Unification Church
Tongil-kyo (tongil is the Korean word for "unification"; kyo is Korean for "church": thus literally "Unification Church") is the most prominent of Korea's new religions that have Christian origins. Once formally known as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, in 1997 the full name of what is still popularly known as the Unification Church was changed to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in order to embrace all religions rather than focusing solely on Christianity. The Unification Church was founded in 1954 by Sun Myong Moon (b. 1920), an itinerant Christian preacher who had been imprisoned by Communist authorities in North Korea. Moon moved to South Korea when his prison was liberated during the Korean War. Soon afterwards, in 1954, he established the Unification Church in Seoul and began preaching a revision of traditional Christian theology based on revelations Moon proclaimed he had received.
According to Divine Principle, the record of those revelations, Adam and Eve were to be the true parents of mankind. However, Satan seduced Eve, ensuring that she and Adam would not be the sinless progenitors needed to ensure that human beings live in harmony with God's will. God later sent his only son Jesus to earth in another attempt to establish a sinless lineage and erect a heavenly kingdom on earth. However, humanity rejected Jesus, crucifying him before he could marry and father children. In the twentieth century, God allowed a man to be born without sin in order to complete the mission the savior Jesus had begun. That messiah would save the rest of humanity from Satan by marrying a woman equally sinless in order that human beings may finally have true parents who can restore them to the family of God.
In 1992, Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han, whom he had married in 1960, announced publicly that they are those true parents, and that under their stewardship humanity had left behind the New Testament age and embarked upon a new age in human history, the Completed Testament Era. Every year Unificationists celebrate the Moon's wedding anniversary as Parents Day, the date on which humanity began the return to the state of grace that prevailed before Eve's transgression with Satan.
Though the Unification Church is Korean in origin, it is no longer primarily a Korean church. Moon moved to the United States in 1971. Even though a U.S. federal court convicted him of tax evasion in 1982, and he served thirteen months in prison on that charge, he continues to lead the Unification Church from its American headquarters in New York State. In 1999, church officials said that only 220,000 of a claimed 4.5 million members worldwide resided in Korea.
Further Reading
Chryssides, George D. (1991) The Advent of Sun Myong
Moon: The Origins, Beliefs and Practices of the Unification Church. London: Macmillan. Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. (1973) Divine Principle. New York: HSA-UWC. Sherwood, Carlton. (1991) Inquisition: The Persecution and
Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway.
This is the complete article, containing 504 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
