History
Hon-Ming
Chen was born April 22, 1955 in the city of Chai'i in southwestern Taiwan.
Chen's mother died when Chen was very young, and his father died of a stroke
years later. Chen graduated from the Taiwanese compulsory education system
and then went on to earn a bachelor's degree in political science, and studied
social science in graduate school. By 1983, at the age of twenty-eight, Chen
had a job as an associate professor at Chai-Nan Junior College of Pharmacy
where he taught social science until 1993.
Chen
considered himself an atheist the majority of his life. In 1992, however,
he had a religious revelation. He believed that he had received a message
from God instructing him to pursue the religious life (Covert 1997). Chen
studied numerous religious texts, including Buddhist Sutras, the Christian
Bible, and the Tao-Te Ching. He made contact with many teachers of
new age religion, but he found their instruction somewhat expensive. He found
the new age attractive, however, and ended up joining a UFO religious group
in 1992. After paying large fees for the many lessons he received, he became
disillusioned and regarded the leadership as corrupt. Having accused his teacher
of being at least partly influenced by the devil, Chen left the group with
several other disenchanted followers.Some
of these defecting students joined with Chen and created the Soul Light Resurgence
Association (SLRA).
In
1995 Chen began to preach that North America was the "Pureland of God."
Chen succeeded in convincing a number of his followers of the need to move
to the United States and, in the first few months of 1997, he and about twenty-five
other members permanently moved to San Dimas, a northeastern suburb of Los
Angeles. Renting space there, Chen and his followers officially established
God's Salvation Church (Prather 1999). The group had been in San Dimas only
a few months when Chen and his followers began looking toward Texas. In March
1997 Chen announced that Garland (near Houston), Texas, would become the new
headquarters for God's Salvation Church. A few days after the announcement,
a house at 3513 Ridgedale Drive in Garland was purchased. Garland was allegedly
chosen by Chen because it sounded like “Godland” (Baker 1998).
From March 1997 to December 1997 followers in San Dimas and Taiwan relocated
to Texas, which became the center of the church's operations.
In
June 1997, Chen attracted some media attention when he stated that he was
waiting for the "Jesus of the West," who he claimed was living in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In a vision Teacher Chen said that this
"reincarnation of Jesus" would be six feet tall, between 27 and
30 years old, and resemble Abraham Lincoln. The search for the Canadian Christ
was foretold in Chen's first book, The Practical Evidence and Study of
the World of God and Buddha (1996). In an attempt to find the Canadian
Christ, the group placed a personal ad in the Vancouver Sun and The
Province (Rogers 1998). No "Jesus of the West" was appeared.
In
Garland, the group also published God's Descending on Clouds (Flying Saucers)
to Save People, in which Chen states that God will descend in human form
at 3513 Ridgedale Drive on March 31, 1998, at exactly 10:00 a.m. (Chen 1997:
74-78). This human incarnation of God will have all the physical features
of Chen, but will be able to speak all languages, walk through walls, and
replicate himself as many times as necessary to greet everyone simultaneously
(Verhoveck 1998). According to this book, God will announce his descent by
taking control of the television airwaves six days prior to the appearance.
At 12:01 a.m. on March 25, 1998, God will be seen on channel 18 all across
North America. God's Descending also prophesied other significant
world events that were expected to happen in both 1998 and 1999.
Reports
began to surface in the media about a possible mass suicide if Chen's prophecies
went unfulfilled. The mass suicide of Heaven’s Gate on March 28, 1997,
led reporters and other observers to speculate whether Chen and his followers
may be contemplating the same. A press conference was held on March 12 to
answer questions about connections to Heaven's Gate, the possibility of suicide,
the details of Chen's divine expectations for the rest of the month and the
next year, and allegations of wrongdoing by the group (Bromley 1999). Calming
fears raised by the media, Chen allowed a handful of reporters to see the
various religious implements and shrines around the house (Glines and Punzet
1999). He also strongly denied that the group had any intention of committing
mass suicide.
The
days just prior to March 25 were a mixture of frantic media activity, city
officials planning and preparing for crowd control, and church members conducting
spiritual preparations for God's imminent arrival. On Tuesday, March 24, in
preparation for God’s arrival, members conducted a baptism-like ritual.
Among other symbolic preparations, about twenty of the male followers shaved
their heads (Prather 1999).
Midnight
on channel 18 saw nothing but RF static. The media, police, and curious onlookers
waited in suspense. Despite Chen's assurances, some journalists still speculated
that he and some members of the group were going to commit suicide inside
the house. However, Chen emerged about twenty-five minutes after midnight
to a host of cameras and reporters. Maintaining firm belief in his religious
convictions, he stated that he would continue to lead his church. As the brief
press conference drew to a close, a reporter asked, "Do you consider
yourself to be a false prophet?" To which Chen replied, "I have
never referred to myself as a prophet" (Prather 1999). Chen added, though,
that "I would recommend anybody not believe what I said anymore"
(Bachman 1998).
The precautions that the city of Garland took on the morning of Tuesday, March
31—the date of Chen's second prophecy—were identical to those
on the evening of March 24. That morning, Chen gave a demonstration he alleged
would prove his own godhood. After staring directly into the sun for several
moments, he turned to reporters and explained that a mere mortal would have
been blinded. Some reporters seemed less than impressed, one noting that Chen
was blinking profusely after the divine demonstration. Through his interpreter,
Richard Liu, Chen blamed the mass media for ridiculing him and failing to
portray his messages accurately. Chen offered to be stoned or crucified (Glines
and Punzet 1999). He said that for the next ten minutes he would allow anyone
to crucify or stone him to death. For weeks Chen had been saying that he would
be willing to suffer the death penalty from his own followers or the general
public should his March 31 prophecy fail (Prather 1999).
Chen
announced that on the next day, April 1, 1998, he and nine followers were
going to the Great Lakes area to prepare his followers before the coming tribulation
in 1999, and that by May 10 all of his followers would be gone from Garland.
The next day Chen and the others flew to Buffalo, NY, and rented a minivan.
They claim to have been guided by God to drive to Lockport, New York. From
there they moved to Olcott, a small town on the shores of Lake Ontario (Stephens
1998) in fulfillment of Chen's prophetic vision. Chen had seen the numbers
17 and 78, and Olcott is located at the junction of highways 17 and 78. In
May 1998 the majority of members left Garland. About half had visa problems
and returned to Taiwan. No information about them is available. About 150
members remained in upstate New York. In 1999, a second branch was opened
in Brooklyn where, under Hon-ming Chen's leadership, members established a
counseling center. His followers used to gather in Central Park to preach
their views of destruction and to offer salvation from aids and cancer (Wojcik
2004a).
There
is no information about these two groups after the year 1999.
Profile
| History | Beliefs and Rituals
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Beliefs,
Rituals, and Festivals
Principal
Beliefs:
Chen Tao is a
complex blend of elements from Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, science fiction,
and Taiwanese folk religion (Baker 1988). The basic elements of belief appear
to be anchored in Buddhism, Taoism, and Taiwanese folk religions, as well
as Western popular culture, mythology (particularly UFOlogy), and an apocalyptic
and millenarian worldview. Christian theology clearly informs the latter,
but does not otherwise seem to play a central role in Chen’s theology.
According to
Chen, all life originates from the energy of God, who is one with the "magnetic
field of Void" and can, therefore, divide his spiritual light energy
into separate beings (Chen 1997: 4). Through the process of transmigration,
each being can evolve into a higher life form: from animal, to human, to the
divine status of Bodhisattva or enlightened one. A soul’s ability to
transmigrate depends upon the person developing purity in the "main soul
light." The main soul light is the primary of three souls. The other
two souls are the temporal conscious and physical souls. The main soul light
keeps the eternal record of every moment in a being's lives. The purity of
the main soul light can be measured through its "spiritual light energy"
(Chen 1997: 11, 17, 19). The spiritual light energy of heaven (or Void) is
twelve million degrees (Chen 1997: 27). Divine beings, such as Bodhisattvas
and angels, have nine million degrees of spiritual light energy; a few divine
beings, such as Jesus Christ and the Ju-lai Buddha, have twelve million degrees
of energy. Purity is attained through the evolutionary process of transmigration.
The three souls
separate at death: if the main soul light is pure (above nine million degrees),
this soul will be united with the Void and escape further purification (Chen
1997: 8, 18, 54). However, if the main soul light is not pure, the old conscious
and physical souls will reattach themselves to the transmigrated being until
the being has atoned for the sins of lives in which the attached souls were
involved; this process of "causal retribution" continues until the
karma is erased (Chen 1997: 62-64).
The evolutionary
cycle of transmigration is extremely long, because the number of lives experienced
by a being renders increasingly less likely the possibility that the causal
karma will be erased (Chen 1997: 155). In fact, Chen taught that some of the
eighty percent of the world’s population whose low spiritual light energy
would lead to their death in the great tribulation of 1999 would transmigrate
to Mars as animals in order to continue their purification (Chen 1997: 142).
Another main
theological concept of Chen Tao is the presence of "outside souls"
and "devils." Two major obstacles in the evolution of beings are
the hindrances presented by the outside souls and devils. These malevolent
entities feed on the spiritual light energy of transmigrated beings, reducing
the beings' ability to erase their karmic records. Outside souls are defined
as those conscious and physical souls who did not report to the underworld
upon death. These souls become lost after suffering a violent or unexpected
death. Outside souls exist by draining human beings of their spiritual light
energy, as well as consuming the spiritual air in mountains and rivers (Chen
1997: 35-39).
Devils are "devoted
to bewildering the world," and seek to possess transmigrated beings in
order to increase the level of evil and violence in the world. Devils are
frequently the previous souls of beings who combine with current souls until
the sins of past lives have been cleansed (Chen 1997: 62-64). Particularly
dangerous are the "King Satans," or "heavenly devil kings,"
who are responsible for all the great tribulations that have occurred in the
past. These devils are the biblical "fallen angels" whose greed
has irreparably corrupted them (Chen 1997: 68). King Satans are particularly
prominent in Asia and Africa, where an average of forty-seven percent of the
population are possessed by them in some way or other (Chen 1997: 70). Chen
taught that the great tribulation of 1999 would begin when the King Satans
attempt to cannibalize each other in an attempt to find spiritual energy on
which to feed (Chen 1997: 76).
There have been
five great tribulations on this planet (not including the nuclear war almost
4.5 trillion years ago that resulted in the creation of our solar system),
and over 888,800 million tribulations since the beginning of time. The first
great tribulation on this planet was waged by dinosaurs "at a place called
Armageddon in the Hebrew tongue" nearly ten million years ago; the remaining
tribulations also ended in a final climatic battle in modern Israel. Each
tribulation was survived by beings living in modern America, who were rescued
by God in a flying saucer (Chen 1997: 143-45, 172).
Chen predicted
that China would attack Taiwan, and gave two possible dates: February 1999
(Chen 1997: 115) and April 22, 1999 (Chen 1997: 87). The prediction of the
February attack included his vision of a simultaneous "war of unification"
between North and South Korea. On April 22, 1999, a "thousand millions
of human-devils" will initiate a mass slaughter in Chen Tao’s "holy
land" of Pei-pu, Taiwan (Chen 1997: 80). Chen then predicted that a "Noah’s
Ark" flood of forty days would devastate Eastern Asia in June and July
of 1999 (Chen 1997: 132-33). The resultant food shortages would ultimately
lead Asians to commit cannibalism (Chen 1997: 87).
The massive
death caused by both war and flooding would greatly reduce the spiritual energy
upon which the King Satans could feed, driving the devils into an insane rage.
The fallout would cause widespread destruction throughout East Asia. China
and Japan would join forces to invade Australia and New Zealand, and would
then conquer Southeast Asia. European and African nations would join the war
through territorial alliances, and all the nations would finally destroy each
other at Armageddon (Chen 1997: 115-19). Only twenty percent of the world's
population would survive the great tribulation, and these survivors would
once again board God's spaceship (Baker 1998).
The essence
of God in the beliefs of Chen Tao can at times be complex. The God of Chen
Tao "includes all beings; He has the inexhaustible, endless energy, and
His energy is the original source of all existence and permeates everything
. . . He is omnipresent, He is both in form and non-form" (Chen 1997:
3). Chen rejects the biblical version of God as "cruel, narrow-minded,
unable to tell good from evil." God is "void of I," because
the "Tao (Way) begets One; One begets Two; Two Begets Three; Three begets
all existence. The Way (tao) that begets One is the embodied God" (Chen
1997: 8). This Taoist phrase indicates the close relation that Chen sees between
God and himself. Simply stated, God created Chen (who identifies himself as
"the One"), who in turn came to earth as the Ju-lai Buddha with
several Bodhisattvas to populate the earth (Chen 1997: 8-9)
Profile
| History | Beliefs and Rituals
| Controversies | Links | Bibliography
Controversies
Failed
Prophecies
One prominent
area of study in the sociology of religion has been the future of religious
movements when their charismatic leaders die or when the latter’s prophecies
do not materialize (see, for example, Cowan 2003; Dawson 1999; Festinger et
al. 1956; Miller 1991; Tumminia 1998; Stone 2000; Wojcik 2004b). Hon-ming
Chen’s prediction that God would descend in flying saucers, made a year
in advance and giving the group more than enough time for preparation, was
an intrinsic part of Chen Tao’s belief system. None of his other predictions
came to pass, though one could possibly interpret the great tsunami of December
2004 as the (delayed) flood Chen predicted. Chen is a typical example of a
prophet whose prophecies failed.
Jeffrey K. Hadden
(2000) explains that the failure of prophecies often play a major role in
the future of the group. Obviously, the one thing most prophecies of the end
of the world have in common is that they never come true. And, a common assumption
is that charismatic leaders who have made prophecies that have clearly failed
would suffer a serious loss of followers. In fact, social scientists have
accumulated a substantial body of evidence that contradicts this conventional
wisdom. More times than not, groups with failed prophecies not only continue,
but sometimes thrive.
Several scholars
have speculated on how groups continue to grow despite false prophecies. Lorne
Dawson (1999) has completed a significant survey of the "failed prophecy"
literature. He finds that while many groups do suffer a membership loss, most
groups continue to survive and a few even grow. Dawson identifies three strategies
groups use after a failed prophecy:
The extent to
which Chen Tao fits into this framework remains to be seen. Taking full responsibility
for the prophecies that failed, Hon-ming Chen stated in a press release that
what he had said should be "considered nonsense" (Chen 1998; cf.
Walker 1998). But he then denied he had made the prophecy and tried to reinterpret
his statements. He pointed out that God had, after all, descended in human
beings, and declared: "You yourself are God. You are human beings as
well as God. This is a chance given to us to play the role of God" (Ross
1998b). Chen was quick both to reaffirm the group's purpose and to relocate
the members of his church to another part of the country, this time Lockport,
New York. Chen used this opportunity to challenge his group and reaffirm the
devotion of his followers.
But Chen Tao
certainly did not thrive after the unfulfilled prophecies. Membership of the
group did suffer severely, eventually dropping to about 30 members. About
twenty percent of those who stayed in the United States remained faithful
to Hon-ming Chen and his teachings. As often happens when prophecy fails,
the charismatic leader makes other prophetic statements. After 1999, the teaching
of Chen Tao focused primarily around "end of the world" prophecies.
Chen Tao might be one of those religious groups that will not survive its
failed prophecies. The frantic media attention concerning rumors of mass suicide
might also have played an important role in the evolution of Chen Tao (Cook
2003a).
Coming in the
wake of Heaven's Gate, Chen Tao became a cause forconcern. Both scholars and
the public in general feared that the members of God’s Salvation Church
might end up committing suicide. Anticult writer John Knapp (1998), for example,
listed seven questionable practices of the group, including "rumors of
violence or suicide" and "dangerous apocalyptic thinking."
Sociologist of Religion Catherine Wessinger discussed the potential for violence
in the group. She listed ten "worrying characteristics" and concluded
that she "worried that Teacher Chen might be motivated to take extreme
actions to preserve his credibility concerning the group's ultimate concern,
as had Jim Jones, Shoko Ashara, Joseph Di Mambro, and Do." (Wessinger
2000: 258). None of the dire predictions regarding Chen Tao materialized and
it is quite possible that the "saga" has now ended.
Profile
| History | Beliefs and Rituals
| Controversies | Links | Bibliography
Internet
Links
The
official Chen Tao Web page is no longer accessible. Several sites, however,
do offer a short history of the group, an outline of its beliefs, and many
of the news reports published during the period when Chen Tao moved to Texas
and predicted the coming of God in flying saucers. The most comprehensive
of these is probably that of the evangelical countercult site operated by
Watchman Fellowship, which has a profile of the group by Jason Baker: www.watchman.org/cults/godsalvationchurch.htm.
Another
profile, "Chen Tao," was written by Linda Glines and Bernard Punzet
for a course entitled "The Book of Revelation and Apocalyptic Literature"
at Loyola Marymount University This somewhat sketchy profile contains the
movement’s history, beliefs, and prophecies. It also has several photographs,
a few links, a bibliography of materials then found on the Internet, and a
few questions that relate to the course the authors were taking: http://myweb.lmu.edu/fjust/Students/ChenTao/main.html.
The Center for Study on New Religions (CESNUR) also provides information on
Chen Tao, including a short overview of the group, a brief document describing
its counseling service opened in Brooklyn in 1998, and some links. It contains
no information on the group after 1999: www.cesnur.org/testi/Chen.htm.
Some reports by the news media and group press releases have also been collected
by David Bromley in a Web Page which includes a long interview between reporter
Timothy Oliver (of the Watchman Fellowship) and Richard Liu (Hon-ming Chen's
interpreter) and includes information on other New Age apocalyptic groups.
The most recent of these reports and releases on Chen Tao date from 1999:
www.people.vcu.edu/~dbromley/god'ssalvationchurchLink.htm.
A Web Site entitled "Toyko Broadwalker contains 5 short articles and
reports, some of which can be seen on other sites mentioned above: http://members.tripod.com/~tokyoboardwalker/UFO-3.html.
Two anti-cult organizations, the Rick A. Ross Institute (www.rickross.com/groups/chen-tao.html)
and the Trance.net News Group (www.trancenet.org/groups/gsc/index.shtml)
have extensive information on new religious movements and contain most, if
not all, of the media reports on Chen Tao. The former site’s section
on Chen Tao has various news articles and links to other reports on the group.
The latter contains an overview of Chen Tao by David R. Rogers, followed by
links to updates on the group. Both Web Pages are dated and contain no information
on Chen Tao after 1999.
Because
Chen Tao is an excellent example of a new religious group whose self-proclaimed
prophet predicted events which never transpired and admitted that he was mistaken,
it might be useful to consult other materials which deal with other failed
prophecies in the history of religions. An article in Free Minds Journal
(May/ June 1990), "When Prophecies Fail: A Sociological Perspective on
Failed Expectation in the Watchtower Society," by Randall Watters is
available on the Internet: (www.freeminds.org/psych/propfail.htm).
It should be noted, however, that Watters is a former Jehovah's Witness who
has devoted much of his time to criticizing his former religious community,
and is not a sociologist.
The
Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance Web site contains an article on
"The Millennium and End of the World Prophecies," which give a good
overview of the issue and lists the many unfulfilled predictions made over
the centuries: www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrld.htm.
Jeffrey
K. Hadden’s Internet essay, dated 2000, and entitled "The Millennium:
False Prophecies," is an excellent introduction to the topic. It includes
sections which discuss the potential for violence that millennial groups have
and the public response to their presence: http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/millennium/false.html.
Profile
| History | Beliefs and Rituals
| Controversies | Links | Bibliography
Research
Bibliography
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Profile
| History | Beliefs and Rituals
| Controversies | Links | Bibliography
Created
by Willis Shawver
For Sociology
257, University of Virginia, Spring 2000
Last Modified: John A. Saliba, February 1, 2005 |
|
