A reader recently shared that one of Shincheonji’s front groups, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) hosted a “World Peace Summit” in Auckland over the weekend. As usual, their advertising and branding make no mention of the fact that HWPL doesn’t exist legally as a separate organisation in NZ. Rather, it is a front group run by Shincheonji members and sharing the same leadership.
HWPL activities are carefully designed to hide their affiliation with Shincheonji. But as a former HWPL “volunteer” Laura points out, Lee Man-Hee makes the connection between HWPL and SCJ explicit in one of his articles:
…[W]e, Shincheonji, made the flower of peace and love blossom around the world, as Jesus did. We are working under the name of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) to complete this mission. (Lee Man-Hee, Article 833, “Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light”)
In the same article, Lee Man-Hee states a desire for his “heavenly culture” to colonise the world. Colonisation is anything but peaceful, particularly when the general public are not fully informed of their true motives. Accordingly, Shincheonji, HWPL and its related groups cannot reliably claim to be a neutral peace organisation.
As a group of concerned Kiwis, we believe the true goals of HWPL’s peace activities are: 1) to falsely present their leader, Lee Man-Hee, as a “peace messenger”, and; 2) to deceive their own Shincheonji members into believing they are bringing healing to the nations.
To use the Bible’s own language, Lee Man-Hee appears to be someone who declares “Peace” when no actual peace has come about (Ezekiel 13:10). The activities of HWPL and its organisations may seem impressive, but like whitewash on a flimsy wall they merely cover over the many serious problems of Shincheonji.
We explain in more detail why Lee Man-Hee cannot reliably claim to be a messenger of peace in this article.
“…Since they have led my people astray by saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and since when a flimsy wall is being built, they plaster it with whitewash…” – Ezekiel 13:10