Dan Wooding and ASSIST News Service promoted South Korean cult leader Lee Jae-Rock

The positive glowing reports about Manmin Church cult leader Lee Jae-Rock and his International crusades all seem to have come from the same source: Dan Wooding and ASSIST Ministries.


Some have asked, if Lee Jae-Rock's ministry is not of God, why are there so many complimentary, glowing reports about his crusades circulating around the globe? Indeed just a quick Google search on the Internet can produce many very positive news stories about the Lee Jae-Rock crusades. You can find these stories on good Christian sites such as Across Asia & Pacific, UCB, Christian Today, Challenge Weekly, John Mark Ministries, CMDnet, Charisma News Service, HCJB world Radio, FaithNews Network and Pulpit Helps. 

Are many or at least some of these news services sending reporters to the Lee Jae-Rock crusades? No, they all are getting their glowing reports from the same source - Dan Wooding and ASSIST News. (However it should be admitted that one News service, Joel News, noticeably did got their information from a different source - The Friday Fax. Friday Fax got their information from the Manmin Missions website. However the Manmin Missions website news releases are extracted from Dan Wooding and ASSIST News!) In a way, Dan Wooding seems to have functioned as a volunteer PR man (to the western media) for Lee Jae-Rock.

Dan Wooding's journalistic experience is impressive. He worked as a reporter for the National Enquirer, Sunday Mirror of London and had a weekly commentary on UPI radio. He worked as a writer and broadcaster for Billy Graham on occasion. He interviewed many people such as Mother Theresa, Johnny Mathis, Burt Lancaster, David Soul, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr from The Beatles. He authored over 40 books. He also did much more than all this and you can read it all in his biography.

Wooding was the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times), based in Garden Grove, California, and is the president of the ASSIST News Service, a daily news service that sends stories to 2,600 media around the world. With such a well-connected new service and with his trusted experience his news stories are picked up and republished often.

Wooding seems to have been almost the sole source of international news publicity for the Manmin Crusades. Not only did he report on recent crusades but also upcoming ones. His reports were overly enthusiastic and it is safe to predict that all his reports on all Lee Jae-Rock crusades he ever attended had glowing reports. But his over enthusiasm was be quite apparent.

The James Randi Educational Foundation published this photo on their website, extracted from Dan Wooding's ASSIST News November 13, 2003 news release about the St. Petersburg healing crusade.

Randi comments:

"On a completely different matter, here's a link to a picture of a man "healed" by a faith healer in St. Petersburg. The man holds his crutch aloft: the fact that his leg is clearly still withered and that he is being supported by two other people seems not to concern the author of the piece at all."


I contacted Dan Wooding to ask him if he had heard anything about the strange teachings of Lee Jae-Rock. He responded that he had never heard Dr. Lee say he would consider heretical, only some things maybe a little different from mainstream teachings. (This is understandable as Lee Jae-Rock does not delve into his strange teachings or fantastic claims at his public crusades. In fact, in Chennai his sermons were sent ahead before he arrived)   

It was surprising, however, that Wooding did not mention even having heard of or having had investigated the allegations against Lee Jae-Rock, even though the allegations are well known in Korea. One would think that surely Wooding would have looked deeper into the allegations, but it appears that he never did.

Wooding also related to me that there are different reasons for attacking others, and to be careful in accusing others of being heretical and a cult. he wrote, "It's so easy to set oneself up as the only one with the truth! We need some unity, not attacks on others."

Dan Wooding seems to have been a very positive, trusting and mercy-oriented individual who showed concern for those with HIV and who files very positive, upbeat edifying and encouraging stories. It appears that his trusting, positive personality has usually served him well. However in this instance, his trusting friendly nature may have caused him to decide too quickly to disbelieve the reported quotes of Lee Jae-Rock's heretical statements and the accusations against him.

Though Wooding was certainly trustworthy and had a wonderful ministry in media, he reported on Lee Jae-Rock, the Manmin Church and their big crusades over enthusiastically. In this case, judging just from all his news releases, he seemed to be acting as if he is not so much an objective reporter, but more like a loyal international promotional department head for Lee Jae-Rock and the Manmin church.

It is a shame that this good man Dan Wooding, who had a helpful ministry in media, was fooled in this case and used his efforts and good name to support and promote Lee Jae-Rock.   But this should not greatly surprise us. Even Joshua, though one of the finest of men in the Bible, was deceived by the Gibeonites.  Righteous King Jehoshaphat allied himself with evil King Ahab. It can happen to anyone.  Dan Wooding passed away in March 2020.  His son Peter now is the senior editor of ASSIST News.  

Dan Wooding interviewing Lee Jae-Rock in his office  


Johnny Kim, Dr Lee Jae-Rock, Dan Wooding and Elder Lee Jung-Ho


               Lee Jae-Rock and Dan Wooding






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