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The Bible says that everyone has a physical and spiritual death. At physical death, our spirits seperate from our bodies and either enter an eternal state of blessedness (for those born again) or torment (for those who die in their sins).
The Unification Church says that All humans will become divine in an earthly kingdom of God. At that time, the perfect relationship with God will be restored. The existence of death was part of God’s original idea in creation. The line “God created man to grow old and turn to dust; this would occur even if man had not fallen” is written in the Divine Principle
Christianity says the Bible cannot be wrong, as it is the Word of God, however the Unification Church disagrees, saying that it is one of God's revelations that has since been replaced by Moon's. Unificationists think the Bible is unreliable, as people interpret it the wrong way, and people should interpret it the way Moon says to.
In the Bible, it says that there is only 1 true God, who exists as 3 people: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Unification Church agrees that God is one person, and says he has dual characteristics (positive/negative, male/female) they also say that God is not omniscient. The members of the Unification Church believe that God is the author of all religions, and each one is a part of his attempt at restoration. They believe that Sung Myung Moon is a visible representation of God.
The Bible says Jesus is the virgin-born son of God, conceived by the holy spirit. He is eternal, and equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. It also says Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead and will come back someday.
The Unification Church believes Jesus was a special creation of God, a perfect man who was faithful to God and attained deity, but he was not equal to God. Sun Myung said "One of my most important revelations is that Jesus Christ did not come to die” Jesus was to restore the relationship between God and humanity by marriage. His mission was incomplete because he was crucified before marriage. He is a spiritual savior, but not a physical one. Sun Myung Moon is described as the second coming of Jesus.
We believe that the Unification Church should be viewed as a religion as it fits all of the criteria of Ninian Smart and many people believe that if it fits all the criteria then it can be viewed as a religious movement. However whether or not it follows the criteria depends on whether you view wedding rings as a religious object therefore causing some controversy in viewing it as a religious movement.
The community has a large enough following and it has many members from all over the world. The beliefs of the Unification Church are based off those of Christianity and that is viewed as a religion. Therefore we believe that the Unification Church should be viewed as a religion.
The Unification Church in comparison, has most but not all of these. They have rituals- for example their famous mass wedding ceremonies and of course the matching of couples to be married, previously done by Rev Moon. We think it’s really brave to commit to a marriage with a stranger because your religious leader instructed you to be matched. They have myths and Narratives in the form of their textbook ‘Exposition of the Divine Principle’ which is their equivalent of the Bible with tweaks. Many have reported emotional experiences, in fact the whole religion was formed through an emotional religious experience.
Rev Moon received a vision from The Messiah when he was 16, instructing Moon to complete The Messiah’s unfinished work on Earth. Moon proclaimed himself the re-incarnation of The Messiah and told the world of his vision and his mission. Technically they do have social gatherings but they are probably few and far-fetched as there are only an estimated 1-3 million Unification Church members out of the 7,313,336,230 people worldwide. Their ethics are quite few; no divorces once married, no pre-marital sex and no homosexuals in the religion. Their Doctrines are The Four Point Foundation. This is a very complex belief which basically is the unification of a family loving each other and learning together.
Ninian Smart created a theory that you could make up any religion and it would still be a religion by having 7 things that he found in all religions he analysed in some form or another. These were: Rituals (Ceremonies), Narratives and Myths (stories), Emotional experiences (emotions like dread, guilt, awe, inner peace etc), Social gatherings (beliefs are shared and often practiced by a group), Ethics and ‘laws’ (Rules about human behaviour), Doctrines and philosophies (systematic teachings of religious beliefs) and Materials (objects or places that symbolize the sacred or supernatural in their religion)
However, after much research, we cannot find any examples of material objects or important places. Rev Moon mentioned in a speech that “Material objects are a necessary element, but not a crucial one”, which confirms that there are no important places like Mekkah to Islam or objects like the Guru Granth Sahib to Sikhs, in the Unification Church, as they are not important to Rev Moon.
On the other hand, you could argue that wedding rings are important objects as that is committing you to one person for the rest of your life, who you are expected to raise a child/children with.
To conclude, in comparison to Ninian Smart’s ideas, they fit all of the criteria apart from material objects, which apparently isn’t important as it’s a religion based more on emotions and love in all forms for others. However, wedding rings are important in the unifications as it ties you to another until you die so they could be classed as materialistic. There is no clear way of classing the Unification Church as a religion; it’s all down to opinion.
"I feel like Moonies have good beliefs, but I don't think it is right to get married to someone who they have met 2 days before that don't even speak the same language."
"I don't like the idea of the 'forced' marriages. They have every right to do what they like, but if it were me, I would refuse. I was shocked by the article on a victim of brainwashing and couldn't believe it."
I think the Moonies have... interesting practices, but if it's what they want to do we should just leave them to it. The brainwashing article made me look from a new perspective, and as a result I don't really agree with the Unification Churches methods.
The founder of the Unification Church, Sun Myung Moon, was born in 1920 in what is now North Korea. At the time, Korea was under Japanese rule. Moon was raised in the Presbyterian church, one of many faiths persecuted by the Japanese rulers. The political upheavals caused Korean Christianity to become divided, one of these groups being known as "spiritualists" who received new revelations from God and looked for a Korean messiah.
Moon says that on Easter morning at the age of 15, he had a vision in which Jesus asked him to complete his unfinished work as messiah. This prompted Moon to study the Bible and develop his doctrines. He began preaching these doctrines in Korea in 1946, causing the Presbyterian Church to excommunicate him two years later. In 1954, he fled to South Korea and founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, or the Unification Church.
The Unification Church or Unificationism, is a new religious movement founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon.
Steven Hassan claims he was ‘brainwashed’ into becoming a member of the Unification Church in the 1970’s. He was convinced to drop out of college, donate his entire bank account and stop communication with his family after he became convinced that they were Satan. It was only when he was involved in an accident and submitted to hospital that he broke that ‘no-communication’ rule. In the accident he had run into the back of a tractor trailer, after not sleeping for 3 days.
He was approached by a group of girls in his college canteen and he claims they flirted with him for a while. He thought he was going to get a date but was very mistaken. The girls began telling him of a student movement group they were in that was trying to make the world a better place. He specifically asked them if it was a religious group and they answered no. He later discovered that the Unification Church was definitely no student movement cult!
The main practice of the Unification Church is the Blessing Ceremony, better known as "mass weddings." The ceremony has five steps, three of them take place in the mass gatherings:
Chastening Ceremony. The husband and wife chasten each other three times from the position of God. This cleanses them of historical sin and lays the foundation for a "new life of pure love."
The Unification Church strongly promotes family values as the most important aspect of society and of religion. Rev. Moon is anti-divorce, anti-premarital sex and anti-homosexuality.
Then the couples recite vows to consummate the ideal of the creation of God as an eternal husband and wife, to be monogamous, to rear their children to live up to the Will of God, and to love the people of the world as God does.
Rings are exchanged.
The officiator proclaims the participants husband and wife "standing within the realm of God's original and eternal Blessing.
Separation Period. In marked contrast to the traditional honeymoon, the newlyweds observe 40 days of sexual abstinence "just as Jesus began his mission on the foundation of forty days of fasting.
Holy Blessing Ceremony. In this part of the ceremony, the couple become married (or re-dedicated, if already married).
They are sprinkled with Holy Water, which represents the rebirth of the husband and wife as a blessed couple.
Holy Wine Ceremony. The officiator gives the Holy Wine to the woman, who bows to him and drinks half of it. She then gives the Holy Wine to her husband who bows to her and drinks the remainder. He bows and gives the empty cup to his wife who bows and returns it to the officiator. This restores the couple to the position of Adam and Eve before the fall.