Religion In China: Independent Cults & Sects

[ramonmercado]

China sect leader 'put to death'

China has executed the leader of a prominent Christian sect after he was convicted of murdering members of a rival group, reports said.
Underground church founder Xu Shuangfu was executed with two other leaders last week, though his family was only told on Tuesday, his lawyer said.

Xu and several followers were sentenced to death in July, accused of killing 20 people between 2002 and 2004.

His lawyer, Li Heping, said Xu had been tortured into confessing.

The lawyer said Li Maoxing and Wang Jun had also been put to death in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang.

Unconfirmed reports suggest there have been between nine and 12 other executions in connection with the same case.

The convictions relate to the murders of members of the Eastern Lightning cult.

The sect leader's lawyer said the charges against the three were "all sheer nonsense".

"The court does not have any evidence to support them," Mr Li said.

"During interrogation, they were tortured into confession."

Court officials were not immediately available for comment.

China allows people to worship in official churches, but many millions of others follow unofficial organisations. These underground spiritual movements often complain they are subject to sometimes violent persecution.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6194998.stm

 

[OldTimeRadio]

This isn't religious persecution. The State, even a Communist one, has the right and indeed the duty to apprend, try, convict and sentence murderers. Church membership and clerical qualifications offer no extenuation.

 

[ramonmercado]

The Chinese cult that kills 'demons'

Wang Jiannan's sister, who joined the cult, killed their father last year claiming he was a "demon"

China is about to try one of the most notorious murders in recent memory.

In late May a group belonging to a banned cult beat a woman to death in a fast food restaurant. Her only crime was to refuse to give them her telephone number.

The cult in question is called the Church of the Almighty God and claims to have millions of members.

It was an ordinary evening in a small town McDonald's in east China until a family of six arrived trying to recruit new members to their Christian cult.

They moved between the tables asking for phone numbers and when one diner refused they beat her to death, screaming at other diners to keep away or they would face the same fate.

The savage murder was filmed on closed circuit TV and on mobile phones.

It shocked China. Who were these people prepared to kill over a telephone number?

Interviewed in prison later, one of the murderers, Zhang Lidong, showed no remorse and no fear.

He said: "I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too. She was a demon. We had to destroy her."

Picture of the Zhaoyuan McDonald's outlet where the woman was murdered
The murder took place at a McDonald's outlet in a town called Zhaoyuan, in Shandong province
Still from a video shot by a witness to the McDonald's murder
The beating was captured on mobile phones by shocked customers in the restaurant
Picture of Zhang Lidong
Cult member Zhang Lidong showed no remorse when interviewed in prison
Fighting 'the big red dragon'
The public face of the Church of the Almighty God is a website full of uplifting hymns and homilies. But its core belief is that God has returned to earth as a Chinese woman to wreak the apocalypse.

The only person who claims direct contact with this god is a former physics teacher, Zhao Weishan, who founded the cult 25 years ago and has since fled to the United States.

No one knows exactly where he is, but much of the website's message of outright hostility to the Chinese government is delivered in English as well as Chinese. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-28641008

 

[ramonmercado]

A Chinese court has sentenced five cult members for beating a woman to death at a McDonald's restaurant in Shandong province last May. Two members were given death sentences, one was given a life sentence, and two were given 10 and seven-year jail terms.

The victim was allegedly killed after she refused to give her phone number to the members, who tried to recruit her. The Church of the Almighty God cult is banned in China.However, it claims to have millions of members.

Zhang Fan and her father Zhang Lidong were given death sentences by the Yantai Intermediate People's Court in Shandong on Saturday, state media reported. Lu Yingchun was sentenced to life imprisonment, while two other members, Zhang Hang and Zhang Qiaolian, were given 10 and seven-year jail terms. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29581195

 

[ramonmercado]

I think the case of the woman being beaten to death was covered here but it may have beeni News From China in the Mainstream News Forum. Anyway, the wife of the group's founder is the Reincarnation of Jesus

China detains 18 members of ‘cult' which believes Jesus was reincarnated as a woman
27 JULY 2017 • 7:18PM

Police in China have detained 18 members of a banned religious cult, state media said, after a father and daughter connected to the group were executed two years ago for murder.

The ‘suspects’ were involved with the Church of Almighty God, who attracted global headlines in 2014 when five of its members beat a woman to death at a McDonald's after she apparently refused to hand over her mobile phone number.

Followers of the group – which is known as Quannengshen in Chinese - believe that Jesus has been reincarnated as a Chinese woman, the wife of the cult's founder.

The organisation appeared in the 1990s and the founder and his wife fled to the United States in 2000, state media said.

Dong Jianfeng, a police officer from Changxing County, in the eastern Zhejiang province, said some of the 18 people who were detained were depressed and had experienced the breakdown of relationships.

"The cult's 'leaders' imposed spiritual control over the members," Mr Dong said, according to Xinhua news agency. "They were told that as long as they gave donations, the Almighty God would keep their illness at bay."

China has cracked down harshly on religious groups, most notably on the Falungong movement which was banned in the late 1990s.

Nearly 1,000 suspected members of the Church of Almighty God were arrested following the McDonald’s murder in the eastern Shandong province, state media said. ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...mbers-cult-believes-jesus-reincarnated-woman/

 

[Mythopoeika]

...Did they honestly think Jesus would beat someone to death? Haven't they heard of WWJD?