Amid the Covid-19 outbreak many citizens have taken precautions to keep safe by staying indoors or wearing masks when in public places. This is to now help with the rapidly spreading virus that has fluctuated throughout the past several months in various countries. While many are taking safety measures very seriously, the number of those helping to find a cure is not very high. Amongst those who have provided help to finding a cure, is the South Korean church Shincheonji.
Over 4,000 members of the church who had the virus and are now fully recovered, have donated plasma to help with the development of a cure. Due to the low number of donors, the plasma donated by members of the church tally up to over 80 billion dollars in value. Despite this, the church has asked for nothing in return but for a hope that a cure for the virus is found quickly. Recently, the Chairman of Shincheonji, Lee Man-Hee, has offered a 10 million dollar donation to the Community Chest of Korea as well. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed as the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reached out and acknowledged Shincheonji and Lee for their help in looking for a cure.
Despite putting in their efforts and showing willingness to help during this crisis, Shincheonji has been facing more than just COVID-19. They have also been facing hate and discrimination from surrounding citizens who claim that the outbreak sourced from within the church. Although these allegations against the Church have been ruled to be false, the media and a large portion of the community are demanding that the church face unjust punishment, and are looking to find a way to condemn the church for the spread of the virus.
Lee and other leaders of Shincheonji have been detained and are being held for trial on the matter. The government has asked the church leaders to cooperate by providing the members information for contact tracing, in which the leaders took up the responsibility and provided the information to the government, who later on demanded the information for oversea members as well, totaling in about 240,000 congregants. Yet even after their cooperation, members of the church are still facing discrimination by citizens and as previously stated, the leaders are being detained without a just reasoning.
Currently, South Korea is facing a second wave of COVID-19 as several outbreaks have taken place in churches, which affected more than 8 times the number of members that were affected by the outbreak at Shincheonji’s Daegu branch church in February. The push of negative slander from the critics and competitors may attempt to make Shincheonji look like villains in this story. The actions and efforts of the church to help, however, suggest otherwise. It is with hope that the world awaits good news and discoveries of a cure through Shincheonji’s donations.