oh, this article was written by a JMS believer” or “You are a cult, so you shouldn’t speak,” but I hope you can read this until the end.
That “perspective” is repeated again
Actually, as a result of checking the main content of the program, I found out that the logic, flow, and information used to attack CGM are the same as before. Mr. K, the key figure of the opposing force who appears directly in the program, has continued to slander CGM with the same narrative since 1999 through SBS’ I Want to Know, MBC’s True Story Expedition in 2020, and JTBC in 2022. In President Jung Myung-seok’s sermon video, he distorted the audio and subtitles from “evangelize one out of ten [yeol-ai-ha-na jeon-do]” to “evangelize one woman [yeo-ja-ha-na joen-do],” and he did not hesitate to use only a portion of an audio recording of President Jeong Myung-seok to make a religious consultation with a [church] member in need sound like a sex crime.
And in 2023, through Netflix’s In the Name of God, using OTT (over-the-top) platform characteristics that are not restricted by broadcasting law, without hesitation, President Myung-seok Jeong and the CGM are portrayed in a sexual and provocative way.
This program is promoted by various media outlets as being objectively and credibly produced. However, it meticulously interprets the path that President Jung Myung-seok walked through one person’s one-sided logic and narrative, which is Mr. K’s. This path, which started with the Word of God that saves lives, is a history that Mr. K has never been a part of. Based on the malicious claims of those who left CGM and the one-sided allegations of the opposition, the broadcast only tarnishes this history as a “history that sexually seduces female believers.” It was done to the extent that I thought it was childish. There was no mention of how God’s words had resolved people’s life issues or how it solved Biblical questions. Instead, Mr. K himself is portrayed as an “apostle of justice who seeks to rescue those who had been harmed by President Jung Myung-seok.”
Video claims and contents: is all of it true?
On February 17th, CGM filed an application for an injunction to ban the broadcast, but the Court rejected it. “For past cases, they have cross-checked various materials such as videos and photos, and the part related to the ongoing criminal trial is in line with the plaintiffs’ statements since they have met and conducted interviews with the plaintiffs, so it is difficult to see them as false,” the Court described.
In the film, Mr. K’s argument, the tearful statements of the accusers, and the presented video and audio recordings of the female believers make people speculate, “President Jung Myung-seok really committed these crimes.” The reenactments also emotionally trigger the general public and induce them to believe that “this really happened.”
But are these allegations and contents true? It is unclear from where these materials were gathered, and whether they were really produced at the site where President Jung Myung-seok had allegedly violated the female believers. In particular, the full version and context should be clearly given for recordings that are offensive and shocking for viewers. Among the statements of the accusers in the actual film, there were many things that could be proven to be absolute lies.
In the Name of God may end up as a source of stimulation and entertainment (or discomfort) for the public. However, CGM, which has been quietly preaching the gospel and spreading a sound view of faith, will be undermined, and the damage to its image and members will be severe.
Currently, President Jung Myung-seok is undergoing the first trial, and no decision has been made yet. The process from the prosecution of Ms. M in 2022 to the arrest and trial of President Myung-Seok Jeong was not easy from the standpoint of CGM’s opposition. Although I cannot reveal the specific trial process and the circumstances of the accusers here, there were sufficient grounds to prove that Ms. M’s claims were false. Meanwhile, the accumulated negative public opinion led to the arrest of President Jung Myung-seok. In the Name of God is the culmination of that. The accusers, including Mr. K, appear to be trying to agitate public opinion on a global scale through In the Name of God in order to lead the trial in their favor.
It is often argued that broadcasting should be fair. However, it is difficult to come up with such good broadcasts. This is because the broadcaster’s circumstances, characteristics, and financial logic have no choice but to come into play. In particular, fair broadcasts are no fun. In a reality where few people seek the Word of God, to have content encompassing CGM’s wholesome nature and image that differ from its opposition’s claims would be meaningless from the standpoint of OTT, which pursues profit. In order to make content that sells well to the public, there is no choice but to compose content that is stimulating and R-rated.
In the Name of God is a concoction of CGM opposers who cause trouble for CGM and try to justify themselves by any means beyond logic, Netflix’s pursuit of profit, broadcast producers’ desire to succeed through an OTT platform, and the general attack of Christianity which condemns CGM as heretical. Anyone who consumes content should keep in mind that there will be a certain number of hidden agendas.
[Writing | G. jams ]
* This blog collects organized material on the main issues appearing in Netflix’s In the Name of God.
Some of them can be fully explained, but some have not been made into content due to the safety of CGM members.
Background: For one week in mid July 2022, JTBC in Korea featured provocative broadcasts about Jung Myeong-seok, including a misleading audio clip that will be discussed in the article below. Similar themes were brought up in the Netflix docuseries In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal.
A sex scandal headliner based on an audio recording of President Jung Myung-seok was broadcast continuously for one week on JTBC. The following article was written from a Christian Gospel Mission (CGM) member’s point of view, after analyzing the problematic parts in the voice recording that was aired.
In fact, CGM has been misunderstood many times due to doctored recordings. For example, in the 1999 SBS series’ I Want to Know, President Jung Myung-seok’s sermon video on “Evangelize One out of Ten [yeol-ai-ha-na jeon-do]” had been distorted to sound like “evangelize one woman [yeo-ja-ha-na joen-do]” and aired. For such cases, editors usually ignore the context or video background but just focus on wording or parts of the sentence.
This was no exception. If we look at the overall context of the recording, President Jung Myung-seok’s key point is that faith should not be human-centered but God-centered. (You) should love God fundamentally using (your) brain. In fact, a CCTV video that was recorded at that time does not show any indication of what the broadcasting company claims to be true.
Also, as a believer of CGM, I didn’t find it abnormal when I heard the recording myself. It’s because I knew the intention behind his words. The wording that CGM uses can be a bit different from its usual context. For example, “love” does not [necessarily] mean the relationship between the opposite sex; rather, it usually refers to spiritual love, loving heaven, and leading a life of faith. If someone says “love,” a regular person may take it as having a sexual/romantic relationship, but Providence members understand it as spiritual love. Especially for a religious leader who preaches from a religious perspective, the meaning of his words may differ from that of the general world.
This time too, the intentional editing was noticeable, as the audio can certainly be seen as provocative and be misunderstood by those who do not know the doctrine of CGM. The words that became the center of controversy in the recording and the sentences that could be misunderstood due to ambiguous meanings will be discussed in this post one by one. (From here on, CGM will be referred to as Providence. Providence is used internally within CGM, meaning God’s Providence.)
1. Does God appear through a person?
This is mentioned a lot when you join Providence. The key point behind “God appears through people” is to “see God, see what’s fundamental” when you are looking at other people or nature. As a human being, we call upon God. But because God cannot physically appear before people, He enlightens them or appears through nature or human beings. The Messiah is the one who resembles God the most and is the one sent by God to the world to fulfill God’s mission. Thus, when interacting with the Messiah, “you should think of God.” That is the core. If you believe and live your life thinking about God, even if a person asks for sexual relationships in the name of the Messiah, you should reject it. The Messiah is not God. God is higher than the Messiah. In other words, even if you see the Messiah, you should look at the core and see God.
Furthermore, CGM teaches that the Messiah is a missionary of salvation, who records God’s Word according to each time period. He is not God nor the Second Coming Jesus. President Jung Myung-seok says that “the perfect Messiah, the Savior, is only Jesus,” and that “the almighty Divine Being is only the Holy Trinity; human beings or a person of mission could never become God Himself.” President Jung Myung-seok himself is also a bride (the counterpart of love) of God and is a person who leads people to meet the Lord of the Second Coming perfectly.
Anyone who receives the Word becomes a god
President Jung Myung-Seok
This does not mean that humans become God Himself. As a human being, no matter who you are, if you develop yourself according to God’s Will, “you will be able to live a divine-level life’.” (As a human being, you can never become God).
2. Serve the Messiah with love instead of seeing him as a human?
What does this mean? If it means to be physically close, then tens of thousands of Providence members will go near him, and he may then be torn apart. So that’s not the right meaning. Since the Messiah receives God’s Word directly, the essence of the Messiah is the Word. “You should not live your life recklessly but be close to the Messiah” means to be close to the Word and thus be close to God. When we look at this spiritually, “to serve” does not simply mean to treat, entertain, or respect the person. As said in the Bible, “serving with love” means to offer love through your life; thus, in the recording, President Jung said, “do not treat the Lord like just another human being” but serve him. This means to live your life according to the Word, loving and serving the heavens.
3. Fruit should ripen?
The meaning of fruit in a physical love relationship is different from spiritual love. If the fruit means sexual organ in physical love, then the fruit between God and people is the brain. Love with God is done through your thoughts, life, and actions. And those thoughts, heart, and mentality commence from the brain. Therefore, in Providence, the spiritual fruit of love is the brain, that is, the heart, mentality, and thoughts.
What it means to ripen is for the person’s body and spirit to mature, for their brain, heart, thoughts, and mentality to resemble God’s thoughts, and for the person to be perfect in God’s eyes. That’s why the recording mentions “the fruit ripening” and “the thoughts ripening.” A person should fall in love when they are mature to a certain extent to avoid complications. The Bible also often references fruit as a parable for a person’s growth.
4. You say you want to do things together? Living together, a responsive life
Aim to live together. If you love, you will want to do things together. Even if God is dying to do things together with people, if people do not want it, it won’t work out. Thus, President Jung said, you should want to live with the heavens first. In other words, spiritual love with God is seen as living together.
There is also a “responsive life.” According to the purpose of creation, the doctrine of CGM, heaven and earth are in counterpart positions. Metaphorically, heaven is in the position of a man, and the earth is in the position of a woman. As it is a counterpart relationship, people are God’s counterparts of love. When a man and a woman love each other, they are happy when their counterpart is thankful. God is also content when people show responses to His Word. Being responsive means being thankful for the life we’ve been given, loving God’s Word, realizing God’s Word deeply, and taking action upon the Word in our daily lives. You should want to do it. Then, you will be able to realize the value of faith and the value of life. Thus, in a life of faith, being responsive is very important.
5. Don’t touch other people? You belong to God?
CGM views the Fall through its own doctrine on the Fall, which refers to Adam and Eve loving each other before their bodies and minds had matured to the stage God wanted. When the order of fertility and prosperity is swapped, it is viewed as the Fall. This means that the essence of human beings is God. So before centering on a physical person, one should live life centering on God first.
In Providence, if a person is still in the process of growing their faith, they learn about love through centering on God first—God who is the fundamental being of love—and engage in spiritual love with God while living their life. That process must be undergone to be able to have a perspective based on the Truth, so that even if one were alone, they would be able to control themselves with their faith, and even if they were to see the opposite sex, they would be able to see them from God’s perspective. That is the correct process.
In other words, as this Word is from God, we should not give our body to the Messiah nor engage in promiscuous sex. Instead, look at God rather than people. Learn from God first and live a life centering on God, and have a faith that centers on God.
In conclusion, this sexual promiscuity slander is used to attract people and occurs due to misunderstandings of the parable regarding spiritual love between God and human beings.
If you want to know a person’s intention, you need to know the concept behind the words the person has used. Before you start to debate, it is proper etiquette to align each other’s notions. If we have a different notion about something and start talking to each other, then even if you have endless conversations, you will only resolve it in your own way. This sexual promiscuity slander is used to attract people and occurs due to misunderstandings of the parable regarding spiritual love between God and human beings.
In the Bible, the Song of Songs describes God’s counterpart of love. There is parent-child love in the world, but there is also intense love that is inseparable, like the counterpart love between a man and a woman. God is the origin of love. All forms of natural love, from agape to eros, come from God. However, before God, eros is not a relationship between the opposite sex. It is love in life and a spiritual love that is done with the heart, mind, and thoughts. However, in the sense that the love of a counterpart relationship is exchanged between heaven and earth, rather than a one-sided love given by heaven, the love between a groom and a bride, and the love between each man and woman is used as a metaphor. Even if the Messiah has come, he would not have sex on behalf of God. If the Messiah preaches God’s Word and lives a life of faith according to the Word, then that becomes love with God.
CGM (JMS) teaches that love with God is not a physical love but brain love and a spiritual love. This is often referred to as agape love. It is unital love, knowing one’s heart and not a physical love done using your body. If it were physical love, then would male members and older men or women be able to live a life of faith in Providence? Love between God, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Son cannot be a physical relationship type of love. Thus, regardless of your gender or age, no matter who you are, you can fulfill Heaven’s Will of love by having God, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Son as the subjects of love. Before God, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Son, as a bride, our love is equivalent regardless of gender or age. President Jung Myung-seok has taught about such spiritual love, and through the Word, he has helped people to feel and meet God in their daily lives. Many gentiles and people who had faith but could not feel God were able to feel him after listening to President Jung Myung-seok’s words. How could he help those people to feel God if he himself had not met God? People who had revived their faith through listening to the Word by coming to CGM churches, will know the truth about President Jung Myung-seok without having to see it with their own eyes.