Unification Church Rev. Moon Dies, Netizens Discuss his Legacy

Rev. Moon Sun-myung

From Daum:

Unification Church leader Reverend Moon Sun-myung (92) died today. Rev. Moon was hospitalized on the 31st of August in an intensive care due to pneumonia

Rev. Moon founded ‘The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity’ in May of 1954. While the mission exists in 194 countries, in South Korea there are approximately 20,000 believers and over 3 million worldwide.

Having an influence world over, the Unification Church has reaches in manufacturing, construction and automobile, in addition to education, culture, social welfare, and media. Rev. Moon has been able to amass enormous wealth but has been accused of heresy due to his self-proclaimed Returned Messiah status.

Born on the 6th of January, 1920, he was the second of 13 siblings from North Pyongan Province [in what is now North Korea]. He returned from Japan in 1945 after the Korea’s liberation. The following year he initiated the Spiritual Mystery movement and was imprisoned by the Communist Party in 1948.

In 1954 he moved his Church to Seoul and started the World Christian Spiritual Unification Association. By the late 1950s he sent out missionaries to Japan and the United States, visiting over 40 countries in person in 1965. His missionary work in the United States started in earnest in the early 1970s and started the Unification Theological School.

In 1976 before the Washington Monument Rev. Moon organized a mass rally with over 300,000 people in attendance, which earned him the Man of the Year title by Newsweek. The following year he founded News World Communications and the Washington Times. In 1989 in Seoul he started the Segye Ilbo. In 1990 he met Gorbachev in Moscow and in 1991 Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang.

Rev. Moon Sun-myung meets Kim Il Sung

This July he attended the opening of this year’s Peace Cup in Suwon and every month he travelled between South Korea and the United States. In March, he held a wedding sermon for 2,500 international marriages at the Cheongshim World Peace Center.

In 2009, he celebrated his 90th birthday, and was greeted with a big ceremony. North Korea’s Kim Jong Il sent some wild ginseng roots, while (ex) Prime Minister Han Seung-soo sent a congratulatory message and the likes of President Barack Obama, (ex) President George Bush and Japan’s (ex) Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro sent a congratulatory cable. And in June of that year he published the autobiography ‘Peace World Love.’

In recognition of his role in helping tie knots of over 36 million couples between 1960 and 1997, he received the Ig Nobel Economics prize in 2000. In recognition of his role in helping tie knots of over 36 million couples between 1960 and 1997, he received the Ig Nobel Economics prize in 2000. The Ig Nobel Prize is awarded as a satire of the Nobel Prize, and is awarded every year in October before the announcement of the Nobel Prize, for original research or achievements ‘that cannot, or should not, be reproduced.’

Comments from Daum:

순신:

The cult leader who has a spot in the most painful part of hell~~~Hey folks~your guest has died~~~~

salina:

Cults should disappear

고향설:

Called himself a Messiah and asked his members to donate, so that makes him a swindler. With that money he did his business world over.

푸잉:

Who knows if the Unification Church will rule the world in 2000 years and if Rev. Moon will rise from the dead in 3 days?

Amen:

It’s true that anyone can acknowledge he was the leader of a cult.. but compared to other gae-dok pastors he actually did many admirable things..He was better than those gae-dok ministers who love money..

일지매:

Still better than 2MB

후니아이:

Although Moon Sun-myung has been the subject of hurls of abuse, he is still a much better person than those gae-doks in the Christian Council of Korea, because charitable work the Unification Church has been providing far outperforms that of the gae-doks. Do you guys know why the Unification Church is internationally respected? But Koreans should always keep in mind that the Unification Church is still part of fucking Christianity.

글럽만 에이스:

A Messiah? What ji-ral. You resurrected? In that case I’ll convert

물끓여닭잡자:

Is he regarded as a heresy because he impersonated the Messiah? What if heaven actually exists? What if you guys simply didn’t realize that Moon was actually a Messiah? Do you guys think Korean churches doing business by selling god’s name is legitimate? Fuck you. Just as you guys are brainwashed idiots, the Unification Church is just about the same.

시포아빠:

The pot calls the kettle back. I’m an atheist, but the Unification Church did not harm to anyone. But you gae-doks come to people’s home and say bullshit and cause noise pollution in public places like in the subway or subway stations. You guys do not deserve it so just shut the fuck up. Buddhists and Catholics criticize those gae-doks.

이영희:

40 years ago when people of the world asked what ‘Korea’ was, you are the one who said that the world will revolve around Korea, and that Korean Hangul will become a common alphabet. You are the best and most meritorious vassal who made Korea known to the world. And no matter what you may say… You were the slander of Christianity. What a great person you were.

mikekye:

Self-proclaimed Jesus, even God dies!

이성적인인간:

I’m Christian but I’ve seen so many corrupt pastors. Wherever you go, good and evil are always around. My father, who used to work for a school as a headmaster said Moon treated senior citizens so nicely by hiring more than 20 automobiles and send them on nice trips. He never preached to anyone and he never talked about the church.

도토리:

Rest in peace. He was a human being after all, so don’t swear at the guy. To an average person, there is no difference between the Unification or the regular Christian Church.

Share This Article
Help us maintain a vibrant and dynamic discussion section that is accessible and enjoyable to the majority of our readers. Please review our Comment Policy »
Personals @ chinaSMACK - Meet people, make friends, find lovers? Don't be so serious!»