Outrage at “Reiwa’s Witch Hunt”..! The “Progress Report” on the Reform of the Church by the former head minister of the Unification Church, Mr. Teshigahara, is a shocking report.

And,

“This is a time when we need to go even further in our reforms.

He continued, “The main concrete proposals for reform of the church are as follows,

(1) Prohibit excessive donations that interfere with the normal life of the family, such as debt donations.

(2) Prohibit the encouragement of donations that may cause anxiety based on spiritual knowledge.

Prohibition of evangelistic activities that may be suspected of concealing one’s true identity.

The first one, in particular, prohibits excessive donations.

In particular, the first one, ‘excessive donations,’ has been pointed out by many former believers. As a countermeasure, Teshigahara explained that he had prepared a “donation confirmation form” with checklist items. He also said that the church would issue a “letter of receipt” upon receipt of the donation.

The letter of confirmation reads

The confirmation letter includes such items as “I am not worried that this donation will interfere with my or my family’s life” and “I have not borrowed anything new from other people or financial institutions for this donation. However, a person involved with the church who watched the video tilted his head.

In the end, this checklist is nothing more than a self-report. It is not surprising that there are some believers who do not write down their true financial situation, even though they have cut back on their family finances to make their donations. If you are talking about ‘in-depth measures,’ you need to create a system to verify the authenticity of the declarations, but you don’t mention that at all. Frankly, I doubt that this will really solve the donation problem.

However, General Manager Teshigahara seems quite confident in the “reforms” that he has proposed, and in the video he proudly states, “This is one of the most important reforms that have been made by the various religious organizations in Japan.

I would say that this is the strictest application of the law among the various religious organizations in Japan.

FRIDAY Digital interviewed the cult about the true meaning of the aforementioned statement in the video. FRIDAY Digital interviewed the church about the true meaning of the statements made in the video, and received the following response in writing.

The term ‘witch hunt in Reiwa’ is a quote from the World Daily, an organization that is a friend of ours. It means that after the murder of Prime Minister Abe in July last year, a certain major media outlet conducted a survey of Diet members and local government officials, asking them whether they had relations with the Family Coalition and related organizations, and encouraging them to “snitch” on other Diet members who had relations with the Coalition. The discourse implies that a survey was conducted to ask members of the Diet and local autonomous bodies whether they had relations with the Family Coalition and related organizations, and to encourage them to “snitch” on other members who did. We were not referring to the “Liaison Conference of the Ministries and Agencies Concerned with the Old Unification Church,” and your suggestion that we are critical of the government’s attempt is misinterpreted.

As for the operation of the donation confirmation form,

The government is not critical of the government’s attempts to use the donation confirmation form. In order to confirm that the items are correct, we are thoroughly operating the donation confirmation form and the receipt form.

This was the response.

How did the “reform” being promoted by General Manager Teshigawara appear to the believers?