The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1972
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The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1972 |
The 51-year-old founder of a religion claims he is a new prophet for a new age, insisting that Christianity is no longer the answer and that new revelation is needed today.
With this proclamation, Sun Myung Moon goes on to speak that today's Christianity is getting apart from its founder's intent such as by lacking in spiritual sphere although the Bible says the "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth."
Moon heads the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, or better known as Tongil (Unification) Church.
He drew wide attention recently when the church put a $ 6,300 advertisement in the New York Times announcing its sponsorship of an international novel-writing contest for a $100,000 prize on "Jesus Christ and the Agony of the Cross: God's will or Man's Failure?"
On his third world tour, Moon left Korea last December for the United States via Japan and Canada. He is currently making speech tours of major U.S. cities.
The writing contest advertisement, appeared in the Jan. 28 issue of the New York Times, and confines the languages to be used for the work to six-Korean, English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish and the selection of the contestants to "the published writers."
The novels, according to the advertisement, will be accepted in 11 countries, including Korea, the United States, Britain, Japan and Italy and the prize winning novel will be made into a motion picture.
Moon held speech rallies in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and plans to sponsor similar gatherings in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Berkeley.
The church claims that it has about 400,000 followers in 26 countries.
Moon, born in a village in Chongju-gun, Pyungin Pak to, now m north Korea, and graduated from Waseda University in Japan in 1943 and took refuge in the south at the height of the Korean War (1950-53).
He actively started Tongil Church work after authoring his "Divine Principle,'" claimed to be the "Key" for interpreting the Bible many of whose passages are in similitude and of symbolic, at a small house in Pukhak-dong, Songdong-gu.
The church is extremely anti-Communist and insists that the church principle is one of the few that has been so well organized and founded so as to surpass the communism in terms of theoretical point of view.
The "infantile" years of the church were not altogether smooth.
Ehwa women's University, for instance, ordered 12 students and six teachers who were going to the new church, either to take the school or the church.
This incident touched off a dispute over the religious status of the church. Moon himself was investigated by the prosecution authorities, but later was cleared of charges and freed.
The "Divine Principle" was published in book form in August 1957. According to the book, Adam and Eve sexually degraded even before they reached adulthood.
Dr. Sa Hun Shin, a noted theologian, once claimed the church is -pagan and this drew heated counterattack by the church members.
Another religious leader, Dr. Nam Dong So, however, gave an opposite view, saying that the church does not go beyond the category of modern theology.
The church was also known for sponsoring what is known to be the largest mass marriage of 777 couples in Seoul in October 1970. It also once said that a 120 story church building, to be taller than the Empire State Building, will be built at Yoido Island, Seoul, Korea.
The church also drew attention when a former Sarawak king flew into Seoul in September 1968 to meet the Tongil church founder.
The Tongil leaders say that the church is expanding far and wide, both at home and abroad, and that this will help the world to be more strongly armed against communism and eventually contribute to our efforts to have the peninsula reunified on our terms.