Sun Myung Moon and Original Sin

Franco Famularo
January 18, 1999

I have heard two versions on Sun Myung Moon's relationship to Original Sin. One version is that Sun Myung Moon was born of a special lineage which paid the indemnity for him to be born free of the Original Sin. This view, at times also provided unverifiable speculation that Sun Myung Moon's lineage was connected to the Old Testament Jews. Even one went as far as stating that he descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel. I've read this in early texts from the 1960s and early 70s.

The other version as presented by Young Whi Kim, Chung Hwan Kwak and others in the early 80s is that since the condition for a purified lineage was completed with the birth of Jesus, such a condition was no longer necessary. Thus, God could choose whoever fulfilled the condition to "be" the Messiah. Presumably there was not only one personage prepared to accomplish the role of Messiah in this century. That Sun Myung Moon fulfilled this condition to be the Messiah or not is what ultimately qualifies him or not for the role.

I don't think that Sun Myung Moon could have taken the role he believes himself to have taken unless he believed that he had fulfilled his own portion of responsibility. This of course would be regardless of whether he was born with Original Sin or not. Being born with or without original sin provides no guarantee toward being a good person, a righteous leader or a successful messiah. It depends completely on the significant personage fulfilling God's will (whatever it might be), or not; becoming a righteous person or not; a true person or not.

Further related questions related: Is Original Sin an ontological reality? How is the original sin transmitted through the blood lineage if it is at all? What does it mean that the blood lineage has been contaminated? What is the difference between the traditional Christian view of the cleansing of the blood and the view based on the Oriental tradition?