Moonies mass wedding
The background
Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, has died in South Korea from complications relating to pneumonia at the age of 92. Moon, whose followers are known as ‘Moonies’, was a controversial figure, accused of creating a brainwashing cult and once jailed for tax evasion in the US.
Moon described himself as the ‘second messiah’ and claimed to have met Jesus Christ in North Korea in 1936. His Unification Church shot to prominence in the 1970s and captured the popular imagination for the practice of mass weddings that saw thousands of followers married to complete strangers. The Church also proved lucrative: “In 2008 one estimate put Moon’s personal wealth at about $990 million,” reported The Telegraph.
What is the Unification Church?
Founded by Moon in South Korea 1954, the teaching of the Unification Church are “a hybrid of Christianity, Confucianism, Shamanism and anti-communism”, said The Telegraph. The Church spread West in the 1960s and 1970s. While Moon faced accusations of brainwashing, “there was never any evidence that the Moonies incarcerated people or used mind-altering drugs; and there were many examples of people who had left the church voluntarily,” reported The Telegraph.
The mass weddings
Mass weddings were a central part of Moon’s teachings. “In 2009, Moon married 45,000 people in simultaneous ceremonies worldwide in his first large-scale mass wedding in years,” said The Guardian.
Watch the trailer for a C4 documentary following three young British people as they prepare to take part in a mass Moonie wedding.
Married to the Moonies trailer score from Screened Music Network on Vimeo.
The money
Moon had a variety of money-spinning business interests. According to Bloomberg, “through a web of companies, foundations and non-profit organizations, Moon had controlled the Washington Times newspaper; the United Press International wire service; Washington-based Atlantic Video, one of the biggest independent broadcasting facilities in the U.S.; the Hotel New Yorker in Manhattan and the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.”
The political contacts
Moon had ties with political figures around the world, meeting North Korea founder Kim Il Sung and Mikhail Gorbachev. “Moon also cultivated relationships with conservative American leaders, including former Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush,” said The Independent.
