Sun Myung Moon Sun Myung Moon Location of death: Gapyeong, South Korea Cause of death: Pneumonia Nationality: South Korea Executive summary: Head Moonie Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church are probably best known in America for their huge weddings, where hundreds or thousands of couples are married in a single ceremony. The couples are matched by church elders, and in many cases have never met until their betrothal. In 1995 he officiated at a mass marriage ceremony uniting, his church says, 360,000 couples. He was raised in what is now North Korea, while the area was under Japanese colonial rule. His family's religion was Confucianism, but his parents converted to Christianity when he was about ten years old. When he was 15 years old his life took its first turn toward the peculiar when, he said, he received a vision from Jesus on Easter morning, informing him that he was supposed to complete Jesus' mission and take over as the new Messiah. After World War II, the newly communist government of North Korea outlawed all religious activity, and Moon was imprisoned at least twice for preaching, serving several years at hard labor.

In 1950 he made his way to the more tolerant South Korea, where he held his first church services in a cardboard hut. After claiming to have had extensive consultation with other religious figures including Abraham , Buddha and Moses , Moon put together the basic doctrines of his Unification Church, or as it is more formally known, the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. In the words of Rev Moon, "I gave all the individuals in the world cause to kneel down in front of me." He brought his church to America in the early 1970s, and was granted permanent resident status in 1973. He spent 13 months in federal prison in the early 1980s, convicted of conspiracy to evade taxes and filing false tax returns. From his prison cell he founded a new newspaper, The Washington Times, which does not proselytize his religion, but instead preaches conservative political perspectives. Moon's mission was replacing democracy, which he called a "failed system", with a theocracy, with himself as the head of both church and state. "The time has come when the whole world must be concerned about me," Moon said.

"From now on, American Christianity must follow me." Early in his ministry -- during the 1950s -- Rev Moon reportedly spread sexual purity by having intercourse with female followers [1] , and he was reportedly jailed in Korea for having sex with young members of his church. He saw himself and his wives as humanity's "true parents", described the Holocaust as partial payback for Jewish leaders who did not support Christ, and said homosexuality is "where all different kinds of dung collect". His first wife left him after thirteen years of marriage, repulsed by his strange religious teachings. Moon was a major contributor to any politician who shared his anti-communist fervor, from Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan . In the 1980s, Moon was the first donor to Oliver North 's Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, which grew into the Iran-Contra scandal. In the mid-1990s Moon paid former Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush high fees -- believed to be at least hundreds of thousands of dollars -- for delivering speeches to Moon-connected audiences.

In a 2004 party held in the US Senate offices in Washington DC, several Congressmen and Senators of both parties were present to toast him as Moon was coronated "humanity's savior, messiah, returning lord and true parent". There was a time when alleged Christian leader Jerry Falwell spoke out against Moon's excesses, describing him as "like the plague", but the criticisms ended after his Falwell's Liberty University received a $3.5-million gift from Moon. He spent more than a billion dollars underwriting the Washington Times, which has never come close to making a profit, but the paper did become a widely-read resource among prominent Republicans and right-wingers. In 2009, Moon's "much-anticipated" autobiography As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen received a glowing review in Moon's Washington Times. In addition to the Times, Moonie media holdings include News World Communications, United Press International, and the magazines Currents and Insight.

One of Moon's sons, Hyung Jin Moon, was anointed his father's successor in 2008, becoming chairman of what is now officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (though most people, even church members, still call it the Unification Church). In an autobiography titled A Bald Head and a Strawberry, the church's new leader described himself as "the youngest boy of the family and probably the most nutty." Another of Moon's sons, Heung Jin Nim Moon, died of injuries suffered in a car crash in 1983, and was the groom in a posthumously arranged marriage a month and a half after his death. For many years after that, he was believed to be "king of the spirits", busily teaching seminars for departed souls in Heaven. However, in November 2005 a Zimbabwean visitor to the church's Unification Theological Seminary in New York was recognized as the reincarnated son of Moon, and he is now called "the Black Heung Jin Nim." Another son, Hyo Jin Moon, had a long history of using cocaine and violent behavior.

His father arranged his marriage at 19 to 15-year-old Nansook Hong, and they were married 14 years before she left him, and wrote In the Shadow of the Moons, an insider's expos� of the church's bizarre practices. Hong wrote that she had seen bags full of untraceable, undeclared cash imported to America illegally to fund assorted Moon operations, but her allegations, corroborated by other former Moonies, were apparently never investigated by federal authorities. Sun Myung Moon was fantastically wealthy, deriving billions from his followers' tithes and offerings and from numerous business enterprises. The Unification Church has hundreds of known front groups, with names as innocuous as the International Family Association, the World Medical Health Foundation, and the United Federation of Churches. Moon also owned True World Foods, a giant seafood company that supplies raw fish for most American sushi restaurants. Moon spent $48M making the 1981 war movie Inchon, which starred Laurence Olivier , Toshir� Mifune , and Richard Roundtree . The movie ended with a blatant pitch for the Unification Church, and ran for one week in American theaters before being pulled due to a near-complete lack of ticket sales.

He died in 2012 in Gapyeong, South Korea, after two weeks of hospitalization with pneumonia. He was 92. Unification Church | NAMB Unification Church Official name: Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Formerly: Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity History of The Unification Church On January 6, 1920, Yong Myung Moon was born in northern Korea. He was the second oldest of eight children in a family that in 1930 converted to Christianity and joined a Korean Presbyterian Church. On Easter Sunday in 1936, as a sixteen year old boy, Yong Moon claims he saw a vision of Jesus Christ after which he changed his name to Sun Myung Moon (Sun "Shining" Moon). During this period of his life Moon says he was spiritually tested and imprisoned during the Japanese military occupation of Korea. In 1939 he was sent to Japan to study where, according to his account, he was again arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for anti-Japanese activities. After World War II Moon was released and returned to Korea boldly preaching a set of unusual new doctrines.

In 1946 he was charged with sexual immorality and heresy and expelled from the Korean Presbyterian Church. In 1948 North Korean communists arrested Moon a third time. He was liberated in 1950 by allied forces during the Korean War and headed south. He then moved to Seoul where he established his ministry's headquarters. The following year Moon was divorced by his first wife who charged him with cruelty. Later that same year a prominent Korean, Hwo Won En, converted to Moon's doctrine and began working with him to write The Divine Principle, a compilation of Moon's doctrines. The Divine Principle was completed in 1952. On May 1, 1954, Moon's church, "The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity,"or Unification Church (UC), was formally established with Hwo Won En as its first President.

On April 11, 1960, Moon married Hak Ja Han, in what the UC refers to as the "Marriage of the Lamb." That historic event, they assert, established what they call "The True Family." During the 1960s the movement gained converts in Korea, Japan, and several other Asian countries. Moon came to the United States in 1970 where he purchased several large estates and businesses in New York. He then toured the country preaching in rented auditoriums to large crowds in the 1970s. Several thousand Americans may have joined the church during that period. This sudden visibility and apparent growth raised the media's and the country's general awareness of the UC, Moon, and other similar cults. Many parents and other family members of converts complained that their love ones were being manipulated and estranged by intense UC indoctrination processes. As well, a number UC defectors told stories of being victims of psychological, spiritual, and labor abuse by UC leaders. In 1982 Moon was charged and convicted of tax evasion and again spent eighteen months in United States federal prison.

That same year he founded what has become perhaps his most successful enterprise in the United States, The Washington Times newspaper. It is now widely recognized by many prominent Americans as a major conservative alternative to the older and more widely circulated Washington Post. In 1988 Moon endured one of several tragedies in his family when one of his sons died in a car crash at age 17. Moon later claimed that a young African member of his church had been possessed by his son's spirit and was thereafter regarded virtually as an honored member of Moon's family. Another family crisis occurred in 1997. Nansook Hong, the wife of Moon's oldest son, divorced her husband, cut all ties with the UC and wrote a scathing expose book about Moon, his family, and their royally opulent lifestyle. The book alleged that Moon was guilty of sexual infidelity, family abuse, and that several of his children, including her ex-husband, were deeply involved with illegal drugs. In 1999 tragedy stuck again when another of Moon's sons, Younjin Phillip Moon, committed suicide at age 21.

This event, and the other difficulties Moon has experienced in his family, contradicts sharply with the UC doctrine that his "True Family" is the model for all people and that his children would reinstitute a pure and perfect godly line of humanity. As mentioned earlier, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Moon became more candid about his self proclaimed Messiahship. This culminated on March 23, 2004, when Moon and his wife were crowned by the UC as the world's "Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parents." This title was bestowed on them at the "Ambassadors Peace Awards" banquet held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. Incredibly, the affair was attended by several members of Congress and a few local DC church leaders. In March of 2008, Moon’s oldest son, Hyo Jin Moon died of a heart attack at age 45 in Korea. The next month, Moon’s youngest son, Hyung Jin Moon, 28, officially took over leadership of the Unification Church from his father.

Beliefs of the Unification Church: Authority The doctrinal beliefs of the UC are a complicated mixture of eastern philosophy, Christian and biblical terminology, and the many bizarre notions and interpretations of Rev. Moon and other UC leaders. The primary tenets of official UC teaching are contained in several books, the most important being The Divine Principle and Master Speaks, a collection of Moon's sermons. Other recent messages by Moon are also regarded as authoritative. The Bible is referenced only to justify UC doctrines. Bible scholars, however, are in universal agreement that Moon's revelations and the church's theological teachings contradict clear biblical teachings. Also, Moon's checkered personal history mitigates against the audacious claims he makes for himself. Beliefs of the Unification Church: A New Philosophy of History The Unification Church teaches all world history should be understood in context of a sort of cosmic dualism. This dualism is called the "give and take action" of creation. It consists basically of a series of universal polar opposites: positive/negative, active/passive, direct/indirect, objective/subjective, masculine/feminine.

This concept is very similar to the Yin-Yang dualism of Taoism, a popular belief system in Korea that was likely the source of Moon's worldview and historical musings. God, according to the UC concept, is described as the "Universal Prime Energy" who (or that) constantly interacts with the universe in this philosophical system. This interaction is realized practically in what Moon called the "Four Fold Foundation" of human history. This notion asserts that all creation had its origin in God, the Universal Prime Energy, who then made a division in his creation by making Adam (masculine) and Eve (feminine) according to the "give and take action" principle described above. Out of this division would be a sexual union which would produce a divine bloodline of pure perfect children. Thus the God-Adam-Eve-child union would complete the four fold foundation which would thereafter be reproduced through their offspring in of all humanity. However, according to UC doctrine, before Adam and Eve could produce their perfect offspring, the serpent deceived Eve. The serpent, according to their interpretation of Genesis 3, is symbolic for Satan who seduced Eve sexually and thus produced an evil, Satanically sired, human bloodline through Cain.

Later, Eve had Abel with Adam, who represents a godly line. World history, therefore, is a cosmic struggle of good (God) and evil (Satan). In the last century this struggle was manifest in the final world conflict of democracy versus communism. According to Moon, the culmination of this final conflict, appropriately, was waged in his homeland of Korea. Jesus: The Lord Who Failed The UC teaches that, because of the corruption of the human race, it was necessary for God to send a redeemer to restore the human race to its proper state. Jesus was thus sent to "pay indemnity" (suffer) to redeem mankind from spiritual death and to restore the pure godly bloodline of humanity. The UC maintains that Jesus accomplished only the first phase (spiritual redemption) of this mission. He failed to accomplish the second phase (physical redemption) because he was crucified before he could marry and produce children. Therefore, another redeemer would need to come about two thousand years later to finish the divine mission. Christian Response: The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus was the unique incarnate Son of God and he accomplished his mission in its totality. His death and resurrection provided full atonement for mankind.

Therefore, He procured absolute salvation from the effects of sin and death, in both the spiritual and physical realms (see: 1 Cor. 15:1-28; Col. 1:19-22). Lord of the "Second Advent" According to the UC's strange interpretation of Revelation 7: 2-4 and other biblical passages, the second redeemer had to be born in the Far East around the year 1920. Like Jesus, he would necessarily suffer greatly for mankind ("pay indemnity"). However, unlike Jesus, he would not die violently, but rather would live a long life, marry a perfect mate, and produce perfect children. Together they would complete the four fold foundation and form the Perfect or "True Family." For years Moon avoided claiming publicly to be this new Messiah/redeemer. Nonetheless, UC literature and Moon's sermons all pointed in his direction. UC members unapologetically referred to Moon and his wife as "Father and Mother." In the 1990's, however, Moon became more brazen in his public claims to be the "Lord of the Second Advent." Christian Response: Moon's claims to Messiahship are blasphemous.

Jesus alone can support His claims to deity and Messiahship by His sinless life, death, and resurrection. There is simply no need for another Messiah. (see John 1:1-18; 8:56-59; Phil. 2:6-11; Col. 1:13-22; Heb. 1:3; 13:8). Completed Testament Age In 1999, it was reported that the Moon, by revelation, had received communications from the spirit world indicating that, because of his successful ministry, we are now entering into the "Completed Testament" age of world history. Good (democracy) is now finally triumphing over evil (communism). Moon, in essence, took credit for the fall of Soviet communism and the increases in the number of democratic countries in the early 1990s. As a result, he asserts, peace will soon cover the world, war will cease, and all religions will unite under a single authority (Moon's, of course). Christian Response: The Bible teaches, however, that full peace and tranquility will come only at the return of Christ Himself.

Moon's claim that we are entering an era of world peace and freedom because of his ministry is ludicrous. If that is true, how does Moon and the UC explain the rise of militant Islam, terrorist attacks (such as that of September 11, 2001), and the various wars still raging around the world? Furthermore, North Korea remains a staunchly Stalinistic communist dictatorship that is even now seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Join the True Family According to UC doctrine, all people may receive the benefits of Moon's Messiahship by being grafted on to his True Family. This divine adoption process is accomplished primarily by joining Moon's church, pledging total obedience to him, and entering into a marriage relationship blessed by Moon to a mate personally selected by him. Through the years, Moon has conducted numerous mass weddings in various parts of the world with thousands of couples taking their vows before him. In most cases, the brides and grooms were not even acquainted until shortly before the wedding ceremonies.

A disturbing sidelight to this practice is that, in recent years, some American Christian ministers and their wives have participated in these ceremonies to "reaffirm their wedding vows." They may have done so unwittingly, not understanding the true significance of the UC rituals since the ceremonies are performed by Moon in the Korean language. One ritual includes the men and women drinking from a common cup of wine containing a drop of Moon's blood. Christian Response: Moon's system of physical salvation by joining his True Family is totally unbiblical. The Bible teaches that complete salvation is available by grace to any person who will repent of his sin and, by faith, turn to Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior (see: Rom. 10:9-10; Eph. 2:8-10). Marriage, though an important human relationship ordained by God, has no place in the salvation process. Moreover, it demonstrates a serious lack of spiritual discernment for Christians to participate in Moon's wedding events. They should not support Moon and his idolatrous movement in any way. Christian ministers, especially, should not only avoid associating with the UC or Moon, but publicly should rebuke his blasphemous claims and unbiblical doctrines.

The UC Today In North America there have never been more than about ten thousand members of the Unification Church. Nonetheless, the church exerts a level of public influence of greater proportion than its numbers would seem to indicate. Moon and his church has accumulated millions of dollars as a result of various fundraising campaigns by UC members. The church also has controlling interest in a wide ranging number of business ventures worldwide. In the United States, as mentioned before, the church owns The Washington Times newspaper. It's growing media empire also includes the United Press International (UPI) wire service and InsightOnline internet magazine. In the education field, the UC appoints a majority of the board of trustees of the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut). The UC bailed the school out financially in 1981 when it was facing imminent bankruptcy and closure. The church also sponsors dozens of other affiliated organizations that seek to further its spiritual and political goals.

Here is a list of some of them: Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP) The Professors World Peace Academy CAUSA International The National Council for the Church and Social Action (NCCSA) The Women's Federation for World Peace (WFWP) American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) Free Teens USA Witnessing Suggestions First of all, treat your UC friend with respect and dignity. Most members of the UC are sincere, but misguided, followers of Moon and his doctrine. Do not refer to them as "Moonies." Be careful not to belittle Moon or demean his work, but explain to your UC friend why you cannot accept Moon or his church as authentic. Focus your discussion on the person and finished work of Jesus Christ. Explain why you regard Jesus as the only Messiah who accomplished full salvation for mankind, by His death and resurrection, and that here was no need for another. Show them how UC doctrine contradicts the Bible. UC members are taught that their interpretations of the Bible are correct and that other faiths have misunderstood its real meaning. For example, the UC's contention that Eve was seduced sexually by the serpent simply has no biblical foundation.

It is either a result of extra-biblical revelation or a gross example of speculative interpretation. Be aware that convincing a UC member to exit the group and accept Christ is very difficult. The most important principles are to build personal relationships when possible, show patience and love, and pray for UC members. Christians also need to be alert for people wishing to exit the movement. Many disillusioned UC members over the years have left the church. If you know UC people in your community listen for those who may want to exit and be willing to help them however you can. Tal Davis Sun Myung Moon - General Teachings/Activities Sun Myung Moon General Teachings/Activities - Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church , says he is the Messiah of the Second Coming and that his family is the first true family in all history! (His followers have been nicknamed "Moonies.") He is also the power behind an international network which includes more than 350 closely affiliated companies worldwide (280 of them in the U.S.), including the Washington Times, the International Cultural Foundation, the Washington Institute for Values and Public Policy, Paragon House Publishers, the Christian Bernard jewelry chain, and Happy World toy and clothing outlets.

Other Unification Church' holdings include the following: Political groups: American Freedom Coalition, CAUSU USA, CAUSU International, American Leadership Conference, American Constitution Committee, Association for the Unity of Latin America. Media organizations: News World Communications, New York City Tribune, Magazine, World Media Association. Businesses: One Up Enterprises, U.S. Property Development, International Oceanic Enterprises. Religious organizations: 55 principal worship centers (two in California, Texas and New York, one in every other state, D.C., and Puerto Rico), and 206 additional churches. - 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 Moon, who claims that in 1936, when he was 16, Jesus Christ appeared to him 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. 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 more than three million members worldwide (about 45,000 U.S.), but both these figures are believed by many to be grossly exaggerated (e.g., The Encyclopedia Americana reports Moon's church membership at only 30,000 worldwide).

- Moon's Unification Church has been the subject of much national publicity, primarily due to Moon's federal conviction on income tax fraud (see next item), for which he served 11 months in federal prison. 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's theology is a mind-boggling mixture of Pentecostal "Christianity," Eastern mysticism, anti-Communism, pop psychology , and metaphysics. (The last three pages of this report highlight what the Moonies believe concerning their source of authority, Biblical interpretation, sin, Christ, salvation, marriage, eschatology, heaven and hell, etc., drawn from BDM's 7/97 cult report on the Unification Church). - Moon's legal problems stemmed from his being charged with having failed to pay tax on a combined interest income of $150,000, resulting in less than $7,500 in tax.

He was also charged (along with Takeru Kamiyama, Moon's aide) with having falsified tax return statements and with perjury. After an audit was made of Moon's 1973-75 returns, the Justice Department filled a thirteen-count indictment which sought to prove that Moon was the principle beneficiary and owner of interest-bearing accounts in the Chase Manhattan Bank, and stock in a corporation, Tong II Enterprises. These accounts bore Moon's personal name only as the beneficiary. In the three years in question, $1.7 million had been deposited in these accounts. Moon made personal transactions in the form of loans to other Unification Church organizations, and other purchases including his personal estate, "East Garden" in Tarrytown, New York. Moon's defense, in its appeals for review, never argued against the validity of the charges against Moon, but against the process by which he was found guilty.

In Moon's Petition for Certiorari, we read, "At issue in this petition is not the facts the government purports to have established, but the process -- including the choice of tribunal and the charge to the jury -- by which the government obtained the result it sought." Moon was convicted and sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, for a term of 18 months for tax evasion, falsifying tax documents, and perjury. He served 11 months of his sentence and was released to serve the remainder at the Oxford Project halfway house in Brooklyn. There he was free to conduct his church business during the day, but was required to spend nights at the facility. After only two more months he was released for "good behavior." Upon Moon's release from prison, his God and Freedom Committee spent over $100,000 on a public relations effort to welcome him at a banquet where a purported 1,700 religious leaders dined, then listened to several speakers laud Moon.

Besides the Coalition for Religious Freedom, the list of churches and other groups that filed amicus briefs with the court on behalf of Moon include the following: National Council for the Churches of Christ in the USA; American Baptist Churches in the USA; Presbyterian Church USA; National Association of Evangelicals ; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) ; American Civil Liberties Union; The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; and the American Association of Christian Schools. Media Spotlight 's investigation ( Media Spotlight, January-March 1986) determined that the charge of "religious and ethnic persecution" was originally brought by Moon and the Unification Church. Through a broad public relations campaign, pastors of tens of thousands of churches in the United States were contacted for the purpose of garnering their support for Moon based on the Unification Church's claim that he was suffering under religious persecution, and that if they wanted to ensure their own freedoms, they must rally to his defense.

The Unification Church spent approximately $30 million in its campaign, of which $4.5 million was spent on a mail blitz to 300,000 ministers who received a box bearing the words: "A GIFT FOR YOU FROM SOME FOLKS WHO CARE." Inside were three video cassettes containing six hours of doctrinal lectures, two books expounding the Divine Principle, some pamphlets, and two letters from Mose Durst, president of the Unification Church in America. Sadly, many so-called evangelical leaders were taken in by this ploy. - In 1993, a l0,000-member-strong alliance of academics founded by Moon -- the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) -- rescued the small University of Bridgeport (CT) with a $50,000 loan and grant package. In exchange, PWPA received control of the University's board of trustees. This prompted a lawsuit from a Bridgeport coalition.

PWPA is by charter, independent, but 90% of its money comes from the Unification Church, and it resolved a decade ago "to work with Moon toward the establishment of a God-centered world of universal fellowship and harmony." Steven Hassan, a former Moon rising star, says Moon is deadly serious and dangerous. He says no Moon affiliate is independent, but that all are links in his scheme for "taking over the world" (7/1/93, - A two-page advertisement in Moon's 5/17/93 Washington Times printed the speech that Moon delivered on 5/15/93 in Washington, D.C. titled: "True Parents and the Completed Testament Age." The following excerpt provides an excellent summary of "Moonie" ecumenical socialism (from the 6/28/93 Christian News, copy attached as part of the print report): "It was God's will that the Messiah of the Second Coming should unite the two hostile blocs. That is why I mobilized our church to help settle conflicts between the right wing, represented by the free world, and the left wing, represented by communism.

We have also worked on behalf of Christianity and Judaism as a peacemaker with our Islamic brothers and sisters." Despite Moon's "World Anti-Communist League," he, in reality, advocates a Communist/Socialist society. His Multiplex Umbrella of organizations are clones of his ideologies expressed in Divine Principles (the Moonie bible). He teaches that Socialism is God's Heavenly Kingdom here on earth. According to Moon's theology, man's original mind, the "heavenly side," is trying to realize the principle of coexistence, co-prosperity, and common cause. Moon is not the image he portrays to his Moonies or to many of the politically active "evangelicals" he fellowships with. He is part of the One World, One Religion, Anti-Christ system ( Bold Truth Press ).

[Moon has praised Gorbachev, and has called "Marxist" Martin Luther King "the greatest American of this century." Moon also has built a $250 million automobile plant in communist China, and has established a friendship with Moscow's communist leadership, stating that: "The Soviet Union will be at the center of God's providence in the next century."] - Sun Myung Moon's "spiritual discernment" supposedly enables him to pick the right mates for members of the Unification Church, his followers say. Moon reportedly spent two months matching photographs and applications in preparation for 1992 mass wedding ceremony. On 8/25/92 in Seoul, about 30,000 couples were wed. At the service, Moon and his wife were called the "true parents of mankind" (9/7/92, NIR Report ). In 1995, more than 720,000 people -- two-thirds of whom were renewing their vows -- were married via satellite at 545 sites in more than 100 countries; 10,000 of those participating were American.

Moon and his wife spent 15 months matching people for marriage, using photographs categorized by sex, age and nationality. Japanese couples paid $29,000 each to participate in the ceremony; Americans paid $2,000. Church officials say the money goes for satellite charges and the costs for 200,000 African couples, but a number of Protestant churches in Korea said that the ceremonies, which have brought the church $1.3 billion throughout the years, are just a way for the church to make money. (Source: 9/25/95, Christian News, p. 14.) - In purveying his "heavenly deceit," Moon incorporates classical cultic tactics to lure unsuspecting youth into his fold. Through various front organizations, he attracts idealistic people who are seeking for ways to bring about a better world. His staunch anti-communism and anti-secular humanism provides a platform upon which he displays the "evils of the world." Pointing to abortion, pornography, crime, prostitution, and other evils that plague western civilization, Moon offers hope for what he calls a " New Age " of righteousness under the coming salvation through obedience to Moon.

Recruits lives are kept busy with non-stop work, lecture sessions, and fund-raising activities. For their efforts, they are provided meals and a bed in one of Moon's communes spread throughout America, Western Europe, Korea, and Japan. Married couples who join are separated and their children are taken from them to be raised in Moon's nurseries. The children are told that the "Reverend" and Mrs. Moon are their parents. Single Moonies are discouraged from developing close friendships with members of the opposite sex. Rather, they are required to purify themselves through prayer and hard work until the time Moon assigns them a marriage partner. "Before marriage, Moonies must confess any sexual sins to the 'Father' and beg his forgiveness. After marriage, intercourse is banned for forty days and then spouses are usually assigned to different -- and distant -- locations. As a result, Moonies produce few children.

Beliefs of Unification Church/Sun Myung Moon 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: [Unless otherwise cited, five primary sources were used for this report -- Unification Church Cult report; Revised 11/01 : (1) Grolier's 1995 Multimedia 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.]: 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 s�ances. [It is a well-known fact that Moon has participated in s�ances 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 s�ance 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 S�ances: 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 s�ance, 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 ] __________________ Rev. Sun Myung Moon, 92, Unification Church Founder, Dies - The New York Times The New York Times Asia Pacific |Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Self-Proclaimed Messiah Who Built Religious Movement, Dies at 92 Search Continue reading the main story Photo The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, right, with his wife, Hak Ja Han, married 2,075 couples at Madison Square Garden in 1982. Credit United Press International The Rev. Sun Myung Moon , the Korean evangelist, businessman and self-proclaimed messiah who built a religious movement notable for its mass weddings, fresh-faced proselytizers and links to vast commercial interests, died on Monday in Gapyeong, South Korea .

He was 92. His death was announced on his church’s Web site, which said he had been battling complications from pneumonia, including kidney failure. Mr. Moon courted world leaders, financed newspapers and founded numerous innocuously named civic organizations. To his critics, he pursued those activities mainly to lend legitimacy to his movement, known as the Unification Church, although his methods were sometimes questionable. In 2004, for example, he had himself crowned “humanity’s savior” in front of astonished members of Congress at a Capitol Hill luncheon. Mr. Moon was a leading figure in what Eileen V. Barker, a professor emeritus of sociology at the London School of Economics, called “the great wave of new religious movements and alternative religiosity in the 1960s and 1970s in the West,” a time when the Hare Krishna and Transcendental Meditation movements were also gathering force. Mr. Moon, said Professor Barker, an expert on new religious movements, was “very important in those days — as far as the general culture was concerned — in the fear of cults and sects.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Building a business empire in South Korea and Japan, Mr.

Moon used his commercial interests to support nonprofit ventures, then kept control of them by placing key insiders within their hierarchies. He avidly backed right-wing causes, turning The Washington Times into a respected newspaper in conservative circles. An ardent anti-Communist who had been imprisoned by the Communist authorities in northern Korea in the 1940s, he saw the United States as the world’s salvation. But in the late 1990s, after financial losses, defections and stagnant growth in the church’s membership , he turned on America, branding it a repository of immorality — “Satan’s harvest” — and repositioned his movement as a crusade for moral values. As Mr. Moon approached 90, not long after he survived a helicopter crash in 2008, three of his sons and a daughter began assuming more responsibility for running the church and his holdings. (According to reports at the time, Mr. Moon and 15 others, including family members, were injured when their helicopter crashed on a mountain near Seoul.

There were no fatalities.) In its early years in the United States, the Unification Church was widely viewed as little more than a cult, one whose polite, well-scrubbed members, known derisively as Moonies, sold flowers and trinkets on street corners and married in mass weddings. In one of the last such events, in 2009, 10,000 couples exchanged or renewed vows before Mr. Moon at Sun Moon University near Seoul. Photo Mr. Moon, center, with his wife in 1997. He founded the Unification Church in 1954. Credit J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press A Focus on Marriage Such weddings were the activity most associated with Mr. Moon in the United States. They were in keeping with a central tenet of his theology, a mix of Eastern philosophy, biblical teachings and what he called God’s revelations to him. In the church’s view, Jesus had failed in his mission to purify mankind because he was crucified before being able to marry and have children. Mr.

Moon saw himself as completing the unfulfilled task of Jesus: to restore humankind to a state of perfection by producing sinless children, and by blessing couples who would produce them. Marriage was a key part of achieving salvation, and for a couple the marriage was as much a commitment to the church as it was to each other. In a ceremony involving 2,075 couples at Madison Square Garden in 1982, for example, the men wore identical blue suits and the women lace and satin gowns. Mr. Moon was said to have made the matches, based on questionnaires, photographs and the recommendations of church officials. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Often the couples had met only weeks earlier or could speak to each other only through an interpreter. Many had to remain separated for several years, doing church work, before they were allowed to consummate the unions. Mr. Moon struggled against bad publicity. He was sent to prison on tax evasion charges and accused of influence-buying and of maintaining ties to the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. He denied both allegations. In the late 1970s he was caught up in a Congressional investigation into attempts by South Korea to influence American policy.

There were battles with local officials over zoning for church buildings and tax-exempt status. As his church grew more prominent in the 1970s and ’80s, it became embroiled in lawsuits over soliciting funds, acquiring property and recruiting followers. Defectors wrote damaging books. From 1973 to 1986 at least 400 of the church’s flock were abducted by their family members to undergo “deprogramming,” according to an estimate by David G. Bromley, a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and an expert on Mr. Moon. The church denied that it had brainwashed its followers, saying members joined and stayed of their own free will. 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.” Prominent people were paid to appear at Moon-linked conferences. The first President George Bush did so after he left office. Others, like former President Gerald R. Ford, Bill Cosby, Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Jack Kemp, attended banquets and gatherings, sometimes saying later that they had not known of a connection between Mr. Moon and the organizations that invited them. Photo Mr. Moon leaving prison in Danbury, Conn., in 1985 after serving time for tax evasion. Credit Bob Child/Associated Press Personal setbacks marked Mr. Moon’s later years. In 1984, a son, Heung Jin, died at 17 from injuries sustained in a car crash. Another son, Young Jin Moon, who was 21, committed suicide in 1999 by jumping from a 17th-story balcony at Harrah’s hotel in Reno, Nev. In 1995 Nansook Hong, the wife of his eldest son, Hyo Jin Moon, who at one time was Mr.

Moon’s heir apparent, broke from the family and wrote a book characterizing her husband as a womanizing cocaine user who watched pornographic movies and beat her, once when she was seven months pregnant. Ms. Hong portrayed the entire Moon family as dysfunctional, spoiled and divided by intrigue and hypocrisy. (She also wrote that the church believed that the spirit of Heung Jin had returned for a time in the body of a Zimbabwean man who traveled the world and, with Mr. Moon’s sanction, beat straying church members.) Advertisement Continue reading the main story From early on Mr. Moon was revered by his followers as the messiah, and in 1992 he conferred that title on himself. He also declared that he and his second wife, Hak Ja Han, were the “true parents of all humanity.” Mr. Moon founded the Unification Church in South Korea in 1954 and began organizing it on a large scale in the United States in the early 1970s.

It eventually claimed up to three million members worldwide, but historians of religion dispute that number, estimating a membership of 50,000 at the church’s height in the late 1970s, with only a few thousand in the United States. Membership has been difficult to evaluate more recently; church officials give different estimates and often define membership differently, according to an individual’s level of involvement. Building an Empire Mr. Moon’s organizations established connections with African-American religious leaders, and he made forays into culture and education, establishing a ballet company in South Korea and financing a ballet school in Washington. In 1992 an organization with ties to Mr. Moon rescued the University of Bridgeport, in Connecticut, from bankruptcy, pouring in $110 million in subsidies over a decade and taking effective control. Mr. Moon received an honorary degree.

The university’s administration denied that the church had influence, but critics of the arrangement contended that students were being lured into church training with the promise of scholarships, noted that the church had opened a boarding school on campus for members’ children, and said that the church had used the university to import money, in the form of tuition, as well as followers, in the form of the many foreign students who attended. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy For a time Mr. Moon lived in an 18-acre compound in Irvington, N.Y., which Ms. Hong described as having a ballroom, two dining rooms (one with a pond and waterfall), a kitchen with six pizza ovens and a bowling alley upstairs. The church owned another estate, Belvedere, in nearby Tarrytown. Farther north along the Hudson River, the church founded the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, N.Y. On its Web site, it sometimes is referred to as “U.T.S.: The Interfaith Seminary.” Mr.

Moon’s business ventures in South Korea at one time or another included construction, hospitals, schools, ski resorts, newspapers, auto parts, pharmaceuticals, beverages and a professional soccer team. He also had commercial interests in Japan, where right-wing nationalist donors were said to be one source of financing. In the United States, Mr. Moon had interests in commercial fishing, jewelry, fur products, construction and real estate. He bought many properties in the New York area, including the New Yorker Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and the Manhattan Center nearby. At one time or another he controlled newspapers including Noticias del Mundo and The New York City Tribune; four publications in South Korea; a newspaper in Japan, The Sekai Nippo; The Middle East Times in Greece; Tiempos del Mundo in Argentina; and Últimas Noticias in Uruguay. In 2000, a church affiliate bought what was left of United Press International. The extent of his holdings was somewhat of a mystery, but one figure gives a clue: Mr. Moon acknowledged that in the two decades since the founding of The Washington Times in 1982, he pumped in more than $1 billion in subsidies to keep it going. Photo Mr.

Moon receiving an honorary degree from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, which was saved from bankruptcy by a group tied to him. Credit Bob Child/Associated Press The church said its various operations earned tens of millions of dollars a year worldwide. In their book “Cults and New Religions” (2006), Mr. Bromley and Douglas E. Cowan wrote that according to church doctrine, a member “recognizes Moon’s messianic status, agrees to contribute to the payment of personal indemnity for human sinfulness, and looks forward to receiving the marital Blessing and building a restored world of sinless families.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Self-Proclaimed Messiah Sun Myung Moon was born on Jan. 6, 1920, in a small rural town in what is now North Korea, according to his official biography. When he was 10, his family joined the Presbyterian Church. When he was a teenager, around Easter 1935, according to Unification Church lore, Jesus appeared to him and anointed him God’s choice to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. A secular education beckoned, and in 1941 Mr.

Moon entered Waseda University in Japan, where he studied electrical engineering. Two years later he returned to Korea and married Sun Kil Choi, who bore him a son. In 1946, leaving them behind, he moved to Pyongyang, now the capital of North Korea, to found the Kwang-Ya Church, a predecessor of the Unification Church. He was imprisoned by the Communist authorities, and later said that they had tortured him. He was freed in 1950 — by United Nations forces, his official biography says — and was said to have walked 320 miles to Pusan, on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. There, as the account goes, he built a church with United States Army ration boxes and lived in a mountainside shack. Despite the centrality of marriage in his developing theology, Mr. Moon divorced Ms. Choi in 1952 (something that was glossed over in the official biography) and the following year moved to Seoul, where he founded the Unification Church in 1954. Within a year, about 30 church centers had sprung up.

Before the decade was out, he published “The Divine Principle,” a dense exposition of his theology that has been revised several times; in her book, Ms. Hong, his daughter-in-law, said it was written by an early disciple based on Mr. Moon’s notes and conversation. He sent his first church emissaries to Japan, the source of early growth, and the United States, and began building his Korean business empire. Rumors of sexual relations with disciples, which the church denied, dogged the young evangelist, and he fathered a child in 1954. In 1960, Mr. Moon married the 17-year-old Hak Ja Han, who would bear him 13 children and be anointed “true parent.” He embarked on world tours over the next decade and in 1972 settled in the United States, seeing it as the promised land for church growth. “I came to America primarily to declare the New Age and new truth,” he is quoted as saying in the book “Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church.” He took an interest in politics, urging that President Richard M. Nixon be forgiven for his role in the Watergate crisis.

Church leaders plotted a strategy to defend the president and held rallies in support of Nixon that drew thousands to Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden and the National Mall. Advertisement Mr. Moon’s interests expanded into film when a church-linked company backed the 1982 movie “Inchon,” a $42 million Korean War epic notable for bad reviews and the casting of Laurence Olivier as Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Photo Mr. Moon in 2009. Credit Yonhap, via European Pressphoto Agency A Litany of Scandals In the late 1970s, Mr. Moon came under the scrutiny of federal authorities, mainly over allegations that he was involved in efforts by the South Korean government to bribe members of Congress to support President Park Chung-hee. A Congressional subcommittee said there was evidence of ties between Mr. Moon and Korean intelligence, and that the church had raised money and moved it across borders in violation of immigration and local charity laws. Then, in October 1981, Mr. Moon was named in a 12-count federal indictment.

He was accused of failing to report $150,000 in income from 1973 to 1975, a sum consisting of interest from $1.6 million that he had deposited in New York bank accounts in his own name, according to the indictment. “I would not be standing here today if my skin were white and my religion were Presbyterian,” Mr. Moon said after the charges were announced. “I am here today only because my skin is yellow and my religion is Unification Church.” He called the case a government conspiracy to force him out of the country. Mr. Moon was convicted the next year of tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was assigned to kitchen duty. As his church’s fortunes declined in the United States, Mr. Moon revised his pro-American views. In a 1997 speech, he said America had “persecuted” him. He also attacked homosexuals and American women. Mr. Moon and his church largely dropped from public view in the late ’90s and 2000s, but once in a while they attracted attention.

In 2001, a Roman Catholic archbishop from Zambia, Emmanuel Milingo, married a Korean woman in a multiple wedding performed by Mr. Moon. The a rchbishop then renounced the union . One of the more bizarre moments in Mr. Moon’s later years came on March 23, 2004, at what was described as a peace awards banquet, held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. Members of Congress were among the guests. At one point Representative Danny K. Davis, an Illinois Democrat, wearing white gloves, carried in on a pillow one of two gold crowns that were placed on Mr. Moon and his wife. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Some of the members of Congress said they had no idea that Mr. Moon was to be involved in the banquet, though it was hosted by the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, a foundation affiliated with the Unification Church. At the banquet, Mr.

Moon said emperors, kings and presidents had “declared to all heaven and earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s savior, messiah, returning lord and true parent.” He added that the founders of the world’s great religions, along with figures like Marx, Lenin, Hitler and Stalin, had “found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons.” A version of this article appears in print on September 3, 2012, on Page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Founder of the Unification Church, Dies at 92. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

Question: What nickname refers to followers of Sun Myung Moon?
Answer: Moonies