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In her late 40's, she was past the prime of her life by some measurements, but that didn't matter in her eyes. She was full of faith and dedication and with a willingness to follow her messiah wherever he led her, she was hopeful that True Love and an Eternal Partner were things that could be found in her life too. Sun Myung Moon had in fact promised not only her, but all his followers these things, if they would sacrifice all and loyally obey him as their True Father. Moon had sometimes warned his followers though, that restoration was a difficult path and that sometimes past sins were being restored through these marriages. That seemed a convenient excuse for the marriages that failed and ended in divorce, but she didn't think of it that way. She believed. She was also willing to work at her new Eternal Marriage. How hard had she worked already anyway, on past marriages that were of her own choosing, with men that turned out to be abusive and violent? So with great expectation and a child-like faith, my mother accepted Sun Myung Moon's choice of a spouse for her. Simply by picking her photograph from a pile of dozens of women, and her future husband's photograph from a similarly large stack, Moon had created a new husband and wife. It was that easy, and just that careless. Yes, I know, the members have not seen it that way. Moon was especially prepared by God, through his vast wanderings through the spiritual realms, to immediately be able to choose correct matches. So good was he, that it was not uncommon for him to select and pair-up thousands of brides and grooms in a single day. Spiritual or not, Sun Myung Moon had shuffled pictures, my mother's among them, like a deck of cards, and with Poker like results too. Surely she would get a good match, after all Sun Myung Moon had known my mother personally, he had favored her, and me, her son, also. He had told my mother that in the future her name would be recorded in the Completed Testament, Book of Acts of The Apostles. How important she was to Moon, that her name, among so many hundreds of thousands of followers would be recorded for all future generations to admire and learn from....once Moon was accepted worldwide as the messiah, of course. I admit, that while still a believing member at that time, I had told my mother: "Be sure to submit a photograph of yourself wearing your Korean dress, so Father will not confuse your face and not realize who you are." She didn't listen to my somewhat wordly advice though, and judging by the husband she was granted, Moon surely did not recognize her, if indeed he was even the one putting these pictures together anymore, which in later years now has been an assignment often passed to his all too eager leaders. For the offering of her life, and family and devoted work, Sun Myung Moon rewarded my mother with a man well into his sixties, not very bright, who turned out later to have been a casual member. Very casual, as he frequented girlie bars from time to time for beer and nude lap dances. One shining point, was that before my mother had learned about his extra-curricular activities in the night life, he had agreed to finance some recording studio time to help my mother produce a tape of her singing and songwriting. She was still an aspiring musical artist, though her talents were being wasted on her messiah's personal enjoyment and for his many guests from Korea. This too, though, was not to be a real blessing either, because after she finally separated from the husband Moon gave her because he would not go to counseling and continued his nudie-bar hopping, he actually sued her for the money back for her music project. My mother was forced into bankruptcy and is paying for that to this day. Thank you Sun Myung Moon. After this fateful event, you would think that my mother would have learned something about Sun Myung Moon's matchmaking abilities, but she didn't. She accepted another husband from Moon several years later. Moon gave her a second husband.

Why do Moonies have mass marriages? (they are actually not real marriages, because Moon is not licensed to marry anyone, but they are religious ceremonies. The couples that Moon has put together will still have to go and get married legally somewhere on their own.) You can read my Critique of The Three Blessings to understand some of the theology behind why marriages are central to the cult's philosophies. The basics, are these:

• Adam and Eve were to have been the first "True Parents"
• Adam and Eve were to receive God's blessing in marriage first.
• They had sexual relations before God had given them permission.
• Therefore Adam and Eve became "False Parents"
• Genesis 1:28 Moonies believe explains God's three blessings to mankind.
• God centered marriages were part of those three blessings.
• Jesus came as the second "True Parents" or messiah.
• Jesus was killed before he could get married.
• Moon and his wife come as the third "True Parents".
• Moon is the only messiah that succeeded in marrying with God's blessing.
• Moon is now authorized to marry others into God's lineage and give the "Blessing" to others.

There are mental health counselors and experts, like Steve Hassan that are convinced that Mind Control plays a major role in people giving over control of their lives to a man like Sun Myung Moon. Aside from this, is the fact that the members of Moon's church are led to believe that they are contributing to world peace through these marriages. Some of the reasons why they believe this are as follows, with my commentary in Red:

• Multi-Racial Marriages
  A child that grows up with one black and one white parent could not hate blacks or whites because he is a product of both races.
  This is an interesting concept, but is insignificant in American society, as many people freely choose spouses of other races without Moon's help. My wife and I are an example of this, as I am caucasian and my wife is spanish. Furthermore, the idea that race-engineering is neccessary to eliminate racism is foolish and even dangerous. Children will learn not to be racist because good parents teach them that judging people based on skin color is wrong.

  Though Moon preaches the neccessity of different races being married together, he does not practice what he preaches in his own family. Moon, a Korean, is married to a Korean wife, and ALL Moon's children, whom he matched himself, are ALL married to other Koreans. There is no rainbow of love in the Moon household. If that weren't hypocritical enough, Moon also does not marry black people to his Korean followers. The reason for this is very simple, and was expressed quite clearly to me by Moon's assistant in a discussion with her in Moon's mansion in upstate New York. We had come as personal guests of Moon, and a Japanese female follower had accompanied us. When the Japanese sister had left the room, Moon's assistant confided to me: "I admire the Japanese members so much, because Father will not marry blacks to other Koreans in the church, so to fulfill the harmony of black with oriental, he marries them to the Japanese instead." I kept my silence then, but I recall thinking: "Why would it be considered admirable for a Japanese person to marry a black person when as Moonies we were supposed to believe strongly in the equality of the races? And why would "True Father" cater to the Korean member's racism in that way?" Now I know that Moon is clearly not a messiah, but an opportunist that will bend his "Divine Principles" whenever it is more convenient to do so.

• No Selfishness In Marriage
  When you do not select your own spouse, then selfishness is removed as a foundation for the marriage because you are willing to accept whatever spouse God gives you through Moon's matchings.
  Selfishness is not eliminated because the fact that these members believe that these marriages are the only guarantee of eternal marriage and life in heaven, is a selfish reason in itself. In fact, Moon himself appeals to the selfishness in his members by threatening them that if they get married in the world without his blessing, they will have children that will become criminals and insane. Furthermore, what some believe is selfishness, through free choice, others call chemistry, which bonds couples together naturally and without coercion as with Moon's marriages.
• Very Low Divorce Rates
  These marriages are preferrable because there is an 80% success rate which is far better than the national average.
  This is a Moonie scam. They refuse to provide scientific statistics to others to verify their outrageous claims, and they also don't include people that leave the cult as part of their figuring. Think of how many people have joined the Moonies, then left even after getting a ready-made spouse from Moon, yet they are conveniently not included in the statistics. One friend of mine did an informal survey of his own blessing with others, while still a church member, and they were surprised to conclude that there was as much as a 75% failure rate in his blessing group.
• Spouse With Similar Values
  While it is true that many spouses do not know each other before the marriage blessing, the mere fact that a person is a member of Moon's movement means that he has placed God first in his life and desires unselfishness in his marriage and to contribute to world peace. What more should someone want to know?
  This is a superficial conclusion. We must first assume that the main reason people join the Moonies is that God is the center of their lives. There are MANY other reasons that people have joined the Moonies, among those are: Broken families, lonliness, despair, depression, fear of responsibility in life, coercion, poverty, hope of getting married to an American and living in a rich country, hope that the Moonies will cure them of homosexuality, hope that the Moonies will cure them of drug addiction, having a place to belong, born into the cult. There are as many reasons that people get married in the Moonies as there are reasons they marry in real life. The Moonies offer no real hope that a marriage will be stronger in their cult than outside of it. In fact, in some ways it could be worse. It is a fact that 2/3d of those members questioned ina survey had serious drug or emotional problems before joining the Moonies. This would mean getting married to a potential problem. Someone with unresolved issues. Add to that the potential of separation from your real family, and you must rely on strangers in the cult rather than your own families as a support structure. Then there is the lack of public acceptance of what they see as a dangerous, abusive and manipulative cult, which will cause further difficulties and a deeper withdrawal into the cult culture, where Moon is asking them to sacrifice their children and bank accounts to him for his "heavenly" mission. Neglecting your children and spouse, is a good way for Moon to solidify his control over individuals, but not a good foundation for a healthy and happy family.

Though Moon speaks of the "blessing" as something sacred, he has also used the power he holds to choose spouses for his members as a weapon against them for any perceived sins or simply as a threat for them to obey. In the quote below, Moon, who claims to be healing a racial divide through his blessings, actually warns his female members that he may marry them to a black person if he wants to. These are the words of a man that is a racist at heart and not a messiah: Excerpt from: "Blessing and Ideal Family" by Sun Myung Moon Chapter 2 Part 3 TRUE PARENTS AND TRUE CHILDREN This is why women must like me and long for me. Even if you don't want to, you have to like me. Women in the Unification Church must be absolutely obedient to all of my words. Then she can be said to be a person who likes me. Then I can make you marry if I want to and I can send you out to witness if I want to. I can make you marry or not marry a black person.

The Moonies believe that Sun Myung Moon is specifically authorized by God to bestow the blessing upon mankind for the first time in human history. They believe that only the marriages blessed by Moon are eternal marriages, and even that Catholic Nuns and Priests have taken vows of celibacy simply because without knowing it, God was preparing them for the coming of Sun Myung Moon who would marry these Nuns and Priests together. In fact, Moon himself has told the members that the Nuns and Priests were originally supposed to be the first ones he would marry together with God's blessing, but because Christianity rejected him, this was not possible. The inconsistencies with Moon's philosophy and view of himself are many, but a few of the problems are these:

• Moon claims that the "first" blessing ever in history was the marriage of himself to Hak Ja Han Moon, his current wife. The problem with this, is that this marriage is Moon's third marriage. Why were there no elaborate ceremonies for Moon's first two marriages if they were also blessed by God? It appears that Moon then committed the same sin he accuses Adam and Eve of, namely, having sexualy relations before God's blessing of that marriage.

• Moon claims that the children born from the marriages he blesses are born without original sin. Born sinless. Supposedly, when Adam reaches perfection and then Eve has reached perfection, they will produce children without original sin. This is why the Moonies say, that mankind has all been born from a fallen or false lineage. The problem with all this of course, is that Moon had children with at least two other women BEFORE his supposed historic blessing with his current wife Hak Ja Han. So the question remains, "How can Moon produce children with a fallen lineage with his first two wives, and then suddenly be able to produce the true lineage now with his third wife?

• Another question that remains, is, what happened if even his third wife had not stayed with Moon? Is Moon authorized by God to sleep with all the women of the world until one finally sticks around for a while?

• Adultery is considered the root of the original sin. Eve supposedly had a sexual relationship with the Devil rather then her intended husband Adam, first. This was in effect, an adulterous relationship. How then could the messiah be a man that would have adultery? It is now widely believed and accepted among Moon's members that he had an adulterous affair with a young woman in the Unification Church and then discarded the child born from this relationship to be raised by one of his top leaders. They believe that there are Biblical-Reasons that Moon would be allowed to have such an affair. Of course, the Bible has mentioned instances of adultery, but NEVER has God, ever proclaimed such acts as righteous. The Bible also mentions other actions, such as murder and homosexuality and even incest. Will the fact that these things are recorded in the Bible now be used as an excuse when one of Moon's children reveals they are honosexual? Can Moon have incest with one of his children, simply because the Bible mentions that this sin was commited by others?

• As a spectacle, performed in football stadiums, Moon's mass marriages are about as beneficial to the institution of marriage as people that get married while jumping out of an airplane. These things are good media-events, but do not foster any sense of holiness in marriage. Instead they are really just mockeries of marriage. Marriage becomes something to be laughed at or gawked at, rather than something precious and intimate and sacred. While certainly many of the members believe they are doing something sacred, instead, the long lines of brides and grooms dressed identically and overflowing football stadiums in perfectly organized lines, look more like something the Nazis would have conceived, rather than a God that wants to be intimate with couples in their individual relationships. When families are involved in helping plan and make preparations for their relative's wedding, there is a binding sense of family and commitment and of two family lines now joining through a marriage. This is all lost in a huge venue that looks more like a circus or Nazi parade rather than a meaningful event that a person's real family can share in.

• Ultimately, these marriages are simply designed to have further control over the lives and bank accounts of Moon's members. It is much easier for Moon to maintain committment from a follower when he doesn't love his wife. A person like that would be more than happy to go to whatever country Moon sends him to, rather than go home to a woman he doesn't love, or doesn't love him. Then once children are involved, where will a member turn when he wants to leave the cult? It is one thing to leave a false messiah like Moon, but quite another to leave your wife and child behind with him. Apparently it was OK for Moon to choose his own wife. In fact, he did so three times.

• Moon also profits nicely from his ready-made marriages. Besides helping to insure that the members stay in the cult longer, sending their money into the church, Moon also charges the members money to participate in these ceremonies, they also have to purchase from his church the rings they use for the ceremony, and then they are still expected to give a personal offering to Moon and his wife. What is incredible is that the marriage ceremony may cost American members a few hundred dollars, but the Japanese are expected to pay thousands of dollars each to receive Moon's blessing. Is the Japanese blessing just more valuable? Is that why he charges them more? Of course, not, there is just much more money to be made for Moon personally in Japan, where worshipping a man like Moon as a living God, is something that has been a part of their culture for thousands of years. They are perfect victims for Moon's insatiable appetite for the life of wealth and luxury.

UNIFICATION CHURCH - SECTION Public Beliefs of UC Secret-Insider Teachings Mass Marriages-Blessing Moonies and the Occult Documented Deception Are Moonies Christians? Moonie-Myths Current Members Online Ex-Members Online Is Another Jonestown Possible?

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