PAGES IN THIS ENTRY:
- Family Federation for World Peace and Unification / Unification Church
- FFWPU - Moon Crowned
- Unification Church: A cult of Christianity
- Unification Church - Research Resources
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September, 2023: Japanese government plans to seek court order to dissolve Unification Church
The Japanese government plans to seek a court order to disband the Unification Church, a government source said Saturday, a move that comes after a monthslong probe into the religious group over allegations of soliciting financially ruinous donations from members and other questionable practices.
Scrutiny of the group intensified after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot during an election campaign speech last year over his perceived links to the entity, an incident which also brought to light its connections with many ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers.
According to the source, the Cultural Affairs Agency is currently considering convening a meeting of an advisory body on religious institutions — possibly on Oct. 12 — to report its plan, and then asking the Tokyo District Court to issue an order to dissolve the group.
The agency has judged through documents submitted from the Unification Church and statements of victims who were pressured into making massive donations that the group’s practices amounted to violations of the Religious Corporations Act, according to the source.
Since 1997, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) is an official name for the religious movement known as the Unification Church (whose followers are commonly known as “Moonies” – a term the cult has come to denounce).
It is just one of many names of (front) groups, organizations, and businesses
owned and operated by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon (Feb. 25, 1920 — Sep. 3, 2010) – a man who considered himself to be the Messiah.
Lately the church has been highlighting the name Lovin’ Life Ministries, which was founded nationally in 2009 as a contemporary ministry of the Unification Church.
Beliefs
Moon and his wife told people that they are “the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and all Humanity. “ According to Moon, he was “was chosen by God and called by Jesus Christ to fulfill the mission of the Messiah and Lord of the Second Advent with the responsibility to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.”
In July, 2000, the FFWPU placed a full page ad in several U.S. newspapers:
Compare Flights and Hotels with ease
Here is one conundrum they do not teach in business school: If a newspaper’s policy requires advertisements to be verifiable and accurate, what does a publisher do when presented with a full-page ad presenting the text of a Christmas Day meeting “in the spirit world” attended by Jesus, Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha, Martin Luther and John Harvard?
According to the ad, which was presented to newspapers around the country this month, these men and hundreds of others in attendance proclaimed their allegiance to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Church. At the spirit meeting, the ad said, Jesus hailed Mr. Moon as the Messiah, proclaiming, “You are the Second Coming who inaugurated the Completed Testament Age.” Muhammad then led everyone in three cheers of victory.
God didn’t attend, but sent a letter Dec. 28 seconding Jesus’s remarks. Lenin and other leading communists also sent messages. Lenin said that he was in “unimaginable suffering and agony” for his earthly mistakes, and Stalin added, “We live in the bottom of Hell here.”
– Decisions Differ on Religious Ad, New York Times, July 22, 2002
Moon died September 3, 2012.
PAGES IN THIS ENTRY:
- Family Federation for World Peace and Unification / Unification Church
- FFWPU - Moon Crowned
- Unification Church: A cult of Christianity
- Unification Church - Research Resources
Next page: FFWPU – Moon Crowned
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First published (or major update) on Sunday, October 1, 2023.
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