In 1990, I went to a movie theater in West Ashley near Charleston, SC. The movie was “China Cry”, produced by TBN Films. This movie is the story of Nora Lam, her life and escape from China. I attended with two younger folks and remember much of that evening. That would be the last film I would view in a movie theater until 2004 when several Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) members were allowed to attend “The Passion”, directed by Mel Gibson. We viewed it in the theater in Forest City, NC. That was a night I will not soon forget. Jane Whaley did not attend. Here is link to a previous post where I mention attending “The Passion”.. https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=216
Recently, I watched “China Cry” again. By mentioning this movie here, I am not endorsing a particular ministry or TV preacher(s). For the time period, the movie was done with quality and I would recommend others to watch it. What struck me this time was the very detailed depiction of the thought reform used by the Communist Party under Chairman Mao Zedong. Both Neng Yee Sung, who later changed her name to Nora Lam, and her husband were forced into detailed confessions of their past, their relationship and other areas of their lives individually and together. It was said that the officials were trying to get confessions about past transgressions and Nora’s Christian education. One scene shows Nora’s husband secretly admitting the temptation to “give them what they want”; he was ready to confess but, he was not sure to what. Later, the officials would use simultaneous lies against both husband and wife in an attempt break their bond and their love for each other. “Reform” would come to resisters through “labor training.”
This visual depiction correlates well with the accounts found in Robert Jay Lifton’s work in “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism” (original copyright 1961, later published again in 1989. ISBN 0-8078-4253-2 [alk. Paper]). The subtitle of the book is “A Study of Brainwashing in China”. Lifton studied the thought reform used on Westerners by the Communist party in the 1950’s. I have not finished the book, but what I have read has been fascinating. I quote from the PREFACE of the recent edition, “I see it (this book) as less a specific record of Maoist China more an exploration of what might be the most dangerous direction of the twentieth-century mind- the quest for absolute or “totalistic” belief systems. … Indeed this quest has produced nothing short of a worldwide epidemic of political and religious fundamentalism- of movements characterized by literalized embrace of sacred texts as containing absolute truth for all persons, and a mandate for militant, often violent measures taken against designated enemies of that truth of mere unbelievers.” (page vii emphasis added) Was the author ahead of his time on this observation! Lifton’s observations can apply to so many groups around the world, today.
