|
After founding the church in 1954 in Seoul, Moon quickly found followers willing to support his conservative, family-oriented value systems and unusual interpretation of the Bible. Moon conducted his first mass wedding in Seoul in the early 1960s. "We all thankfully accepted our spouses (given to us by Moon). ... We thought it was a blessing," said Kim Yeung-mo, a 78-year-old former Unification Church pastor who was paired off with his wife in a 1962 mass wedding presided over by Moon. "We have lived together happily." Moon, a staunch anti-communist, maintained good relations with North Korea after visiting the country in 1991 and meeting leader Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. Moon urged Kim to abandon his nuclear ambitions and the two also discussed a joint tourism project in the North, according to Moon's biography. Moon sent a condolence delegation when Kim Il Sung died in 1994 despite conservative criticism at home. Moon's church also sent a delegation to Pyongyang when Kim Jong Il died late last year. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a condolence message after Moon's death. Moon also developed good relations with conservative American leaders, including former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Moon, however, served 13 months in a U.S. federal prison in the mid-1980s over tax charges. In the years before his death, Moon handed over key responsibilities of his empire to his children, with his youngest son appointed the church's top religious director in 2008 and another son in charge of business operations in South Korea and Japan.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries
Community |
Perspectives
|
Law & Courts |
Leisure Time
|
Spiritual Life |
Health & Fitness |
Teen Scene
Calendar
|
Letters to the Editor