The Unification Church in America -- A Bibliography and Research Guide - Michael L. Mickler - 1987
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The Unification Church in America -- A Bibliography and Research Guide - Michael L. Mickler - 1987 |
The Unification Church, more formally known as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, has been one of the most controversial new religious movements in the United States and in other countries. It has received much critical attention not only from the media and various branches of the United States government, but also from articles and books written by some sociologists, psychiatrists, deprogrammed apostates, their parents, and others. Although the public is acquainted almost entirely with these unfavorable sources, the Church's willingness to sponsor conferences of all kinds and to dialogue particularly with Christian theologians ranging from liberals to fundamentalists has made Unificationism the most thoroughly examined among the new religious movements. Unfortunately, however, many publications resulting from such encounters, although offered to the public, have been little read. Therefore, it is important that a definitive bibliography which includes material on both sides of the controversies, and a much fuller picture of the Unification Church and Rev. Moon, should be published. This introduction will outline the cultural background, philosophy, theology, and history of the Unification Church in the context of rapid cultural and social change.
Sociologically, the Unification Church must be viewed as the product of the religious and cultural ferment following Korean independence from Japan after World War II. From the second century B.C. until 1895 Korea had paid tribute to China most of the time, and frequently to Japan from the third century A.D. to 1873. After its declaration of independence from China in 1876 there was war between Japan and China during the Korean Tong-hak insurrection in 1894. Then followed a brief period of independence until Japan annexed Korea in 1910 (Vos 1977: 5, 21, 26; Gowen 1927: 329-37, 356-431).
Due to such contact with both China and Japan for so many years it is not surprising that the culture and religions of Korea show their influence. While still retaining an indigenous shamanism, Korea's religious history was largely that of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism until Christianity and Western culture began to make an impact in the nineteenth century (Vos 1977: 5,156, 175-77). In that period of cultural ferment there was very great insecurity and new religions appeared. Additionally, there was a need among Koreans to rediscover their roots and national identity. Likewise, after World War II and the liberation from Japan, Spencer Palmer noted that new religions "sprang up like mushrooms after the rain," and concluded that these religions with their popular following are a powerful force in Korea today. In their efforts to meet the needs of Koreans in their rapidly changing scene they are challenging the conventional faiths (Palmer 1967: 1). The anthropologist Felix Moos credited their prominence after World WWII to "accelerated change, uncertainty, discontent, and the need for a belief that provides answers to physical, mental and spiritual aspirations" (Moos 1967: 12).
The new Korean religions, including the Unification Church, have similar characteristics:
1) Having emerged during a period of national restoration, they all have a strong spirit of nationalism. Thus, just as Israel has unique significance for both Jewish people and Christians, Korea likewise receives veneration as the birthplace of their religion by both Korean and foreign members of the Unification Church.
2) A second feature of these new movements is their messianism, the belief in the return of one who will redeem them from suffering. In this respect, the office of the Second Advent of Christ for which other religious leaders vie with one another is not a unique claim of the Unification Church.
3) These Korean new religions offer plans for a physical utopia and the transformation of the present world into an ideal one. Further, efforts are made to achieve economic security.
4) A fourth common trait is that the followers consider their particular teachings to have been divinely revealed to the founder. In some cases a god or spirit has spoken through him or her; in others, a dream or a vision revealed the divine will. Or sometimes the mind of the founder was simply divinely inspired to understand and to proclaim the truth (Moos 1967: 12-13).
5) The Korean new religions make organized and conscious efforts to integrate traditional patterns with the plethora of foreign influences unleashed by sudden socio-economic changes (Moos 1967: 27). They are syncretistic (Palmer 1967: 1). They combine, reconcile, and often transform differing beliefs into new systems as did Christianity which formed a synthesis of conflicting Jewish, Greek, and popular religious doctrines. Thus the Unification Church, while reinterpreting Christianity as its foundation, unites with it elements of Oriental philosophy such as are found in Confucianism, Korean Buddhism, other new religions, and a native shamanism.
Philosophically, the Unification concept of God with dual characteristics of positivity and negativity, male and female represents the Confucian principles of Yang and Yin, respectively. These dual characteristics of God, Rev. Moon relates to Genesis 1:27 wherein it is written that God created male and female in His own image. Rev. Moon then adds another reciprocal relationship between two dualities: external form and invisible character. These correspond respectively to body and mind, effect and cause, object and subject. Such correspondences apply also to God and the entire universe in which God is the cause and its internal character. God as the masculine subject and cause created the earth, the effect, as His feminine external form (Divine Principle [Divine Principle] 1973: 20-25). Thus, God corresponds analogically to the Confucian Heaven (masculine) and Earth (feminine), a transfer and transformation of symbols.
Unification teaching refers to the Chinese classic, the Book of Changes (I Ching) in presenting its philosophy of creation. According to the text, the foundation of the universe is Taeguk (ultimacy) in Korean, corresponding to the Chinese Tai Chi. From this comes Yang and Yin (positivity and negativity) and all things. Positivity and negativity together are called the "Tao," defined as the "Way" or "Word." Thus, Taeguk produced the Word (creative principle), and the Word produced all things (Divine Principle 1973: 26-27). When God's dual essentialities enter into reciprocal relationship, this action causes the dual essentialities to separate into two substantial objects centered upon God. Then, the substantial subject and object pair enter into give-and-take action, forming one unit as an object to God. Professor Tai Soo Han views this "origin-division-union" process as representing the movement of the Tai Chi in the process of creation according to the I Ching (Han, T. 1981: 262-63).
Other Confucian characteristics have similarities with Unification thought and help explain some of its ideas and emphases. Confucianism is both a political and moral philosophy like that of the Unification Church. To become a Sage-King is Confucianism's highest ideal, according to the eminent Chinese philosopher, Feng Yu-leng, and this represents the Oriental aspect of Rev. Moon's messianism. "It is not necessary that the sage should be the actual head of government in society... it only means that he who has the noblest spirit should theoretically be king. As to whether he had or had not the opportunity to be king, that is immaterial" (Feng 1962: 2-4). This suggests an explanation for some of Rev. Moon's seemingly antithetical statements concerning his role. Confucian also is the Unification belief that the ideal state on earth, i.e., the Kingdom of Heaven can only come to pass through humanity's cooperation with God as co-creators (Chang 1981: 7475). Confucianism has contributed even more to Unification thought in its emphasis upon the family, and rules of filial piety both in reference to the present and spirit worlds. Moreover, the priority of the family as a whole above the individual member in Unification soteriology requires that individual salvation depend upon the salvation of one's entire family. This emphasis upon the family unit rather than the individual may help explain Rev. Moon's distaste for American individualism, concerning which more will be said.
Some Korean scholars have cited the importance of the Haedong School of Buddhism as a predecessor to Rev. Moon's revelation. This indigenous movement of Won Hyo (617-686 A.D.) has been so enduring that even Korean school children know about him. He, like Rev. Moon, tried to reconcile divergent views and form a synthesis that would break down the barriers of race and religion, and unify the ideals of a divided society and existing sects. This would be accomplished by each person's sacrificial living for others, e.g., for the family, the family for society, society for the nation, for humanity, and for God--a theocracy with one world under God (Choi, M. 1981: 97-108; and discussion, 109-11).
Unification also has patterns similar to Ch'ondogyo. Che-u Ch'oe, who founded the school in 1860, combined elements of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism with features of Korean shamanism and Christianity (Weems 1964: 157). Ch'oe, who originally called his movement Tong-hak or Eastern Learning to distinguish it from Western Learning, protested against the growing power of Western culture and Roman Catholicism. Ch'oe believed that God had called him to instruct men in the way or the "Principle." His commission was to serve God, causing his own heart to become identical with the creating power of God, thereby attaining perfect holiness. To teach this principle to others and to urge them to self-sacrificial action for humanity would harmonize their actions with God's, resulting in the Kingdom of God on earth (Vos 1977: 189-97). These concepts of Ch'oe and his successor, Sihyong Ch'oe, are also part of Rev. Moon's Principle. Also, similar to the intensive training Rev. Moon gives to his disciples were the religious Training Institutes for actual and prospective Ch'ondogyo leaders. Benjamin Weems remarks how this intensified review of Ch'ondogyo philosophy helped create a disciplined, well-indoctrinated, patriotic movement which by 1919 had built up a large nation-wide membership (Weems 1964: 12, 68, 75-76).
One, however, cannot fully understand the resonance of Rev. Moon's thought, particularly in Korea and Japan, without understanding the importance of an indigenous shamanism in these countries. Shamanism is Korea's oldest and one of the most important indigenous religions. In its expression the shaman, a priest, communicates with spirits or deities while entranced. Koreans under foreign subservience have always felt a special security in their indigenous guardians against evil spirits and misfortune, and Dr. Young Oon Kim asserts that Koreans of all classes have turned to the Mudangs (shamans) for guidance in periods of stress (Kim, Y. O. 1976, vol. 3: 175). I have also observed that many Americans have turned to Spiritualistic mediums in times of similar need. Spiritualism, akin to shamanism, and also an indigenous American religion, has as its protectors the Native American Indian guides who speak through the medium. Rev. Moon's asserted ability to communicate with the spirit world makes the Unification Church related to both shamanism and spiritualism.
In concluding this section on the influence of Oriental philosophy and native religions upon Rev. Moon's thought, it would be dangerous to conclude that he consciously borrowed from anyone particular religious movement or tradition. The similarities are more likely due to the huge reservoir of common thought present in Korea, partly of foreign origin, partly indigenous and often contradictory, but usually remolded and reinterpreted by religious figures from early times to Rev. Moon's. Such is the case with most religions, if their histories are examined in the context of ideas prevalent at the time of their origins. The popularity, influence and growth of most such movements have been dependent upon their abilities to use the beliefs in such a way as to transfer and reinterpret religious symbols so as to give meaning at particular periods of national and/or personal crises.
At such times of insecurity during Korea's long history, charismatic saviors have given new patterns that have provided hope and relief from suffering and alienation, even as they have in the case of Christianity and other world religions.
Probably the most important aspect of Rev. Moon's thought has been his interpretation of Christian theology, over which theologians have debated as to the extent that it can even be called Christian. Whereas the Oriental influence has presented us with a generally impersonal concept of God, Rev. Moon's interpretation of Christian theology shows us a personal deity with whom he has conversed as he has with Jesus. This is a loving God who experiences both joy and sorrow: joy through the perfection of men and women when they reflect the Divine nature; sorrow and grief over the sinfulness of the world which began with the fall of mankind (Divine Principle 1973: 43, 103; Kim, Y. 1975: 35-39).
According to Divine Principle, God planned three stages of development for Adam and Eve: formation, growth, and perfection. These were to be completed before marriage and the production of progeny, and perfection was to be attained by uniting their minds and bodies through give and take action centered on God. Had Adam and Eve completed these three stages, it would have been the first blessing of God. The second was to have been their marriage, the production of children, and the formation of a four position foundation, i.e., the two parents and the children were to form a God-centered family. This accomplishment would have qualified them and their ancestors to dominate the whole of creation without sin, as the third blessing, and would have resulted in God's Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Such oneness with God's heart in love and perfect goodness would have prevented any fall.
Unfortunately, God's Kingdom on earth was lost to Satan when he seduced Eve resulting in the spiritual fall. Her premature union with Adam in the same growth period was the physical fall. Thereafter they and all their descendants have been subject to the pollution of the Satanic lineage (Divine Principle 1973: 41-46,53,74-80,101,241-42; Principle a/Creation 1979: 18-19).
Human history which entails the transformation of the world from Satanic dominion occasioned by the fall is represented as having a series of dispensations during which the restoration could have been accomplished, e.g., at the time of Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, but in each case the restoration was incomplete because of failure of human responsibility. Jesus as the messiah was to accomplish the restoration and fulfill salvation of both spirit and body. Because of disbelief in Jesus, however, he was crucified, and his body invaded by Satan. As a consequence, even though all may have spiritual salvation by redemption through the blood of Jesus, our bodies are still within Satan's power, and it is necessary for the Christ to come again to fulfill the purpose of the providence of physical salvation and redeem us from original sin.
Divine Principle teaches further that Jesus was born as the only begotten Son of God without original sin, who as perfected man was both God and second Adam (Divine Principle 1973: 196,209). He came to fulfill the position of True Parent of mankind as was God's intention for Adam and Eve. Although Jesus did not marry, however, and the Kingdom of Heaven on earth was not fulfilled as intended, he established the spiritual foundation of faith, and his disciples, the spiritual foundation of substance. This meant that only spiritual salvation could be attained through the Holy Spirit, as True Mother, necessitating a return of Christ in the flesh to become the True Parent. So the True Parent is to give both spiritual and physical salvation by establishing a physical foundation centered on God (Divine Principle 1973: 210, 214-18, 368,511-21).
The Unification Church interprets the doctrine of the Providence of resurrection to mean the restoration of fallen humanity's original nature. It further interprets the history of the Western Christian world since Jesus' time in terms of attempts and failures to set up the proper foundations for the Second Advent and the providential Restoration. Each attempt is treated symbolically and numerologically as recapitulating the paradigm of Adam and Eve, the fallen archangel Satan, and the positions of Cain and Abel and their necessary reconciliation. Each time a central figure fails to carry out his portion of responsibility, it is believed that God sets up another "to restore the foundation to receive the messiah." This entails the repetition of the same course of history.
Now, it is believed the time is right for the Second Advent. It is taught that in the last days although Satan still dominates the world, fallen humanity may set up good conditions that will put it on the side of God. This is restoration through indemnity, which means restoration by setting up conditions that will help return mankind to its original status before the fall (Divine Principle 1973: 223-24). National catastrophes such as world wars and suffering of various kinds are sometimes interpreted as indemnifying conditions induced by sin. The Church, itself, may also set indemnifying conditions such as prayer conditions to reach specific goals; individuals too may set them to accomplish personal objectives in furthering the cause. Fasting and even cold showers may be used as forms of indemnity, as well as prayer and other forms.
While individual perfection is necessary, the family centered on God in a heartistic reciprocal relationship is also an absolute requirement for attaining heaven. The Church teaches that this love is always an expression of give and take: of God, the subject and cause, acting upon us as object and effect and then our response. It is like husband and wife reciprocating with each other in a give and take arrangement, and uniting with God to create a God-centered family. This pattern which begins with the family centered on God is meant to be duplicated over and over again, for the nation and for the world. The Kingdom on earth according to the Principle will be attained when the people in the world are one family centered on God.
The Divine Principle offers a utopian picture of the Kingdom of God on earth and what it will include, but less about its attainment except through conversion and indemnity. First, at the consummation of human history, it asserts the two worlds of communism and democracy, representing respectfully the Satanic and Heavenly sides, must be united after a Third World War. This war may be fought ideologically, however, to unite all the world under a "new ideology," or "new truth."
Second, the Divine Principle provides a clue to the political order when the messiah "will be able to set up God's sovereignty on the earth by the will of the people, thus restoring the Kingdom of Heaven on earth" (Divine Principle 1973: 442). As it is believed, "the world of creation was made with the structure of a perfect man as the model," in the ideal world all organizations of the ideal world operate only under the commands of God. These should be transmitted directly to society through "the saints" centered on Christ. His purpose "is to make the present political system... display perfectly its original function centering on God's will..." (Divine Principle 1973: 469-71). During his lifetime, however, the Lord of the Second Advent would be the final interpreter of God's will, and democracy would really be a stepping stone to a "heavenly monarchy."
A third characteristic of the latter days poses a world in which there would be no competition over markets because of excessive production and consumption. The goal would be to distribute the world's goods fairly to all in proper quantities according to God's original ideal for which we were created, and one for which we are striving in this final period of the consummation of human history. This will be a world of coexistence, coprosperity and common cause. The imperialistic system of economy monopolized by an individual or a certain class will be broken in favor of an equal sharing by all (Divine Principle 1973: 441-46).
In the fourth place, the unity of religion and science will enable humankind to assert Godly dominion over the things of creation as ordained before the fall. All will live in an extremely comfortable living environment due to the economic development accompanying scientific achievement (Divine Principle 1973: 107-8, 128-29).
Finally, it is argued that a worldwide cultural sphere is forming centered on Christianity. This points toward a unity of cultures, religions and languages with all people living together as one family having the Lord of the Second Advent as the True Parent of mankind (Divine Principle 1973: 107-8, 128-29). As an agent of unity, the Unification Church pictures its ideology fulfilling the purpose and expectations of all religions. The messiah, which all the great religions have been expecting is to be the Christ. "Therefore, the Lord of the Second Advent... represents the second coming of the founder of every religion" (Divine Principle 1973: 132, 528-29).
In the milieu of religious and cultural ferment and insecurity, Sun Myung Moon was born on January 6, 1920 in the hamlet of Cheong-ju, Pyeong-an Buk-Do in Northwestern Korea. His family had become Presbyterian converts when he was ten years old, and the young boy, the fifth of eight children, was said to have become quite religious early in life (Sontag 1977: 78; Sun Myung Moon n.d.: 25; Kwang 1974a: 4-7). His life's work was ordained on Easter morning in 1936. He had a vision of Jesus who explained God's desire to establish His Kingdom on earth and requested that he take this responsibility. Having consented to this mandate, he began receiving the revelation which has been presented as the Divine Principle. It is said that he received this progressively over a period of nine years not only through prayer and study of different religious scriptures (Sontag 1977:78), but also through direct spiritual communication with Jesus, Moses, and the Buddha, as well as with God, the Father (Sun Myung Moon n.d.: 25). Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, one of the leading authorities in the Unification Church, said that the term "inspired interpretation" to describe the Principle is partly true, but the "fundamental essence" came by "direct revelation" (Kwak 1980: 320-22). Mr. Hyo Won Eu published the first Korean edition as Wal-li Hae-sul (Explanation of the Principle) in 1957. In 1966 he published Wal-li Kang-ran (Discourse on the Principle). Rev. Kwak cautions us that these works are only lectures on the Principle, since only Rev. Moon is able to "speak Principle" (Kwak 1980: 320-21; Kang 1980: 1).
While keeping his mission secret at first, Rev. Moon studied electrical engineering first in Korea and then for two years in Japan at Waseda University. While there he became a political activist, promoting an underground Korean independence movement among students that led to his arrest. He later returned to Korea in 1943 (Kwang 1974a: 4-7; Lee 1981: 68).
In November 1945, he became affiliated for about six months with Paik Moon Kim who had founded a community north of Seoul known as the Israel Monastery, It was said that some there, believing Rev. Moon had received a revelation that this group was to prepare forces to receive the Lord of the Second Advent, began to follow him. When Kim was unable to agree, however, Moon then left the movement (Sudo 1971; Kwang 1974a: 4-7). Because of their association, however, rumors were started that Rev. Moon had borrowed from Kim to formulate the Principle. Rev. Moon as well as some of his first Korean members countered the accusation by replying that in Northern Korea especially there were several movements known to him whose leaders independently had revelations from God, Jesus Christ and/or the spirit world. These collectively declared: 1) the Lord of the Second Advent now comes again, born of a woman as a male Korean; 2) those receiving him would fulfill things Jesus had been unable to complete; 3) the fall of man was due to misused sex; 4) the Lord of the Second Advent would establish a new blood lineage so that all receiving him must have purified bodies and minds; 5) that the Garden of Eden would be re-established on earth (Sudo 1971; Kim, W. 1979: 5; Moon 1971: 2-3). Such movements and ideas the Unification Church has interpreted as preparatory in the way that John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus (Sudo 1971).
On June 6, 1946, Rev. Moon was said to have had a sudden revelation from Heaven to go immediately to North Korea, and though on an errand at the time, he obeyed without even returning home to say good-bye. He began anew in Pyongyang (Kim, W. 1979: 6) by establishing the Kwang-ya Church (Lee 1981: 69). There he tried also to communicate with the leader of the Inside Belly Church, so-named because it was waiting for the Lord of the Second Advent, whom it believed had been born from his mother's womb as Korean (Sudo 1971: 21). Although the leader refused to receive him as the chosen one, it is alleged that when the Communists at the request of the Christian churches accused the leaders of deception and sent them to jail, Rev. Moon was included, although unconnected with them. After almost dying from severe torture, he was released on October 31, 1947. A new beginning brought further accusations from Christian ministers, and once more he was arrested on February 22, 1948 (Moon 1971: 5-8). Sentenced to five years imprisonment, he remained in Hungnam prison camp until the United Nations, forces liberated him on October 14, 1950 during the Korean War (Lee 1981: 69).
Because there were but few followers remaining in Pyongyang, he fled on foot with two disciples via Seoul to Pusan, where he worked on the docks at night, and began writing the Principle manuscript and lectured on it by day (Kwang 1974b: 11-12; Sontag 1977: 79).
After moving again to Seoul in 1953, in 1954 he officially established the Unification Church as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (Sontag 1977: 81), known as the Tong-il Kyo (Unification Church) in Korea.
There were only a few members until the conversion of Dr. Young Oon Kim, a professor from Ehwa University. This opened the door to students and professors from both Ehwa and neighboring Yonsei University (Kwang 1974c: 23), but also increased the criticism of the movement. Whereas in America, where the Church has been most influential among young adults of the youth culture, the greatest criticism has come from parents who accuse the Church of breaking up families by "brainwashing" their children, not so in Korea. There the early Church was more influential on married people and particularly women, so that opposition was more likely to come from their husbands. Because of the length of services which frequently ran past the state-imposed curfew, many members were obliged to stay overnight. Unless both husbands and wives were involved, however, accusations of adulterous activities often were made. Moreover, since women often became celibate before they were officially blessed in marriage by Rev. Moon, their husbands made the same charges. Early members agree that these accusations were false (Kim, W. 1979: 8-9; Han, J. 1976; Kwang 1975: 15). Because newspapers had given publicity to this criticism before, Rev. Moon, four leaders, and several senior members were arrested after new accusations were made (Choi, S.D. 1967: 169). Most of the accounts in printed stories in the United States, however, do not mention that he and the others were entirely cleared of such charges. Dr. Young Oon Kim reported, however, that to placate the opposition, he was again arrested for draft evasion, but after three months in jail he was completely exonerated (Kim, Y. O. 1984: 14).
The established churches of Christianity have carried on missionary work throughout the world offering needed services at the same time, such as education in their Church schools and colleges, health care in their hospitals associated with their medical missions, or just the important feeding of starving people. The Unification Church started expanding, however, even more simply. It began by setting aside two periods of forty days each year in the summer and winter when most of the members in Seoul who had some education would go to various places in Korea to teach children mathematics and the Korean alphabet in addition to the Principle. Others without special education offered their services freely to farmers and villagers, however needed (Choi, S.D. 1967: 172). Out of their effort, in 1957 thirty new churches were established (Stewart 1975: 35). This pattern of offering themselves to people in various sacrificial ways has been characteristic of Unification Church members. If, however, it would seem impossible to separate such actions from efforts to win more converts, the same is also true of missionary educational and medical programs of established churches. Thus, if its primary purpose is to make converts, its capability to do so as well as it has, owes much to its ability to relate its philosophy to world problems we all recognize in our changing times and to the belief that the solutions are divinely ordained but require sacrificial efforts to fulfill.
The beginnings of the Unification Church on the West coast of America are associated with three missionaries: Dr. Young Oon Kim, known more familiarly to her converts as Miss Kim, Mr. David (Sang Chul) Kim, and Mr. Sang Ik Choi, all three of whom had quite different backgrounds. Dr. Young Oon Kim, former Professor of New Testament and Comparative Religion at Ehwa Women's University in Seoul, translator-editor of the first English edition of The Principle, and author of several books interpreting Unification philosophy and comparative religions, is currently Professor at the Unification Theological Seminary at Barrytown, New York. Mr. David Kim, the current President of the Seminary had been a Korean government official before his conversion. Although a deacon and choir director in the Presbyterian Church, he had dreamed of uniting the Christian and Buddhist religions. Mr. Choi was a non-believer but converted to Christianity during a week-long Christian revival meeting in Korea. After graduating from a Holiness theological seminary, and serving as Chaplain during the Korean War, he started his own church in Korea. Disturbed, however, by the distressing state of the nation and the Church, he attended a three-day period of lectures and was converted to the Unification Church (Meckler 1980: 9496). Dr. Young Oon Kim, who had been converted to Christianity at a prayer meeting in a Japanese Christian church in Korea, went to Japan to study theology at a liberal. Methodist seminary associated with Kwansei Gakuin University. Even though later she taught at Ehwa Women's University, she was unable to reconcile her liberal theological education with her religious experience. While suffering from a psycho-somatic illness because of her spiritual conflict, she was persuaded to attend lectures at the Unification Church, and after three days and the testimonies of members with similar spiritual experiences. she was converted and healed (Kim, Y. 1963).
In January 1959, Dr. Kim came to Eugene, Oregon, as a student at the University of Oregon and started her missionary work. With little success in interesting clergy of the mainline churches in Divine Principle, she did better with laymen and others who belonged to either Pentecostal or "new age" spiritual groups. Then in September 1959, Mr. David Kim arrived in Portland to attend Western Conservative Baptist Seminary and began his own missionary work. When two of Dr. Kim's most loyal members, whose husbands had become disaffected with their wives' involvement, fled to California and criticism also spread she relocated in San Francisco and turned her own groups over to Mr. Kim (Meckler 1980: 8-14).
With a nucleus of six Oregon transplants the Unificationists established a communal center in a seven-room flat and supported themselves by outside jobs. The demographics of those most attracted at this early stage included also a cross-section of predominantly young people below the age of thirty-five, primarily Protestant, mostly of lower middle class and small town backgrounds, but in addition a few older women from the occult subculture. For various reasons, according to sociologist John Loveland, who studied the movement during this period, none had felt sufficient fulfillment in life, and each was looking for a way to solve his or her particular problem. Although these factors were probably not qualitatively different from those affecting an unknown proportion of the general population, it appears that they were experienced more acutely with higher levels of tension over long periods of time. Loveland argues again that though there were other ways they could have attacked their problems, e.g., through psychiatric help, or radical politics which the secular world offered, these pre-converts to the Unification Church chose religion. This community gained but few new members and associates in the next eighteen months, and the established Christian churches were still relatively unresponsive to the new message (Loveland 1977: 5-6, 3248; Meckler 1980: 15-17,27-32).
In 1961 Mr. Bo Hi Pak, a Korean convert of Dr. Kim's and later Rev. Moon's public translator, visited the San Francisco group on his way to Washington, D.C. As Military Attaché at the Korean Embassy he began a new sphere of missionary activity by establishing a bible study group, spoke widely in churches, but disturbingly to the Bay Area members incorporated a separate organization (Meckler 1980: 35-36). This marked a new element in the factionalism which first began with David Kim's arrival and was to continue until Rev. Moon later consolidated the movement.
During the years 1960-1963 Dr. Kim's group tried numerous strategies to gain converts, such as public lectures, articles, handbills, personals in newspapers, and even letters, not to mention operating a sound truck with a bullhorn--all to little avail. Nor was the door-to-door canvassing more effective and was soon discontinued (Meckler 1980: 43-50; Loveland 1977: 8, 72-73, 78-79, 84-86, 89). From 1961 to 1963, the little group provided tape recorded lectures on the Principle for those who had showed some interest but still had little success. With the dispersal of missionaries into nearby cities in the spring of 1962, the results were still relatively poor. Out of more than 700 who had attended briefings less than half had gone to a follow-up study session even once, and only a very few of the remainder became converts. It was evident that conversion required more than merely accepting a teaching and that a close fellowship (affective bonds) and a more dynamic approach were necessary. There were even those who knew the Principle and yet were uncommitted (Loveland 1977: 177-86; Meckler 1980: 53).
By the fall of 1963, lectures took the place of taped introductions or oral readings of the text, and these were popularized. Also, after Kennedy's assassination, the Moonies were stimulated enough to abandon their covert presentation and publicly assert, "Christ is on earth" (Loveland 1977: 263-64).
After trying to visit regularly the nearby centers, Dr. Kim began having guests brought to the "headquarters" in December, 1963. Thus began the weekend training session as a viable method of recruiting. By covering the material in lectures on one weekend, together with the close fellowship and testimonies, the training session became the standard recruiting device (Meckler 1980: 58-60). Through this close fellowship (affective bonds) and testimonies the group had discovered two important ingredients to effect conversions. These are standard procedures even today in many mainline established Christian churches, especially among those that are conservative or fundamentalist.
If the weekend training session did not produce as many converts weekly as it did later, there were several reasons. First, in 1963, the core group was weakened when five foreign members were sent back from the center to their native countries as missionaries, and others to cities farther removed. Second, there was a loss of authority and an accelerated decline when Dr. Kim took a trip to Korea after stepping down from the presidency of her group. The new president, whose assumption of spiritual leadership weakened that of Dr. Kim's, then moved to Dallas, leaving the group with no local authority (Meckler 1980: 61-69). Its in-house periodical, the New Age Frontiers, that period records its turning frequently to local mediums to compensate for this loss and to receive support. In the third place, Loveland observed that at that time the recruitment efforts were only part-time, and the movement lacked the tight organization to work as sacrificially as it did after Rev. Moon moved to the United States (Loveland 1977: 279, 282, 287; Meckler 1980: 150). Fourth, and most important, this transition period occurred just before the real surge of the counterculture that united young people in their search for a new way of life to replace or reform the institutions of the Establishment.
The latter part of the 1960s was a period of beginnings of some new religious movements, as well as the accelerated growth of others, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. This had become an important center for countercultural youth emanating from demonstrations at the University of California. As sociologists Bromley and Shupe note, demonstrations for civil rights involving youth had taken place in the fifties; Kennedy had spoken of a "worldwide scale for human rights and dignity... implicit in the values of the American civil religion," while Johnson had promised a "Great Society." When the social realities did not match the ideal, the protests began. Protests over testing of nuclear weapons began in the early sixties among a few college youth, and in 1964, after the Gulf of Tonkin incident was followed by bombing of North Vietnam, the anti-war demonstrations increased (Bromley 1979: 60-63). Then, combining with elements of the new left, students expressed grievances against the government with the cry of "power to the people" and against control of the police with "off pigs!" scribbled on public buildings.
Originating earlier with the civil rights demonstrations in the South, the egalitarian spirit spread among youth and found symbolic expression in long hair and jeans for males and females alike that blurred their distinctions. The same egalitarianism partly explained the disappearance of many sororities and fraternities from the campuses. This protesting spirit led to demands for participatory democracy on campuses, which affected the administrations of many institutions of higher learning, and demonstrations against meritocracy and purposelessness of many courses taught led respectively to discontinuance of examinations in some schools, and new experimental courses often given by students themselves. If Berkeley was one chief initiator of demonstrations, similar repercussions were also felt on other university campuses, particularly in the larger cities of America. The media's daily coverage, which graphically portrayed the demonstrations, the tear gas and violence, was carried around the world. Riots on the Berkeley campus were often repeated the next day by sympathetic students in Paris and Tokyo.
Many dissatisfied students everywhere were dropping out of school to fill the hippie ghettoes throughout the world. The Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco attracted such youth from all over the United States and from other parts of the world. There they gathered together for free sex in love-ins and to experience ecstasies through psychedelic drugs. As the center for dissatisfied youth gradually moved from San Francisco to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley near the University campus, Berkeley became and has remained a Mecca for disenchanted youth, who still appear with bed-rolls on their backs.
Students of countercultural movements have observed two stages in their development: first, the charismatic stage, which hippiedom exemplified in the sixties; second, the organized stage, the separation by 1970 into communes all those who wanted to continue their alternate way of life from others who seemed too "freaky." By 1972, as many as 5,000 communes were estimated to be in the United States and Canada (Constas 1972: 19194). The seventies marked the development of numerous new countercultural communal religions as well.
During the latter years of the sixties, it should not be surprising that in the Unification Church membership among youth increased at a great rate, since so many were searching for meaningful answers. My own research supports Bromley and Shupe's contention that the amount of support a movement receives is a function of the nature, location and amount of discontent, the ability to channel it, and the amount of social control the Establishment employs. They maintain further that youth were a major source of members because of the "disproportionate impact of cultural change on individuals undergoing socialization" and their relative freedom from commitment to family and careers (Bromley 1979: 78-79).
When Dr. Kim was invited to take leadership of the movement in Washington, D.C., most of her group went with her, leaving the field in the Bay Area to Mr. Choi to develop from 1964 to 1970. In Berkeley, however, her center expanded in one year from a single bedroom apartment with two members to a three room flat and eight members in 1968 and then to forty in three centers at the end of 1970 (Meckler 1980: 155-56).
Of course change in methods helped also. Following the pattern of Washington, D.C., they sought out likely members among the protesters on college campuses. They gave "New Age" courses, and new clubs were formed like Koinonia, an educational outlet for those in "search for deeper understanding." They also had weekly programs of a religious nature with outside guest speakers, even though studies and work left only evenings and weekends for recruiting new members (Meckler 1980: 159-60). This rapid growth coincides with the similar increases in Mr. Choi's group during the same period.
The growth of new religious movements among countercultural youth was similar but less intense in other countries in the late sixties. For example, Reiner Vincenz, converted to the Unification Church in Germany by one of Dr. Kim's converts, was sent to France as a missionary. Without knowledge of French, he told me his first convert did not join until two years later, but from three members in 1969, the movement there grew to one hundred and forty members in 1973.
The years from the latter part of 1971 were even more significant ones for the Unification Church in the United States due to the arrival of Rev. Moon. In this period he unified the Church's organization as well as its theological interpretations and emphases, its methods of mass recruitment, and he provided a better financial base. By 1974, all the missionary groups had united, and membership in the United States had increased ten-fold. First, in order to get needed solidarity of the separate movements, he broke down old sources of authority by transferring members from one group to another and by enforcing a system of rotation, while having all members go through his special training sessions.
Next, he began a three-year period of heavy evangelization. Members drafted from their centers not only arranged, publicized and solicited people to attend his lectures in cities throughout the United States but also carried on week-long revival meetings which attracted many young adults. The first of these "Day of Hope" tours visited seven cities. During the stopover in Los Angeles a new evangelical organization, the One World Crusade (OWC), was formed (Meckler 1980: 160, 173-79, 193-94, 204-5). Subsequently, mobile teams of twenty-five members each, moving in separate directions from Washington, D.C., covered forty-two states and forty-three cities from March to August, 1973. By July 1973 there were units in all fifty states. The seven-day workshops of the bus teams and lists of contacts they made for local representatives to follow up resulted in an increase of members. To augment the American Church still further, seventy Dutch and Japanese members were imported to join one hundred and nine European members already added in 1973. Vans in the New York area carried guests to the Belvedere estate which had been purchased in Tarrytown, New York as a training center in 1972. As a result of these methods and the use of so much manpower the Director's Newsletter of July, 1973 reported the number of new members who had joined that year to have been four times that for the same period the previous year. The gains were not without losses. Longtime members said that changes in leaders in the centers resulted in drop outs.
If during the first eighteen months from 1971 to mid-1973 the concern was for solidarity and increasing membership, during the next three years (to September 1976) these goals were augmented by an emphasis on public visibility. Whereas the seven-city tour had been low in publicity and attendance, this was now to change. During this period four tours of twenty-one, thirty-two, ten, and eight cities, in addition to rallies in New York and Washington, D.C., were conducted with greater sophistication. The first two tours from October 1, 1973 to March 18, 1974 were covered well by the media, and during the inaugural banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel congratulations from Mayor John V. Lindsay and several congressmen were read. Cardinal Sheehan sent his blessing when the tour reached Baltimore; Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter proclaimed November 7, 1973 as a "Day of Hope and Unification," and Rev. Moon was given the "key to the city" when the tour reached San Francisco and Berkeley, respectively. By the end of the second tour, the topics of which were "Christianity in Crisis: New Hope" and "The New Future of Christianity," Rev. Moon had set up a foundation for the movement in every state, and the country was divided into ten regions for evangelization, each with its own commander and team (Meckler 1980: 198-208,221-34). Nevertheless, although crowds thronged to hear him because of the publicity, as I have noticed and members have admitted, because the lectures were given in Korean in a style unfamiliar to Americans, and then translated, much of the appeal was lost. People left in throngs before the lectures were finished.
Rev. Moon's final tour, the "Day of Hope" Eight City Tour, which began at New York's Madison Square Garden September 18, 1974, revisited some of the cities on earlier rounds. Seven hundred team members plus representative missionaries from forty countries, augmented by members of local churches, made several months advance preparation. In New York, over 380,000 tickets were distributed and 500 buses were used to transport more distant recipients to the event which was publicized by full page ads in the New York Times and eighty thousand posters plastered all over Manhattan. Not unexpectedly, the event proved to be a great success in terms of gaining public visibility. Nearly two hundred reporters were present and an estimated ten to thirty-five thousand people were turned away (Meckler 1980: 246-47; Schmidt 1974b: 104-111). Yet a statistical analysis of the Eight City Tour showed that although a total of 47,499 people attended, because of the number leaving during the talks, only 46% stayed through the lectures (Way o/the World 1975: 134).
Only two other general public appearances were made by Rev. Moon: a Yankee Stadium Rally followed soon after in 1976 by a rally at the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. In preparing for the first, the Bicentennial God Bless America Committee made America more conscious of its two hundredth birthday. Bombarded with thousands of broadsides, brochures, and a monthly periodical, the public was well informed of the coming event. During the performance, however, huge gusts of wind, the precursor of heavy rain, snapped the cord of a seventy-five foot hot-air balloon. Its escaping air jet-propelled it erratically across the field, destroying many carefully prepared decorations. As the rain subsided, the band raised spirits while members were cleaning up the mess, and it concluded by leading the crowd in singing "You Are My Sunshine" (New Hope News 1976: 6-7).
Rev. Moon's message began by celebrating panoramically again what Robert Bellah and others have called our civil religion, the belief in the God-endowed mission of America as a land where all races and nationalities could find righteousness and freedom centered on God--a leader among nations toward a better world. Rev. Moon repeated the message he had given so many times, and concluded with the vision of America building the Kingdom of God on earth as a God-centered nation (Moon 1976a: 2-3).
What had seemed an apparent disaster due to the inclement weather Rev. Moon called a spiritual victory, and indeed it was for his disciples. The next day he compared what happened to the Unification Church to the crucifixion of Jesus, but stated their renewed spirit and unity symbolized the resurrection (Moon 1976a: 1, 11). Indeed, my own observations of their preparations for the next rally in Washington, D.C. indicated that the victory was apparent in the spirit and hope the members showed during preparations. Some new members, however, being more reserved, confided that they would stay through the rally before making up their minds finally about the Church.
The plans for the Washington Monument Rally to be held on September 18, 1976 were begun as early as June 15, and included a number of projects of community aid, such as a clean-up program, an arts and crafts contest, and whatever a community might suggest (Way of the World 1976: 98-99). I, myself, witnessed the effect at a party given by a resident for the workers and the whole neighborhood. He expressed to me his gratefulness for the work the group had done in changing the attitudes for the better in a racially mixed area.
When an estimated 300,000 gathered at the rally, a still greater victory was proclaimed, viz., the physical foundation for restoration on the worldwide level (Dijk 1977: 27). In fact, Moon himself declared it to be "the most significant event in human history and God's history." Because of it, he said, all the barriers in the spirit world which had separated those of differing religions were broken and the spirits were liberated. From then on spirits could descend fully to our world to participate in the physical crusades on earth. October 4, 1976 was designated later as the Day of Victory of Heaven, a holy day commemorated each year. Further, Rev. Moon declared his own earthly mission consummated. All the dispensational history of resurrection was ended; all conditions of indemnity fulfilled. For the Unification Church this was the beginning of the first year of the Kingdom of God on earth--a Kingdom which must be completely attained by the year 2000 (Moon 1977: 15-17; see also 1979d: 15-16).
Although these extensive, expensive, but well-organized campaigns climaxed by the two final rallies, greatly increased the size of the movement, the goal of 30,000 of strong faith was not nearly attained. In 1972 Rev. Moon considered that number as the minimum they should have in America to influence the whole country. The request for 30,000 members by 1978 was again repeated in July prior to the Washington Monument Rally with the promise that all members in the United States would be one of 3,000 center directors (Moon 1976b: 1-8).
The great amount of work and the high spirits that produced the success at the Washington Monument Rally, however, were difficult to sustain after the climax had passed. Already by October, only two weeks after the rally, Rev. Moon was instructing his disciples to indemnify themselves for not gaining two converts each in the past two weeks. He cautioned that unless they achieved the goal by 1978 there would be problems, and that they should keep up the intensity of the Washington Monument Rally (Moon 1976c: 2). In December he repeated his warning that they could not continue to do so poorly. Each would have to bring in at least three people before receiving the blessing in marriage, and spend an additional three years working before family life could be started (Moon 1976d: 7-8).
Rev. Moon, noting the members who were leaving the movement, the low spirits of the members, and still the necessity of recovering their former zeal, introduced a new approach. He suggested that each member in the New York area be responsible for lending Divine Principle books to 120 households, answering their questions, and having workshops. With 500 members in the area who would contact 60,000 homes, the goal of 30,000 members could be reached in two years (Moon 1976d: 1-8). This appears to be the forerunner of the home church movement in the United States. In March 1978 he was much more serious about it. He reasoned that despite heavy witnessing on the streets, the new converts soon leave and have to be replaced (Moon 1978a: 5-10). He justified further the change four months later, citing the inefficiency of street witnessing because of the difficulty of relocating people after initial contact, and he suggested that each member perform some chore for the household (Moon 1978b: 4). Each member was to find a home with someone and to identify himself or herself with the area. Then he made an even more significant change. He said that in the future one's mate would be found in the home church, and the blessing (marriage) would be made on the recommendation of the home church to the "True Parents." He then warned that in the future there would be no blessing until the home church program had been completed. "This," he said, "is a statement of the Principle" (Moon 1979a: 14).
In this utopian vision, the home church in each household would replace ultimately all churches, even the Unification Church. When completed, he promised, one would not need to go to church or even to pray, but only to "live by the law of the heavenly country... If this doesn't happen," he said, "then the Divine Principle is just another ideology that doesn't work" (Moon 1980c: 9; see also 1980b: 11).
The ethical philosophy of the home church movement is that rather than worrying whether people love them or not, all members should give more love and service to their people in the realization that God first gave love before asking to be loved. This, he concluded, was the goal of the restored family, because the Kingdom of Heaven would be built on such units of families (Moon 1979b: 12-14). All members are to become parents to their people, as an extended family, which will become the model for the larger extended foundation. When the home church was completed and perfected there would be no sovereign nationhood needed, he promised (Moon 1979c: 12). He warned, however, that without consummating the home church, none could be accepted in heaven (Moon 1980a: 10-11).
If the home church movement were to become a success and the actual expression of the Unification Church, many of the movement's present problems could be solved. In the first place the home church would replace the street approach of youths, thereby reducing the charge of "heavenly deception" followed by the accusation of "brainwashing." Second, there would be no separation of families and mysterious conversions. Third, if successful, it would embrace people of all ages instead of remaining almost entirely a youth movement in the United States. This accomplishment would be necessary for it to become an important religion.
Although the home church has become the ultimate goal, Rev. Moon has not relied on it alone in this period of transition. Even after its beginning, because of the further stagnation of the movement in 1978 while he was away in Europe, Japan and Korea, he initiated another 40-day campaign in 1979. For this he inaugurated three International One World Crusade teams to go from state to state to evangelize, with a goal of each member to win four "spiritual children" in 120 days (Moon 1979a: 18).
From all indications derived from interviews with those who have been involved, the home church movement has not yet succeeded very well in America, but membership was increased by a new mobilization for missionary work in the United States. Beginning on April 1, 1983 ten mobile teams, which had expanded to 52 by May 1984, moved from city to city in each state every 21 days. These teams of the International One World Crusade were augmented by more than 30 other smaller mobile units within each state. In June 1984 the IOWC teams settled in each state in order to "pioneer," i.e., establish new centers there (Unification News 1984: 6).
Although criticism of the Unification Church had begun locally almost from the beginning in Korea, Japan, and the United States, it grew nationally in the United States with Rev. Moon's increased visibility during the seventies. Legitimation by the Establishment was further impaired by his much publicized defense of Richard Nixon in November, 1973. Similar was the effect of adverse publicity associated with the U.S. government investigation (1977-78) of the Church's relationship to the Korean government, even though nothing substantial was established. Later, what would seem to present the biggest problem for legitimation turned to his advantage when Rev. Moon was sentenced to eighteen months in prison on the charge of tax evasion in that 16 amicus curiae briefs were filed by 40 major religious and civil rights organizations in defense of his innocence. The Rev. Donald Sills, a Southern Baptist minister and president of the Coalition for Religious Freedom, reported that more than "13,000 ministers representing several hundred thousand people have gone on record in support of Reverend Moon's right to be free and practice his religious beliefs.... " Dr. Franklin Littell, a Methodist minister, said that "Rev. Moon held the funds in trust for his church in the same way 'every Roman Catholic bishop in this country does.''' On the day of his liberation from prison, Rev. Jerry Falwell, head of the Moral Majority, and Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, representing usually opposite sides of religious-political issues, united at a press conference in urging President Reagan to pardon Rev. Moon (Anthonis 1985a: 1; 1985b: 1-2).
Rev. Moon also has made a growing number of friends through scientific, educational, and social programs financed by the Church. He has received some favor from scientists, for example, through his sponsorship of the International Conferences on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) which, meeting annually since 1972, have attracted many scholars and scientists, including a number of Nobel prize winners. Rev. Moon further broadened his legitimization among the intellectual community through the New Ecumenical Research Association (New ERA), organized in 1980. This inter-religious organization of more than eight hundred scholars from a wide range of disciplines and religious traditions was an outgrowth of meetings in which Unification theological students discussed their various teachings and practices with scholars from a very wide range of Christian traditions. The organization expanded its horizons to include dialogue in conferences among scholars of non-Christian religions as well, and then again to include some for sociologists. Many of these have resulted in published monographs.
Concern about communism and the desire to develop strategies for peace have attracted an increasing number of people to two other organizations the Unification Church has sponsored and funded. The first, an anti-communist organization which has sought to influence the American religious community, is CAUSA International and its teaching subsidiary, the CAUSA Institute, which took the place of the Freedom Leadership Foundation in 1980. While CAUSA, though controversial, has attracted numerous ministers, the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA), which was founded in Korea in 1973, has appealed to professors interested in study and amelioration of problems facing the world. Here, as in other countries, there are both local and regional chapters which have seminars relating to problems of peace, generally germane to their respective areas. PWPA also sponsors research and publications on issues relevant to formation of public policy. In America, it was instrumental in establishing the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy in 1982, which has now been incorporated, and is a sister organization to PWPA-USA.
If these organizations are designed to appeal to intellectuals, e.g., the clergy and professors, whose favor by virtue of their positions are important for influencing others, of greater immediate influence on politicians and the masses of people is the Church's incipient media empire. Besides sponsoring an annual "World Media Conference" and fact-finding junkets which had feted some 2,500 journalists by the end of 1984, the Unification Church is establishing newspapers in various places all over the world. Beginning with the Sekai Nippon in Japan in 1976, in the same year The News World, which became the New York City Tribune in 1980, began publication. If this newspaper and the Washington Times are the Church's most important and influential newspapers, it's others are also reaching many people. Ultimas Noticias began publishing in Uruguay in 1981; The Middle East Times, in Cyprus in 1983; Noticias del Mundo, a Spanish-language newspaper, in New York in 1980; the Harlem Weekly in 1979; finally the Saegae Shinbo, a Korean-language newspaper was first issued in New York in 1982. While all of these are financed by the Unification Church and are still losing money due to insufficient advertising, some are entirely independent of the Church, e.g., the Saegae Shinbo and the Ultimas Noticias. Although they all have a conservative viewpoint, further limiting their circulation, their reporting compares favorably with other dailies, and Mayor Edward Koch's 1984 weekly column in The New York City Tribune should aid its credibility. Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institute, in surveying Washington media, allegedly said he saw The Washington Times everywhere, even in the White House, and concluded it was influential (Rothmyer 1984: 23-31).
In the area of social services Project Volunteer, which was established in Oakland, California in 1975, by 1980 had not only distributed three million pounds of free food to the needy at home and abroad but had also engaged the local community in a variety of projects to alleviate social ills. Moreover, the California Department of Agriculture in 1980 made Project Volunteer it's cold storage facility for the government's free surplus commodity program for Oakland, Berkeley and 12 other towns (Castille 1983: 20). Its counterpart, which began in the East, is the National Council for Church and Social Action, an interdenominational, interracial, and ecumenical organization founded in 1977 to provide social services to the needy. Although funded in part by the Unification Church, it is an independent organization with 49 autonomous chapters in 34 states. Both of these organizations now also supply food to the World Relief Friendship Foundation, which in 1980 began operating in 27 different countries (Johnson 1982: 82).
Although there are still a number of other organizations and projects sponsored and funded by the Unification Church, we will conclude with the Church's efforts to hold an Assembly of the World's Religions in 1993. This will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions, which was held in Chicago. This Assembly is the outgrowth of four international annual conferences on "God, the Contemporary Discussion," initiated by New ERA, and three "Youth Seminars on World Religions." Among its objectives it is hoped that the Assembly can give opportunity for the religions to provide an environment "to take the lead in initiating projects for world peace," and to bring "the world's religious traditions in a more fruitful relationship" (International Religious Foundation, n.d.: 5-6).
Many scholars would agree that as a new religious movement the Unification Church owes its origin to the cultural ferment in Korea, even as did major world religions, including Christianity, in their respective countries. One may view its development in both Korea and Japan in part as a result of the ameliorating synthesis it has made of conflicting ideologies and cultural patterns during their periods of change, just as again the world religions did in their countries of origin (Judah 1984, passim).
In America, before the counterculture took effect in the later sixties and seventies, the movement attracted only a few who for various reasons had not found an identity, socialization, and religious fulfillment in the mainline churches of the Establishment. When I made a national survey of the movement in the seventies, the results indicated that those surveyed were largely idealistic youth, whose dissatisfaction with our society reflected many of the important countercultural protests of the sixties. They, however, had responded favorably to the goals of the Unification Church in working sacrificially toward creating a utopian world in their time, a concept which was expressed theologically as the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.
The continued survival, development and establishment of any religion must in some measure be in proportion to its degree of accommodation to the particular culture (Judah 1984: 16-28). Therefore the apparently greater achievement of the home church movement among older adults in Japan and Korea may owe more to its re-enforcement of declining social patterns and to its greater ease of socialization there than in the much different American culture. Further, anyone who has studied the Unification Church for a number of years will have noticed the very high dropout rate of members and the repeated mobilizations of the Church to reach Rev. Moon's goal of 30,000 core members in the United States, which is far from being attained. One can point to a number of problems which have prevented stability in membership and its planned increase. Among these have been certain problems in organization:
1) In order to centralize the authority of the movement in himself rather than in leaders of smaller groups with close fellowships, Rev. Moon adopted a policy of constant rotation of leaders. This caused identity problems for some followers, who left the movement.
2) The continual change of leaders, often to inferior positions has also contributed to some of them dropping out.
3) The disruption and separation of families with children to perform special missions, when the members had worked sacrificially for years and were expecting a more settled life, has been a contributing factor for leaving the Church.
4) The "Koreanization" of leadership in America, with Korean members placed in all the highest positions of authority except for that of the President, has affected the morale of many members.
There are also theological problems affecting stability of membership and inhibiting the increase. The charismatic stage of the counterculture of the late sixties changed to the communal stage which began disintegrating in the late seventies. The hippies gave way to yippies and then to yuppies, the young urban professionals. As a consequence:
1) Among young adults there is a renewed emphasis upon American individualism: education to make money for themselves, to achieve the "good life" and enjoy the fruits of their labor. This militates against Rev. Moon's severe criticism of individualism where the self is given a priority he would not condone.
2) Messianic movements like the Unification Church often suffer losses when their prophecies do not materialize according to the timetable. Loveland noticed that many in the early Unification Church in America believed the fully restored world would be realized in 1967 (Loveland 1977: 25). In the ensuing years many prophesies were made concerning the restoration, but always dependent upon the sacrificial work in gaining members for its completion. The tardiness of the arrival has caused the departure of some from the movement.
3) The belief in Rev. Moon, who is to be the real or symbolic head of a "heavenly monarchy" and the interpreter of God's will, is a stumbling block for Christians in mainline churches in our culture. This belief will create further difficulties for Americans who adhere to the separation of church and state, and to all those among the free Western nations who believe in the democratic way of life.
4) Finally, the authoritarianism of the movement over its core members will continually cause problems for many in our time of change when even the Roman Catholic Church is having similar troubles with rebellion and dropouts from its orders.
Thus, on the one hand, the failure to accommodate its teachings and practices more closely to important elements of American culture have been in part reasons for failure to achieve its expected goals. On the other hand, the Church's measure of continued success will depend to a great extent on the annual replenishment of millions of dollars from Korea and Japan to support its programs, which are playing an important role in furthering ecumenism, greater understanding of significant problems, social improvement, and world unity.
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1977 Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith. Enlarged ed. Irvington, N.Y.: John Wiley and Sons.
Manke, Annemarie
1975 Getting to Know Japan. Way of the World 7(March): 37-48.
Meckler, Michael L.
1980 A History of the Unification Church in the Bay Area: 1960-74. M.A. thesis, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif.
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1971 History of the Unification Church. Master Speaks. Washington, D.C.: HSA-UWC, Dec. 27.
1976a God's Hope for America. In New Hope News 3(June 18).
1976b Father's Talk to State Leaders. New York: HSA-UWC, July 10.
1976c Perfection and Gratitude. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, October 3.
1976d Self-Reflection. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, December 1.
1977 The Will of God and Individual Perfection. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, February 27.
1978a Where God Resides and His Course. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, March 19.
1978b The Start of the 40-Day Witnessing Condition. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, July 4.
1979a Home Church and the Completion of the Kingdom of Heaven. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, January 1.
1979b Restored Family. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, January 21.
1979c Historical View of the Dispensation. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, September 18.
1979d Abel's Path from the Providential Point of View. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, December 30.
1980a True Parents Mission. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, April 20.
1980b The Way of Tuna. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, July 13.
1980c Our Duty, Our Mission. Reverend Moon Speaks. New York: HSA-UWC, October 5.
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Rothmeyer, Karen
1984 Mapping Out Moon's Media Empire. Columbia Journalism Review 23(November-December): 23-31.
Schmidt, Joy
1974a 32-City Tour Begins. Way of the World 6 (February): 134-43.
1974b IOWCs Spearhead All-Out Campaign. Way o/the World 7 (September-October): 104-11.
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1977 Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon.
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1975 The History of the Seminary. Way of the World 7(October): 34-37.
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