Cuckoos in the Nest: Christalignment and Conversion through “Spiritual Espionage”

This article proposes a new term “spiritual espionage” defined as the practice of an evangelical Christian group infiltrating a competing religious community in order to undermine their beliefs and convert their members from the inside. This is described through the examples of Christalignment in Australia, Shincheonji in South Korea, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the USA. Spiritual espionage emerges as a solution to the evangelical problem of hostility on the part of New Age spiritualists and other “pagan” groups to direct attempts at conversion. It demonstrates an evolution of evangelical practices and presents an interesting problem for the study of such activities.