Fake News that “The Church of Almighty God Is Anti-Family” Debunked by Italian Courts

Two Italian court decisions quote scholarly studies to reject the fake news depicting The Church of Almighty God as “against the family.”

A widespread fake news about The Church of Almighty God, a large Christian new religious movement severely persecuted in China, is that it is “against the family” and “break families.” Unfortunately, the fake news has been spread by Western media in articles available on the Internet, and mentioned in old official reports by the Canadian immigration authorities still available in the data base of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)—although no longer used in Canada, where most asylum requests of The Church of Almighty God refugees are now granted.

As a result, when refugees from The Church of Almighty God tell immigration boards that they have been converted by members of their family, or that in turn they have converted relatives, their testimonies are rejected as not believable and asylum is denied, with the argument that “this is impossible, since it is well known that the Church is against the family.”

FALSE DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE CHURCH OF ALMIGHTY GOD REFUGEES START IN SOUTH KOREA

Executing a secret plan that Bitter Winter revealed one month ago, the CCP brings to Korea relatives of asylum seekers of The Church of Almighty God and organizes false “spontaneous demonstrations” with the help of pro-Chinese anti-cult activists.

On August 4, 2018, Bitter Winter published a secret document by the Chinese Communist Party calling for harassment in South Korea of the asylum seekers of The Church of Almighty God (CAG), a Chinese Christian new religious movement heavily persecuted in China. The CCP called for the recruitment of the relatives of the asylum seekers who still live in China, if necessary through threats and coercion, who would then call for the “return home” of the refugees (who obviously would not return “home” but, once in China, will be arrested and will thus “return” to jail). The plan also sought the cooperation of pro-Chinese activists in South Korea and anti-cultists hostile to the CAG.

Bitter Winter has now learned that the CCP’s plan is being put into execution. On August 27, Ms. O Myung-ok (吴明玉Wu Mingyu), a pro-Chinese and anti-CAG activist, published several reports on some pro-Chinese and/or anti-cult Korean media, including Religion and Truth, releasing fake news claiming that CAG members are false refugees and are abusing the refugee system, and that the belief in Almighty God leads to family disruption. These reports strongly called for the deportation of CAG members back to China.