Jeffrey K. Hadden
Department of Sociology
University of Virginia

Lecture Outline:

• Reverend Sun Myung Moon and His Movement
• Unification Beliefs
• The Future of the Movement

• The Unification Church (officially, The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity) was founded in 1954 by Young Myung Moon in Pusan, South Korea.
• Moon, who changed his name to Sun Myung Moon (meaning "someone who has clarified the Truth, or Shining Sun and Moon) has a vision of Jesus when he was 16 years old. In that visit, he was advised that he had been choosen to fullfill the mission of Jesus.
• He was a prisoner of war during the Korean War.
• After the war, he walked from North Korea, where he had been inprisioned, to Pusan in the Southeast where he took up his ministry.
  
  There are several good sources that detail the early life of Reverend Moon and his church. For class, we will view a short videotape (12:30 min) produced by the Unification Chruch entitled "The Great Victory of the True Parents." While this video obviously presents Reverend Moon from the Church perspective, it is well done and conveys a basic overview of one of the more successful new faith traditions of the second half of the twentieth centruy.
  • For a history of the movement in its early years, see: Sontang, Frederick. 1977. Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Chruch. Nashville: Abingdon.
    
    There are several excellent sociological investigations of the early years of the church:
    
    Barker, Eileen. 1984.
    The Making of a Moonie. New York: Basil Blackwell. (Chapter 2 provides a good historical overview).

    
    Bromley, David G. and Anson D. Shupe. Jr. 1979.
    "Moonies" in America. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications (This volume, in conjunction with a compansion volume entitled The New Vigilantes, is a fine example of sociological investigation of a new religious movement and their adversaries)
    
    Lofland, John. 1966.
    Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. (This is a study of the church in its formative missionary years in the San Francisco Bay Area).

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  Part II
  Unification Church Beliefs

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  Three Princples of Unification Theology

  1. Creation
  2. The Fall
  3. Restoration
     

     Creation and the Fall

     The Creation story in Unification Theology parallels the Christian narrative in a general sense, but deviates significantly the a differentiation between a vertical fall and a horizontal fall
     
     Vertical Fall
     • Lucifer - Spiritually seduced Eve
     • Eve - In guilt, consumates physical relationship with Adam
     Horizontal Fall
     • Cain slew Able
       
  Consequences of the Fall
  World becomes spiritually divided between:
  • The Righteous [Able positioned]; and
  • The Satanic [Cain positioned]
    

  What is to be done?

  • Restoration
  • God has offered the opportunity for restoration of several previous occations
    • Abraham
    • Noah
    • Moses
    • Jesus (partial restoration achieved)
  • Each time humankind failed
  • Now comes a new opportunity
  • Sun Myung is God's agent

  Steps toward restoration

  1. Recognizing Moon's special status
  2. Joining Unification Movement
  3. Paying personal indemnity
  4. Receiving Moon's blessing in marriage
  5. Bearing sinless children
  6. leading lives that will produce a sinless world
     
  Indemnity Explored
  Duel meaning in English:
  • compensation for loss
  • insurance against damage
  Korean meaning:
  • the wrigint off of a debt, remission, cancellation & forgiveness

  In Unification Church, Indemnity is paid by:

  • raising money
  • winning converts

  Note the tremendous significance of linking a key theological idea with activities that are critical to the survival of the group. Financial viability and recruiting new members is critical to the survival of any new religion. In Unification theology, both are made sacred duties.

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Part III
Future of the Unification Church

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The Problem of Succession
• Rev Moon was 75 in 1995.
• Few founding leaders have planned their succedssion more actively than Rev Moon
• Hak Ja Han, Rev Moon's wife, is the successor designate.
• The process of her succession began on Jan 1, 1993 with the declaration that the Age of Restoration is completed

Meaning of the Declaration that the Age of Restoration is completed

• To this date, Moon had never declared that he was, indeed, the Lord of the Second Advent, i.e. that he was Christ returned
• Unification Church members have always believed this to be the case, but Moon has carefully avoided a public declaration; to have done so in the early years would almost certainly have added fuel to the flames of controversy that surrounded the movement.
• Moon selected Korea for the site of the announcement. It scarcely made the news in the U.S. Thus, he successfully avoided the media frenzy that might have followed such an announcement in America.
• The announcement is very significant for two reasons:
  • First, it set the state for sustaining the core beliefs of the movement:
    • Rev. Moon really was the massiah, and
    • his mission of restoration was achieved
  • Second, by declaring his divinity and naming his successor while alive, he strategically reduces the likelihood of a struggle for succession after his death.

Obstacles to Successful Succession

Whether or not this careful planning will be successful remains to be seen.

The Unification Church is a vast financial as well as spiritual empire. Whether Mrs. Moon and her lieutenants can hold the Church in a single organization unit remains to be seen.

Michael Mickler, a member of the Unification Church, who earned a PhD in political science at the University of California, Berkely, has written a paper on the "Future Prospects of the Unification Church" which addresses the conflicts within the church and what this may portend after Moon's death. Writen well before Moons declaration that the Age of Restoration is complete, Mickler seen four distinct ideological groupings within the Unification Church:


Ideological Groups in the Unification Church

1. Liberal
2. Prophetic
3. Theocratic
4. Cultic
   

   The Liberal Prospect

   "God is immanent in human cultural development and revealed through it." (Mickler)
   • Religion needs to consciously adapt its ideas to modern culture
   • To understand the "essence" of the religious message and apply it to different cultures.
   • Initiate programs in accordance with the belief that human society is moving toward the realization of the Kingdom of God

   
   The Prophetic Prospect

   "...is animated less by the bourgeoisie 'God of culture' and more by a 'liberating God' ...who intervenes in history to break down the structures of injustice and raises up prophets in order to point out the way of justice and mercy." (Mickler)
   • particularly concerned with the experiences of the oppressed

   The prophetic vision in Unificationism grows out of:

   • Moon's own experience (and that of his followers); and
   • Church contact with the oppressed in the U.S. and other nations
     Two important perspectives:
     • Reformist: work within the system; and
     • Radical: a theology of liberation

     Radical perspective is a theology of liberation with a politicization of beliefs:

     • Moon as suffering servant -- a man of color
     • Against fascism in Japan
     • Against communism in North Korea
     • Against strong man totalitarianism in South Korea
     • Against racial and cultural prejudice in U.S.

      

   The Theocratic Prospect

   • Belief that God works through nations, and, in particular, through the leadership of chosen nations
     • top down strategy
     • adaptation of religious ideals to political realities
     • U.S. "choosen" nation. That is why Rev. Moon is here:
       • supporting selected U.S. leaders
       • meddling politically
       • cultivating contacts and influence (most significantly throught the Washington Times)
       • creating literally scores of programs designed to create good will
     • But Rev. Moon and the leadership of the Church seem clearly to be frustrated with the way things have unfolded in America.

   The Cultic Prospect

   • God works through the pure in heart
   • Doctrine is not to be adapted, but tit is to be believed
   • Hope rests not in human achievement, but in divine intervention


Future of the Church?

• These four ideological perspectives are not necessarily distince warring groups
  • Moon himself manifests elements of each
  • So do many members; but
  • Those who know the Church well affirm that Mickler has identified distinct groupings
• Mickler sees geo-political stability as the key to the future:
  • 25-50 years of geo-political stability will likely lead to synthesis of strains and tensions
  • If instability, survival 7 success will depend on the accendency of one of the four.
    

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For additional reading on the Unification Church, see:
• The bibliography above;
• The Profile of the Unification Church on this web site;
• The more extensive bibliography on the Profile page, including newspaper coverage of significant Unification Church events.