Unification Church, from Wikipedia

Unification Church, from Wikipedia

Inquisition : The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon (1991) by American journalist Carlton Sherwood, and In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family (1998) by Nansook Hong, Moon's former daughter-in-law. In 2009 Moon's own autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, was published in South Korea and then in the United States.[23][24]

Starting in the 1990s the Unification Church expanded its operations into Russia and other formerly communist nations. Moon's wife, HakJa Han, made a radio broadcast to the nation from the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.[27] In 1994 the church had about 5,000 members in Russia and came under criticism from the Russian Orthodox Church.[28] In 1997, the Russian government passed a law requiring the Unification Church and other non-Russian religions to register their congregations and submit to tight controls.[29] Starting in 1992 the church established business ties with still communist North Korea and owns an automobile manufacturer (Pyeonghwa Motors), a hotel, and other properties there. In 2007 it founded a "World Peace Center" in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital city.[30]

In the 1990s, thousands of Japanese elderly people claimed to have been defrauded of their life savings by church members.[31] The Unification Church was the subject of the largest consumer fraud investigation in Japan's history in 1997 and number of subsequent court decisions awarded hundreds of millions of yen in judgments, including 37.6 million yen ($300,000) to two women coerced into donating their assets to the Unification Church.[32] In 2009 the president of the Unification Church of Japan, EijiTokuno, resigned after the church was raided, and some church members were arrested and indicted, for selling expensive personal seals, telling people that failure to buy would bring bad fortune.[33]

In the 1990s Moon directed church members to buy land in the MatoGrosso do Sul region of Brazil, which he compared to the Garden of Eden. 200,000 acres of farmland were purchased and building projects started.[34] In 1996, a group of Catholic bishops in Uruguay issued a strong statement warning Catholics not to take part in any groups or activities associated with the Unification Church, saying:

Deceptive proselytizing by institutions linked to the Unification Church are hurting the good faith of Christians of our country and other countries across Latin America. These organizations promote fundamental human values, but in reality they attempt to convert believers to their religious movement.[21]

21st century

In 2000 the church purchased 300,000 hectares of land in Paraguay for the purpose of logging and timber exportation to Asia. The land is the ancestral territory of the indigenous Chamacoco (Ishir) people, who live in northern Paraguay. They have told local anthropologists that they wish to purchase the land back, because it is considered a sacred area in their shamanic belief system, but they do not have the capital to purchase the huge tracts back from the Unification Church members. This loss of land has been devastating to the Chamacoco people, who are traditional hunter-gatherers, and in return the church members have financed the construction of schools for them.[35]

In 2000, the Unification Church was one of the co-sponsors of the Million Family March in Washington, D.C., along with Louis Farrakhan the leader of The Nation of Islam.[36]

In May 2002, federal police in Brazil conducted a number of raids on organizations linked to Sun Myung Moon. In a statement, the police stated that the raids were part of a broad investigation into allegations of tax evasion and immigration violations by church members. Moon's support of the government of Argentina during the Falklands War was also mentioned by commentators as a possible issue.[37]

In 2003 Moon began his "tear down",[38] or "take down the cross"[39] campaign. The campaign was begun in the belief that the cross is a reminder of Jesus' pain and has been a source of division between people of different faiths. The campaign included a burial ceremony for the cross and a crown to be put in its place. The American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC), an interfaith group founded by Moon, spearheaded the effort, calling the cross a symbol of oppression and superiority.[40]

Starting in 2007 the church sponsored a series of public events in various nations under the title Global Peace Festival.[41][42][43][44]

In April 2008, Sun Myung Moon, then 88 years old, appointed his youngest son, Hyung Jin Moon, to be the new leader of the Unification Church and the worldwide Unification Movement, saying, "I hope everyone helps him so that he may fulfil his duty as the successor of the True Parents."[45]

In January 2009, Unification Church missionary ElizavetaDrenicheva was sentenced to two years in jail in Kazakhstan for "propagating harmful religious teachings." She was freed and allowed to leave the country after international human rights organizations expressed their concern over her case.[46][47] In 2009, the church gave 30,000 acres (120km2) of land back to residents of Puerto Casado after a series of land disputes came before Paraguayan courts. It had acquired more than 1,480,000 acres (6,000km2) of land in 2000 for an environmental tourism project in northern Paraguay.[48]

Observers of the Unification Church, as well as some church members, have speculated about the issue of Unification Church leadership after Moon's death. Among those sometimes mentioned are his wife HakJa Han Moon, and their sons Hyun Jin Moon[100] and Hyung Jin Moon.[45][101][102] In 2008 Moon appointed Hyung Jin Moon as the international president of the church.[103][104] At the same time he appointed his daughter In Jin Moon as the president of the Unification Church of the United States.[105][106] In 2010, Forbes reported that Sun Myung Moon and HakJa Han were living in South Korea while their children took more responsibility for the day-to-day leadership of the Unification Church and its affiliated organizations.[107]

Assignment

ReadUnification Church, at Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance and Introduction to the Divine Principle (all 4 parts), then write this quiz.