Even as the world is yet to come out of the Wuhan virus unleashed by China, it seems like it is brewing another potion to foment trouble in other countries. This time, with a Chinese female Jesus cult. The Church of Almighty God. This is the name of a new Chinese Christian cult that is allegedly making inroads in India. This group is also called the Eastern Lightning Cult.
The Church of Almighty God believes that Jesus has returned as a Chinese woman named Yang Xiangbin. It widely propagates its beliefs through social media platforms such as WhatsApp and YouTube and this cult has claimed a lot of followers both online and offline.
It promotes doomsday scenarios amongst its followers and targets youth and marginalized women who have limited education and family problems to recruit them into their group. For all the love that Jesus preaches, this particular cult is violent in nature. The beauty of it all is the fact that it has been banned in its own parent country China.
A violent cult
The Church of Almighty God is not a brand new cult. In the 1960s and 70s, a Church named Shouters led by Li Changshou, alias Witness Lee, that was gaining popularity and followers. The Church of Almighty God follows the same teachings that the Shouters followed. In 1991 a few ‘scholars’ identified a woman called Yang Xiangbin, who, they believed was the messiah, who had returned in her form. Other than the fact that she was born in northwestern China, not much is known about her.
Member of the Church of Almighty God have involved in various violent incidents. In 2014, a 37 year old woman was killed by the cult members at McDonald’s outlet in China as she refused to give her number.
Widespread ritots broke out in China after the group used propaganda videos, pamphlets and movie scenes of the doomsday movie ‘2012’ to make people join their cult and hail their female Jesus as the saviour. A woman and 23 students were stabbed to death in Henan province. More than 100 members belonging to this missionary group were arrested.
Concerns raised by Christians in Nagaland
It has been reported that there has been increased activity of this cult in the Northeast, which is in close proximity to China. This cult has been linked with more than 100 incidents of violence, and is rapidly moving towards gaining a foothold in the North-East India.
The Nagaland Baptist Church, which is the central organisation of nearly 1,500 Baptist churches in Nagaland, claims that this organisation is trying to reach people across India, especially the youth through digital platforms. Dr Zelhou Keyho, who is a member of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council, has said that this outfit is a grave threat to the country as well as the world, and should be immediately clamped down.
Another weapon of China?
While China denies any ties with the cult, and has even clamped down on them in its own country, its words and actions cannot be treated at face value.
It is not to be believed that China is indeed against this cult, because, this treatment is not unique to it. Since China is officially atheist, clampdown on religion is a regular affair in the Communist country. The Chinese government wants citizens to know and follow only one religion — the Communist Party of China. So, it made an example out of the Church of Almighty God and continues to crush all religions – Christianity, Islam or Buddhism. The mistreatment of the Uighur Muslims or its extermination of Buddhists in Tibet is a testament to how China treats religions.
Following their ban in their native country, the group now operates entirely online. They recruit mainly youth and also anyone interested in joining this cult. But, here’s the million-dollar question. If this cult had been prohibited from operating in China, where is it getting its funds from? More importantly, who is funding it in India? How is it gaining presence in India? Is China erasing any trace of this organisation in its own country so it could wreak havoc elsewhere in the world? These are questions that are yet to be answered in this regard, and one can only think if this is yet another China product that will be blowing up in our face when we least expect it to.