Preventing the "undercurrent" of heresy

If in the past, heretical religions often had simple philosophies, mainly aimed at gullible, gullible people, low-educated people or people living in rural areas, remote areas with limited access to information, now, the "new generation" heretical religions mainly cover themselves with carefully calculated and researched covers, through borrowing the teachings of orthodox religions, at the same time implementing sophisticated proselytizing tricks, thoroughly taking advantage of the development of social networks to attract many participants. The infiltration of illegal religious activities into large cities is increasing, causing unpredictable consequences that require timely identification and prevention.

Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a document requesting the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to strengthen their work of grasping the situation, promptly detecting and resolutely fighting and eliminating the Church of God the Mother in terms of organization.

The specific requirement is that local authorities synchronously implement solutions: Disband and revoke licenses for religious groups, do not allow these organizations to regroup or form new activity venues; do not accept registration of activities in any form.

In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairs requested that localities organize information and propaganda on illegal activities and harmful effects caused by the Church of God the Mother; Party committees, the Fatherland Front , authorities, organizations... increase information and dissemination to cadres, civil servants, public employees, workers, union members, association members and propagate to students to clearly understand the nature, behavior, tricks, and methods of operation of the Church of God the Mother to raise vigilance and avoid being lured...

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a document requesting the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to strengthen their work of grasping the situation, promptly detecting and resolutely fighting against and eliminating the Church of God the Mother in terms of organization.

The specific requirement is that local authorities synchronously implement solutions: Disband and revoke licenses for religious groups, do not allow these organizations to regroup or form new activity venues; do not accept registration of activities in any form.

From this, it can be seen that, although many cases have been discovered, after consecutive warnings from the Ministry of Public Security , the Government Committee for Religious Affairs and a number of sectors, organizations and localities, it seemed that the activities of the Church of God the Mother would be eliminated from life, but this illegal religious organization still persists, with complicated developments, requiring stronger and more drastic intervention from sectors, localities as well as the whole community.

The appearance of the Church of God the Mother in particular and illegal religious activities in general are not new problems in Vietnam, however, at each stage there are different manifestations, with increasingly sophisticated levels.

Not only confined to one area, many evil cults have the ambition to spread to all provinces and cities in the country to attract many participants, causing negative consequences.

It is noteworthy that recently some evil cults have found ways to penetrate and penetrate deep into urban areas - which are often considered to have a higher level of education than the general level of the country. The construction of the "philosophy" of some evil cults today is also very sophisticated, expressed by borrowing or relying on the teachings of orthodox religions and directing listeners to follow their intentions. This is the reason why many educated people can still fall into the "arms" of evil cults. For example, a group of evil cults propagates the cure of all diseases based on the principles of "energy medicine", with methods such as yoga, meditation, qigong... which are methods of training the body and mind that are known to many people.

The emergence of the Church of God the Mother in particular and illegal religious activities in general are not new problems in Vietnam, but at each stage there are different manifestations, the level is increasingly more sophisticated. Not only concentrated in one area, many evil cults have the ambition to spread to all provinces and cities in the country to attract many people to participate, causing negative consequences.

Borrowing concepts and principles from methods that have been around for thousands of years has helped this group easily build trust with its participants.

Similar to borrowing and relying on religions and accepted methods, the Church of God the Mother also uses them to build trust with the people they want to attract. Specifically, this group has exploited and used the doctrines, canons, and rituals of Catholicism and the Seventh-day Adventist Protestant sect. The sermons and "propagandists" of the Church quote many verses from the Bible, making it easy for listeners to believe. However, the nature of the quotation has been separated from the context, making the content of the quote no longer have the original meaning.

In general, to easily deceive and lure participants, the current "new generation" of evil cults borrows the principles, methods, and scriptures of recognized religions, beliefs, and cultural phenomena, then "transforms" them to serve their impure purposes. Notably, evil cults thoroughly take advantage of new methods of propagation through the application of technology to build, promote, and "polish" their images, especially images of charitable activities, relief, and environmental actions...

Social networks are the main channel for them to search for and develop a system of "followers". This is one of the reasons why "new generation" cults take root and spread quickly in urban areas. The method of approaching the target often "hits" the psychological needs of people such as the need to share and sympathize in life; discuss health issues, or base on the story of the target to lure... For people who lack information, lack understanding, and are lured by cults, "liberating" them is somewhat easier.

Because when provided with enough information and knowledge, they can easily recognize mistakes to change. On the contrary, the infiltration of evil into groups of highly educated people causes unpredictable social consequences. Because these are often prestigious people in the family and society, when they carry out the responsibility of believers to spread ideology and develop new members, they will have many advantages, easily attract participants, so the consequences are also very complicated.

Social networks are the main channel for them to search for and develop a system of "followers". This is one of the reasons why "new generation" cults take root and spread quickly in urban areas. The method of approaching the target often "hits" the psychological needs of people such as the need to share and sympathize in life; discuss health issues, or base on the story of the target to lure... For people who lack information, lack understanding, and are lured by cults, "liberating" them is somewhat easier.

After attracting a large number of participants, the cults gradually revealed their superstitious, unscientific, and anti-cultural nature, such as defaming the custom of ancestor worship and respect for grandparents and parents. At the same time, while initially joining some cult groups is free, gradually, participants will have to pay fees, and the higher the level, the higher the fee.

Along with that are activities under the name of "charity", supporting the "church" but in the form of multi-level marketing, with a coercive nature that makes participants spend a lot of money. There are even people who spend tens of millions of dong to fly abroad to meet the "religious leader", withdraw all their savings to contribute to the "religious leader"... Like the Church of God the Mother, the propaganda about the "end of the world" makes many people fall into sadness, all day thinking only about the "kingdom of God", needing to rely on the activities of the representatives of the Church to wash away all sins.

As a result, believers have to pay 10% of their income to the Church or large sums of money to perform rituals... Many people after following the evil religion have fallen into the situation of "losing money and suffering"; conflicts with family and friends; living pessimistically, depending on sermons; denying scientific advances, believing in "magic" to cure diseases instead of going to medical facilities...

The Party and State of Vietnam always consistently implement the policy of respecting and ensuring people's freedom of belief and religion, the right to follow or not to follow a religion; ensuring equality and non-discrimination on the basis of religion or belief.

However, religious and belief activities must be within the framework of the law. At the same time, the Party and the State are also determined to prevent heretical cults and those who take advantage of religion and belief to violate national security, territorial sovereignty, and the legitimate interests of the people. Preventing "new generation" heretical cults is not an easy task, requiring new approaches suitable to current practices. Accordingly, competent agencies as well as authorities at all levels need to heighten vigilance, proactively detect and promptly prevent illegal activities of heretical cults, especially in cyberspace, to strictly handle them, as a basis for warning the people.

At the same time, all levels and sectors need to take measures to help improve the "resistance" of the community. To do this, there needs to be synchronous coordination in propaganda and mobilization work between all levels and sectors, from the central to local levels. People need to be informed early about evil cults, as well as the plots of hostile and extremist elements who want to take advantage of religion and belief for personal gain, sabotage the State, and cause social disorder.

At the same time, the authorities continue to strengthen the dissemination of information on the activities of legal religions and beliefs; the beauty in the nation's cultural and religious traditions so that the community can perceive right and wrong, thereby forming self-awareness in the work of prevention and participation in the fight against illegal activities in the religious field.

In addition to general measures, for the residential communities in urban areas, there should be additional measures appropriate to the level and living habits of the community. First of all, propaganda and mobilization work must be strongly deployed on mass media as well as cyberspace. It is necessary to set up information pages to expose the plots and tricks of illegal religious organizations in general, especially the "new generation" cults.

For urban residents with a high level of education, it is necessary to diversify forms of propaganda, regularly have clips, livestreams presenting in a scientific and easy-to-understand way how to distinguish between religions and beliefs that are allowed to operate and evil cults; common manifestations of evil cults, the harmful effects of evil cults on life. In particular, information pages need to create interactions, promptly answer concerns and questions of the community.

Mass organizations such as the Fatherland Front, the Association of the Elderly, the Veterans Association, the Women's Union, the Youth Union... must enhance their responsibility to their members in preventing heresy through the work of grasping public opinion, propagating and disseminating the law.

Source: https://baosonla.org.vn/thoi-su-chinh-tri/ngan-chan-song-ngam-ta-dao-LSVEzxZSg.html