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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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Update on ‘What is on the Moon?’ (WIOTM)

What is on the Moon? (WIOTM) was started by a second generation in 2010, taking submissions from those with various dissenting perspectives, including in support of Hyun Jin/Preston (H1). A lot of the early posts were emails and testimonies circulating as the Hyun Jin faction was solidifying and being actively vilified by Uniciation Church leaders, including Sun Myung Moon himself. A number of early posts were from active Unificationists who showed concern for Moon after watching the infamous “proclamation” video, where Hyun Jin was denounced and Hyung Jin (H2) was upheld. It was undeniable that this proclamation and video were dictated by Hak Ja Han and Hyung Jin. WIOTM was an active forum where both 1st and 2nd generation, member and ex-member, H1-supporter and Family Federation member, could express their thoughts as they were beginning to publicly witness the division and hatred among the so-called “True Family.” Many members had their careers and relationships affected by this division, and WIOTM became a source for those wanting to understand the schisms, the dynamics of the Moon family, and partake in “taboo” conversations for Moonies, exploring doubt and ideas vehemently rejected by Moonie culture.

Over the years WIOTM remained a source for Moonie news, events, and valuable historical research, as well as a place to discuss and reflect on navigating a post-church life. WIOTM has gone through a number of moderators, and at certain points, we were more lenient with what we allowed posted on the blog. At other points, there were stricter standards. That being said, there has never been consistent standards or organization for this blog, and there are countless posts on WIOTM that reflect reactionary ideas, including anti-semitism and homophobia. The current and former moderators have briefly discussed this, and decided to shut down the blog because of their inability to sift through the blog and actively moderate it. This was announced over a month ago, and we have sent the archived blog to all who requested it by email. If you would still like a copy of the archive, reach out to [email protected]. Instead of taking WIOTM fully down, we have since decided to keep whatisonthemoonarchive.tumblr.com up.

As you can see, WIOTM is still here. We have also decided to continue taking submissions, and would like to slowly re-post submissions from the archive. We would also like to invite others to moderate this blog and help us standardize and organize this blog.

Current Principles of WIOTM collective

Though critical reflections and analyses of the Unification Church are invited and will undoubtedly be the primary type of submissions we will be receiving, we remain committed to sharing a variety of perspectives, including those who remain in the Family Federation or other Unification sects. Though some of these submissions may hold on to convictions that are at odds with the WIOTM collective, including patriarchal or homophobic views on family and marriage, such perspectives will be allowed for the sake of fostering dialogue, debate, and presenting an honest record of the Unification Movement, as long as they do not advocate abuse against minors (such as reparative therapy) or enforcing reactionary values against oppressed groups through political organization and/or legislation.

WIOTM will not accept every submission, and encourage those sending in posts to edit their writing before submitting. We discourage 3-5 sentence posts and sharing unfounded rumors. Leaks about the Unification Church should include some documentation. Seeking submissions about: news and leaks from the Unification Movement, testimonials from those various perspectives and faith journeys about their time in the church, research on the early Unification Church and Sun Myung Moon, including the church’s complicated relationship with intelligence agencies and right-wing/fascist organizations, and more!

To get involved, email [email protected] or message us here.

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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RE: WHEN DID SUN MYUNG MOON COME INTO CONTACT WITH YOSHIO KODAMA?

The military coup took place in South Korea in 1961. It brought into power President Park Chung Hee. The architect of the coup was the KCIA leader Kim Jong Pil. The US CIA had created the KCIA and was behind the military coup. After the coup the South Korean government began to establish diplomatic relationships with the Japanese government and its ruling Liberal Democratic Party LDP. The main movers and powers behind the LDP were Nobusuke Kishi and Yoshio Kodama and Ryoichi Sasakawa. They all were former WWII war criminals and Yakuza gangsters. The KCIA leader Kim Jong Pil came into contact with these war criminals and Yakuza gangsters when he started the diplomatic negotiations with the Japanese government. And it was Kim Jong Pil who introduced Sun Myung Moon to these fascist war criminals. They decided to use the Unification Church as their front in the Cold War battle against Communism. The KCIA reorganised the Unificaton Church as its political tool in 1962.

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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People should stop calling Moon father, master, savior, doctor, messiah, etc. Moon was not true! He taught one thing, and did another. Moon claimed he was an emperor. An emperor is anti-American. An emperor works off the system of divine right of kings. An emperor system projects the emperor is greater than the common person. The Declaration of Independence, the US constitution and the UN Declaration of Human Rights are the historical foundations for God's kingdom on earth; not Emperor Moon.

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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Moon and Kodama during WWII?

Kodama was actively building up a network in East Asia as a Japanese spy. Could he and Moon came into contact then, when Moon was at the Waseda high school?

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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Dr. Jennifer Freyd, one of the seminal researchers on the issue of betrayal trauma, has coined the term “betrayal blindness.” I believe this is a much better way to think about what is happening when we enter or stay in what we used to call denial. Betrayal blindness is not allowing yourself to see what is going on, to connect the dots, or to fully engage with reality, because if you did, the information would threaten your relationship with the person who is most important to you.

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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#universal peace federation usa #former us vp mike pence #dr. hak ja han moon #prayer rally for peace #korean peninsula

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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SUN MYUNG MOON AND HAK JA HAN AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS STOLE ALL DONATIONS OF THE UC MEMBERS

The Moon family transferred all the assets and properties of the Unification Church/FFWPU into their private names. The UC members had donated money and properties to the UC beginning already in the 1940s. The donations were of course meant to the church and not to the Moon family personally. According to the court documents of UCI case the Moon family fortune is worth of 60 billion US dollars. And this was years ago. Nowadays the Moons’ fortune has increased closer to 100 billion US dollars. And still Hak Ja Han is asking more and more donations from members. This is a religious Ponzi scheme where church members are robbed until they have donated their last dollar.

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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A tiktok on Pledge

https://www.tiktok.com/@writingwithlimi/video/7057876883785944325?_d=secCgwIARCbDRjEFSACKAESPgo8T9oo%2FZ8%2Bh%2B42uz4Bofh1RG3cRRlTG22fGl4Lsj3v%2B1F3e0i%2BWf9Z7OC82gpkjLb94KVzA1GLCM9l00zHGgA%3D&checksum=ea02271f6847a95339f580125ca9c446cc5580e21671de98c8d5971094d04eda&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAu6igGJowm71nRrb7UyAcstcBDlYZZqZ1j_KDrugKc-J3lkQZtYTWRROqfr5xzNfW&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=7057876883785944325&share_link_id=3E341438-C5F5-4464-87CD-B86E273B064E&source=h5_m×tamp=1643290379&tt_from=twitter&u_code=dhml625891fl3h&user_id=6946864073732768774&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=twitter&_r=1

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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Second gen's mental health was destroyed by In Jin Moon? As a second gen on the fence I will say that statement is quite false. What a strange assumption to make. If anything, I find her and Nansook to be quite relatable.

I can relate to the disheartening ways people will basically tell you or imply to you to suffer in silence and stop making trouble rather than actually hearing you out. I can also relate to the constant ways people only look at the surface and nothing beyond it to judge situations falsely. I can relate to how you can't even look at the church to find someone who will respond to you with an open ear and empathy. And this doesn't necessarily have to do with relationships or anything, it can be about any problem.

If there's anything that destroys mental health it's exactly that. The judgment, constant pecking, constant invalidation of your suffering.

I'm not saying she's right to cheat or cause collateral damage to any of those directly involved in that triangle, but I can see how it kind of just imploded all at once when nobody was really helping or listening to her early on.

It's not like everything that didn't work can be blamed on one single person.

Also kind of weird that some people are still talking about it like it's been a decade?

Of course, even all the things that doesn't work are things that even happen outside of the church, so it goes beyond that.

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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Sun Myung Moon shared half his food in Heungnam prison for 6 months, 3 months, 3 weeks, or 2 weeks, or less??

Researched by Ed Coffman

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Bo Hi Pak – 2013

The North Korean police had arrested him…and sentenced him to five years’ incarceration in Heungnam Prison… This was the situation: Father, like everyone else, was extremely hungry… Father initially (for six months) gave half of his food to a severely weakened inmate. Father ate only half and the weakened inmate was able to eat his own and half more.

http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Pak/Pak-130809.htm

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Won Pil Kim – Father’s Course and our Life of Faith – 1979

For the first three months he gave away half the portion of his meal to others, and he determined that he had to survive for five years with half the food ration.

http://www.tparents.org/library/unification/books/fcolf/FCOLF-08.htm

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Sun Myung Moon in his own words – 2007

I planted the firm conviction in my mind that I could live on half the meal I was given… I did that for three weeks.

http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Books/SunMyungMoon-Life/SunMyungMoon-Life-13.htm

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Bo Hi Pak – Messiah (The Book) – 2000

Reverend Moon arrived at Heungnam Prison… three months after he was first arrested… The first thing he did defied common sense: For the first two weeks, he ate only half of his already meager rations and gave the rest away… When he began eating his entire ration, he considered that only half was actually his, and the other half was a gift from God.

http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Books/Messiah/Messiah-09.htm

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Moon not in Heungnam prison all the time

▲ Mrs Ok (or Oak) Se-hyun started following Sun Myung Moon in 1946. She abandoned her husband and children. Many times she took food to Moon in Heungnam prison, and also clothes. LINK

Moon was out of Heungnam prison for over a month, at an open prison about five miles away. Mrs Oak saw him pushing a rickshaw down the street! One of the guards gave her permission to have a long talk with Moon. She cooked him a meal.

http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks1/Oak/Oak-770900.htm

Q. Did you see him often when he was later transferred to Heungnam prison?  A. Well, for some time I received no news, but one day a letter arrived from Heungnam. The letter said I should come to see him there. At once I made preparations for the journey and set out, taking a late train. I rode all night. From Pyongyang it’s about 1,000 ri (400 km.). I was just a housewife, not used to going out, so to go on a long journey through the night was not easy for me. But I knew that Rev. Moon was suffering all kinds of hardship, so I summoned up all my courage to undertake this journey, and I finally arrived at Heungnam the following morning. I took a room in a nearby hotel, unpacked my belongings, and went to visit him. Prisoners were coming out of the cells, 40 in a group, all chained. I spotted Rev. Moon among them. My heart almost stopped. I waited all day for him until he returned from hard labor all day. I was glad when I saw him, but my heart was bleeding too.

Q. What did you talk about? A. He asked how the family members were. I wanted to make him feel good, so I said they were doing fine. I gave him rice powder. The next day I saw him once again and took the night train back to Pyongyang. I cried all the way, tears cascading down my cheeks, which blurred my own vision. I couldn’t help it.

Q. And then?  A. After some time I went back to see him but was told he was no longer at that prison. This worried me to no end, so I asked one of the jailers and he told me that Rev. Moon was at a place called Bon Gung. The place was about eight km. away from Heungnam prison. I hired someone to carry my baggage and went there and took a room in a small lodging house. My eyes were in the meantime riveted on the prison and I heard the squeaking noise of a rickshaw. And then, lo, Rev. Moon was pulling it! I rushed to him and talked with him. I bought some apples, glutinous rice and eggs, and whipped up a meal for him. Then I came back to my lodging, worried sick. I tried to sleep to no avail, and the next morning I looked in the direction of the prison and saw Rev. Moon sweeping the prison yard. I went to him and asked if he had received the meal. He said he had enjoyed it. He had to leave me, so I returned to my place. When I looked back he was sweeping the backyard. I went to one of the guards and told him I had come all the way from Pyongyang to speak with my nephew. He gave me permission to do so. We talked a long time. Rev. Moon told me he was going back to Heungnam in a month. I waited for him to come out again but he never did, so I had no choice but to return to Pyongyang.

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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Should ex-second generation members be asked to forgive their abusers?

The elephant in the room was Sun Myung Moon. He was the master manipulator and abuser. As someone said, “shit rolls downhill from the top”. A good place to start is to look at Sun Myung Moon’s behavior and “the fruit of his tree”, his family, his organizations and his families’ financial empires. Moon hated and abused the Japanese. Moon said he could never forgive the Japanese. How can Moon himself be worthy of being forgiven? His legacy of the destruction of families and individuals in Japan continues under Hak Ja Han. (The present UC regime in Brazil may also be harsh.)

Jesus had a thousand times more love and compassion than Sun Myung Moon. Moon and and Hak Ja Han do not honor a Christian God. Theirs is more like an angry Korean volcano-nim with some shamanism thrown in. See investigations HERE and HERE.

The Moon / Hak Ja Han families primarily run businesses. Follow the money. A tax-exempt religious façade is very convenient.

Almost everyone wants “World Peace”. It is an appealing buzzword. Have the Moons achieved world peace? Anywhere? What is the content of the Moons’ “Cheon Il Guk Constitutions”? There does not seem to be much freedom or peace for any citizens of a possible future Cheon Il Guk. Not recommended for the second gen.

The UC organization donated money to support the Bolivian “cocaine coup” and worked with the Nazi “Butcher of Lyons”. They shipped thousands of CAUSA books to Bolivia, then had to beat a hasty retreat when the cocaine flowed into the US doing terrible harm to many citizens. In November 2019 the UC President of IAPP (the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace) was prosecuted by the FBI in New York for money laundering and drug smuggling. Moon and his Washington Times raised money to fight against the legitimately elected government of Nicaragua. Thousands of innocent people died or were harmed for life. Ronald Reagan and the CIA even mined a Nicaraguan harbor. Bo Hi Pak praised numerous right wing dictators who had tortured and murdered thousands in Central and South America. Dropping living people into the ocean from helicopters was one regime’s disposal method. Children were taken from mothers and given to childless regime leaders – then the parents were murdered. These are the people Bo Hi Pak and CAUSA and the Moon organization supported. One regime torturer became a leader in the Unification Church of Uruguay. See investigation HERE.

Sun Myung Moon helped North Korea with technology for launching nuclear missiles from submarines. See investigation HERE.

Where is world peace and justice? It will never be found under any of the Moon family.

Many second gen are damaged because they are the fruit of Moon’s often disastrous matchings of unsuitable people who were then guilted/shamed into staying together.

For ex-members to be liberated they need to understand that almost every single one of them are morally superior to, and have more integrity than Sun Myung Moon ever did. That is a good place to start towards healing.

Then understand the process of manipulation and the erosion of self-esteem done by Moon’s church. Jen Kiaba (UC second gen) gives an excellent introduction. LINK

Some look at everything through the lens of the Divine Principle. Let’s use that flawed DP book to look at the life of the leader.

First Blessing The Divine Principle is toxic because it promotes and idea of perfection. No one will ever be perfect, but if you are a leader who wants to guilt or shame underlings, it is a useful concept. Sun Myung Moon lied thousands of times. He claimed authority through meeting Jesus when he was 15, 16 or 17 at Easter but maybe it was another time, his birthday, he says. He has told the story in so many different ways, it seems to have been made up, probably by using a combination of the experiences of Lee Yong-do and Kim Baek-moon whose stories have some credibility. (Moon knew about Lee’s life, and he studied under Kim.) Moon’s story has no credibility. See investigation HERE.

Moon lied about carrying Pak Chung-hwa for 600 miles from Pyongyang to the south of Korea. HERE

Moon lied about going to Waseda University in Japan. HERE

Moon lied about being a virgin until he was 40 and married Hak Ja Han. HERE

Moon promised to give money to an orphanage in Guyana and got lots of good press. He never gave the money.

Moon had no integrity. He was a liar and a deceiver. He did not fulfill the first blessing.

Second Blessing Sun Myung Moon had six ‘wives’ and had sex, according to at least two of his own children and other witnesses, with hundreds of women. One woman testified on national Japanese TV, another was Sam Park’s mother. In North Korea Moon was jailed for adultery in 1946 and bigamy in 1948. Moon’s family is a disaster. Hak Ja Han threatened to divorce her husband. Moon’s children were abusive and one committed suicide. Nansook Hong shines a light on some of the many dark places in his family. LINK

Moon messed up the second blessing more than most people ever could.

Third Blessing Sun Myung Moon said, “live for the sake of others”. He had the “Original Palace” built by the lake at Cheongpyeong and then another one built up the hill. The second palace cost one billion dollars. Then he had another palace built on Geomun Island off the south coast and the Moons have other luxury mansions and apartments around Korea. Moon instructed Kwak Chung-hwan to buy him 84 luxury homes around the world. When Moon went fishing, he threw his drink cans and bottles and other things into the ocean. He watched them float away. Moon never cared about the creation. (Following Moon’s example, on Ocean Church most trash was thrown in the ocean.), etc.

Some say the world is fallen? How? In what way is it fallen? Was there ever a literal Adam and Eve? Was there a sexual fall? Sun Myung Moon’s explanation of the fall does not make any sense at all because the Bible states Adam and Eve were married before the Fall. And Lucifer was already fallen before he “seduced Eve”. See Genesis. The Biblical ‘Fall’ is an allegorical tale, but a sexual interpretation opens the door for Sun Myung Moon to have lots of sex. LINK

How was the original sin transmitted from the “fall” to present generations? Since there is no such thing as original sin, it does not matter.

The Divine Principle refers to a “foundation of faith” and “a foundation of substance”. Sounds like jargon or perhaps “loaded language”. Is it connected to the Cain-Abel mind-fuck theology? Absolutely obey your leader, who is in the Abel position. Know you are in the Cain position and don’t have murderous Cain-type thoughts.

“Absolute faith, absolute love, absolute obedience” is a Unification Church mantra.

The Divine Principle is an instrument for shaming, guilting and manipulating – and recruiting and retaining members. There is no liberation in the Divine Principle. Only enslavement to serve and worship the new “Emperor of the Universe” – Sun Myung Moon.

Sun Myung Moon stole all the ideas for the Divine Principle and had Eu Hyo-won, Choi Won-pok, Kim Young-oon and others systematize the book. Within its own circular logic, the Divine Principle is clever – but it adds nothing useful to human knowledge.

The parallels of history do not add up. LINK

The 1952 edition of the Divine Principle stated that Jesus was married, but that changed in the 1957 edition. LINK The Divine Principle is a human concoction which morphed to suit Moon’s agenda. There was never any divine revelation.

God is not an impotent being who needs to be rescued by Sun Myung Moon who himself does not embody parental love. Just look at his family.

The four or more types of sin itemized in the Divine Principle are all hokum. They are in the DP for the purpose of manipulation. See it for what it is. No one should not be guilt tripped through the DP. The UC lecturers pile on guilt and shame when they come to teach chapter two, the so-called Fall of Man.

No responsibility should be put on the second generation to forgive their abusers. They need to be helped to discover how they were made to feel guilt and shame, and to be supported and embraced on their journey to rebuilding their self-esteem as they move towards liberation. Their painful experiences may never be forgotten (but they should be recognized and acknowledged). The second gen need to be heard. Hopefully the pain will lessen as the years pass. For victims of rape, it is doubly hard. For the first and second gen who died in the Unification Church it is too late. For those on the way out of the matrix, love and time will help the healing.

It is important to know Sun Myung Moon, the founder, and to really study his behavior. His words may now ring very hollow. His teachings do not bring enlightenment or liberation.

How well do you know your Moon?

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Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church accused of involvement in drugs trade in Paraguay The Irish Times October 14, 2004

Sun Myung Moon’s theology used to control members

Sun Myung Moon makes me feel ashamed to be Korean

The six ‘wives’ of Sun Myung Moon

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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While Ashworth is still waiting to speak to her grandmother in person, her conversations with her mother have already opened up more, thanks to all she’s learned. That’s also shed some light on how and why her parents joined and raised her in the Unification Church, a Korean religious movement — often referred to as “the Moonies,” for the founder Sun Myung Moon — which some have labeled a cult.

Ashworth describes the Unification Church as a “Korean supremacist church,” and says for a young Zainichi woman like her mom, who barely felt like she belonged in her home country of Japan, finding such a welcoming group was a revelation, especially after she immigrated to America in her twenties, looking for a fresh start.

For Ashworth, who was raised in the very white L.A. suburb of El Segundo, the Unification Church rooted her childhood in Korean culture. She went to Korean school every Sunday and learned ritualistic prayers — but at the same time, the American faction of the church was, well, fairly Americanized and whitewashed. Nowhere was this more clear than the music.

“There were so many white hippies [in the church] and so much of the music was acoustic folk,” Ashworth recalls with a laugh. “We would sing ‘Eight Days a Week,’ but like, ‘Ooh, I need your love, Lord.’ That kind of shit. But there were also these beautiful acoustic folk songs, but with Korean melodies, and we would sing some traditional Korean folk songs, too.”

Ashworth is still unpacking it all — her time in the church, her family’s history, how some of these threads are tied, how others are not. But she doesn’t seem concerned with tidy answers. Emboldened by the search, she embraces the multitudes on Squeeze. It’s in the music, a newfound love of metal mingling with more classic rock and pop styles, and on the cover art, where the album’s title appears in Korean calligraphy by her mother.

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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In Jin Moon was unequivocally the reason most second gen outside of New York quit

Please don’t drag the second and third generation into your sermon. Long before In Jin Nim’s secrets were exposed she was unequivocally the reason most second gen outside of New York quit. It may have been a blast to go into a stadium style service and do ballroom dancing after. But, for anyone not within driving distance, her reign as leader was miserable, frustrating, and down right insulting. She virtually abolished local communities and insisted for years, under extreme protest, that no one in the country was allowed to speak publicly except for her. Zero other people were authorized to speak in their own churches among their own community members.

If nothing about her personal life had ever been exposed she would still be the most devastating force to hit the American community since Hyo Jin Nim. I don’t dislike her because she left a bad marriage. I dislike but don’t hate her for lying about it to keep her power and status. I am sickened by her inflexible, self-righteous abuse of her status to shut down anyone else’s ideas in the name of obedience to the pipeline of leadership only to plead flexibility and compassion when caught completely going against that pipeline (the very thing she constantly invoked to justify her tyrannical style of leadership).

She left her addict husband and remarried to someone she loved? Fine by me. She espoused absolute obedience to justify taking people’s communities away from them? Nope. This woman is a hypocrite on the highest level. If she had shown any flexibility or humility in all her years and power I would understand, but our community and many others begged and pleaded for years to not have to sit in a dark room every week to watch reruns of this one person’s words. And we were told over and over and over again that she knows and she still says, “no, you can’t plan any services of your own under any circumstances” – please trust her and be obedient.

That’s when I left. I tried for years to stay but she made it impossible. If you want to pretend Americans being “disloyal” after the scandal did it, you are living in a fantasy. I will NEVER sit in any church that honors that control freak. Never.

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Tatiana In Jin Moon, who led UC America, destroyed many BCs lives and mental health.

An unapologetic yet tragic In Jin Moon

“You can’t really believe that stuff?” said Ye Jin, Hyo Jin and In Jin Moon

Breaking Silence on In Jin, Ben, Alistair Farrant

In Jin Moon and Alistair Farrant

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Former UC member Yolande Brener interviewed by Beyond Belief

Posted on July 18, 2013 by beyondbeliefanthology

Yolande Brener is a writer living in New York City. She is the author of the memoir Holy Candy, the story of her fifteen years as a member of the Unification Church. Her essays have been published in New York Press, Nerve, and Strange Angels, and her film scripts have been funded by the British Film Institute and the Arts Council of Great Britain. Yolande believes that all religions contain wisdom. What interested you in contributing to the anthology? When Susan and Cami invited me to write a short piece for their anthology I was delighted to be part of a project that explored so many different women’s experiences with extreme religion. Because they had their own personal experiences, I trusted that they would present an honest and open-minded collection of stories. I’m not interested in bashing the Unification Church or anyone in it. I am interested in exploring why people make these choices, and whether there are better ways to accomplish the sense of community and integrity women are seeking.

What was it like to revisit your experience of living within extreme religion? In some ways, I would prefer never to speak about it again. It saddens me that I was so convinced I was contributing to making the world a better place, and yet there was no evidence that this was the case. It took me fifteen years to move away from the Unification Church.

I share the story because people want to understand why someone like me—who is an artist and an individualist, and externally very calm—would make the choice to submit to the will of a religious leader. All of us are malleable, we are influenced by those around us, our emotional experiences and our desire to belong to a “family”. Part of joining an extreme religion like the Unification Church involves giving up one’s individuality for the sake of the greater good, and that is what I did at the time.

The greatest miracles that came out of the experience for me are the two most important people in my life: my two children. My son and daughter are amazing and yet they came from an arranged marriage between two people who never would have met outside the church.

I have no ill feeling toward anyone in the church, although it breaks my heart that I believed the promises they made to me if I followed their religion. My desire to connect to a higher power was so great that I left behind my identity, my friends, my family and my country. I no longer believe that any organization can be a mouthpiece for what we call “God.” I believe we all have a channel to higher intelligence, and I strive to be open to it.

What was the hardest part of leaving for you? The hardest part of leaving was the immense sense of failure. I promised “God” that I would dedicate my life to Him in order to help cure the world and my family and that I would follow Reverend Moon’s instructions to the best of my ability. These ideas seem ridiculous now, but they are indicative of the strong faith I had.

The hardest part wasn’t so much leaving the church as becoming a single parent. The Unification Church promised that our marriages were blessed by God and would last eternally. This was very important to me. I wanted my children to experience the security of seeing their parents loving each other, supporting each other, and being united in service to the community. When my children’s father left and I no longer had the support of the Unification Church community what I feared more than anything else; becoming a single parent like my mother, became a reality.

Why do you think modern day women are attracted to extreme religion? When women today are attracted to extreme religion it’s for the same reasons I joined the Unification Church: desire to contribute to the greater good of humanity and desire to create a good, wholesome family with integrity, purity and good values. Most people want to do something to help others in their lives, and it’s not always easy to find a way to do this. When a group comes along saying they are The Way, people who are searching just might believe them.

What do you still carry with you from your religious life? Two maxims I carry with me are to make everyone I encounter feel loved or appreciated by me, and to see everything as holy. If I can succeed at this occasionally, I feel I have accomplished something.

Having lived side by side with people from numerous nations I learned to be more empathetic to others and appreciate the differences between people. The idea of the unification of nations and religions is a good one. I feel great compassion for the people I shared my journey with.

What advice do you have for women who are struggling with their faith now? I am a strong believer in our inner guidance system.

We have feelings for a reason, and the most important things in life do not always happen according to logic. I believe that our feelings are more connected to our divine nature than to our intelligence. As humans—we often think our ideas are solid or statistically proven, but the more instinctive part of us may reflect a broader ranging viewpoint. We are part of a planet and a larger community. We haven’t always done what is best for that planet or community. Perhaps there is a more connected part of us that knows what would be better for the larger organism if we would learn to listen to it?

And if all that sounds esoteric and far out, what did you expect from an ex-Moonie? …

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All that Heaven Allows – My sexual re-education in the UC

Down Is The Only Way Out: An Interview With Ben Lorentzen

I lost 15 years of my life after joining a cult and marrying a stranger

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Book: Holy Candy: Why I Joined A Cult And Married A Stranger (2014) What is the purpose of life? Is there a spiritual world? Does true love exist? If there is a God, why does he allow innocents to suffer?

The desire to find answers to these questions – passed to her on a business card – led Yolande Brener to enter a bizarre, 15-year odyssey in a cult that would climax in her participation in one of the largest mass marriages in history.

In HOLY CANDY, Yolande Brener pulls back the curtain on the church’s doings – but this is far from a simple black and white exposé. It is spooky, riveting, and utterly believable…

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whatisonthemoonarchive · 2 years

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