Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han, founders of the Unification Church
The Unification Church (통일교) is a new religious movement, derived from Christianity, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies.Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) began gaining followers after the Second World War. On 1 May 1954 in Seoul, South Korea, Moon formally founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), the Unification Church's full name until 1994, when it was officially changed to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU; Korean: 세계평화통일가정연합). It has a presence in approximately 100 countries around the world.[1] Its leaders are Moon (prior to his death) and his wife Hak Ja Han, whom their followers honor with the title "True Parents".
Moon's book The Divine Principle informs the beliefs of the Unification Church. Moon considered himself the Second Coming of Christ, claiming to complete the mission Jesus Christ was unable to because of his crucifixion: beginning a new ideal family,[2] and a larger human lineage, free from sin.[3] The Unification Church is well known for its mass weddings known as Blessing ceremonies.[4] It has been criticized for its teachings and for its social and political influence, with critics calling it a dangerous cult,[5][6] a political powerhouse, and a business empire.[7][8] The group has been accused of excessive financial exploitation of its members.[1] Its involvement in politics includes anti-communism and support for Korean reunification.[9][10][11] Its members have founded, owned, and supported related organizations in business,[12] education,[13] politics,[14] and more.[15]
Moon did not originally intend on founding a separate organization or denomination,[16] and did not give his group of followers its official name, Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (세계 기독교 통일 신령 협회; Segye Gidoggyo Tong-il Sinryeong Hyeobhoe), until 1954.[17] The informal name "Unification Church" (통일교; Tongilgyo) has been commonly used by members, the public, and the news media.[18] By 2018, the term "Unification Movement" was also widely used.[19]
Many Unification Church members consider the word "Moonie" derogatory, but will use it amongst themselves, in the same way that Black people have come to "own" the word "nigger", or Irish people call each other "Paddies", but might consider its use by others a slur.[29]
Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, are regarded by Unificationists as "True Father" and "True Mother", respectively, and as "True Parents" collectively.
In 1945, Moon attended the Israel Monastery (Israel Jesus Church near Seoul) with his wife, Choi Sun-Kil (최선길; 崔先吉; Choe Seon-gil), to learn the teachings of Kim Baek-moon [ko], including his book The Fundamental Principles of Christianity (基督教根本原理 drafted March 2, 1946, published March 2, 1958).[32][33][34] After World War II and the Japanese rule ended in 1945, Moon began preaching.[31] In 1946, Moon traveled alone to Pyongyang in Communist-ruled North Korea.[35] He was arrested on allegations of spying for South Korea and given a five-year sentence to the Hŭngnamlabor camp.[36]
Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (1954–1994)
Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) in Seoul on 1 May 1954. It expanded rapidly in South Korea and, by the end of 1955, had 30 centers nationwide.[17] The HSA-UWC expanded throughout the world with most members living in South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and other nations in East Asia.[37][17] In the 1970s, American HSA-UWC members were noted for raising money for Unification Church projects.[38]
In 1955 the HSA-UWC founded The Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (대학원리연구회)(CARP). According to CARP's website, its goal is to promote "intercultural, interracial, and international cooperation through the Unification world view".[39][40] J. Isamu Yamamoto states in Unification Church: "At times CARP has been very subtle about its association with the Unification Church, however, the link between the two has always been strong, since the purpose of both is to spread Moon's teachings."[41]
The HSA-UWC also sent missionaries to Europe. They entered Czechoslovakia in 1968 and remained underground until the 1990s.[42] Unification movement activity in South America began in the 1970s with missionary work. Later, the HSA-UWC made large investments in civic organizations and business projects, including an international newspaper.[43] Starting in the 1990s, the HSA-UWC expanded in Russia and other former communist nations. Hak Ja Han, Moon's wife, made a radio broadcast to the nation from the State Kremlin Palace.[44] As of 1994, the HSA-UWC had about 5,000 members in Russia.[45] About 500 Russian students had been sent to the US to participate in 40-day workshops.[46]
Moon moved to the United States in 1971, although he remained a citizen of the Republic of Korea. In the 1970s, he gave a series of public speeches in the United States, including one in Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1974; two in 1976 in Yankee Stadium in New York City; and one on the grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., where he spoke on "God's Hope for America" to 300,000 people. In 1975, the HSA-UWC held one of the largest peaceful gatherings in history, with 1.2 million people in Yeouido, South Korea.[47]
In the 1970s, the Unification Church, along with some other new religious movements, became a target of the anti-cult movement. Activists have accused the movement of having "brainwashed" its members.[48][49] In 1976, American Unification Church president Neil Albert Salonen met with Senator Bob Dole to defend the HSA-UWC against charges which were made by its critics, including the parents of some members.[50]
The Unification Church's involvement in the seafood industry began at the direction of Moon who ordered an expansion into "the oceanic providence." In 1976 and 1977 the Church invested nearly a million dollars into the United States seafood industry.[51] Moon delivered a speech in 1980 entitled "The Way of Tuna" in which he claimed that "After we build the boats, we catch the fish and process them for the market, and then have a distribution network. This is not just on the drawing board; I have already done it." and declared himself the "king of the ocean." He also suggested that they could get around the recently imposed 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone by marrying American and Japanese members, allowing the Japanese ones to become American citizens, because once married, "we are not foreigners; therefore Japanese brothers, particularly those matched to Americans, are becoming ..... leaders for fishing and distribution." He also declared that "Gloucester is almost a Moonie town now!"[51]
In 1976 UC members founded News World Communications, an international news mediacorporation.[52] Its first two newspapers, The News World (later renamed the New York City Tribune) and the Spanish-language Noticias del Mundo, were published in New York from 1976 until the early 1990s. In 1982 The New York Times described News World as "the newspaper unit of the Unification Church."[53] Moon's son Hyun Jin Moon is its chairman of the board.[54] News World Communications owns United Press International, The World and I, Tiempos del Mundo (Latin America), The Segye Ilbo (South Korea), The Sekai Nippo (Japan), the Zambezi Times (South Africa), The Middle East Times (Egypt).[55] Until 2008 it published the Washington, D.C.-based newsmagazine Insight on the News.[52] Until 2010, it owned The Washington Times. On November 2, 2010, Sun Myung Moon and a group of former Times editors purchased the paper from News World.[56]
Starting in the 1980s, Moon instructed HSA-UWC members to take part in a program called "Home Church" in which they reached out to neighbors and community members through public service.[57]
In April 1990, Moon visited the Soviet Union and met with President Mikhail Gorbachev. Moon expressed support for the political and economic transformations underway in the Soviet Union. At the same time, the movement was expanding into formerly communist nations.[58]
The Women's Federation for World Peace(세계평화여성연합,WFWP) was founded in 1992 by Hak Ja Han. Its stated purpose is to encourage women to work more actively in promoting peace in their communities and greater society. It has members in 143 countries.[59][60][61]
Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (1994–present)
On 1 May 1994 (the 40th anniversary of the founding of the HSA-UWC), Moon declared that the era of the HSA-UWC had ended and inaugurated a new organization: the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) would include HSA-UWC members and members of other religious organizations working toward common goals, especially on issues of sexual morality and reconciliation between people of different religions, nations, and races. The FFWPU co-sponsored Blessing ceremonies in which thousands of couples from other churches and religions were given the marriage blessing previously given only to HSA-UWC members.[62]
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Church's businesses expanded greatly and encountered significant success, leading to it becoming wealthy despite its declining number of members.[12] In 1991 Moon announced that members should return to their hometowns, to undertake apostolic work there. Massimo Introvigne, who has studied the Unification Church and other new religious movements, said that this confirmed that full-time membership was no longer considered crucial to church members.[63] In 1994, The New York Times recognized the movement's political influence, saying it was "a theocratic powerhouse that is pouring foreign fortunes into conservative causes in the United States."[64] In 1998, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram criticized Moon's "ultra-right leanings" and suggested a personal relationship with conservative Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[65]
In 1995, the former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush, spoke at an FFWPU event in the Tokyo Dome.[66] Bush told the gathering: "If as president I could have done one thing to have helped the country more, it would have been to do a better job in finding a way, either through speaking out or through raising a moral standard, to strengthen the American family."[67]Hak Ja Han, the main speaker, credited her husband with bringing about the Fall of Communism and declared that he must save America from "the destruction of the family and moral decay".[68]
In 2000, Moon founded the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO), which describes itself as "a global organization whose mission is to serve its member organizations, strengthen and encourage the non-governmental sector as a whole, increase public understanding of the non-governmental community, and provide the mechanism and support needed for NGOs to connect, partner, and multiply their contributions to solve humanity's basic problems." It has been criticized for promoting conservatism in contrast to some of the ideals of the United Nations.[69][70][71]
In 2000, the FFWPU co-sponsored the Million Family March, a rally in Washington, D.C., to celebrate family unity and racial and religious harmony, along with the Nation of Islam.[72]Louis Farrakhan was the main speaker at the event which was held on 16 October 2000; the fifth anniversary of the Million Man March, which was also organized by Farrakhan.[73] FFWPU leader Dan Fefferman wrote to his colleagues acknowledging that Farrakhan's and Moon's views differed on multiple issues but shared a view of a "God-centered family".[74]
In 2003, Korean FFWPU members started a political party in South Korea, "The Party for God, Peace, Unification, and Home". An inauguration declaration stated the new party would focus on preparing for Korean reunification by educating the public about God and peace. An FFWPU official said that similar political parties would be started in Japan and the United States.[75] Since 2003, the FFWPU-related Universal Peace Federation's Middle East Peace Initiative has been organizing group tours of Israel and Palestine to promote understanding, respect, and reconciliation among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.[76][77]
Moon's death and divisions within the Unification Church
On 15 August 2012, Moon was reported to be gravely ill and was put on a respirator at the intensive care unit of St. Mary's Hospital at The Catholic University of Korea in Seoul. He was admitted on 14 August 2012, after suffering from pneumonia earlier in the month.[78] He died there on September 2.[79]
Moon's book, The Divine Principle, was, he claims revealed to him over a period of 9 years after he claims Jesus appeared to him on Easter Sunday 1936 on mountainside and asked him to continue the work that he could not finish while he was on earth, due to the "tragedy" of his crucifixion.[82] It was first published as Wolli Wonbon (원리 원본; 原理原本, 'Original Text of the Divine Principle') in 1945. The earliest manuscript was lost in North Korea during the Korean War. A second, expanded version, Wonli Hesol (원리 해설; 原理解說), or Explanation of the Divine Principle, was published in 1957. The Divine Principle [ko] or Exposition of the Divine Principle (원리강론; 原理講論; Wolli Gangnon) is the main theological textbook of the movement. It was co-written by Sun Myung Moon and early disciple Hyo Won'eu and first published in 1966. A translation entitled Divine Principle was published in English in 1973.[83] The Divine Principle lays out the core of Unification Church theology and is held by its believers to have the status of holy scripture. Following the format of systematic theology, it includes God's purpose in creating human beings, the fall of man, and restoration – the process through history by which God is working to remove the ill effects of the fall and restore humanity back to the relationship and position that God originally intended.[84] David Václavík and Dušan Lužný described the details of those 3 points as follows:
Principle of Creation: This first principle states that God created the world in his image. All of reality is then composed of bipolarities. The basic bipolarity is expressed by the terms sung-sang (성상; 性相, 'inner character' – the inner, invisible aspect of the created world) and hyung-sang (형상; 形相, 'outer form' – the outer, visible aspect of the created world). In addition to this, there is another bipolarity, denoted by the terms yin and yang. The first-mentioned bipolarity of sung-sang and hyung-sang reflects the relationship between soul (mind) and matter (body), while yin-yang reflects the relationship between femininity and masculinity. Hierarchy, described by the first principle (the basis of the four positions) then guarantees order in the world – God or higher purpose is placed highest, in the middle are man and woman, and finally, children are placed as the result. As Václavík and Lužný further characterize the doctrine, "God is an absolute reality transcending time and space. The fundamental energy of God's being is also eternal. By the action of this energy, entities enter into a relationship with each other, the basis of which is the activity of giving and receiving. The goal is to achieve a balanced and harmonious relationship of giving and receiving, i.e., love." According to the teachings of the Church, the highest level of relationship is the relationship with God. By properly developing the relationship of giving and receiving, it should be possible to achieve union with God. The goal of creation is then the realization of the kingdom of heaven and can be achieved by fulfilling the three biblical blessings. Principle describes three blessings as follows. The first blessing concerns the nature of man: God created man in his own image. The second blessing was to be fulfilled through Adam and Eve by establishing an ideal family that was pure and loving, but they failed to do so. The third blessing concerns man's position as a mediator between God and nature. Man is to master nature in order to perfect himself and nature itself and thus create the kingdom of heaven. Principle then describes three stages of growth of everything including man, namely, origin (formation), growth, and completion.[85]
The Fall of Man: according to the teaching of the Church, there was no fulfillment of God's plan. God endowed man with free will and responsibility. Like everything in the universe, Adam and Eve went through three phases of development (origin, growth, and completion). This part describes that, before completion could occur, the orientation of the give-and-take relationship was reversed when Eve established a sexual relationship with Satan. Thus occurred the fall of man and the creation of a world "with Satan at the center, and all men have become children of Satan." According to this belief, the world is from that time dominated by Satan's lineage through the human race, and men with evil natures transmit evil. Through their children, they then create evil families and thus an evil world.[85]
The principle of restoration: According to the teaching of the Church, the primary purpose of creation was to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. This means that God will eventually save this sinful world and restore it to its original, sinless state. This is the basis of the principle of restoration. This is the perspective through which the Unification Church views the entire history of humanity. For the church, history is the history of restoration and of God's efforts to save fallen men. At the end of this history, the Last Days are to come. Restoration teaches, that God has tried to end the sinful world and restore the original good world several times in human history. However, men have failed in their responsibility and thwarted God's will. Doctrine claims that God made several such attempts: in the case of Noah, God first destroyed the sinful world with a flood, yet Noah's second born son Ham sinned again. Another attempt to restore the original sinless world was the coming of Jesus Christ when God sent the Messiah to establish the perfect family and thus create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Jesus did not fulfill this mission because he was crucified. Václavík and Lužný summarize: "According to the doctrine of the Unification Church, we are currently living in the period of the Last Days, that is, the period of the Second Coming of Christ. However, today's situation is very different from previous ones. For Christ will be successful at His Second Coming – God will send the 'True Parents of humanity' and through them fulfill the purpose of creation. During the previous two thousand years, God has prepared, according to the principle of restoration, a suitable democratic, social, and legal environment that will protect Christ at the Second Coming."[85]
Followers take as a starting point the truth of the Christian Old and New Testaments, with the Divine Principle an additional text that intends to interpret and "fulfill" the purpose of those older texts.[84] Moon was intent on replacing worldwide forms of Christianity with his new unified vision of it,[36] Moon being a self-declared messiah. Moon's followers regard him as a separate person from Jesus but with a mission to basically continue and complete Jesus's work in a new way, according to the Principle.[3] The Unification Church regards a person's destination after death as being dependent on how much one's work during this life corresponds to its teachings. Moon's followers believe in Apocatastasis, that everyone will eventually receive salvation.[86]
In 1977, Frederick Sontag analyzed the teachings of the Divine Principle and summarized it in 12 concise points:[87]
God: Divine Principle teaches, that there is one living, eternal and true God, a person beyond space and time, who has a perfect reason, emotion, and will, whose deepest heart essence is love, which includes both masculinity and femininity, a person who is the source of all truth, beauty and goodness, and who is the creator and sustainer of man, the universe and all things visible and invisible. Man and the universe reflect his personality, character, and purpose.
Man: Man was then created by God as a unique creature, made in his image as his children, like him in personality and character, and created with the capacity to respond to his love, to be a source of his joy, and to share his creativity.
God's desire for man and creation: To the relationship between God and Man, teaching states that God's desire for man and creation is eternal and unchanging, God wants men and women to fulfill three things: First, each should grow to perfection so as to become one with God in heart, will, and action, so that their mind and body are united in perfect harmony centered on God's love; second, to be united with God as husband and wife and give birth to God's sinless children, thereby establishing a sinless family and ultimately a sinless world; third, to become masters of the created world, establishing loving dominion with him in a mutual relationship of giving and receiving. None of this happened because of human sin. Therefore, God's present desire is to solve the sin problem and restore all these things, which will bring about the earthly and heavenly kingdom of God.
Sin: The Divine Principle describes the origin of sin and the process of the fall of man. The first man and woman (Adam and Eve), before they became perfect, were tempted by the archangel Lucifer to illicit love. Because of this, Adam and Eve willfully turned away from God's will and purpose, bringing spiritual death to themselves and the human race. As a result of this Fall, Satan usurped the position of the true father of mankind, so that all humans since then have been born in sin both physically and spiritually and have sinful tendencies. Therefore, human beings tend to resist God and his will and live in ignorance as to their true nature and parentage and all that they have lost thereby. Thus God suffers for lost children and a lost world and has had to constantly struggle to restore them to himself. Creation groans to give birth while waiting to be reunited through the true children of God.
Christology: According to the Divine Principle, fallen humanity can only be restored to God through Christ (the Messiah) who comes as the new Adam to become the new head of the human race through whom humanity can be reborn into the family of God. In order for God to send the Messiah, mankind must fulfill certain conditions that restore, what was lost because of the Fall.
History: The Divine Principle describes, that restoration is accomplished through the payment of the indemnity for a sin. Human history is then a record of God's and man's efforts to make this indemnity over time so that the conditions can be met and God can send the Messiah who comes to begin the final process of restoration. If some efforts fail in fulfilling the conditions of indemnity, they must be repeated, usually by another person after a period of time. This, according to the Divine Principle, is why history shows cyclical patterns. History culminates with the coming of the Messiah, which ends the old age and begins a new age.
Resurrection: The Divine Principle explains resurrection as the process of restoration to spiritual life and spiritual maturity, ultimately uniting a person with God. It is the transition from spiritual death to spiritual life. This should be accomplished in part by human effort (through prayer, good works, etc.) with the help of the saints in the spirit world and completed by God's effort to bring man to new birth through Christ (the Messiah).
Predestination: According to the Divine Principle, God has predestined absolutely that all men will be restored to him and have chosen all men for salvation, but he has also given man a portion of responsibility (to be fulfilled by man's free will) for the fulfillment of his original will and his will to bring about restoration. This responsibility remains permanently with man. God has predestined and called certain persons and groups of people to certain responsibilities. If these fail, others must fill their role and greater compensation must be made.
Jesus: The Divine Principle teaches that Jesus of Nazareth came as the Christ, the second Adam, the only begotten Son of God. He became one with God, spoke God's words, and did God's works, thus showing God to men. However, people eventually rejected and crucified him, preventing him from building God's kingdom on earth. The Divine Principle teaches that Jesus overcame Satan in the crucifixion and resurrection, making spiritual salvation possible for those who are born again through him and the Holy Spirit. The restoration of the Kingdom of God on earth awaits the Second Coming of Christ.
The Bible: The Divine Principle offers an explanation of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Both should be the record of God's progressive revelation to mankind. The purpose of the Bible, according to the Divine Principle, is to bring humanity to Christ and reveal to mankind the heart of God. The Divine Principle supports the Bible, as the truth is unique, eternal, and unchanging, so any new messages from God will be consistent with the Bible and will contain deeper explanations. The Divine Principle describes the current time as the last days when the new truth must be communicated by God (in the book 'God's Principle') so that mankind will be able to finish what is still unfinished.
The ultimate renewal: According to the Divine Principle, a proper understanding of theology focuses simultaneously on man's relationship with God (vertical) and man's relationship with his neighbor (horizontal). Man's sin has disrupted both of these relationships and thus caused all the problems in the world. These problems will be solved through the restoration of man to God through Christ, as well as through such measures as establishing appropriate moral standards and practices, forming true families uniting all peoples and races (Oriental, Western, and African), resolving the tension between science and religion, correcting economic, racial, political, and educational injustices, and overcoming God-denying ideologies such as Communism.
The Second Coming (Eschatology): The Divine Principle teaches that Christ's Second Coming will occur in this age, which would be similar to the time of his First Coming. Christ should come as before, that is, as a man in the flesh. By marrying his bride in the flesh, he will establish a family and thus become the True Parents of all mankind. Through accepting the 'True Parents (참부모)' (the Second Coming of Christ), obeying them, and following them, the original sin of mankind would be removed and people can eventually become perfect. In this way, true families fulfilling God's ideal will begin, and the Kingdom of God's will should be established both on earth and in heaven. According to the Divine Principle, this day is now at hand in the person of Sun Myung Moon.
First Blessing ceremony mass wedding outside of Korea, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 1 July 1982.
The Unification Church is well known for its Blessing tradition: a mass wedding ceremony (합동결혼식) and wedding vow renewal ceremony. It is given to engaged or married couples. According to the Church's belief in a serpent seed interpretation of original sin and the Fall of Man, Eve was sexually seduced by Satan (the serpent), and thus the human bloodline is sinful due to being directly descended from Satan.[88][89] Through the Blessing, members believe, the couple is removed from the lineage of sinful humanity and restored back into God's sinless lineage.
The first Blessing ceremony was held in 1961 for 36 couples in Seoul, South Korea by the Moons shortly after their own marriage in 1960. All the couples were members of the church. Moon matched all of the couples except 12 who were already married to each other before joining the church.[90] This was Moon's second marriage. In 1945 he married Sun Kil Choi. They had a son in 1946 and divorced in 1954.[91]
Later Blessing ceremonies were larger in scale but followed the same pattern. All participants were HSA-UWC members and Moon matched most of the couples. In 1982 the first large scale Blessing (of 2,000 couples) outside of Korea took place in Madison Square Garden, New York City.[92] In 1988, Moon matched 2,500 Korean members with Japanese members for a Blessing ceremony held in Korea, partly in order to promote unity between the two nations.[93]
Moon's practice of matching couples was very unusual in both Christian tradition and in modern Western culture and attracted much attention and controversy.[94] The Blessing ceremonies have attracted a lot of attention in the press and in the public imagination, often being labeled "mass weddings".[95] However, in most cases the Blessing ceremony is not a legal wedding ceremony. Some couples are already married and those that are engaged are later legally married according to the laws of their own countries.[96]The New York Times referred to a 1997 ceremony for 28,000 couples as a "marriage affirmation ceremony", adding: "The real weddings were held later in separate legal ceremonies."[97]
Mary Farrell Bednarowski says that marriage is "really the only sacrament" in the Unification movement. Unificationists therefore view singleness as "not a state to be sought or cultivated" but as preparation for marriage. Pre-marital celibacy and marital faithfulness are emphasized.[4] Adherents may be taught to "abstain from intimate relations for a specified time after marriage".[98] The church does not give its marriage blessing to same-sex couples.[99]
Moon has emphasized the similarity between Unification views of sexuality and evangelical Christianity, "reaching out to conservative Christians in this country in the last few years by emphasizing shared goals like support for sexual abstinence outside of marriage, and opposition to homosexuality."[100] Since 2001 couples Blessed by Moon have been able to arrange marriages for their own children, without his direct guidance. Also some Unification Church members have married partners who are not church members.[101]
True God's Day (하나님의 날, established 1 January 1968) - always 1 January until 2009, then according to the lunar calendar - 23 January 2012
True Parents' Birthday (참부모성탄 or 기원절,6 January 1920 - 6 January 1943) - Anniversary of the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God (2001), 6. January until 2009, then according to the lunar calendar - 28 January 2012
True Parents' Day (참부모의 날, established 1 March 1960 according to the lunar calendar) - 28 January 2012
Day of All True Things (참만물의날established 1 May 1963 according to the lunar calendar) - 20 June 2012
Chil Il Jeol (칠일절) - Declaration Day of God's Eternal Blessing(하나님 축복영원 선포일, Founded 1 July 1991) - always 1 July until 2009, then according to the lunar calendar - 18 August 2012
Chil Pal Cheol (칠팔절) or Declaration of the Realm of the Cosmic Sabbath for the Parents of Heaven and Earth (천지부모 천주안식권 선포일) - founded 7 July 1997 according to the lunar calendar - 24 August 2012
True Children's Day (참자녀의 날, established on 1 October 1960 according to the lunar calendar) - 14 November 2012
Foundation Day for the Nation of Heaven and Earth (천주통일국 개천일, founded 3 October 1988) - always 3 October until 2009, then 16 November 2012 according to the lunar calendar
Scholarly studies
In the early 1960s John Lofland lived with HSA-UWC missionaryYoung Oon Kim and a small group of American members and studied their activities in trying to promote their beliefs and win new members. Lofland noted that most of their efforts were ineffective and that most of the people who joined did so because of personal relationships with other members, often family relationships. Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctoral thesis entitled "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes", and in 1966 in book form by Prentice-Hall as Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith.[103][104][105][106]
In 1977 Frederick Sontag, a professor of philosophy at Pomona College and a minister in the United Church of Christ.,[107] spent 10 months visiting HSA-UWC members in North America, Europe, and Asia as well as interviewing Moon at his home in New York State. He reported his findings and observations in Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church, published by Abingdon Press. The book also provides an overview of the Divine Principle.[108] In an interview with UPI Sontag compared the HSA-UWC with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and said that he expected its practices to conform more to mainstream American society as its members become more mature. He added that he did not want to be considered an apologist but a close look at HSA-UWC's theology is important: "They raise some incredibly interesting issues."[109]
In 1998 Irving Louis Horowitz, sociologist, questioned the relationship between the HSA-UWC and scholars whom it paid to conduct research on its behalf.[116]
Relations with other religions
Judaism
Unificationism holds that the Jewish people as a whole were prepared by God to receive the Messiah in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, with John the Baptist tasked from birth with the mission to lead the Jewish people to Jesus, but failed in his mission. According to the Divine Principle, the Jews went through a "course of indemnity" due to the failure of John the Baptist to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, in spite of publicly testifying to him at the Jordan River, whilst receiving the baptism.[117]
In 1976, the American Jewish Committee released a report by Rabbi A. James Rudin which stated that the Divine Principle contained "pejorative language, stereotyped imagery, and accusations of collective sin and guilt."[118] In a news conference which was presented by the AJC and representatives of Catholic and Protestant churches, panelists stated that the text "contained over 125 anti-Jewish references." They also cited Moon's recent and public condemnation of "antisemitic and anti-Christian attitudes", and called upon him to make a "comprehensive and systematic removal" of antisemitic and anti-Christian references in the Divine Principle as a demonstration of good faith.[119]
In 1977, the HSA-UWC issued a rebuttal to the report, stating that it was neither comprehensive nor reconciliatory, instead, it had a "hateful tone" and it was filled with "sweeping denunciations". It denied that the Divine Principle teaches antisemitism and gave detailed responses to 17 specific allegations which were contained in the AJC's report, stating that the allegations were distortions of teachings and obscurations of the real content of passages or the passages were accurate summaries of Jewish scriptures or New Testament passages.[120]
In 1984, Mose Durst, then the president of the Unification Church of the United States as well as a convert from Judaism,[121] said that the Jewish community had been "hateful" in its response to the growth of the Unification movement, and he also placed blame on the community's "insecurity" and Unification Church members' "youthful zeal and ignorance". Rudin, then the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, said that Durst's remarks were inaccurate and unfair and he also said that "hateful is a harsh word to use".[122] In the same year Durst wrote in his autobiography: "Our relations with the Jewish community have been the most painful to me personally. I say this with a heavy heart, since I was raised in the Jewish faith and am proud of my heritage."[123]
In 1989, Unification Church leaders Peter Ross and Andrew Wilson issued "Guidelines for Members of The Unification Church in Relations with the Jewish People" which stated: "In the past there have been serious misunderstandings between Judaism and the Unification Church. In order to clarify these difficulties and guide Unification Church members in their relations with Jews, the Unification Church suggests the following guidelines."[124] In 2008, the Encyclopaedia Judaica described the statements and guidelines arising from mutual contacts as "excellent".[125]
In the 1980s the Unification Church sent thousands of American ministers from other churches on trips to Japan and South Korea to inform them about Unification teachings. At least one minister was dismissed by his congregation for taking part.[135] In 1994 the church had about 5,000 members in Russia and came under criticism from the Russian Orthodox Church.[45] In 1997, the Russian government passed a law requiring the movement and other non-Russian religions to register their congregations and submit to tight controls.[136]
In 1995 the Unification Movement related organization the Women's Federation for World Peace indirectly contributed $3.5 million to help Baptist Liberty University which at that time was in financial difficulty. This was reported in the United States news media as an example of closer relationships between the movement and conservative Christian congregations.[139]
The Muslim advocacy group Council on American–Islamic Relations listed The Washington Times among media outlets it said "regularly demonstrates or supports Islamophobic themes."[145] In 1998, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram wrote that its editorial policy was "rabidly anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and pro-Israel."[146] In 1997, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (which is critical of United States and Israeli policies), praised The Washington Times and the Times' sister publication The Middle East Times (along with The Christian Science Monitor owned by the Church of Christ, Scientist) for their objective and informative coverage of Islam and the Middle East, while criticizing the Times generally pro-Israel editorial policy. The Report suggested that these newspapers, being owned by religious organizations, were less influenced by pro-Israel pressure groups in the United States.[147]
In 2000 the FFWPU co-sponsored the Million Family March, a rally in Washington, D.C., to celebrate family unity and racial and religious harmony, along with the Nation of Islam.[72]Louis Farrakhan, the leader of The Nation of Islam, was the main speaker at the event which was held on 16 October 2000; the fifth anniversary of the Million Man March, which was also organized by Farrakhan.[73] Unification Church leader Dan Fefferman wrote to his colleagues acknowledging that Farrakhan's and Moon's views differed on multiple issues but shared a view of a "God-centered family".[74] In 2007 Rev and Mrs Moon sent greetings to Farrakhan while he was recovering from cancer, saying: "We send love and greetings to Minister Farrakhan and Mother Khadijah."[148]
In the 1990s and 2000s the Unification Movement made public statements claiming communications with the spirits of religious leaders including Muhammad and also Confucius, the Buddha, Jesus, and Augustine, as well as political leaders such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Mao Zedong and many more. This was reported to have distanced the movement from Islam as well as from mainstream Christianity.[149] From 2001 to 2009 the Unification movement owned the American Life TV Network (now known as Youtoo TV),[150] which in 2007 broadcast George Clooney's documentary A Journey to Darfur, which was harshly critical of Islamists in Darfur, the Republic of Sudan.[151][152][153] It released the film on DVD in 2008 and announced that proceeds from its sale would be donated to the International Rescue Committee.[154] In his 2009 autobiography Moon praised Islam and expressed the hope that there would be more understanding between different religious communities.[155] In 2011, representatives of the Unification Church took part in an international seminar which was held in Taiwan by the Muslim World League. The said purpose of the seminar was to encourage interfaith dialogue and discourage people from resorting to terrorism.[156]
The Divine Principle calls for the unification of science and religion: "Religion and science, each in their own spheres, have been the methods of searching for truth in order to conquer ignorance and attain knowledge. Eventually, the way of religion and the way of science should be integrated and their problems resolved in one united undertaking; the two aspects of truth, internal and external, should develop in full consonance."
In the 1970s and 1980s the Unification Movement sponsored the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS),[172] in order to promote the concept of the unity of science and religion.[173][174] American news media have suggested that the conferences were also an attempt to improve the often controversial public image of the church.[175][176] The first conference, held in 1972, had 20 participants; while the largest conference, in Seoul, South Korea in 1982, had 808 participants from over 100 countries.[177] Participants in one or more of the conferences included Nobel laureates John Eccles (Physiology or Medicine 1963, who chaired the 1976 conference)[172] and Eugene Wigner (Physics 1963).[178]
In 1972, Moon predicted the decline of communism, based on the teachings of the Divine Principle: "After 7,000 biblical years—6,000 years of restoration history plus the millennium, the time of completion—communism will fall in its 70th year. Here is the meaning of the year 1978. Communism, begun in 1917, could maintain itself approximately 60 years and reach its peak. So 1978 is the border line and afterward communism will decline; in the 70th year it will be altogether ruined. This is true. Therefore, now is the time for people who are studying communism to abandon it."[187] In 1973, he called for an "automatic theocracy" to replace communism and solve "every political and economic situation in every field".[188] In 1975, Moon spoke at a government sponsored rally against potential North Korean military aggression on Yeouido Island in Seoul to an audience of around 1 million.[189]
In 1976, Moon established News World Communications, an international news media conglomerate which publishes The Washington Times newspaper in Washington, D.C., and newspapers in South Korea, Japan, and South America, partly in order to promote political conservatism. According to The Washington Post, "the Times was established by Moon to combat communism and be a conservative alternative to what he perceived as the liberal bias of The Washington Post."[190]Bo Hi Pak, called Moon's "right-hand man", was the founding president and the founding chairman of the board.[191] Moon asked Richard L. Rubenstein, a rabbi and college professor, to join its board of directors.[192]The Washington Times has often been noted for its generally pro-Israel editorial policies.[147] In 2002, during the 20th anniversary party for the Times, Moon said: "The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world."[190]
In 1980, members founded CAUSA International, an anti-communist educational organization based in New York City.[193] In the 1980s, it was active in 21 countries. In the United States, it sponsored educational conferences for evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders[194] as well as seminars and conferences for Senate staffers, Hispanic Americans and conservative activists.[195] In 1986, CAUSA International sponsored the documentary film Nicaragua Was Our Home, about the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua and their persecution at the hands of the Nicaraguan government. It was filmed and produced by USA-UWC member Lee Shapiro, who later died while filming with anti-Soviet forces during the Soviet–Afghan War.[196][197][198][199] At this time CAUSA international also directly assisted the United States Central Intelligence Agency in supplying the Contras, in addition to paying for flights by rebel leaders. CAUSA's aid to the Contras escalated after Congress cut off CIA funding for them. According to contemporary CIA reports, supplies for the anti-Sandinista forces and their families came from a variety of sources in the US ranging from Moon's Unification Church to U.S. politicians, evangelical groups and former military officers.[200][201][202][203]
In 1980, members in Washington, D.C., disrupted a protest rally against the United States military draft.[204] In 1981, the Appellate Division of New York StateSupreme Court ruled that the HSA–UWC was not entitled to property taxexemptions on its New York City properties since its primary purpose was political, not religious.[205] In 1982, this ruling was overturned by the New York State Supreme Court itself, which ruled that it should be considered a religious organization for tax purposes.[206]
In 1983, some American members joined a public protest against the Soviet Union in response to its shooting down of Korean Airlines Flight 007.[207] In 1984, the HSA–UWC founded the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy, a Washington, D.C. think tank that underwrites conservative-oriented research and seminars at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and other institutions.[208] In the same year, member Dan Fefferman founded the International Coalition for Religious Freedom in Virginia, which is active in protesting what it considers to be threats to religious freedom by governmental agencies.[209] In August 1985, the Professors World Peace Academy, an organization founded by Moon, sponsored a conference in Geneva to debate the theme "The situation in the world after the fall of the communist empire."[210] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Unification movement promoted extensive missionary work in Russia and other former Soviet nations.[211]
Korean unification
In 1991, Moon met with Kim Il Sung, the North Korean President, to discuss ways to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula, as well as on international relations, tourism, and other topics.[212] In 1992, Kim gave his first and only interview with the Western news media to Washington Times reporter Josette Sheeran, who later became executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme.[213] In 1994, Moon was officially invited to Kim's funeral, in spite of the absence of diplomatic relations between North Korea and South Korea.[214]
In 1998, Unification movement-related businesses launched operations in North Korea with the approval of the government of South Korea, which had prohibited business relationships between North and South before.[215] In 2000, the church-associated business group Tongil Group founded Pyeonghwa Motors in the North Korean port of Nampo, in cooperation with the North Korean government. It was the first automobile factory in North Korea.[216]
During the presidency of George W. Bush, Dong Moon Joo, a Unification movement member and then president of The Washington Times, undertook unofficial diplomatic missions to North Korea in an effort to improve its relationship with the United States.[217] Joo was born in North Korea and is a citizen of the United States.[218]
In 2003, Korean Unification Movement members started a political party in South Korea. It was named The Party for God, Peace, Unification and Home. In its inauguration declaration, the new party said it would focus on preparing for Korean reunification by educating the public about God and peace.[75] Moon was a member of the Honorary Committee of the Unification Ministry of the Republic of Korea.[219] Church member Jae-jung Lee was a Unification Minister of the Republic of Korea.[220]
In 2012, Moon was posthumously awarded North Korea's National Reunification Prize.[225] On the first anniversary of Moon's death, North Korean chairmanKim Jong Un expressed condolences to Han and the family, saying: "Kim Jong-un prayed for the repose of Moon, who worked hard for national concord, prosperity and reunification and world peace."[226] In 2017, the Unification Church sponsored the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP)—headed by former Prime Minister of NepalMadhav Kumar Nepal and former Minister of Peace and Reconstruction Ek Nath Dhakal—visited Pyongyang and had constructive talks with the Korean Workers' Party.[227] In 2020 the movement held an in-person and virtual rally for Korean unification which drew about one million attendees.[228]
Hak Ja Han has been acting as a leader and public spokesperson for the movement. In 2019, she spoke at a rally in Japan and called for greater understanding and cooperation between the Pacific Rim nations.[232] In 2020, she spoke at a UPF sponsored in-person and virtual rally for Korean unification, which drew about one million attendees.[228] In 2020 former Secretary General of the United NationsBan Ki-moon received the Sunhak Peace Prize, which is sponsored by the Unification Church, and an award of US$1,000,000.[233][234]
In 1998, journalist Peter Maass, writing for The New Yorker, reported that some Unification members complained about Blessing being given to non-members who had not gone through the same course that members had.[247] In 2000, Moon was criticized, including by some members of his church, for his support of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's Million Family March.[74] Moon was also criticized for his relationship with Jewish scholar Richard L. Rubenstein, an advocate of the "death of God theology" of the 1960s.[248] Rubenstein was a defender of the Unification Church and served on its advisory council,[249] as well as on the board of directors of the church-owned Washington Times newspaper.[250] In the 1990s, he served as president of the University of Bridgeport, which was then affiliated with the church.[251]
In 1998, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram criticized Moon's possible relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and wrote that the Washington Times editorial policy was "rabidly anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and pro-Israel."[252][147] Moon has also been criticized for his advocacy of a worldwide "automatic theocracy",[253] as well as for advising his followers that they should become "crazy for God".[254][255]
Theological disputes with Christianity
Fall of Man and view of Jesus
Central to Unification teachings is the concept that the Fall of Man was caused by the literal mating of Eve and Satan in the Garden of Eden, which contaminated the whole human race with sin. According to the religion, humanity can only be restored to God through a messiah who comes as a new Adam: a new head of the human race, replacing the sinful parents, and siring new children free from Satanic influence. In the Unification Church, Jesus is this messiah, just as he is a messianic figure in more mainstream Christianity;[256] however, since Jesus was prematurely killed before he could start a new sinless family, Moon claims he himself was called upon by God to fulfill Jesus' unresolved mission.[3]
In 1980, Unification theologian Young Oon Kim wrote:
Unification theology teaches that Jesus came to establish the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. As St. Paul wrote, Jesus was to be the new Adam restoring the lost garden of Eden. For this purpose he chose twelve apostles, symbolizing the original twelve tribes of Israel, and sent out seventy disciples, symbolizing all the nations of the world. Like John the Baptist, Jesus proclaimed that the long-awaited kingdom of heaven was at hand (Matt. 4:17). Jesus was appointed God's earthly representative in order to subjugate Satan, cleanse men of original sin and free them from the power of evil. Christ's mission involved liberation from sin and raising mankind to the perfection stage. His purpose was to bring about the kingdom of heaven in our world with the help of men filled with divine truth and love. Jesus' goal was to restore the garden of Eden, a place of joy and beauty in which true families of perfected parents would dwell with God in a full relationship of reciprocal love.[257]
The Unification view of Jesus has been criticized by mainstream Christian authors and theologians. In their influential book The Kingdom of the Cults (first published in 1965), Walter Ralston Martin and Ravi K. Zacharias disagreed with the Divine Principle on the issues of the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth of Jesus, the Unification Church's belief that Jesus should have married and a literal resurrection of Jesus as well as a literal Second Coming. They add: "Moon makes all men equal in "divinity" to Jesus, thereby striking a blow at the uniqueness of Christ."[258]
The Divine Principle states on this point:
There is no greater value than that of a person who has realized the ideal of creation. This is the value of Jesus, who surely attained the highest imaginable value. The conventional Christian belief in Jesus' divinity is well founded because, as a perfect human being, Jesus is totally one with God. To assert that Jesus is none other than a man who has completed the purpose of creation does not degrade the value of Jesus in the least.[259]
Unificationist theologian Young Oon Kim wrote, and some members of the Unification movement believe, that Zechariah was the father of Jesus, based on the work of Leslie Weatherhead, an English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition.[260][256][261][262]
Indemnity, in the context of Unification theology, is a part of the process by which human beings and the world are restored to God's ideal.[263][264][265][266] The concept of indemnity is explained at the start of the second half of the Divine Principle, "Introduction to Restoration":
What, then, is the meaning of restoration through indemnity? When someone has lost his original position or state, he must make some condition to be restored to it. The making of such conditions of restitution is called indemnity.[267] .... God's work to restore people to their true, unfallen state by having them fulfill indemnity conditions is called the providence of restoration through indemnity.[268]
(Korean original) 그 러면 '탕감복귀'란 무엇을 말하는 것인가? 무엇이든지 그 본연의 위치와 상태 등을 잃어버리게 되었을 때, 그것들을 본래의 위치와 상태에로 복귀하려면 반드시 거기에 필요한 어떠한 조건을 세워야 한다. 이러한 조건을 세우는 것을 '탕감(tang-gam)'이라고 하는 것이다....그리고 이처럼 탕감조건을 세워서 창조본연의 인간으로 복귀해 나아가는 섭리를 탕감복귀섭리라고 말한다[269] (Significant Differences with the Christian Church in Interpretation of 'tang-gam(탕감)') The Unification Church gives no explanation, 'tang-gam(탕감)', which means 'forgiveness', was translated into its opposite meaning,"indemnity".[270][271][272][273][274] The Divine Principle does not use the word "forgiveness," a central theme of Christianity.Even just one spot.It is preached as if humans can be saved only by indemnity.
The Divine Principle goes on to explain three types of indemnity conditions. Equal conditions of indemnity pay back the full value of what was lost. The biblical verse "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (Exod.21:23–24) is quoted as an example of an equal indemnity condition. Lesser conditions of indemnity provide a benefit greater than the price that is paid. Faith, baptism, and the eucharist are mentioned as examples of lesser indemnity conditions. Greater conditions of indemnity come about when a person fails in a lesser condition. In that case a greater price must be paid to make up for the earlier failure. Abraham's attempted sacrifice of his son Isaac (Gen. 22:1–18) and the Israelites' 40 years of wandering in the wilderness under Moses (Num.14:34) are mentioned as examples of greater indemnity conditions.[268] The Divine Principle then explains that an indemnity condition must reverse the course by which the mistake or loss came about. Indemnity, at its core, is required of humans because God is pure, and purity cannot relate directly with impurity. Indemnification is the vehicle that allows a "just and righteous" God to work through mankind. Jesus' statement that God had forsaken him (Matt.27:46) and Christianity's history of martyrdom are mentioned as examples of this.[268] The Divine Principle then states that human beings, not God or the angels, are the ones responsible for making indemnity conditions.[275][268][276]
In 2005 scholars Daske and Ashcraft explained the concept of indemnity:
To restart the process toward perfection, God has sent messiahs to Earth who could restore the true state of humanity's relationship with God. Before that can happen, however, humans must perform good deeds that cancel the bad effects of sin. Unificationists call this 'indemnity'. Showing love and devotion to one's fellow humans, especially within families, helps pay this indemnity.[277]
Other Protestant Christian commentators have criticized the concept of indemnity as being contrary to the doctrine of sola fide. Christian historian Ruth Tucker said: "In simple language indemnity is salvation by works."[278][276] Rev. Keiko Kawasaki wrote: "The indemnity condition (of the Unification Church) is an oriental way of thinking, meaning a condition for atonement for sins (unlike Christianity)."[279][280][281] Donald Tingle and Richard Fordyce, ministers with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) who debated two Unification Church theologians in 1977, wrote: "In short, indemnity is anything you want to make it, since you establish the conditions. The zeal and enthusiasm of the Unification Church members is not so much based on love for God as it is compulsion to indemnify one's own sins."[282]
Ideal family
A doctrine of Rev. Moon's teachings and the Unification movement is that the messiah will part complete Jesus’ work by marrying and raising the “ideal” and "sinless" family as an example for others to follow and so restore God's original plan for humanity.[2]
However, according to journalist Robert F. Worth, since the death of Sun Myung Moon, "his children have struggled to live up to their 'sinless' billing". They
have spent much of the past decade fighting in court over his assets and legacy, ... One son was accused by his wife of cocaine addiction and domestic abuse. (He denied both claims and has since died.) Another son leaped to his death from a balcony at a Nevada casino. A third son, Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon, founded a separate, gun-centered church in Pennsylvania known as Rod of Iron Ministries, where followers do target practice with AR-15s and bring guns to church to be blessed. Hyung Jin wears a golden crown made of rifle shells, and delivers hate-filled sermons against the Democratic Party. He also expects to become the king of America. He reviles his mother—who runs the international church in South Korea—as the “whore of Babylon.”[1]
Spending church funds in casinos
In Moon and Han's teachings, Las Vegas was described as a "city of Satan," and they aimed to amass believers to transform that hell into heaven. However, in 2022, reports from Shukan Bunshun and TBS News revealed that, according to transaction records compiled between 2008 and 2011 by MGM Resorts International, Hak Ja Han and 11 church executives lost approximately $6.52 million in Las Vegas casinos. According to a former domestic helper of Hak Ja Han, the religious president's favorite casino game was the slot machine.[283]
A senior believer claims that the funds squandered in the casino were donations from Japanese believers. Internal church records specify that donations, totaling $9.51 million between 2009 and 2011, were intended for Las Vegas. A former Japanese chief of the church who participated in the church's Las Vegas tour testified that the church specifically instructed participants to carry $7,500 in cash as a donation, which was below the upper limit for customs declaration. Upon arrival in the U.S., they would hand over their donations and be given a tour of tourist attractions, such as the Grand Canyon, while only being able to meet Moon and Han once, unaware of their gambling activities in the casino.[284]
Investigation by the United States House of Representatives
Unification Church official Dan Fefferman testified in August 1977 before the Fraser Committee.[287] Testimony from Fefferman confirmed that he had social ties to officials within the South Korean embassy.[288] Fefferman testified that he had arranged a meeting in 1975 between Republican aide Edwin Feulner of the Heritage Foundation and South Korean Minister Kim Yung Hwan, to potentially put together a group of congressional aides who would travel to South Korea.[289][288] Hwan was then-station chief for the KCIA.[288]
During his testimony, Fefferman refused to answer nine questions from the subcommittee, saying that they violated his constitutional rights to freedom of religion and association.[290] The subcommittee recommended that Fefferman be cited for contempt of Congress.[288][290][291] Fefferman, speaking to The Michigan Daily in 1980, said the subcommittee's recommendations were never taken up, and no charges were pressed.[292]
Defamation lawsuit against the Daily Mail
In 1978, the Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, published an article with the headline: "The Church That Breaks Up Families".[293][294] The article accused the Unification Church of brainwashing and separating families. The British Unification Church's director Dennis Orme filed a libel suit against the Daily Mail and Associated Newspapers, its parent company, resulting in one of the longest civil actions in British legal history – lasting six months.[293][295][296] Orme and the Unification Church lost the libel case, the appeal case, and were refused permission to take their case to the House of Lords.[296] The original case heard 117 witnesses, including American anti-cult psychiatrist Margaret Thaler Singer.[293] In the original case, the Unification Church was ordered to pay Associated Newspapers GB£750,000 in costs which was maintained after appeal.[297] The jury of the original case not only awarded Associated Newspapers costs, but it and the judge requested that the Attorney General re-examine the Unification Church's charitable status, which after a lengthy investigation from 1986 to 1988 was not removed.[298][299] According to George Chryssides, about half of the Unification Church's 500 full-time membership in Britain moved to the United States.[300] The Unification Church sold seven of its twelve principal church centers after the ruling.[301] Other anti-cultists in countries like Germany sought to incorporate the London High Court's decision into law.[296] The Unification Church has won other libel and defamation cases in the United Kingdom, including a similar case against The Daily Telegraph.[298]
The Unification Church in Japan is and has been the subject of a number of controversies such as “Spiritual sales”, unlawful adoption practices and a change of name with the intention to mask its purposes, according to reports issued by its main critics, the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales.
Rebranding
In 1997, the Japanese Unification Church applied to the Agency for Cultural Affairs (ACA), a department directly under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, to change its name from "The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity" (世界基督教統一神霊協会) to "Family Federation for World Peace and Unification" (世界平和統一家庭連合). According to the then chief of the Religious Affairs Division, Kihei Maekawa [ja], the application was rejected by the ACA because the church was involved in civil lawsuits under its old name at the time. In 2015, while Hakubun Shimomura was Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology under the Third Abe Cabinet, the Unification Church again submitted an application to change its name and this time it was approved. Shimomura denied any involvement in the approval process, explaining that the decision was made by the head of the ACA, but acknowledged he had received reports about it and that this was unusual. The 2015 head of the ACA confirmed Shimomura's description of events.[307][308]
Spiritual sales
Sun Myung Moon explained its fund raising focus on Japan by declaring South Korea to be an "Adam nation" (i.e. a patriarch) but Japan an "Eve nation" (obligated to fulfill the needs of the patriarch).[1]
Since the 1970s most of the international Unification Church's financial support has come from Japan.[309] The church transferred at least $800 million from Japan to the United States from 1975 to 1984 (according to two former church officials who spoke with The Washington Post in 1984).[310][1]
Solicitations for money from Japanese recruits had been very aggressive, even "predatory". Unification members told Japanese recruits "that their ancestors are suffering in hell for their sins, and that the only way to save them" was by giving money to the church. They also would "probe" recruits for "family troubles and emotional vulnerabilities" and "ferret out" their "income and assets". A lawyers’ network in Japan that sought to recover donations by former members from followers and employees of the church brought approximately 35,000 compensation claims and has recovered more than $206 million since 1987.[1]
The National Network of Lawyers against spiritual sales, a network of 300 attorneys accuses the Unification Church of engaging in "Spiritual Sales" , alleging that it has made its adherents to invest large amounts of money to the point of bankruptcy. The Unification Church's president in Japan, Tomihiro Tanaka, stated trouble with illegal solicitation and large donation were a thing of the past and since 2009 has had no trouble due to stress on legal compliance.[311][312] The Network of Lawyers, which was set up in 1987 to impose countermeasures to what has been perceived as damages caused by the Unification church,[311] amounting to 123.7 billion yen, based on statistics compiled by the association's lawyers between 1987 and 2021, obtained via 34,537 complaints submitted to Government Consumer centers. The network reported about 300 million yen in 2021 alone.[313]
Hiroshi Yamaguchi claimed the Unification Church was responsible for causing “considerable pain” to families of donors.[311] Yasuo Kawai claims disintegrates families and accused Japanese politicians and administrators of taking no action against the Unification Church for more than 30 years.[314] Kito Masaki called for Japan's National Diet (parliament) to conduct a bipartisan investigation of the case.[315][316][317][318][319] ak Ji-il claimed the Unification Church appeared to be fighting over religious principles but in reality were fighting over money[320]Akahata and Shoichi Fujita [ja] of the Religious Information Research Center [ja] and the Zenkoku genriundo higaisha fubo no kai (lit. National Association of Parents of Victims of the Moonism) claimed that the Unification Church views Japan as having a history of aggression against Korea, resulting in an obligation to serve Korea. The atonement, internally known as "indemnity", involves the collection of money by "Fortune telling fraud”.[321][322][323]Yoshifu Arita claimed the Unification Church takes advantage of Japanese young people's sense of guilt over Japan's 40-year colonial rule of Korea (1905–1945) and defrauding them of money.[324]
in a Washington Post interview, Hiroaki Soejima and Inoue stated religious icons, marble vases, miniature treasure pagodas and other religious icons distributed by Happy World Inc. they said was connected to the church, were represented as having supernatural power. Hiroshi Sakazume, former Japanese Unification Church's director general of public relations denied the church had any relationship with Happy World, claiming "the Unification Church has nothing to do with sales activities". "We don't know what each church member is doing. But as a church, we don't do any sales . . . Happy World is a different company, a totally separate organization."[319]
Tomihiro Tanaka argued donations are made voluntarily by the individual, and are based on the individual's beliefs, while also acknowledging that people had donated large sums of money in the past. There were no teachings about how much you can contribute to how much you will be saved and there was no instructions that pushed families in bankruptcy to donate even more.[325][326] Tanaka stated in a press conference that in the past the Unification Church had had problems with its followers due to illegal solicitations and large donations. He claimed that since 2009 when it began to emphasize legal compliance, there had been no trouble between the Unification Church and its followers.[311] On 11 July 2022 the Unification Church issued a press release stating donation amounts are determined by individual members.[327][328][329][330] One of Moon's sons, Kook Jin Moon, denied the church was pressuring its Japanese members to make large donations to save the spirits of their deceased loved ones, stating instead the members informed him it was their forebears that had instructed them to make large donations in an interview he conducted.[326][325][331]
In civil cases, Japanese courts ordered the Unification Church to compensate plaintiffs, stating its missionary work was illegal.[332] In 2009, the Tokyo District Court issued a suspended prison sentence to Unification Church members to prison for pressuring passersby to buy highly priced seals. The court ruled that the missionary work was a pernicious act of enticing customers to buy a seal immediately after instigating their anxiety by linking their worries to their long-time ancestral pasts.[333]
The bills were supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, and opposition parties the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), Nippon Ishin no Kai, and Democratic Party for the People, and opposed by the opposition parties the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and the Reiwa Shinsengumi.[335][need quotation to verify] The CDP had opposed the bills, seeking legislation to more strictly restrict religious organizations, but switched to support it after a clause to review the law two years later was specified in the bill. According to the CDP and some Unification Church victims, legislation to restrict religious organizations even more strictly is needed. The JCP had proposed another bill to restrict religious organizations and therefore opposed the bills.[339][need quotation to verify]
Assassination of Shinzo Abe
On 8 July 2022, Shinzo Abe was assassinated by former Maritime Self-Defense Force seaman Tetsuya Yamagami, whose mother is said to be a member of the Japanese Unification Church since 1998. Yamagami claimed the church was behind his family's financial situation, making his mother donate most of the family fortune to the church, and saw Abe as "deeply connected" to the church. The assassination prompted sympathy for Abe, but also increased scrutiny of the Unification Church and the LDP, leading to backlash against them. It was found that almost half of the 379 National Diet (parliament) members of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party "admitted to some kind of contact with the Unification Church". The church "maintained a volunteer army" of members to work on political campaigns for Abe and other politicians in his party. Journalist Robert F. Worth writes that the believers he talked to "described a litany of insults and abuses" they had been subject to in the year since the assassination.[1][340][341]
The Unification Church is said to have historically had a close relationship with the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.[327][328][329][330] In 2019, the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales protested in writing Abe’s congratulatory messages sent to events affiliated to the Unification Church in fear such messages enhanced the church's authority and encouraged what they considered its "anti-social activities".[332]
Yamagami’s mother reportedly sold land she inherited from her father along with the house she lived with her 3 children. In June 1999, she donated about 100 million yen (US$720,000) to the Unification Church, half of which was said to have been returned according to Reuters,[341] leading to her family's bankruptcy in 2002 and significantly affecting their family, according to Yamagami.[342] He also claimed he was unable to enter university despite graduating from a prestigious high school. His relatives however claimed Yamagami gave up on university after multiple failed attempts to enrol, being offered a place at Nara Sangyo University instead, which was not his preferred choice, instead of his financial situation.[343][344] His brother and his father would later commit suicide. Yamagami stated that his original plan was to assassinate Hak Ja Han. However, he gave up his plan because he could not get close to her.[345][346] He believes Abe and his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, spread the Unification Church in Japan and decided to kill Abe after discovering online that Abe had sent video messages to organizations affilliated with the Unification Church.[347]
Police authorities were instructed by chair of The National Public Safety CommissionSatoshi Ninoyu alleged to have promoted a Unification Church event[which?]in 2021, to set up a panel to investigate the security lapses thought to have been involved in Abe's death.[348][349] Japan's Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and the Japanese Communist Party, expressed their intentions to launch separate investigations into the Unification Church's political influence and connections in Japanese politics.[350] On August 31, 2022, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party announced that it would no longer have any relationships with the Unification Church and its related organizations, and announced it would expel any members that did not break any ongoing relationships with the Unification Church.[351] Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced in October 2022 the Japanese government would start an investigation into the extent of Abe's relationship with the Unification Church.[352][353][354]
Revocation of religious corporation status by the Japanese government
On September 6, 2023, Minister Keiko Nagaoka of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology announced the ministry's decision to file an administrative fine against the church with the Tokyo District Court. The action was prompted by the church's perceived lack of cooperation in responding to the ministry's inquiries during their investigation to determine if there was sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to justify revoking the church's religious corporation status.[355]
During the government probe, the ministry conducted confidential hearings with Unification Church victims and the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales (Zenkoku Benren) to build the case against the church. On 12 October 2023, the ministry formally declared its intent to seek a "Dissolution Order" under Article 81 of the Religious Juridical Person Law against the Unification Church. This decision was driven by the presentation of evidence suggesting that the church's objectives had deviated from legitimate religious practices, potentially impacting public welfare through its activities.[356][357][358]
Masahito Moriyama stated that the Unification Church's actions involved manipulating public psychological distress to accumulate funds. These funds, leading to civil claims from affected parties, served as grounds for the dissolution order.[359] Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed agreement, noting that the decision to propose a dissolution order was based on objective facts and rigorous judgment.[357]
In contrast to previous instances where dissolution orders were pursued due to criminal convictions, this is the first instance of a religious organization being subjected to such an order without a criminal conviction.[360] Prior to this, only two religious organizations faced dissolution proceedings initiated by the government: Aum Shinrikyo in 1996, in relation to its involvement in the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, and Wakayama Myōkakuji in 2002, for fraud conviction. These cases were subjected to legal proceedings lasting 7 months and 3 years, respectively.[361]
Should the court approve the dissolution order, the Unification Church will lose its tax benefits associated with registered religious organizations.[362] Despite this, the Unification Church can continue its operations and missionary activities within Japan under the constitutionally granted freedom of religion.[363] However, the Japan Times editor believed that such an order would damage the Unification Church's reputation.[364]
The church has indicated its intention to contest the charge and dissolution order through legal means, asserting that they will do so thoroughly.[355][365][366] The church also contended that the ministry's exercise of the right to question against them was illegal.[367]
On 7 March 2024, while the court hearing for the dissolution case was still ongoing, the Japanese government, under the new law passed in December 2023, approved a plan to subject the church to stricter monitoring of its assets in anticipation of providing relief to victims of unfair solicitation.[368]
Civil lawsuits against Japanese critics and government
The Unification Church, its followers and associated organizations have filed a series of lawsuits against Japanese broadcasting stations, lawyers, journalists and former believer who publicly discussed on issues such as fundraising and proselyting practices of the church. These issues came under heavy scrutiny as the ties between the church and Japanese politicians were exposed following Abe's assassination.The Toyama City Council was targeted for declaring the severance of any ties with the church.
Sayuri Ogawa's statement about "her parents donated large sum of money for the church" during a hearing with the Constitutional Democratic Party published online by lawmaker Noriko Ishigaki in November 2022. (The case was nominally against Ishigaki, but in fact targeted Ogawa, the former follower turned critic and activist against the church.)[379]
Toyama City Council passed the resolution of severing ties to the Unification Church and its associated organizations in September 2022. (Yasuda is the pseudonym of a Unification Church follower living in Toyama. "Toyama Prefecture Peace Ambassadors Council" is managed by a PR officer for the church.)
3.5 million yen and rollback of the resolution
Toyama Prefecture Peace Ambassadors Council v. Toyama City[381]
2023-08-01
22 million yen
Women's Federation For World Peace v. Zenkoku Benren Seven[382]
2023-07-03
Seven lawyers with Zenkoku Benren, namely Masaki Kito, Keiichi Hiraiwa, Masaki Gorō [ja], Shūji Nakamura, Hidemasa Kawada [ja], Hiroshi Yamaguchi [ja], and Yasuo Kawai, lobbied Japanese municipal governments to deny public venues for Women's Federation For World Peace on 15 June 2023.
Suzuki's statement about "Toru Gotō being a hikikomori" published on social media. (Gotō was unsuccessfully deprogrammed from the Unification Church by his family.)
Suzuki's statement about "Shinzo Abe getting paid for his 2021 video speech at an event by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF)". (UPF claimed that they did not pay Abe's 2021 video speech, while admitting that Donald Trump, who also gave the video speech at the same event, was indeed paid.)[384]
11 million yen
Child adoption
The Unification Church came under investigation by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for allegations about organizing children being transferred between members' families without authorization from the prefectural government. The authorization requirement came into effect in 2018 and if convicted of violation the offender would face imprisonment or a fine. The church reported that there were 31 known adoptions between 2018 and 2022, when questioned by the welfare ministry. Under the Japanese Civil Code, adoptions involving minors require permission from family courts. The issue at hand also raises questions whether family courts' screening was sufficient.[385] The church denies the allegation that they act as an agent in the arrangement, but says that the child adoptions happen between families privately.[386][387] In publications targeting its followers, the church stated that once families agree on adoption, they were to report it to the group's family education bureau. The welfare ministry indicated that such a rule makes the group perceived as mediating adoptions. The welfare ministry's investigation into the matter has no enforcing power, however, and it doesn't know in detail about when adoptions took place or which families were involved.
At the same time, the religious group insists that there has been no organized involvement for about 20 years and that adoptions have been personal unions between followers.[385]
The ministry requested that the church revise their teachings about children to comply with Japan's child welfare laws. Some adoptees complained to the ministry and media that they are emotionally traumatized after learning their adoptions were religiously motivated.[388][389][need quotation to verify] On February 1, 2023, the Unification Church of Japan revised their believers' handbook to remove references to child adoption.[390]
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare submitted several questionnaires about the child adoption practice to the Unification Church between November and December 2022,[391] but in the second inquiry the Unification Church refused to answer more than half of the questions, and sent a letter of protest to the ministry.[392]
Support for North Korea's development of nuclear weapons
According to Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reports in August and September 1994, Moon donated 450 billion yen to Kim Il Sung during his stay in North Korea from November 30, 1991, to December 7, 1992. Those same DIA reports explained an "economic cooperation" for the reconstruction of North Korea's economy was in place. This included establishing a joint venture developing tourism at Kimkangsan, investing in the development of the Tumangang River, in addition to investing in the construction of the "light industry" base located in Wonsan.[393][394] Most of the money was said to have been donated to the Unification Church by Japanese believers.[395][396] According to the former chief executive of Pyeonghwa Motors, a Unification Church auto company, the money collected from Japanese devotees was first transferred to South Korea and money laundered, then transferred to Hong Kong and finally to North Korea. He said he had a close relationship with Ju Kyu-chang, a senior member of the Workers' Party of Korea and its weapons development chief.[397][need quotation to verify] According to Baek Seung-joo, a former South Korean vice defense minister, has analyzed that money donated by Japanese followers of the Unification Church was diverted to North Korea's nuclear development and development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.[397][need quotation to verify] According to Masuo Oe, who was the public relations director of the Unification Church, when Moon said to Kim Il Sung in a meeting, "Please be my brother", Kim Il Sung replied, "Sure, why not?". According to him, believers heard this anecdote and admired that the Messiah had brought Satan to his knees with the power of love. This was a symbolic event that marked a major shift in the anti-communist policies of the Unification Church.[398]
According to a 2016 South Korean Defense Ministry parliamentary report, a Tokyo-run company[vague] operated by members of the Unification Church sold a Russian Golf II-class submarine still loaded with missile launchers to North Korea in 1994, disguised as scrap metal, and the technology was then diverted to North Korea's development of submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The Unification Church has denied having any relationship with the company.[399]
In South Korea the Unification Church has been criticized for supporting the interests of Japan over those of South Korea. South Korean media reported links between the UC and Japanese conservatives, referring to them as Chinil (친일) or Sin-chinil (신친일). Some South Korean media reported a connection between Yoon Suk-yeol's pro-Japanese foreign policy and the UC.[400][401]
The Unification Church is sometimes said to be esoteric in that it keeps some of its doctrines secret from non-members,[402][403][404] a practice that is sometimes called "heavenly deception".[405] In 1979, critics D. Tingle and R. Fordyce commented: "How different the openness of Christianity is to the attitude of Reverend Moon and his followers who are often reluctant to reveal to the public many of their basic doctrines."[406] Since the 1990s, many Unification texts that were formerly regarded as esoteric have been posted on the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification's official websites.[407]
In The Way of God's Will, a collection of sayings popular among church members, Moon is quoted as saying: "We leaders should leave the tradition that we have become crazy for God."[408] In 1979 Unification Church critic Christopher Edwards titled a memoir about his experiences in the six months he spent as a church member: Crazy for God: The Nightmare of Cult Life.[255]
Reports of Discrimination and Harassment
Germany
In November 1995, German authorities blacklisted the founders of the Unification Church (Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon) through the Schengen Information System and thus forbid entry to 12 European countries.[409] The period of exclusion was extended several times.[410][411] After 12 years on October 24th, 2006 German Federal Constitutional Court ruled, that previous court rulings and authorities' treatment of the Unification Church in the period from November 1995 violated Article 4 paragraph 1 (Freedom of faith and conscience is inviolable) and paragraph 2 (undisturbed practice is guaranteed) of the German Constitution and is repealed must reimburse the UC for the necessary expenses (articles 2 and 3 of the ruling). Also stated, that the authorities' defense was based on rumors and assumptions (article 15 of the ruling) and the previous ruling of the Higher Administrative Court was based on weighting religious matters, which is not permitted by state authorities (article 27 of the ruling).[412] Court by this decision rejects with immediate effect the rationale of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior for the 1995 immigration exclusion and not granting an entry visa.[413][414]
France
In March 1982, a 21-year-old woman Claire Château on the central street of Dijon while distributing brochures, pulled into a moving car shouting for help. After a medical-psychological examination showed that Mrs. Château enjoyed perfect mental health with no traces of alleged "brainwashing", 7 people, family members, and ADFI "professional deprogrammers" were accused by the Dijon Regional Criminal Investigation Department (Service Régional de Police Judiciaire de Dijon) of kidnapping under §341 of the French Penal Code to the Besançon Court of Justice.[415][416] The case contributed to the gradual abandonment of abductions and deprogramming attempts.[417]
Russia
In 2000 Russia excluded Patrick Francis Nolan from reentry to Russia, holding him captive at the airport overnight based on FSB material on countering non-traditional religions. The visa was repeatedly canceled on reentry without an explanation, which separated him from his son, who stayed in Russia, for almost one year. European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2009 in the case Nolan and K. v. Russia stated, that Russia failed to comply or violated Articles 38§1a, 9, 8, 5§1, 5§5 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 7 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Convention) and decided that Russia should pay a sum of 7.810 € for damages.[418]
In 2005-2006 Russia forcibly expelled John Alphonsus Corley and Shuji Igarashi and separated them from their families staying in Russia. Mr. Igarashi was held in detention for 3 days in inhuman conditions. Newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazetapublished an article "ComMoonism has come to the Urals" explaining the reason as "State campaign against the Unification Church". ECHR in 2022in the case Corley and Others v. Russia stated, that Russia violated Articles 1, 2, 9, 8, 3, and 5 of the Convention and decided that Russia should pay a sum of 30.270 € for damages.[419]
United States
On Thanksgiving 1979, the parents of 28 year-old Thomas Ward conspired with 31 other people to kidnap him (for the second time) and hold him captive for 35 days. He suffered verbal and physical abuse in attempts to "de-program" him of his religious beliefs. Attempts failed and 33 people heard the verdict on the crimes of conspiracy, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and grand larceny. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on April 18, 1980, that federal civil rights laws protect against religious discrimination. The judgment contradicted the (then common) "parental immunity" principle in such cases.[420][421] Thomas J. Ward graduated in 1981 from the Unification Theological Seminary and in 2019 became its president.[422]
Moon believed in a literal Kingdom of God on earth to be brought about by human effort, motivating his establishment of numerous groups, some that are not strictly religious in their purposes.[424][174] Moon was not directly involved with managing the day-to-day activities of the organizations that he indirectly oversaw, yet all of them attribute the inspiration behind their work to his leadership and teachings.[15][425][426]
^Barker, Eileen, The Making of a Moonie: Choice Or Brainwashing? Modern Revivals in Sociology, illustrated, reprint, revised ed. (Gregg Revivals, 1993)[page needed]ISBN978-0751201369
^Bromley, David G. and Anson D. Shupe, Jr., "Moonies" in America: Cult, Church, and Crusade, edited by David G. Bromley, Sage Library of Social Research (Sage, 1979)
^Swatos, William H. Jr. (1998). Encyclopedia of religion and society. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7619-8956-1.
^Stymied in U.S., Moon's Church Sounds a Retreat, Marc Fisher and Jeff Leen, The Washington Post, November 24, 1997
^Kent, Stephen A., From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War Era (Syracuse University Press, 2001), 168.
^Hatch, Walter (13 February 1989). "Big names lend luster to group's causes – Church leader gains legitimacy among U.S. conservatives". The Seattle Times. Seattle Times Company. p. A1.
^Shupe, Anson D.; Misztal, Bronislaw (1998). Religion, Mobilization, and Social Action. Praeger. pp. 197, 213, 215. ISBN978-0-275-95625-7.
^Jenkins, Philip (2000). Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History. Oxford University Press. pp. 28, 200. ISBN0-19-512744-7.
^"In 1955, Reverend Moon established the Collegiate Association for the Research of the Principle (CARP). CARP is now active on many campuses in the United States and has expanded to over eighty nations. This association of students promotes intercultural, interracial, and international cooperation through the Unification world view." [1]Archived 2018-01-05 at the Wayback Machine
^The same old gameArchived 2009-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, Al-Ahram, November 12–18, 1998, "The Washington Times is a mouthpiece for the ultra-conservative Republican right, unquestioning supporters of Israel's Likud government. The newspaper is owned by Sun Myung Moon, originally a native of North Korea and head of the Unification Church, whose ultra-right leanings make him a ready ally for Netanyahu. Whether or not Netanyahu is personally acquainted with Moon is unclear, though there is no doubt that he has established close friendships with several staff members of The Washington Times, whose editorial policy is rabidly anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and pro-Israel."
^ abcLužný, Dušan; Václavík, David (1997). "Církev sjednocení" [Unification Church] (in Czech). Archived from the original on 20 August 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
^The men and women entered a large room, where Moon began matching couples by pointing at them."NY Daily News "In the Unification tradition, romantic liaisons are forbidden until the members are deemed by Mr. Moon to be spiritually ready to be matched at a huge gathering where he points future spouses out to one another. His followers believe that his decisions are based on his ability to discern their suitability and see their future descendants. Many are matched with people of other races and nationalities, in keeping with Mr. Moon's ideal of unifying all races and nations in the Unification Church. Though some couples are matched immediately before the mass wedding ceremonies, which are held every two or three years, most have long engagements during which they are typically posted in different cities or even continents, and get to know one another through letters."The New York Times "Many were personally matched by Moon, who taught that romantic love led to sexual promiscuity, mismatched couples and dysfunctional societies. Moon's preference for cross-cultural marriages also meant that couples often shared no common language."Manchester Guardian "Moon's death Sept. 2 and funeral Saturday signaled the end of the random pairings that helped make Moon's Unification Church famous – and infamous – a generation ago." Washington Post "Many of the couples who married at mass weddings were hand-picked by Moon from photos. It led to some strange pairs such as a 71-year-old African Catholic archbishop who wed a 43-year-old Korean acupuncturist. In 1988 Moon entered the Guinness Book of Records when he married 6,516 identically dressed couples at Seoul's Olympic Stadium. Moonie newly-weds were forbidden to sleep together for 40 days to prove their marriage was on a higher plane. They then had to consummate their marriage in a three-day ritual with the sexual positions stipulated by their leader."Daily Mirror
^Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America: African diaspora traditions and other American innovations, Volume 5 of Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, W. Michael Ashcraft, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN0-275-98717-5, ISBN978-0-275-98717-6, page 180
^Exploring New Religions, Issues in contemporary religion, George D. Chryssides, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001ISBN0-8264-5959-5, ISBN978-0-8264-5959-6 p. 1
^Exploring the climate of doomArchived 2012-04-23 at the Wayback Machine, Rich Lowry, 2009-12-19 'The phrase "doomsday cult" entered our collective vocabulary after John Lofland published his 1966 study, "Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith." Lofland wrote about the Unification Church.'
^The Market for MartyrsArchived 2012-01-11 at the Wayback Machine, Laurence Iannaccone, George Mason University, 2006, "One of the most comprehensive and influential studies was The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? by Eileen Barker (1984). Barker could find no evidence that Moonie recruits were ever kidnapped, confined, or coerced. Participants at Moonie retreats were not deprived of sleep; the lectures were not "trance-inducing"; and there was not much chanting, no drugs or alcohol, and little that could be termed "frenzy" or "ecstatic" experience. People were free to leave, and leave they did. Barker's extensive enumerations showed that among the recruits who went so far as to attend two-day retreats (claimed to be Moonie's most effective means of "brainwashing"), fewer than 25% joined the group formore than a week and only 5% remained full-time members one year later. And, of course, most contacts dropped out before attending a retreat. Of all those who visited a Moonie centre at least once, not one in two-hundred remained in the movement two years later. With failure rates exceeding 99.5%, it comes as no surprise that full-time Moonie membership in the U.S. never exceeded a few thousand. And this was one of the most New Religious Movements of the era!"
^Oakes, Len "By far the best study of the conversion process is Eileen Barker's The Making of a Moonie [...]" from Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities, 1997, ISBN0-8156-0398-3
^Storr, Anthony Dr. Feet of clay: a study of gurus 1996 ISBN0-684-83495-2
^The Coming Deliverer: Millennial Themes in World Religions,
Editors: Fiona Bowie, Christopher Deacy
Publisher: University of Wales Press, 1997
Original from the University of Virginia
Digitized Jun 24, 2008
ISBN0708313388, 9780708313381
^Kent, Stephen; Krebs, Theresa (1998). "Academic Compromise in the Social Scientific Study of Alternative Religions". Nova Religio. 2 (1): 44–54. doi:10.1525/nr.1998.2.1.44.
^Exposition of the Divine Principle (2nd ed.). Sung Hwa Publishing Co., LTD. 2005. pp. 266–270. ISBN897132127X.
^Yamamoto, J. 1995, Unification Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Press, ISBN0-310-70381-6 p. 40
^Walter Ralston Martin, Ravi K. Zacharias, The Kingdom of the Cults, Bethany House, 2003, ISBN0764228218 pp. 368–370
^Yamamoto, J. I., 1995, Unification Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House ISBN0-310-70381-6 (Excerpt:Archived 2012-02-10 at the Wayback Machine) "1. The Unification Theological Seminary
a. The Unification Church has a seminary in Barrytown, New York called The Unification Theological Seminary.
b. It is used as a theological training center, where members are prepared to be leaders and theologians in the church.
c. Since many people regard Moon as a cult leader, there is a false impression that this seminary is academically weak.
d. Moon's seminary, however, has not only attracted a respectable faculty (many of whom are not members of his church), but it also has graduated many students (who are members of his church) who have been accepted into doctoral programs at institutions such as Harvard and Yale."
^Korean Moon: Waxing or WaningArchived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Leo Sandon Jr. Theology Today, July 1978, "The Unification Church purchased the estate and now administers a growing seminary where approximately 110 Moonies engage in a two-year curriculum which includes biblical studies, church history, philosophy, theology, religious education, and which leads to a Master of Religious Education degree."
^Dialogue with the MooniesArchived 11 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine Rodney Sawatsky, Theology Today, April 1978. "Only a minority of their teachers are Unification devotees; a Jew teaches Old Testament, a Christian instructs in church history and a Presbyterian lectures in theology, and so on. Typical sectarian fears of the outsider are not found among Moonies; truth is one or at least must become one, and understanding can be delivered even by the uninitiated."
^Where have all the Moonies gone?Archived 2012-07-30 at archive.today K. Gordon Neufeld, First Things, March 2008, "While I was studying theology, church history, and the Bible—taught by an eclectic faculty that included a rabbi, a Jesuit priest, and a Methodist minister—most of my young coreligionists were standing on street corners in San Francisco, Boston, and Miami urging strangers to attend a vaguely described dinner."
^Helm, S. Divine Principle and the Second AdventArchived 2008-09-21 at the Wayback MachineChristian Century May 11, 1977 "In fact Moon's adherents differ from previous fringe groups in their quite early and expensive pursuit of respectability, as evidenced by the scientific conventions they have sponsored in England and the U.S. and the seminary they have established in Barrytown, New York, whose faculty is composed not of their own group members but rather of respected Christian scholars."
^Sontag, Frederick, Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church, (Abingdon Press, 1977; Korean translation, Pacific Publishing Company, 1981; Japanese translation, Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., 1977; German translation, SINUS-Verlag, Krefeld, 1981) ISBN0-687-40622-6"
^ abRaspberry, William, "Did Unpopular Moonie Get a Fair Trial?", The Washington Post, April 19, 1984
^Fisher, Marc (23 November 1997). "A Church in Flux Is Flush With Cash". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 November 2007. "Also in 1995, the Women's Federation made another donation that illustrates how Moon supports fellow conservatives. It gave a $3.5 million grant to the Christian Heritage Foundation, which later bought a large portion of Liberty University's debt, rescuing the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Lynchburg, Va., religious school from the brink of bankruptcy."
^Afghanistan: eight years of Soviet occupation, United States Department of State, March 1988, The campaign to target foreign journalists had more tragic results. Two American filmmakers, Lee Shapiro and Jim Lindelof, were apparently killed by a regime attack while traveling with the mujahidin. In 1986, Lindelof had been named paramedic of the year for his efforts training Afghan medical workers. In response to protests, Kabul stated it could not "guarantee the security of foreign subjects" who enter illegally, whose presence it views as "evidence" of "external interference".
^Two US journalists reported killed in Afghanistan; details murky, Christian Science Monitor, October 28, 1987 "Two American journalists are believed dead in northwest Afghanistan, diplomatic and resistance forces say here. Filmmaker Lee Shapiro and his soundman, Jim Lindalos, both of New York, were killed Oct. 11, reportedly in a Soviet or Afghan government ambush, according to United States consular officials. However, the resistance group that accompanied the film team has a poor reputation among most informed observers, and doubts have arisen over whether the two Americans did indeed die in an Afghan government or Soviet attack."
^Kaplan, Robert, Soldiers of God : With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan, New York : Vintage Departures, 2001, p. 170
^Tingle, D. and Fordyce, R. 1979, Phases and Faces of the Moon: A Critical Examination of the Unification Church and its Principles, Hicksville, NY: Exposition Press ISBN0-682-49264-7 pp. 86–87
^ abBiermans, J. 1986, The Odyssey of New Religious Movements, Persecution, Struggle, Legitimation: A Case Study of the Unification Church Lewiston, New York and Queenston, Ontario: The Edwin Melton Press ISBN0-88946-710-2 p. 173
^Library journal, Volume 131, Issues 12–15. 2006. p. 45. Libraries with larger budgets may want to purchase books that represent viewpoints at the extremes of this struggle, including such intelligent design tracts as ... Jonathan Wells's Icons of Evolution ... For example we may be obligated to our patrons to make available works that embody ideas fundamental to significant cultural undercurrents such as "intelligent design" but not to burden budgets and minds with every other form of pseudoscience.
^Pak was founding president of the Washington Times Corporation (1982–1992), and founding chairman of the board. Bo Hi Pak, Appendix B: Brief Chronology of the Life of Dr. Bo Hi Pak, in Messiah: My Testimony to Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Vol I by Bo Hi Pak (2000), Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
^Church Spends Millions On Its Image, The Washington Post, 1984-09-17. "Another church political arm, Causa International, which preaches a philosophy it calls "God-ism," has been spending millions of dollars on expense-paid seminars and conferences for Senate staffers, Hispanic Americans and conservative activists. It also has contributed $500,000 to finance an anticommunist lobbying campaign headed by John T. (Terry) Dolan, chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC)."
^Miller, Johnny (3 September 1983). "Police chief dies at ballgame". San Francisco Chronicle. For a second day, the Soviet Consulate in Pacific Heights was the scene of emotional protests against the shooting down of a Korean Air Lines jumbo jet. About 300 people held demonstration yesterday morning. Among them were members of the Unification Church, or "Moonies," whose founder is the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the South Korean who has melded a fierce anti-communism into his ideology. Eldridge Cleaver, the onetime black radical who recently has had ties with the Moonies, spoke at the rally. Many pickets carried signs accusing the Soviet Union of murdering the 269 passengers and crew aboard the airliner. In another development, San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli filed a $109 billion lawsuit against the Soviet Union on behalf of the 269 victims.
^Moon at TwilightArchived 11 April 2001 at the Wayback Machine, Peter Maass, The New Yorker "The campaign has dismayed some church members, because a blessing from Moon used to be a hard-won privilege, typically attained only after a person had joined the church, worked in it for several years, and agreed to marry someone—usually a stranger—selected by Moon. But grumblings about the blessing campaign are just the beginning of Moon's current troubles."
^John Warwick Montgomery and Thomas J. J. Altizer, The Altizer-Montgomery Dialogue: A Chapter in the God is Dead Controversy (InterVarsity Press, Chicago, 1967), p.7
^The same old gameArchived 15 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Al-Ahram, 12–18 November 1998, "The Washington Times is a mouthpiece for the ultra conservative right, unquestioning supporters of Israel's Likud government. The newspaper is owned by Sun Myung Moon, originally a native of North Korea and head of the Unification Church, whose ultra-right leanings make him a ready ally for Netanyahu. Whether or not Netanyahu is personally acquainted with Moon is unclear, though there is no doubt that he has established close friendships with several staff members on The Washington Times, whose editorial policy is rabidly anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and pro-Israel."
^Weatherhead, L.D. (1965). The Christian Agnostic. England: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 59–63. Archived from the original on 6 April 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
^Another Gospel: Cults, Alternative Religions, and the New Age Movement by Ruth A. Tucker 1989 ISBN0-310-25937-1 pp. 250–251
^Daske, D. and Ashcraft, W. 2005, New Religious Movements, New York: New York University Press, ISBN0-8147-0702-5 "To restart the process toward perfection, God has sent messiahs to earth who could restore the true state of humanity's relationship with God. Before that can happen, however, humans must perform good deeds that cancel the bad effects of sin. Unificationists call this "indemnity". Showing love and devotion to one's fellow humans, especially within families, helps pay this indemnity." p. 142.
^Yamamoto, J. 1995, Unification Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Press, ISBN0-310-70381-6 "The doctrine of indemnity. Indemnity is that which people do to restore themselves to God's kingdom. Young Oon Kim describes it this way: 'We atone for our sins through specific acts of penance.' Kwang-Yol Yoo, a Unification teacher, even goes so far as to say that by following the Divine Principle, "man's perfection must be accomplished by his own effort without God's help." God does most of the work, but people must still do their part in order to achieve God's plan of salvation: 'Five percent is only to say that man's responsibility is extremely small compared to God's.' "p35 "The doctrine of indemnity is not biblical. 'In simple language.' states Ruth Tucker, 'indemnity is salvation by works.' Bob Larson makes a distinction between Moon's doctrine and biblical theology, saying, 'Moon's doctrine of sinless perfection by "indemnity [forgiveness of sin by works on Moon's behalf], which can apply even to deceased ancestors, is a denial of the salvation by grace offering through Jesus Christ.' 'Farewell,' said John Calvin. 'to the dream of those who think up a righteousness flowing together out of faith and works.'" p40
^The Power of the Principle: When It Came; Where It Went Richard Quebedeaux, "Rev. Moon calls such a mode of living, such a lifestyle, "restoration through indemnity." With indemnity viewed as a persistent pattern of behavior, not as a mere doctrine to be affirmed or a rational list of rules, God's ideal for human relationships is "restored" through restitution. Restitution-in the sense of a "natural law"-assuages resentment, because it is the means by which the powerful and enfranchised give the people who feel downtrodden and powerless what they believe is rightly theirs. Indemnity means that 'I'm here for you.'"
^Daske, D. and Ashcraft, W. 2005, New Religious Movements, New York: New York University Press, ISBN0814707025 p142.
^Yamamoto, J. I., 1995, Unification Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House ISBN0-310-70381-6 (Excerpt:Archived 2012-02-10 at the Wayback Machine) "1. The Unification Theological Seminary
a. The Unification Church has a seminary in Barrytown, New York called The Unification Theological Seminary.
b. It is used as a theological training center, where members are prepared to be leaders and theologians in the UC.
c. Moon's seminary, however, has not only attracted a respectable faculty (many of whom are not members of the UC), but it also has graduated many students (who are members of the UC) who have been accepted into doctoral programs at institutions such as Harvard and Yale."
^Rev.Keiko Kawasaki, "Concerned about the Principle Movement"
^"The Neverending Story - indemnity! indemnity! indemnity !('Anti-Japan Tribalism 반일종족주의, 反日種族主義'edited by Lee Younghoon, p.188)"
^Tingle, D. and Fordyce, R. 1979, The Phases and Faces of the Moon: A Critical Examination of the Unification Church and Its Principles, Hicksville, New York: Exposition Press p53-55
^"The Church That Breaks Up Families," Daily Mail (London), 29 May 1978.
^Hilary Devries, ed., "Unification Church loses suit against British paper," The Christian Science Monitor, 1 April 1981.
^ abcJames T. Richardson and Barend van Driel, "New Religious Movements in Europe: Developments and Reactions" in Anti-Cult Movements in Cross-Cultural Perspective, edited by Anson Shupe and David G. Bromley, 129–170 [144], (New York: Garland, 1994), ISBN9780815314288.
^George D. Chryssides, Exploring New Religions (London and New York: Cassell, 1999), 358. ISBN9780304336517
^George D. Chryssides, "Britain's Anti-cult movement," in New Religious Movements: Changes and Responses, edited by Jamie Cresswell and Bryan Wilson, 257–273 [268], (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), ISBN9780415200509.
^George D. Chryssides, "Britain's Changing Faiths: Adaptation in a New Environment," in The Growth of Religious Diversity: Britain from 1945, Volume II: Issues, edited by G. Parson, 55–84 [79], London: Routledge, 1994. ISBN978-0415083287
^父は急死、母は宗教団体へ多額の金 安倍氏銃撃容疑者の生い立ち：朝日新聞デジタル [Father died suddenly, mother went to a religious group A large amount of money Mr. Abe's background of the shooting suspect]. The Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). 9 July 2022. Archived from the original on 9 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
^"『革命を起こす』とか、そんなことばっかり…」山上徹也被告の親族が初告白した、安倍元首相銃撃前の"異様な一言"の意味とは". Weekly Bunsen. 19 August 2023. p. 2. 「也は、いろんな大学を受験徹したものの、志望校ではない奈良産業大学しか受からなかった。それで大学進学を選ばなかったと聞きました」
^"旧統一教会の養子縁組、2018年度以降31件 調査に回答" [The Unification Church answered that there have been 31 cases of child adoption arrangements since 2018], The Nikkei (in Japanese), 6 December 2022, retrieved 27 December 2022
^"半分以上が「回答拒否」…"統一教会"養子縁組の追加質問 厚労省に抗議文送付" [The Unification Church refused to answer more than half of the questions regarding the child adoption arrangement additional inquiry. Letter of protest for the Health Labour Ministry], Nippon TV (in Japanese), 20 December 2022, retrieved 27 December 2022 – via Yahoo News
^"'新친일' 통일교와 日자민당 정권 40년 유착.."자민당 의원 180명과 관계"" ['New Chinil[pa]' Unification Church and the Japanese LDP have been in collusion for 40 years. It is even "linked to 180 LDP lawmakers".]. No Cut News. 5 September 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
^"대일 굴욕 외교의 배후는 통일교?" [Is Unification Church behind [Yoon Suk-yeol government's] pro-Japanese submissive diplomacy?]. 굿모닝충청. 3 April 2023. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
^Evangelical-Unification Dialogue (Conference series – Unification Theological Seminary; no. 3) Richard Quebedeaux, Rodney Sawatsky, Paragon House, 1979, ISBN093289402X, pp. 77–99.
^Irving Louis Horowitz, 1978, Science, Sin, and Scholarship: The Politics of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church, MIT Press, ISBN0262081008, p. 114
^The A to Z of New Religious Movements, George D. Chryssides
Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 155
^Tingle, D. and Fordyce, R. 1979, The Phases and Faces of the Moon: A Critical Examination of the Unification Church and Its Principles, Hicksville, New York: Exposition Press ISBN0682492647, pp. 20–21
^George D. Chryssides, "Unificationism: A study in religious syncretism", Chapter 14 in Religion: empirical studies, Editor: Steven Sutcliffe, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004, ISBN978-0-7546-4158-2, p. 232.
^Barker, Eileen; Richardson, James T., eds. (2021). Reactions to the law by minority religions. Routledge informs series on minority religions and spiritual movements. Londin New York: Taylor & Francis Group Routledge. p. 97. ISBN978-0-367-69449-4.
^Cite error: The named reference :52 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Swatos, Jr, William H. (1998). Encyclopedia of religion and society. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press. ISBN978-0-7619-8956-1.
^Helm, S. Divine Principle and the Second Advent Archived 2008-09-21 at the Wayback Machine. Christian Century May 11, 1977 "In fact Moon's adherents differ from previous fringe groups in their quite early and expensive pursuit of respectability, as evidenced by the scientific conventions they have sponsored in England and the U.S. and the seminary they have established in Barrytown, New York, whose faculty is composed not of their own group members but rather of respected Christian scholars."
^Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America: African diaspora traditions and other American innovations: Introduction, Eugene V. Gallagher, W. Michael Ashcraft, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, pp. 94–95
Bryant, M. Darrol, and Herbert Warren Richardson. 1978. A Time for consideration: a scholarly appraisal of the Unification Church. New York: E. Mellen Press. ISBN978-0-88946-954-9
Tingle, D. and Fordyce, R. 1979, Phases and Faces of the Moon: A Critical Examination of the Unification Church and its Principles, Hicksville, NY: Exposition Press ISBN0-682-49264-7
Bjornstad, James. 1984. Sun Myung & the Unification Church. Rev. ed. Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers. 57 p. N.B.: Rev. ed. of The Moon Is Not the Sun, which had been published in 1976. ISBN0-87123-301-0
Bromley, David G. (1985). "Financing the Millennium: The Economic Structure of the Unificationist Movement". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 24 (3): 253–274. doi:10.2307/1385816. JSTOR1385816.
Fichter, Joseph Henry. 1985. The holy family of father Moon. Kansas City, Mo: Leaven Press. ISBN978-0-934134-13-2
Gullery, Jonathan. 1986. The Path of a pioneer: the early days of Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. New York: HSA Publications. ISBN978-0-910621-50-2
Biermans, J. 1986, The Odyssey of New Religious Movements, Persecution, Struggle, Legitimation: A Case Study of the Unification Church Lewiston, New York and Queenston, Ontario: The Edwin Melton Press ISBN0-88946-710-2
Chryssides, George D., The Advent of Sun Myung Moon: The Origins, Beliefs and Practices of the Unification Church (1991) London, Macmillan Professional and Academic Ltd. The author is professor of religious studies at the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.[ISBN missing]
Introvigne, M., 2000, The Unification Church, Signature Books, ISBN1-56085-145-7
Ward, Thomas J. 2006, March to Moscow: the role of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in the collapse of communism. St. Paul, Minn: Paragon House. ISBN978-1-885118-16-5
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