|
|
|
|
SUN MYUNG MOON’S "BLESSING CEREMONY" MASS WEDDING AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
Sun Myung Moon -- the self-proclaimed "sinless Messiah" from Korea is planning another one of his famous Mass Weddings, this one to take place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The goal of the Unification Church is that 120 million couples will be "Blessed" by Moon in marriage simultaneously at this time -- thousands in person at Madison Square Garden and the rest by satellite linkup in many places throughout the world. What is the true meaning and significance of these "Blessing Ceremonies"? And how can Rev. Moon and his Unification Church, once relegated to cult status and derided by the American media, still be flourishing and expanding his empire after all these years? IN THE PAST -- A NEGATIVE U.S. MEDIA In the past much negative media attention came to the Unification Church in the United States because of their bizarre mass weddings. For example on July 1, 1982 Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han married, "blessed", 2,075 couples at one time in Madison Square Garden, New York City. This was very shocking to many in the West who view marriage as a highly personal and deeply intimate experience--and created much negative media coverage. Most of the couples in these weddings were "matched" by Moon himself, and many of them had never even met before the day of the wedding. Moon claims that he can see 7 generations of his followers’ ancestors in order to find the perfect spouse for them. Yet Moon himself failed at his first marriage, divorcing his first wife supposedly because "she did not understand his mission", only to later marry one of his devoted followers, the then 17 year-old Hak Ja Han. As one distraught parent said, "How can someone who failed to pick the right partner for himself pick one for my son?" In a more recent public relations embarrassment Moon’s elder son, Hyo Jin Moon, and his wife Nansook, whom Moon matched and "Blessed" in marriage to Hyo Jin when Nansook was just a 15 year-old school girl, recently went through the process of getting a divorce. Another strange thing associated with the Unification Church "Blessing" is the "tangam ceremony". In those days this was a secret marriage initiation ritual in which the husband was required to first hit his future wife as hard as he could with a baseball bat 3 times on the buttocks. If she passed out in between, he had to wait and then continue. Then it was her turn and if she was too weak, another member had to take her place to perform the rite. According to the Unification Church this was supposed to "indemnify" (pay for) the sin of Adam and Eve (which Moon says was sex) and the historical resentment between men and women since the Fall, and to prevent future resentment in the marriage. I have heard that some people have suffered serious back injuries as a result of this. The "tangam ceremony" has been somewhat toned down and modified since then, but it still has the same concept and doctrine behind it. Since the 1982 Madison Square Garden extravaganza the Mass Weddings were moved back to Korea where there have been several since then, each succeeding one growing dramatically in numbers. The "Blessing" used to be open only to Unification Church members, who through much hard work and sacrifice had proven themselves loyal to Moon. Now Moon has opened his "Blessing" to everybody and the Unification Church is using it as a recruiting tool. Many of the "Blessings" now are presented as "marriage rededications" as those who are already married, but not by Moon, have their marriages "Blessed" by Moon. BACK TO NEW YORK Rev. Moon seems to be getting bolder lately as he has now moved his Mass Weddings back to America. On November 29, 1997 Moon held his largest Mass Wedding ever in our nation’s capital, RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C. Amazingly, the Unification Church, one of the most bizarre cults ever on American soil, has done a tremendous job of gaining public support and legitimacy in the U.S. in recent years. This is partly because most people are not aware of the inner teachings of the group, but only see the face they put on for the public. It is also because many people can be easily bought, and the super rich Sun Myung Moon is a master at using his money to gain influence. And the Unification Church conducts many different projects and conferences seeking to change its image from that of a cult to a respectable and legitimate religious movement. Now they even have big name celebrities and politicians like former President Bush going around making speeches for their organizations like the "Women’s Federation for World Peace" and the "Family Federation for World Peace." The Unification Church uses these celebrities and politicians to seek to gain credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of the public and to recruit new members. The American media, which used to give the Unification Church so much opposition, gives them very little opposition now. And Christians, who used to constantly protest and speak out against Moon when he first came to this country, have slacked off, many have grown apathetic, and many who call themselves "Christians" now actually support and embrace Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church! All of these factors seem to have emboldened Rev. Moon and now he has come back to America with his "Blessing Ceremonies", first to Washington, D.C. and now back to the Big Apple. PROMOTING THE "BLESSING" |
|
In seeking to promote the "Blessing" the Unification Church often publicly speaks of the importance of the family unit, that the family is the most important unit in our societies and in our nations. They speak of the importance of fidelity between the husband and wife and the need to teach children sexual abstinence before marriage. All of these things this writer wholeheartedly agrees with. What could possibly be wrong with that? In a large advertisement that ran in The Washington Times, The Washington Post and other newspapers nationwide (for the Washington, D.C. event) entitled, "Proclamation Of The 3.6 Million Couples Marriage Blessing" the Unification Church said, "We invite the leaders of the world and the people of all nations to join us in this noble endeavor, by actively promoting and participating in the international blessing ceremony ..." Elsewhere the advertisement said, "Through a special marriage blessing, couples worldwide have the opportunity to become true families." Fairly innocuous words, but the "Proclamation" failed to tell people what "true families" are according to the Unification Church, or how participating in a Mass Wedding -- held by a man who claims to be the Messiah, "the Lord of the Universe", who vows he will "conquer and subjugate the world"-- will cause them to become "true families". BRING THE CHRISTIANS The Unification Church has taught its members that one of the main strategies that they are to use in promoting the "Blessing" is to seek to persuade Christian Ministers and their congregations to participate (Unification News, April 19, 1997, p. 4 under sub-headings "Five Stage Strategy" and "First Stage"). Among other things in this article, the Unification Church instructed its members:
The Unification Church was very busy during 1997 giving "True Family Values" seminars to Christians and using these to try to influence people to be involved in the "Blessing Ceremony". One wonders what they have told Christian Ministers and Christians at these "True Family Values" seminars in seeking to persuade them to participate in the "Blessing". Have they told them that participation in the "Blessing" is not just pledging to remain faithful to your spouse, and to teach marital fidelity etc.? Have they told them such things as we have presented in the article, "Examples of the Use of Deception by the Unification Church"? For example have they told them that the Unification Church teaches:
Of course, Moon claims that he is "the Lord of the Second Advent". And that Rev. Moon teaches:
And:
Sun Myung Moon has also taught his followers:
And:
Of course, for the Unification Church, leading someone to the (supposed) "Lord of the Second Advent" and persuading them to follow him would be considered "a good thing". This is classic cult indoctrination of "the end justifies the means". SOME UNIFICATION CHURCH TEACHINGS |
|
In 1984 Rev. Moon’s 17 year-old son Heung Jin Nim Moon was killed in a tragic car crash. In a speech given to Unification Church members by Jin Sung Moon (Rev. and Mrs. Moon’s son-in-law) and recorded in Today’s World (a Unification Church publication), Jin Sung Moon instructed Unification Church members concerning the death of Heung Jin Nim:
"To indemnify" in Unification Church jargon means to make payment for sin or failure. Do you realize what you just read? This is one of the saddest and most bizarre statements I have ever read in researching cult literature. Rev. and Mrs. Moon claim to be the "True Parents" of mankind, and the Unification Church teaches that they offered their son as a sacrifice (he crashed into the back of an 18-wheeler). In addition, the Unification Church claims that the book, The Victory of Love, is a compilation of messages given by the spirit of Heung Jin Nim Moon, Rev. Moon’s deceased son, from the spirit world, speaking through many different Unification Church members as mediums at many different places and on many different occasions. This is spiritism or sorcery which, of course, is strictly forbidden by God in the Bible (Deut. 18:9-14, Isaiah 8:19-20, Rev. 22:12-16, Lev. 20:6, etc.), yet is taught and practiced by the Unification Church. From pp. 61-66 of this Unification Church book, a message is recorded which the Unification Church purports to be a message from Jesus. On pp. 65-66 the supposed spirit of Jesus is recorded as saying:
This is total abomination and totally against the teaching of the Bible (Phil. 2:8-11, Eph. 1:21, I Tim. 4:1)!!! "UNITING RELIGIONS" Publicly the Unification Church talks much about the
unifying of religions, etc. but what they really mean (and what they teach
privately) is unifying all religions and peoples to follow and submit to Moon as
the "True Father" as the "sinless Messiah", in bowing down to him, etc.
Moon teaches:
"...Christianity and all other religions must recommend the Unification Church as the true solution." (Ibid. p.18) "God knows very well that the Unification Church is the only answer." (Ibid., p.33) "Am I foolish and insignificant or am I great? I gave all the individuals in the world cause to kneel down in front of me." (Rev. Moon, Today's World, March 1995 p.6) "If religion becomes unified, the nation and everything else can be unified. Unknown to everyone, in this sense, God prepared the Unification Church to replace everything." (Sun Myung Moon, Today's World, March 1995, p. 5) Rev. Ahn of the Unification Church gives us the Unification Church teaching:
"Every day I bow down to True Parents, morning and night, and pray. Through doing this, I can separate from Satan." (Rev. Ahn, Today’s World, January 1995, p. 27) "I teach our members to bow to True Parents morning and night..." (Rev. Ahn, Today’s World, January, 1995, p. 39) And Rev. Moon himself teaches:
WHAT IS THE TRUE MEANING OF THE "BLESSING"? |
|
The Unification Church teaches:
To understand the "deep significant meaning" of the Unification Church "Blessing Ceremony" one must understand at least a little bit about Moon’s doctrine. Moon teaches:
And his Unification Church teaches:
According to the Unification Church one of the "secrets" that Moon "discovered" is that the Fall of Man occurred by Eve having sexual intercourse with Lucifer in the Garden of Eden, and then in turn she seduced Adam.
Through this the blood lineage was tainted. Thus in order to be "saved" (according to the Unification Church -- not the Bible!) one must have their "blood lineage changed" by undergoing Moon’s Holy Wine Ceremony, and then be "blessed" by Moon in marriage! According to Moon, this is how the Kingdom of God will come into the earth. Moon teaches
Moon’s doctrine of the Fall of Lucifer and the Fall of Man can be easily disproven by the Bible. Moon takes certain Biblical themes and terms such as the ones mentioned above and gives them an anti-Biblical definition. He does this also with the teaching of Jesus and the Bible concerning spiritual rebirth and concerning what it means to be born-again and how to receive it. He takes Biblical terms and redefines them to meet his own ends. |
|
The Unification Church teaches:
"Therefore satanic life energy emerges from us. This means we need to change our blood lineage. Before receiving the Blessing, we went through the Holy Wine Ceremony. Through this ceremony, we were born again into God’s pure lineage and then we received the blessing...Blessing then means that we change the satanic false lineage and receive the blessing of the true lineage through True Parents....Therefore, we need True Parents in order to receive God’s heavenly pure lineage." (Rev. Joong Hyun Pak, "The Year of Great Blessing", Unification News, January, 1997, p.6.) "True Parents have received the absolute Blessing from God and come as God’s physical representatives on the Earth to give that Blessing to others, changing the blood lineage from Satan to God." (Rev. Joong Hyun Pak, "Volunteering to Save the American Family", Unification News, June, 1997, p. 4.)
So to support or participate in the so-called "Blessing" is tantamount to endorsing Moon’s claim that he and Mrs. Moon are the "True Parents" of mankind -- and that Moon is the "Sinless Messiah" the only hope of salvation. It is to endorse his false doctrine that the Fall of Man occurred by Eve having sex with Lucifer (and then seducing Adam and having sex with him before the `proper time’) and that the only hope of salvation is for one to have their "blood lineage changed" by undergoing Moon’s "Holy Wine Ceremony"! Sun Myung Moon, the supposed "sinless Messiah", supposedly has the pure uncorrupted blood lineage. Many have alleged that this "holy wine", which participants drink, contains a small amount of Moon’s literal blood (in highly diluted form, of course). [See former Unification Church member Craig Maxim's article Unification Church, Insider-Secret Doctrines for proof of this!]. Thus through undergoing this ceremony (according to the Unification Church, not the Bible!) one has their "blood lineage changed" and is engrafted onto Moon’s own "sinless perfect family". According to the Unification Church this is how you, your spouse and your children can become a "true family". Of course from then you must attend the "True Parents".
Despite the teaching of the Bible -- and of Christianity for 2000 years, Moon teaches that Jesus was not supposed to be crucified but was supposed to marry John the Baptist’s younger sister, and that Jesus and her were supposed to start a family of sinless children, etc. Sun Myung Moon teaches:
But according to Moon Jesus failed in his Christly mission and ended up being crucified. Moon teaches,
He also teaches:
Sun Myung Moon claims to have more wisdom than Jesus, he has often said that he is greater than Jesus and he has even claimed that Jesus Christ has bowed down to him! And from the above quote we can also see that he claims to have "restored" the "failures" of Jesus Christ! So we see that to support or to participate in Moon’s so-called "Blessing Ceremony"is to also endorse Moon’s teaching that Jesus Christ is a failure, that Jesus failed in His mission and that Moon is greater than Jesus! Actually, to support or participate in the so-called "Blessing" is to endorse all of Moon’s teachings (that Jesus was conceived by Mary having sex with Zachariah etc., etc., ) as Moon also claims that he is the true teacher, the teacher of teachers. In Moon’s own words:
|
|
Moon teaches:
And his Unification Church teaches:
This is far different from just making a statement for the need for strong or pure families, as the Unification Church has been portraying their "Blessing Ceremony" in the media and in their promotional literature. According to Unification Church publications, by participating in Moon’s "Holy Wine" and "Blessing" Ceremonies ones blood lineage is changed from a Satanic to a godly and pure blood lineage, one becomes engrafted onto Moon’s own "sinless family" (the family with the pure blood lineage), one is "born again" and receives salvation! (And this is completely contrary to what Jesus and the Bible teach about the new birth and how to receive it [John Ch. 3]!) THE WHOLE WORLD MUST SUBMIT TO MOON! |
|
Rev. Moon also teaches that he is supposed to be the absolute ruler of the world. He has talked many times about wanting to take over America politically.
Though on the surface the "Blessing Ceremony" may seem like a good thing (a statement for strong families) there are many other and deeper teachings behind it all which are false and abominable. The Mass Wedding is just one more tool which Sun Myung Moon is using to promote himself as the "sinless Messiah", the "True Parent" for all of mankind, "the Lord of the Universe", the only hope for salvation and to try to persuade people to submit to him, accept his many false teachings, and to set him up as the absolute ruler of the world. Let us seek to promote strong families -- but let us speak out against the deceptive practices and false teachings of the false Messiah Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church!
This article by David Wolfe
for more information contact New Covenant Publications at our e-mail address: .or write to: New Covenant Publications, P.O. Box 167, Radio City Station, NY NY
|
