Sun Myung Moon

Sun Myung Moon
File:Sun Myung Moon 2005.jpg Sun Myung Moon in 2005.
Korean name
Hangul	문선명
Hanja	文鮮明
Revised Romanization	Mun Seon-myeong
McCune–Reischauer	Mun Sŏnmyŏng

Sun Myung Moon (born February 25, 1920; lunar: January 6, 1920) founded the Unification Church (later renamed Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) on May 1, 1954, in Seoul, South Korea. Moon's teaching is the Divine Principle, and he is the leader of the Unification Movement, which includes the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP), Universal Peace Federation, and many other organizations. He is also well-known for holding, since 1960, Blessing ceremonies, which are often called "mass weddings"; and for founding The Washington Times newspaper in 1982. He has said that he is humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent. As the head of the Unification Church, Moon is among the most controversial, religious leaders, and as such has been widely criticized.

Name and forms of address

Korean name
Hangul	문용명
Hanja	文龍明
Revised Romanization	Mun Yong-myeong
McCune–Reischauer	Mun Yongmyŏng

Sun Myung Moon's birth name was Moon Yong-myung, and he changed his given name upon reaching adulthood (to Sun-myung). The Hanja for moon (문, 文), his surname, means "word" or "literature" in Korean. The character sun (선, 鮮), composed of "fish" and "lamb" (symbols of Christianity), means "fresh." The character myung (명, 明), composed of "sun" and "moon", (which was part of his given name), means "bright." Together, sun-myung means "make clear." So the full name can be taken to mean "the word made clear." In a speech where he explained this, he concluded, "My name is prophetic."

In the English-speaking world Moon, is often referred to as "Reverend Moon," by Unification Church members and by the general public and the media. Unification Church members most often call Moon "Father" or "True Father." Some ministers who have come to associate themselves with the Unification Movement have taken to calling him "Father Moon." Similar titles are used for his wife. "Dr. Moon" has also sometimes been used because Moon received an honorary doctorate from Shaw Divinity School.

Early biography

Life in Korea

File:Sun-Myung-Moon-Prayer.jpg

Sun Myung Moon in prayer, date unknown

Moon was born in Sangsa-ri (上思里, lit. "high-thought village"), Deogun-myon, Jeongju-gun, North P'yŏng'an Province, Korea (now in North Korea) to Moon Kyung-yoo and Kim Kyung-gye. The Moon family held traditional Confucianist beliefs, but converted to Christianity and joined the Presbyterian Church when he was around 10 years old. Moon taught Sunday school for the church.

On April 17, 1935, when he was 16 (in Korean age reckoning), Moon says he had a vision or revelation of Jesus while praying atop a small mountain. He says that Jesus asked him to complete the task of establishing God's kingdom on Earth and bring peace to the world. Moon's high school years were spent at a boys' boarding school in Seoul, and later in Japan, where he studied electrical engineering. During this time he studied the Bible and developed his own interpretation of it. After the end of World War II, he returned to Korea and began preaching his message.

Moon was arrested in 1946 by North Korean officials. The church states that the charges stemmed from the jealousy and resentment of other church pastors after parishioners stopped tithing to their old churches upon joining Sun Myung Moon's congregation. Police beat him and left him almost dead, but a teenage disciple, Won Pil Kim, nursed him back to health.

Moon was arrested again and was given a five-year sentence in 1948 to the Hŭngnam labor camp, where prisoners were routinely worked to death on short rations. Moon credits his own survival to God's protection over his life, and his habit of saving half his meager water ration for washing the toxic chemicals off his skin after long days work bagging and loading chemical fertilizer with his bare hands. After serving 34 months of his sentence, he was released in 1950 when UN troops advanced on the camp and the guards fled.

Moon was jailed briefly on counterfeiting charges during the Korean War when, shortly after escaping from North Korea, he tried to spend some North Korean currency in South Korea. He was released after his former kindergarten teacher vouched for him. He was also charged with draft evasion; these charges were eventually dropped, after it was determined that Moon was in a North Korean prison camp during the war. Later he would explain to his followers that as a man of God, he never wanted to be in a position where he would be required to kill his fellow men.

In 1954, he registered the 'Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity' in Seoul (also known as the Unification Church).

Some sociologists and scholars of new religious movements have written that Moon's leadership of the Unification Church is based on charismatic authority.

Marriage

Moon married Hak Ja Han, his second wife, on April 11, 1960, soon after she turned 17 years old, in a ceremony called the "Holy Marriage." His first wife, with whom he has one son, had left him because of conflicts over what he saw as his messianic role. Han, called "Mother" or "True Mother" by followers, and her husband together are referred to as the "True Parents" by members of the Unification Church.

Hak Ja Han gave birth to 14 children; her second daughter died in infancy. The family is known in the church as the "True Family" and the children as the "True Children." Shortly after their marriage they presided over a Blessing Ceremony for 36 couples, the first of many such ceremonies.

Basic Teachings

Divine Principle

The basic elements of Sun Myung Moon's Divine Principle were first written down in the early 1950s. The Divine Principle consists of Rev. Moon's interpretation of the Bible and Judeo-Christian history and also incorporates elements of Confucianism, which formed the background for Moon's early education.

The Three Blessings

According to the Unification Church, one of the most fundamental concepts in the Divine Principle is found in Rev. Moon's interpretation of Genesis 1:28, "Be fruitful and multiply… and have dominion over the fish of the sea…" as constituting the "Three Blessings" that represent God's command to all human beings:

• To grow to healthy maturity in body and spirit, where the body and spirit are integrated in mutual benefit and live in relation to the creator God, and for the sake of others;
• To establish an ideal family and expand that to instantiate true family love to all levels of social expansion, again always in relation to the creator God; and
• To maintain responsible stewardship of the earth and all of nature, and live a joyful and abundant physical life in preparation for an even more fantastic joy and abundance in eternal spiritual life.

Principle of Creation

Other fundamental ideas of the Divine Principle include a "Principle of Creation" whereby everything in the universe has equal and complementary paired attributes; male and female (biology), positive and negative (particle physics), yin and yang (philosophy), and so on. Reciprocal give and take between these pairs is essential to life, survival, and growth. Also, everything in creation has an internal "character" and an external "form" or manifestation. In people, the analogy is expressed as the spirit and the body. In physics, elementary particles such as protons and electrons therefore possess an inner "directive," or purpose, that defines and guides them, and an inner "identity" that manifests itself in a form that corresponds to its unique purpose.

Arrival in the United States

Sun Myung Moon meeting with United States President Richard Nixon at the White House.

Moon visited the United States for the first time in 1965. In 1971 he moved there to live, but maintained a residence in South Korea and traveled between the two countries.

Congressional investigators such as Robert Boettcher (in his book Gifts of Deceit: Sun Myung Moon, Tongsun Park, and the Korean Scandal published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980) reported what they described as breathtaking financial misdoing, including a scheme to raise money for a church public-relations fund that disguised itself as a fund raiser for sick children. Congressman (later the mayor of Minneapolis) Donald M. Fraser also investigated the church's political ties.

No criminal allegations came out of these congressional investigations.

The controversy over these charges had peaked in the United States by 1976 and gradually diminished as his youthful American followers settled down, got jobs or began businesses, and built links to local churches in their communities.

In 1956, Moon began his first ocean fishing project with church members in Korea. [2] In 1975, he and his followers began True World Foods Inc., a seafood provider. It has since grown to provide much of the raw fish served in sushi restaurants in the United States. For example, of the 17 most prominent sushi restaurants in Chicago, 14 receive at least some of their raw fish for sushi from True World Foods. Another Unification Church related seafood company is the largest private employer and taxpayer in Kodiak, Alaska. [3]

1980s

Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han

U.S. Tax Case

Main article: Sun Myung Moon tax case

In 1982, Moon was convicted by the U.S. government for filing false federal income tax returns and conspiracy. His conviction was upheld on appeal in a split decision. He was given a prison sentence and spent 13 months in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. Many individuals, organizations and religious figures protested the charges, saying that they were unjust and threatened freedom of religion and free speech. Based on this case, reporter Carlton Sherwood wrote the book Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon'.

Other 1980s events

In 1981, Moon proposed an international highway project that would reach around most of the world. He said about it:

"It would mean that people would come and go freely without borders. It would have no national boundaries. ... No matter what color skin you have, nothing can stop you there. There will be absolutely no racial discrimination."[4]

The second son of Hak Ja Han and Moon, Heung-Jin Moon, died on January 2, 1984, from injuries suffered in a car crash in December 1983; a jackknifed truck entered his lane while he was driving two friends. Moon ascribed great importance to his death, and Heung-Jin Moon is officially regarded to be the "king of the spirits" in heaven, and is now said to be conducting seminars in heaven for departed souls.

In Washington, Moon found common ground with strongly anti-Communist leaders of the 1980s who appreciated Moon's opposition to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and other communist nations and his support of President Richard Nixon. He found a fellow opponent of Communism in President Ronald Reagan, and Moon spent a billion dollars during the next 20 years, most of it in the Washington D.C. area, to establish and support the influential conservative newspaper The Washington Times, which he called in 2002, 'the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world'.

1990s

Politics

Moon initially opposed U.S. President George H. W. Bush's 1990 plan to use military force against Iraq (which had then recently invaded its neighbor, Kuwait). Moon wrote a letter to Bush that said, 'George Bush, President of the United States, you cannot win this battle without the help of God Almighty'. A letter to Mikhail Gorbachev in January 1991 asked the Soviet leader to spend 40 days in peace negotiations.

Fundraising scandal and lawsuit in Japan

In the 1990s, thousands of Japanese elderly people claimed to have been defrauded of their life savings by Moon followers' spiritual sales. Moon's church was the subject of the largest consumer fraud investigation in Japan's history in 1997 and number of subsequent court decisions awarded hundreds of millions of yen in judgments, including 37.6 million yen ($300,000) to pay two women coerced into donating their assets to the Unification Church.

Daughter-in-law's book questions role as "True Parent"

The Moons' eldest son Hyo Jin Moon had repeated problems with substance abuse, pornography, infidelity, violence, and run-ins with the law. When he was 19, Sun Myung Moon had picked a 15-year-old wife for him, Nansook Hong, who bore him 5 children. After years of abuse, she left the Moon estate with her children and in 1998 published a tell-all book, In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family (ISBN 0-316-34816-3). For some Unification Church members, this book was a revealing portrait of the way Sun Myung Moon and his wife had raised their children, and caused a great deal of soul-searching. (See, for example, this review of the book, written by a church member.)

Son's death

On October 27, 1999, the Moons' sixth son, Young Jin, fell to his death from the 17th floor of a Reno, Nevada, hotel. Police reports and the coroner officially recorded the death as a suicide. Moon has said that he does not believe it was a suicide [5] [6].

2000s

In 2000, Moon joined Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in sponsoring the Million Family March in Washington D.C., a follow-up event to the Million Man March held in 1995.

In 2001, the now excommunicated Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo was married to Maria Sung, a Korean acupuncturist, by Moon. This attracted worldwide media attention.

In February 2003, Moon and Han reaffirmed their wedding vows after 43 years of marriage in a ceremony named the 'Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony of the Parents of Heaven and Earth.'

Campaign to replace the Cross with a Crown

That same year Moon began his "tear down" [7], or "take down the cross" [8] campaign. The campaign was begun in the belief that the cross is a reminder of Jesus' pain and has been a source of division between people of different faiths. The campaign included a "burial" ceremony for the cross and a crown to be put in its place.[9].

The Rick Ross website reported:

According to a prominent Unification Church official, dozens of ministers across the country associated with the group have heeded Moon's call to take down the cross from their churches and replace it with the crown. [10]

Andrew Wilson said, "The crucifixion was not something that God loves, but something that God hates. It hurts every time he sees people glorifying the cross, which was the instrument of execution used to kill his beloved son." [11]

Crowned by Members of United States Congress

Main article: Sun Myung Moon coronation controversy

In 2004, at a March 23 ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) wore white gloves and carried a pillow holding an ornate crown that was placed on Moon's head.

Moon delivered a long speech in which he stated that he was "sent to Earth . . . to save the world's six billion people. . . . Emperors, kings and presidents . . . have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent."

120-City World Speaking Tour

On September 12, 2005, at the age of 85, Moon inaugurated the Universal Peace Federation with a 120-city world speaking tour. At each city, Moon delivered his speech titled "God's Ideal Family - the Model for World Peace".

Daughter on Survival of the Richest

In 2006 the Moons' daughter, Yeon Jin (nicknamed Kat), was a contestant on the WB network show, Survival of the Richest.

Opposition to Communism

After the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea, Moon was abused and tortured by the North Korean government. Some writers point out that Moon would be anti-communist anyway because they claim communism denies the existence of God. Other writers have asserted that Moon's anti-communism is a reaction to his personal suffering, as opposed to having any spiritual or religious basis.

Others argue that the only reason the Communists put him on trial and sentenced him to a death camp was because of his religious teachings. After an 11-month study of the worldwide Unification Church, Frederick Sontag, a professor of philosophy (whose view of the church is not favorable) concluded that "one thing is sure: the church has a genuine spiritual basis."

A German court found that:

Moon, who was born and grew up in a Japan-occupied Korea, started to preach his religious teachings back in 1945 or 1946 before he personally encountered difficulties with communism. Following Moon's torture and imprisonment by the North Korean communists from 1947 to 1950 he was not reported to have engaged primarily in political agitation, but rather in daily worship. Furthermore, he was barred from the Presbyterian Church as early as 1948 owing to his different religious teachings. These facts alone prove that Moon's teachings have a religious foundation and do not result solely from his personal experience with communism.

Chung Hwan Kwak, of the Unification Church wrote,

'In the 1960s he spoke about communism as having only 70 years to prosper, from 1917 to 1987, after which time it would decline rapidly. In 1984 he asked me to convene an international conference in Geneva on the theme, "The Fall of the Soviet Empire." Many leaders advised him not to use this title. But he insisted, and the conference, on that theme, was held. A few short years later, communism was turned upside down.'

In the 1990s Moon visited some of the formerly and some of the still communist nations. In 1990, he organized a major meeting of government officials and media professionals in Moscow. This fulfilled a pledge he had made in 1976 that one day he would organize a "great rally for God in Moscow." During this conference, on their 30th wedding anniversary, Rev. and Mrs. Moon met with President Mikhail Gorbachev. They gave several interviews together, televised and in print. Moon traveled to North Korea in December 1991, and met with President Kim Il Sung, under whose regime he had been tortured and sent to a labor camp.

Controversies

Ownership of vast enterprises

Critics often describe major enterprises founded or directed by Rev. Moon as if they were his personal property. It is not Rev. Moon or his family who owns the Washington Times, for example.

Constant references to Rev. Moon as a "businessman" are misleading, according to the church, and clearly designed to discredit his stature as a religious leader. It is the church's position that a religious leader should help his followers establish profitable businesses to support the church's ecumenical work, such as interreligious peace conferences aimed at reducing political tensions in hotspots such as the Middle East; see Jerusalem Declaration, Middle East Peace Initiative.

Use of Church subsidized media for propaganda

Since founding the Washington Times with Unification Church funds in 1982, Moon has said that by 1993 he had subsidized over one billion dollars of operating losses at the Washington Times. More recent estimates of Moon's ongoing subsidies of Unification Church owned media, which now include United Press International and Insight Magazine, have exceeded three billion dollars in the US alone.

Critics assert that Moon has quietly used Unification Church media assets as political propaganda tools, to covertly act in support of Moon's political agenda, including Rev. Moon's stated goal of establishing the United Nations as a theocratic one-world government, with "True Parents" in the role of Secretary-General "in eternity". This agenda, and Moon's covert use of the Washington Times in support of it were laid out in a landmark "Foundation Day". speech delivered by Reverend Moon to Unification Church members in 1997:

"America cannot control the United Nations. Recently, the Republican party, had an agenda to somehow pull America out of the United Nations. But I used the Washington Times to stop that evil attempt. I mobilized many ambassadors from around the world to exert their influence to stop it. UN ambassadors and American ambassadors met to discuss how to solve the United Nations' problems. The Washington Times pointed the direction for the future. You were not aware of that, were you?"

"The day that the United Nations declares True Parents' Day to the world, the entire world will celebrate. Also United Nations should invite True Parents to take the position of Secretary-General in eternity."

Critics say that the Washington Times under Unification Church ownership is a source of "manufactured falsehood" and is "a kind of assembly line for political myths" in its propagation of agenda-oriented lies, distortions and myths.

Church role in munitions manufacturing

Church-related businesses engaged in munitions manufacturing in South Korea during the 1960s, as charged in a U.S. Congressional Report on the Unification Church from 1978 .

According to the same report, "A Moon Organization business" was involved in weapons manufacture and "is an important defense contractor in Korea. It is involved in the production of M-16 rifles, antiaircraft guns, and other weapons." The report also said that "[o]f particular concern is the Moon Organization’s involvement in the production and sale of M-16 rifles and other weapons provided to Korea under U.S. aid programs and subject to the Arms Export Control Act. In late 1977, Moon Organization representatives tried to renegotiate a coproduction agreement between Colt Industries and the ROK Government. The circumstances suggested they were secret envoys of the Korean Government which, under the coproduction agreement, has exclusive control over M-16 production. Although the ROK Government said it wanted to produce 300,000 extra M-16s because of the need to equip its own forces, Moon Organization tried to get Colt’s agreement to export guns to third countries."

Moon's fourth son, Kook Jin "Justin" Moon founded Kahr Arms, a small-arms company based in Blauvelt, New York with a factory in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Prison terms

Opponents often cite the fact that Moon has served time in prison on tax charges and has been banned from traveling to some countries as proof that he is not a legitimate religious leader. Moon's supporters dismiss the prison terms and travel bans as examples of persecution, arguing in particular that Jesus himself was persecuted and ultimately executed by the Roman government.

In 2006 the German High Court reversed an earlier Schengen Agreement listing. Moon is now allowed entry into its implementing nations.

Political donations and influence

Some commentators, including American independent journalist Robert Parry, have said that Moon, although he has never run for political office, has an extensive history of making political donations through the various organizations such as the Women’s Federation for World Peace and the Washington Times Foundation, with his money flowing through the religious right in particular.

In the mid-1990s former United States President George H.W. Bush accepted millions of dollars from Moon's Women’s Federation for World Peace to speak on his behalf around the world, a fact that Moon and the Unification Church have touted to their advantage, particularly in efforts to improve the image of the Unification Church outside the US. While discussing one of Bush's trips (a 1995 tour of Japan), Bo Hi Pak said:

"Then George and Barbara Bush went to Fukuoka, the capital of Kyushu. The people of Kyushu were flabbergasted at Father and Mother's power to tell a U.S. president what to do and plan his schedule. Incredible. This completely changed the attitude of the Japanese government and media toward the Unification community."

In June 2006 the Houston Chronicle reported that in 2004 Moon’s Washington Times Foundation gave $1 million to the Greater Houston Community Foundation, which made donations to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library.

Other controversial views: church and state, Jews and the Holocaust, homosexuality, role of women

Some consider his call for unity between religion and politics is contrary to the principle of separation of church and state.

Other controversies arose over Rev. Moon's statements about the Holocaust being (in part) a "retribution" by God against Jews, a consequence of some important Jewish leaders not supporting Jesus which contributed to his murder by the Roman government (see Unification Church and anti-Semitism).

In 1997, Moon received criticism from Gay Rights activists based on comments he made in a speech to church members; "What is the meaning of lesbians and homosexuals? That is the place where all different kinds of dung collect. We have to end that behavior. When this kind of dirty relationship is taking place between human beings, God cannot be happy," and referred to homosexuals as "dung-eating dogs."

Broader controversy over these comments emerged in mainstream publications based on Moon's inclusion of non-homosexual Americans; "Especially American people," Moon said, "if they truly love such dogs, they also become like dung-eating dogs and produce that quality of life."

Rev. Moon's views on women as "objects" in a subject-object relationship with their husbands generated further criticism. In 1996, Moon summarized these views;[12]

"American women have the tendency to consider that women are in the subject position. However, woman's shape is like that of a receptacle. The concave shape is a receiving shape. Whereas the convex shape symbolizes giving. When water is poured into a container does it fill from the edge of the container, or from the deepest bottom? (Deepest bottom.) Since man contains the seed of life, he should plant it in the deepest place. Does woman contain the seed of life? (No.) Absolutely not. Then if you desire to receive the seed of life you have to become an absolute object. In order to qualify as an absolute object you need to demonstrate absolute faith, love and obedience to your subject."

External links

Supportive views

• Official website about the Life and Works of Moon of the Universal Peace Federation
• Biography at Official website
• Moon's Teachings: introduction and Divine Principle (regarded as main scripture).
• Father Joseph Fichter, Jesuit sociologist The Holy Family of Father Moon
• mini-bio at US church home page
• Universal Peace Federation, aka Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace.
• Unofficial website of the Unification Church, which contains information and past speeches by Moon.
• Information about revelations/testimonies in connection with Sun Myung Moon.
• True Love King: website about Moon and his wife, the "True Parents, Messiah & Lord of the Second Advent"
• landSlide - The Unification Movement and/or Sun Myung Moon
• Moon banned from Germany - church activist argues that ban was unfair (it has since been rescinded)
• The Role of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in the Downfall of Communism

Critical views

• Dark Side of Rev. Moon
• Bush and the Moon Men
• Dear Leader’s Paper Moon
• Moon/Bush 'Ongoing Crime Enterprise'

Neutral views

• An introduction to Unificationism (Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church) including both support and criticism from current and former Unificationists.
• Sun Myung Moon, The Early Years, 1920-53, unofficial biography by Michael Breen, a Seoul-based author and journalist.
• Holy Mackeral! Guess who controls Portland's sushi supply?