… Cult leader Sun Myung Moon, who founded the Unification Church and also presided over a vast business empire, has died. He was 92 years old.

It is not yet known who will succeed him in leading the church, which is estimated to have between five to seven million members. But in a Washington Post article published in 1997, Moon was quoted as saying this when asked what will happen to his empire after he dies: "I will continue to lead the church from the spirit world."

Moon claimed that when he was 15, Jesus asked him to take on the work of building God's kingdom on Earth. He founded the Unification Church in 1954.

In a 1974 speech titled "Human Life," Moon said, "I must go beyond the failure of Adam, the failure of Abraham, the failure of Moses, the failures of Jacob, Moses, and John the Baptist, and Jesus." Moon believed that Jesus failed to restore human beings to their intended position as God's "perfect children" because he was crucified before he could marry and have children.

Theologically the Unification Church is a cult of Christianity -- in that it claims to be 'Christian' while denying, changing, or adding to the essential doctrines of the Christian faith.

Particularly during the seventies and eighties Moon's church was also widely viewed as a cult in the sociological sense of the term. Business Week points out that

Moon faced widespread criticism for his aggressive recruitment practices. Former Unification Church members said they were lied to -- a church-approved practice known as heavenly deception -- deprived of sleep and beaten by church followers. Many turned over their savings to Moon's organization.

In 1982, Moon was convicted in the US of tax evasion; he spent 13 months in federal prison. NPR quotes James Beverley, a professor at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto and an expert on Moon:

"He claimed he was innocent, and he regarded his time in prison as an equivalent to the death of Jesus," Beverley says.

Beverley says after his release, which Moon compared to the Resurrection, Moon publicly declared himself the Messiah.

Religious Insanity

Aside from declaring himself to be the Messiah, Moon also believed he was sinless and that he was the true father of mankind.

"He believed he was the true representative of God on Earth, and that he has liberated the universe," Beverley says. "He taught in one of his sermons that the 'Hallelujah' chorus is really about him, and people will eventually in heaven sing praises to Rev. Moon."

In July 2002 the Unification Church placed ads in various U.S. newspapers claiming that there had been a Christmas Day meeting "in the spirit world" attended by Jesus, Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha, Martin Luther and John Harvard.

In its Mediatalk column the New York Times later wrote

According to the ad, which was presented to newspapers around the country this month, these men and hundreds of others in attendance proclaimed their allegiance to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Church. At the spirit meeting, the ad said, Jesus hailed Mr. Moon as the Messiah, proclaiming, "You are the Second Coming who inaugurated the Completed Testament Age." Muhammad then led everyone in three cheers of victory.

God didn't attend, but sent a letter Dec. 28 seconding Jesus's remarks. Lenin and other leading communists also sent messages. Lenin said that he was in "unimaginable suffering and agony" for his earthly mistakes, and Stalin added, "We live in the bottom of Hell here."

At least eight newspapers published the ad, including The Daily News of New York, The Boston Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Los Angeles Times. At least two, The New York Times and The Portland Oregonian, did not.

The New York Times rejected the ad because many readers would find it offensive, said Catherine J. Mathis, a spokeswoman for newspaper.

The Portland Oregonian rejected it because it could be not proved. "If the Rev. Moon had claimed he was the Messiah, I would have run the ad," said Fred A. Stieckel, the publisher of The Oregonian. "But when he started quoting that Jesus Christ had said that he was the Messiah, I couldn't check the veracity of it."
[...]

Bloomberg writes

Church membership waned in the 1990s as more young people turned to evangelical Christianity, Sontag said. Moon played down the name Unification Church, opting to use the Universal Peace Federation as the flagship for his global empire. In 1996 he officially changed the name of the church to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Former Moonie Steven Hassan, now a leading cult expert, maintains a 67-page list of entities closely related with Moon's empire.

Lately the church has been emphasizing the name Lovin' Life Ministries, a contemporary ministry apparently designed to give the Unification Church a wider appeal.

Related News Articles

Unification Church head Sun Myung Moon dies at 92, Reuters: Critics have for years vilified the church as a heretical and dangerous cult and questioned its murky finances and how it indoctrinates followers, described in derogatory terms as "Moonies." (Actually, the church itself introduced the term only to later object to it).

Rev Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Moonies, dies at 92, AFP: Moon had 14 children with his second wife, Hak Ja Han. Hyung Jin Moon, the youngest of his seven sons, succeeded his father as the church's most senior leader in 2008 at the age of 28.

Sun Myung Moon, Church Head Who Ran Business Empire, Dies, Bloomberg: "I don't think there will be any individual who will take his place," said Frederick Sontag, a former professor of religion at Pomona College in California who studied Moon's organization, in a 2007 interview. "He is too powerful a figure."

Unification Church Founder Rev. Moon Dies, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Moon tried for decades to work with Christian leaders to create a unification of denominations, but he was largely shunned because he claimed to be the second coming of the Messiah promised in the Bible. The claim even divided some in his church and, in later years, he played it down. He often told people when they asked if he was the Messiah, "Yes I am, but so are you."

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Self-Proclaimed Messiah Who Built Religious Movement, Dies at 92, New York Times: Mr. Moon said he was the victim of religious oppression and ethnic bias because of his Korean heritage. Established churches were angered, he said, because they felt threatened by his movement. "I don't blame those people who call us heretics," he was quoted as saying in "Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church" (1977), a sympathetic account by Frederick Sontag. "We are indeed heretics in their eyes because the concept of our way of life is revolutionary: We are going to liberate God."

Moonies founder the Rev Sun Myung Moon dies in South Korea at 92, Guardian: His youngest son told Associated Press in a February 2010 that Moon's offspring do not see themselves as his successors. "Our role is not inheriting that messianic role," he said. "Our role is more of the apostles, where we become the bridge between understanding what kind of lives [our] parents have lived."

Documentary on the Unification Church

Full story: Cult leader Sun Myung Moon Dies

A court in Kyrgyzstan has ruled that the Unification Church can no longer operate on Kyrgyz territory.

According to Radio Free Europe the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security, the Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's Office and the State Directorate for Religious Issues filed a complaint with the court earlier this month.

The complaint states that the church -- officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) -- poses a threat to Kyrgyz national security by forcibly propagating nontraditional religious views without proper registration.

It is not clear what promted the ban, but Russian news agency RIA Novosti says regional media reported in mid-January about a Kyrgyz national who was "tortured over his refusal to join the Unification Church."

The Unification Church became active in the former Soviet Union in the 1990s and has thousands of followers in the region.

During the Seventies and Eighties he Unification Church was controversial primarily for its recruitment tactics, which marked the movement as -- sociologically -- a religious cult.

Theologically the church -- founded by South Korean Sun Myung Moon, who considers himself to be the Messiah -- is a cult of Christianity.

Many African-American churches have bought into Moon's offbeat theology. Moon is also popular with many U.S. politicians.

In 2004, Moon had himself crowned 'King of America.'

Full story: Kyrgyzstan Bans Unification Church

One of South Korea's landmark foreign investment projects — a $2bn deal to build skyscrapers designed by British architect Richard Rogers — has prompted a bitter legal challenge from a branch of the Unification Church, often known as the Moonies, who own the land.

The lawsuit has stalled financing for the project managed by Skylan, a pan-Asian developer with British managers, including several relatives of Lord Rogers, the Financial Times reports.

The foundation's lawyer, Sung Jin-hyuk, said the suit accuses the Y22 Project Financing Investment, the vehicle through which Skylan manages the development, with fraudulently contravening the lease agreement.

"The land is a holy place for us and we want to use part of the buildings for the church once we get them back but Skylan is trying to sell the buildings to others, said a planning official at the church.

Full story: Unification Church attacks Seoul skyscraper plan

Some 7,200 South Korean and foreign couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage vows Sunday in the Unification Church's second mass wedding this year.

Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah, offered blessings for the participating couples gathered at Sun Moon University, the school he founded in Asan, south of Seoul.
[...]

Critics say the mass weddings prove the church brainwashes its followers. Followers routinely let Moon pick their spouses on the belief that he has divine insight and many meet their future spouses for the first time at the mass weddings.

Moon, who says he was 15 when Jesus Christ called upon him to carry out his unfinished work, has courted controversy and criticism since founding the Unification Church in Seoul in 1954.

He held his first mass wedding in the early 1960s, arranging the marriages of 24 couples himself and renewing the vows of 12 married couples.

Over the next two decades, the weddings grew in scale and began to involve followers from Japan, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the U.S. and elsewhere.

A 1982 mass wedding at Madison Square Garden in New York, the first held outside South Korea, drew tens of thousands of participants _ and protesters. The ceremonies had been smaller in recent years.
[...more...]

Full story: Cult leader Sun Myung Moon marries thousands in mass wedding

Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon is regaining control of the Washington Times after allies of the South Korean cult leader agreed to acquire the paper for just $1 and assumption of most if its debts, according to an internal memo.

The memo contradicts rumors that a feud among the Moon's sons over control of the Washington Times prompted the father to buy it back for tens of millions of dollars.

The deal is financially similar to the one the Washington Post cut in selling its money-losing Newsweek to businessman Sidney Harmon.

Paul Bedard details the deal -- and the internal feuding in the Moon family -- in U.S. News & World Report. Mind you, he also writes that Moon "started the newspaper in 1982 as a conservative and Christian voice in Washington." Theologians know that the Unification Church is, at best, a cult of Christianity. As such, it is impossible for the paper to provide a "Christian voice."

Full story: Washington Times Sold For $1

A religious sect has been granted planning permission to create a burial ground in a village near Swindon.

The Family Federation For World Peace And Unification, more commonly known as the Moonies, can now turn a field in Stanton Fitzwarren into a memorial woodland burial site, despite objections from the parish council, the local councillor and villagers.

They said the proposals were too large and would lead to traffic and parking problems in the village. It was also noted that there were natural springs and the remains of a Roman villa nearby.

But planning officers at Swindon Council recommended that the plans be approved because they complied with local development, countryside, amenity and transport policies.

[Councillor Doreen Dart] denied the objections were based on villagers being against the church's presence in the village.
[...]

The Unification Church has a long history in the village, dating back to the 1970s when a local man, Henry Masters, donated his £800,000 South Farm estate to them and it became their centre for training. It hosted many seminars and workshops for the religion's followers in the UK.

It now owns another 21 properties in the village, which are rented out, along with much of the farmland.
[...more...]

Full story: Burial site for Moonies approved

In a matter of seconds 27 years ago in a crowded New York City hotel ballroom, David Moffitt's parents went from total strangers to an engaged couple after being divinely matched by Unification Church founder the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

It was the 1980s, when thousands of young people like them ditched their educations, careers and families to live out of vans, sell flowers at airports and follow a Korean who calls himself a messiah.

Cult of Christianity

Theologically, the Unification Church (regardless of which name it uses) is a cult of Christianity.

Sociologically the movement has cult-like elements as well.

Explanation: Sociological vs. theological definitions of the term 'cult.'

Members of the Unification Church used to refer to themselves as 'Moonies' (followers of founder Sun Myung Moon). Later the movement claimed the term was hateful.

Research resources on the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church)

Comments & resources by ReligionNewsBlog.com

Flash-forward to a Bowie living room on a recent weeknight, when Moffitt and a few dozen other "blessed children" of Moon-arranged mass weddings were discussing something perhaps as revolutionary: going mainstream.

"Our parents' generation were much more all-out. . . . You could say they were fighting a war," said Moffitt, a 24-year-old University of Maryland junior who works part time as a personal trainer. "Our generation is more focused on happiness and prosperity, going to college, getting jobs. It's important to be part of the culture. If you're above the culture, you can't change the world."

Their quest for a less-radical version of their faith comes during great uncertainty and change within the Unification Church. With Moon turning 90 in February, how the movement will survive beyond him is unclear. Moon's children are at odds over how to run the church's business empire, including the money-losing Washington Times, which laid off 40 percent of its staff this past week.

For church members, figuring out how to stabilize the movement has a feeling of urgency, particularly for Moffitt and others his age. Church officials estimate there are 21,000 active Unificationists in this country, including 7,500 blessed children, who members believe were born free of original sin and have a special spiritual status. A significant number of blessed children live in the Washington area, long a hub for Moon businesses and church lobbyists.

The church's future lies with this second generation, who were born into a religion some view as a bizarre cult. Their own beliefs run the gamut from those eager to follow in their parents' footsteps to those who haven't attended a Unification worship service for years.
[...]

Amanda van Eck, a sociologist who studies the second generation of new religious movements, said the changes the church is making will help Unificationism survive.

"It's more feasible to be a long-lasting movement if you adapt," she said. Many of the church's oldest blessed children -- those born in the early 1970s -- fell away, she said, because the movement was too isolated and had no activities or groups for the young.

Even so, not all young Unificationists support the less-rigid approach to marriage. They debate on private Web sites (including one called "Something in the Unification Church Needs to Change") whether it's theologically acceptable for an outsider or newcomer to marry a blessed child and what that means for the pure lineage Moon had preached early on was mandatory for erasing sin.
[...more...]

See Also

• Unificationists concerned about church's future, Photo Gallery
• Sun Myung Moon Crowned 'King Of America' At U.S. Senate Building (see video)
• Cult expert Steven Hassan is a former follower of Sun Myung Moon

Full story: Children of Sun Myung Moon church’s mass-wedding age face a crossroads

ASAN, South Korea — Nearly a half-century after the Rev. Sun Myung Moon performed his first mass wedding, the 89-year-old leader of the Unification Church is getting ready to marry off tens of thousands of people in spectacles from the United States to South Korea.

The church says Moon will wed or reaffirm the marriages of more than 40,000 people. More than 20,000 will participate Wednesday at Sun Moon University in Asan, south of Seoul, in a ceremony that will be broadcast live at similar events worldwide.
[...]

The mass weddings — the church's largest in a decade — come as Moon is moving to hand day-to-day leadership over to three of his 11 children.
[...]

Moon, a self-proclaimed Messiah who says he was 15 when Jesus Christ called upon him to carry out his unfinished work, has courted controversy and criticism since founding the Unification Church in Seoul in 1954.
[...]

Critics who accuse the church of engaging in cultlike practices say the mass weddings prove it brainwashes its followers. In the past, followers let Moon pick their spouses on the belief that he has divine insight. Many met their mates for the first time at the mass weddings.

These days, prospective partners meet days or weeks before their wedding, church officials say, and couples are matched after careful scrutiny of their photographs, biographies and other personal data.

Participants can also reject Moon's choice of their spouses — but few do, church officials said.
[...more...]

Religious Insanity

The beliefs and teachings of Sun Myung Moon and his cult are, in our view, evidence of religious insanity.

The Unification Church in July 2006 placed ads in various U.S. newspapers claiming that there had been a Christmas Day meeting "in the spirit world" attended by Jesus, Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha, Martin Luther and John Harvard:

According to the ad, which was presented to newspapers around the country this month, these men and hundreds of others in attendance proclaimed their allegiance to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Church. At the spirit meeting, the ad said, Jesus hailed Mr. Moon as the Messiah, proclaiming, "You are the Second Coming who inaugurated the Completed Testament Age." Muhammad then led everyone in three cheers of victory.

God didn't attend, but sent a letter Dec. 28 seconding Jesus's remarks. Lenin and other leading communists also sent messages. Lenin said that he was in "unimaginable suffering and agony" for his earthly mistakes, and Stalin added, "We live in the bottom of Hell here."

At least eight newspapers published the ad, including The Daily News of New York, The Boston Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Los Angeles Times. At least two, The New York Times and The Portland Oregonian, did not.

The New York Times rejected the ad because many readers would find it offensive, said Catherine J. Mathis, a spokeswoman for newspaper.

The Portland Oregonian rejected it because it could be not proved. "If the Rev. Moon had claimed he was the Messiah, I would have run the ad," said Fred A. Stieckel, the publisher of The Oregonian. "But when he started quoting that Jesus Christ had said that he was the Messiah, I couldn't check the veracity of it."
[...]

Cult

Cult expert Steve Hassan, himself a former follower of Sun Myung Moon, has an extensive list of research resources on the Unification Church.

Full story: Cult leader Sun Myung Moon to preside over mass wedding of 40,000

Moon turns church over to sons

The Rev Sun Myung Moon, now approaching 90 and still one of the world's most controversial religious figures, is handing over day-to-day control of his Unification Church to his sons.

Cult of Christianity

Theologically, the Unification Church (regardless of which name it uses) is a cult of Christianity.

Sociologically the movement has cult-like elements as well.

Explanation: Sociological vs. theological definitions of the term 'cult.'

Members of the Unification Church used to refer to themselves as 'Moonies' (followers of founder Sun Myung Moon). Later the movement claimed the term was hateful.

Research resources on the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church)

Comments & resources by ReligionNewsBlog.com

There are some changes afoot in fundraising and boosting membership, the three sons say. But Moon - who will preside over another series of his trademark mass weddings on Wednesday - remains in charge as the church's self-proclaimed "Messiah."

Still, the sons are quietly assuming more responsibility in managing a church that has steadily expanded its business and charitable activities while trying to avoid the criticism that dogged it during the 1970s and 80s.

The youngest, 30-year-old Rev Moon Hyung-jin, was tapped last year to take over as the church's religious leader. Moon Kook-jin, 39, is in charge of business ventures in South Korea, while 40-year-old Moon Hyun-jin oversees international operations
[...]

Since founding the church in Seoul in 1954, the elder Moon has built a business empire with hundreds of ventures in more than a half-dozen countries, from hospitals and universities to newspapers and even a professional soccer team and ballet troupe.
[...]

Though the church claims millions of members worldwide, experts say the figure is far lower - no more than 100,000. In South Korea, Unification Church members are far outnumbered by Catholics, Presbyterians and Buddhists.
[...]

Critics maintain the Rev Moon is little more than a charismatic cult leader who brainwashes followers.

"What Rev Moon says is the law," said Lee Young-sun, a follower who left the church in 2001 after 31 years. Her family so revered Moon, she said, they hung his portrait on the wall and thanked him in their mealtime prayers. "The church's brainwashing is exactly what North Korea does," she said.

Still, some analysts say that by anointing a new generation, Moon may ensure the church endures after his death.

"Some people say the Unification Church may perish after Moon's death but I don't think so," said Tark Ji-il, a religion professor at Busan Presbyterian University. "It's more accurate to view them now as a corporate organistion uniting people with similar religious beliefs."
[...more...]

See Also

• Sun Myung Moon Crowned 'King Of America' At U.S. Senate Building (with video)

Full story: Cult leader Sun Myung Moon turns Unification Church over to sons

Victims of 'spiritual sales' increasing, lawyers say

Four members of a seal stamp company in Osaka, Japan have been arrested for intimidating customers into buying expensive products.

The suspects -- whose company is connected to the Unification Church, a religious cult -- contacted three women through fortune-telling services and threathened them over many hours saying, "You will become ill," "Your life is in danger," or "Your family line will fail."

Lawyers engaged in support of spiritual sales victims have pointed out the link between the company and the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (Unification Church).

Police will investigate their relationship.

Victims of spiritual sales by the Unification Church and other organizations have been increasing recently, says the National Network of Lawyers against Spiritual Sales, with a total of 1,510 damage reports made in 2008, up more than 200 cases compared to 2007.

The Unification Church, which since 1997 is officially known as Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, operates under many names and has countless front groups, organizations and business.

Cult founder and leader Sun Myung Moon, whose followers used to refer to themselves as Moonies, considers himself to be the Messiah. He believes his mission is to correct mistakes he claims Jesus made.

Theologically, the Unification Church is a cult of Christianity. Defined from a theological perspective, a cult is a religious group or movement whose doctrines and practices deny, contradict, or otherwise deviate from the essential doctrines of the religion it identifies itself with.

Sociologically the movement has cultic elements as well.

Spiritual Sales

The "Spiritual Sales" scam was a scam used by the Unification movement to swindle Japanese widows out of their life savings by pressuring them to spend tens of thousands of dollars on relics that allegedly had the power to free their deceased husbands and family members from eternal punishment. It is estimated that the church scammed between $600 million and $1 billion before the Japanese government cracked down on the practice.

Ancestor Liberation is a new twist on spiritual sales. The main difference is that this scam is aimed at church members. I have obtained Unification Church documents that indicate a particularly disturbing element of the practice. What is particularly bizarre is that the liberation of one's ancestors is accomplished by attending workshops conducted by dead people--namely, the channeled spirits of Reverend Moon's mother-in-law, Dae Mo Nim and Moon's son, Heung Jin Moon (aka Heung Jin Nim).
[...]

See Also

• Moonies in Japan: As of May 1987, about 300 lawyers have registered with the National Network of Lawyers Against the Spiritual Sales. The Network seeks to eradicate spiritual sales and to aid those persons who have suffered damages as a result of spiritual sales. At present, the Network is counselling about 300 damaged parties who claim, if calculated in total, a sum of 7,000,000,000 yen. The families of the believers who have suffered damages are co-operating in most cases.

• National Network of Lawyers Against the Spiritual Sales

Full story: Workers at Unification Church-related company pressure customers into expensive purchases