2022.7.14
Approaching the "flow of money" of the Sun Myung Moon Empire
Text by Marc Fisher
In the wake of the murder of former Prime Minister Abe, the former Unification Church has been scrutinized, and the US newspaper "Washington Post" has cut into the relationship between its funding sources and big-name politicians. According to former church executives and cult researchers, Japan is the "gold vein" that produces 70% of the wealth of this global cult.
A world empire that makes money with fortune telling fraud
Door-to-door sales aimed at mourning elderly people and networking with prominent politicians ── The Unification Church of the World Peace (formerly the Unification Church) can rely on Japan most for decades with these two wheels. Has been established as.
Experts who have studied the spiritual and lucrative world empire built by Guru Sun Myung Moon point out so.
And now, when the suspect in the murder of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told police that he had a grudge against a "specific religious group," the former Unification Church admitted that the suspect's mother was a believer. The church, which has long been controversial in the country, is once again scrutinized.
According to Japanese media reports, Tetsuya Yamagami said in a police interrogation that his mother went bankrupt under pressure to donate a huge amount to a religious group. Tomihiro Tanaka, the former chairman of the Unification Church in Japan, held a press conference on July 11, revealing that Yamagami's mother has been a believer since around 1998, but said she had no information about her donation.
The former Unification Church manages dozens of church facilities in Japan, including the Nara branch, which is hundreds of meters away from Abe's shooting site.
Abe, like many other world leaders, attended events related to the former Unification Church and was paid a lecture fee. He most recently sent a video message to an event held in September 2021.
It was an event hosted by Hak Ja Han Moon, Sun Myung Moon's wife and known as the "True Mother" in the church. To Hak Ja Han Moon, who will be the head of the church after Sun Myung Moon's death, Abe said, "I am deeply grateful to you for your tireless efforts to resolve world conflicts, especially the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula."
Former US President Donald Trump also made a remote appearance at the event, celebrating Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon.
Bush and Gorbachev …
Throughout its history, the Unification Church and its affiliates have paid large sums to invite world political leaders, celebrities and prominent clerics from other religions to speak. This is a long-standing strategy for winning credibility by associating a church with a famous and respected person.
"They will make money for anyone who gives them legitimacy."
That's what Larry Gilliox, who has long studied the business and political initiatives of the former Unification Church around the world.
"If you gain credibility with such a big name, you will be able to attract more local influential people, even locally."
For example, in the mid-1990s, former US Presidents George HW Bush and Gerald Ford, US comedian Bill Cosby, and former Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev hosted Bunmei in Japan and Washington. I am giving a lecture at the conference.
When Bush gave a lecture in Tokyo, the Unification Church was regarded as a problem in Japan in class action proceedings over extortion of donations. According to the complaint, the plaintiffs were pressured to make a large donation to promise the happiness of the deceased family in the world.
At the time, the Washington Post reported that Bush had taken the stage at an event related to such a controversial religious group, and Bush announced that he would donate $ 80,000 to the charity.
A bag containing a wad of bills sent from Japan to NY
For more than 60 years, the former Unification Church and its sects have relied on Japan as a profit center to fund their activities around the world, including the United States, as evidenced by studies by scholars and government investigators. I have pointed out.
It is well known that there are unification church media in various countries around the world, including the "Washington Times" newspaper launched by Sun Myung Moon in the United States, but even if these businesses lose money, the church will still be based on the "fortune telling fraud" in Japan. I was able to count on a strong source of revenue.
Steve Hassan, a former believer and author of a destructive cult book, says.
"Japanese believers scan the death column of the newspaper, visit the bereaved family's house, and cut out,'Your loved one has communicated with us.' And'Go to the bank so that you can ascend in the spirit world. I want you to send money to the Unification Church. "
The roots of the former Unification Church are South Korea, but according to historians who have studied the organization, it is Japan that has traditionally provided 70% of the church's wealth. A former Japanese church executive once told The Washington Post that $ 800 million was flowing from Japan to US bases in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s.
Former church executive Ron Packet, who managed the Manhattan Center in New York, which the Unification Church purchased in 1976, said, "Hundreds of bags of cash from South Korea and Japan to the Manhattan Center. I've been sent a number of big bags with wads of bills, "he told the newspaper in 1997 as well.
"When I asked where the money came from, the answer was always'from Father'," Packet said. "Father" is the name used by believers for Sun Myung Moon.
Japan is a country subordinate to South Korea
According to Sun Myung Moon's theological theory, South Korea is the country of "Adam," the hometown of the people destined to rule the world, and Japan is the country of "Eve," which is subordinate to South Korea. He explains that Sun Myung Moon was tasked with salvating humanity when Eve had a sexual relationship with Satan and humanity had fallen.
When the guru died in 2012, his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, became president of the Unification Church.
Hak Ja Han Moon reigns at the top of the cult after Sun Myung Moon's death. Photo by Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images at a joint wedding in South Korea in 2017
On the other hand, Hyung Jin Moon, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bun, founded a branch organization "Sanctuary Church" that is in opposition to the head family, and has also advanced to Japan. Hyung Jin Moon's sect, known in the United States as the English name Sean, is based in New Fundland, Pennsylvania, and claims that the deadly AR-15 rifle plays an important role in religious ceremonies.
Sean's brother Justin, also known as Moon Kook-jin, also owns a gun manufacturing company in Pennsylvania. He is called the "true son" in the church and was sent to Japan around 2008-2009 before his father died. He was to resist Japan's move to deprive the church of its legal status.
Moon Kook-jin recalled in a speech in the United States in 2010 that it was "a very difficult time." "Because the police were conducting a large-scale investigation into our church. We arrested church members and stepped into the maintenance of church facilities …"
He also denied in this speech that the church was pressing the Japanese to make large donations. He then said he had spoken to large Japanese donors, and continued.
"I asked them,'What drives you so much to donate?' And in so many cases,'My ancestors came and told me to do so. That's the answer. "