Unification Church is a nontraditional Christian movement founded by Sun Myung Moon, a Korean minister. Its official name is the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Nonmembers commonly have referred to Moon’s followers as “Moonies.”
The central teaching of the Unification Church is that Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, were messiahs (saviors) whose mission was to establish the kingdom of God on earth. According to Moon, he and his wife were the “true parents” of all humanity, and their children were free of sin. Together, the Moons headed the “true family.” Moon died on Sept. 3, 2012. By that time, his children had taken responsibility for Moon’s church and business affairs.
Moon held mass blessing ceremonies for married couples around the world. During the ceremonies, the couples became part of Moon’s “true family.” They planned to establish virtuous family life in the coming kingdom of God. Millions of people have participated in these ceremonies, which are sometimes called “weddings.”
Moon was born in what is now North Korea on Jan. 6, 1920. As a teenager, Moon claimed that Jesus Christ had appeared to him and asked him to establish the kingdom of God on earth. Moon started a church in the 1940’s, but North Korea’s Communist authorities soon imprisoned him. Moon then escaped to South Korea, where he founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, commonly called the Unification Church, in 1954. The new church grew rapidly in South Korea and Japan during the 1950’s and 1960’s and established successful businesses in many parts of the world.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, missionaries from the Unification Church traveled to the United States and began attracting members, including many young adults. The new members lived in group households, studied Moon’s book The Divine Principle (1973), and worked selling candles and flowers on the street to raise money for the church. Some parents believed that Moon used their children for personal gain and forcibly removed the children from the church. Beginning in the 1970’s, Moon made political alliances with conservative politicians and clergy worldwide. Through the media company News World Communications, Inc., Moon owned United Press International (UPI) news service and a variety of publications, including The Washington Times, Middle East Times, and Tiempos del Mundo newspapers.
