Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, also known for his business ventures and support for political causes. A messiah claimant, he was the founder of the Unification movement, 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 Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) is a Unification Church-affiliated graduate seminary headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED).
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 or Unificationism, is a new religious movement whose members are called Unificationists and sometimes colloquially known as Moonies. It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) in Seoul, South Korea, by Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), a Korean Messiah claimant also known for his business ventures and engagement in social and political causes.
Hak Ja Han is a Korean religious leader. Her late husband Sun Myung Moon was the founder of the Unification movement, also known as 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. She is the leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in which she is called "True Mother" and "Mother of Peace".
Heung Jin Moon, also referred to by members of the Unification Church as Heung Jin Nim or posthumously as Lord Heung Jin Nim, was the second son of church founders Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han. At the age of 17 he died in a vehicle accident in New York State. Three months later his parents conducted a spiritual wedding ceremony between him and Julia Pak, daughter of church leader, Bo Hi Pak. He is officially regarded by the Unification Church to be the "king of the spirits" in heaven. After Moon's death, some church members claimed that they were channelling messages from his spirit. In 1988 a church member from Zimbabwe, named Kundioni, claimed to be the incarnation of Moon. His acts of violence against church members were a source of controversy within the church. Moon is now believed by church members to be leading workshops in the spiritual world in which spirits of deceased persons are taught Unification Church teachings.
The doctrine of the serpent seed, also known as the dual-seed or the two-seedline doctrine, is a controversial and fringe Christian religious belief which explains the biblical account of the fall of man by stating that the Serpent mated with Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the offspring of their union was Cain. This event resulted in the creation of two races of people: the wicked descendants of the Serpent who were destined for damnation, and the righteous descendants of Adam who were destined to have eternal life. The doctrine frames human history as a conflict between these two races in which the descendants of Adam will eventually triumph over the descendants of the Serpent.
Leslie Dixon Weatherhead was an English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition. Weatherhead was noted for his preaching ministry at City Temple in London and for his books, including The Will of God, The Christian Agnostic, and Psychology, Religion, and Healing.
Inquisition is a 1991 book by Carlton Sherwood about the early 1980s investigation and trial of Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Church, for violations of United States tax law. The book, subtitled The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, alleges that there were elements of racism and religious persecution in the prosecution of the Moon case. The book was published by Regnery Publishing, an American publisher which specializes in conservative books.
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 co-founder, alongside his wife, Yeon Ah Lee Moon, of the Pennsylvania-based World Peace and Unification Sanctuary Church, also known as Rod of Iron Ministries. Sanctuary Church is a Church and an unofficial militant offshoot and sect of the Unification movement, which was founded by Hyung Jin Moon's father Reverend Sun Myung Moon. The Southern Poverty Law Center called Hyung Jin Moon an "anti-LGBT cult leader" in January 2018.
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.
George Augustus Stallings Jr. is the founder of the Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation and was long active in the Black Catholic Movement. He served as a Catholic priest from 1974 to 1989, and was based in Washington, DC, for many years.
Julia H. Moon also known as Hoon Sook Moon is the General Director of Universal Ballet in South Korea, and daughter-in-law of Sun Myung Moon, founder of the ballet company. She was the prima ballerina of the company.
Moon Kook-jin, also known as Justin Moon, is a Korean American businessman. He is the son of Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church. He is the founder and owner of Kahr Arms, an American small arms manufacturer and chair of the Sun Moon Education Foundation.
The Unification Church of the United States is a religious movement in the United States of America. It began in the 1950s and 1960s when missionaries from Japan and South Korea were sent to the United States 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.
Frederick Earl Sontag was a professor of philosophy and author. He taught at Pomona College in Claremont, California from 1952 to 2009, retiring shortly before his death.
Daniel G. 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.
Young Oon Kim (1914–1989) was a leading theologian of the Unification Church and its first missionary to the United States.
