Unification Church

=== Blessing ceremony ===
{{Main|Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church}}

[[File:Bodacolectivasectamoon.jpg|thumb|250px|First Blessing ceremony mass wedding outside of Korea, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 1 July 1982.]]
The Unification Church is well known for its Blessing tradition: a [[mass wedding|mass wedding ceremony]] (합동결혼식) and [[wedding vow renewal ceremony]]. It is given to engaged or married couples. According to the Church's belief in a [[serpent seed]] interpretation of [[original sin]] and the [[Fall of Man]], [[Eve]] was sexually seduced by [[Satan]] (the serpent), and thus the human [[bloodline]] is sinful due to being directly descended from Satan.<ref>Chryssides, 1991. p. 99</ref><ref>Yamamoto, J. ISamu (2016). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DEiyDAAAQBAJ&q=%22all%20descendants%20of%20eve%20are%20said%22 Unification Church]''. Zondervan.</ref> Through the Blessing, members believe, the couple is removed from the lineage of sinful humanity and restored back into God's sinless lineage.

The first Blessing ceremony was held in 1961 for 36 couples in Seoul, South Korea by the Moons shortly after their own marriage in 1960. All the couples were members of the church. Moon matched all of the couples except 12 who were already married to each other before joining the church.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dci.dk/?artikel=388 |title=Duddy, Neil ''Interview: Dr. Mose Durst'' |access-date=2007-06-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928015615/http://www.dci.dk/?artikel=388 |archive-date=2007-09-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This was Moon's second marriage. In 1945 he married [[Sun Kil Choi]]. They had a son in 1946 and divorced in 1954.<ref name="Wakin">{{Cite news
| issn = 0362-4331
| last = Wakin
| first = Daniel J.
| title = Rev. Sun Myung Moon, 92, Unification Church Founder, Dies
| work=[[The New York Times]]
| access-date = 2013-01-02
| date = 2012-09-02
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/world/asia/rev-sun-myung-moon-founder-of-unification-church-dies-at-92.html
}}</ref>

Later Blessing ceremonies were larger in scale but followed the same pattern. All participants were HSA-UWC members and Moon matched most of the couples. In 1982 the first large scale Blessing (of 2,000 couples) outside of Korea took place in Madison Square Garden, New York City.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/01/nyregion/new-york-day-by-day-wedding-day-for-4000.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |title=NEW YORK DAY BY DAY; Wedding Day for 4,000 |date=July 1, 1982}}</ref> In 1988, Moon matched 2,500 Korean members with Japanese members for a Blessing ceremony held in Korea, partly in order to promote unity between the two nations.<ref>[http://www.petermaass.com/core.cfm?p=3&news=2&newspaper=39 Marriage by the numbers; Moon presides as 6,500 couples wed in S. Korea] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081008053003/http://www.petermaass.com/core.cfm?p=3&news=2&newspaper=39 |date=2008-10-08 }} [[Peter Maass]] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' October 31, 1988</ref>

Moon's practice of matching couples was very unusual in both Christian tradition and in modern Western culture and attracted much attention and controversy.<ref>The men and women entered a large room, where Moon began matching couples by pointing at them."[http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/sides-moon-marriages-article-1.267920 NY Daily News]  "In the Unification tradition, romantic liaisons are forbidden until the members are deemed by Mr. Moon to be spiritually ready to be matched at a huge gathering where he points future spouses out to one another. His followers believe that his decisions are based on his ability to discern their suitability and see their future descendants. Many are matched with people of other races and nationalities, in keeping with Mr. Moon's ideal of unifying all races and nations in the Unification Church.  Though some couples are matched immediately before the mass wedding ceremonies, which are held every two or three years, most have long engagements during which they are typically posted in different cities or even continents, and get to know one another through letters."[https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/22/nyregion/look-life-after-mass-marriage-for-2075-couples-give-take-200-10-years-together.html?pagewanted=all The New York Times] "Many were personally matched by Moon, who taught that romantic love led to sexual promiscuity, mismatched couples and dysfunctional societies. Moon's preference for cross-cultural marriages also meant that couples often shared no common language."[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/03/moonies-mass-wedding-south-korea-unification-church-hak-ja-han-sun-myung-moon Manchester Guardian] "Moon's death Sept. 2 and funeral Saturday signaled the end of the random pairings that helped make Moon's Unification Church famous – and infamous – a generation ago."  [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/though-united-in-a-crowd-by-rev-sun-myung-moon-couples-say-marriages-succeeded-on-failed-on-their-own/2012/09/15/b0bfa176-fe77-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html Washington Post]  "Many of the couples who married at mass weddings were hand-picked by Moon from photos. It led to some strange pairs such as a 71-year-old African Catholic archbishop who wed a 43-year-old Korean acupuncturist. In 1988 Moon entered the Guinness Book of Records when he married 6,516 identically dressed couples at Seoul's Olympic Stadium. Moonie newly-weds were forbidden to sleep together for 40 days to prove their marriage was on a higher plane. They then had to consummate their marriage in a three-day ritual with the sexual positions stipulated by their leader."[https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/inside-the-sinister-moonie-cult-how-1301689 Daily Mirror]</ref> The Blessing ceremonies have attracted a lot of attention in the press and in the public imagination, often being labeled "mass weddings".<ref>[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0604sushi-1-sidebar,0,6972307.htmlstory Despite controversy, Moon and his church moving into mainstream] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725201717/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0604sushi-1-sidebar,0,6972307.htmlstory |date=2008-07-25 }} [[Chicago Tribune]], April 11, 2006. 'The church's most spectacular rite remains mass weddings, which the church calls the way "fallen men and women can be engrafted into the true lineage of God."'</ref> However, in most cases the Blessing ceremony is not a legal [[wedding]] ceremony. Some couples are already married and those that are engaged are later legally married according to the laws of their own countries.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/unification/wedd97.htm At RFK, Moon Presides Over Mass Wedding], ''The Washington Post'', November 3, 1997.</ref> ''The New York Times'' referred to a 1997 ceremony for 28,000 couples as a "marriage affirmation ceremony", adding: "The real weddings were held later in separate legal ceremonies."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/30/us/28000-couples-gather-for-rev-moon-rites.html 28,000 Couples Gather for Rev. Moon Rites], ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 30, 1997</ref>

Mary Farrell Bednarowski says that marriage is "really the only [[sacrament]]" in the Unification movement. Unificationists therefore view singleness as "not a state to be sought or cultivated" but as preparation for marriage. Pre-marital celibacy and marital faithfulness are emphasized.<ref name="nrti">{{cite book|last=Bednarowski|first=Mary Farrell|title=New Religions and the Theological Imagination in America|isbn=978-0-253-20952-8|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|year=1995|page=103|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gx42u7cGkYQC&q=%22unification+church%22+sexuality&pg=PA103|access-date=28 December 2008}}</ref> Adherents may be taught to "abstain from intimate relations for a specified time after marriage".<ref>{{cite book|title=New Religious Movements in the Twenty-first Century|page=320|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WW-XcDe-IMEC&q=%22unification+church%22+sexuality&pg=PA320|access-date=28 December 2008|last1=Lucas|first1=Phillip Charles|first2=Thomas |last2=Robbins |year=2004|isbn=978-0-415-96577-4|publisher=Routledge}}</ref> The church does not give its marriage blessing to same-sex couples.<ref>[http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/asia/Unification_Church_pres_sees_smaller_mass_weddings_77510.shtml Unification Church pres sees smaller mass weddings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090322013906/http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/asia/Unification_Church_pres_sees_smaller_mass_weddings_77510.shtml |date=2009-03-22 }}, [[The Monitor (Uganda)]], 30 December 2008, "Moon said the church does not give its wedding blessing to same sex couples."</ref>
Moon has emphasized the similarity between Unification views of sexuality and evangelical Christianity, "reaching out to conservative Christians in this country in the last few years by emphasizing shared goals like support for sexual abstinence outside of marriage, and opposition to homosexuality."<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|title=35,000 Couples Are Invited To a Blessing by Rev. Moon|work=[[The New York Times]]|last=Goodstein|first=Laurie|date=28 November 1997|access-date=28 December 2008|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E5DE133AF93BA15752C1A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print}}</ref> Since 2001 couples Blessed by Moon have been able to arrange marriages for their own children, without his direct guidance. Also some Unification Church members have married partners who are not church members.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/02/AR2010010200621.html?hpid=moreheadlines&sid=ST2010010201386 Children of Moon church's mass-wedding age face a crossroads], ''The Washington Post'', January 3, 2009</ref>