Sun Myung Moon

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Lore & Background

Sun Myung Moon was born Yong Myung Moon on 6 January 1920 in modern-day North P'yŏng'an Province, North Korea, the second son in a farming family of thirteen children, eight of whom survived. His family followed Confucianist beliefs until he was around 10, then converted to Christianity and joined the Presbyterian Church. Moon claims he experienced a religious vision of Jesus at age 16 that laid out his life's mission. In 1941, he began studying electrical engineering at Waseda University in Japan, where he cooperated with Communist Party members in the Korean independence movement. In 1944, he married his first wife, Sun-kil Choi, and they had a son, Sung Jin Moon. After World War II, when Moon started his own movement in Pyongyang in 1946, the Soviet-controlled North Korean government imprisoned and, he claims, tortured him. Sources vary on the motivation: religious persecution, or a charge of espionage or polygamy. Arrested again in 1948, he was sentenced to five years at Hungnam labor camp, but in 1950, during the Korean War, he was liberated by United Nations troops and allegedly traveled by foot to Busan. Moon emerged as a staunch anti-communist. In the 1950s, after years of separation, Moon and Choi divorced. He moved to Seoul, continuing his ministry, and was arrested two more times: once on suspicion of religious orgies and once for draft evasion; both charges were overturned. In 1954, Moon formally founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in Seoul. He married his second wife, Hak Ja Han, on 11 April 1960, in a ceremony called the Holy Marriage. In 1971, Moon moved to the United States and became well known after giving a series of public speeches. 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, generating protests from clergy and civil libertarians who said the trial was biased against him.

Reader's Guide

Sun Myung Moon's significance lies in his founding of the Unification Church, a new religious movement that grew from a small Korean congregation into a global organization. His teachings, encapsulated in the Divine Principle, reinterpret Christian theology around the concept of restoration and the role of the 'True Parents.' The mass wedding ceremonies, called Blessings, matched couples across national and racial lines, becoming a hallmark of the movement. The first ceremony in 1961 involved 36 couples; over 2,000 couples participated in the 1982 one at New York's Madison Square Garden; in 1992, about 30,000 couples took part; and a record 360,000 couples in Seoul took part three years later. Moon said he matched couples from differing races and nationalities because of his belief that all of humanity should be united: 'International and intercultural marriages are the quickest way to bring about an ideal world of peace.' Moon's anti-communist stance and advocacy for Korean reunification earned him recognition from both North and South Korean governments. His business ventures included News World Communications, known for its American subsidiary The Washington Times, and Tongil Group, a South Korean chaebol. However, his legacy is also marked by legal troubles, criticism over his relationships with political and religious figures including US presidents Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush; Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev; North Korean president Kim Il Sung; and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Allegations of unorthodox sexual rituals with multiple women during his early ministry have been made, which the Unification Church denies and some scholars have doubted.

Did You Know?

• Moon was born Yong Myung Moon and changed his given name to Sun Myung to quell resentment from other Christians as he gathered followers.
• He was sentenced to five years at Hungnam labor camp in 1948 but was liberated by United Nations troops during the Korean War in 1950.
• Moon married his second wife, Hak Ja Han, on 11 April 1960, when she was 17 and he had just turned 40.
• In 1982, Moon was convicted in United States v. Sun Myung Moon for willfully filing false federal income tax returns and served 18 months in prison.