Canada, New Zealand approve 73%, 100% of asylum claims from group that dehumanizes sexual minorities
Canada and New Zealand are granting refugee status at record rates to members of the Church of Almighty God (全能神教会), a Chinese religious movement whose internal teachings systematically dehumanize homosexuals as “unnatural and non-human” and advocate for the immediate elimination of sexual minorities, religious dissenters, and others deemed “devils.” Canada approves 73 percent of asylum claims from the group, while New Zealand maintains a 100 percent approval rate, creating a stark contradiction between these democracies’ human rights commitments and the discriminatory doctrines of those they’re protecting.
The group, also known as Eastern Lightning (东方闪电), operates as what experts call “the first internet cult,” using apps available on Google Play and Apple’s App Store to connect with followers worldwide while maintaining two active websites at hidden-advent.org and godfootsteps.org.
“They should be cleared out from the church according to principles,” states the group’s internal leadership manual regarding homosexuals, adding that “such individuals must absolutely never be tolerated or allowed to remain within the church, as they are unnatural and non-human.”
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada published a comprehensive 50-page report in October 2021 documenting the group’s persecution in China, where it’s banned as a “xie jiao” or evil cult. However, the report doesn’t examine the group’s own internal teachings that advocate systematic discrimination against minorities now protected under Canadian and New Zealand law.
According to academic research analyzing asylum decisions globally, Western democracies have increasingly recognized CAG members as legitimate refugees fleeing religious persecution, with Canada ranking as the second most favorable destination after New Zealand’s perfect approval rate.
The contradiction emerges when examining the group’s internal documents alongside democratic nations’ refugee policies. While these countries reject China’s “dangerous cult” narrative and protect CAG members under religious freedom provisions, they simultaneously shelter adherents of teachings that fundamentally violate the human rights principles these democracies claim to uphold.
A double-edged sword
Canada Refugee Approval Rates Surge
Canada’s exceptional 73 percent approval rate for CAG asylum seekers represents a dramatic shift from earlier decisions that relied on what the Immigration and Refugee Board now acknowledges was “incomplete and often erroneous” country-of-origin information influenced by Chinese government sources.
“The tribunal finds that there is a real chance of him suffering serious harm arising from breaches of human rights if he returns to Hong Kong,” wrote Judge Martin Treadwell in a recent New Zealand decision granting refugee status to a CAG member, according to the New Zealand Herald on July 27, 2024.
The UN Committee Against Torture ruled in July 2021 that CAG members face “risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” if deported to China, establishing definitive legal precedent that has strengthened asylum cases across Western democracies.
Massimo Introvigne, Director of the Center for Studies on New Religions, who has analyzed Chinese Supreme Court decisions against 200 CAG members, told the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board in August 2021 that “being active in any capacity in the CAG is regarded as a crime in China, and it exposes [one] to serious jail penalties.”
Church of Almighty God Asylum Claims
The Church of Almighty God has transformed into what academic Holly Folk calls “the first internet cult,” operating through apps freely available on Google Play and Apple’s App Store while maintaining sophisticated websites in 41 languages.
When asked about the church, the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek responds: “你好，这个问题我暂时无法回答，让我们换个话题再聊聊吧” — translated as “Hello, I cannot answer this question at the moment, let’s change the topic and chat about something else” — indicating the extreme sensitivity surrounding the group in China.
“A lot of their international ministry functions as an internet religion,” said Folk, an associate professor at Western Washington University, during interviews cited in the 2021 Canadian government report.
The group’s mobile applications provide access to their central text “The Word Appears in the Flesh,” a 2,400-page theological work containing what they claim are “revelations of Almighty God,” according to Introvigne’s analysis.
“Videos and websites have become an important evangelization tool,” Introvigne noted, explaining that “in China videos can only circulate clandestinely and accessing CAG websites means being able to circumvent the Great Firewall.”
Biting the hand that feeds you
Despite Western democracies’ protection of CAG members under religious freedom provisions, the group’s internal documents reveal teachings that fundamentally contradict democratic principles of equality and human dignity.
Anti-LGBTQ+ Teachings Revealed
“If individuals who engage in homosexual relationships appear within the church…they must be promptly cleansed away from the church, with no tolerance! This is the church’s regulation,” states the group’s leadership manual “The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (14).”
The document continues: “Such individuals must absolutely never be tolerated or allowed to remain within the church, as they are unnatural and non-human.”
“Once such individuals are discovered, regardless of the duties they do or their status, they must be promptly cleansed away from the church,” the manual instructs, adding that “if an entire church were composed of homosexuals, then all would be cleansed away. Such a church is not wanted, not even one!”
The teachings explicitly reject any possibility of redemption for homosexuals: “Why not give these people a chance to repent?…No! This particular ridiculous act is absolutely not just any ridiculous act; it absolutely cannot be tolerated.”
Systematic Discrimination Policies
CAG internal documents systematically dehumanize multiple categories of people through complete denial of human status, according to analysis of their theological texts.
“People who are filled with lewd desire are not human; a devil dwells within them,” states the document “How to Pursue the Truth (15),” which instructs church leadership on identifying and expelling problematic members.
“Those who do not believe in God lack humanity and are all devils,” the text continues, extending dehumanization to all non-members.
The group’s teachings describe mental health conditions as evidence of demonic possession: “Once a person has schizophrenia, are they still a normal person? (No.) They are no longer a normal person, and God will not work on such people.”
“Devils cannot be given a chance to repent, and they should be dealt with as soon as possible, cleared out or expelled,” the document instructs, establishing a framework for permanent exclusion of targeted groups.
The group’s internal materials employ extensive “elimination language” that stops short of explicit violence calls but advocates systematic exclusion causing severe psychological and social harm.
“There is only one solution, then: Do not use such people in duties. Clear them out,” instructs the theological text regarding suspected “devils.”
“Devils should be cleared out as soon as possible to prevent future trouble,” the document continues, adding: “Don’t give devils a chance to repent.”
A video titled “What I Learned From Expelling an Evil Person” provides practical guidance for overcoming compassion during expulsions: “Wage war against Satan” and “fight against the forces of Satan and antichrists.”
“Cleansing evil people and antichrists away is the most crucial fight,” the video instructs, encouraging members to “expose the evil deeds of antichrists, condemn and curse them, giving them no place to hide.”
Psychological Control Methods
Internal testimonies reveal sophisticated psychological control mechanisms that normalize surveillance and eliminate moral autonomy among members.
“It is a wonderful thing if you can accept God’s house supervising, observing, and trying to understand you,” states a member testimony titled “How Accepting Supervision Helped Me.”
The testimony pathologizes resistance to surveillance: “Your fear…is tainted with human intent and a corrupt satanic disposition, and with suspicion, guardedness, and misapprehension.”
Members describe severe psychological distress under the control system: “I wasn’t even able to sleep well the night before a gathering” and “palms of my hands were sweating” from anxiety.
“I was really disgusted with myself” and “I was so selfish and despicable!” represent typical self-degradation language encouraged by the group’s psychological manipulation techniques.
The devil you know versus the devil you don’t
Western scholars who have studied the CAG extensively support the group’s claims of unfair persecution, particularly regarding the most serious violence allegations.
Massimo Introvigne’s 2020 Oxford University Press analysis found that the 2014 McDonald’s murder in Zhaoyuan — which killed 37-year-old Wu Shuoyan — was “a crime committed by a religious group different from the CAG” that was “transformed by Chinese propaganda into a CAG crime.”
Emily Dunn of the University of Melbourne, who wrote her doctoral thesis on the group, noted that during her research she found “evidence of violence AGAINST CAG rather than by them.”
“None of the accusations concerning the use of violence by the CAG for proselytization purposes has been proved,” Introvigne concluded in his comprehensive study.
The perpetrators of the McDonald’s murder explicitly stated during their trial that they were NOT CAG members, according to court records analyzed by multiple scholars.
The disconnect between CAG’s internal teachings and democratic values hasn’t prevented Western governments from conducting thorough investigations that consistently favor the group’s asylum claims.
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada’s 2021 report, developed after consultation with “leading Western scholars who had written about the CAG,” represents the most comprehensive official documentation of persecution patterns.
Persecution in China Documented
“At least 32,815 CAG Christians were arrested or harassed by the authorities” in 2019 alone, according to the group’s own statistics cited in the Canadian report, with 3,824 suffering “various forms of torture and forced indoctrination.”
Recent statistics show escalating persecution: 19,053 CAG members were arrested in 2024, with 2,175 sentenced and 168 receiving seven or more years imprisonment, according to the group’s documentation.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission issued a secret directive in August 2023 for a three-year “Tough Battle” against CAG starting in 2024, intensifying the crackdown that drives asylum claims.
The fundamental tension emerges in how democratic nations navigate protecting religious freedom while maintaining commitments to equality and human dignity.
Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms explicitly protects both religious freedom and equality rights, including sexual orientation discrimination prohibitions that directly contradict CAG’s internal teachings.
“The tribunal finds that there is a real chance of him suffering serious harm arising from breaches of human rights if he returns to Hong Kong,” Judge Treadwell wrote in the New Zealand case, exemplifying how refugee law focuses on persecution rather than the applicant’s own beliefs.
Legal precedents established through the UN Committee Against Torture decision provide robust protection for future CAG asylum seekers, regardless of their group’s internal discrimination policies.
The Immigration and Refugee Board’s documentation shows that even ordinary CAG members face imprisonment in China for basic activities like attending worship meetings or possessing religious literature, creating legitimate grounds for refugee protection under international law.
International Surveillance Concerns
Chinese surveillance of CAG members extends internationally, creating ongoing security risks even for successful asylum seekers in democratic countries.
The Chinese intelligence-linked “Da Ai Wang” website has published lists of CAG asylum seekers in multiple countries, while facial recognition technology identifies CAG members appearing in videos or public events.
“Chinese government conducts physical and digital surveillance overseas on religious minority groups,” according to analysis of Beijing’s transnational repression tactics, though specific CAG surveillance documentation remains classified.
This persistent threat reinforces the group’s secretive operational methods and explains their reluctance to disclose physical gathering locations even in protective democratic environments.
The group’s Canadian contact hotlines (+1-416-371-8825 and +1-416-305-2780) serve as controlled gateways for engagement while protecting member identities and physical locations.
The Church of Almighty God represents a complex challenge for democratic nations committed to both refugee protection and human rights principles. While Canada’s 73 percent approval rate and New Zealand’s perfect record demonstrate recognition of legitimate religious persecution, the group’s internal teachings advocating systematic discrimination against sexual minorities and others create fundamental tensions with democratic values.
The group’s evolution into “the first internet cult” operating through major tech platforms while maintaining discriminatory doctrines highlights new challenges for societies balancing religious freedom with equality rights. As asylum approval rates remain high across Western democracies, the contradiction between protecting CAG members from persecution while potentially sheltering discriminatory ideologies that threaten the very minorities these democracies seek to protect presents an ongoing dilemma for refugee law and democratic principles.
