Born in Korea in
1920, Moon claims that in 1936, when he was 16, Jesus Christ appeared to him on
Easter morning on a mountainside in Northwestern Korea and told him that God
had chosen him for the mission of establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth,
a mission that Christ had only begun. Christ supposedly told Moon that he would
be "the completer of man's salvation by being the Second Coming of
Christ" (Sun Myung Moon and The Unification Church, James
Bjornstad, p. 9). After World War II, Moon returned to Pyongyang,
the capital of communist North
Korea, where he set up his first church
(1945).
FIRST READ:
Hell’s bells for self proclaimed messiah: Sun Myung
Moon, founder of Unification
Church, dies at 92
Unification Church* Christian or Cult?
'Moonie' Church mourns founder Sun
Myung Moon
3 September 2012 Last updated at 14:11 GMT
Members of the South Korea-based Unification Church
are in mourning following the death of their founder, self-proclaimed messiah
Sun Myung Moon.
Followers of Moon - often referred to as Moonies although they dislike the
term - have held prayers at Unification churches in South Korea and elsewhere.
Moon died at a hospital in Gapyeong,
South Korea, on
Monday aged 92.
His church, which claims to have millions of members worldwide, became
famous for its mass wedding ceremonies.
Since he taught us true love, we
will live our lives by preaching true love throughout the whole world till the
end”
Joo Seung-ja Church member
He also developed a vast
global business empire, setting up newspapers, arms factories, universities and
food distributors.
It is not yet clear who will take over as the head
of the Church.
Moon's youngest son, Hyung-jin Moon, became its senior leader in 2008, but in
a 2010 interview, he said he and his siblings did not consider themselves his
successors.
"Our role is not inheriting that messianic
role," he told the Associated Press.
"Our role is more of the apostles where we
become the bridge between understanding what kind of lives [our] two parents
have lived."
'Sky is falling'
Moon died early on Monday at a hospital near the Church's
headquarters in Gapyeong, north-east of the capital, Seoul.
He had been admitted to the hospital, which is owned by the Church, two
weeks ago suffering from pneumonia.
His body has been taken to the Church's sprawling complex on Cheonseung Mountain, where it will lie during a
13-day mourning period before a burial there on 15 September.
The site, which will be opened to visitors on Thursday, has already
undergone extensive building work to accommodate the tens of thousands of
people expected to attend.
Bo Hi Pak, the reverend's long-time aide, said about 30,000 people had been
invited from Japan
alone.
Flags were flying at half mast on Monday at the Unification
Church in Seoul, where members gathered to pray and
mourn.
"It's
hard to accept this all of a sudden. I don't know how to express this
feeling," Joo Seung-ja, 64, told the Associated Press.
"Since he taught us true love, we will live our lives by preaching true
love throughout the whole world till the end."
Another pastor at the church, Kim Kab-yong, said he was "heartbroken"
that Moon did not live long enough to see the reunification of North and South Korea,
which he said had been "a long-cherished ambition" of the leader.
But Rev Hong Sung-bok, at the International Headquarters of the Unification Church, told AP the Church would
"start again with a new look repaying the love we received" from
Moon.
"We have a lot of mixed emotions, but we will get it together and
prepare for the coming future."
Church members also paid their respects in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, and mourning was also held at churches in Australia, Canada,
the US
and elsewhere.
"I feel like the sky is falling and the whole world has
collapsed," one person wrote on the Church's website.
Controversy
Moon was born in 1920 in Pyongyang province, in
what is now North Korea
and established the Church - formally known as the Family Federation for World
Peace and Unification - in 1954, saying he had been asked by Jesus to set up
God's kingdom on Earth.
It was known for mass weddings, in which thousands of couples - many who did
not know each other but had been paired up by the Church - were married in huge
stadium-based ceremonies.
But the Church drew controversy in the 1960s and 70s, often being accused of
brainwashing members, breaking up families and lining Moon's pockets.
He denied the allegations, but had to spend 11 months in jail in the US - where he
moved in the early 1970s - after being convicted of tax evasion in 1982.
He returned to South
Korea in 2006, leaving his religious and
business empire in the hands of some of his 14 children.
But he was active as recently as March 2012, leading a mass wedding for some
2,500 followers.
He also forged ties with North
Korea, meeting founder Kim Il-sung in 1991
and sending a delegation to pay respects after the death of Kim Jong-il.
Unification Church* Christian or Cult?
The official title of the Unification
Church is
The Holy
Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. It was
officially founded in 1954 by
Sun Myung Moon
(which has led to the referring of his followers as "Moonies") and
moved to America
in 1959, where he established his international headquarters. Born in Korea in 1920, Moon claims that in 1936, when he
was 16, Jesus Christ appeared to him on Easter morning on a mountainside in
Northwestern Korea and told him that God had chosen him for the mission of
establishing the Kingdom
of Heaven on Earth, a
mission that Christ had only begun. Christ supposedly told Moon that he would
be "the completer of man's salvation by being the Second Coming of
Christ" (
Sun Myung Moon and The Unification Church, James
Bjornstad, p. 9). After World War II, Moon returned to Pyongyang,
the capital of communist North
Korea, where he set up his first church
(1945).
There, according to reports, Moon involved his congregation in an unusual
ritual known as "blood separation," during which female members of
the church were required to have sex with him to cleanse themselves of Satan's
influence. In 1948, North Korean authorities arrested and jailed Moon (he spent
two years in a labor camp), accusing him of bigotry and adultery. Moon was
finally liberated by United Nations' troops during the Korean War (1950).
(Still today, Moon's sermons focus on sex and the idea of female
submissiveness. In 1995, on "True Parents Day," he observed,
"Woman was born to connect in love with man's sexual organ. Man and
woman's sexual organs are the place of the true love palace.") After the
Korean War, Moon fled to South Korea and established the Unification Church,
which now claims three million members in more than 120 countries (about 40-45
thousand U.S.), but both these figures are believed by many to be grossly
exaggerated. (The largest concentration of Moonies reside in Korea and Japan.) In 1956, Moon published the
English version of the
Divine Principle as the authoritative work of the
Unification Church. (The Korean Version: "Wolli
Haesol" or "Explanation of the Principle" was published on
August 15th, 1957.)
This "church" has been the subject of much negative U.S. publicity,
primarily due to alleged unethical recruitment and fund-raising tactics and
Moon's authoritative leadership style. In 1982, Moon was convicted of federal
income tax fraud, for which he served 11 months (of an 18-month sentence) in
federal prison (beginning in the summer of 1984). The Unification Church of
America was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in New York City. To train those interested in
joining the movement, a "seminary" was established in 1975 at Barrytown, New
York (the Unification Theological Seminary), with the
goal of unifying all theological beliefs. Its faculty is drawn from Protestant,
Roman
Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox backgrounds, as well as from the Unification Church. Its mission statement reads,
"to inspire Christian denomination and all the world's religions to
supersede their separateness and cooperate for the attainment of God's
will."
Moon has also launched numerous business ventures, and with the free labor of
his followers, has built a multi-million dollar empire that includes
pharmaceutical companies, manufacturing, banking, publishing, and other
industries. (
The Unification News is a monthly newspaper owned by the
Church. They also publish a monthly magazine called
Insight. While not
an official publication of the Unification
Church, the Church does own and
operate the
Washington Times, located in Washington, D.C.
Today's World is a monthly magazine.) Moon is a permanent resident of
the U.S. (since 1973), and
believes that the U.S.
will be the future base of operations for the "Lord of the Second
Advent" (a title to which Moon himself has laid claim!).
Moon is particularly fond of drawing former U.S. intelligence and military
officers into his organizations. Moon has masterfully used his hard line
anti-communist campaigns, multi-million dollar business deals, and substantial
political donations to blur his ultimate objective of a one-world government
originating from a centralized religious power -- ruled by Moon -- under which
his followers will purchase goods and services only from church sponsored
manufacturers.
The Unification
Church has also been
linked to a variety of associated organizations. Some of these include The
American Freedom Coalition, Collegiate Association for the Research of
Principles (CARP), CAUSA USA, American Leadership Conferences, American
Constitution Committee, National Committee Against Religions Bigotry and
Racism, Conservative Action Foundation, National Council for Church and Social
Action, The Washington Times Corporation, World Media Association, U.S.
Property Development Corporation, Atlanta Video, Happy World Inc., as well as
numerous others (
Washington Post, 15 October 1989).
In 1976,
The New York Times made the following astute
observation about Moon and the Unification Church: "While church members
accept Moon's theology as revealed truth, non-members generally find it a
mind-boggling mixture of
Pentecostal
Christianity,
Eastern mysticism,
anti-Communism,
pop
psychology, and metaphysics." Below are the highlights of what the
Moonies believe concerning their source of authority, Biblical interpretation,
the fall of man, the occult, sin, Christ, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the
Trinity, marriage, eschatology, and heaven and hell:
1. Source of Authority. The Moonies teach that the Bible is
"not the truth itself, but a textbook teaching the truth." Moon's
536-page spiritual manifesto,
Divine Principle (1957), is
considered to be their scriptures (supposedly revealed directly to Moon by Jesus
Christ), along with the Bible. (
Divine Principle is considered to be the
"third testament" of the Bible, and superior to the Bible.) They also
believe in continuing revelation. (Moon claims to have received new revelations
from God; i.e., "I spoke with Jesus Christ in the spirit world. And I also
spoke with John the Baptist. This is my authority.")
[HJB] Even
Divine Principle is not the complete truth. "The Divine Principle
revealed in this book is only part of the new truth. ... as time goes on,
deeper parts of the truth will be continually revealed" (
Unification
Theology, p. 16).
Ultimately, Moon's interpretations and teachings are considered to be the final
and absolute source of authority. Moon's teachings warn church members that
life on earth is a continuous battle between good and evil -- where they are
the Chosen People -- and everyone outside of the "True Family,"
including their biological parents, may be agents of Satan. Any person
harboring doubts about Moon is deemed to be allowing himself to be part of the
work of Satan.
2. Method of Interpretation. The Moonies interpret much of the
Bible allegorically; they teach that the thieves on the cross represent
democracy (the "right") and Communism (the "left"). They
claim that "resurrection" does not refer to raising the dead, but to
accepting the "word of God" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:12-20). They say that the
expression "end of the world" only means that "evil is going to
end."
[HJB] Moon also believes the Bible teaches that
Christianity is not the one and only divinely revealed and saving faith. He
says that "God has established many religions. ... God cannot be found
where there is conflict. Catholicism and Protestantism must become one."
3. Dualism and the Fall. Moonies believe that everything in
existence has a dual aspect, including God. They claim that God originally
intended for Adam and Eve to have a brother/sister relationship until they
reached perfection, and that Adam and Eve were supposed to establish God's
kingdom on earth through marriage and childbearing. Therefore, the Fall was the
result of sexual sin; i.e., that Eve had sexual relations with Satan (the
spiritual
fall) and then with Adam (the
physical fall).
[HJB]
4. The Occult. Moon admits communicating with familiar spirits
by means of séances. [It is a well-known fact that
Moon has participated in séances conducted
by a spirit transmedium named Arthur Ford (a famous Philadelphian
necromancer). Ford's "spirit guide" first spoke of Moon on 11/1/64,
again on 3/18/65, and on 4/21/65 (
Unknown But Known, p. 121). Moon
was present at this last séance and his comments were tape recorded and later
transcribed.] Though the Christian ordinances of baptism and communion are
avoided by the Unification
Church, it readily
accepts clairvoyance, automatic handwriting, and mediumistic trances.
5. Sin. Unification theology teaches that Adam and Eve's fall
came not from disobedience in eating fruit from the tree of knowledge, but was
sexual in nature. Eve's sin, the church holds, was engaging in an act of sex
with Satan, and Adam's was in turn "a premature act of love" with
Eve, thus leading to mankind's physical corruption. Adam and Eve thus failed to
fulfill God's plan for them to be the "true parents" of mankind.
According to Moon, then, sin is a matter of genetics (physical children of
Lucifer), not moral choice. Salvation, therefore, requires a physical
redemption; i.e. it is a matter of being born of Moon's physical bond or
entering a marriage union chosen and blessed by Moon himself. [Originally,
"Blood cleansing" as defined by Moon was accomplished for any male by
having sexual relations with a woman that had been "cleansed" by Moon
(i.e., had sexual relations with Moon). Now, those who totally submit to Moon's
authority (e.g., defined as turning over all financial assets to the
Unification Church, allowing Moon to choose one's mate, etc.) may consider
their devotion to be a spiritual kind of purification not requiring sexual
cohabitation.]
6. God the Father. "Unification theology asserts that God has
both masculine and feminine qualities based on the universal fact of polarity
..." There are similarities between the Unification Church theology of God
the Father and the deity concept of I Ching, Confucianism, Taoism, and even the
Hindu worship of a Mother Goddess: "... God must exist in polarity. That
is, He must possess within Himself the dual characteristics of masculinity and
femininity which are perfectly expressed and fully harmonized in His nature.
The doctrine of divine polarity taught by Unification theology should be seen
not as an eccentric novelty but rather as a reaffirmation of a valid
theological insight" (
Unification Theology, p. 56).
7. Jesus Christ. Moonies deny the deity of Jesus Christ;
instead they claim He was just a man, not God. ("God is just like you and
me. All human traits originate in God." -- Moon,
Christianity in
Crisis, p. 4; and "He can by no means be God Himself." --
Divine
Principle, pp. 210-211). They teach that Jesus was
not virgin
born, but was the bastard offspring of Zechariah and Mary! They also claim that
Jesus failed in His earthly mission (
Divine Principle, pp.
143-145), and that Christ's purpose in coming was to marry and to produce
perfect children. However, He was killed before He could fulfill His mission
(i.e., "The Cross is the symbol of
defeat of
Christianity," Moon, 1973). Moonies believe that John the Baptist was
responsible for the death of Jesus (by failing to convert his audience into a
power bloc for Jesus) (
Divine Principle, pp. 156-162), and that
Christ's death on the cross was not an original or essential part of God's plan
of redemption ("... however devout a man of faith may be, he cannot
fulfill physical salvation by redemption through Jesus crucifixion alone."
--
Divine Principle, p. 148), but that God merely used it to
provide an
incomplete, spiritual salvation. They do not
believe that Jesus was
physically resurrected (cf. 1 Cor.
15:12-20), but that He returned as a spirit, and that a "third Adam"
must come to fulfill God's plan for
physical salvation by marrying
and producing the sinless race. The Unification
Church has given titles
to Moon that indicate it considers him to be this "third Adam."
[HJB]
8. Salvation . Moonies teach the "Law of
Indemnity" -- that God's children must pay for at least a part of their
debt of sin before God will forgive them. They believe a person earns his
salvation through fasting, fund-raising, recruitment, and other such works. They
claim that both a spiritual and a physical salvation are needed -- and that the
"third Adam" will provide physical salvation by marrying and
producing sinless children (
Divine Principle, p. 148). They teach
that once the "third Adam" comes, those who have paid indemnity will
also be able to marry and bear sinless children.
[HJB] Moonies
view Moon as that "third Adam" who provides physical salvation
through a perfect family (indeed, his twelve children are considered sinless!),
and extends this perfection to his followers through their obedience to him.
9. Holy Spirit. "In Unification theology the main
point is that the Holy Spirit is not a separate entity, a being different from
God the Father. The Holy Spirit simply refers to God's redemptive activity."
Further, the Holy Spirit, "... appears feminine, masculine and impersonal.
... Like God Himself, the Spirit is invisible and incorporeal -- a bright light
or a field of magnetic energy" (
Unification Theology, pp. 201-202).
Moonies also teach that the Holy Spirit is a "female spirit" -- the
"True Mother" and spiritual wife of Jesus (
Divine Principle,
p. 215). "She" also cleanses the sins of the people in order to
restore them, thus indemnifying the sin committed by Eve.
10. Trinity . Moonies deny the Biblical concept of the
Trinity. They teach that the "third Adam," his bride, and God
constituted the first "trinity," and that mankind will be restored by
forming trinities with God through marriage.
[HJB] Young Oon
Kim, professor of systematic theology at the Unification Theological Seminary,
stated, "Unification theology starts with the fact of polarity as the main
clue for understanding the essential nature of God. Hence it is not primarily
interested in defending the Trinitarian doctrine of the fourth century
creeds" (
Unification Theology, p. 53).
11. Marriage . Moonies claim that marriage is the most
important means of establishing God's kingdom on earth. Moon teaches that
"God-centered families are the building blocks of a world of peace,
stability, and love," and that only those who are married will be saved,
or qualified, for the kingdom. Hence, Moon's fondness for
mass marriage ceremonies,
wherein 35,000 to 50,000 couples are married at a time, most whom have never
met before! [Moon and his wife, Hak-ja Han Moon (wife #4 -- he divorced the
first three), charge each couple an arrangement fee for these mass marriages,
which has brought the church more than two billion dollars throughout the
years.] A ceremony marrying 3.6 million couples (most by satellite) occurred in
1997, and another 120 million couples in 2000. (These numbers are, of course,
highly suspect.)
Moonism transcends biology. Church members are considered the "True
Family" and Moon and his wife are the world's "True Parents" --
"my wife and I are cleansing everything that was polluted by false love,
false life, and false lineage. Our marriage has achieved the True Parents
position; the large international marriage ceremonies which we conduct are to
sow the seed of true love, true life, and true lineage, which results from the
unity of God's love and man's love" (1995). Members celebrate as birthdays
the day they joined the Unification
Church.
12. Second Coming . Moonies use Biblical terms to refer to the
Second Coming, but have changed their meanings. They deny that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, will return, but say that God will send another man as the
"third Adam." They deny that the "Christ" will come in the
clouds, but instead that he will be born just as Jesus was in the First Advent.
They teach that the Kingdom
of God on earth and in
heaven will be established by the "third Adam" through marriage. The
bottom line is that they believe that Moon is this "third Adam" and
that he has begun to establish God's kingdom -- "He [God] is living in me.
I am the incarnation of Himself."
[HJB] [Moon says that
Jesus failed at the First Coming, but he (Moon) will not! (speech on 8/24/92).]
13. Heaven and Hell. Moonies teach that heaven is a realm of
the spirit world and that hell is inconsequential because it will "pass
away as heaven expands," and all mankind is redeemed. Also, one's
destination after death depends on his spirit's "quality of life on earth;
by the degree of goodness we build into them through actions." Rather than
immortal perfection, Moon teaches that in the afterlife his followers will
experience the same "desires, dislikes, and aspirations as before
death."
Summary: According to Moon, it was God's plan for Jesus to
find a perfect mate and produce sinless children, bringing about the world's
physical and spiritual salvation. But Jesus failed because He couldn't get the
Jews to accept Him as Messiah. The Crucifixion was a "mistake" which
thwarted God's plans and made it necessary for a new Messiah to come during
this present age. This new "messiah," called the "Lord of the
Second Advent" by Moon, was born in Korea in 1920 (which,
coincidentally, is the place and time of his own birth).
By the year 2000, Moon claimed, the Messiah would be revealed (cf. Duet.
18:22). Therefore, Moon does not want us to think of the Second Coming in terms
of a literal interpretation of Scripture, which states that Jesus will come in
the clouds with great glory. Moon insists that the second messiah will be a
Korean man born of the flesh -- and those who do not accept him will face God's
wrath.
Accordingly, everyone must be born again by new parents in order to fulfill
God's original plan of redemption. Translated into Moon's theology, this means:
acceptance of Moon and his wife as spiritual parents is necessary for
salvation.
Quotes from Moon Illustrating Essential
Theological Points
- "He [God] is living in
me and I am the incarnation of Himself. ... The whole world is in my hand,
and I will conquer and subjugate the world."
- "God is now throwing
Christianity away and is now establishing a new religion, and this new
religion is the Unification
Church."
- "All the Christians in
the world are destined to be absorbed by our movement."
- "There have been saints,
prophets, many religious leaders in past human history. Master here [Moon]
is more than any of those people and greater than Jesus himself."
- "I [Moon] am the Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end."
- "God and man are one.
Man is incarnate God."
Endnotes
Note on Séances: In 1965, one of the most
interesting events in Moon's life took place. He had a sitting with famed
Spirit Medium Arthur Ford. At this séance, Moon was given information by
Fletcher, Ford's spirit guide, concerning his destiny as a spiritual leader.
Present at this occultic ceremony were Ford, Moon, Bo Hi Pak (a leader in the Unification Church), as well as Miss Kim, Moon's
interpreter. After Ford had gone into a trance, Pak asked, "Could you ask
him in connection with the New Age, more specifically, the mission of Our
Leader here today?" Fletcher answered, "He is one of those who will
be the human instrument through whom the World Teacher will be able to speak.
... The Jesus of Galilee will not return, it is not necessary. The Christ who
manifested through him is the Eternal, he will manifest again. ...But the
important thing to remember is that when God wants to make a revelation he has
to choose a human instrument.... Sun Myung Moon is the one I have been talking
about. I have been speaking for a group of people here. This group seems to
surround him. And the power that flows through him, the intelligence, is not
just one it is a great group of people. And they seem all to draw their inspiration
and their knowledge from One Source and then they seem to pour it symbolically
into a pool and in some strange symbolical way that pool becomes Sun Myung
Moon." Fletcher, having mentioned revelation, was then asked by Pak,
"You are speaking of New Revelation; that means you are speaking of
the Divine Principle brought by Sun Myung Moon?" Fletcher answered,
"That's part of it, yes, but even Sun Myung Moon has not exhausted the
possibilities of the Divine Mind. He is, and as long as he lives will continue
to be, a channel for revelation" (
Unknown But Known, pp.
131-139). [
Return
to Text]
Note on
Mass Marriages: The term "Mass Marriage" is
actually a misnomer, but that is what they are popularly known as. In reality,
no one is being married in these mass wedding spectacles. Instead, the
"Blessing," as Moonies refer to this event, is a religious ceremony
and not actual weddings. Though they are dressed as brides and grooms and
repeat marriage vows at these events, the ones that intend to be husband and
wife will have to obtain marriage licenses from whatever jurisdiction they
reside in. In former years, only those couples that Sun Myung Moon had matched
(Moon chose usually complete strangers who would then become husband and wife
based on Moon's selection) or those who had passed very stringent
qualifications (including from 3 to 7 years of celibacy before marriage) would
be allowed to be 'blessed' by Moon. In recent years, these events are often
billed as a 'recommitment of marriage' to unsuspecting participants. [
Return
to Text]
*Unless otherwise
cited, five primary sources were used for this report: (1)
Grolier's 1995
Multimedia Encyclopedia; (2)
Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia;
(3)
What They Believe, Harold J. Berry
[HJB],
BTTB:1990, pp. 243-267; (4) "
Holy Spirit Association for
the Unification of World Christianity," Rick Branch (Watchman
Fellowship Profile, 1993); and (5)
Examining & Exposing Cultic &
Occultic Movements, Jack Sin, "Unification Church," April 2000,
pp. 32-33.
