Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 37, No. 16. July 10, 1974
The dark side of the Moon
The dark side of the Moon
"There at the south end of the world were in prominent display just about every religious and mystical doctrine known to man."
Ardent nationalists need not jump to New Zealand's defence. He went on to comment that the trend is visible throughout the "western world", a trend for university students and young people to reject rigorous thought and accept unthinkingly any ill-founded and bankrupt philosophy.
"Bankruptcy" of course, is used here metaphorically. Founding a religion can actually be very profitable. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the movement discussed in this article is alleged to be worth about five million pounds, which he has invested in fields ranging from titanium and pharmaceuticals, to air rifles and even ginseng tea (a treatment for impotence).
Moon is the spiritual leader of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, an organisation which in Wellington flies its flag from a large and expensive house in Mount St. From this base the faithful go out to accost Wellington shoppers with the questions, "Do you believe in perfection?" and "Does your life have a purpose?" A reply indicating interest will elicit a potted version of the philosophy contained in Moon's Divine Principle, five hundred odd pages of garbled Judeo-Christianity seasoned with Korean Buddhism.
"A pseudo-religion as evil as Satan"
Moon started his religion in his country of origin, Korea, but now operates from a headquarters in Washington, D.C. and a 22 acre estate in Tarrytown, New York, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He has done well for a refugee, who in 1950 turned up in South Korea claiming to be the victim of Communist torture and the recipient of visitations from Christ.
"We consider it a pseudo-religion more evil than Satan."
Moon also teaches a doctrine that Satan attempts to foreshadow the work of God. Thus anything which is seen to be good in North Korea becomes part of a devilish plot to lure the unwary into the grip of Satan. He also makes use of this doctrine in discussing the similarities that he sees between Hitter and his version of Jesus.
"The life of Hitter was very similar to that of Jesus in the aspects of his thinking on a world wide scale, his single life, his miserable death, and his missing corpse, though his will was exactly the opposite to Jesus'. Consequently, Hitler of Germany, who provoked the second world war was the Adam-type person on the Satanic side while he fulfilled the pattern of multiplying children by advocating pan-Germanism and realised the pattern of dominating the whole creation by establishing a pattern of world hegemony." (Divine Principle, p. 488)
"Between man and woman, man is the subject giving love, while woman is the object returning beauty." "The power of love is active and the stimulation of beauty is passive."
"The beauty which a wife returns in response to the love of her husband is called 'virtue'. "( Divine Principle pp 48-49)
Racist and Nationalist
Racist and nationalist in that: Moon divides the nations into Cain-type and Able-type, and stereotypes nations and people according to the actions of particular regimes at particular times. Some of his doctrines are reminiscent of Hitler's.
For instance: The Korean people (of South Korea) are on the heavenly side because they are of "homogenous lineage, having a long history of more than four thousand years." (Divine Principle p. 527) "The Korean people are by nature endowed with a religious gift." (p. 528)
".....the United States, as a man-type nation, symbolised Adam of the heavenly side, while England, as a woman-type nation, symbolised Eve on the heavenly side, a France as an intermediate type of nation symbolised the Archangel of the heavenly side. On the other hand Germany as a Man-type nation, symbolised Adam of the Satanic side........... "(Divine Principle p. 486)
Authoritarian
The authoritarian (fascist) aspect of Moonism is not blatant in its ideology, but the implicit ideological authoritarianism is made explicit in practice. When Moon spoke at Carnegie Hall ("God Loves America") his private paramilitary force searched each of the 900 ticket holders as they entered the hall. An additional search was carried out by hired security men.
At the Tarrytown estate indoctrination courses are run for young recruits. At least 100 British students have accepted offers to travel, at virtually no cost to themselves, to these courses. They found themselves in what one of them has since described as a prisoner of war camp, being watched over by 16 stone "goons" and imprisoned by barbed wire and locked gates.
Another student, Rob Parkinson of Oxford University has said, "It was like the begining of the Nazi Party, with dark spiritual overtones." They were told that if they accepted Moon's teaching they would become part of a world wide force of supermen able to save decadent and communist Britain.
It is not really surprising that the sect has won converts in South Korea, for any anti-communist religion is welcomed by the government. Moon has received the special privilege of being paid to conduct courses to which the government sends its provincial officials, militia officers, teachers and village chiefs. Here they learn that Satan governs North Korea and Moon's view of history.
"In order to restore a world-wide foundation of economy, capitalism moved to the stage of imperialism. What we must remember here is that the pattern of God's providence of restoration had been formed centering on western Europe. Accordingly, the imperialism discussed here also indicates what has developed centering on West Europe.
'The Imperialistic idea which had expanded in West Europe motivated the Christian nations of West Europe to obtain colonies all over the world, before and after World War I. Thus the world progressed, radically, into the Christian cultural sphere." (Divine Principle pp 440-441)
Thus the economic and political domination of South Korea by "the West" becomes part of a divine plan. The mercy of God is truly amazing.
In New Zealand the Moon cult has established bases in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and are in the process of setting up in Dunedin. The leader appears to be a West German woman by the name of Seigrund Kuhautt. She features in a Truth article of August 21 1973 which revealed that she was the payee of a joint bank account into which a new and sudden convert had paid money before leaving suddenly for "training" in another Moon establishment in Germany.
The sect has already gained a reputation for inducing young people to leave home and follow its hotchpotch doctrines. The NZ Truth has been contacted by distraught parents, as have other newspapers. At least two members of Parliament have taken time to enquire into the sects activities.
The sect's activities should also be of concern to university students. The only real use of study and the accumulation of knowledge is that it enables members of society to seek to rationally order the natural and social world to the benefit of mankind.
The sect seeks to draw young people into the group which appears to have no redeeming features whatever. Its God does not lead people into any positive action, neither does he provide the "opiate" which kills pain. Rather he provides a mind bending hallucinatory agent of irrationality. Moonism is not of a holy spirit, it seeks no unity other than that of world domination by Moonists, and it is most certainly not Christian.
This does not mean that we should strike a condemnatory attitude towards those sucked into Moonism. Their receptiveness is a result of the dominant social climate which tends to meet discussion of religion with a silence and hostility reminiscient of Victorians and sex.
Most students have rejected any active participation in religious behaviour, but they do this not as a reasoned or educated act, it is more a matter of convenience. This means that at moments of personal crisis they remember childish attitudes and will even accept that illiterate and repeditive ramblings of the likes of Moon are the work of an all wise God.
Thus Moon and his tike get richer living off the labour of others and one more potentially analytic and critical mind is destroyed. Very good for Moon—no wonders he calls it divine providence. But is it good for the believer or his society?
Divine Principle: The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, Washington D.C. (1973)
Divine Principle: General Introduction, Unification Church, Wellington, NZ (undated)
"Eve Seduced by the Devil says Dr. Moon" —Sunday
Times October 21, 1973.
"Moon Struck Son" —Truth August 14, 1973
"Gerald and Missing Moon-man"— Truth, August 21, 1973
"Moon Men and Refund"— Truth, August 21, 1973
"How Moon Shone in a Cosmic Battle"— Truth, Sept, 1973.
"The Moon Menace"— Truth, January 8, 1974. Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America— Robert Ellwood