Sun Myung Moon

==Early life==
[[File:Sun Myung Moon in Waseda.jpg|thumb|160px|Moon as a student at Waseda University.]]
Sun Myung Moon was born Yong Myung Moon on 6 January 1920<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sun-Myung-Moon |title=Sun Myung Moon |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |location=Edinburgh |access-date=5 June 2020}}</ref> in modern-day [[North Pyongan|North P'yŏng'an]] [[Provinces of Korea|Province]], North Korea, at a time when [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea was under Japanese rule]]. He was the second son in a farming family of thirteen children,<ref>Mickler, Michael L. (2022). [https://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Books/UCmovement-221100.pdf ''The Unification Church Movement'']. Cambridge University Press, p. 6.</ref> eight of whom survived.<ref name="WP Obit"/> Moon's family followed [[Confucianist]] beliefs until he was around 10 years old, when they converted to [[Christianity]] and joined the [[Presbyterian Church]].<ref name="massmarr">{{cite web | title=Mass Moonie Marriage in the US | website=[[BBC News]] | date=29 November 1997 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1997/unification_church/34821.stm | access-date=9 March 2023}}</ref> Moon claims that he experienced a religious vision of [[Jesus]] at age 16 that laid out his life's mission.<ref name="auto1">Mickler, 2022, p. 8.</ref>

In 1941, Moon began studying [[electrical engineering]] at [[Waseda University]] in Japan.<ref name=Businessweek /> During this time, he cooperated with [[Communist Party of Korea|Communist Party]] members in the [[Korean independence movement]] against [[Imperial Japan]].<ref name="moon">{{cite book  | last =Moon |  first=Sun Myung  | title =As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen | publisher =Gimm-Young Publishers  | year =2009  | isbn = 978-0-7166-0299-6}}</ref> In 1943, he returned to Seoul and, in 1944,<ref>Mickler, 2022, p. 10.</ref> married his first wife, Sun-kil Choi ({{lang|ko|최선길}}; {{script|Hani|崔先吉}}; ''Choe Seon-gil'').<ref name="NYT OBIT"/> They had a son,<ref name="NYT OBIT" /> Sung Jin Moon ({{lang|ko|문성진}}; {{script|Hani|文聖進}}; ''Mun Seong-jin'').<ref>"[https://www.deseret.com/2012/9/4/20433652/rev-moon-oversaw-large-often-bickering-brood Rev. Moon oversaw large, often bickering brood]". Associated Press, 2012.</ref> In the 1940s, Sun Myung Moon attended a church led by {{ill|Kim Baek-moon|ko|김백문}}, who influentially taught that he had been given by Jesus the mission to spread the message of a "new Israel" throughout the world.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Breen|first1=Michael|title=Sun Myung Moon: the early years 1920-53|date=1997|publisher=Refuge Books|location=Hurstpierpoint West Sussex, U.K.|isbn=978-0953163700|pages=69, 173}}</ref> Around this time, Moon changed his given name to Sun Myung as an effort to quell the increased resentment of other Christians against him, as he gradually began gathering his own followers.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Breen|first1=Michael|title=Sun Myung Moon: the early years 1920–53|date=1997|publisher=Refuge Books|location=Hurstpierpoint West Sussex, U.K.|isbn=978-0953163700|pages=69, 173}}</ref>

Following [[World War II]], Korea was divided (South and North) along the 38th parallel into two trusteeships: the United States and the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="CNN OBIT" /><ref name="Unification Church">{{cite web | title= Unification Church | work= HD Jongkyo | url= http://www.hdjongkyo.co.kr/html/sup01_1.html?Hid=60&Hpopage=1&Hponowblock=.. | access-date= 17 October 2014 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160306122237/http://hdjongkyo.co.kr/html/sup01_1.html?hid=60&hponowblock=..&hpopage=1 | archive-date= 6 March 2016}}</ref> Pyongyang (the eventual capital of North Korea) was the center of Christian activity in Korea until 1945.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} From the late 1940s, hundreds of Korean Christian religious figures were killed or disappeared in concentration camps, including [[Francis Hong Yong-ho]], Catholic bishop of Pyongyang,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.30giorni.it/us/articolo.asp?id=10278 |title=Korea, for a reconciliation between North and South |access-date=21 April 2010 |date=24 March 2006 |work=30 Days |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023151637/http://www.30giorni.it/us/articolo.asp?id=10278 |archive-date=23 October 2007}}</ref> and all monks of [[Territorial Abbey of Tokwon|Tokwon Abbey]].<ref>{{cite web | title= The Martyrs of Tokwon: Historical Preliminary Notes | work= Missionary Benedictines of St. Ottilien | url= http://www.missionsbenediktiner.de/seligsprechung/cms/kategorie/index.php?kategorieid=59&parentid=59&languageid=1 | access-date= 10 April 2012 | archive-date= 17 October 2014 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141017162850/http://www.missionsbenediktiner.de/seligsprechung/cms/kategorie/index.php?kategorieid=59&parentid=59&languageid=1 | url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title= Thank You Father Kim Il Sung | work= U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, November 2005 | url= http://www.uscirf.gov/images/stories/pdf/nkwitnesses.pdf | access-date= 10 April 2012 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131026025832/http://www.uscirf.gov/images/stories/pdf/nkwitnesses.pdf | archive-date= 26 October 2013}}</ref> When Moon started his own movement (an early version of the Unification Church) in Pyongyang in 1946,<ref>Mickler, 2022, p. 11.</ref> the Soviet-controlled North Korean government imprisoned and, he claims, tortured him.<ref name="NYT OBIT"/> Sources vary on the motivation behind his arrest: [[Persecution of Christians in North Korea|religious persecution]],<ref name="WP 2018">Dunkel, Tom (2018). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/05/21/feature/two-sons-of-rev-moon-have-split-from-his-church-and-their-followers-are-armed/ "Locked and Loaded for the Lord"]. ''The Washington Post''.</ref> a charge of [[espionage]],<ref name="auto2">Mickler, 2022, p. 12.</ref> or [[polygamy]].<ref name="NewRepub"/> His religious practices during this time may have included [[P'ikareum|unorthodox sexual rituals]] with multiple women,<ref name="NewRepub"/> a claim the Unification Church denies and some scholars have doubted.<ref name="auto2"/><ref name="Chryssides">{{cite book |last=Chryssides |first=George |author-link=George Chryssides |title=The Advent of Sun Myung Moon: The Origins, Beliefs and Practices of the Unification Church |year=1991 |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |isbn=978-0312053475 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/adventofsunmyung0000chry/page/99 99]–103 |url=https://archive.org/details/adventofsunmyung0000chry|url-access=registration }}</ref>

Arrested again in 1948, he was sentenced to five years at [[Hungnam]] labor camp,<ref name="auto2"/><ref name="NewRepub"/> though in 1950, during the [[Korean War]], he was liberated by [[United Nations]] troops and allegedly traveled by foot to [[Busan]], (South) Korea.<ref name="NYT OBIT"/><ref>{{Cite news
| issn = 0458-3035
| last = Woo
| first = Elaine
| title = Sun Myung Moon dies at 92; led controversial Unification Church
| work=[[Los Angeles Times]]
| access-date = 2 January 2013
| date = 3 September 2012
| url = http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/03/local/la-me-sun-myung-moon-20120903/2
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121005165924/http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/03/local/la-me-sun-myung-moon-20120903/2
| archive-date = 5 October 2012
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news
| issn = 0190-8286
| last = Brown
| first = Emma
| title = Sun Myung Moon dies at 92; Washington Times owner led the Unification Church
| newspaper = The Washington Post
| access-date = 2 January 2013
| date = 4 September 2012
| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/sun-myung-moon-dies-at-92-washington-times-owner-led-the-unification-church/2012/09/02/001b747a-f531-11e1-aab7-f199a16396cf_story_4.html
}}</ref> Moon emerged from his years in the labor camp as a staunch anti-communist.<ref name="WP Obit" /> His teachings viewed the [[Cold War]] between democracy and communism as the final conflict between [[God]] and [[Satan]], with divided Korea as its primary front line.<ref>''Christianity: A Global History'', David Chidester, HarperCollins, 2001, {{ISBN|0062517708}}, 9780062517708, pages 514 to 515</ref>

In 1952<ref name="NYT OBIT"/> or 1955, after years of being separated from his wife and child before reuniting,<ref>Mickler, 2022, p. 19.</ref> Moon and Choi divorced. Moon moved to Seoul once again and, continuing his ministry, was arrested two more times: once on suspicion of religious orgies and once for [[draft evasion]]; both charges were overturned.<ref>Mickler, 2022, p. 18.</ref><ref name="WP 2018"/>

In 1954, Moon formally founded the [[Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity]] in Seoul and fathered an [[illegitimate child]]<ref name="NYT OBIT"/> (who died in 1969).<ref>Mickler, 2022, p. 20.</ref> In the 1950s, Moon quickly drew young acolytes who helped to build the foundations of [[List of Unification Church affiliated organizations|church affiliated business and cultural organizations]].<ref name="WP Obit" /><ref name="NBC Obit">{{cite news|last=NBC News staff and news services|title=Sun Myung Moon, founder of Unification Church, dies at 92|url=http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/02/13622427-sun-myung-moon-founder-of-unification-church-dies-at-92?lite|access-date=20 June 2013|newspaper=World News on NBC News|date=2 September 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606202931/http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/02/13622427-sun-myung-moon-founder-of-unification-church-dies-at-92?lite|archive-date=6 June 2013}}</ref> At his new church, he preached a conservative, family-oriented value system and his interpretation of the [[Bible]].<ref name=usatoday2012-09-02a /><ref name="CBC Obit">{{cite news|title=Unification Church founder Rev. Moon dies at 92|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/09/02/sun-myung-moon-obit.html|access-date=19 June 2013|newspaper=CBC News/The Canadian Press|date=2 September 2013|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> A follower whose family joined Moon's movement in the early 1950s claims that she and Moon engaged in various religious sexual rituals, including with several other women, and that she remained Moon's mistress through his second marriage, up until 1964 (bearing Moon another son, in secret, in 1965).<ref name="NewRepub"/>