Abuse of Laws & Power by Governments to Silence Minority Groups

Looking at how people are taking a stand, to further keep society accountable for exercising human rights and the law, it’s time to even see how our voices can help those being abused across seas. In South Korea, the government is abusing their power to corruptly carry out a work inspired by the Christian Council of Korea (CCK), and they have been targeting the Shincheonji Church. Although no evidence has been found of ill-intended actions by the Shincheonji Church, the government has focused its efforts of blaming and prosecuting on a single church. 

They are spending much of their resources on investigating Shincheonji Church as if they are a business. So, they claimed that this organization was not religious, but later went on to say that they need the information of all of their churches. So, they continued to use a business approach to the investigation, even after admitting that Shincheonji Church is in fact an organization of religion. So, they are not abiding by their laws, as they are trying to find corruption within this organization, but they have not been able to actually provide sound evidence for their abuse of power. 

The level in which this abuse is reaching, is seen in how their allegations are causing the members of Shincheonji Church to be targeted by society, and they have arrested one of the pastors of Shincheonji Church, although he has not been restricting any information that the South Korean Government has absolutely needed to complete their investigation. Additionally, the pastor that they arrested is over 90 years in age, and is in fact innocent of their allegations. 

Therefore, they are abusing their power as they have arrested someone who has not threatened the safety of society in any way, shape, or form. They have been able to take advantage of this minority group thus far, because they have not allowed for a just prosecution to take place, and are taking advantage of their power at this time.

As mentioned, their means of prosecuting this organization is by asking for the private information of their members within South Korean, and those in other countries as well. They have also falsely connected Shincheonji Church to the intentional spreading of COVID-19, but this is not the case, as Shincheonji have some members who are victims of this virus, and after the diagnosis of a case within their organization, they immediately stopped in-person meetings of any kind. These accusations have caused an intense investigation to take place, and with the rumors of this investigation spreading, the organization is receiving backlash from the government and from society. 

Therefore, it is clear that the government’s ill-actions have had severe consequences because the perspective of Shincheonji Church has not had the chance to be heard as well, which has caused the claims of the CCK to overpower the evidence of innocence that has been provided to the government. Throughout history, when minority groups are silenced, and they are later found to be innocent, there is much regret and guilt on those who could have taken action. So, with this understanding of how they are being silenced, we have to reflect upon which side of history we want to be on.