Doomsday cult targeted in crackdown
By Li Qian |
December 15, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA has launched a crackdown on a cult calling for a "decisive battle" to slay the "Red Dragon" Communist Party, and which has been spreading doomsday rumors.
The group called "Almighty God," also known as "Oriental Lightning," claims "a new age dominated by the Almighty God has approached" and those who didn't believed it would be killed by lightning, Shaanxi-based Chinese Business View reported yesterday.
The Shaanxi Daily newspaper said on its website that the cult's followers had been distributing leaflets saying the world would end in 2012.
"The State Bureau of Religious Affairs has already documented the group's cult nature, has outlawed it and is presently harshly cracking down," the newspaper said. It did not say how many followers there were.
The cult, founded by Zhao Weisheng, emerged in central China's Henan Province in early 1990s and then spread to Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regions in north and northwest parts of China, according to the Chinese Business View report.
It took many concepts from the Bible and distorted them for evil purposes, the report said.
The group operates like a pyramid scheme with a "goddess" at the top and "leaders" at the bottom who are encouraged to enroll other members.
To prevent raids, "leaders" are banned from having mobile phones and are driven to places where they "preach their religion." Gatherings only allow a maximum of seven people to avoid attracting attention from the authorities, the report said.
The cult persuades followers to quit their jobs, give up everything they own, and break off all contact with relatives.
An online "anti-Almighty God" alliance said millions of people, especially rural residents, had become its victims.
Wang Xiaomin, a 48-year-old villager in Henan with little education, said she started believing in the cult in 2005 because one of her former classmates had told her the world was about to suffer a major disaster.
Wang said she left home in 2008 to spread the word in Xinmi City in Henan, raising nearly 600,000 yuan (US$96,000) for the cult.
Police have called for public tip-offs to crack down on the cult as it was believed more people would be taken in as December 21 approached. That's the day some people believe the world will end according to a Mayan prophesy.
On December 9, three women and a man were detained for promoting "Almighty God" on the streets of Fuzhou, capital of southeast Fujian Province.
They distributed leaflets saying doomsday was near and only those who joined their cult would survive. They handed out red dates and walnuts as their Chinese pronunciations sound like "escape in time."
They also invited people to write down their names, phone numbers and home addresses on a "Life Book" to join the cult.
The group called "Almighty God," also known as "Oriental Lightning," claims "a new age dominated by the Almighty God has approached" and those who didn't believed it would be killed by lightning, Shaanxi-based Chinese Business View reported yesterday.
The Shaanxi Daily newspaper said on its website that the cult's followers had been distributing leaflets saying the world would end in 2012.
"The State Bureau of Religious Affairs has already documented the group's cult nature, has outlawed it and is presently harshly cracking down," the newspaper said. It did not say how many followers there were.
The cult, founded by Zhao Weisheng, emerged in central China's Henan Province in early 1990s and then spread to Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regions in north and northwest parts of China, according to the Chinese Business View report.
It took many concepts from the Bible and distorted them for evil purposes, the report said.
The group operates like a pyramid scheme with a "goddess" at the top and "leaders" at the bottom who are encouraged to enroll other members.
To prevent raids, "leaders" are banned from having mobile phones and are driven to places where they "preach their religion." Gatherings only allow a maximum of seven people to avoid attracting attention from the authorities, the report said.
The cult persuades followers to quit their jobs, give up everything they own, and break off all contact with relatives.
An online "anti-Almighty God" alliance said millions of people, especially rural residents, had become its victims.
Wang Xiaomin, a 48-year-old villager in Henan with little education, said she started believing in the cult in 2005 because one of her former classmates had told her the world was about to suffer a major disaster.
Wang said she left home in 2008 to spread the word in Xinmi City in Henan, raising nearly 600,000 yuan (US$96,000) for the cult.
Police have called for public tip-offs to crack down on the cult as it was believed more people would be taken in as December 21 approached. That's the day some people believe the world will end according to a Mayan prophesy.
On December 9, three women and a man were detained for promoting "Almighty God" on the streets of Fuzhou, capital of southeast Fujian Province.
They distributed leaflets saying doomsday was near and only those who joined their cult would survive. They handed out red dates and walnuts as their Chinese pronunciations sound like "escape in time."
They also invited people to write down their names, phone numbers and home addresses on a "Life Book" to join the cult.
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