Unification Movement International

The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (also known as the "Unification Church"), is a new religious movement founded in 1954 in South Korea by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon.

Members are found throughout the world and the membership is estimated to be 5-7 million. Unification Church Movement has a megachurch in Seoul, Korea.

Unification Church beliefs are summarized in the textbook Divine Principle and include belief in a universal God; in striving toward the creation of a literal Kingdom of God on earth; in the universal salvation of all people, good and evil, living and dead; and that a man born in Korea in the early 20th century received from Jesus the mission to be realized as the second coming of Christ. Members of the Unification Church believe that Moon is this Messiah and claim that there is "no room to challenging Moon...history will answer whether Moon is new messiah". Moon himself gave the following answer to the question of whether he is the messiah or not: "Yes I am. But so are you." Then he pointed to each person around him: "And so are you, and you, and you."

History

Origins in Korea

Unification Movement International
Hangul	통일교회
Hanja	統一敎會
Revised Romanization	Tongil Gyohoe
McCune–Reischauer	T'ongil Kyohoe

Unification Church members believe that Jesus appeared to Mun Yong-myong (his birth name) when Moon was 16 and asked him to accomplish the work left unfinished after his crucifixion. After a period of prayer and consideration, Moon accepted the mission, later changing his name to Mun Son-myong (Sun Myung Moon).

The beginnings of the church's official teachings, the Divine Principle, first saw written form as Wolli Wonbon in 1946. (The second, expanded version, Wolli Hesol, or Explanation of the Divine Principle, was not published until 1957; for a more complete account, see Divine Principle.) Sun Myung Moon preached in northern Korea after the end of World War II and was imprisoned by the communist regime in North Korea in 1946. He was released from prison, along with many other North Koreans, with the advance of American and United Nations forces during the Korean War and built his first church from mud and cardboard boxes as a refugee in Pusan.

Moon formally founded the church in Seoul on May 1, 1954, calling it "The Holy Spirit(ual) Association for the Unification of World Christianity." The name alludes to Moon's stated intention for his organization to be a unifying force for all Christian denominations. The phrase "Holy Spirit Association" has the sense in the original Korean of "Heavenly Spirits" and not the "Holy Spirit" of Christianity. "Unification" has political as well as religious connotations, in keeping with the church's teaching that restoration must be complete, both spiritual and physical. The church expanded rapidly in South Korea and by the end of 1955 had 30 church centers throughout the nation.

International expansion

In 1958, Moon sent missionaries to Japan, and in 1959, to America. Moon himself moved to the United States in 1971, (although he remained a citizen of the Republic of Korea). Missionary work took place in Washington D.C., New York, and California. UC missionaries found success in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the church expanded in Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco. By 1971 the Unification Church of the United States had about 500 members. By 1973 the church had some presence in all 50 states and a few thousand members. In other countries church growth was slower. In the 1990s the Unification Church of the United Kingdom only had an estimated several hundred members.

American sociologist Irving Louis Horowitz compared the attraction of Unification teachings to American young people at this time to the hippie and radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s, saying:

"[Moon] has a belief system that admits of no boundaries or limits, an all-embracing truth. His writings exhibit a holistic concern for the person, society, nature, and all things embraced by the human vision. In this sense the concept underwriting the Unification church is apt, for its primary drive and appeal is unity, urging a paradigm of essence in an overly complicated world of existence. It is a ready-made doctrine for impatient young people and all those for whom the pursuit of the complex has become a tiresome and fruitless venture."

Missionaries were also sent to Europe. The church entered Czechoslovakia in 1968 and remained underground until the 1990s. In 1975, Moon sent out missionaries to 120 countries to spread the Unification Church around the world and also in part, he said, to act as "lightning rods" to receive "persecution." Unification Church activity in South America began in the 1970s with missionary work. Later the church made large investments in civic organizations and business projects, including an international newspaper.

In the 1970s Moon gave a series of public speeches in the United States including one in Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1974 and two in 1976: In Yankee Stadium in New York City, and on the grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C., where Moon spoke on "God's Hope for America." In 1974, Moon took full-page ads in major newspapers defending President Richard M. Nixon at the height of the Watergate controversy. In 1970, President Nixon sent a request to the Korean Foreign Ministry to provide information about the Unification Movement but two years later he met with leaders of the movement.

In 1975, Unification Church has held an one of the largest peaceful gatherings in history (1.2 mln people) in Yoido, South Korea. That same year, it has held the rally fo 300,000 by the Washington Monument in USA.

In 1976, 40-story Art Deco, as well as the one of the first skyscrapers in the world, the New Yorker Hotel, has become Unification Church's headquaters.

In 1977 and 1978 the Fraser Committee, a subcommittee of the United States Congress led by Congressman Donald M. Fraser conducted an investigation of South Korea – United States relations and produced a report that included 81 pages about the Unification Church. The Fraser committee found that the KCIA decided to use the Unification Church as a political tool within the United States and that some Unification Church members worked as volunteers in Congressional offices. Together they founded the Korean Cultural Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization which acted as a propaganda campaign for the Republic of Korea. The committee also investigated possible KCIA influence on the Unification Church's campaign in support of Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

The committee also reported that the Tongil Group, a business group owned by the Unification Church and then South Korea's 35th largest industrial conglomerate, was involved in weapons manufacture and was an important defense contractor in South Korea. The report said: "It is involved in the production of M16 rifles, antiaircraft guns, and other weapons." Tongil's other enterprises include: Pharmaceuticals, tourism, publishing, ginseng and related products, real estate and building materials. The Tongil Group funds the Tongil Foundation which supports Unification Church projects including schools and the Little Angels Children’s Folk Ballet of Korea.

In 1982, Unification Church held a Blessing Ceremony for 2000 couples in the Madison Square Garden.

In 1982, Moon was convicted in United States federal court of willfully filing false Federal income tax returns and conspiracy. In 1984 and 1985, while he was serving his sentence in Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, Connecticut, American Unification Church members launched a public-relations campaign claiming that the charges against him were unjust and politically motivated. Booklets, letters and videotapes were mailed to approximately 300,000 Christian leaders. Many signed petitions protesting the government's case. Among the American Christian leaders who spoke out in defense of Moon were conservative Jerry Falwell, head of Moral Majority, and liberal Joseph Lowery, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Michael Tori, a professor at Marist College (Poughkeepsie, New York) suggested that Moon's conviction helped the Unification Church gain more acceptance in mainstream American society, since it showed that he was financially accountable to the government and the public.(see also: United States vs. Sun Myung Moon)

In 1984, Unification Church has started a book publishing company in One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in Manhattan, New York, whose editorial board includes prominent scholars associated with some of the nation's leading universities. The company is called Paragon House and has the $5 million budget.

In 1988, the Blessing Ceremony of the Unification Church was held for 6,516 couples, all personally matched by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

1990s

In 1990, Unification Church founded $8 mln Universal Ballet project, with Soviet-born Oleg Vinogradov as its art director and Julia Moon as its prima ballerina. At the opening ceremony, letters of congratulation from President Bush and John Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, were read.

In 1991 Moon announced that church members should return to their hometowns in order to undertake apostolic work there. Massimo Introvigne, who has studied the Unification Church and other new religious movements, has said that this confirms that full-time membership is no longer considered crucial to church members.

In 1992 Sun Myung Moon gave the wedding blessing for the 300,000 couples at the Seoul Olympic Stadium and for 13,000 at the Yankee Stadium. Three years later he did it again for 360,000 couples there.

In 1992, Unification Church opened the New Eden Academy International on the campus of the University of Bridgeport, a boarding school for children of Unification Church members.

In 1993, Unification Church members organized a seminar in the Russian Ministry of the Interior.

As of December 1994, Unification Church has invested $150 million in Uruguay. Members own the country's largest hotel, one of its leading banks, the second-largest newspaper and two of the largest printing plants.

Starting in the 1990s the Unification Church expanded its operations into Russia and other formerly communist nations. Moon's wife, Hak Ja Han, made a radio broadcast to the nation from the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. As of 1994, the church had about 5,000 members in Russia and the Russian Education Ministry was giving the Unification Church privileged access to thousands of state schools with their captive audiences of impressionable pupils. About 500 Russian students have been sent to USA to participate in 40-day workshops of and by the Unification Church. In 1997, the Russian government passed a law requiring the Unification Church and other non-Russian religions to register their congregations and submit to tight controls. Starting in 1992 the church established business ties with still communist North Korea and owns an automobile manufacturer (Pyeonghwa Motors), a hotel, and other properties there. In 2007 it founded a "World Peace Center" in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital city.

In the 1990s, thousands of Japanese elderly people claimed to have been defrauded of their life savings by church members. The Unification 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 two women coerced into donating their assets to the Unification Church. In 2009 the president of the Unification Church of Japan, Eiji Tokuno, resigned after the church was raided, and some church members were arrested and indicted, for selling expensive personal seals, telling people that failure to buy would bring bad fortune.

In 1995, the U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush, were the warm-up speakers for Unification Church event in the sold-out 50,000-seat Tokyo Dome. Tickets ranged in price from $80 to $120. "If as president I could have done one thing to have helped the country more," Mr. Bush told the gathering, "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." Mrs. Moon, the main speaker of the event, credited her husband with bringing Communism's fall and declared that he must save America from "the destruction of the family and moral decay."

In 1996, Unification Church started a $10-mln project called Tiempos Del Mundo, a newspaper in Spanish language circulating in 16 countries of Latin America, "a newspaper for half a Hemisphere", as New York Times called it.

In 1997, Al Sharpton, a Christian minister and a candidate for the 2004 presidential election, took part in the Unification Church's official events and holidays, including the Blessing Ceremony at the [[R

21st century

Since 2000, Unification Church's Pyeonghwa Motors has invested more than $ 300 mln to the automobile industry of the DPRK. In 2000, "an event of historical importance" occured, according to a live broadcast for the state-owned Korea Broadcasting System, as 78 North Korean girls and boys arrived to the Unification Church's cross-cultural "ice-breaker" event, where such guests of honor were present, as the minister of unification, Park Jae-Kyu, and the minister of culture, Park Jie Won.

In 2000, Unification Church bought the largest (in due time) news agency, the United Press International.

In 2000 the church purchased 300,000 hectares of land in Paraguay for the purpose of logging and timber exportation to Asia. The land is the ancestral territory of the indigenous Chamacoco (Ishir) people, who live in northern Paraguay. They have told local anthropologists that they wish to purchase the land back, because it is considered a sacred area in their shamanic belief system, but they do not have the capital to purchase the huge tracts back from the Unification Church members. This loss of land has been devastating to the Chamacoco people, who are traditional hunter-gatherers, and in return the church members have financed the construction of schools for them.

In 2001, the Roman Catholic Church archbishop Emmanuel Milingo wed with a Unification Church member in the Blessing Ceremony of the Unification Church against the will of the Pope.

In 2001, Unification Church met with the President of the Marshall Islands Kessai Note and discussed plans to invest US$ 1 million for construction of a new high school. The next year, he attended Moon's birthday party.

In May 2002, federal police in Brazil conducted a number of raids on organizations linked to Sun Myung Moon. In a statement, the police stated that the raids were part of a broad investigation into allegations of tax evasion and immigration violations by church members. Moon's support of the government of Argentina during the Falklands War was also mentioned by commentators as a possible issue.

In 2003, the Los Angeles Galaxy, which competes in Major League Soccer, played in South Korea during Unification Church's Peace Cup. That same year, Unification Church have held the Interreligious Peace Sports Festival between the people of various faiths, which is, according to the UNESCO official data, "an annual sporting event designed to build and promote friendship and peace among people from different cultural and religious backgrounds using the powerful medium of sports competition". The college team of Sun Moon University, which some describe as the best in South Korea won the tournament.

In 2004, one of the Unification Church pastors gave the official invocation to the one of the formal events of Las Vegas City chaired by the Mayor of Las Vegas.

In 2006, the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse, 4th President of Sri Lanka Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, twice Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremasinghe and the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka W. J. M. Lokubandara were guest speakers in the one of events of the Unification Church.

In 2006 in Korea, in response to a slanderous newspaper article, more than 700 members of the Unification Movement joined a rally and destroyed the office of the newspaper. Later on, the newspaper wrote a rebuttal.

Starting in 2007 the church sponsored a series of public events in various nations under the title Global Peace Festival. One of such events was endorsed by Mwai Kibaki, the President of Kenya

In April 2008, Sun Myung Moon, then 88 years old, appointed his youngest son, Hyung Jin Moon, to be the new leader of the Unification Church and the worldwide Unification Movement, saying, "I hope everyone helps him so that he may fulfil his duty as the successor of the True Parents."

In 2009, Hyung Jin Moon, the President of Unification Movement and a Harvard alumnus, met with the 14th Dalai Lama. That same year, Moon's autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen (Template:Lang-ko), was published by Gimm-Young Publishers in South Korea. The book became a best-seller in Korea and Japan.

In January 2009, Unification Church missionary Elizaveta Drenicheva was sentenced to two years in jail in Kazakhstan for "propagating harmful religious teachings." She was freed and allowed to leave the country after international human rights organizations expressed their concern over her case. In 2009, the church gave 30,000 acres (120 km²) of land back to residents of Puerto Casado after a series of land disputes came before Paraguayan courts. It had acquired more than 1,480,000 acres (6,000 km²) of land in 2000 for an environmental tourism project in northern Paraguay.

In 2009, a blessing ceremony for 7,000 couples was attended by the Vice Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea and by the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee. She said: "I join in a trans-religious spirit. I like the Unification Church way of interpreting the Bible, incorporating the Koran and Buddhist scripts".

In 2011, the Unification Movement received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Taiwanese Executive Yuan. That same year, representatives of seven religions from South Korea visited Pyongyang, North Korea, for the first time ever, in their joint efforts to unite the Korean Peninsula; the delegation was headed by members of the Unification Movement.

In December 2011 in Pyongyang, to mark the 20th anniversary of Sun Myung Moon's visit to the DPRK, de jure President Kim Yong Nam hosted the younger son of Sun Myung Moon, the legal successor of Moon and the President of Unification Movement, in the official residence. The latter donated 600 tons of flour to North Korean children of Jeongju Province, the birthplace of Sun Myung Moon. Also, after the 2011 earthquake in Japan, he donated $ 1.7 million to the Japanese Red Cross.

In February 2012, Stavros S. Anthony, the Mayor of Las Vegas recognized the contributions of Unification Church's Little Angels Children's Folk Ballet of Korea.

As of 2012, the Unification Movement is constructing 70-storey twin skyscrapers in Seoul at an estimated cost of $2 billion USD.

Beliefs

See also: Divine Principle

The beliefs of the Unification Church are based on the Bible, but include new interpretations not found in Jewish and Christian tradition. They are outlined in the church's textbook, Divine Principle. A brief overview with 12 theological statements about these teachings was written by thirty eight seminary students:

1. God: There is one living, eternal, and true God, a Person beyond space and time, who possesses perfect intellect, emotion and will, whose deepest nature is heart and love, who combines both masculinity and femininity, who is the source of all truth, beauty, and goodness, and who is the creator and sustainer of man and the universe and of all things visible and invisible. Man and the universe reflect his personality, nature and purpose.
2. Man: Man was made by God as a special creation, made in his image as his children, like him in personality and nature, and created to respond to his love, to be the source of his joy, and to share his creativity.
3. God's Desire for Man and Creation: God's desire for man and creation is eternal and unchanging; God wants men and women to fulfill three things: first, each to grow to perfection so as to be one in heart, will, and action with God, having their bodies and minds united together in perfect harmony centering on God's love; second, to be united by God as husband and wife and give birth to sinless children of God, thereby establishing a sinless family and ultimately a sinless world; and third, to become lords of the created world by establishing a loving dominion of reciprocal give-and-take with it. Because of man's sin, however, none of these happened. Therefore God's present desire is that the problem of sin be solved and that all these things be restored, thus bringing about the earthly and heavenly kingdom of God.
4. Sin: The first man and woman (Adam and Eve), before they had become perfected, were tempted by the archangel Lucifer into illicit and forbidden love. Through this, Adam and Eve willfully turned away from God's will and purpose for them, thus bringing themselves and the human race into spiritual death. As a result of this Fall, Satan usurped the position of mankind's true father so that thereafter all people are born in sin both physically and spiritually and have a sinful propensity. Human beings therefore tend to oppose God and His will, and live in ignorance of their true nature and parentage and of all that they have lost. God too, grieves for His lost children and lost world, and has had to struggle incessantly to restore them to Himself. Creation groans in travail, waiting to be united through the true children of God.
5. Christology: Fallen mankind can be restored to God only through Christ (the Messiah), who comes as a new Adam to become the new head of the human race (replacing the sinful parents), through whom mankind can be reborn into God's family. In order for God to send the Messiah, mankind must fulfill certain conditions which restore what was lost through the Fall.
6. History: Restoration takes place through the paying of indemnity for (making reparations for) sin. Human history is the record of God's and Man's efforts to make these reparations over time in order that conditions can be fulfilled so that God can send the Messiah, who comes to initiate the complete restoration process. When some effort at fulfilling some reparation condition fails, it must be repeated, usually by someone else after some intervening time-period; history therefore exhibits a cyclic pattern. History culminates in the coming of the Messiah, and at that time the old age ends and a new age begins.
7. Resurrection: The process of resurrection is the process of restoration to spiritual life and spiritual maturity, ultimately uniting man with God; it is passing from spiritual death into spiritual life. This is accomplished in part by man's effort (through prayer, good deeds, etc.) with the help of the saints in the spiritual world, and completed by God's activity of bringing man to rebirth through Christ (the Messiah).
8. Predestination: God's will that all people be restored to Him is predestined absolutely, and He has elected all people to salvation, but He has also given man part of the responsibility (to be accomplished through man's free will) for the accomplishment of both His original will and His will for the accomplishment of restoration; that responsibility remains man's permanently. God has predestined and called certain persons and groups of people for certain responsibilities; if they fail, others must take up their roles and greater reparations must be made.
9. Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth came as the Christ, the Second Adam, the only begotten Son of God. He became one with God, speaking the words of God and doing the works of God, and revealing God to the people. The people, however, rejected and crucified him, thereby preventing his building the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus, however, was victorious over Satan in his crucifixion and resurrection, and thus made possible spiritual salvation for those who are reborn through him and the Holy Spirit. The restoration of the Kingdom of God on earth awaits the Second Coming of Christ.
10. The Bible: The Old and New Testament Scriptures are the record of God's progressive revelation to mankind. The purpose of the Bible is to bring us to Christ, and to reveal God's heart. Truth is unique, eternal, and unchanging, so any new message from God will be in conformity with the Bible and will illuminate it more deeply. Yet, in these last days, new truth must come from God in order that mankind be able to accomplish what is, yet, undone.
11. Complete Restoration: A proper understanding of theology concentrates simultaneously on man's relationship with God (vertical) and on man's relationship with his fellowman (horizontal). Man's sin disrupted both these relationships, and all the problems of our world result from this. These problems will be solved through restoration of man to God through Christ, and also through such measures as initiating proper moral standards and practices, forming true families, uniting all peoples and races (such as Orient, Occident and Negro), resolving the tension between science and religion, righting economic, racial, political, and educational injustices, and overcoming God-denying ideologies such as Communism.
12. Second Coming or Eschatology: The Second Coming of Christ will occur in our age, an age much like that of the First Advent. Christ will come as before, as a man in the flesh, and he will establish a family through marriage to his Bride, a woman in the flesh, and they will become the True Parents of all mankind. Through our accepting the True Parents (the Second Coming of Christ), obeying them and following them, our original sin will be eliminated and we will eventually become perfect. True families fulfilling God's ideal will be begun, and the Kingdom of God will be established both on earth and in heaven. That day is now at hand.

God is viewed as the creator, whose nature combines both masculinity and femininity, and is the source of all truth, beauty, and goodness. Human beings and the universe reflect God's personality, nature, and purpose.

"Give-and-take action" (reciprocal interaction) and "subject and object position" (initiator and responder) are "key interpretive concepts", and the self is designed to be God's object. The purpose of human existence is to return joy to God. The "four-position foundation" is "another important and interpretive concept", and explains in part the emphasis on the family.

Ceremonies

The Family Pledge of the Unification Church is an eight-part promise of church members to focus on God and His kingdom. Eight verses of the Family Pledge include the phrase "by centering on true love." For the first 40 years of the church's existence, members recited the pledge on Sunday mornings at 5:00 A.M. Now they recite it every 8 days, on Ahn Shi Il: Day of Settlement and Attendance, which is the Unification Church's equivalent of a Sabbath. The first part says, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to seek our original homeland and build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation, by centering on true love."

Spiritualism

The Unification Church upholds a belief in spiritualism, that is communication with the spirits of deceased persons. Moon and early church members associated with spiritualists, including the famous Arthur Ford. The Divine Principle says about Moon:

"For several decades he wandered through the spirit world so vast as to be beyond imagining. He trod a bloody path of suffering in search of the truth, passing through tribulations that God alone remembers. Since he understood that no one can find the ultimate truth to save humanity without first passing through the bitterest of trials, he fought alone against millions of devils, both in the spiritual and physical worlds, and triumphed over them all. Through intimate spiritual communion with God and by meeting with Jesus and many saints in Paradise, he brought to light all the secrets of Heaven."

The ancestor liberation ceremony is a ceremony of the Unification Church intended to allow the spirits of deceased ancestors of participants to improve their situations in the spirit world through liberation, education, and blessing. The ceremonies are conducted by Hyo Nam Kim, a woman who church members believe is channeling the spirit of Soon Ae Hong, the mother of Hak Ja Han (church founder Sun Myung Moon's wife). They have taken place mainly in Cheongpyeong, South Korea, but also in various places around the world.

In the 1990s and 2000s the Unification Church has made public statements claiming communications with the spirits of religious leaders such as Confucius, the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and Augustine, as well as political leaders such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Mao Zedong, and many more. This has distanced the church further from mainstream Christianity as well as from Islam.

Sex and marriage

Main article: Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church

The Unification Church is well known for its wedding or marriage rededication ceremony. The Blessing ceremony was first held in 1961 for 36 couples in Seoul, South Korea by Reverend and Mrs. Moon shortly after their own marriage in 1960. All the couples were members of the Unification Church. Rev. Moon matched all of the couples except 12 who were already married to each other before joining the church.

Later Blessing ceremonies were larger in scale but followed the same pattern with all participants being Unification Church members and Rev. Moon matching most of the couples. In 1982 the first large scale Blessing held outside of Korea took place in Madison Square Garden in New York City. 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.

The Blessing ceremonies have attracted a lot of attention in the press and in the public imagination, often being labeled "mass weddings", the one of such blessing ceremonies was held at Headquarters of the United Nations in 2000. Such weddings of the Unification Church were proved to be happy, according to a scientific research. 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.

The Unification Movement affected the demographic map of mono-ethnic Korea due to its Blessing Ceremony. There is an acute problem of gender imbalance in South Korea, and, consequently, a large shortage of brides (for the male population) takes place: more than half of female immigrants are from the Philippines, Thailand and other countries came to Korea due to Unification Movement and less than 20% - through marriage agencies.

Several church-related groups are working to promote sexual abstinence until marriage and fidelity in marriage, both among church members and the general public.

The church does not give its marriage blessing to same-sex couples. Moon has spoken vehemently against "free sex" and homosexual activity. In talks to church members, he has compared people with multiple sex partners, including some gay people, to "dirty dung-eating dogs" and prophesied that "gays will be eliminated" in a "purge on God's orders." These statements were criticized by gay rights groups.

In 1993, Chung Hwa Pak released the book Roku Maria no Higeki (Tragedy of the Six Marys) through the Koyu Publishing Co. of Japan. The book contained allegations that Moon conducted sex rituals amongst six married female disciples ("The Six Marys") who were to have prepared the way for the virgin who would marry Moon and become the True Mother. Chung Hwa Pak had left the movement when the book was published and later withdrew the book from print when he rejoined the Unification Church. Before his death Chung Hwa Pak published a second book, The Apostate, and recanted all allegations made in Roku Maria no Higeki.

In 1996, Unification Church has gathered 3,500 signatures during its anti-porn campaign. As a church's official said, "pornography makes love seem temporal, pure love goes beyond the sexual relationship."

Relations with other religions

Judaism

See also: Unification Church and Judaism

Some Jewish leaders refer occasionally to Moon as “Rabbi Moon.” However, the relationship between the Unification Church and Judaism has been marked by some controversy. The Divine Principle–the main textbook of Unification Church beliefs–has been accused of containing antisemitic references. Statements by Moon that Jewish victims of the Holocaust were paying indemnity for the crucifixion of Jesus have also been described as antisemitic. In 1984, Mose Durst, then the President of the Unification Church of the United States, wrote: "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."

Christianity

See also: Unification Church and mainstream Christianity

From its beginning the Unification Church has claimed to be Christian and has tried to promote its teachings to mainstream Christian churches and organizations. The Unification Church in Korea was labeled as heretical by Protestant churches in South Korea, including Moon’s own Presbyterian Church. In the United States the church was rejected by ecumenical organizations as being non-Christian. The main objections against it were theological, especially because of the Unification Church’s addition of material to the Bible and for its rejection of a literal Second Coming of Jesus. Christian commentators have also criticized Unification Church teachings as being contrary to the Protestant doctrine of salvation by faith alone.

In 2003 Moon began his "tear down", or "take down the cross" 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. The American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC), an interfaith group founded by Moon, spearheaded the effort, calling the cross a symbol of oppression and superiority.

Islam

See also: Unification Church and Islam

The relationship between the Unification Church and Islam has often been noted, both by scholars and the news media. The Divine Principle lists the “Islamic cultural sphere” as one of the world’s four major divisions (the others are the East Asian, the Hindu, and the Christian spheres). Unification Church support for Islamist anti-communists came to public attention in 1987 when church member Lee Shapiro was killed in Afghanistan during the Soviet war in Afghanistan while filming a documentary. In 1997, Louis Farrakhan, the leader of The Nation of Islam, an African American Islamic organization, served as a "co-officiator" at a blessing ceremony presided over by Moon and Han. In 2000 the Unification Church and the Nation of Islam co-sponsored the Million Family March, a rally in Washington D.C to celebrate family unity and racial and religious harmony.

Interfaith activities

In 1974 Moon founded the Unification Theological Seminary, in Barrytown, New York, partly in order to improve relations of the Unification Church with other churches. Professors from other denominations, including a Methodist minister, a Presbyterian, and a Roman Catholic priest, as well as a rabbi, were hired to teach religious studies to the students, who were being trained as leaders in the Unification Church.

Unification Church have been holding the dialogues between the members of the Israeli Knesset and the Palestinian Parliament as part of his Middle East Peace Initiatives. The Movement held the interfaith ceremony where representatives of Judaism, along with representatives of other faiths, recognised and proclaimed Jesus as the "King of the Jews" which has never been before in history.

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 Church teachings. At least one minister was dismissed by his congregation for taking part.

In 2010, the church built a large interfaith temple in Seoul. In 2012, Unification Church affiliated Universal Peace Federation held an interfaith dialogue in Italy, which was cosponsored by United Nations.

In 2012, Unification Church affiliated Universal Peace Federation held an interfaith program for representatives of 12 various religions and confessions in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. President of the United Nations General Assembly gave the speech there.

Related organizations

See also: List of Unification Church affiliated organizations

The church and its members own, operate, and subsidize organizations and projects involved in political, cultural, commercial, media, educational, and other activities. Many of the companies and enterprises are profitable and aimed to realize the church's doctrine: thus, the Unification Church in 2001 persuaded the North Korean government to gradually break with its communist ideology and permit Pyeonghwa Motors, the South Korean automaker with ties to the Church, to assemble cars in the DPRK and even advertise them to North Koreans. In this fashion, the Unification Church sought to promote private business enterprises that would shift the North Korean economy away from a planned economy to a market economy.

The church-owned conglomerate Tongil Group has four subsidiaries listed on the Korea Exchange; Unification Movement is the largest U.S. sushi restaurants owner and the second largest exporter of Korean goods, in some U.S. areas it is the largest employer, for a while the Unification Church was the largest foreign investor in China; it also manages the top Asian ballet company, the largest Asian helicopter plant, as well as the only automobile-manufacturing plant in North Korea, Pyeonghwa Motors. Three of its NGOs, namely Universal Peace Federation, Women's Federation for World Peace and Service for Peace, are in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke at Unification Church-owned Manhattan Center during Africa Day event, which was also co-sponsored by one of Unification Church affiliated organizations. Unification Church-owned Yeongpyeong Resort, The Ocean Resort and Pineridge Resort will host Expo 2012 in May 2012, 2018 Winter Olympics and Formula 1. It also owns the Peace Cup, whose president, Chung Hwan Kwak, is a long-time Unification Church member and he holds the positions of Asian Football Confederation Social Responsibility Committee Chairman, President of K-league, President of Korea Football Association, which is part of FIFA.

Economic interests of the Unification Movement include the petrochemical industry, construction of golf courses, non-ferrous metallurgy, automobile industry, avia carriers, yachts building, energy drinks, banking, Hollywood, etc. There is a then-Roman Catholic Church mansion designed in the Gothic style, among the real estate of the Unification Movement. Unification Church ranks third on the tourism market in Korea. It provides tours to North Korea for separated families, it has built a golf course for tourists in Pyeongyang. Japanese members of the Unification Church are the largest share of the air travel market in Korea. Unification Movement owns hotels, an airport, and all the necessary tourism infrastructure units. The movement operates medical tourism; thus, CheongShim Hospital is the largest hospital in Korea in terms of internationalization level.

Scientific interests includes the anti-cancer research; although the communist bloc collapsed, there are still communist countries, such as China and North Korea, so an anti-communist focus of the movement continues to be unabated.

In 2012, Unification Church announced a plan to invest $33 mln to build Isshin Hospital-Brazil and a spa. That same year, the plan to build $12 mln convention center near McCarran International Airport was announced.

In 2011, Unification Church's Universal Ballet spent about $ 10 million on a world tour, $ 250 thousand per country; in 2013, it is going to tour with Little Angels Children's Folk Ballet of Korea in the U.S., Canada, Japan, G-20 countries and major cities of Russia. The tour is partially funded by the South Korean Government.

Commentators have mentioned Moon's belief in a literal Kingdom of Heaven on earth to be brought about by human effort as a motivation for his establishment of groups that are not strictly religious in their purposes. Others have said that one purpose of these groups is to pursue social respectability for the church. Critics allege irregularities in the use of money and claim that the church and related organizations have enriched Moon personally. The Moon family situation is described as one of "luxury and privilege" and has been referred to as "lavish." In a 1992 letter to The New York Times, author Richard Quebedeaux, who had taken part in several Unification Church projects, criticized Moon's financial judgment by saying, "Mr. Moon may well be a good religious leader with high ideals, but he has also shown himself to be a poor businessman."

The church holds rehabilitation programs for North Korean refugees, holds Middle East peace initiatives aimed to reconcile Jews, Christians and Muslims and other peace initiatives. It supports the United Nations Millennium Development Goals as well. The movement holds its events in the U.S., Korea, Guyana, Philippines, Thailand, India, Brazil, Georgia, Bangladesh and other countries at the governmental level. One of its youth affiliates, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles, is active in Cornell University.

Political activities

See: Unification Church political activities

The Unification Church has been noted for its political activities, especially its support for United States president Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, its support for anti-communism during the Cold War, and its ownership of various news media outlets through 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, which tend to support conservatism.

In 2003, Korean Unification Church members started a political party in South Korea. It was named "The Party for God, Peace, Unification, and Home." In an inauguration declaration, the new party said it would focus on preparing for the reunification of the South and North Korea by educating the public about God and peace. A church official said that similar political parties would be started in Japan and the United States. It runs in every polling station throughout Korea.

Moon is a member of the Honorary Committee of the Unification Ministry of the Republic of Korea. A church member had been once a unification minister of the Republic of Korea. Another, Ek Nath Dhakal, is a member of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly.

Former members

Many Unification Church members have left the church over the years. Sociologist Eileen Barker, in her 1984 book The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?, reported that of people who joined the church, only 20% remained members for over a year. In 1985 Anson Shupe, a sociologist who is considered a leading expert on cults and new religious movements, told Time: "What the Moonies do is ludicrous. Most people who go through that experience with them walk away later." Among the most well-known former members are Steven Hassan – author of Releasing the Bonds and exit counselor and Josette Sheeran – Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, formerly a journalist and editor with the Washington Times.

In 1991 Moon announced that members should return to their hometowns in order to undertake apostolic work there. Massimo Introvigne, who has studied the Unification Church and other new religious movements, has said that this confirms that full-time membership is no longer considered crucial to church members. In 1997, Dr. Frederick Sontag commented: "There's no question their numbers are way down. The older members complain to me that they have a lot of captains but no foot soldiers."

On May 1, 1994 (which was the 40th anniversary of its founding), Moon declared that the era of the Unification Church had ended and inaugurated a new organization: the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) would include Unification Church 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 the Million Family March in 2000, the Global Peace Festival in the late 2000s (decade), and blessing ceremonies in which thousands of non–Unification Church married couples were given the marriage blessing previously given only to Unification Church members.

Use of word 'Moonie'

"Moonie" is a nickname given to members of the Unification Church, considered derogatory by members of the church; it is derived from the name of church founder Sun Myung Moon. Some dictionaries call it offensive or derogatory; others do not. It has been used by critics of the church since the 1970s. In a 1982 report sponsored in part by Auburn University, P. Nelson Reid and Paul D. Starr noted: "In informal interviews with U.C. members have indicated that they do not consider the term 'Moonie' derogatory." In the 1980s and 1990s the Unification Church of the United States undertook an extensive public relations campaign against the use of the word by the news media. Journalistic authorities in the United States, including the New York Times and Reuters, now discourage its use in news reporting.

Future church leadership

Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han

Observers of the Unification Church, as well as some church members, have speculated about the issue of Unification Church leadership after Moon's death. Among those sometimes mentioned are his wife Hak Ja Han Moon, and their sons Hyun Jin Moon, Kook Jin Moon, and Hyung Jin Moon.

In 2005 Moon appointed Kook Jin Moon chairman of Tongil Group, which represents church-owned businesses in South Korea and other nations.

In 2008 Moon appointed Hyung Jin Moon as the international president of the church. At the same time he appointed his daughter In Jin Moon as the president of the Unification Church of the United States. In 2010, Forbes reported that Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han were living in South Korea while their children took more responsibility for the day-to-day leadership of the Unification Church and its affiliated organizations.

See also

• List of Unificationists
• Unification Church views of sexuality
• Unification Church of the United States

Annotated bibliography

• Lofland, John, Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith first published Prentice Hall, c/o Pearson Ed, 1966. Reprinted Ardent Media, U.S. ISBN 0-8290-0095-X
• Sontag, Frederick. 1977. Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. Nashville, Tenn: Abingdon Press. ISBN 978-0-687-40622-7
• Bryant, M. Darrol, and Herbert Warren Richardson. 1978. A Time for consideration: a scholarly appraisal of the Unification Church. New York: E. Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-88946-954-9
• 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 ISBN 0-682-49264-7
• Kim, Young Oon, 1980, Unification Theology, Barrytown, NY: Unification Theological Seminary, Library of Congress Cataloging number 80-52872
• Matczak, Sebastian, Unificationism: A New Philosophy and World View (Philosophical Questions Series, No 11) (1982) New York: Louvain. The author is a professor of philosophy and a Catholic priest. He taught at the Unification Theological Seminary.
• Barker, Eileen, The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? (1984) Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK ISBN 0-631-13246-5.
• Durst, Mose. 1984. To bigotry, no sanction: Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. Chicago: Regnery Gateway. ISBN 978-0-89526-609-5
• Bromley, David G. (September 1985). "Financing the Millennium: The Economic Structure of the Unificationist Movement". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Sep., 1985), pp. 24 (3). Blackwell Publishing on behalf of Society for the Scientific Study of Religion: 253–274. JSTOR 1385816. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Fichter, Joseph Henry. 1985. The holy family of father Moon. Kansas City, Mo: Leaven Press. ISBN 978-0-934134-13-2
• Gullery, Jonathan. 1986. The Path of a pioneer: the early days of Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. New York: HSA Publications. ISBN 978-0-910621-50-2
• 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 ISBN 0-88946-710-2
• Wright, Stuart A., Leaving Cults: The Dynamics of Defection, published by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion: Monograph Series nr. 7 1987 ISBN 0-932566-06-5 (Contains interviews with ex-members of three groups, among others the Unification Church)
• Sherwood, Carlton. 1991. Inquisition : The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway. ISBN 978-0-89526-532-6
• 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.
• Yamamoto, J. Isamu, 1995, Unification Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House ISBN 0-310-70381-6
• Hong, Nansook, In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family. Little Brown & Company; ISBN 0-316-34816-3; (August 1998).
• Introvigne, M., 2000, The Unification Church, Signature Books, ISBN 1-56085-145-7
• 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. ISBN 978-1-885118-16-5
• Hickey, Patrick 2009, Tahoe Boy: A journey back home. John, Maryland: Seven Locks Press. ISBN 0-9822293-6-4 ISBN 978-0982229361
• Moon, Sun Myung, 2009, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen. Gimm-Young Publishers ISBN 0-7166-0299-7

External links

Official sites

• Official Website of the Universal Peace Federation: The Life and Works of Reverend Sun Myung Moon
• Official website of the American Unification Church
• A History Of The Unification Church In America, 1959–74 – Emergence of a National Movement (complete text of book online)
• Family Federation for World Peace and Unification
• Today's World Monthly magazine of the American Unification Church
• Autobiography of Sun Myung Moon

Supportive sites

• Unification.net – a very extensive website created by church member Damian Anderson
• A FAQ about the Unification Church
• Unification Church of America History by Lloyd Pumphrey

Critical sites

• Education and information on the cult phenomenon and addiction: Allen Wood's site detailing his journey into, through, and out of the Unification Church.
• "Mooniverse" – articles by journalist John Gorenfeld
• Consortium News archive – Ten-year archive of investigative articles about Rev. Moon and the Unification Church in US politics and media
• Freedom of Mind – Cult critic Steve Hassan's website
• Unification Church: Christian or Cult? – Biblical Discernment Ministries
• Judgments against the Unification Church by the Supreme Court of Japan
• Heartbreak and Rage: Ten Years Under Sun Myung Moon, A Cult Survivor's Memoir – a memoir of 10 years in the Unification Church, by K. Gordon Neufeld

Other sites

• Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity Extensive list of books and articles on the UC.
• Unification Church, founded by Sun Myung Moon at ReligiousTolerance.org
• Unification Church Profile of the UC at religionfacts.com.
• The Moonie Family, Leo Sandon Jr., 1978, Worldview Magazine, published by the Carnegie Council
• Unification Church, Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary.