The Words of the Burton Family
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The Words of the Burton Family |
As Unificationists in the United States, Korea and Japan gain attention in mainstream media for their religious-freedom struggle, they mourned sad news of faith-breaking attacks on their brothers and sisters in Japan.
A letter renouncing faith in the Unification Church has been received from one of the remaining three Japanese Unification Church members who were reported to be suffering confinement by family members and professional faith breakers, according to Unificationist sources in Japan.
"One of the three Japanese Unification Church members is still living in her place of confinement and refused to communicate to Unification Church members, according to Mr. Shunsuke Uotani, a Unification Church member and vice-secretary general of the Universal Peace Federation in Japan. The two other church members who were reported to be confined apparently have their freedom now, but are not associating with their Unificationist colleagues.
"We regret to report that it is highly possible all three members have renounced their faith, judging by present circumstances," Mr. Uotani writes.
Since 1969 more than 4,300 members of the Unification Church have been kidnapped and confined by misguided relatives and opponents of the church, according to Mr. Dan Fefferman, President of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom. Some of the victims have been beaten, sexually assaulted or tortured while in captivity.
"When our members renounced their faith, it is common that they publicly say, 'I was not kidnapped nor confined at all. I have spent a time with my parents to discuss about my religion. It was a peaceful talk with family members,'" Mr. Uotani explains. However, the confinement of Mrs. Nanae Goto from 1988 to 1991 included frequent beatings from her father and death threats, she testified to activists of the American Clergy Leadership Conference on April 17 in Washington, D.C.
Reacting to the news of the renunciation letter, Mrs. Goto tells Familyfed.org: "I hope the letter was written so that a member could escape," she says, adding: "I found truth in Divine Principle, the doctrine of Unification Church, and that's why I resisted the kidnappers who deceived and manipulated my parents to spend more than $100,000 to confine me. Since I returned to the Unification Church, I have been living my dream. I have a great husband, a wonderful teenage son and a meaningful career."
It is also true that many Unificationist victims of confinement have signed letters of renunciation in order to get free. Mr. Toru Goto (not related to Nanae Goto) has stated that he submitted such a letter after his first confinement in the early 90s. During his second confinement that lasted for 12 and a half years, his captors would not accept his letter as genuine.
Mr. Fefferman reacted to the news in an email to familyfed.org on April 30: "As of March 1, 2010, there were five Unification Church members, whose ages ranged between 22 and 60, who had been kidnapped and were undergoing faith-breaking while confined against their will. Their status may now have changed. Based on past experience, this is due either to the fact that 1) the faith breakers were successful in pressuring the church member to renounce his or her faith or 2) the member has pretended to renounce his or her faith as a way to escape from the captors.
"Such developments dramatize the urgency for police to investigate reports by minority religious communities of missing persons suspecting to be victims of forced conversion attempts," Mr. Fefferman's statement continued.
Since the issue of kidnapping and confinement was reported on familyfed.org in the summer of 2009, only one formerly confined member was rescued from her place of imprisonment on Oct. 23, 2009 and has now returned to the church.
The New York Post on April 27 published a photo gallery illustrating a press conference in Seoul on April 21. www.nypost.com for the news www.nypost.com/t/Unification_Church%211#topic_photo_div#ixzz0mcUlGDx4.
The caption of the first photo had the following text: "Japanese members of the Unification Church who are married to South Korean men take part in a news conference in Seoul April 21, 2010. The Unification Church members want the South Korean and Japanese governments to ensure they are safe to return to Japan as they fear their relatives might forcibly detain them and make them renounce their religion. The Korean characters on the yellow sash read, "Please free us from fears of detention and kidnapping".
On April 28 the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest law firm focused on issues of religious liberty, began tracking the coverage in the New York Post and the Examiner.com.