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 ACLC issues urgent call to Japan to investigate religious kidnappings
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Toru Goto immediately after his release from confinement.
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Rev. Dr. Michael Jenkins, national coordinator of the American Clergy Leadership Council (ACLC), has issued an urgent call to Japanese authorities to investigate the kidnappings of several members of the Unification Church by family members and others who force such persons to undergo "deprogramming" or the rejection of their faith.
In a letter to pastors throughout the United States, Dr. Jenkins wrote, "We ask that all ACLC Pastors join our Co Presidents and I in writing a letter of concern about the violation of the religious freedom of Unification Church members in Japan.” He cited the alarming case of Toru Goto as an example of such violations.
On September 11, 1995, the 31 year-old-Goto was sitting down at the table having his dinner when he was grabbed by his father and brother and dragged outside where he was thrown into a waiting van and taken to an undisclosed location. There he was confined in a room where all the doors and windows were double locked.
While in confinement, Goto was subjected to the must inhumane treatment. He was barely fed, had no reading or writing materials, no radio or television, and someone watched him all the time. People came in and out of the room who took turns degrading Goto and his religion in efforts to get him to renounce his faith.
This illegal and inhumane treatment lasted for twelve years and five months. After going on a hunger strike, Goto was suddenly taken and thrown out of the apartment with no money or any other resource to get help. According to Dr. Jenkins and photos taken of Goto at the hospital, the now 43 year-old looked like a “holocaust survivor.”
Wrote Dr. Jenkins, “Last year Mr. Toru Goto came out from over 12 years and 5 months of captivity and imprisonment. Japanese media and authorities were shocked as it appeared that he was like a holocaust victim. He almost died having had become a shell of a man at 80 lbs. He pressed charges against the people who held him and it seemed to be going forward. Suddenly in December the case was dropped. ACLC has been asked to address this.”
There have been many other such kidnappings and Japanese authorities have tended to look the other way, choosing instead to see the matter as a family dispute. However, there are no provisions in the Japanese constitution and international laws which shield family members from liability for kidnapping other family members and violating their religious freedom.
Dr. Don E. Peavy Sr., teaches religious studies at Victor Valley College and philosophy, ethics, and religion at the University of Phoenix. He practiced law in Fort Worth, Texas, before graduating from Brite Divinity School and pursuing a Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University. Until recently, Don served as pastor of McCarty Memorial Christian Church in Los Angeles. He is the author of Disaster Among the Heavens, his first novel, as well as two non-fiction works, What Must I Do? Bridging the Gap Between Being and Doing, and Play It Where It Lies: How to Win at the Game of Life. Send Don an e-mail.
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