2. I have lived my life with just one thought: I wanted to bring about a world of peace, a world where there are no wars and where all humankind lives in love.
3. •Born in 1920
•The Moon home in Sangsa-ri, Chonju in the west of present-day North Korea
Early History
4. Early History
His family converts to Presbyterianism when he is eleven
5. April 17th Easter morning 1935, age 16 While deep in prayer on a hillside near his home Jesus appeared to him.
6. When I doubt people I feel pain.
When I judge people it is unbearable.
When I hate people, there is no value in my life.
Yet if I believe, I am deceived.
If I love, I am betrayed.
Suffering and grieving tonight,
My head is in my hands; am I wrong?
Crown of Glory
7. Yes, I am wrong. Even though we are deceived, still believe. Though we are betrayed, still forgive. Love completely, even those who hate you. Wipe away your tears and welcome with a smile Those who know nothing but deceit and those who betray without regret.
Crown of Glory
8. O, Master, the pain of loving. Look at my hands.
Place your hand on my chest. My heart is bursting, such agony.
When I loved those who acted against me, I brought victory.
If you have done the same,
I will give you the Crown of Glory.
Crown of Glory
written aged 16
10. Married in November
1943 to Seon Gil Choi
I have a task that is more important
than family life right now.
In fact my reason to marry has to do
with my ability to carry out God’s
providence.
Our marriage needs to develop
beyond the family to the point where
we can love the nation and all
humanity.
11. Tortured by Japanese In late November 1944 he was arrested and tortured in Seoul on suspicion of being a Communist
They beat me with a table and broke all four legs against my body, but I refused to give them the names of the people who had worked with me in Japan. They hung me from the ceiling …. like a slab of meat hanging in the butcher’s shop.
13. Travels to Pyong Yang June 6, 1946. While out buying rice, he was directed in prayer to head north Go across the 38th parallel ! Find the people of God that are in the north It was six years before he saw his wife and son again.
14. In Pyong Yang, North Korea Began teaching and gathering followers
I preached with such Passion that I would sweat all over my body Members of the congregation would be so moved and inspired that they would begin to weep. People called us ‘the weeping church’.
15. False rumours. Churches collude with Communists. Arrested August 11th 1946
15 core members of the most prominent Church in Pyeong Yang came to our Church as a group causing the elder’s Board of that church to lodge a strong Protest against us. I was charged with coming from the south for the Purpose of espionage. They even brought in a Soviet interrogator. I had lost so much blood from being Tortured that my life was in grave danger
16. Sentenced to five years forced labour, 22 February, 1948. Transferred to Hung-nam Forced Labour camp, 20 May 1948.
17. The file of prisoners was led to a mountain of ammonium sulphate which had solidified and had to be broken up and bagged in forty kilogram sacks. The work would keep them busy for over two years.
Forced Labour
18. Forced Labour
•Each ten-man team had to load 700 bags in an 8 hour working day.
•Supper was a handful of boiled grain and salty soup
•The skin of their fingertips peeled off from exposure to the fertilizer.
•People died even while eating.
19. “I never prayed from weakness. I never asked for help. How could I tell God, my Father, about my suffering and cause his heart to grieve still more? I could only tell him that I would never be defeated by my suffering.”
20. Oct. 14 1950 Released after the U.S. Navy bombarded the city and labour camp.
21. Refugee to the South
Virtually the entire population were now refugees.
Rev. Moon spent 40 days in Pyong Yang to let his followers know he had been freed. Then, together with a young follower and a former prisoner who had a broken leg, he left for the South.
22. Pusan - Refugee on the hillside – January 1951
The shack Rev. Moon built with ration boxes.
23. A Protestant missionary who hoped to bring Sun Myung Moon into her own church, but joined him instead.
“The place was built of mud and stone; the rain leaked through the roof. Then a young man came in. ‘Christianity and all religions of the world can be unified,’ he said. But I was suspicious. “You can’t even gather a handful of people, I thought.”
Hyun Shil Kang
24. The long years of separation and hardship proved too much for his family, which was tragically broken apart.
25. The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity HSA-UWC Unification Church Seoul, Korea, May 1st 1954
26. He moved to Seoul where many students from major universities joined him, authorities were alarmed.
27. 1955 Rev. Moon and others were jailed for 3 months on flimsy charges of ‘draft evasion’ amid sensational newspaper coverage. When he was found “not guilty” the same newspapers buried the story deep on an inside page.
28. Koreans have a saying that a person insulted by others lives a long time. If I were to live in proportion to the insults I have received, I could live another 100 years. My stomach has been filled, not with food, but with insults.
29. 1960 Holy Wedding Married Hak Ja Han, the young daughter of an early follower.
30. Early Marriage Blessings Teaching that God’s ideal is realized through the family, he began to bless his followers in marriage despite continued rumors, misunderstanding and prejudice.
31. Mass Weddings The numbers of the new couples grew quickly, leading to a new term “Mass Weddings”
35. The church rapidly spread to major cities, and he would spend most of the year visiting members and preaching.
36. The New Village Movement In the summer, they would all go back to the country to help each other’s families plant the rice.
37. The publication of the Divine Principle in English meant that the movement and its message could spread around the world.
38. Missionaries Sent Out He knew peace could not come working only in Korea. He began to send missionaries to Japan and the USA, and later to 40 and then to 120 countries.
39. The Professors World Peace Academy and ICUS He also invested in the unity of the sciences, the arts, the development of the media, and much more.
40. An Interfaith Theological Seminary Created the Unification Theological Seminary as an interfaith center of learning in upstate New York
44. The Washington Monument Rally 1976 He declared “God’s Hope for America” in front of 300,000 people at the Washington Monument.
45. But all this came at the price of many new enemies. US Congressman Donald Fraser (D-MN) falsely accused the movement of working for the Korean CIA.
46.
47. All I did was in order to reestablish the morality of an America that had fallen into degradation and restore it in line with God's will. But I was accused of not paying my taxes. I was well past my sixtieth birthday at the time.
48. More than 40 religious and civic groups filed briefs with the court, saying that as the head of a church, Rev. Moon was treated unfairly.
49. “I worked side by side with him in the kitchen and have seen him do all that has been asked of him, smiling and without complaint”
Justin Ignizio
Fellow prisoner
Danbury Prison
51. Encouraged by many faith leaders, who supported him in prison, he worked to end the conflict of communism and democracy.
52. He started newspapers that exposed communism and secular humanism. Americans took notice.
53. The World Media Association He sponsored fact-finding tours for Western journalists to visit the USSR, and vice versa.
54. The Summit Council for World Peace In 1990, he went to Moscow and began a friendship with Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev.
55. "Mr. President, you did a great thing," I told him. "You gave up your post as General Secretary of the Soviet Union, but now you have become the president of peace. Because of your wisdom and courage, we now have the possibility to bring world peace.”
56. Meeting Kim Il Sung in North Korea 1991 A year later, he returned to Pyongyang after 40 years to reconcile with Kim Il Sung, the man who had once tried to kill him.
57. Universal Peace Federation
20th October 2005 in Ukraine “Peace Kingdom Police Force” & “Peace Kingdom Corps”
59. “Religions should be concerned with God’s will for world salvation more than with the salvation of the individual or the welfare of their own denomination. I think that now is the time for all religious bodies together to search again for the true will of God. As far as I know, God is not sectarian. He is not obsessed with minor details of doctrine. Founder’s Words
60. In God’s parental Heart and His great love, there is no discrimination based on colour or nationality. There are no barriers between countries or cultural traditions, between East and West or North and South. Through inter- religious dialogue and harmony we should realize one ideal world of peace”
Assembly of the World’s Religions, Nov. 1985
