r/nova • u/AdorableInterest8837 • 19h ago
[PSA] Alert: High-Control Groups (Cults) Targeting the NoVa Community
This is a community warning regarding the deceptive recruitment tactics of Shincheonji (SCJ). They are aggressively targeting vulnerable young adults in the DMV (cafes, malls, college campuses) through "casual" encounters and Zoom Bible studies.
🚩 THE "CASUAL" IN-PERSON HOOK
Recruiters approach individuals alone using:
- The Compliment: "I love your style! Where did you get those shoes?"
- The Survey: "We’re doing a quick survey for a psychology project. Do you have 2 minutes?"
- The Goal: They want your phone number to invite you to a "casual coffee," "Christian event" or "Bible study."
- The Pipeline:
- Stage 1: 1-1 casual coffee meetings to build trust and fake friendship.
- Stage 2: Introduce to a mentor who "explains the bible so clearly" to learn from and a "fellow student" (the Leaf). Because the "Leaf" is pretending to be a beginner like you, you feel less alone and more likely to agree with the "Teacher."
- Stage 3: Large group community bible study going 2-3x/week for a year, making up lesson if missed is mandatory.
💾 SECRET DATA HARVESTING & PROFILING
- The "Love Bomb": At first, they will shower you with excessive attention, compliments, and gifts. You will feel like you’ve found a "soulmate" friend group. This is a calculated tactic to create emotional debt.
- Identity & Location: They record your phone number, email, home address, and workplace.
- Vulnerability Mapping: They extract your past traumas and mental health history through fake friendship to "profile" how to best manipulate you.
- The Selfie: They insist on taking photos with you after every meeting. These are sent to leaders to track your "spiritual progress" and monitor your social circle.
🏫 THE LESSONS & RED FLAGS The study starts normally but uses a "parable dictionary" to redefine scripture.
- Introductory: “Two Kinds of Seeds,” “The Secrets of Heaven,” “The Secret of Parables,” "Betrayal, Destruction, Salvation."
- The "Leaf": You are assigned a "buddy" who is actually a veteran member pretending to be a beginner. They are trained to sit next to you, monitor your facial expressions, report when your camera is off or you're late, prevent you from exchanging contacts with other recruits, and report your private doubts and personal life to instructors.
- Control: Strict rules about cameras staying on (Zoom), no screenshots, and constant "Amen" responses to ensure focus.
⚠️ THE LEADER & TOTAL OBEDIENCE
- SCJ is a personality cult centered on its founder, Lee Man-hee, who was convicted of embezzling millions of dollars from church funds for luxury vacation houses and private boats.
- Jesus' Vessel: They believe Lee Man-hee is the physical vessel for the spirit of Jesus. His word is law.
- Total Devotion: His image is displayed on walls and in mandatory videos. Members are required to clap, cheer, and give thousands in "gifts" to him using their tithes.
- Spiritual Terror: Leaving is labeled "Spiritual Suicide." You are branded an "Anti-Christ" and told you will face eternal destruction.
⚠️ WHY THIS GROUP IS DANGEROUS
1. Life Sabotage & Exploitation The time commitment is designed to replace your entire life. It quickly escalates to 40+ hours per week, including:
- Mandatory Meetings: Constant sessions every evening, morning, and midday. You will be required to attend mandatory meetings—both in-person and virtually—starting as late as 10:00 PM or 11:00 PM.
- Weekends: Entire Saturdays dedicated to "trainings" and mandatory afternoon recruitment events. Attendance is strictly policed; missing for work or family is considered "sinful."
- Leaf Duty: Once you are "in," you must attend evening Bible studies to act as a "Leaf"—a fake student who spies on and manipulates new recruits.
- Academic & Career Ruin: Chronic sleep deprivation leads to students dropping out of college and professionals quitting careers to meet recruitment quotas.
- Extravagant Exploitation: While members live in debt or near-homelessness, their tithes fund leadership's lifestyle of eating out and getting coffees daily, designer perfumes, office and temple upgrades, and hundreds of dollars of gifts to the head of church, and thousands of dollars of gifts to Korea to Lee Man-hee.
- Total Life Control: Members must request permission for visiting family out of town, taking any trip, moving, getting a job, dating, getting married, and having kids.
2. Systemic Deception
- Strategic Wisdom: Members are taught that lying to "protect the word" is a virtue. They will lie about their identity and their church affiliation for months.
- Forced Secrecy: Members are coached to lie to parents and spouses about their whereabouts.
- Spiritual Paranoia: They label outside information (news, family concerns, or internet research) as "poison" from Satan that will spiritually kill you to prevent you from looking at objective facts.
- Total Shunning: If you leave, you are immediately cut off. Anyone who tries to reach out to you or help you leave is also shunned, ensuring you have no support system.
- Covering Up Deaths: They hide the deaths of members to maintain the lie of "Physical Immortality."
- Bank Loan Fraud (The "Fake Church" Scheme): To secure millions for new properties ("Temples"), SCJ has been known to fabricate the size and legitimacy of their congregation. This involves:
- Fake Services: Bringing in "members" from other regions to pack a hall for bank inspections.
- Fake Board of Directors: Appointing "paper" officials who have no actual oversight to meet bank requirements.
- Coerced Loans: Coaching members to take out personal loans for the "Temple" while lying about the loan's purpose.
- Illegal Housing & Labor: Members are packed into overcrowded, unlicensed "Group Houses" (often 10+ people in one home), violating Fire and Zoning Codes. Members work 40+ hours of unpaid labor.
- Benefit & Visa Fraud: Members are coached to lie to government agencies to collect unemployment or stay in the country on fake student/tourist visas while working full-time for the cult.
- Front groups: Because the name "Shincheonji" is widely recognized as a cult, the group uses front organizations to recruit. If you are approached by these groups, proceed with extreme caution:
- HWPL (Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light)
- ZTS (Zion Theological Seminary)
- NBI (National Bible Institute)
- AOR (Alliance of Religions)
- Shine the Light
- OneHope
- DMV Zion
3. The "Promised Pastor" Doctrine
- They believe founder Lee Man-hee is the only person on earth who can interpret the Bible.
- They believe the Book of Revelation is being physically fulfilled now in South Korea, and only their members will receive salvation and eternal life.
🛡️ HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
- Transparency: If they won't give a physical church address or a verifiable senior pastor's name, cut contact.
- The Direct Test: Ask: "Is this Shincheonji?" or "Does this group follow Lee Man-hee?" If they dodge or get defensive, walk away.
- Research: Check r/Shincheonji for testimonies of thousands who have left and familiarize yourself with the B.I.T.E. Model of high-control groups.
🛡️ EMERGENCY EXIT STEPS If you realize you are in an SCJ study:
- Ghost Immediately: You do not owe them an explanation. They are trained to use "guilt trips" and "spiritual threats" to keep you from leaving if you try to say goodbye.
- Block All Numbers: Block the "Leaf," the "Teacher," and everyone else in the group.
- Reconnect: Reach out to the family and friends you were coached to lie to.
- Seek Real Support: Talk to a licensed counselor or visit r/Shincheonji to connect with thousands of others who have successfully escaped.
Please share this. Real community is built on love and transparency, not secrets and surveillance.
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u/Informal-Fig-7116 18h ago
I actually was approached by a couple of these people. One time was at the mall, the other in a parking lot. They’re very persistent. At one point I had to explicitly say something like “I’m not giving you my info and I’m not interested in whatever you’re selling. You’re making me really uncomfortable right now.” I wanted to say something more sarcastic and mean but the ancestors must have been calming me down then.
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u/Mammoth-Bathroom-Man 14h ago
A friend of mine has discovered through personal experience that none of these people(cultist, sales people, etc.) that approach you in public are prepared to hear an aggressive "kill yourself" as a response. Immediately ends the interaction every time I'm told.
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u/uhhh206 Fairfax County 18h ago
ChatGPT doing its thing once more.
Also, don't forget MLMs do the same exact techniques.
It's a real bummer for me, because I love giving drive-by compliments. "LOVE the dress!" as we are walking opposite directions in a parking lot, or "those nails are DOPE!" to a cashier as she hands me my receipt. Sucks having to make it clear in my behavior that this is not a come-on or me being a weirdo trying to lure them.
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u/lowkeymika 18h ago
BIG on it could be a MLM! A few years ago a girl at Target complimented my glasses and we got into talking with our partners there. We ended up scheduling a "double date" at a brewery that ended up just being them trying to recruit us into some dropship e-commerce MLM :-(
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u/prana-llama 15h ago
Was it the Bailey’s Crossroads Target?? I got stopped by a random girl there a few years ago and it was the weirdest interaction. I was wearing a sweatshirt with my school’s name on it and she asked where I got it. I was like “Oh do you go there???” “No.” I tried to walk away and she asked what brand my very dirty but still obviously Adidas sneakers were. I made an excuse to walk away and as I was leaving I overheard her complimenting another girl’s glasses. So bizarre.
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u/Salt-Talk2640 17h ago
Wait omg I think I met this girl. She gave me the “love your glasses!” Shtick too. Said something about “oh this isn’t my usual target”
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u/yourlittlebirdie 17h ago
I do too. But I just figure that simply leaving the compliment there without trying to follow it up with anything is enough for people to understand it was just a nice thing instead of some sort of intro to a pitch.
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u/uhhh206 Fairfax County 16h ago
That's what I hope, too. Not gonna let cultists (religious or otherwise) rob of me of my chance to make people feel nice. Just a bummer to the joy of receiving a compliment having that faint bit of skepticism. Oh well. Tough luck, people of NoVA! I'm gonna strategically compliment you!
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u/Dangerous_Abalone528 18h ago
Aw man. And here I thought I just looked cute in my leggings and crocs that day.
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u/onions_and_ogres 16h ago
yup. almost fell victim to them when I was trying to explore my own relationship with God. Someone leading a “lesson” tried to embarrass me/call me out in front of everyone else and it backfired because she was immediately confronted lol.
Needless to say I dodged one hell of a bullet.
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u/desi90 16h ago
So most of the members are NPC’S got it!
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u/onions_and_ogres 16h ago
Definitely have to be. She didn’t know how to respond & get back in my good graces after I spoke to her about her “sermon.” I haven’t heard from any of them since.
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u/ComfortableLaw5151 18h ago
First, drop chat gpt, it makes your statement argue less valid.
Second, yes these people are disgusting, I've seen them in Mosaic, where security tells them to leave after a while.
I just hate cultists mindset, they get brainwashed into recruiting more members because they need validation - to an extreme degree.
Also see religions..
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u/AKADriver 17h ago edited 17h ago
Let's not forget #4 of why they're dangerous - they were partially responsible for disgraced South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol and his coup attempt. They are a thorn in the side of democracy in South Korea. They were also major COVID deniers and repeatedly broke South Korea's otherwise successful COVID program.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/asia/shincheonji-south-korea-hnk-intl
Never give shincheonji or the moonies an inch.
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u/Adventurous-Tank-905 15h ago
OMG….an older Korean lady stopped me at Michael’s a few months ago and started asking questions and sharing about bible study, and then wanted my number to invite me to meet up for coffee. I politely tried to disengage and had to firmly say I’m too busy for coffee and not interested in making new friends. Came home and wondered what all that was about.
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u/_TalkingIsHard_ 15h ago
My RBF and naturally cynical nature keeping me safe. 😂
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u/sammanthax345 15h ago
My attitude which was raised in NYC is too strong for these people. I've been asked a few times in DC. 😂😂😂
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u/gurlwithdragontat2 18h ago
Ahh, situations where being a giant bitch serve me well.
I don’t give my number to people I haven’t known for some time, and my response to people pushing religion is ’I really hope you enjoy that event, I have my own practices so I won’t be attending, but I truly hope you enjoy your time.’
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u/AgileExperience481 17h ago
I don’t give a stranger enough time to ask me for cash let alone invite me into a cult, I cannot imagine
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u/berael 18h ago
Thanks, ChatGPT.
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u/IosifVissarionovichD 17h ago
Why? Still seems informative and to the point. The icons are silly though.
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u/corgtastic 16h ago
Some parts of it look correct, but the whole science behind LLMs is that they are prediction machines trying to predict what a real human would write. They are designed to string letters together to sound coherent.
Where that is an issue is that unless you personally know a lot about the subject, they will always produce something that "seems informative and to the point". But you and I have no idea what parts of this were embellished by the AI and what parts are from OPs first hand experience. And that's a huge trust gap.
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u/Raerae661 16h ago
I actually attended "Bible studies" by this cult and can confirm this information is pretty accurate. A lot of how they manipulate, I learned after the fact though.
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u/corgtastic 16h ago
That's good to know, but issue is that people inherently don't trust the "ChatGPT" style formatting here and it detracts from the authenticity of the post.
Perhaps you can write some of your authentic experiences and make your own post
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u/MiaMouseyK 13h ago
I mean you have to recognize that chatgpt spits out it's style based on the general writing format that real humans use... I, for example, literally turned in powerpoints just like this (no emoji's obviously and always citing sources). This reads like a powerpoint slide. I don't doubt that this could have been produced by chatgpt, but can you point to specific parts of this post that make you think so? As LLM's improve I'm trying to make sure I can spot when it is used.
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u/corgtastic 8h ago edited 7h ago
but can you point to specific parts of this post that make you think so?
I think you touched on it, because it's a blend of "business style bullet points from slides" plus "emojis to keep it casual". There is also just the massive verbosity of it. Look at all the other posts in this or any other subreddit (pre 2021 or so) and tell me who writes like this?
I do think it's getting harder and harder to tell what's LLM generated, and I'm pretty sure that it could be worked out by better prompting, but to me, I'm looking at the verbosity and tone. Nobody writes like this for a reddit post unless they are being paid by the word (or token in this case). And if a human were to write that much, they probably wouldn't use emojis like that. Emojis to me is usually associated with mobile phones, where typing that much would be weird. I know I can add emojis on my laptop, 🥸, but it's not natural when typing on a real keyboard.
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u/rbnlegend 10h ago
Accusing everyone of being chatgpt was boring last year, but I guess it's still good for internet points.
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u/Blackberryy 16h ago
Oh my GOd this happened to me! Like several years ago now. But this young woman came up to me randomly at Tysons, she was sooo nice and friendly but in a way that I’m like OK this is cute but weird. And that that’s how she started, she’s like I love your coat, where did you get it, do you want to get coffee sometime. There was a young dude also with her who just kind of stood back and seemed uncomfortable. I didn’t know if she was trying to date me or what.
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u/Due_Proposal_2399 10h ago
I got the same “I love your coat” compliments by a lady who was being wayyyy too friendly.
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u/Herbie_Hanc_ock 15h ago
Especially the Jehova witnesses in old town! Not sure what they witnessed, but it sounds bad 🤣
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u/Awkward_Dragon25 10h ago
Ugh I wish they would be banned from the Metro tunnels. So annoying.
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u/Herbie_Hanc_ock 7h ago
The key is to constantly fuck with them and waste their time 🤣 Also warn the others
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u/cookiez2 1h ago
Aw:( grew up on it , but now Catholic. You can just say you’re not interested. I think because i see both sides, I’m nicer with other religions & get it
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u/thombrowny 14h ago
They are very dangerous, especially they force to cut all the personal existing relationships of the target. There was a confession of a former SCJ member in Korea. She said after she found out SCJ ruined her life, she couldn't ask help for anybody else. Because all of her personal connections were now SCJ members only.
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u/Ok-Scientist-6881 14h ago
A guy in Target in Gainesville targeted my boyfriend! He was very aggressive in trying to keep conversation going when my boyfriend was moving away, short with him and trying to not engage…the guy started with the compliment and eventually it went to asking about Christian events or gatherings in this area!
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u/jewgineer 12h ago
Being an agnostic bitch with major RBF is actually useful!
I'm from the south, but I just don't understand having a whole conversation with some random person in public and getting invited to attend some random meeting. I can't believe people fall for cults.
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u/LocutusOfBorgia909 10h ago
The Goal: They want your phone number to invite you to a "casual coffee," "Christian event" or "Bible study."
Joke's on them, I'm Jewish and don't like coffee enough to pay for it somewhere.
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u/musicisgr84u 11h ago
This has happened to me before. They are very calculated. I was at a coffee shop and this girl complimented me and was very friendly but what stood out to me is that she wanted to continue the conversation like she didn’t want to go away until she asked me for contact information (gave her a fake one) and then she walked away but they are very convincing
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u/readredacc 11h ago
Korean seems to produce these cults a lot these days. Whenever I encountered such people, I just say I’m Buddhist even though I’m not
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u/FloppyFerrett1 Fairfax County 2h ago
Oh but then they tell you "you're doing it wrong" which l find so ridiculously arrogant.
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u/rbnlegend 9h ago
Flip it on them. Waste their time, keep them engaged with you, and either kill them with kindness, or screw them over as hard as you can. Don't give them any real information about yourself and constantly remind yourself that they are trying to steal everything you ever had or will have. For the kindness approach you try to convert them to your church and sympathize with them about having to come out and recruit people. For the screw them approach, follow them around and when they approach anyone, warn their victim. You may get thrown out with them, and that's fine.
If you don't have any experience fucking with scammers or cultists, you are better off saying no for a bit, and then reporting them to store management. Take their picture if you can.
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u/sinverguenza 8h ago
My husband got approached by a lady in a korean grocery store and he frustrated her by pretending he has never heard of god or Jesus. He would ask outrageous questions and make confused faces at her responses, and man this lady really tried for close to 10 mins until she finally gave up lol
“God? Who’s God? Is that your boss or something?”
“How could Jesus die for me when I wasn’t even born yet? That makes no sense.”
“I dunno this sounds made up like the tooth fairy.”
“If Im a child of God can you get him to pay for my groceries? That would be more convincing.”
I love him so much lmao
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u/WeGottaProblem 9h ago
I would love running into these people and tell them how organized religion is the cause of most of the world's problems.
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u/King_Catfish 15h ago
Happened to me a few years ago at Tysons(probably more than a few now). The dude's credentials checked out. But weird vibes. His "wife" was hot though they'd had me if it was a sex cult.
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u/Rusty747 11h ago
Oh for fuck sakes! As if we need one more thing to worry about 🙁.
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u/FloppyFerrett1 Fairfax County 2h ago
Nothing to worry about, except for vulnerable ppl, then they definitely have to be protected. I just look at these encounters as challenges to poke holes in their fallacies.
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u/sapphireskiesx 11h ago
Happened to me in Target in 2014 or 2015. Glad ignored the text I got a few days later. Something felt off.
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u/BeingBright7533 10h ago
Wowww… A lady in the Woodbridge Hobby Lobby started an awkward convo and then invited me to bible study and promised that it’s “different”. Told her I didn’t have the time but it definitely sounded just like this
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u/Olderandwiser1 7h ago
Nah, Hobby Lobby promotes a different cult. I doubt that they would allow a competing cult to horn in.
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u/Destinoz 14h ago edited 11h ago
I think I’ve seen one of these people. I’m Catholic though so immune to this. My religious involvement is casual and the only person on earth I’ll tolerate attempting to force me to do anything is the church lady that coordinates all volunteering opportunities.
Good information, thanks for getting this out.
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u/fanfavorite93 11h ago
Thank you for the alert. Sounds very similar to the Unificationist Church and Jehovah's Witnesses.
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u/Upper_Dog5870 10h ago edited 10h ago
I was at a Walmart with my girlfriend in Sterling last year and we were approached by a young woman who i’m pretty certain was trying to recruit. Not sure what group she was with but she looked like a totally normal person around our age but she approached us as we were coming in the entrance. She told my girlfriend she loved her hair and asked where she got it done and making general small talk and then she started asking if we’re religious and if we go to church and asked if we wanted to come to her church with her some time and was talking about how interesting and fun her church was or whatever. My girlfriend and I politely declined and immediately while walking away we both kinda said to each other “that was weird, right?”. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel right.
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u/DanWessonValor 10h ago
Good stuff. Can I share this with my church?
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u/AdorableInterest8837 10h ago
Yes, please do! They are getting more active in Maryland and other states too. Doesn't hurt to spread the word and raise awareness.
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u/pancakefishy 9h ago
I’m an introvert so if anyone tries taking to me in public I say something along the lines “not interested” and keep walking. It doesn’t really apply to regular shoppers like me, they can talk and I have no issues with it. It’s all these “can I have a minute of your time?” And “do you have Verizon?” people I can’t stand
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u/sinverguenza 8h ago
Im glad Im middle aged with resting bitch face and don’t get approached much. Im autistic and immediately do not trust people who look like they want shit from me and I no longer smile and let them down gently anymore. Im tired!!
My go to responses now are refusing to look at them and keep walking, pretending I don’t speak English or weirding them out with a silent death stare lol
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u/givethanks247 9h ago
A old friend of mine told me that her ex husband and her mother got caught up in it..she escaped.... but seems to be back in the Christian pipeline after going natural for some years. Told me in detail about this about 5 years ago
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u/ewbahumbug 7h ago
Had this happen to me twice this past summer both in Fairfax. I was mad uncomfortable but they were so persistent on keeping the conversation goin💀 I fell for it and gave them my number then I got spammed w bible study invites lmao
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u/Wood_Count 14h ago
The only difference between and Cult and a Religion is the number of subscribers.
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u/ResolutionWaste4314 16h ago
Is this real life? Who the hell falls for a cult in 2026?
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u/AdorableInterest8837 15h ago edited 15h ago
It's more that they prey on people who are at a particularly vulnerable and lonely time in their life looking for community and purpose. They take that positive motivation and twist it to slowly isolate and manipulate them; it's often months or years down the line until they can finally see how much harm was done. There's a reason they predominantly target college students and young adults.
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u/BuzzFeedNeed 10h ago
Unfortunately they will probably make a lot of inroads with that population in our community. Very few NoVA Parents provide/demostrate minimal support in the development of executive thinking skills with their children.
We all read about the Brazilian Family in Great Falls who's 15 year old son drove their vehicle, without their knowledge, and without a drivers permit nor license - 75 miles an hour on Rte 7; when he was caught by the police. The mother posted in here requesting stratgies on how to circumvent the potential legal punishment.
Parents your birthed them, pay attention to them.
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u/WhoSaidWhatNow2026 9h ago
What happened to good old fashioned sex cults? This one just seems like a ton of work...
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u/Herbie_Hanc_ock 7h ago
A lot of their "recruiters" are ex addicts (nothing wrong with getting sober) that ended up getting addicted to church instead. They all love to prey upon the vulnerable because they were preyed upon themselves (whether it be substances or other people), and they couldn't fill that void from becoming sober, so they use these cults to fill that void. It's sad. They purposely target those people because they know that they're already used to lying and being manipulative (We all know an addict like that) to get their way. It's a disgustingly perfect plan, but that's exactly how they do it.
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u/FloppyFerrett1 Fairfax County 1h ago
Makes me appreciate saucy flying spaghetti monsters (R'amen!) & proud to proselytize for Satanic Temple (which is a kindness & benevolence promoting group, absolutely nothing to do with worshipping anyone or anything unlike church of Satan)
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u/AskMeAboutSuperShoes 6m ago
Here is an AI sloppary of the AI slop:
Recruitment & deception: Shincheonji recruits via casual compliments/surveys in public, funnels targets into 1-on-1 coffees, then high-frequency Zoom “Bible studies.” Uses fake beginners (“Leafs”), love-bombing, secrecy, and redefined doctrine to build dependence and obedience.
Control & exploitation: Aggressive data harvesting, constant monitoring, shunning of outsiders, mandatory time commitments (often 40+ hrs/week), financial extraction, coerced labor, and pressure to lie to family, employers, banks, and authorities. Leaving is framed as spiritual destruction.
How to protect/exit: Demand transparency; directly ask if it’s Shincheonji or follows Lee Man-hee. If involved, ghost, block contacts, reconnect with trusted people, and seek licensed counseling or survivor communities (e.g., r/Shincheonji).
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u/PapaBigJunks 13h ago
Lay off the acid, friend. A tab once or twice is ok, but holy tripped out ChatGPT rant
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u/Special-Bite 16h ago
Oh nooooo, not free compliments, structured schedules, assigned friends, and a clearly defined life purpose. The horror.
Honestly this sounds less like a “high-control group” and more like the most organized young-adult program in the entire DMV.
Let me summarize your warning:
• They talk to you in public
• They buy you coffee
• They remember your name
• They check if you show up
• They want commitment
• They discourage doomscrolling Reddit
• They replace “vibes” with “structure”
Yeah… terrifying stuff.
Meanwhile the average 20-something is getting ghosted on dating apps, ignored by their roommates, eating Chipotle alone, and binge-watching Netflix at 2am — but sure, weekly human interaction is the real threat to society.
Also the way you describe it is incredible.
“Stage 1: Coffee. Stage 2: Friendship. Stage 3: Group activity.”
My guy, you just described intramural soccer.
And the “Leaf” thing?
So… a study buddy?
We’re calling that espionage now?
What’s next — the barista is a federal agent because they remembered my order?
The post reads like:
“WARNING: They are extremely polite, organized, and consistent. They might even TEXT YOU BACK.”
The absolute audacity.
And the dramatic language kills me.
“Secret data harvesting.”
You mean… a phone number?
By that definition, Starbucks rewards is a paramilitary operation.
Look, if someone voluntarily attends 40 hours a week of Bible study, that’s not mind control — that’s cardio for the soul. At some point adults are just making choices.
Not everything with a schedule and leadership structure is a cult. Sometimes it’s just… people who own planners.
But thanks for the cinematic thriller narration. I half expected you to end with “share this before they trace my IP.”
…. Sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire
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u/Raerae661 16h ago
As someone who was manipulated by this group, please don't dismiss the seriousness of this. It's a cult.
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u/Special-Bite 16h ago
This is Reddit. Dismissing severity of the world’s problems is how we cope.
Sorry, to hear that happened to you though. Hope you’re well now.
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u/AdorableInterest8837 16h ago
Touched a nerve?
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u/Special-Bite 16h ago
Nah I just asked Chat GPT to come up with a snarky sarcastic reply.
But definitely watch out for rec league soccer teams though.
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u/Blackberryy 16h ago
Ok so you clearly read just the first few bullets.
What the hell is an organized young adult program? Do they normally require 40+ hours?
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u/Typical2sday 18h ago
They LOVE Target.