imherenowarenti

[imherenowarenti]

I was going to wait until I had this blog up and running before I did another giveaway, but this one is so near and dear to my heart that I couldn’t wait. 

I have been a fan of kpop since 2015, and I first fell in love with Super Junior. But only a few months later I listened to SHINee and fell in love with their music and their style. I was devestated to learn of Jonghyun’s passing and vowed that I would make him proud if I ever got the chance to do so. 

For those of you who don’t know, Jonghyun’s last album Artist | Poet, will be released on January 24, and all proceeds will go to his family. Something I want to do is give away albums to fans who might not be able to afford this album but truly want it. 

I’m not doing this for a pat on the back, I don’t want to gain anything from this. But Jonghyun was someone who I personally admired and I want to do something for his fans who loved and admired him as well. So here are the rules. 

001. you must reblog and/or like this post to be entered into the giveaway (you can reblog as many times as you want

002. you must be comfortable giving me your phone number (this is just in case you’re international and it requires it)

003. you must enter by February 1st. That is when I will end the giveaway and notify the winners.

004. there will be three winners 

005. you don’t have to follow me or anything like that, just reblog and like.

My hope with this give away is to give something to fans who want some sort of closure from Jonghyun. He was an amazing human being, and we’re lucky enough to get a final album from him, my hope is that people find peace after hearing it. 

Again please understand that i’m not trying to gain from this, I just want to do something kind for his fans who loved him dearly and miss him.

[imherenowarenti]

Coffee with God

Of the long list of questionable things I’ve done in my short life, including the time I tried washing a part of my face with a Mr.Clean sponge (which, fortunately, only caused some dry patches of skin. And was cured with a good cream. My friends had a good laugh at me.).  What I’ve done on the 8th of August in the year of 2017, might just top that list.

About a week and a half prior to that date I was approached by two Korean women. I didn’t think much of it at first, I thought they must be tourists asking for directions, which happens often. But these women have come to talk to me about God (wanting to give me directions apparently) Now, my family is Catholic, I am well aware of God, but I spared them the few minutes I could kill. Seeing I had nothing to do until I had to go meet my friend. So while sitting on the top of a terrace of a mall in Ottawa, I watched this introduction video to the World Mission Society Church of God.

The World Mission Society Church of God was first founded, although not under that name, in 1964, in South Korea, by a man who goes by the name of Ahn Sahng-Hong. He, by the way, grew up in a Buddhist family and later joined the seven-day Adventist (a church that has faced a lot of criticism for unorthodox practice) and then founded his own church, Witness of Jesus church of God. He preached that he was showing the true teachings of the Bible, that mainstream churches have strayed from the path of truth. He went further and said that the second coming of Christ (or of God) has happened and he has come in the form of himself. Yes, ladies and gentleman, he is back and he is so conveniently in the man who formed the church, quite the miracle. And after his death in 1985, God has transferred himself inside of Jang Gil-Ja. The Co-Founder, along side Kim Joo-Cheol, of what is now known today as the World Mission Society Church of God. Neat right?

The church has been said to have a very effective tactic to make you join their church: fear and a big serving of guilt, not entirely uncommon for Christianity. By chance, their guilt tactic has worked on me. Because for the light of me I don't know why I agreed to meet them again. It must have been the promise of a free cup of coffee, that or the inability to say no. Whatever the reason, during this second meeting the women brought with them their English speaking friend. He then spent two hours teaching me about the bible. Specifically, he talked about the passage concerning the wheat and the weeds. This passage, as I was informed was to let the people know that lies have been placed in religion.

The first lie he talked about was that modern Christianity has added pagan traditions, like Christmas (a holiday to worship the sun) and Easter (a holiday to worship the goddess of fertility and of the sun- ancient civilization had a thing for the sun. But who can blame them, it is the source of all life.). They no longer stay to the one celebration that should be done, which is the pass over*.

And the second lie, according to their teachings, is that the true holy day, the day on which you celebrate and worship God was not on the Sunday of every week but actually on Saturday. They called this the sabbath day, and again, the fact that it was moved to Sunday has its sources in Paganism. It was placed as a day to worship the sun, and of course, heretic.

And that was that, I left with a promise I’d meet them again for coffee and more bible talk. At this point, I decided to keep going because the information did interest me, from a historical point of view. Not to mention I’ve never had encounters with people of such groups, and I guess you can say I was curious about what they were all about.

On our third meeting, (this being the 8th of August) the same group came to meet me on a campus of a university. This time we sat down and he started talking about Daniel. Daniel was a priest during the Babylonian time that, with the help of God, interpreted the king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king’s dream was said to be a prophecy, telling him of the rise and fall of several kingdoms.**It further said that an evil will come to lead astray God’s people. The evil that is going to lead the world astray is, according to WMSCG, is the papacy. They believe that the devil has come back in the form of the pope and the Roman Catholic church. This, admittedly, floored me. All the things about celebrations that are not originally part of Christianity didn't really come as a surprise. But saying the pope is the devil is quite the accusation. But they have proof, in Daniel’s dream he brings up four ways to recognize this evil. These being: One, he will speak against the Most High, second he will oppress his holy people, thirdly he will try to change the set times and the laws.  Lastly, the holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time. At the time the prophecy was explained to me, It all made great sense, although now I can’t make heads or tail of it.

And after this, it takes a strange turn, because after the big revelation that the pope is the devil. I was dropped quite a bomb of a question. “Do you want to get baptized today? because you never know what might happen.” I’m sure at that point I must have looked like a deer caught in the head lights, and they thought that to be very funny. I spent a good minute to try and figure out if they were being serious, and they were completely serious. And then I spent another minute to weight out my options. The conclusion I came to is: “well I don't have any other plans today.”. So I found myself in a car with three other people listening to dull music and seriously wondering if I should be placed in a mental institution. After a short ten minute drive, in which I started to silently laugh like a maniac, we arrived in a residential area. They haven’t found a place of worship yet, so their place of operation was an in a nice one-floor house with an open concept and finished basement.

The baptism itself wasn’t bad. I was asked to step in a bathroom, where I had to change into a robe specifically for the baptism. I then kneeled inside a bathtub where one of the men there started reciting a prayer, I only had to say Amen at the indicated time. At that point I was shaking a bit but for two reasons. The first was because the coffee I had earlier was starting to have an effect, the second because I was having a hard time from stopping myself from laughing. Right at the moment, as the water was poured on me, I realized how absurd this situation was. Here, next to me was a man praying in a dull voice, all the while the people outside the washroom were signing. I was participating in something I did not believe in along side people I barely knew. But, alas I was able to go through it and the baptism was finished with no fuss or notice of my laughing state. I was then asked to fill in this sheet, because even religion needs a signup sheet, and then went to have the pass over. With no wine, unfortunately.

And so here I was a full fledged cult member. Well maybe the word cult is too strong, the politically correct thing to say would be a religious movement. And just by looking there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this religious movement, the members all seemed nice and genuine. Although, after some research, I found out that there are reports from ex-members that the church does suspicious things. For one they constantly try to isolate their members from people on the outside. Yes they do have jobs and they can walk around town, but they are often pressured them into spending all their free time at church and studying the bible. Often families with a relative in the Church say that they don’t see that person anymore and when they do, those people tend to criticize their beliefs. Secondly, the members are encouraged to give 10-15% of their paycheque to the church. That is a lot of money if your church has over 150 000 members. Lastly, they exercise a lot of control over their members, choosing who their members marry or date. Going as far as telling a person to get an abortion if they wanted it. And of course they have to, or else you can find yourself being kicked out. It’s complete obedience and devotion or nothing. It seems just a weekend option for the casual cult goer is not available. Not to mention, they often treat the women of their church like children, myself have been more than once addressed in a condescending tone by the men I’ve had contact with.

My story with the WMSCOG ended shortly for my part, since that day I’ve never gone back to that house nor have I met with them outside. I was invited to come to worship but I ignored them, I decided it would not be worth it not even on a learning level all the while knowing I'd make my family worry. I’ve also blocked them through all ways of communications they’ve had with me. I was never worried about ever being ‘stuck’ in the Church. My motives were that of pure curiosity and not in a search for a path. But I can’t stop myself from thinking about the amount of people who have fallen in the fear of the end and have traded their life for a promise of an eternal life. About how many families have lost a son, aunt, cousin, to a cause that often tries to prey on the victims and the confused. I was lucky, but there are some that aren’t and there are some, when they leave the church find themselves feeling scared or guilty. I feel bad for those two women who first approached me, because they are so nice but so naive and how, no matter what I could tell them they wouldn't be convinced to rethink their participation in this church.

Information regarding the teachings of the WMSCG or Biblical matter  Disclaimer: I am no scholar on this subject I only know what has been conveyed to me by the members I’ve met and some extra research I’ve done.

*The pass over day, in the old testament, is the day once a year where believers would paint blood on top of their front door at twilight so God would know who are his real followers. And for every house that didn’t have blood, he would punish them by killing their child (they’re first born I believe). But in the new testament, the one with Jesus, the pass over is celebrated through the last supper, and so now once a year, the people of the WMSCG have the pass over. In order to fill your soul with life. And the practice of having communion every Sunday is false.

**In the king's dream he was presented with a statue. “The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly, and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.” Daniel, Chapter 2. In the dream, each part of the body, or metal, all represented a kingdom that has come to power. In order form head to toes: the Babylonian, the Persians, the Greek, the Roman, and lastly the division of Rome into ten kingdoms.