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The Life and Work of
Father Sun Myung Moon
I have lived my life with just one thought: I wanted to bring about a world of peace, a world where there are no wars and where all humankind lives in love.
• Born in 1920
• The Moon home in Sangsa-ri, Chonju in
the west of present-day North Korea
Early History
Early History His family converts to Presbyterianism
when he is eleven
April 17th Easter morning 1935, age 16
While deep in prayer on a hillside near his home
Jesus appeared to him.
When I doubt people I feel pain.
When I judge people it is unbearable.
When I hate people,
there is no value in my life.
Yet if I believe, I am deceived.
If I love, I am betrayed.
Suffering and grieving tonight,
My head is in my hands;
am I wrong?
Crown of Glory
Yes, I am wrong.
Even though we are deceived, still
believe.
Though we are betrayed, still forgive.
Love completely, even those who
hate you.
Wipe away your tears
and welcome with a smile
Those who know nothing but deceit
and those who betray without regret.
Crown of Glory
O, Master, the pain of loving.
Look at my hands.
Place your hand on my chest.
My heart is bursting, such agony.
When I loved those who acted
against me, I brought victory.
If you have done the same,
I will give you the Crown of Glory.
Crown of Glory
written aged 16
Student in Japan – Freedom Movement
Married in November
1943 to Seon Gil Choi
I have a task that is more important
than family life right now.
In fact my reason to marry has to do
with my ability to carry out God’s
providence.
Our marriage needs to develop
beyond the family to the point where
we can love the nation and all
humanity.
Tortured by Japanese
In late November 1944
he was arrested and
tortured in Seoul on
suspicion of being a
Communist
They beat me with a table and
broke all four legs against my body,
but I refused to give them the
names of the people who had
worked with me in Japan.
They hung me from the ceiling ….
like a slab of meat hanging in the
butcher’s shop.
1945-48
Connecting to spiritually-prepared groups
Travels to Pyong Yang
June 6, 1946.
While out buying rice, he
was directed in prayer to
head north
Go across the 38th parallel !
Find the people of God that
are in the north
It was six years before he
saw his wife and son again.
In Pyong Yang, North Korea
Began teaching and
gathering followers
I preached with such
Passion that I would
sweat all over my body
Members of the
congregation would be
so moved and inspired
that they would begin
to weep.
People called us
‘the weeping church’.
False rumours.
Churches collude with Communists.
Arrested August 11th 1946
15 core members of the most prominent
Church in Pyeong Yang came to our
Church as a group causing the elder’s
Board of that church to lodge a strong
Protest against us.
I was charged with coming from the south
for the Purpose of espionage.
They even brought in a Soviet interrogator.
I had lost so much blood from being
Tortured that my life was in grave danger
Sentenced to five years forced labour,
22 February, 1948.
Transferred to Hung-nam Forced Labour camp, 20 May 1948.
The file of prisoners was led to a mountain of ammonium sulphate which had solidified and had to be broken up and bagged in forty kilogram sacks. The work would keep them busy for over two years.
Forced Labour
Forced Labour
• Each ten-man team had to load 700 bags in an 8 hour working day.
• Supper was a handful of boiled grain and salty soup
• The skin of their fingertips peeled off from exposure to the fertilizer.
• People died even while eating.
“I never prayed from weakness. I never asked for
help. How could I tell God, my Father, about my
suffering and cause his heart to grieve still more? I
could only tell him that I would never be defeated
by my suffering.”
Oct. 14 1950
Released after the U.S. Navy bombarded
the city and labour camp.
Refugee to the South Virtually the entire population were now refugees.
Rev. Moon spent 40 days in Pyong Yang to let his followers know he
had been freed. Then, together with a young follower and a former
prisoner who had a broken leg, he left for the South.
Pusan - Refugee on the hillside – January 1951
The shack Rev. Moon built with ration boxes.
A Protestant missionary who hoped to
bring Sun Myung Moon into her own
church, but joined him instead.
“The place was built of mud and stone; the rain leaked through the roof. Then a young man came in. ‘Christianity and all religions of the world can be unified,’ he said. But I was suspicious. “You can’t even gather a handful of people, I thought.”
Hyun Shil
Kang
The long years of separation and hardship proved too
much for his family, which was tragically broken apart.
The Holy Spirit
Association for the
Unification of World
Christianity
HSA-UWC
Unification Church
Seoul, Korea, May 1st 1954
He moved to Seoul where many students from
major universities joined him, authorities were
alarmed.
1955 Rev. Moon and others were jailed
for 3 months on flimsy charges of ‘draft evasion’
amid sensational newspaper coverage.
When he was found “not guilty” the same newspapers
buried the story deep on an inside page.
Koreans have a saying that a person insulted by others lives a long time. If I were to live in proportion to the insults I have received, I could live another 100 years. My stomach has been filled, not with food, but with insults.
1960 Holy Wedding Married Hak Ja Han, the young daughter of an early follower.
Early Marriage Blessings Teaching that God’s ideal is realized through the family,
he began to bless his followers in marriage despite
continued rumors, misunderstanding and prejudice.
Mass Weddings The numbers of the new couples grew quickly,
leading to a new term “Mass Weddings”
1st July 1982 – New York
26th July 2004 – Cheonan, Korea
The church rapidly spread to major cities, and he
would spend most of the year visiting members
and preaching.
The New Village Movement In the summer, they would all go back to the country to
help each other’s families plant the rice.
The publication of the Divine Principle in
English meant that the movement and its
message could spread around the world.
Missionaries Sent Out He knew peace could not come working only in Korea.
He began to send missionaries to Japan and the USA,
and later to 40 and then to 120 countries.
The Professors World Peace Academy and ICUS He also invested in the unity of the sciences, the arts, the
development of the media, and much more.
An Interfaith Theological Seminary Created the Unification Theological Seminary as an
interfaith center of learning in upstate New York
Expanison to 120 Nations, 1975
Yoido Island Rally
1.July 1975,
1.2 Million people
The Washington Monument Rally 1976 He declared “God’s Hope for America” in front of
300,000 people at the Washington Monument.
But all this came at the price of many new enemies. US
Congressman Donald Fraser (D-MN) falsely accused the
movement of working for the Korean CIA.
All I did was in order to reestablish the morality of an America that had fallen into degradation and restore it in line with God's will. But I was accused of not paying my taxes. I was well past my sixtieth birthday at the time.
More than 40 religious and civic groups filed
briefs with the court, saying that as the head of
a church, Rev. Moon was treated unfairly.
“I worked side by
side with him in the
kitchen and have
seen him do all that
has been asked of
him, smiling and
without complaint”
Justin Ignizio
Fellow prisoner
Danbury Prison
Inquisition The persecution and
Prosecution of
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Carlton Sherwood
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Encouraged by many faith leaders, who supported
him in prison, he worked to end the conflict of
communism and democracy.
He started newspapers that exposed
communism and secular humanism.
Americans took notice.
The World Media Association He sponsored fact-finding tours for Western
journalists to visit the USSR, and vice versa.
The Summit Council for World Peace In 1990, he went to Moscow and began a friendship
with Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev.
"Mr. President, you did a great thing," I told him. "You gave up your post as General Secretary of the Soviet Union, but now you have become the president of peace. Because of your wisdom and courage, we now have the possibility to bring world peace.”
Meeting Kim Il Sung in North Korea 1991 A year later, he returned to Pyongyang after 40
years to reconcile with Kim Il Sung, the man who
had once tried to kill him.
Universal Peace
Federation
20th October 2005
in Ukraine
“Peace Kingdom
Police Force”
& “Peace Kingdom
Corps”
Ascension 3rd September 2012
“Religions should be concerned with God’s
will for world salvation more than with the
salvation of the individual or the welfare of
their own denomination.
I think that now is the time for all religious
bodies together to search again for the true
will of God.
As far as I know, God is not sectarian. He is
not obsessed with minor details of
doctrine.
Founder’s Words
In God’s parental Heart and His great
love, there is no discrimination based
on colour or nationality. There are no
barriers between countries or cultural
traditions, between East and West or
North and South. Through inter-
religious dialogue and harmony we
should realize one ideal world of
peace”
Assembly of the World’s Religions, Nov. 1985
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