According to its website, “Shekinah Church International was born with the calling of saving one billion souls, raising up leaders for the Body of Christ and supporting the gospel with all means.”
In 2009, former member Lydia Chung filed a lawsuit claiming that Shekinah and Shinn “had isolated her from her family, brainwashed her, and defrauded her out of nearly $4 million, which was allegedly funnelled to Shinn through the non-taxpaying church.”
Ultimately, however, the judge ruled in Shinn’s favour, leaving Chung to rebuild her life.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Chung said “This is a cult. This totally ruins people. You hear about the people who went to Vietnam—going through such a trauma, many people cannot function as a normal human being—this is what it does.”
She alleges Shinn “exerted undue influence, mind control, coercive persuasion, oppression, and other intimidating tactics” in order to “divest her of her money and property” to him “in the name of obeying the will of God.”
Courtesy of Netflix
Likewise, former member Kylie Douglas told Rolling Stone “Even though we were only in there for two years, it’s still two years of our life that we spent battling to give full attention to [Shinn] and his church,”
She added, “We just no longer want him to be able to do that to anyone: the brainwashing, the manipulating, running people down — giving their time, giving their effort, giving their money, giving all they got for something that is a false hope.”
The final moments of Dancing For The Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult show a statement which reads “No criminal charges have been brought against Shinn. He has previously denied sexually abusing any member of Shekinah or any client of 7M. The civil lawsuit is ongoing. Robert and his co-defendants deny the claims against them. The case is set to go to trial in 2025.”