Shen Yun: The Evangelistic Effort of a Chinese Religious Cult
I fell for it.
It eventually gets difficult to buy gifts for older people. After all, they have almost everything they need—in fact, usually more than they need. So, for my 86-year-old mother, we have been buying tickets to the symphony or other such concerts as Christmas and birthday presents. But even with classical forms of entertainment, we must be careful to ensure no objectionable elements.
This year for Christmas we purchased tickets to a traditional Chinese dance and music presentation show by an organization called Shen Yun. All the reviews said the costumes were very modest, and the music was traditional or classical.
However, we overlooked something that became clear just minutes into the presentation. We were not in a concert; we were in an evangelistic service.
The title of the presentation was China Before Communism. There were pervasive themes throughout the program—anti-communism, the dangers of evolution, the wickedness of homosexuality, and the horrors of religious persecution. Sound good so far? Just wait a second.
There was also a message of a holy book other than the Bible, the pre-existence of the human spirit, a coming apocalypse, and the importance of living a righteous and moral life. That is a religious message, not just a message about social morals.
Shen Yun and Falon Gong
They are not secretive about it. This beautiful production that is very expensive to attend and has been seen by millions worldwide is a thinly veiled promotional campaign for an ethnically Chinese-oriented cult based in New York.
Falon Gong is a religion established in 1995 by Li Hongzhi, a Chinese national. His followers consider him as a sort of deity. He claimed that he could walk through walls and levitate (and these claims were depicted in the program). The three main values of Falon Gong are compassion, truth, and forbearance (and these were also depicted in the presentation, especially by two male soloists who functioned sort of like the preachers of the evening). It is a works-based religion that is eerily similar to Mormonism. The dance presentation feels sort of like the visitor’s center at the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City.
Here is a summary of the teachings of Falon Gong.
All humans are innately good, even divine, but have fallen. There is a belief in reincarnation and that the nature of reincarnation is based upon morality in one’s present existence. It borrows heavily from Buddhism. Killing animals is wrong, so they are vegetarians. Homosexuality makes a person unworthy of being human. Drinking alcohol and smoking is forbidden.
In a 1999 interview with Time Magazine Li Hongzhi claimed to have healing powers and said that atheism in the world is the result of the influence of aliens and more bizarre beliefs. He claims that there are more than 100 million adherents to Falun Gong in China as of 1999—which would be unimaginable for a religion established just four years earlier.
Followers of Falon Gong have been persecuted by the Chinese government and the dance presentation portrayed a young woman being arrested and then executed and her body organs sold on the black market—a very macabre storyline in the middle of a sweet light-hearted performance.
A holy book
While not exactly calling them holy books, the writings of Li Hongzhi are treated with a sense of reverence. They were in the traditional Chinese dance concert. His first book was published in 1993 and is titled China Falun Gong. The main guidebook is titled Zhuan Falun and was published in 1995.
Epoch Times
In addition to Shen Yun, Falon Gong also has very close ties with the Epoch Times—a conservative international newspaper founded by members of Falun Gong [in an earlier version of this article I had said that Falun Gong owns and operates the Epoch Times. Since then I have found that this is not technically correct. I will explore this relationship in another article]. It is politically right-wing, and anti-communist, and influences many conservatives worldwide. Its parent company—Epoch Media Group also operates New Tang Dynasty television.
While the organization is very conservative politically and socially, it has all the earmarks of a religious cult that is growing at an incredible speed not only among Chinese nationals but now also among other nationalities worldwide. Before last week, I knew nothing about it.
Not everything that is conservative, socially moral, and beautiful, is necessarily true or godly.
Buyer beware.
Thanks for sounding the alarm. Now I know where not to waste my time and money.
This absolutely blew my mind. I already had a hunch something was not sitting quite right with that Shen Yun stuff but to find out that even Epoch Times is literally owned by them??? Goes to show how much research we really should be doing with regard to stuff we expose ourselves to.
Excelent work and thank you.
I also fell for another chinese cult propaganda movie about persecution of christians in China. The Eastern Lightning (“Church of the Almighty God”) has several movies on youtube illustrating the chinese communists persecution of “christian” house churches. While they shouldn’t be persecuted, what they don’t tell you is that they believe that Jesus already returned and is currently in China in the form of a woman. With the tens of thousands of chinese pouring in through our open border, believers should be informed about this cult as well because I’m sure some of their people are making it here and it’s a more subtle one. They talk the “christian talk” and sound quite convincing until you find out that they have an extra-biblical document as well (The Word Appeared in Flesh) written by this “Jesus figure” woman.
Very interesting and informative article, Pastor Schaal. I enjoyed reading it and it was well written.
This really is nothing new, is it? Many people refer to Mormons as christians, to Catholics as christians, to Seventh-Day Adventists as Christians, etc. They can also refer to themselves as “christians” when necessary.
Just because a person refers to themselves as a Christian or someone else refers to them as christians, does not necessarily mean they are, especially with regard to the examples I mentioned.
It’s like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It ooks good from the outside, but once you get in the inside then you find out it’s not what it seems to otherwise be. Nothing surprises me anymore.