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Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, believed in a literal Kingdom of God on earth to be brought about by human effort, motivating his establishment of numerous groups, some that are not strictly religious in their purposes.[1][2] Moon was not directly involved with managing the day-to-day activities of the organizations that he indirectly oversaw, yet all of them attribute the inspiration behind their work to his leadership and teachings.[3][4][5]
The Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (대학원리연구회,CARP) is a collegiate organization founded by Moon and his followers in 1955. According to CARP's website, its goal is to promote "intercultural, interracial, and international cooperation through the Unification world view".[6][7] J. Isamu Yamamoto states in Unification Church: "At times CARP has been very subtle about its association with the Unification Church, however, the link between the two has always been strong, since the purpose of both is to spread Moon's teachings."[8]
Universal Peace Federation (천주평화연합,UPF) is an international and interreligious civil society organization that was founded in 2005 which promotes religious freedom.[9] UPF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit NGO in general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).[10] Dialogue and Alliance is its journal published from Tarrytown, New York.[11] UPF actively supports United Nations projects, especially in the field of peace education, family and peace building.[12][13] At the 2nd Asia-Pacific Summit, Cambodian Prime Minister Sen received the UPF's Leadership and Good Governance Award. This award is given by the UPF when it recognizes someone's excellence in leadership, based on moral and spiritual principles. So far, more than 60 people from 48 countries have received this award, including former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[14]
During the Covid crisis, UPF organized several gatherings of hope, virtual gatherings that bring together thousands of world leaders, based on a shared culture of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universal values.[15]
On July 1, 2019, UPF President Dr. Thomas G. Walsh met with Pope Francis in the Vatican, in a private audience.[16][17][18] Prior to the audience, UPF had already been active in programs organized by the Vatican, such as consultations on the Syrian crisis in 2014 and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the papal encyclical in honor of Nostra aetete. Their conversation emphasized the importance of prayer and family, and Dr. Walsh had expressed UPF's and the Unification Church's readiness to support and cooperate with partners in the Catholic Church in the field of family, ecology, and interfaith relations.
At the end of the meeting, the upcoming UPF 2020 summit in South Korea was discussed.[19][20][21]
The Women's Federation for World Peace(세계평화여성연합,WFWP) was founded in 1992 by Hak Ja Han, the wife of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon. Its stated purpose is to encourage women to work more actively in promoting peace in their communities and greater society. It has members in 143 countries.[22][23][24] WFWP is a non-profit NGO in general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). [10]
Han has travelled the world speaking at conventions on the WFWP's behalf.[25] In 1993 the WFWP held a conference in Tokyo, Japan, at which the keynote speaker was former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle's wife Marilyn Tucker Quayle, and in a speech at the event Han spoke positively of Mrs. Quayle's humanitarian work.[26]
In 1993 Han travelled to 20 cities in the United States promoting the WFWP,[27] as well as to 12 countries.[22] At an event in Salt Lake City, Utah, she told attendants: "If a family is not centered on God's ideal of love, there will be conflict among the members of that family. Without God's love as an absolute center, such a family will ultimately break down. A nation of such families will also decline."[27] Her 1993 speeches in the United States focused on increasing violence in the U.S., and the degradation of the family unit.[28]
In 1995, the WFWP contributed $3.5 million to help Liberty University, which at that time was in financial difficulty. This was reported in the United States news media as an example of closer relationships between the Unification Church and conservative Christian congregations.[29] That same year former United States president George H. W. Bush spoke at several WFWP meetings in Japan,[30][31] and at a related conference in Washington, D.C. There he was quoted by The New York Times as saying: "If as president I could have done one thing to have helped the country more it would have been to do a better job in finding a way, either through speaking out or through raising a moral standard, to strengthen the American family."[32]
The events in Japan drew protests from Japanese people who were wary of unorthodox religious groups, including the Unification Church. Bush's spokesperson Jane Becker stated "We were satisfied that there was not a connection with the Unification Church, and based on the information we were given we felt comfortable speaking to this group."[33] 50,000 people attended Bush's speech in Tokyo.[34] The theme of the talks was "family values".[30] In the half-hour speech, Bush said "what really counts is faith, family and friends". Bush also spoke on the importance of the relationship between Japan and the United States and its importance for world peace.[35] Han spoke after Bush's speech and praised Moon, crediting him for the decline of communism and saying that he must save America from "the destruction of the family and moral decay".[35][36]
In 1999 the WFWP sponsored a conference in Malaysia in which religious and government leaders spoke on the need to strengthen education and support families, as well as the need for peace and understanding between ethnic and racial groups in the nations.[37] In 2009 it co-sponsored, along with the Unification Church affiliated organization the Universal Peace Federation and the government of Taiwan, a conference in Taipei calling for Taiwan's greater participation in world affairs independent of the People's Republic of China. Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, spoke at the event.[38] The WFWP has also been active in sponsoring various local charity and community events.[39][40]
Service For Peace (서비스포피스,SFP) is a non-profit organization, founded in 2001 by the Sun Myung Moon's third son, Hyun Jin Preston Moon, to give opportunities to young people who wish to better themselves and their communities. As of April 2007, the organization had established chapters in North America, Central America, Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. SFP is active in communities and statewide. Colleges have recruited Service for Peace Campus Corps to benefit their fellow peers as well as the communities around them.[41][42] Some SFP chapters have smaller initiatives designed to meet local needs. In the US, Service For Peace's Backpack Angel program supports students throughout Kentucky by providing backpacks and school supplies for children in need.[43]
International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) is a series of conferences formerly sponsored by the International Cultural Foundation and since 2017 by the Hyo Jeong International Foundation on the Unity of the Sciences (HJIFUS).[44] The first conference, held in 1972, had 20 participants; while the largest conference, in Seoul, South Korea in 1982, had 808 participants from over 100 countries.[45]
Participants in one or more of the conferences included Nobel laureates John Eccles (Physiology or Medicine 1963, who chaired the 1976 conference),[44] Eugene Wigner (Physics 1963),[46] economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek,[47] ecologist Kenneth Mellanby, Frederick Seitz, pioneer of solid state physics, Ninian Smart, President of the American Academy of Religion,[48] and Holocaust theologian Richard Rubenstein.[49]
Moon believed that religion alone can not save the world,[50] and his particular belief in the importance of the unity of science and religion was reportedly a motivation for the founding of the ICUS.[2] American news media have suggested that the conferences were also an attempt to improve the often controversial Unification Church's public image.[51][52]
The last two editions of the conference have focused on environmental issues, such as rising sea levels and water temperatures, food scarcity, renewable energy, and waste management. The theme in 2017, at ICUS XXIII, was "Earth's Environmental Crisis and the Role of Science", with a similar theme following at ICUS XXIV, in 2018: "Scientific Solutions to the Earth's Environmental Challenges".[53] At ICUS XXV in 2019, the theme was "Environmental Health and the Quality of Human Life."[54]
The Unification Church controls a large number of businesses around the world. In 1997 David Bromley, a sociologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, said: "The corporate section is understood to be the engine that funds the mission of the church. The wealth base is fairly substantial. But if you were to compare it to the LDS Church or the Catholic Church or other churches that have massive landholdings, this doesn't look on a global scale like a massive operation."[179]
The lines between the Unification Church's charities, businesses, religious activities, and related organizations is blurred with money and goods flowing between them. Money is in general believed to flow from East Asia to the United States although these flows are opaque. In the 1990s One Up Enterprises Inc. was the Church's primary American holding company.[180] Business are owned by the Church through arcane corporate structures with many ultimately controlled by the holding company Unification Church International Inc.[181]
Pyeonghwa Motors is an automobile manufacturer based in Seoul, South Korea, and owned by the Unification Church. It is involved in a joint-venture with the North Korean Ryonbong General Corp. The joint venture produces two small cars under license from Fiat,[186] and a pick-up truck and an SUV using complete knock down kits from Chinese manufacturer Dandong Shuguang. Pyeonghwa has the exclusive rights to car production, purchase, and sale of used cars in North Korea. However, most North Koreans are unable to afford a car. Because of the very small market for cars in the country, Pyeonghwa's output is reportedly very low. In 2003, only 314 cars were produced even though the factory had the facilities to produce up to 10,000 cars a year.[187] Erik van Ingen Schenau, author of the book Automobiles Made in North Korea, has estimated the company's total production in 2005 at not more than around 400 units.[188]
In South Korea the Tongil Group was founded in 1963 by Sun Myung Moon as a nonprofit organization which would provide revenue for the Unification Church. Its core focus was manufacturing but in the 1970s and 1980s it expanded by founding or acquiring businesses in pharmaceuticals, tourism, and publishing.[193] In the 1990s Tongil Group suffered as a result of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. By 2004 it was losing money and was $3.6 billion in debt. In 2005 Sun Myung Moon's son, Kook-jin Moon was appointed chairman of Tongil Group.[193] Among Tongil Group's chief holdings are: The Ilwha Company, which produces ginseng and related products; Ilshin Stone, building materials; and Tongil Heavy Industries, machine parts including hardware for the South Korean military. The Tongil Group funds the Tongil Foundation which supports Unification Church projects including schools and the Little Angels Children's Folk Ballet of Korea.[194]
The Church owns Master Marine, a shipbuilding and fishing company in Alabama;[195] International Seafood of Kodiak, Alaska;[196][197] In 2011 Master Marine opened a factory in Las Vegas, Nevada, to manufacture a 27-foot pleasure boat designed by Moon.[198][199]
The Unification Church owns True World Foods, which controls a major portion of the sushi trade in the US.[200][201] True World Foods parent company is the corporate conglomerate True World Group which operates restaurants and markets.[181]
The Unification Church's foray into the seafood industry began at the direction of Reverend Moon who ordered an expansion into "the oceanic providence." In 1976 and 1977 the Church invested nearly a million dollars into the American seafood industry.[200] Moon delivered a speech in 1980 entitled "The Way of Tuna" in which he claimed that "After we build the boats, we catch the fish and process them for the market, and then have a distribution network. This is not just on the drawing board; I have already done it." and declared himself the "king of the ocean." He also suggested that they could get around the recently imposed 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone by marrying American and Japanese members allowing the Japanese ones to become American citizens, because once married "we are not foreigners; therefore Japanese brothers, particularly those matched to Americans, are becoming ..... leaders for fishing and distribution." He also declared that "Gloucester is almost a Moonie town now!"[200]
Later in 1980 Moon gave a sermon in which he said that "This ocean business is really reserved for Unification Church. How much income would this business generate? Roughly speaking, enough money to buy the entire world. That's true! It has unlimited potential."[181] In 1986 he advised his followers to open a thousand restaurants in America.[200]
The Church owns a chinchilla farm named One Mind Farms.[180]
News World Communications is an international news media corporation.[202] It was founded in New York City, in 1976, by Sun Myung Moon. Its first two newspapers, The News World (later renamed the New York City Tribune) and the Spanish-language Noticias del Mundo, were published in New York from 1976 until the early 1990s. In 1982 The New York Times described News World as "the newspaper unit of the Unification Church."[203] Moon's son Hyun Jin Moon is its chairman of the board.[204] News World Communications owns United Press International, The World and I, Tiempos del Mundo (Latin America), The Segye Ilbo (South Korea), The Sekai Nippo (Japan), the Zambezi Times (South Africa), The Middle East Times (Egypt).[205] Until 2008 it published the Washington, D.C.-based newsmagazine Insight on the News.[202] Until 2010, it owned The Washington Times. On November 2, 2010, Sun Myung Moon and a group of former Times editors purchased the paper from News World.[206]
In the 1970s the Unification Church of the United States began making major real estate investments. Church buildings were purchased around the nation. In New York State the Belvedere Estate, the Unification Theological Seminary, and the New Yorker Hotel were purchased. The international headquarters of the church was established in New York City.[citation needed] In Washington, D.C., the church purchased a church building from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[211] and in Seattle the historic Rolland Denny mansion for $175,000 in 1977.[212][213] In 1991 Donald Trump criticized Unification Church real estate investments as possibly disruptive to communities.[214] As of December 1994, Unification Church had invested $150 million in Uruguay. Members own the country's largest hotel, one of its leading banks, the second-largest newspaper and two of the largest printing plants.[215] In 2008 church related real estate investment partnership USP Rockets LLC was active in Richmond, Virginia.[216] In 2011 the church related National Hospitality Corporation sold the Sheraton National Hotel.[217] U.S. Property Development Corporation, real estate investment[218] Yongpyong Resort, which hosted the alpine skiing events for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.[219][220]
From 2000 until his death in 2012, Moon promoted the creation of an interreligious council at the United Nations as a check and balance to its political-only structure.[221][222] Since then King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and King Juan Carlos I of Spain hosted officially a program to promote the proposal.[223] Moon's Universal Peace Federation is in general consultative status [10] with the United Nations Economic and Social Council[224][225] and a member of the United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights,[226][227] a member of the UN Human Rights Council,[228][229] a member of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.[230] Three of Moon's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – Universal Peace Federation, Women's Federation for World Peace and Service for Peace – are in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.[231][225][232]
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