Unification Church

===Defamation lawsuit against the ''Daily Mail''===

In 1978, the ''[[Daily Mail]]'', a British [[Tabloid (newspaper format)|tabloid]] newspaper, published an article with the headline: "The Church That Breaks Up Families".<ref name=":10">{{Citation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/01/world/moon-s-sect-loses-libel-suit-in-london.html|first=William|last= Borders|title=Moon's Sect Loses Libel Suit in London|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=1 April 1981|access-date=2023-11-09}}</ref><ref>"The Church That Breaks Up Families," ''Daily Mail'' (London), 29 May 1978.</ref> The article accused the Unification Church of [[brainwashing]] and separating families. The British Unification Church's director [[Dennis Orme]] filed a [[Defamation|libel]] suit against the ''Daily Mail'' and [[Associated Newspapers]], its parent company, resulting in one of the longest civil actions in British legal history{{snd}}lasting six months.<ref name=":10" /><ref>Hilary Devries, ed., "Unification Church loses suit against British paper," ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'', 1 April 1981.</ref><ref name=":0">[[James T. Richardson]] and Barend van Driel, "New Religious Movements in Europe: Developments and Reactions" in ''Anti-Cult Movements in Cross-Cultural Perspective'', edited by Anson Shupe and David G. Bromley, 129–170 [144], (New York: Garland, 1994), {{ISBN|9780815314288}}.</ref> Orme and the Unification Church lost the libel case, the appeal case, and were refused permission to take their case to the [[Judicial functions of the House of Lords|House of Lords]].<ref name=":0" /> The original case heard 117 witnesses, including American [[Anti-cult movement|anti-cult]] psychiatrist [[Margaret Singer|Margaret Thaler Singer]].<ref name=":10" /> In the original case, the Unification Church was ordered to pay Associated Newspapers [[Pound sterling|GB£]]750,000 in costs which was maintained after appeal.<ref>Eileen Barker, ''[[The Making of a Moonie|The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?]]'' (1984; repr., Oxford: [[Basil Blackwell]], 1989), 2. {{ISBN?}}</ref> The jury of the original case not only awarded Associated Newspapers costs, but it and the judge requested that the [[Attorney General for England and Wales|Attorney General]] re-examine the Unification Church's charitable status, which after a lengthy investigation from 1986 to 1988 was not removed.<ref name=":11">Eileen Barker, "General Overview of the "Cult Scene" in Great Britain," ''[[Nova Religio|Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions]]'' 4, no. 2 (2001): 235–240, [236].{{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>George D. Chryssides, ''Exploring New Religions'' (London and New York: Cassell, 1999), 358. {{ISBN|9780304336517}}</ref> According to [[George Chryssides]], about half of the Unification Church's 500 full-time membership in Britain moved to the United States.<ref>George D. Chryssides, "Britain's Anti-cult movement," in ''New Religious Movements: Changes and Responses'', edited by Jamie Cresswell and Bryan Wilson, 257–273 [268], (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), {{ISBN|9780415200509}}.</ref> The Unification Church sold seven of its twelve principal church centers after the ruling.<ref>George D. Chryssides, "Britain's Changing Faiths: Adaptation in a New Environment," in ''The Growth of Religious Diversity: Britain from 1945, Volume II: Issues'', edited by G. Parson, 55–84 [79], London: Routledge, 1994. {{ISBN|978-0415083287}}</ref> Other anti-cultists in countries like Germany sought to incorporate the [[High Court of Justice|London High Court]]'s decision into law.<ref name=":0" /> The Unification Church has won other libel and [[defamation]] cases in the United Kingdom, including a similar case against ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''.<ref name=":11" />