Discover Top Posts Tagged with #mass wedding

That mass wedding though. 😌👌

#Entrapdak #Hordak #Entrapta #Imp #Emily #Mass Wedding #Imp in a DRESS #(Used color pallete from post)

Japanese-Korean former UC couple build an amazing treehouse – “our house is under construction”

Japanese man builds treehouse in Korea to realize childhood dream Korea Times 2021-06-18 By Kwak Yeon-soo

...

Mizuno Masayuki first came to Korea in 1992 to marry his wife, whom he had never met until two days before the wedding. Their marriage had been arranged by the Unification Church, a controversial religion famous for hosting mass wedding ceremonies under the belief that marriage can help achieve world peace.

"We were among 30,000 couples who got married in the Olympic Stadium in Seoul.

...

By [about 2000], the couple had already left the Unification Church because they lost faith in it.

"My wife and I 'graduated' from the religious community about 20 years ago. I grew to become skeptical about the religion after seeing religious groups come into conflict. I figured it would be better to find internal peace instead of seeking world peace that seemed barely reachable," he said.

The family initially moved into his mother-in-law's house in Gimje in 2004 and then bought a deserted house nearby in 2009. It was 65 years old, but he loved two things about the house.

"I always wanted to live in a hanok and near an old tree. The tree in our front yard is 300 years old," he said.

...

His family runs a café inside the house. Besides serving customers with food and beverages, his daily routine includes refurbishing and fixing the treehouse. Rather than considering it as a burden, the ceaseless hammering and sawing is a labor of love for Masayuki.

"Our family motto is 'Today as other days, our house is under construction. So is our life, and so is our happiness.' Our lives have no completion," he said.

_____________________________________

Japanese man builds treehouse in Korea to realize childhood dream Korea Times 2021-06-18

By Kwak Yeon-soo

GIMJE, North Jeolla Province ― A Japanese man is living his childhood dream in Gimje, a city located about 200 kilometers south of Seoul. In 2009, Mizuno Masayuki, 53, transformed a run-of-the-mill house in the city to resemble one straight out of a fairytale and built a treehouse in his front yard.

With his skillful hands and creativity, Masayuki constructed a beautiful treehouse that takes us away from the real world. The small haven he created reflects the owner's youthful imagination and evokes peaceful childhood memories of summer.

"I think everyone has nostalgia for a treehouse. ... Regardless of age, anyone can possess the innocence of childhood when they climb up into a treehouse."

...

Full story here:

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2021/06/141_310646.html

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A hanok is a traditional Korean house. Hanoks were first designed and built in the 14th century during the Joseon Dynasty. Korean architecture considers the positioning of the house in relation to its surroundings, with thought given to the land and seasons. The interior of the house is also planned accordingly. This principle is called baesanimsu, meaning that the ideal house is built with a mountain in the back and a river in the front. Hanok shapes differ by region. More at Wikipedia

#Unification Church #mass wedding #Sun Myung Moon #hanok

Trivializing FFWPU mass weddings and underestimating the Christian Right

an extract from Chapter 8 of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy by Frederick Clarkson (1997) pages 181-185

… Similarly, the analysis by Stephen Carter, [who teaches at Yale Law School and wrote The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion] of how mainstream press reporting trivializes religion often misses the mark. He cites, for example, the “general cultural amusement” over the mass weddings presided over by Rev. & Mrs. Sun Myung Moon.72 Carter is correct that some bemused reporting may trivialize the faith of those who subordinate themselves to clerical authority in this way. However, Carter ignores the serious issues raised by the theocratic goals and practices of the Unification Church and how the mass weddings figure into the church’s larger plans to eliminate democracy, pluralism, and religious freedom.

As was discussed in Chapter 3 [of Eternal Hostility], Sun Myung Moon has declared that he and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, “are the True Parents of all humanity... we are the Savior, the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah.”73 And that “when it comes to our age, we must have an automatic theocracy to rule the world.” He has further explained that his aim is the “subjugation of the American government and population.”74 There is copious literature on Moon’s record of predatory recruiting and indoctrination practices, his 30-year record of antidemocratic pronouncements and activities,75 the billions of dollars of assets of mysterious origin, the central role this small church plays in American life through its media, and on its business and political empire. In this light, Carter’s focus on the trivialization of the Unification Church by the superficial reporting on Moon’s mass weddings is breathtakingly shallow and fundamentally misguided.

Carter also fails to distinguish between oppressive attacks on religion aimed at curtailing religious expression, on the one hand, and critical debate about religion generally, and specifically religion in politics, on the other. Debating the latter issues is healthy in a country where active theocratic movements are working to undermine the principles of the enlightenment vital to meaningful democracy.

The Christian Right: Weak and Divided? Carter extends his concern from the supposed excesses of secular society to how society should view the Christian Right. However, this discussion is hampered by his apparent lack of knowledge of the history, ideology and players of the Christian Right. Although Carter was shocked by the Christian Right’s performance at the 1992 Republican national convention in Houston, he was unable to explain either how this came about or what it really meant. In the first chapter of The Culture of Disbelief he derided the “expression of some loud fears about the influence of the weak and divided Christian Right.”76 Oddly, the final chapter’s discussion of the new-found political strength of the Christian Right is titled “Religious Fascism.” Unfortunately, Carter failed to define what he meant by religious fascism, let alone its relevance to his discussion.

Still, Carter’s concern for religious expression is rooted in the best of American contributions to advancing this principle. He calls not for “mere tolerance,” but for religious “equality,” because tolerance is extended at the whim of the majority and can be withdrawn. “[I]n a nation where 85 percent of adults identify themselves as Christians,” he explains, “it may seem easier to speak of toleration of Jews and other non-Christians than to speak of equality of any practical sort. But the language of tolerance is the language of power.”77 Non-Christians, he points out, “rightly object to language suggesting that Christians (or anyone else) should ‘tolerate’ them. The fundamental message of the First Amendment is one of religious equality—a message to which the idea of majority and minority religions should be bitter anathema.”78

One glaring example of Carter’s good intentions thwarted by his superficial approach is a too-brief discussion of the 1992 flap over Mississippi Republican governor Kirk Fordice’s public claim that the U.S. is a Christian Nation.79 Carter summarizes the episode as it appeared in the media, but makes no mention of the Christian Nationalist authors, leaders and constituencies that give the term its contemporary meaning. Senior politicians rarely make declarations about such things unless they are speaking to and for a significant constituency. There was much that could have been said in this context, for example, about the role of the Christian Coalition in Fordice’s election, or the significance of such Christian historical revisionists as David Barton and Gary DeMar.80

Nevertheless, “It is painful to me as a Christian,” Carter concluded, “to watch the perversion of [Christ’s message of love and inclusion]... by the far right wing of my own faith, into a call for holy war—a call which even if metaphorical, can only raise the terrifying imagery of the wholesale slaughter of the crusades.”81 While the specter of religious warfare is painful for everyone. Carter does not address the role of Christian Nationalism as an integral and animating doctrine of the Christian Right, and thus much more than a metaphor, that could lead to just such a ‘holy war.’ Indeed, it was precisely the grim history of religious nationalism, religious warfare and Christian persecution, of not only minority religions but fellow Christians, that led the framers of the Constitution to seek to create a constitutional structure for, and national ethos of, religious equality.

It is the cultivation (if not always successful implementation) of this ethos of religious equality over the past 200 years that has been one of the most extraordinary cultural projects in the history of the world. The Christian Nationalists of the 18th century didn’t like the Constitution when it was written, and their political and theological descendants don’t like it today.

The Defeat of the Christian Right? Carter correctly concludes that the “defeat of the Christian Right— if indeed defeat is to be” will be a matter of alerting “a sufficiency of one’s fellow citizens of the danger, creating a democratic counter insurgency. And then, harder still, one must get this majority to the polls on election day.”82 However, political victory over the formidable Christian Right requires knowledge and accurate assessments of its positions and prospects—something Carter does not much provide. For example, early in The Culture of Disbelief, he argues that “one must be wary of attributing too much influence to the emergent religious right. The Reverend Pat Robertson’s efforts to gain the 1988 Republican presidential nomination was of interest mainly to the mass media...”83

As argued in the chapter “Neither Juggernaught nor Joke,” he is correct that it is important not to unwarily “attribute too much influence” to the religious right. But it is just as important not to naively— and inaccurately—dismiss their actual strength and potential.

Indicative of a larger problem in Carter’s reporting is his use of the word “Reverend” in reference to Pat Robertson. Robertson resigned his Baptist ministry to run for president in 1988, and does not, nor is he entitled to, use the honorific, “Reverend.” More importantly, it is well known that Robertson has for many years been positioning himself to exert political power in the U.S. The run for president was integral to the building of a political movement, and thus was of far more than passing interest to those who follow religion and politics, especially in the GOP. Robertson actually beat George Bush in the Iowa Republican caucuses in 1988, and did well in the disputed Michigan precinct caucuses. Although the campaign unraveled after Robertson’s poor showing in the “Super Tuesday” primaries in the South, Iowa and Michigan provided clues about Robertson’s long-term political significance.

The Robertson campaign served as an experiment and a building block in much the same way that Barry Goldwater’s unsuccessful 1964 campaign for president served as the cornerstone of the modern conservative movement. In light of Carter’s claim that Robertson’s 1988 campaign was a creature of the media, it is important to note that the same media generally missed the story of the rise of the Christian Coalition until well into the 1992 campaign season. Carter’s lack of knowledge of the on-the-ground history of this and related political phenomena undermines his media criticism and misdirects his “attitude” about religion in public life—which he says is the main subject of the book.84

The problem with Hunter’s and Carter’s books is not that they don’t have useful thoughts and information in them. These influential books pose special challenges to those who are committed to democracy, pluralism and religious freedom. Hunter is a partisan scholar from the Christian Right who is generally committed to civility, but who uses a facade of neutrality to mask that he’s stacking the deck of his argument. Carter is a legal scholar who disagrees with the Christian Right on most things,85 but hasn’t really studied it, and thus fails to locate the original and current threats to religious freedom from theocratic movements.

As long as such books are major sources of intellectual guidance to which people turn for insight into the Christian Right, misdirection, misinformation, misreporting and political mistakes will be the norm for every segment of society that follows them.86 James Davison Hunter offers some sound advice in this regard in Culture Wars. “As with military campaigns, cultural warfare is always decided over the pragmatic problems of strategy, organization and resources... The factions with the best strategies, most efficient organization, and access to resources will plainly have the advantage and very possibly, the ultimate victory.”87

Thus great care must be taken when reading material that will inform the strategy of a movement. ___________________________________ Notes

72. Frank S. Mead, Handbook of Denominations in the United States, Ninth Edition, 1990. Abingdon Press, pp. 25-26.

73. Sun Myung Moon, “Leaders Building World Peace,” Unification News, September 1992.

74. John Judis, “Rev. Moon’s Rising Political Influence: His Empire Is Spending Big Money To Try To Win Favor With Conservatives,” U.S. News and World Report, March 21, 1989.

75. See for example, Steve Hassan, Combating Cult Mind Control, Park Street Press, 1988; see also Flo Conway and Jim Seigelman, Snapping: America’s Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, Second Edition, Stillpoint Press, 1995.

76. Stephen L. Carter, The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion, Basic Books, 1993, p. 11.

77. Carter, op. cit., p. 96.

78. Carter, op. cit., p. 93.

79. Carter, op. cit., pp. 86-89.

80. See for example, Barton’s book To Pray or Not to Pray, (1988) and The Myth of Separation, (1992), WallBuilder Press, Aledo, TX. Both books were in wide circulation in Christian Right circles prior to the publication of The Culture of Disbelief.

81. Carter, op. cit., p. 90.

82. Carter, op. cit., p. 267.

83. Carter, op. cit., p. 19.

84. Carter, p. 15. “And through all of this trivializing rhetoric runs the subtle but unmistakable message: pray if you like; worship if you must, but whatever you do, do not on any account take your religion seriously. That rhetoric, and that message, are the subjects of this book. This book is not about law, but about attitudes—the attitude that we as a political society hold toward religion.”

85. Carter, p. 15. He agrees, with the Christian Right on “broad parental rights to exempt children from educational programs on religious grounds and participation by parochial schools in private school voucher programs...”

86. I hope that this essay will encourage people to seek out better information and analysis about the Christian Right — and to demand better than they usually get from the media. Personally I recommend the books and articles of knowledgeable writers like Russ Bellant, Chip Berlet, Robert Boston, Joe Conn, Sara Diamond, Jean Hardisty, Skipp Porteous, and Lenny Zeskind, among others who have studied this and related movements for many years. Their work is cited throughout the text, notes and resources section of this book. The Christian Right would be far less powerful today, if writers like these had received half of the media and scholarly attention accorded Hunter and Carter.

87. James Davison Hunter, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, Basic Books, 1991, p. 64.

________________________________________

Sun Myung Moon: “church and the state must become one”

U.S. Presidents Endorse Sun Myung Moon From ‘Spirit World’

The CIG constitution is the paperwork for what Fraser and every Moon org critic has warned was the Moon org’s goal all along

Hak Ja Han’s Cheon Il Guk Constitution is troubling

“Moon’s Law: God Is Phasing Out Democracy” by Frederick Clarkson

Missing Pieces of the Story of Sun Myung Moon by Frederick Clarkson

Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy

#Sun Myung Moon #Hak Ja Han #mass wedding #Unification Church #Family Federation for World Peace and Unification #Christian Right #Frederick Clarkson #Eternal Hostility

‘Blessed Child’ documentary film premier in New York

WORLD PREMIERE This intimate film revisits director Cara Jones’ upbringing within the Unification Church of Reverend Sun Myung Moon—commonly known as the Moonies—where her parents are high-ranking members. Home videos reveal never-before-seen footage of the inner workings of the controversial movement, considered a cult by some. After Jones separates from the church, she must come to terms with the shift in her relationship with her parents and with the impact of this unusual background on her family.

https://www.docnyc.net/film/blessed-child/

____________________________

How I Escaped a Dangerous Korean ‘Cult’ – Cara Jones

At age 20, I was married by the Unification Church. Here’s how I broke away.

Four Stories on Huffington Post by Cara Jones

#Moonies #Cara Jones #Sun Myung Moon #FFWPU #mass wedding #Hak Ja Han #Unification Church

36 Couples – many left the FFWPU / Unification Church

Updated December 16, 2018

▲ In Seoul, after the final ceremony for the 36 couples, there was a public procession of the couples in cars. Moon always sought maximum publicity from the mass marriages he held.

This list should be an accurate list of the original 36 couples who were married by Moon. During 1960-1961 he held three ceremonies. He then put all the couples together as one group which became known as ‘the 36 couples’. When some defected they were replaced by couples from the 72 couples group or others. For example Mr. Moon said: “No one knows, if Seuk Joon-ho [Dr. Seuk, the son of Mrs. Choi Won-pok] enters the 36 couples…” January 2, 1997, São Paulo, Brazil.

husband wife

1. Eu Hyo-won Sa Kil-ja (Ewha student) See link below

2. Kim Won-pil Chong Dal-ok both died

3. Kim Young-hwi Chong Dae-hwa (Ewha)

4. Lee Yo-han Won Shim-hee

5. Eu Hyo-young Kim Hwa-yong defected from UC

6. Lee Sang-hun Kim Han-sook husband died

7. Kim In-chul Gu Jong-sook inactive

8. Hwang Choong-hun Kim Kum-rang

9. Moon Seong-yong Jang Pyong-ju

10. Hwang Hwan-chae Park Young-sook (Ewha)

11. Lee Jae-seok Kang Chung-won (Ewha)

12. Hong Chong-bok Seo Myung-jin (Ewha)

13. Choi Young-seok Kim Moon-hee inactive ‘Tiger’ Choi

14. Lee Soo-kyeong Kim Ki-young

15. Chong Han-chae Park Seung-hee (Ewha) husband died

16. Hong Sung-pyo Yu Gil-ja defected from UC

17. Han In-soo Lee Sun-goo husband died

(2nd wife: Kim Sook-Ja (Ewha))

18. Pak Bo-hi Yoon Ki-sook

19. Han Sang-kook Lim Byung-sook Fraser Report

20. Kim 'David SC’ Sang-chul Kang Ui-hong husband died

21. Ahn Chang-sung Choi Ye-chong

22. Lee Gi-seok Chi Saeng-ryon (aka Malsook Lee in US) (Ewha) Her original name before joining was Chi Mal-sook. Her husband died in 1972; she died in 2018 in the US.

23. Choi Bong-choon Shin Mi-shik (Ewha) This is “Papasan Choi” who left and gave this statement in Japan

24. Chong Su-won Kim Kyong-nam

25. Han Sang-kil Kim Chong-eun (Ewha) She has Alzheimer’s

26. Kim Chan-kyun Choi Young-ja

27. Kwak Chung-hwan Yoon Jong-eun defected to Hyun-jin Moon

28. Kim Byung-ho Han Young-shim

29. replaced

30. replaced

31. replaced

32. replaced

33. replaced

34. Park Chong-goo Choi Kum-soon ‘Tiger’ Park died in 1982

35. Choi Chu-won Lee Hong-yeon

36. Song Moon-kyu Cho Min-ja defected

Song Moon-kyu (January 9, 1983 Washington, D.C.) “I was number 36. Mr. Choi was number 35. Tiger Park was number 34. The three of us formed a trinity.” http://www.tparents.org/library/unification/Talks/Song/Song-830109a.htm

Some of the replacement couples:

32. Eu Hyo-min Na Soon-yol defected in 1992 - see below

33. Lee Chin-tae wife unknown defected from UC

34. Han In-ju wife unknown defected from UC

35. Lee Chun-yong wife unknown defected from UC

36. Hong Kwang-chul [wife may be Choi Myung-Ja]

This list was compiled in the early 1990s. Others will have died or defected since then.

▲ Here are 12 of the Ewha Womans University students who were expelled because of the“scandalous rites” of the Unification Church. After their expulsion, the students managed to meet President Kim Hwallan on May 23, 1955. She stood by her decision. This picture was taken on campus after the meeting.

(Top from left) Seo Myung-jin, Lee Gye-soon*, Sa Gil-ja, Chi Saeng-ryeon**, Park Young-sook, Kang Jung-won and Chung Dae-hwa (who was later married to Kim Young-whi)

(Bottom from left) Choi Soon-wha (the mother of Sam Park), Yim Seung-hee***, Kim Jung-eun, Shin Mi-shik (later known as Mamasan Choi) and Park Seung-kyu.

* Lee Gye-soon entered Kyunghee University in 1957. She left the Unification Church over 50 years ago and had a successful career as a professor.

** Before Chi Saeng-ryeon joined she was known as Chi Mal-sook, and after she moved to the US in 1973 she was known as Mal-sook Lee.

*** Her name may be 朴承姫 Park Seung-hee and not 林 Yim or Lim Seung-hee.

Kim Yun-rye was also expelled but later made a pledge to give up the Unification Church, and Ewha Womans University allowed her to return to her studies.

Eight of the expelled students entered other universities in 1956.

Ewha in the list of 36 couples = Ewha Woman’s University students.  These ten women joined as students during the Ewha University Sex Scandal of 1955. There were other students who joined, but they were not included in the 36 couples marriage, which took place in stages during 1960-1961.

The Hongs (couple 16) left in the 1990s. They are the parents of Nansook Hong. Her brother, Jin-whi Hong, was married to Ye Jin Moon. He left before Nansook – and he helped Nansook to escape the East Garden compound.

Moon bought a house for each of the 36 couples. Apparently, because Korea is a “low-trust” nation, this was one way of trying to ensure their loyalty. Moon: “In Korea I bought houses for many early members of our Church and in the future I would like to take the responsibility of buying houses for all the black, white and yellow people. I am the only one in history who is doing this, but it isn’t easy.”  October 3, 1976 Belvedere, New York. Translator: Bo Hi Pak.

The 36 couples were the first of two or three “Royal Blessings”. They definitely included the 36 and 72 couples and probably included the 124 couples. The wives from the “Royal Blessings” were all “purified” by Mr. Moon. The “Royal Couples” were also known as Mr. Moon’s “Tribe”. More is explained in this Shukan Post October 15, 1993 magazine article, published at the same time as Mr. Chong-hwa Pak’s book.  Some of the 36 couples became quite wealthy and lived in expensive properties. Some had Japanese members helping in their homes.

Moon kept many of the 36 couples separated from their spouses for years and years. This caused some couples great heartache – for example Kim Won-pil was one who longed to be with his wife. It caused complications in other couples.

It is a fact that the 36 couples all had “womb cleansing” pikareum sex rituals with Mr. Moon. The theology was explained to Japanese members in the early 1990s by Mr. Yoshiaki Hiro, Mr. Kunio Sano and Mr. Yasutomo Shirai. (Mr Takeru Kamiyama was to be the main lecturer, but he was in hospital with stomach problems.) There had also been lectures given in Japan about pikareum in the 1980s by a lecturer called Ota.

Here are some further quotes from Moon about the 36 couples: “I have received many such certificates from Satan. One of the most dramatic was during the Blessing of the 36 couples. Incredible controversy erupted at that time; people were praying to God, “Please don’t let Reverend Moon take my son away. Let him die tonight instead.” … At the time of the 36 couple Blessing, the entire nation of Korea opposed me. I was a villain in the eyes of the country.”  December 27, 1981, Belvedere, New York.

“This is the first group of people I blessed. These cover every facet of our society every group of society so for everyone who accepts the principle there is room to go to heaven. They have their own ladder to climb up. They have their own channel. Do you understand? I want you to understand that I opened 36 doors so that every person here on earth has one door to get into. No opportunity is lost, there is always a door open for everyone out there, once they accept and repent they can go through one door which is the mercy of God.”  May 20, 1978, London.

“All women’s love should unite with me. The 36 couples should not think about their own family, but how to save the nation.”  July 14, 2002, East Garden, New York.

Taught at a Family Federation for World Peace and Unification workshop:

“The Purpose of God’s Providence of Salvation is to end the journey of God's sperm.”

Moon had sex ceremonies with the wives of all the first 36 couples.

Sun Myung Moon restored the first three wives

Pikareum explained in Moon’s own words

Ritual Sex in the Unification Church

How “God’s Day” was established in 1968

Where Moon got his theology from

Hyo-won Eu told them the real story of Sun Myung Moon 

Hyo-min Eu’s testimony: “Moon’s ‘Gigantic lie’”

#36 couples #Sun Myung Moon #Unification Church #FFWPU #mass marriages #mass wedding

To the Moon and Back: A Childhood Under the Influence

by Lisa Kohn May 2018

http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1139668/how-i-survived-a-cult

After growing up in a cult, I struggled with an eating disorder & addiction — here's how I made it out alive

“The best seats I ever had at Madison Square Garden were at my mother’s wedding.”

This is how I explain part of my childhood — the cult part — to people who don’t know me. You have to be of at least a certain age to get the reference. Back in the early 1980s Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed Messiah and leader of the Unification Church, led a mass wedding at Madison Square Garden. My mother, older brother and I were members of this church — we were “Moonies” — and my mother was one of the 4,150 Moonies married during the ceremony.

We hadn’t always been Moonies. My mother joined when I was 10 years old and brought my brother and me along with her. We became fervent followers — I spent Sunday afternoons standing on a box in the then-seedy Times Square shouting through a bullhorn at the sinners on the street doing my best to save the world for God.

When you grow up in a cult, you have no idea it’s a cult.

My life, mind and soul were dedicated to Moon and his teachings. His children were some of my best friends, and I was a frequent guest at his dinner table or in his pool. I believed in his Truth and pledged my devotion — and blood, sweat and tears.

I pledged my devotion until, for a variety of interrelated reasons, I questioned my devotion. While the church’s puritanical mandates had not only been a haven from the nonconventional (some might say dysfunctional or dangerous) lifestyle my parents had lived — and exposed my brother and me to — in our earliest years, toward the end of high school, I began to doubt if I could or would live my life as a Moonie.

It was not a simple or easy thing to do.

When you have learned and believed that there is a Truth and that there is “right” and “wrong,” it’s terrifying to walk away from what you have known as right. One of the things about mind control and extremist situations is that they teach you that questioning and doubting are signs of weakness and sin. Any inklings of misbelief are a sign that Satan is conquering you. Any hesitation or uncertainties are your defects. You think, “Why?” or “Why not?” and your brain screams, “Get out, Satan,” as you were taught to do. You fall to your knees and repent for your wickedness.

Questioning — or leaving — is not a simple or easy thing to do.

I did slowly find my way out of the Moonies. I went to college, and the physical separation gave me a bit of space to try to think things through for myself. The problem is I had learned not to think things through for myself. Instead, I found myself wracked with anguish and tormented by the thought of leaving the Truth and the Messiah — not to mention almost everyone and everything I knew and loved. I nearly threw myself over a bridge just off campus. I questioned endlessly — in my mind and to others — “What should I do? What should I do?”

Finally, a friend offered me, “Maybe it’s right, but it’s just not right for you.” I clung to that as my lifeline and began to pull myself further and further away.

But I don’t think I felt good about what I was doing. My sophomore year, I became anorexic. My junior year, I developed a mild cocaine addiction. My senior year, I dove into a relationship with someone who was already taken and became the “other woman.” A few years out of college, I found myself engaged to a man who drank and drugged (hard) with my dad and who was mean to me when he did.

In retrospect, I think I was punishing myself for leaving the Messiah and disappointing God. Luckily, that engagement became a bit of a bottom for me. (Funny that the anorexia, cocaine addiction and other disastrous relationships didn’t.)

I stumbled into a 12-step program, crying, “Tell me if I’m with an alcoholic. There’s no way I would ever be with an alcoholic.”

Apparently, there were many, many reasons why I would be with an alcoholic, including the fact that I was raised in a cult. It does warp your mind… and your self-esteem.

They never told me if I was with an alcoholic. They never told me very much other than, “Keep coming back. It works if you work it.” But they offered me hugs and understanding. And by coming back — and back and back some more — and by adding mindfulness, meditation, yoga, self-compassion and acceptance, a few decades of therapy (and trauma therapy) and at times, practically anything I could find that would up my self-love and self-care (and, again, self-compassion) I began to build a new life.

I have built a life that astounds me. A life I never knew I could have. A life I never knew existed. I certainly have emotional and mental scars from my childhood, but I’ve learned to live with them, to lessen them and to let them be OK.

I know growing up in a cult is different. When I told both my kids about my experiences, they both responded with, “I didn’t see that coming,” to the cult part. Who would, I guess? I also know my emotional and mental scars are pretty universal. No one seems to identify with my actual story; many people identify with my pain and struggles.

I also now know that no matter what one has endured — and there are many people who have endured far worse than I have — there is a way to happiness and contentment. There is a way to peace. It can take a great deal of work, but it’s worth it.

It takes releasing some of the nasty lies you may have learned through the nasty experiences and learning some kindler, gentler truths. Truths like you deserve to be happy. You deserve to find joy. You deserve to be at peace. Because we all do.

Lisa Kohn is an accomplished leadership consultant, executive coach, author, and keynote speaker with a strong business background and a creative approach. She has over 20 years of experience partnering with Fortune 500 clients in areas of leadership, communication styles, managing change, interpersonal and team dynamics, and strategy, as well as life balance and fulfillment.

Lisa Kohn's book, To the Moon and Back: A Childhood Under the Influence will be available for purchase in September 2018.

To learn more, visit: https://www.lisakohnwrites.com/

Megyn Kelly TODAY

Lisa Kohn became a member of the controversial Unification Church when her mother joined in the 1970s. Life in the church was full of hope until she began asking questions about its beliefs. Lisa Kohn joins Megyn Kelly TODAY to share about the internal struggles she faced when trying to leave – and how she found happiness when she did. VIDEO

In 1976 Moon’s doctrine was spreading

Moon claimed authority through his “meeting with Jesus”

The Four Fallen Natures of the Divine Principle are used as a means of controlling members.

Fear is not a good reason to stay in the FFWPU

Cult Indoctrination Process by Means of Psychological Manipulation

How We Rescued Our Daughter from FFWPU in the late 1970s

#Lisa Kohn #Unification Church #Moonies #Madison Square Garden #FFWPU #mass wedding

Why did a Japanese UC member kill her Korean husband? (Updated 2018)

Moon and Hak Ja Han conduct the 1995 mass wedding in Korea.

From 週刊文春 Shūkan Bunshun, December 6, 2012 (pages 143-145).

by freelance writer Kenichiro Ishii

Why did a Japanese woman kill her Korean husband?

[On January 29, 2013 a court sentenced 朴美雪, ボクミユキ, Miyuki Park to nine years in prison. Details below.]

Twenty years have passed since the Unification Church mass weddings have become known as a social problem. This started from the time when Junko Sakurai and others participated in a mass wedding. [From the 1970s to the 1990s she was a very well-known Japanese singer and actor.] Even today the Unification Church continues to send Japanese women believers to South Korea in the name of the “blessing of marriage.” In August 2012 one of those believers murdered her Korean husband in a tragic incident.

What was behind this tragedy?

The city of Chuncheon in Gangwon province is known as the setting for the famous TV drama “Winter Sonata.” In 2004, when the drama was released, three hundred and seventy thousand tourists from Japan visited the site. However, the Japanese people who now may be encountered on the streets are the women who have married Korean men through the international mass marriage ceremonies of the Unification Church (the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity).

Today, the number of Japanese women who live in South Korea is estimated to be about eighteen thousand. Of these about seven thousand are supposedly members of the Unification Church.

Mrs M. (aged 52), who killed her husband, was one of them. At around 3:00AM on the 21st of August she called 119 for the emergency services, saying: “My sick husband has become very ill.”

When the emergency crew arrived, her husband, Mr Jegun Park (aged 51), was dressed and sitting on the floor. His head was slumped down, and he was not breathing. At the Gangwon-Do Kangwon National University Hospital, where Mr Park was taken, his death was at first diagnosed as being caused by his illness. However, when the Chuncheon city police asked Mrs M. about the details, she acted strangely. When she was asked whether she had killed him, there was a twenty-minute silence. Then she nodded and said “yes.”

Mrs M. thought of killing her husband during the afternoon of the previous day. In the evening she had smothered her husband with a towel, which covered his nose and mouth, and had pressed on his throat for five minutes.

Why did she kill her husband? “Ever since marrying him, I have suffered – too much drinking and violence, and too little money,” Mrs M. said in her testimony.

Seventeen years have passed since she participated in the mass wedding ceremony of 1995. Mr Park was long unemployed, and they lived impoverished lives. They had no children. They had survived with the help of a national welfare-payment of about 500,000 won, ($440) and the 500,000 won which Mrs M. earned. She often worked 12 hours in a day – in restaurant or housekeeper jobs. That was the monthly income they had to live on.

For ten years Mr Park had kidney disease. The cost of his monthly dialyses treatment was 700,000 won ($620), and it was a heavy burden. She even once took Mr Park to Japan to see a doctor there. Yet he kept on drinking and abusing Mrs M. When he got drunk, he swore, broke furniture, and threw things around the house. The way he treated Mrs M. was worse than the way he treated their dog.

“Mrs M. told me that her husband did not work and regularly said ‘we are going to the hospital.’ She seemed to be a quiet and serious woman. I often saw her ride her wearing a hat and riding her bicycle,” said a woman who lives in the building where the incident took place.

The apartment building where Mrs M. and Mr Park lived.

From time to time Mrs M. went to a small shop near their apartment to buy food such as kamaboko (boiled fish paste) and tofu, but she only ever made small purchases, said the man who owned the shop. “I knew that the couple were married in a mass wedding. Mrs M. went to the church regularly, but I never saw her husband go. She was a good wife. She worked very hard, but her husband was exploiting her.”

Mr Park went to the same shop to buy rice wine and other alcohol. The owner advised Mr Park many times that “he should be more responsible because he has a foreign wife. He did try. But he got injured in a bike accident; it just didn’t work out. He even tried to stop drinking. But his character was weak. When there were friends drinking in the park, even as early as noon, he couldn’t ignore them and just pass by. Eventually both his body and face became swollen. It was obvious that he was ill. I’m sure he was aware of it too.” According to the owner, Mr Park’s deteriorating health was a known fact in the neighborhood. After the incident, the local women were sharing these stories with each other.

The above mentioned woman remarked “She had tolerated him for seventeen years – she just had to endure it a little longer. She didn’t have to kill him now.”

Mrs M. had stopped going to the Unification Church in Chuncheon a few months before the incident.

According to the people involved with the Korean Unification Church, “Mrs M. had talked to the church many times and sought help. However, the church did not do anything. She became disappointed, and stopped going to church.” Another person involved with the church said “Mrs M. had been suffering from depression for three years. However, she did not have the money to get treatment. Around a week before the incident, her family came from Japan and tried to take her back there. However, she rejected the offer.”

The attorney appointed by the Unification Church requested a psychiatric evaluation. Therefore, Mrs M. was taken to a secure unit located in the city of Gongju, South Chungcheong Province. The results showed she had a mild adjustment disorder. It was agreed that she had was mentally weak at the moment of her crime. However, she refused treatment, and was charged with murder. On November 9th, the first trial was held in Chuncheon District Court. When Mrs M. appeared in court, her face was devoid of any expression or sense of vitality. In an almost inaudible voice she admitted that she had killed her husband.

Top: Moon and Hak Ja Han conduct a mass wedding in Seoul in 1995. (Mrs Miyuki Park was married to her Korean husband there. It seems he was not a believer, but just went to the church to get a wife. He was an alcoholic and beat his wife.) Bottom: Reverend Sun Myung Moon who died in September 2012.

“If you become a UC follower, you can get married”

Within the sect the mass weddings are called the “Blessing”. It is taught that this is the means of being “liberated from the original sin and in the end it is the only way salvation can be achieved.” For a Japanese follower, the participation fee is a “1.4 million yen ($11,560) Blessing Donation” in addition to the actual costs. It is the largest event for the Unification Church. It is also, like other events, an event from which to make a profit. To participate in this “blessing” and to build an ideal family is the highest goal of life for the followers. To qualify for the “Blessing,” Japanese followers engage in missionary activities without giving their true identity and “inspiration businesses” using false identities.

However, for Mrs M. and Mr Park it did not result in a “blessing.” During police questioning she was asked “Do you have a religion?” Mrs M. answered “I do not have a religion now.”

A lot of attention given to the mass wedding of 30,000 couples in 1992 because a famous Japanese singer, Junko Sakurada, and others participated. In 1995, in a greatly expanded mass wedding, Mrs M. was one of the 360,000 couples. This was the year the Unification Church planned an event much larger than before. In order to increase the number of participants, they recruited widely to get non-believers to join in as well. Rev Sun Myung Moon reportedly said, “Come to the Unification Church. If you do not have someone to marry, I’ll soon get you married.”

In August 1995, I was a writer for the weekly magazine Shūkan Bunshun. I saw the words “Recruiting unmarried men and women” written on a banner on the wall of the church headquarters in Seoul. This was a week before the mass wedding. In the rural outskirts of Daejeon, I talked to a thirty four year-old man who was going to participate in the wedding. I asked “why did you become a follower?” This was his frank answer: “Because I was told by the pastor of the Unification Church that if I become a believer, I can get married.” (Shūkan Bunshun August 31, 1995 issue)

Through the invitations of a sham marriage agency, men participated who not only had no faith, but did not work, had alcohol problems or a history of violence. For these reasons they had not been able to marry. Wives were chosen for them by the Reverend Moon. The brides could not to refuse because they believed he was the Lord of the Second Coming.

Here is another thing Reverend Moon said, “If you consider the possibility of not receiving a blessing at all, you should be grateful. Even if your husband has no eyes or no nose, it does not matter.”

Marriage to a Korean has great significance for the Japanese women followers of Moon. It is the highest honor for them to marry a man from the same country as Reverend Moon. In addition, the Unification Church teaches that Korea is the nation of Adam, and Japan is the nation of Eve. Eve must serve Adam. It is also necessary to atone for the “thirty-six years of colonial domination by Imperial Japan.”

The women are indoctrinated that they are “paying indemnity 蕩減 (to liquidate sin)” and so must endure any kind of hardship or suffering under any circumstances. They strive to be dutiful wives, devoted mothers and good to their husband’s parents. Nationwide there have been more than a hundred Japanese women followers who have been awarded the “孝婦賞 Woman of Filial Piety Award” or other awards by local governments, agricultural cooperatives and other organizations. This last June [2012] a member was given an award by President Lee Myung-bak himself.

A woman who married into a farming village in Korea, in the same 1995 mass wedding as Mrs M., said “To be recognized means for us that the church is being recognized. With this in mind, everyone works desperately hard.” She is no longer a follower because she became aware of the errors of the teachings. She looked down as she remarked, “I cannot take this as just another incident; it affects me as if it were my own affair.”

Shuichi Okami is an attorney who belongs to the Liaison Committee of the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales [fortune telling fraud, etc.]. This incident, he said, reminded him of a former member who was also in the 1995 mass wedding. She met her Korean husband-to-be only two days before the wedding. After the wedding, she discovered some shocking information. “Your partner applied to participate before, but he was rejected because of his serious alcoholism. This time he was only admitted because his parents made a large donation.”

Her pure faith was completely shattered by this. With the help of her family, the woman decided to leave the church. She filed a lawsuit to get her marriage declared null and void. One winter morning in 2000, the former husband-to-be was found dead in a park. At trial the following year she won her case. So far there have been almost fifty lawsuits to prove similar marriages were not valid. In almost all cases the plaintiffs have won.

Attorney Okami continued, saying “this woman joined a group of plaintiffs who claimed that ‘during recruitment the true identity of the Unification Church was hidden and that this was illegal.’ They won this case as well.

The court confirmed their statement that ‘if you refuse a partner selected by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, you had to fear that the path to salvation for you and your ancestors is closed. You also come to worry that you may suffer illness, injury or death, and after you die you will suffer in hell. This caused [the members] substantial mental and emotional distress.’

The court ruled that ‘the formula course direction to participate in the mass weddings inhibited the freedom of marriage of the plaintiffs, and this was against the law.’ The mass weddings of the Unification Church are a serious problem.”

Hiroko Nakanishi (Religious Sociology) is a part time tutor at Kansei Gakuin University. She investigates by interviewing Japanese followers about their life in Korea, and she also analyzes the internal Japanese church newspaper entitled “Hongo People”. [Hongō 本郷 is a district of Tokyo.] Within the regular feature called “Hongo Mutual Aid Association” 本郷互助会 there is a section named “This Month’s People in Need”. Here are published descriptions of families in trouble, and the support they asking for. The main problems they face are alcoholism of husbands, sickness, mental disorders, child and adult health issues, debts, and so on. In the June 2004 edition, the following text was published:

“My husband is an alcoholic and has not worked for the past 4-5 years. I work in a factory. However, the monthly wage of 570,000 yen is not enough to support our lives. Due to the deteriorating economic conditions, I have not been given my wages for two months now…(abridged)… I am worn out, in both body and soul. I want to escape this living hell but I cannot afford to flee, so I am seeking help from the Mutual Aid Association.

<Aid Given> 20kg of rice for 6 months, employment finding services.” Other examples included “Gift of five hundred thousand won,” “one hundred thousand won loan.” It is not clear how much help this assistance was for them.

Ms. Nakanishi said, “I think there are more than a few people who are suffering in similar circumstances to those of Mrs M. Although she was the aggressor in the incident, in a sense Mrs M. was also a victim of the mass weddings.”

The church in Chuncheon which Mrs M. attended.

Did Mrs M. ask for help? When we asked the Public Relations Department of the Unification Church of Japan, they gave this answer: “Perhaps because she did not want to cause trouble, she did not ask for help or consult us. Instead, friends belonging to the local church approached the ‘Hongo Mutual Aid Association’ on her behalf. They were doing their best to arrange for counseling visits at her home, provision of food, and support for living costs.”

In addition, I asked them if a match between a Japanese woman with sincere faith and a Korean man without any faith at all did not contradict their so-called ‘blessing.’

They replied “what is wonderful about the marriages of the Unification Church is the sharing of common values. The husband and wife place God at the center of their lives, and strive to live for each other. They seek to become ideal couples and, through their mutual support, to build an ideal family.”

However, couples like Mrs M. and Mr Park did not “share common values.” If the Unification Church continues to mass produce similar couples, more problems will naturally arise. The existence of a ‘Hongo Mutual Aid Association’ proves this very fact.

As many as four hundred million couples involved in mass weddings?

After the three hundred and sixty thousand couples’ mass wedding in 1995, the numbers have been reported as 40 million couples, 360 million couples, and 400 million couples. The mass weddings have been taking place almost every year since then.

How did they recruit so many million participants? The Unification Church made a dummy organization. Behind this façade they ran a campaign called “Chastity Education” and produced “Chastity candy” [“Holy candy”]. They distributed these Chastity candies in kindergartens, elementary and middle schools for free in Korea. In Japan, they handed them out them on the streets. Quite amazingly, every person who accepted this candy was counted as a participant.

Without having solved the numerous problems of the Unification Church, Rev Sun Myung Moon died on September 3rd 2012. He was 92 years old. The thirty two thousand Japanese followers of Moon were requested to visit Korea with condolences, each paying 120,000 yen ($1000). Just this amounts to 3.8 billion yen ($31,400,000). Even after the death of Rev Moon, the Church’s profit-first nature remains utterly the same.

Miyuki Park was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Regarding the remarks of the presiding judge at the judgment hearing of the trial at the Chuncheon District Court on January 29, I will quote the Japanese translation made by Mr. Seung-min Park who was there in person.

January 29, 2013 

High Court No. 238, 2012 Defendant 朴美雪ボクミユキ Miyuki  Park (known as Mrs Boku Miyuki in Japan.)

The presiding judge addressed the defendant, Miyuki Park. “You can understand what I am saying, right? In the earlier trial proceedings there was an interpreter. For today’s sentencing, I will speak slowly because the interpreter has not yet arrived in the courtroom. The defendant is a Japanese national, but evidently understands Korean to some extent. Therefore, the sentencing will be given in Korean without an interpreter. According to the prosecution evidence which has been lawfully considered, the court can conclude that there is sufficient for the accused to be charged with the murder.

The presiding judge addressed the defendant by name, “Defendant Miyuki Park! According to the evidence, the court can conclude that the accused is to be charged with the murder. Do you understand? I will explain the reasons for the penalty for the murder for which the accused is found guilty.

“In this case the victim (the husband of the accused) was in a state of poor health, suffering the aftermath of a cerebral hemorrhage and chronic renal (kidney) failure and was unable to resist. He was killed while he was sleeping. The defendant killed her husband, but as a spouse was obliged to support and protect him. The circumstances of this crime are serious. According to the crime report, 50 minutes after killing the victim, the accused called 119 for the ambulance instead of 112 for the police. Even after arriving at the hospital the behavior was bad, as she explained to the doctor that the victim was unable to receive dialysis for several days, and his condition had worsened and he had died.

“The husband had frequently ranted and insulted the defendant, but it is difficult to see a pattern of the accused being punished through domestic violence. The defendant could have gotten out of this situation in which she found herself through other ways besides choosing the extreme course of murder.

“Also taking into account that the victim’s father wants a severe punishment to be given to the accused, a heavy sentence for the accused is inevitable.

“However, there are some points to favor leniency. The defendant was married to the victim after they met through the Unification Church, also she was married to a foreigner. The defendant supported the victim who was suffering from chronic renal failure. The defendant suffered from adjustment disorder and from persistent depression. It seems that due to this, the defendant seems to have suffered from poor mental and physical health. Following all this, she committed the crime.

“Leniency should be considered since the defendant is a first-time offender with no prior history of any criminal offense. We have decided the judgment as follows by applying the criteria for sentencing by the Supreme Court.

“The defendant shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than nine years. I will confiscate the towel which was seized. Defendant Miyuki Park, do you understand the sentence that has been pronounced?”

[Defendant Miyuki Park replied,] “I was sentenced to nine years in prison.”  or possibly  [Presiding judge:] “You have been sentenced to nine years in prison.”  It is not clear from the Japanese text which of the two said this.

“If you are dissatisfied with this decision and want to appeal, you can do so. The appeals form can be submitted within seven days from today to the Director (the Prison Director). It will then be sent by the Chuncheon Court to the (appeals court at the) Seoul High Court.

“Defendant Miyuki Park, is there anything you do not understand about the decision? Do you understand about the appeal process? Is there any part for which you need further explanation?”

Miyuki Park spoke in a very quiet voice which the presiding judge could not hear. The prosecutor, who was close by, heard what Miyuki Park had said, and conveyed it to the Chief Justice. It seems that Miyuki Park requested the contents of the ruling in writing.

The presiding judge said, “Yes, you will receive the ruling in writing. Because the accused is on detention, the details of the proceedings including today’s sentence will be written in detail and sent to you. Do you wish to say anything else? …I will now conclude the sentencing hearing.”

日本人妻はなぜ韓国人夫を殺したのか? 統一教会「合同結婚式」の悲劇

“Apology marriages” made by Japanese UC members to Korean men.

“Please search for the 6,500 women missing from the mass wedding ceremony,” victim’s families appealed.

Japanese 20-year-old woman recruited by the UC, and then sold to an older Korean farmer

韓国よ、私の姉を返せ！！Please return my sister from Korea.

Yuka Nakamura, a Unification Church member in Korea, recently took her own life

The ‘True Father’ who could not forgive: “I haven’t been able to release my grudge towards Japanese people yet.” November 2011

Moon personally extracted $500 MILLION from Japanese sisters in the fall of 1993. He demanded that 50,000 sisters attend HIS workshops on Cheju Island and each had to pay a fee of $10,000.

Summary of Professor Park Yuha’s Book “Comfort Women of the Empire”

“The Comfort Women” by Professor C. Sarah Soh

What Is Behind South Korea’s Criticism On Comfort Women Issue

#Unification Church #Sun Myung Moon #mass wedding #murder #apology marriage #Family Federation for World Peace

When Truth is Complex – On Telling the Story of My Upbringing in the UC

Cara E Jones

Huffington Post 05/04/2017

I tell other people’s stories for a living. Maybe, in part, because I’ve been avoiding telling my own. I’ve been holding onto this for too long now.

So that’s me. Almost twenty two years ago. In the front row. In the Seoul Olympic Stadium with 10-thousand other couples. In an arranged marriage. And in what feels like another lifetime. I grew up in a unique religious organization called the Unification Church whose members have been called “Moonies” and cult followers. My first marriage was arranged by the controversial founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, using 8x10 photographs. My then husband and I met a month before we traveled to Korea to be married. ...

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