KOREA
Korea Times
November 8, 2018
By Lee Suh-yoon
Recent allegations that a 35-year-old pastor sexually abused at least 26 teenage girls in his youth ministry group have refueled the debate over the manipulative tactics of sex offenders in the clergy.
On Tuesday, four of the alleged victims — masked and covered in black — spoke out against a pastor at their church in Incheon, claiming he “groomed” them into accommodating his sexual demands for years in their teens.
“Every time I said no, he told me he loved me, saying it was the first time he felt this way about someone,” one of the victims said at a press conference held at a Christian meeting hall in Yeonji-dong, Seoul. “I trusted the pastor, so I never thought he could lie in God’s name.”
The pastor, surnamed Kim, approached young female students in the youth ministry of his church, buying them treats and gently counseling them on family issues. As the girls started to trust him more, Kim started making sexual comments or touching them. He convinced the girls they were in loving relationships that would eventually end in marriage. Gradually, he got them to have sex with him regularly, telling them he wanted to “purify” bad memories of being raped by his uncle.
“It was hard for the victims to even register their situation as sexual abuse while they were stuck in the continuous cycle of psychological brainwashing and rape,” Chae Su-ji, head of the Christian Counseling Center for Violence Against Women, told The Korea Times, Wednesday.
“As the relationship deepens and the young person is forced to keep secrets, she is increasingly isolated from others, making it easier for the pastor to psychologically control her.”
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