BIOGRAPHY of REV. SUN MYUNG MOON
For more complete information about his works see His Works.
1920: Reverend Moon’s Birth in What Is Now North Korea
The house Rev. Moon was born at (North Korea)
At that time, Japan ruled Korea and only permitted practice of the Shinto religion. The religious intolerance of the Japanese regime was one facet of the contempt they held for the Koreans, a people they believed to be inferior. The Korean people were subjected to forty years of humiliation and cruelty as part of Japan's Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Growing up oppressed in his own land, Sun Myung Moon learned early the pain of injustice, whether among his own people or at the hands of the Japanese rulers.
The young Moon became intensely aware of human suffering and the failure of humanity to create a loving and just world. He sought to understand why people suffer and how suffering can be ended. From going to church, he knew that religion addressed the fundamental human condition and promised an ideal world to those who obey God; but he saw that established religions, although centuries old and based on scriptures offering revelatory insights, were, in practice, unable to answer many of life's questions or solve the deepest problems facing humankind. Troubled by the immense gap between religious ideals and the actual state of the world, he began his own ardent pursuit of solutions through a life of prayer and study.
1935: A Calling from Jesus Christ
Early Easter morning 1935, Jesus appeared to the young Sun Myung Moon as he was praying in the Korean mountains. In that vision, Jesus asked him to continue the work which he had begun on earth nearly 2,000 years before. Jesus asked him to complete the task of establishing God's kingdom on earth and bringing peace to humankind. The young Korean was stunned by this encounter, and especially by the request that had been made of him, and at first he refused. However, after deep reflection, meditation and prayer, he pledged to take on the overwhelming mission.
1935-1941: Reverend Moon Receives and Develops the Divine Principle
After personally accepting Jesus' call, the young Moon set out to discover the meaning of this unusual call. If Jesus called him to complete his mission, it meant that Jesus' mission was incomplete. Was not salvation through the cross all that humankind needs? What was it that Jesus had left undone on earth? If sin is not completely solved, then what is the actual root of sin?
Sun Myung Moon ceaselessly studied the Bible and other religious teachings in order to unravel these mysteries of life and human history. During this time, he went into deep communion with God and entered the vast battlefield of the spirit and flesh. Through denying his personal desires he overcame temptations of knowledge, wealth and physical pleasure. He came to understand God's own suffering and His longing to be reunited with His children. He learned the difficult steps that humankind would have to take in order to return to God and establish true peace on earth.After receiving his commission from God, he knew he could not succeed in his task without a profound understanding of the Creator and His creation. He intensified his quest for the truth, spending days and nights in passionate prayer, rigorous fasting and study. His method was to posit specific questions, research answers in the physical and spiritual worlds, and then seek confirmation for those answers through prayer. On several occasions he was guided directly by Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and other saints and sages of all faiths, who met him in spirit and contributed to his understanding of God and the complex history of God's relationship with humankind. By the age of 25, he had developed the fundamentals of the Divine Principle and Unification Principles.
1941-43: Education, Imprisonment and Torture in Japan
In 1941, Rev. Moon graduated from high school and went to Japan to study electronic engineering at an industrial college affiliated with Waseda University. During his time in Japan, he continued his intense prayer and search for the truth. A school friend during that time said that in his room he kept three Bibles — one in Korean, one in English and one in Japanese, which he studied continuously.
He also was a Christian leader in the Korean independence movement against the Japanese occupation of Korea. Young Christians and communists were the strongest leaders of the independence movement against the Japanese occupation of Korea. In Japan, some of his closest school friends were communists and while their atheism pained him, he recognized their sincere dedication to an utopian ideal. A fellow student at that time, Aum Duk-Moon, reports that Reverend Moon defended communists to his Christian friends, saying that they were good people and that Koreans should work together to save their country. He was eventually imprisoned by the Japanese for his student underground activities and tortured for not revealing the names of his collaborators. This imprisonment was what would be his first of six imprisonments under four governments: Japan, North Korea, South Korea and the United States
1943-46: Return to Korea, Outreach to Christian Churches, Imprisonment and Torture
In 1943, Reverend Moon returned to his native land.Upon returning from Japan, Reverend Moon was married to Sang Il Choi, a strong Christian from a well-known Presbyterian family.
In 1944, Reverend Moon was again arrested and severely tortured by the Japanese occupation government in Korea after his name came up in the interrogation of a communist student friend who had been active in the anti-Japanese underground in Tokyo. He refused to confess and was finally released.
In spite of such treatment by the Japanese; his cousin and companion at the time reports that Reverend Moon showed only love and respect to Japanese people. When the war ended in August 1945 he persuaded others not to take revenge on local Japanese officials and worked secretly to get them safe transport back to Japan.
By 1945 he had systemized his teachings, which came to be known as the Divine Principle, and he began his public ministry. The Divine Principle is the fundamental teaching of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church.
Korea, although an Asian country, is recognized having perhaps the most fervent Christian faith of any nation. Reverend Billy Graham was so impressed by the spiritual vitality of her churches during his first visit to Korea that he predicted that one day Korea would send missionaries to revive the West. In this atmosphere of fervent Christianity, Reverend Moon’s original plan was not to start a separate denomination but to work with other Christians to build God's kingdom on the earth. He worked hard to introduce his new revelations to existing Korean Christian churches. But his new teachings were not well received. American Christian missionaries disregarded him as a unschooled "country preacher." Korean ministers, jealous of the young man's impact on their congregation members, accused him of espousing false teachings. Despite his many efforts to reach out to established Christian churches, they did not respond to his new ideas. Reverend Moon soon realized that he was headed down the lonely path of a pioneer religious visionary.
In 1946 while buying rice for his family, Reverend Moon was told by God to leave his family without notifying them and go to communist North Korea to preach.
1946-50: Preaching in Communist North Korea, Imprisonment in a “Death Camp” and Escape to the South
In 1946 Reverend Moon was called by God to travel to the communist north. Before World War II, the center of Korean Christian activity was Pyongyang, now the capital of North Korea; it was called the "Jerusalem of the East." Among the spirit-filled churches were many with strong messianic expectations. Some of these churches had received revelations that the Messiah would be born in Korea, and they were directed in various ways to prepare to receive him.
He began to teach publicly, despite the dangers presented by the communist-dominated government. As a poor preacher with new interpretations of the Bible, Reverend Moon was more vulnerable than leaders of the established churches and was, therefore, one of the first religious figures to be imprisoned by the communists.
Rev. Moon at North Korean court
Hungnam prison camp
Labor at death camp
On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army invaded the South in a lightning attempt to unify the entire peninsula by force. UN and American forces, under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, rescued the beleaguered South. One month after the capture of Seoul, UN forces reached the gates of Hungnam prison. Knowing the UN forces were near, the communist prison authorities began to execute the prisoners. The prison camp was liberated by UN forces just hours before Reverend Moon's scheduled execution.
Despite his brutal prison camp experience, Reverend Moon did not immediately flee to the South. Instead, he returned to Pyongyang and spent forty days searching for the members of his scattered flock. He eventually found a few members and then traveled to the south on foot with two of them. One of his followers had a broken leg and protested that he would slow the party down. Reverend Moon insisted on bringing him and for the long trek either pushed him on a bicycle or carried him on his back.
1950: Evangelization Begins Anew in the Refugee City of Pusan, South Korea
The f irst church (Pusan)
As a one of hundreds of thousands of war refugees, Reverend Moon arrived in the southern port city of Pusan, where he and one disciple built the first Unification Church from discarded army ration boxes. At that time, he told his small following that one day the message of the Divine Principle would be spread all over the world. He prophesied that people from all over the world would venerate that hillside. Reverend Moon's prophecies sounded unbelievable. Today, in fact, tens of thousands of people make a pilgrimage to the spot.
Beginning his evangelization work in the South after nearly five years in the North, Reverend Moon was rejoined by his wife. However, he continued to dedicate himself night and day to his religious mission. She could not accept his dedication to the mission at the sacrifice of his family. Finally she filed for divorce, in spite of Reverend Moon’s strong opposition to a divorce and efforts to dissuade her. (His only child from this marriage and his family are loyal followers of Reverend Moon.)
1954: The Founding of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (known as the Unification Church)
Church in Seoul
The church immediately attracted followers from a major Christian women's university, Ewha University, a school closely linked with the Korean government and with the mainline Protestant denominations. Because many students were joining the church, the school sent professors to investigate. When several professors also joined, instead of sincerely welcoming this new church, the school persecuted it. The university president ordered the professors and students to either leave the church or leave the school.
Coincidentally, newspapers in Seoul suddenly began to print alarming stories about the Unification Church, sex orgies and Reverend Moon being a North Korean agent. Reverend Moon was thrown in jail, to be released weeks later when no charges could be found. Again the following year he was thrown in jail on charges of evading the military draft, even though during the time in question he had been in Hungnam prison. After several months confinement--and sensational media coverage--the charges were dropped. His release received scant notice in the press. Thus began the pattern of collusion between religious leaders, government and the media that to this day suppress Reverend Moon and his church.
Amid this severe persecution, Reverend Moon nurtured a growing community of faithful disciples, known as “weeping church” because of the tearful prayers of Reverend Moon and his followers. By 1957, churches were established in thirty Korean cities and towns.
1958-59: First Missionaries Sent to Japan and the United States
In the late 1950s, the first international missionaries were sent, one to neighboring Japan in 1958 and two to the United States in 1959.
1960: Marriage to Hak Ja Han Moon
On March 16, 1960, Reverend Moon was blessed in holy marriage to Hak Ja Han. Their blessing was followed by a series of group marriage blessing ceremonies for their followers. Hak Ja Han and her mother, a devout Christian, had also fled south during the Korean War. They soon thereafter joined the Unification Church. Since their marriage, Mrs. Hak Ja Han has dedicated herself entirely to supporting Reverend Moon and his mission. With an unwavering life of sacrifice, courage and dignity, she has stood by her husband through every hardship, borne 14 children and is the grandmother of more than 40 grandchildren. 1965: Reverend Moon Makes His First World Tour, Visiting 40 Nations
1968: The International Federation for Victory Over Communism (IFVOC) Is Founded
IFVOC was the first of many organizations and activities founded by Reverend Moon to bring about the peaceful downfall of communism. Reverend Moon taught that communism should be defeated ideologically through education about the fallacies of Marxism-Leninism, offering a counterproposal consisting of universal principles called Godism, conferences, global networking, rallies and demonstrations in Asia, the United States and Latin America.
1971: Reverend Moon’s Ministry in America Begins
1972: Reverend Moon's Makes HIs First Public Speaking Tour in Seven US Cities
1972: The Unification Church Is Established in All Fifty States of the US
The Unification Church had centers in ten states, and in 1972 pioneer leaders were sent out to the forty remaining states to found Unification Church centers. In the same year, evangelical bus teams went state by state in a membership campaign, and thousands of young people accepted his message and dedicated themselves to the Unification Church.
1974: Reverend Moon Speaks to an Overflow crowd 0f 25,000 in New York's Madison Square Garden and Holds Speeches in All Fifty States
After the very successful Madison Square Garden event on September 18, public speeches were given and banquets hosted for thousands of society's leaders in all fifty states.
1974: Reverend Moon Meets with President Richard Nixon in the White House
1974: Persecution in America Begins
As a result the rapid growth of the movement in the United States, it went through a period of persecution similar to what other new religious leaders and movements have faced in the past--the new was seen to be strange and threatening.
Reverend Moon's appeal for a true Christian renewal of America was initially welcomed. However, this receptivity proved shallow when, in 1974, he became an easy target for the now-hostile news media unhappy over Reverend Moon's "forgive, love and unite" message concerning the Watergate scandal.
The fair and objective coverage of the past was replaced by portrayals Reverend Moon and his church in the worst possible light. All sorts of unfounded allegations from Korea were dug up. In this atmosphere of hysteria, the enthusiasm and idealism of his young followers was reinterpreted as “brainwashing.” Reverend Moon was portrayed as a hypnotist and an agent of a foreign government. Religious and racial bigotry and persecution, a phenomenon in the United States as old as the country itself, showed its ugly face. Even though America was founded for the sake of establishing religious freedom, regrettably, religious intolerance remains today. The Unification Church bore the brunt of America’s religious intolerance for three decades.
1975: The Unification Church Spreads Worldwide, Sending MIssionaries to 120 Countries
With churches already established in Korea, Japan, North America, and the Western European countries, in May 1975, Reverend Moon send out missionary teams consisting of one Japanese, one American and one German to countries in Asia, Africa, the MIddle East, Latin America and Oceania, bringing the total number of nations with Unification Church representatives to 120.
1975: Reverend Moon speaks to 1.2 million people at the Yoido Island Rally in Seoul for the Protection of the Fatherland
1975: The Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) Is Founded in Barrytown, New York
1975: International Interreligious Work Begins
Starting with dialogues at the Unification Theological Seminary, the New Ecumenical Research Association for Christian Unity and continuing with other initiatives, such as the Assembly of the World's Religions, Reverend Moon has been working to promote interreligious discussion, understanding and cooperation to solve the problems of poverty, war, injustice and breakdown of the family. The 1985 Assembly of the World's Religions was attended by 1,000 distinguished religious leaders and scholars. A key social teaching of Reverend Moon is that the world’s most difficult problems will be best solved by religious leaders working interreligiously rather than by purely political and economic initiativews.
1976: During America's Bicentennial Year Reverend Moon speaks to 300,000 Persons at the Washington Monument on the Theme God's Hope for America
Rally at Washington Monument
1978: Reverend Moon Founds the Home Church Movement
In 1978, Reverend Moon called members from around the world to England, where he gave them daily guidance and sent them around the country in a grass-roots community service initiative called "home church." He gave direction to members around the world to choose an area of 360 homes and serve the people and be examples of God's love.
1982: The Washington Times Is Founded: the Number Two Daily Newspaper in Washington D. C.
In 1984, during his Danbury imprisonment , Reverend Moon founded the The Washington Times, which became the second largest daily newspaper in America’s capital. The Washington Times was founded by Reverend Moon to first to be instrumental in the peaceful fall of communism, a goal achieved in conjunction with the Reagan Administration, and then with the end of the Cold War, to promote family values and support of the role of religion in society.
1983: Investigation and Indictment by the United States Government
Under strong pressure from a few politicians who saw an easy way to garner favor with voters riled up by the bad press about Reverend Moon and the Unification Church, the United States government launched a plethora of official investigations of Reverend Moon involving nearly twenty federal agencies. Hearings were conducted on Capitol Hill to warn of the dangers of new religious movements. .
Meanwhile, a five-year IRS investigation finally produced a politically-crafted indictment against Reverend Moon. This indictment, handed down in 1981, charged him with evading income taxes nearly a decade earlier, as well as conspiracy to avoid those taxes. The total amount of taxes supposedly evaded was less than $8000.00. No one in the United States has ever been indicted for tax evasion of such a small amount. The indictment's real purpose, however, was to spur Reverend Moon to leave America.
However, the United States government and some politicians underestimated Reverend Moon’s religiosity and commitment to his mission in America. When the indictment was handed down, Reverend Moon was in Korea. His lawyers recommended that he not come back to America, since there is no extradition treaty between the United States and Korea and by staying away he could avoid conviction and imprisonment. However, he did not follow their advice. He was, after all, a man of God, not a criminal fleeing the law. He immediately returned to the United States. He told his counsel: "I will not abandon my mission in America. That I will never do."
Still, the US Justice Department tried to negotiate with Reverend Moon's attorneys, determined to achieve their goal of him leaving the United States permanently. On the condition that Reverend Moon depart for Korea and never come back to the United States, they said the government would waive his prison sentence. He flatly refused. His comment was, "It must be God's will that I go to prison. There must be a providential reason why I must go this way." Imprisonment was not new to Reverend Moon: He already had endured imprisonment in communist North Korea, South Korea and Japan during World War II.
1984: Top Religious Leaders Call the Indictment a Serious Violation of Religious Freedom
1984: US Senate Subcommittee Publishes a Report That in Rev. Moon’s Tax Case “Injustice rather than justice has been served"
A US Senate Subcommitte published the following report on Reverend Moon's conviction:
“We accused a newcomer to our shores of criminal and intentional wrongdoing for conduct commonly engaged in by a large percentage of our own religious leaders, namely, the holding of church funds in bank accounts in their own names. Catholic priests do it. Baptist ministers do it, and so did Sun Myung Moon… we charged a non-English-speaking alien with criminal tax evasion on the first tax returns he filed in this country. It appears that we didn't give him a fair chance to understand our laws. We didn't seek a civil penalty as an initial means of redress. We didn't give him the benefit of any doubt. Rather, we took a novel theory of tax liability of less than $10,000 and turned it into a guilty verdict and eighteen months in a federal prison.
"I do feel strongly, after my subcommittee has carefully and objectively reviewed this [Reverend Moon's tax] case from both sides, that injustice rather than justice has been served. The Moon case sends a strong signal that if one's views are unpopular enough, this country will find a way not to tolerate, but to convict. I don't believe that you or I or anyone else, no matter how innocent, could realistically prevail against the combined forces of our Justice Department and judicial branch in a case such as Reverend Moon's.”
1984-85: Prison Life in America
Rev. Moon with Rev. Kamiyama
in Danbury Federal Prison
On August 20, 1985, Reverend Moon was freed after completing thirteen months of incarceration. Upon his release, major Christian and civil rights leaders, including Reverend Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority and Reverend Joseph Lowry of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, held a press conference decrying the persecution and imprisonment of Reverend Moon and to welcome him back.
1990: Reverend Moon and Mrs. Moon Meet with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Rev. and Mrs. Moon with President Gorbachev
1991: Reverend and Mrs. Moon Meet with North Korean President Kim Il Sung
Rev. and Mrs. Moon with with Kim Il Sung
1992: The International Women's Federation for World Peace Is Founded, and Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moons Begins Her Own Public Activities for Peace
In 1992, Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon, the devoted wife and mother of 14 children, began her own public activities for world peace beginning with a world speaking tour. Her mission is both to lead peacemaking work and promote the central role of women in creating a just and peaceful society. Today, after years of intense international work, Mrs. Moon is recognized as one of the most effective woman leaders in the world. She has spoken in such notable venues as Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., the United Nations in New York City, the Kremlin, the Great Hall in Bejing and congressional buildings in Japan, Korea, and Canada. Perhaps no other woman leader has addressed so many large audiences in as many countries as Mrs. Moon.
Her first world tour in 1993, took her to 44 cities in America, 27 cities in Japan, 40 university campuses in Korea, and 41 nations around the world. In 2006, accompanied by her adult children and grandchildren, she undertook two world tour for peace at the incredible pace of a country per day. She and her family spoke to enthusiastic audiences in 120 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Oceania and Latin America. She was received as a dignitary and met with many heads of states, prominent religious leaders and political leaders.
1996: The Family Federation for World Peace Is Founded
Keynote address at FFWP inauguration
1999: International and Interreligious Federation for World Peace Is Founded
Reverend Moon proposes the creation of an international council of religious, civic and political leaders to supplement the peacekeeping work of the United Nations. The IIFWP, known as the Universal Peace Federation since 2005, has been active in 190 countries with 110,000 “Ambassadors for Peace” who work for peace in their nations and internationally. This will eventually include a Peace Force to mediate and deal with trouble spots all over the world. The IIFWP is a Non-Governmental Organization with Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN.2001: Reverend Moon responds to September 11 by Organizing Conferences to Address Interreligious Conflict
The first was held in New York itself, in October 2001, for religious and political leaders from around the globe; the second, an unprecedented conference for international Muslim leaders in Indonesia in December 2001, was titled: Islam and the Future World of Peace, reflecting Reverend Moon's confidence in Islam's potential to be a major partner in the global quest for peace.
2003: Middle East Peace Initiative Begins
Reverend Moon is dedicating himself to address the world’s most unsolvable challenges--achieving peace in the Middle East and a peaceful reconciliation between North and South Korea. The Middle East Peace Initiative exemplifies his approach to peace by calling on leaders of all fields, including government, academia, religion and the arts, to join in interreligious peace missions to the trouble spots of the world.
2005 Universal Peace Federation (UPF) Is Founded
The mission of UPF is to create a global council of religious and other leaders to supplement and support the peace-making work of the United Nations. It has a Global Peace Council with distinguished leaders from all continents and will have a Peace Force to mediate in the world’s trouble spots.
2005: Bering Strait Tunnel Project Is Announced
2005-2006: Three Generations of the Moon Family Bring Message of Peace to 120 Countries
Rev. Moon's children completed 120 country speaking tour
2006: Cheon Jeong Gung Peace Palace, Museum and Meeting Center Inaugurated in Korea
Called the “Vatican of the East" the Cheon Jeong Gung Peace Museum and Meeting Center is a magnificent building in the mountains of the beautiful Korean countryside two hours outside Seoul and close to the North Korean border. With state-of-the-art meeting facilities, it is designed to be a foremost conference center where world leaders will meet to make plans for the new era of peace and prosperity. .
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