On August 13, seven religious organizations, including the Council for Christian Mutual Growth, the Korea Christian Leaders Training Institute, the Pastors Alliance for Life and Human Rights, the Russian Evangelical Alliance, and the Thai Evangelical Alliance Association, convened the 1st Joint Assembly of World Pastors. The assembly, held both online and offline, drew some 3,000 pastors from major countries worldwide to sharply criticize the violations of religious freedom and the undermining of the separation of church and state in the Republic of Korea. The presenters, including overseas pastors from Russia and Zambia, spoke with one voice: what is happening in South Korea today is not the problem of one denomination or one country.
Rev. Im Young-woong, senior pastor of Saehimang Church of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, opened by raising the dangers of the debate over dissolving religious corporations in an international context. He cited Japan's Unification Church case, where the Tokyo District Court issued a dissolution order in March 2025 and the Supreme Court finalized it in June 2026. 'What was dissolved in Japan was not the faith itself but its legal status as a religious corporation, yet the practical impact on the religious community is by no means small,' he said. Rev. Im pointed to Article 38 of Korea's Civil Act, which allows a corporation's establishment permit to be revoked for 'acts that harm the public interest,' and questioned, 'Who decides what harms the public interest, and by what standard?' He referenced the 2020 case where the Seoul Metropolitan Government revoked the establishment permit of an incorporated association linked to Shincheonji, and the December 2025 Cabinet meeting where the President ordered a review of the possibility of dissolving domestic religious organizations. 'Our concerns are becoming reality,' he warned. He stressed that investigating an individual's criminal allegations and making an entire religious community a target for dissolution are matters on entirely different levels. 'The most dangerous thing is that it is not objective criminal facts but social unpopularity that operates as grounds for dissolution,' he said, invoking Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: religious freedom must not vary according to whether a religion is old or new, a majority or a minority.
Rev. Vitaly Kirillovich Vlasenko, General Secretary of the Russian Evangelical Alliance, presented on the theme 'Public opinion cannot be a verdict.' He said, 'Is it truly just that the legal standard applied to a religion and its leader should change simply because that religion has become an object of social hatred?' He noted the situation in 2020 when a national petition demanding the forced dissolution of Shincheonji surpassed 500,000 signatures within two days and later exceeded one million. 'An atmosphere formed as if society had already handed down its verdict before the court had even held a trial,' he said. However, he pointed out that the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea ultimately acquitted Chairman Lee Man-hee of the charge of violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. 'A court is not an institution that judges a person wholesale as a good person or a bad person; it is a place that examines the evidence for each specific charge and distinguishes guilt from innocence,' he emphasized. Turning to the current situation where Chairman Lee has been detained on charges of violating the Political Parties Act, he urged, 'The legal standard must be applied equally to everyone.'
Bishop Elias Elijah Changa, founder and president of the Zambia-based Missionary Ambassadors for Global Evangelism, raised the questions of due process and human dignity based on his prison-ministry experience. He said, 'The administration of justice and the protection of human dignity must go together.' While acknowledging that Chairman Lee has long worked for peace-building through HWPL's international activities, he insisted that 'disagreement over his beliefs must not determine how he is treated.' He noted through his prison ministry that detention causes especially serious hardship for the elderly, and asked the competent authorities to consider lawful alternatives such as bail, residence restriction, or medical accommodation. 'We are not demanding that Chairman Lee receive special treatment because he is a religious leader; we are asking that the fairness, dignity, and universal rights owed to everyone be extended equally to him,' he stated.
The assembly closed with the announcement of a 'Joint Statement' adopted with the signatures of Christian leaders from around the world. The statement demanded that the government and political circles immediately cease using specific religions, including Shincheonji, as tools of political strife and suppression, and fully guarantee universal religious freedom; that the judiciary halt trials by public opinion and uphold the presumption of innocence for the very elderly religious leader; and that the court grant the bail request of the very elderly leader and release him immediately. The organizers stated, 'The cases presented here are not the problem of one denomination alone but a grave warning signal spanning religious freedom in the Republic of Korea as a whole,' and 'Until the government and judicial authorities return to fair justice and the principle of separation of church and state, we will continue our response in solidarity with international human-rights organizations and the churches of the world.'
