Dan Fefferman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniel G. Fefferman |
| Alma mater | Unification Theological Seminary; University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation(s) | Executive director, International Coalition for Religious Freedom |
| Known for | Leadership roles in Unification Church of the United States |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | ICRF |
Daniel G. Fefferman (known as Dan Fefferman) is a church leader and activist for the freedom of religion. He is a member of the Unification Church of the United States, a branch of the international Unification Church, founded by Sun Myung Moon in South Korea in 1954.
Fefferman has held several leadership positions in church related organizations. In the 1970s he was a leader of the National Prayer and Fast Committee, Project Watergate, and the Freedom Leadership Foundation, which were involved in political activism. In 1977 he testified before the Fraser Committee.
Fefferman was leader of the Unification Church in Illinois, regional director for the Unification Church for the Midwestern United States, the headquarters director of Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP) and editor of the national journal of the Unification Church.
Since 1984 he has been the executive director of the Unification Church affiliated International Coalition for Religious Freedom, which was founded in the 1980s and has been active in protesting what it considers to be threats to religious freedom by governmental agencies.
Fefferman became a member of the Unification Church in 1968. [1] [2] After that he obtained degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and from the Unification Theological Seminary. [1] [2] Fefferman is married with two daughters, and lives in Washington, D.C., with his family. [1] [2]
In 1974, Fefferman was the executive director of the National Prayer and Fast Committee, a group organized by Sun Myung Moon to support Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. [3] [4] According to one report Moon had chosen Fefferman (who is Jewish) to become the Prime Minister of Israel at some future time. [4] Fefferman was an official with the Freedom Leadership Foundation, which was also founded by Moon, and deemed a "political arm" of the Unification Church. [5] According to testimony provided by Fefferman to the United States Congress, at a scheduled September 1974 rally by the Freedom Leadership Foundation against the government of Japan, members debated cutting off their fingers as a form of raising dramatic effect, but instead decided on egg throwing. The rally was canceled prior to being carried out. [6]
Fefferman testified in August 1977 before the Fraser Committee, a subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives which investigated possible ties between Sun Myung Moon and the South Korean National Intelligence Service ("KCIA"). [3] Testimony from Fefferman confirmed that he had social ties to officials within the South Korean embassy. [6] Fefferman testified that he had arranged a meeting in 1975 between Republican aide Edwin Feulner of the Heritage Foundation and South Korean Minister Kim Yung Hwan, to potentially put together a group of congressional aides who would travel to South Korea. [5] [6] Hwan was then-station chief for the KCIA. [6] During his testimony, Fefferman refused to answer nine questions from the subcommittee, saying that they violated his constitutional rights to freedom of religion and association. [7] The subcommittee recommended that Fefferman be cited for contempt of Congress. [6] [7] [8] Fefferman, speaking to The Michigan Daily in 1980, said the subcommittee's recommendations were never taken up, and no charges were pressed. [9]
In 1977 Fefferman served as leader of the Unification Church in the state of Illinois, [3] as well as regional church director for the Midwestern United States. [10] In 1982, he was headquarters director and national president of Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), [1] [11] a collegiate organization founded by Moon and church members in 1955. [12] [13] [14] It was described by The Washington Post as "the youth organization of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church", [11] and by the ICSA as "the UC's youth arm". [1] Fefferman was the editor of the national journal of the Unification Church in 1989, [15] and served as chief editor of the first edition of Divine Principle in English, as well as other Unification Church publications. [1]
In 2016 Fefferman gave a presentation at a conference held by CESNUR, a non-profit organization which both studies and advocates for the religious freedom of new religious movements, on the divisions within the Unification Church since Sun Myung Moon's death in 2012. [16] [17] [18]
Since 1984, Fefferman has been the executive director of the Unification Church affiliated organization the International Coalition for Religious Freedom in Virginia, which is active in protesting what it considers to be threats to religious freedom by governmental agencies. [19] [20] [21] In 1999 the International Coalition for Religious Freedom filed a lawsuit in United States district court in Baltimore, Maryland, against a Maryland state task force which was investigating new religious movements on state college campuses. [19] [20] [21] [22] Fefferman commented to The Boston Globe about the case, "The United States has correctly criticized European states for scrutinizing smaller and newer religions through government commissions such as this one. The state of Maryland has been manipulated into engaging in religious McCarthyism by carrying out a biased inquisition into new religious minorities as 'cults.'" [19] [20] In 1999 Fefferman defended the rights of Wiccan soldiers in the United States military to practice their faith. [23]
In 2000, Fefferman wrote to his colleagues about the Million Family March, planned to be held in Washington, D.C., and sponsored by Moon and Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, acknowledging that the two leaders' views differed on multiple issues but shared a view of a "God-centered family". [24] In 2001 Bill Gertz, author and an investigative reporter for The Washington Times , which was owned by the Unification Church, cited Fefferman as a person who "contributed valuable inspiration, advice, help, and support" to Gertz's book Betrayal . [25] In 2004 Fefferman said that religious persecution of Muslims is probably under reported due to the fact that many victims are refugees, in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. [26] Fefferman gave a presentation on the Unification Church at a conference of the International Cultic Studies Association in 2004. [2] [27] In 2008 he gave a presentation on the Unification Church at the London School of Economics at a conference sponsored by the organizations INFORM and CESNUR. [28] In 2009 he criticized the government of Kazakhstan for its treatment of religious minorities, including members of the Unification Church. [29]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
Sun Myung Moon 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, and of its widely noted "Blessing" or mass wedding ceremonies, and the author of its unique theology the Divine Principle. He was an anti-communist and an advocate for Korean reunification, for which he was recognized by the governments of both North and South Korea. 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.
The Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations was a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives which met in 1976 and 1977 and conducted an investigation into the "Koreagate" scandal. It was chaired by Representative Donald M. Fraser of Minnesota. The committee's 447-page report, made public on November 29, 1977, reported on plans by the National Intelligence Service (KCIA) to manipulate American institutions to the advantage of South Korean government policies, overtly and covertly.
Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) is a private Unification Church-affiliated graduate seminary headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York. The seminary was granted an absolute charter from the State of New York in January 1984 and received accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in November 1996.
Bo Hi Pak was a prominent member of the Unification Church. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was a major leader in the church movement, leading projects such as newspapers, schools, performing arts projects, political projects such as the anti-communist organization CAUSA International, and was president of the Unification Church International 1977–1991. He was also the president of Little Angels Children's Folk Ballet of Korea.
The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church (통일교), is a new religious movement derived from Christianity, whose members are called Unificationists or informally Moonies. Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) started amassing followers after the Second World War ended and, on 1 May 1954 in Seoul, South Korea, officially founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), the Unification Church's full name until 1994. It has a presence in approximately 100 countries around the world. Its leaders are Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han, whom their followers honor with the title "True Parents".
Hak Ja Han is a Korean religious leader. Her late husband Sun Myung Moon was the founder of the Unification Church (UC). Han and Moon were married in April 1960 and have 10 living children and over 30 grandchildren. In 1992, she established the Women's Federation for World Peace, and traveled the world speaking on its behalf. Since her husband's death, she has assumed leadership of the Unification Church, whose followers call her "True Mother" and "Mother of Peace".
Cult is a term, in most contexts pejorative, for a relatively small group which is typically led by a charismatic and self-appointed leader, who excessively controls its members, requiring unwavering devotion to a set of beliefs and practices which are considered deviant. This term is also used for a new religious movement or other social group which is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular person, object, or goal. This sense of the term is weakly defined – having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia – and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.
The Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony (축복결혼식), often abbreviated to Blessing, is a large-scale wedding, or a marriage rededication ceremony, sponsored by the Unification Church. It is given to married or engaged couples. Through it, members of the Unification Church believe that the couple is removed from the lineage of sinful humanity and engrafted into God's sinless lineage. As a result, the couple's marital relationship—and any children born after the Blessing—exist free from the consequences of original sin.
Since its founder's start in advocating for the Korean independence movement the Unification Church led by Sun Myung Moon has been highly politically active. The degree of involvement of the Unification Church, as well as some of its specific stances, have also been part of the reason for the movement's controversial status over the years. The belief in the establishment of a literal Kingdom of God on earth and church founder Sun Myung Moon's teaching that religion alone is not enough to bring this about provides a motivation for political involvement.
Nansook Hong, is the author of the autobiography, In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family, published in 1998 by Little, Brown and Company. It gave her account of her life up to that time, including her marriage to Hyo Jin Moon, the first son of Unification Church founder and leader Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hakja Han Moon.
Hyung Jin Moon, also known as Sean Moon, is an American pastor and, along with his wife Yeon Ah Lee Moon, founded the Pennsylvania-based World Peace and Unification Sanctuary Church. The Sanctuary Church is a schismatic and militant sect of the Unification Church, which was founded by Hyung Jin Moon's father Reverend Sun Myung Moon and now led by his mother Hak Ja Han.
In 1984, Sun Myung Moon, the founder and leader of the Unification Church, was imprisoned in the United States after being found guilty by a jury of willfully filing false federal income tax returns and conspiracy. Church members and supporters stated that the prosecution was politically motivated, discriminatory, and unfair.
Gifts of Deceit: Sun Myung Moon, Tongsun Park, and the Korean Scandal is a 1980 non-fiction book on Koreagate and the Fraser Committee, a congressional subcommittee which investigated South Korean influence in the United States by the KCIA and the Unification movement, written by Robert Boettcher, with Gordon L. Freedman. Freedman had served on the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee staff and had been a producer for ABC News 20/20 prior to his service on the subcommittee.
The Million Family March was a rally in Washington D.C. to celebrate family unity and racial and religious harmony; as well as to address other issues, including abortion, capital punishment, health care, education, welfare and Social Security reform, substance abuse prevention, and overhaul of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The march’s organizers also planned a voter registration drive and hoped that participants would be encouraged to vote in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.
Moon Kook-jin, also known as Justin Moon, is a Korean American businessman and gun manufacturer. He is the son of Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han. His father is the founder of the Unification Church and his mother is its present leader.
The Unification Church of the United States is the branch of the Unification Church in the United States. It began in the late 1950s and early 1960s when missionaries from South Korea were sent to America by the international Unification Church's founder and leader Sun Myung Moon. It expanded in the 1970s and then became involved in controversy due to its theology, its political activism, and the lifestyle of its members. Since then, it has been involved in many areas of American society and has established businesses, news media, projects in education and the arts, as well as taking part in political and social activism, and has itself gone through substantial changes.
The Family Peace Association is an international peace organization. It was inaugurated on December 2, 2017, in Seoul, South Korea, where it announced its mission: "To enlighten humanity by uplifting their spiritual consciousness through universal principles and values rooted in God-centered families.". The co-founders of the Family Peace Association are Hyun Jin Moon and Junsook Moon. Jinman Kwak is its president.
Rod of Iron Ministries is a schismatic offshoot of the Unification Church led by Hyung Jin Moon and Kook-jin Moon. Both of them are sons of Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han. Their father is the founder of the Unification Church and its leader until his death in 2012. Their mother is its present leader.
Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, believed in a literal Kingdom of God on earth to be brought about by human effort, motivating his establishment of numerous groups, some that are not strictly religious in their purposes. Moon was not directly involved with managing the day-to-day activities of the organizations that he indirectly oversaw, yet all of them attribute the inspiration behind their work to his leadership and teachings.