Ivo Sasek (born 10 July 1956) is a Swiss-German lay preacher, author of religious writings and leader of the religious sect Organic Christ Generation (OCG), which he founded in 1999. This organization, classified as a cult, has between two and three thousand German-speaking members. In 2008, Sasek founded the Anti-Censorship Coalition (; AZK), a forum for right-wing esotericism, conspiracy theories, antisemitism, xenophobia and historical revisionism, including Holocaust denial. From Sasek's Panorama Center in Walzenhausen, Switzerland, these organizations and their numerous media outlets are run, including the () online channel Klagemauer.tv. Sasek rejects an open, democratic and pluralistic society.
Personal background Sasek was born in Zürich and is a trained car mechanic. According to his own account, he experienced a visionary conversion to Christianity in 1977. In 1978, he left his job, joined the Newlife movement and worked, among other things, as a preacher at Gospelradio Zürich. He attended a Bible school, though did not graduate. The school reportedly rejected his visionary experiences as Pentecostal spiritual gifts. Beginning in 1980, Sasek became known for his work with drug addicts and gained his first followers. In 1984 he founded the Obadja Drug Rehabilitation Center in Walzenhausen. This was followed by a School of Life and a Discipleship School. He began a church teaching ministry, traveling to churches in German-speaking countries and spreading his messages through writings and audio tapes. Around 1999, he introduced an assessment ministry to evaluate a person's spiritual condition, which gave rise to the Organic Christ Generation (; OCG).
Sasek has been married since 1983. , Anni and Ivo Sasek have eleven children, who, beginning in 2010 joined their parents in spreading the teachings of the OCG. During the summer months, they regularly went on tours featuring original musicals, children's songs, films, and personal testimonies. A network of home groups made up of OCG followers organized their performances, during which they portrayed themselves as successors to their father's teachings, an ideal Christian family, and role models for the OCG's "organic" family and church life. At times, Sasek also undertook mission trips to France, Belgium, Ukraine and Romania. Three sons —including Simon, who was to become his successor—as well as a daughter-in-law, have since left the group.
Organic Christ Generation (OGC) End-time claim to absoluteness Sasek considers himself "the perfecter of the Reformation" and a "true theologian" who speaks "God's current word in this age." In his publications, he claims to have "seen God" and that God "Himself delivered" him at birth. He sees himself as an apostle to the nations and a prophet of judgment who can evaluate the faith of other Christians and recognize and distinguish truth from falsehood. The standard for this is his claimed personal visionary experiences of life and God. In doing so, he equates himself and his message with God: "I say: whoever speaks against this message; I say: whoever speaks against me and this message, whoever does not submit to the word that I, Ivo Sasek, speak here in Walzenhausen, is not a true servant of God." "If anyone speaks against me, then he speaks against God, I will tell it like it is."
Sasek understands the Bible as an unfinished Word of God, which is continually supplemented by current revelations of the Spirit. He believes in the imminent end of the world, applies texts of biblical apocalyptic texts directly to contemporary historical events and links them to current conspiracy theories. Since 2008, Sasek has also integrated the idea of reincarnation into his system. Since it has little biblical evidence, he claims that the Second Council of Constantinople, held in 553, deliberately removed this concept from the Bible.
Sasek conveys his message in the style of early Christian epistles to OCG groups, as well as to local church congregations. In these messages, he preaches against "self-sufficient prosperity Christianity" and "assurance of salvation", labels other church leaders as false prophets, invites them to his events and threatens them with God's judgment if they refuse. For Sasek, Christians can survive God's impending Last Judgment only if they integrate themselves into a divine system or order with absolute obedience in marriage, family and child-rearing. In March 2017, he described this order as an "organism" in which everyone is "existentially intertwined" like a human body, and "united in destiny" with one another "according to organic laws and principles." This organic community, he states, takes precedence over all individuality and is currently being "regenerated (brought forth) anew from Christ." To integrate into it, each individual must radically renounce sin, surrender their own will, and separate themselves from sinners. However, he does not demand that people leave conventional congregations; rather, he calls for them to profess their allegiance to the OCG within those congregations and form small, interdenominational house groups.
Assessment Through regular "assessment sessions", Sasek and the "sinless" helpers he has trained claim to determine the degree of integration into the OCG. In three-day courses, participants are expected to work through questions provided by Sasek in order to encourage self-reflection, self-transformation, and community-building. Sasek describes this "assessment" as "helping people help themselves", which he says has grown out of "decades of therapy and family counseling" and has already helped "thousands of people and hundreds of families live harmoniously together."
Participants have reported, however, that Sasek points out their complete unsuitability for the Body of Christ, has been confronting them since 2008 with alleged sins from past lives, and does not allow them to form their own conception of what it means to be a Christian: only those who follow his radical rules of obedience, submission and self-denial pass the "assessment" and are counted among the "new, redeemed and sinless" generation. This compulsion to submit causes severe identity crises and mental breakdowns.
Raising children For Sasek, children are the "manifestation of an entire generation of redeemers." If they "grow up with unclouded eye contact and an undivided relationship with God Almighty," they would "become, without distraction, an ever-growing field of God's power", through which "God's works will take place as the world has never seen before." Birth control and abortion, he states, are a wave of murder orchestrated by the enemy to stop this generation of saviors. To prepare children for their divinely predestined mission, parents and educators must combat all carnal passions that oppose to the Spirit of God from the beginning. In order for children to learn complete submission to what Sasek claims is God's will, he recommends physical violence as a supposedly necessary, biblically based means of education. Parents cannot presuppose that children have good intentions; rather, they must break their willfulness. If they drive out evil thoroughly enough, goodness will follow naturally, like a law of nature, regardless of Christian faith. Children's ingratitude, dissatisfaction or listlessness should be punished by parents with renunciation or confinement to teach the child humility. If they resist, they are to be struck on the buttocks with a bamboo rod to the point of "bloody welts." Just as Sasek cites the example of his mother, who he says rightly beat him as a child, three of his minor children published the book Mama, Please Discipline Me! in 2000 through Sasek's Elaion Publishing. In it, Sasek's eldest son, Simon, described punishment with a bamboo rod and his fear of it as a child. Sasek's parenting advice regarding corporal punishment led to two criminal complaints of child abuse; the investigations were dropped in both cases.
Sasek's teachings give rise to a strong distrust of governmental institutions and a confrontational stance toward authorities. For example, the OCG rejects mandatory vaccinations, sex education, and evidence-based educational approaches, which often leads its adherents into conflict with schools, child welfare agencies, and family courts. OCG groups network and propagandize through digital media, courses, and training camps. Despite its relatively small membership of around 2,000, the OCG is said to reach tens of thousands of people at times.
A 21-year-old former member reported in August 2018 that she had been repeatedly punished and beaten for even the smallest mistakes well into her teenage years. Contact with the outside world had been minimized, and attempts had been made to break her will. Brainwashing, control, indoctrination and intimidation defined life within the group. She managed to leave the group during a hospital stay, where she had experienced personal care for the first time. Sasek denied the account and asserted that the OCG existed "in a bond of the heart, in a deep awareness of the togetherness of all the people in this world."
By November 2018, more people had left the OCG, including Sasek's eldest son, Simon. Almost all of them told Austrian broadcaster ORF about serious experiences of violence, but out of fear of reprisals, did not want to go on camera or would only do so anonymously. Since 2018, however, Simon has been running a YouTube channel where he speaks openly about his departure. Sasek attributed his son's departure to "persecution by the mass media" and declined to be interviewed.
Data collection According to research by Bayerischer Rundfunk, in January 2020 the OCG asked its supporters to collect data on politicians and journalists and find out "who is friend or foe". By the end of April 2020, the OCG had collected and stored private data on approximately 8,200 people from German-speaking countries, mostly publicly available information such as home addresses, cell phone numbers, religious affiliation, nationality and sexual orientation. Those affected include representatives of all German political parties, state parliaments and the Bundestag (parliament), as well as civil servants, journalists and activists—including critics of the sect and several chairmen of Jewish institutions. For some, their "Jewish heritage" is noted. Sensitive information was also collected on some government politicians. In response to inquiries, Sasek explained that the data collection served to "educate" OCG members about "the nature and attitude of our elected representatives" and was intended only for "internal use". He did not explain the remarks about Jews.
Andreas Zick, a researcher on extremism, referred to the categories listed as a "racist list" of a scope otherwise known only from "enemy lists" compiled by far-right extremists or jihadists. Given the history of murders of people who had previously been on such lists, he stated there is a high risk to those affected in this case as well. The Bavarian State Parliament instructed the state government to investigate the sect's activities more closely. The General Public Prosecutor's Office in Munich is conducting a preliminary investigation into the OCG on suspicion of incitement to hatred.
Anti-Censorship Coalition (AZK)
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