The Unification Church is a new religious movement that was founded in Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon. Reverend (Rev) Moon is known as the Messiah and he believes that world peace could be reached through the establishment of true families. “The Unification Church officially named the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity” (ReligionFacts.com). The Unification Church is known for their seeking of new believers and mass weddings. The followers of this religion are called the Moonies and they are very loyal to their Reverend. Moonies are very serious about their history, origins, Belief, and practice, Relevance impact, and Controversial issue.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon was born in North Korea in 1920. Rev. Moon grew up in the Presbyterian church, one of the religious groups that were persecuted by the Japanese ruler. Rev. Moon said that when he was sixteen, on Easter morning, he had a vision and Jesus asked him to finish his unfinished work as a messiah. He said that Jesus wanted him to draw mankind to God and bring peace on earth.
Moon started to teach his creed in 1946. Reverend Moon met Miss Kim in 1954, and she became converted to the Unificationism. She became the first woman Unification Church missionary in the United States. She worked hard and gained a few followers and they got relocated to San Francisco. By 1973 Rev. Moon moved to their headquarters in Tarrytown, New York City. Rev. Moon started to get involved with strong anti-communist, politics and he was willing to spend his money which made him gained acceptance into political circles. Rev. Moon gives a lot of public speeches. Having survived a lot of criticism, the Unification Church appear in the 1990s but in 1992, Rev.Moon said that he is the Messiah. He said that he’s the second coming of Jesus Christ the Son of God as it was prophesied in the Bible. The church was then in more than 100 countries and it had more than three million members.
The teaching of Moon’s is called the Divine Principle. Prayer and the study of religious scripture and of life itself are the results of the principle of divine inspiration. “The divine principle is based on observation of the creation to understand the creator” (ReligionFacts.com). They believe that God is the creator of all and he had assigned all people jobs and he knew their future. They practice the blessing ceremony in the unification church known as a mass wedding. The Mass Wedding has three-part which usually take place during the mass gathering. The three steps are; The wife and husband chasten each other from the location of god, The woman drinks from the holy wine and gives it to her husband and he bows down to her and drinks from it.
The couple gets the last blessing from the officiator and then they are called a married couple. The officiator will sprinkle them with the holy water which means rebirth of the wife and husband as a blessed couple. They believe in Children's day and it is known as a major holiday of the church. Children Day is the day to worship all children and treat them nicely because Jesus came as a child. “They also believe in Parent’s Day which is a day to take care of your parents. Both Parents and Children's Day are an illustration and the family of the Unification Church” (Beverley, James A.) Parent’s Day was the first holiday celebrated in the Unification Church. God’s day is the main Holiday for the church.
Since the beginning of this religion, the church had expanded throughout the world. The country where most members lived in Korea, Japan, other nations in East Asia and the Philippines. The Unification Church is now in some part of Nigeria and it has a major impact on their economy.
Unification Church’s beliefs are different from the Christian explanation of the Bible and people have been criticized for that. Their interpretation of the bible is different from how Christian would interpret it. Church believes that the world would end when Chris Jesus come back to earth but Rev. Moon claim to be Jesus and the world hasn’t ended yet. His teaching is based on the bible. The Unification Church is had been criticized for being involved in the support of the South Korean government and was investigated by the United States Congress. They have been accused of brainwashing the members. Some member in the church reported that they are not allowed to pull out of the church congregation.
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