Sun Myung Moon (; born Moon Yong-myeong; 6 January 1920 – 3 September 2012) was a Korean religious leader, also known for his business ventures and support for conservative political causes. A messiah claimant, he was the founder of the Unification Church, whose members, popularly known as "Moonies", consider him and his wife, Hak Ja Han, to be their "True Parents". The church is widely noted for its "Blessing" or mass wedding ceremonies.
Moon was the author of his Unification Church's religious scripture, Divine Principle,Moon's death marks end of an era , Eileen Barker, CNN, 2012-9-3, Although Moon is likely to be remembered for all these things – mass weddings, accusations of brainwashing, political intrigue and enormous wealth – he should also be remembered as creating what was arguably one of the most comprehensive and innovative theologies embraced by a new religion of the period. and was an anti-communist as well as an advocate for Korean reunification, for which he was recognized by the governments of both North and South Korea.Sun Myung Moon's Groundbreaking Campaign to Open North Korea, The Atlantic, Armin Rosen, 6 September 2012, But for all the focus on the eccentric mogul's quirks and U.S. investments, his role in North Korea may turn out to be his most enduring legacy, a fascinating story of how one man opened one of the very few cracks in this modern hermit kingdom. Businesses he promoted included News World Communications, an international news media corporation known for its American subsidiary The Washington Times, and Tongil Group, a South Korean business group (chaebol), as well as other related organizations.
Moon was born in what is now North Korea. When he was a child, his family converted to Christianity. In the 1940s and 1950s, he was imprisoned multiple times by the North and South Korean governments during his early new religious ministries, formally founding the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, simply known as the Unification Church, in Seoul, South Korea, in 1954.
In 1971, Moon moved to the United Statesexcerpt The Unification Church Studies in Contemporary Religion, Massimo Introvigne, 2000, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, and became well known after giving a series of public speeches on his beliefs."Moon Festival Draws 50,000 to Monument", Washington Post, 19 September 1976.Introvigne, Massimo, 2000, The Unification Church Studies in Contemporary Religion, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, , excerpt In the 1982 case United States v. Sun Myung Moon, he was found guilty of willfully filing false federal income tax returns and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. His case generated protests from clergy and civil libertarians, who said that the trial was biased against him.Raspberry, William, "Did Unpopular Moonie Get a Fair Trial?", The Washington Post, 19 April 1984
His wedding ceremonies drew criticism, specifically after members of other churches took part, including the excommunicated Roman Catholic archbishop Emmanuel Milingo."The archbishop's wife speaks for herself", National Catholic Reporter 31 August 2001 Moon was also criticized for his relationships with political and religious figures, including US presidents Richard Nixon,Introvigne, Massimo, 2000, The Unification Church Studies in Contemporary Religion, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, , excerpt page 16 George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush; Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev;EVOLUTION IN EUROPE; New Flock for Moon Church: The Changing Soviet Student from The New York Times North Korean president Kim Il Sung;At Time of Change for Rev. Moon Church, a Return to Tradition // The New York Times, 14 October 2009 and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Early life
Sun Myung Moon was born Yong Myung Moon on 6 January 1920 in modern-day North P'yŏng'an Province, North Korea, at a time when Korea was under Japanese rule. He was the second son in a farming family of thirteen children,Mickler, Michael L. (2022). The Unification Church Movement. Cambridge University Press, p. 6. eight of whom survived. Moon's family followed Confucianist beliefs until he was around 10 years old. Then they converted to Christianity and joined the Presbyterian Church. Moon claims that he experienced a religious vision of Jesus at age 16 that laid out his life's mission.Mickler, 2022, p. 8.
In 1941, Moon began studying electrical engineering at Waseda University in Japan. During this time, he cooperated with Communist Party members in the Korean independence movement against the Empire of Japan. In 1943, he returned to Seoul and, in 1944,Mickler, 2022, p. 10. married his first wife, Sun-kil Choi (; ; Choe Seon-gil). They had a son, Sung Jin Moon (; ; Mun Seong-jin)."Rev. Moon oversaw large, often bickering brood". Associated Press, 2012. In the 1940s, Sun Myung Moon attended a church led by Kim Baek-moon, who influentially taught that he had been given by Jesus the mission to spread the message of a "new Israel" throughout the world. Around this time, Moon changed his given name to Sun Myung in an effort to quell the increased resentment of other Christians against him, as he gradually began gathering his own group of followers.
Following World War II, Korea was divided (South and North) along the 38th parallel into two trusteeships: the United States and the Soviet Union. Pyongyang (the eventual capital of North Korea) was the center of Christian activity in Korea until 1945. From the late 1940s, hundreds of Korean Christian religious figures were killed or disappeared in concentration camps, including Francis Hong Yong-ho, Catholic bishop of Pyongyang, and all monks of Tokwon Abbey. When Moon started his own movement (an early version of the Unification Church) in Pyongyang in 1946,Mickler, 2022, p. 11. the Soviet-controlled North Korean government imprisoned and, he claims, tortured him. Sources vary on the motivation behind his arrest: religious persecution,Dunkel, Tom (2018). "Locked and Loaded for the Lord". The Washington Post. or a charge of espionageMickler, 2022, p. 12. or polygamy. His religious practices during this time may have included unorthodox sexual rituals with multiple women, a claim the Unification Church denies and some scholars have doubted.
Arrested again in 1948, he was sentenced to five years at Hungnam labor camp, though in 1950, during the Korean War, he was liberated by United Nations troops and allegedly traveled by foot to Busan, (South) Korea. Moon emerged from his years in the labor camp as a staunch anti-communist. His teachings viewed the Cold War between capitalism and communism as the final conflict between God and Satan, with divided Korea as its primary front line.Christianity: A Global History, David Chidester, HarperCollins, 2001, , 9780062517708, pages 514 to 515
In the 1950s, after years of being separated from his wife and child before reuniting,Mickler, 2022, p. 19. Moon and Choi divorced. Moon moved to Seoul once again and, continuing his ministry, was arrested two more times: once on suspicion of religious orgies and once for draft evasion; both charges were overturned.Mickler, 2022, p. 18.
In 1954, Moon formally founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in Seoul and fathered an illegitimate child (who died in 1969).Mickler, 2022, p. 20. In the 1950s, Moon quickly drew young acolytes who helped to build the foundations of Unification-affiliated business and cultural organizations. In his new church, he preached a conservative, family-oriented value system and his interpretation of the Bible. A follower whose family joined Moon's movement in the early 1950s claims that she and Moon engaged in various religious sexual rituals, including with several other women, and that she remained Moon's mistress (through his second marriage) until 1964, bearing Moon another son, in secret, in 1965.
Second marriage and Blessing ceremonies
Marriage to Hak Ja Han Moon married his second wife, Hak Ja Han (who was 17 at the time) on 11 April 1960, soon after Moon turned 40 years old, in a ceremony called the Holy Marriage. Han is called "Mother" or "True Mother". She and Moon together are referred to as the "True Parents" by members of the Unification Church and their family as the "True Family".Moon At Twilight: Amid scandal, the Unification Church has a strange new mission, Peter Maass New Yorker Magazine, 14 September 1998. "Moon sees the essence of his own mission as completing the one given to Jesus – establishing a 'true family' untouched by Satan while teaching all people to lead a God-centered life under his spiritual leadership."
Blessing ceremonies
Although they initially lived communally, his followers gradually returned to the traditional Christian family form (monogamy). Blessing ceremonies have attracted attention in the press and in the public imagination, often being labeled "mass weddings". People who have never met, from completely different countries, were married by the Messiah of the Unification Church by "matching". They were informed that a certain person, specially chosen for him/her by the Messiah, would become their husband/wife. Some of them did not see their future partner until the day of the "marriage". Public mass blessing ceremonies followed.The men and women entered a large room, where Moon began matching couples by pointing at them." NY Daily News "In the Unification tradition, romantic liaisons are forbidden until the members are deemed by Mr. Moon to be spiritually ready to be matched at a huge gathering where he points future spouses out to one another. His followers believe that his decisions are based on his ability to discern their suitability and see their future descendants. Many are matched with people of other races and nationalities, in keeping with Mr. Moon's ideal of unifying all races and nations in the Unification Church. Though some couples are matched immediately before the mass wedding ceremonies, which are held every two or three years, most have long engagements during which they are typically posted in different cities or even continents, and get to know one another through letters." NY Times "Many were personally matched by Moon, who taught that romantic love led to sexual promiscuity, mismatched couples and dysfunctional societies. Moon's preference for cross-cultural marriages also meant that couples often shared no common language." Manchester Guardian "Moon's death Sept. 2 and funeral Saturday signaled the end of the random pairings that helped make Moon's Unification Church famous — and infamous — a generation ago." Washington Post "Many of the couples who married at mass weddings were hand-picked by Moon from photos. It led to some strange pairs such as a 71-year-old African Catholic archbishop who wed a 43-year-old Korean acupuncturist. In 1988 Moon entered the Guinness Book of Records when he married 6,516 identically dressed couples at Seoul's Olympic Stadium. Moonie newly-weds were forbidden to sleep together for 40 days to prove their marriage was on a higher plane. They then had to consummate their marriage in a three-day ritual with the sexual positions stipulated by their leader." Daily Mirror Some couples are already married, and those that are engaged are later legally married according to the laws of their own countries. Meant to highlight the church's emphasis on traditional morality, they brought Moon both fame and controversy.
36 couples participated in the first ceremony in 1961 for members of the early church in Seoul. The ceremonies continued to grow in scale; over 2,000 couples participated in the 1982 one at New York's Madison Square Garden, the first outside South Korea. In 1992, about 30,000 couples took part in a ceremony and a record 360,000 couples in Seoul took part three years later.