‘We’re treated like criminals’: South Korean sect feels coronavirus backlash

As testing begins on thousands linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, members fear being blamed amid recriminations over the outbreak

Had it been any other week, Ji-yeon Park, a 26-year-old nail artist, would have been at her twice-a-week bible study with her fellow Shincheonji worshippers. Instead, she says, her life has come to a halt as she worries about her church and if she, too, has been infected.

Jiyeon is one of 230,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a doomsday sect at the heart of the Covid-19 outbreak in South Korea, and she says she is scared of being found out about her faith.

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