Editing Unification Church (section)

==Founding and Early Development==
The Unification Church, officially named the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), was founded on May 1, 1954, in Seoul, South Korea, by Reverend [[Sun Myung Moon]]. Born in 1920 in what is now North Korea, Moon was raised in a Presbyterian family but was excommunicated for heresy after claiming a vision at age 16, where Jesus tasked him with completing his unfinished work. Moon’s theology, outlined in the Divine Principle (first drafted as Wolli Wonbon in 1946), posits that he is the Messiah sent to establish a literal Kingdom of God on Earth through “true families” created via mass weddings, known as Blessing Ceremonies. The church teaches a unique Christian theology, emphasizing the fall of Adam and Eve due to misused love and the need for spiritual and physical restoration.

By 1955, the church had expanded to 30 centers across South Korea. Moon faced persecution, including imprisonment by North Korean authorities in 1948 and South Korean scrutiny in the 1950s. In 1958, missionaries like Young Oon Kim were sent to Japan, and in 1959 to the United States, where the church grew significantly in the 1970s, attracting young converts disillusioned with the counterculture. By the end of the decade, U.S. membership reached about 5,000, with a global presence in over 100 countries. The church, renamed the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in 1994, is known for its mass weddings, media ventures like The Washington Times, and controversial fundraising practices, leading critics to label it a cult and its followers “Moonies.”
Expansion and Controversies

The Unification Church’s rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s was accompanied by significant controversies. In South Korea, Moon’s early activities drew scrutiny, with allegations of sex rituals in the 1950s (later recanted by former member Chung Hwa Pak). In the U.S., the church faced accusations of brainwashing and high-pressure recruitment, prompting parental protests and deprogramming efforts. Moon’s 1982 conviction for tax evasion in the U.S. fueled perceptions of government persecution, though supporters, including mainline church leaders, defended him. In Japan, the church gained legal status as a religious corporation in 1964 but faced backlash for “spiritual sales,” defrauding elderly members of millions, leading to Japan’s largest consumer fraud investigation in 1997. The 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by Tetsuya Yamagami, motivated by Abe’s ties to the church, led to its dissolution order in Japan in 2023.

The church established numerous organizations, including the Korean Culture and Freedom Foundation (1964), the International Federation for Victory over Communism (IFVOC, 1968), and News World Communications (1976), which owned The Washington Times until 2010. These groups extended Moon’s influence into politics, media, and education, often aligning with conservative and anti-communist causes.