Unification Church Founder Sun Myung Moon Dies Aged 92

Ju-min Park
September 3, 2012

Leaves vast religious organisation, business empire

Funeral set for Sept. 15

GAPYEONG, South Korea, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Sun Myung Moon, a self-declared messiah who founded the controversial Unification Church which has millions of followers around the globe, died on Monday leaving a vast business empire and a legacy of mass weddings.

Church officials said Moon, 92, who had suffered complications from pneumonia, was taken to hospital in Seoul in mid-August and was moved to a hospital in a rural retreat last week when his family believed there was little chance of recovery.

His body was lying in a vast building resembling the White House at the retreat in rugged hills about an hour outside the South Korean capital of Seoul. The funeral will be on Sept. 15, after which he will be buried at the retreat.

Moon had led an active public life until recently, officiating a mass wedding for 2,500 in March and leading a service of more than 15,000 followers in July.

Critics have for years vilified the church as a heretical and dangerous cult and questioned its murky finances and how it indoctrinates followers, described in derogatory terms as "Moonies."

Moon is survived by his wife - the pair are called "true parents" by followers - and 10 of their 13 children.

Religious experts say Moon will remain at the centre of the church, keeping it together despite signs of previously unimaginable fissure among his sons, according to a creed that had been prepared since a helicopter crash four years ago that nearly killed Moon and his wife.

Born in what is now North Korea in 1920, Moon founded the church soon after the Korean War that ended in 1953, rapidly expanding the ministry internationally and building a business at the same time that served as the backbone of the empire.

The Unification Church runs the Segye Times newspaper in South Korea and more than a dozen other firms along with overseas businesses, including the conservative Washington Times.

"The Unification Church will continue to be in good shape even after Sun Myung Moon's death," said Tark Ji-il, who teaches church history at the Busan Presbyterian University.

"The Unification Church is not simply a religious organisation, but is a commercial organisation built on religious conviction."

Moon "Met Jesus"

Moon's farming parents followed the Presbyterian Church, a branch of Protestant Christianity. When he was 15, he said, he met Jesus, who appeared to him as he prayed in the hills and asked him to take on the work of building God's kingdom on Earth.

Moon refused twice, according to a biography by Mike Breen, former journalist for the Washington Times.

"Jesus asked him a third time. 'There is no one else who can do this work.' ... From the comfort of his youthful ideals, he peered over the abyss of the difficulties that would lie ahead and decided. 'I will do it,' he promised."

Moon had handed over day-to-day operations of the church, which has its headquarters in Seoul, to one of his sons and the management of the Tongil Group with interests in construction, resorts, travel agencies and the newspaper to another son.

Church officials and followers alike rejected the idea that the man who proclaimed himself a messiah would be reincarnated.

"The church teaches us, dust to dust, and it's the soul that goes to heaven, and so is the law, the truth and order of things, which is why all humans come and go," said Lee Sang-bo, a life-long follower of the church who said he was married at a mass wedding in 1982.

"And a messiah is no exception."

Moon was known as a strident anti-communist and visited North Korea in 1991 to meet the reclusive state's founder, Kim Il-sung, to discuss business ventures and unification, a visit condemned by South Korea which remains technically at war with the North.

He also courted controversy in his business life and served prison term in New York after a 1982 conviction on tax evasion charges

Unification Church Founder Still Critical

AFP
August 17, 2012

SEOUL (AFP) - The founder of the controversial Unification Church remains critically ill three days after he was admitted to a South Korean hospital with complications from pneumonia, his spokesman said Friday.

Sun Myung Moon, 92, was still unconscious in the intensive care unit of Seoul's St Mary's Hospital after being admitted Tuesday.

"The doctor said swellings have reduced so that's a good sign, but there hasn't been a dramatic difference yet," spokesman Ahn Ho-Yeol told AFP, adding he did not know the cause of the swelling.

Close family members, including Moon's youngest son and successor as church leader Hyung Jin Moon, are all keeping a vigil outside the unit, said Ahn.

A few devout followers of the church visited the hospital to pray for the founder. They were told to pray at their churches to avoid inconvenience at the facility, Ahn said.

The church's website has posted a message urging the faithful to hold special prayers from Thursday until September 24 for the recovery of "the true father", including a three-day fast beginning Friday.

"With their prayers and devotion, we believe the founder's health will improve," said Ahn.

The Unification Church, set up by Moon in Seoul in 1954, is one of the world's most controversial religious organisations. Its devotees are often dubbed "Moonies" after the founder.

It is widely known for conducting mass weddings among followers involving thousands of couples. It says it evangelises in some 200 countries and according to another spokesman has some three million followers worldwide.

The church's vast business empire includes The Washington Times newspaper and the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan.

The church also has business interests in North Korea, where Moon was born. He visited the country in 1991 to meet then-president Kim Il-Sung.

Unification Church Founder Sun Myung Moon in Intensive Care - Doctor Gives Moon 50 Percent Chance of Survival

K.J. Kwon
August 16 2012

SEOUL (CNN)

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the church colloquially known as the Moonies, is unconscious and undergoing treatment for pneumonia at a hospital in South Korea, a spokesman said Thursday.

His doctor has given him only a 50% chance of survival, spokesman Ahn Ho-yeol said.

Doctors put the 92-year-old founder of the Unification Church in intensive care Tuesday, where he is breathing through a respirator, the church spokesman said.

Moon felt ill suddenly and was hospitalized in Seoul in "grave condition."

The Unification Church gained fame worldwide for its mass weddings decades ago, including at New York City's Madison Square Garden.

Many met their spouses-to-be for the first time during the ceremony. In addition to weddings in South Korea, couples from various countries took part in the ceremony through satellite hookups.

The controversial Moon, whose church critics compare to a cult, served a federal prison term in the United States for tax evasion.

He was also a strong supporter of Republican politicians including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, said Eileen Barker, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

He was "virulently anti-Communist," having been imprisoned in North Korea during the Korean War before being freed by the allies, she said.

Moon is the founder of The Washington Times newspaper, which vocally backed Reagan, she said.

In 2010, the newspaper was sold to a group operating on his behalf, according to a statement on the paper's website.

In his later years, his position toward North Korea softened, and he met the late North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung and invested some money in the North.

His followers regard Moon as the messiah who is completing the salvation that Jesus Christ failed to accomplish.

His church says Jesus was divine but he is not God, a position that puts the Unification Church outside the bounds of traditional Christianity.

Different measures are under way in case of the worst-case scenario, according to the church spokesman. He did not elaborate on the measures.

Followers of the church worldwide are praying for his health, he said.