Moonies

Some of the many Seventies movements, like est, were wacky. Others, like the Children of God, were pretty sinister. The Moonies, as followers of Sun Myung Moon were commonly called, seemed to be regarded as both. In any case, they certainly were part of our urban landscape, especially after they bought the famed New Yorker Hotel and tried going into the newspaper business.

“Reverend” Moon arrived in the US in 1971 with the help of Senator Strom Thurmond, one of many right-wingers to initially love his strong anti-communist message. (Moon had done time in a North Korean labor camp). Nixon was one of his many fans at that time. His message was a combination of ‘don’t worry; be happy,’ anti-communism and the unity of all religions (over which he was the divinely-appointed leader). He compiled his teachings in a thick volume of gobbledygook entitled the The Divine Principle, which contained profundities such as “Yin and Yang are the reverse polarities of Logos.” Needless to say, it didn’t make the Best Seller lists. He founded a slew of organizations with assorted names, but the most commonly-recognized around here were the Unification Church, and the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP).

At first, Moon’s followers seemed to be mostly be fellow Asians, chiefly Japanese and Koreans, whom you would often see selling flowers and collecting money at stoplights, as well as door-to-door. I recall when one visited my grandmother; she commented that the poor fellow looked dazed and had “smelled of hunger,” as she put it. Grandma was onto something, as there were numerous reports surfacing that the Moonies were using aggressive techniques such as sleep-deprivation and inadequate nutrition to help break new converts’ will.

In time, alarming stories were coming out regarding an increasing number of mostly middle-class, idealistic young adults who were being lured into Moon’s “cult” and “brainwashed” into renouncing their families, turning all their funds over to the organization and working long hours raising money for “Master,” as he was called. In response to this, an informal network of professional “deprogrammers” emerged – people hired by family members who would snatch the convert from the clutches of the Moonies or similar cults, bring them to a remote location, and attempt to break the group’s control over them. Since the Moonies were adults, this practice was not without its critics!

Meanwhile, in 1977 Congressman Don Fraser released the results of a long investigation of Moon, and his alleged ties to the Korean CIA.. Faced with rising criticism, Moon tried to establish himself as a patriot. My friend Rich attended his giant “God Bless America” rally at Yankee Stadium in 1976 (it wasn’t a sell-out). Since Moon didn’t speak English at the time, he had to do his flag-waving through a translator. At one point he thundered “One nation under God!” as his words were flashed in huge letters on the scoreboard. (Since Moon regarded himself as divine, I am sure he was in effect saying “under me”). At the same time, the Moonies were working to soften their image and to establish groups, like CARP, whose connection with Master were not readily apparent. A glassy-eyed kid handed a CARP newsletter on the Columbia campus in 1979. Mostly a series of simplistic articles against Communism, it made no direct mention to Moon, although there were some references to “Unification” thought – towards the back of the paper.

The Moonies soon bought the historic New Yorker hotel at 34 Street and 8^th Avenue as their headquarters, and established a “seminary” in Barrytown, NY, a small town along the Hudson in Dutchess County. While we saw less and less of them selling flowers, they were quietly moving into a variety of business ventures, one of the first being The News World, a daily widely known as “The Moonie Paper,” which hardly anyone read, except during newspaper strikes (Master’s followers did not belong to the Newspaper Guild). Then came Il Hwa, marketers of ginseng products, including “Ginseng Up!” soda.

In the meantime, rumors started to spread that many Korean immigrants, who by coincidence were establishing their businesses as the same time as the Moonies were being bankrolled by them, This was complete nonsense, of course.

One of the most bizarre aspects of Moonieism was their wedding ceremonies, at which hundreds of couples would be married simultaneously by Moon, frequently in Madison Square Garden.

During the Eighties Moon was jailed on tax fraud charges. He has since made a remarkable comeback, finding his way increasingly into the mainstream by kissing up to the far right, including Jerry Falwell. The News World became a Spanish daily, Noticias del Mundo, but that flopped as well. But Moon hardly suffered, as he acquired The Washington Times, the University of Bridgeport, and many other businesses. Click here for a long list of Moon fronts.