The “Moon cult” has become the target of Japanese media after Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was shot dead during a rally in July this year. According to police, 41-year-old killer Tetsuya Yamagami planned to kill the politician because he “hated” the Unification Church, the official name of the controversial religious movement he believed Abe was part of.
For Yamagami, the group received substantial donations from his mother, who put his family in serious financial trouble – he is accused of soliciting “excessive” donations from Church loyalists, using cunning recruiting tactics, and deceiving money seekers by “brainwashing” them. .
Tomihiro Tanaka, head of the group’s Japan branch, confirmed that the suspect’s mother had been a member of the organization since 1998 and had been in financial difficulties since 2002, but claimed that “the donations were voluntary” and that it was a campaign. hatred and religious intolerance towards the group.
He also said that Abe “never” was one of his members or mentors. However, ever since the politician was assassinated, the Japanese government has faced accusations of the Moon sect’s influence on public administration at the highest level, to the point where some media spoke of a “regime crisis” and protests took over the controversial burial. a state chief made for Abe yesterday.
The current Japanese Prime Minister, whose popularity has fluctuated, Fumio Kishida, reorganized his government and severed all ties with the church, amid debates in which about half of his staff, as well as one hundred lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, nationalist), participated. Right) participated in activities organized by the Ay sect and received money and aid in election campaigns.
Shinzo Abe’s brother, Nobuo Kishi, who was officially appointed for health reasons, announced that members of the Moon sect voluntarily served in the election campaigns.
creation of the cult
The organization was founded by the farmers’ son, Sun Myung Moon (1920-2012), who is now in North Korea. At the age of 15, he claimed to have a vision in which Jesus asked him to continue his mission on earth so that humanity could attain a state of purification and be freed from sin.
He founded a church in Seoul in 1954 and soon embraced an openly anti-communist political bias, which earned him the sympathy of the military regime in South Korea, which was sincerely opposed to the communist regime in the North.
Thanks to this bias, the new religious leader gained access not only to South Korean politicians but also to foreign heads of state, such as US President Richard Nixon, whom he supported during the Watergate scandal. In France, in the 1980s the Church maintained its ties to the far-right Front National movement.
It was his connections with the upper echelon that helped the organization grow into an economic empire existing in various sectors (construction, food, automobile, tourism, media…) that made its founder a billionaire.
The Washington Times has invested in the New Yorker Hotel, University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, a hotel and car manufacturer in North Korea, a ski resort, professional football team and other businesses in South Korea, and a seafood distribution company that supplies sushi to the Japanese. restaurants across the USA.
Mass marriages and influence in Brazil
Known for its wedding ceremonies that bring together thousands of couples, the movement claims missionary work in nearly 200 countries and has three million adherents – an exaggeration according to experts, as its influence has waned since the 1980s.
Collective weddings, which became famous in the 70s and 80s, usually bring together people from different countries who do not know each other. It was Moon who brought them together through similar photos and profiles in an attempt to build a multicultural religious world.
Now the group is controlled by Hak Ja Han, the widow of its founder, his second wife, and about ten children.
The priest, who died at the age of 92, had left the day-to-day running of the formerly Seoul church to one of his sons, and another son to run the Tongil Group.
Outside of its country of origin, the Church is mainly found in the United States, Japan, but also in Latin America, particularly Brazil. Moon ran a school for students from kindergarten to high school in Jardim, a city of 24,000, in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.
Since the allegations began in Japan, the Unification Church has pledged to stop “excessive” donations and said it will “respect the independence and free will of believers”.
source: Noticias
