The Life and Work of

Father Sun Myung Moon

I have lived my life with just one thought: I wanted to bring about a world of peace, a world where there are no wars and where all humankind lives in love.

• Born in 1920

• The Moon home in Sangsa-ri, Chonju in

the west of present-day North Korea

Early History

Early History His family converts to Presbyterianism

when he is eleven

April 17th Easter morning 1935, age 16

While deep in prayer on a hillside near his home

Jesus appeared to him.

When I doubt people I feel pain.

When I judge people it is unbearable.

When I hate people,

there is no value in my life.

Yet if I believe, I am deceived.

If I love, I am betrayed.

Suffering and grieving tonight,

My head is in my hands;

am I wrong?

Crown of Glory

Yes, I am wrong.

Even though we are deceived, still

believe.

Though we are betrayed, still forgive.

Love completely, even those who

hate you.

Wipe away your tears

and welcome with a smile

Those who know nothing but deceit

and those who betray without regret.

Crown of Glory

O, Master, the pain of loving.

Look at my hands.

Place your hand on my chest.

My heart is bursting, such agony.

When I loved those who acted

against me, I brought victory.

If you have done the same,

I will give you the Crown of Glory.

Crown of Glory

written aged 16

Student in Japan – Freedom Movement

Married in November

1943 to Seon Gil Choi

I have a task that is more important

than family life right now.

In fact my reason to marry has to do

with my ability to carry out God’s

providence.

Our marriage needs to develop

beyond the family to the point where

we can love the nation and all

humanity.

Tortured by Japanese

In late November 1944

he was arrested and

tortured in Seoul on

suspicion of being a

Communist

They beat me with a table and

broke all four legs against my body,

but I refused to give them the

names of the people who had

worked with me in Japan.

They hung me from the ceiling ….

like a slab of meat hanging in the

butcher’s shop.

1945-48

Connecting to spiritually-prepared groups

Travels to Pyong Yang

June 6, 1946.

While out buying rice, he

was directed in prayer to

head north

Go across the 38th parallel !

Find the people of God that

are in the north

It was six years before he

saw his wife and son again.

In Pyong Yang, North Korea

Began teaching and

gathering followers

I preached with such

Passion that I would

sweat all over my body

Members of the

congregation would be

so moved and inspired

that they would begin

to weep.

People called us

‘the weeping church’.

False rumours.

Churches collude with Communists.

Arrested August 11th 1946

15 core members of the most prominent

Church in Pyeong Yang came to our

Church as a group causing the elder’s

Board of that church to lodge a strong

Protest against us.

I was charged with coming from the south

for the Purpose of espionage.

They even brought in a Soviet interrogator.

I had lost so much blood from being

Tortured that my life was in grave danger

Sentenced to five years forced labour,

22 February, 1948.

Transferred to Hung-nam Forced Labour camp, 20 May 1948.

The file of prisoners was led to a mountain of ammonium sulphate which had solidified and had to be broken up and bagged in forty kilogram sacks. The work would keep them busy for over two years.

Forced Labour

Forced Labour

• Each ten-man team had to load 700 bags in an 8 hour working day.

• Supper was a handful of boiled grain and salty soup

• The skin of their fingertips peeled off from exposure to the fertilizer.

• People died even while eating.

“I never prayed from weakness. I never asked for

help. How could I tell God, my Father, about my

suffering and cause his heart to grieve still more? I

could only tell him that I would never be defeated

by my suffering.”

Oct. 14 1950

Released after the U.S. Navy bombarded

the city and labour camp.

Refugee to the South Virtually the entire population were now refugees.

Rev. Moon spent 40 days in Pyong Yang to let his followers know he

had been freed. Then, together with a young follower and a former

prisoner who had a broken leg, he left for the South.

Pusan - Refugee on the hillside – January 1951

The shack Rev. Moon built with ration boxes.

A Protestant missionary who hoped to

bring Sun Myung Moon into her own

church, but joined him instead.

“The place was built of mud and stone; the rain leaked through the roof. Then a young man came in. ‘Christianity and all religions of the world can be unified,’ he said. But I was suspicious. “You can’t even gather a handful of people, I thought.”

Hyun Shil

Kang

The long years of separation and hardship proved too

much for his family, which was tragically broken apart.

The Holy Spirit

Association for the

Unification of World

Christianity

HSA-UWC

Unification Church

Seoul, Korea, May 1st 1954

He moved to Seoul where many students from

major universities joined him, authorities were

alarmed.

1955 Rev. Moon and others were jailed

for 3 months on flimsy charges of ‘draft evasion’

amid sensational newspaper coverage.

When he was found “not guilty” the same newspapers

buried the story deep on an inside page.

Koreans have a saying that a person insulted by others lives a long time. If I were to live in proportion to the insults I have received, I could live another 100 years. My stomach has been filled, not with food, but with insults.

1960 Holy Wedding Married Hak Ja Han, the young daughter of an early follower.

Early Marriage Blessings Teaching that God’s ideal is realized through the family,

he began to bless his followers in marriage despite

continued rumors, misunderstanding and prejudice.

Mass Weddings The numbers of the new couples grew quickly,

leading to a new term “Mass Weddings”

1st July 1982 – New York

26th July 2004 – Cheonan, Korea

The church rapidly spread to major cities, and he

would spend most of the year visiting members

and preaching.

The New Village Movement In the summer, they would all go back to the country to

help each other’s families plant the rice.

The publication of the Divine Principle in

English meant that the movement and its

message could spread around the world.

Missionaries Sent Out He knew peace could not come working only in Korea.

He began to send missionaries to Japan and the USA,

and later to 40 and then to 120 countries.

The Professors World Peace Academy and ICUS He also invested in the unity of the sciences, the arts, the

development of the media, and much more.

An Interfaith Theological Seminary Created the Unification Theological Seminary as an

interfaith center of learning in upstate New York

Expanison to 120 Nations, 1975

Yoido Island Rally

1.July 1975,

1.2 Million people

The Washington Monument Rally 1976 He declared “God’s Hope for America” in front of

300,000 people at the Washington Monument.

But all this came at the price of many new enemies. US

Congressman Donald Fraser (D-MN) falsely accused the

movement of working for the Korean CIA.

All I did was in order to reestablish the morality of an America that had fallen into degradation and restore it in line with God's will. But I was accused of not paying my taxes. I was well past my sixtieth birthday at the time.

More than 40 religious and civic groups filed

briefs with the court, saying that as the head of

a church, Rev. Moon was treated unfairly.

“I worked side by

side with him in the

kitchen and have

seen him do all that

has been asked of

him, smiling and

without complaint”

Justin Ignizio

Fellow prisoner

Danbury Prison

Inquisition The persecution and

Prosecution of

Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Carlton Sherwood

Pulitzer Prize Winner

Encouraged by many faith leaders, who supported

him in prison, he worked to end the conflict of

communism and democracy.

He started newspapers that exposed

communism and secular humanism.

Americans took notice.

The World Media Association He sponsored fact-finding tours for Western

journalists to visit the USSR, and vice versa.

The Summit Council for World Peace In 1990, he went to Moscow and began a friendship

with Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev.

"Mr. President, you did a great thing," I told him. "You gave up your post as General Secretary of the Soviet Union, but now you have become the president of peace. Because of your wisdom and courage, we now have the possibility to bring world peace.”

Meeting Kim Il Sung in North Korea 1991 A year later, he returned to Pyongyang after 40

years to reconcile with Kim Il Sung, the man who

had once tried to kill him.

Universal Peace

Federation

20th October 2005

in Ukraine

“Peace Kingdom

Police Force”

& “Peace Kingdom

Corps”

Ascension 3rd September 2012

“Religions should be concerned with God’s

will for world salvation more than with the

salvation of the individual or the welfare of

their own denomination.

I think that now is the time for all religious

bodies together to search again for the true

will of God.

As far as I know, God is not sectarian. He is

not obsessed with minor details of

doctrine.

Founder’s Words

In God’s parental Heart and His great

love, there is no discrimination based

on colour or nationality. There are no

barriers between countries or cultural

traditions, between East and West or

North and South. Through inter-

religious dialogue and harmony we

should realize one ideal world of

peace”

Assembly of the World’s Religions, Nov. 1985