Unification Church

Does the Unification Church brainwash its members? If not, then why do the members of this church perform such strange rituals? This essay will explain the basic doctrines and practices of the Unification Church through citing various sources on the subject. The author will try to sort through the varying facts and opinions about the church, and come to a conclusion as to which opinion seems to be the most correct. Sun Myung Moon is the founder of this church and since its beginning he has gained a large following with members participating in mass marriages and denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. Reverend Moon is a charismatic leader who has led many people to join him through his church.

Sun Myung Moon was born on January 6, 1920, in what was then known as Korea. During that time Japan had invaded Korea and the Koreans were forced to give up their culture and adopt the culture of the Japanese. Sun Myung Moon learned to hate injustice because of the Japanese invasion. His family became Christians in 1930 and they joined the thousands of other Koreans who were converting daily. Easter of 1935 turned out to be one of the turning points in Moon's life. That day as he was praying in the mountains when he claims Jesus Christ visited him. Jesus told him that he was to continue the work that Jesus was unable to finish during His ministry on this earth. At first Moon denied his calling but later accepted the fact that he had to help the human race. He began to study and wrote the Divine Principle, his church’s religious writing, which will be explained later in this essay. From that time forth he began to preach his teachings to many and he had a strong feeling that he needed to travel to communist North Korea. There he was arrested for disturbing the peace and remained in jail until the Americans freed the prisoners.

He then began preaching again, but he learned that the church he had established was met by much persecution. Many of the nearby leaders of other churches were jealous of Moon’s popularity. He continued to find more members and then on May 1, 1954, Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (popularly called the Unification Church). Many of the members of his church came from a prestigious women’s university in Seoul. He was able to continue to gain more members and began to send missionaries to other countries during the late fifties. Then on March 16, 1960, Moon married Hak Ja Han, which marked the beginning of the restoration of humankind back into God's lineage, being the first couple to have the complete blessing of God, and to be able to bring forth children with no original sin. He was also able to bless other marriages though his power so that they too could have children who were free from the original sin. By 1995, 350,000 couples had received his blessing.

In 1971, Moon believed he was directed by God to come to America to preach. He toured all fifty states and even preached to an overflow crowd in New York’s Madison Square Garden. He also met with President Nixon and addressed Congress on multiple occasions. By 1975, he had sent missionaries to 120 countries and in 1976 he organized the greatest religious rally ever assembled in Washington, D.C. with over 300,000 people in attendance. During this time, he sided with President Nixon and asked the American public to forgive the president’s association with Watergate: after this he was met with a negative opinion by the public. The media began to look into his church and began to publish articles of Reverend Moon’s ugly past, and claimed that he was brainwashing the members of his church. The U.S. government began investigating his church and wasn’t able to come up with any proof of brainwashing, but they were able to show that he had avoided paying taxes and thus was sentenced to jail for 18 months for tax evasion. Senator Orrin Hatch later stated that they had been wrong in sending him to jail. The committee decided that because he was a non-English speaking citizen and because it was his first tax return, they should have shown a little understanding. (The Unification Church, “Prison Life”). After Reverend Moon got out of jail he established the Washington Times newspaper and tried to gain a permanent public presence in America. But he returned to Korea in 1985, and has lived there since.

His church has seemed to lose a lot of its momentum since the 80’s. He has lost his hold here in America and now plans to move his church to a place in Uruguay, which will be called the New Hope East Garden. He owns 10 percent of the country of Uruguay and was first met with much welcome in the country where he donated money to the government and helped the country, but he is claiming tax exemptions for his religion and taking away all of the tax revenue that the