List of Unificationists
Encyclopedia
This page is a list of prominent members and some former members of the Unification Church
, founded and led by Sun Myung Moon
.
are known as the "True Family". Rev. and Mrs. Moon are known as "True Father" and "True Mother" within the church, and collectively as the "True Parents." Their children are known as the "True Children."
Unification Church
The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
, founded and led by Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon is the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. He is also the founder of many other organizations and projects...
.
Moon family
The family of Rev. Moon and his wife Hakja Han MoonHak Ja Han
Hak Ja Han or Hakja Han Moon is an influential member of the Unification Church and the wife of the church's founder, Sun Myung Moon. They married in April 1960 and have 13 children and 20 grandchildren...
are known as the "True Family". Rev. and Mrs. Moon are known as "True Father" and "True Mother" within the church, and collectively as the "True Parents." Their children are known as the "True Children."
- Rev. Sun Myung MoonSun Myung MoonSun Myung Moon is the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. He is also the founder of many other organizations and projects...
- founder and leader of the Unification Church. - Mrs. Hak Ja Han MoonHak Ja HanHak Ja Han or Hakja Han Moon is an influential member of the Unification Church and the wife of the church's founder, Sun Myung Moon. They married in April 1960 and have 13 children and 20 grandchildren...
- founder's wife and officially-designated immediate successor as the leader of the Unification Church. They were married in 1960. - Heung Jin MoonHeung Jin MoonHeung Jin Moon , also referred to by members of the Unification Church as Heung Jin Nim or posthumously as Lord Heung Jin Nim:, was the second son of church founders Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han. At the age of 17 he died in a vehicle accident in New York State...
- second son, died in auto accident in 1984, believed by church members to be leading workshops in the spiritual worldSpiritThe English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
in which spirits of deceased persons are taught Unification Church teachings. - Hyo Jin MoonHyo Jin MoonHyo-Jin Moon was the eldest son of 14 children of Sun Myung Moon and Hakja Han Moon. For ten years he was head of the Unification Church-owned Manhattan Center Studios recording facility in New York City...
- eldest son (died 2008). Musician; long-term problems with substance abuse, infidelity, and violence before his second marriage. - Hyun Jin MoonHyun Jin MoonHyun Jin Moon, also known as Preston Moon , is the third son of Korean spiritual leader Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han. Hyun Jin Moon took part in the 1988 and 1992 summer Olympic Games as a member of the South Korean equestrian team. He graduated from the Harvard Business School with an...
- third son. Businessman, youth leader, OlympicOlympic GamesThe Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
equestrianEquestrian at the Summer OlympicsEquestrianism made its Summer Olympics debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. It disappeared until 1912, but has appeared at every Summer Olympic Games since. The current Olympic equestrian disciplines are Dressage, Eventing, and Jumping...
. Helped to start various non-profits like Service for Peace, Jr. STF, etc. - Hyung Jin MoonHyung Jin MoonHyung Jin Moon is the international president of the Unification Church.He is the youngest son of Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon. He was born September 26, 1979 in the United States...
- president of international Unification Church, studied theologyTheologyTheology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
at Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country... - In Jin MoonIn Jin MoonIn Jin Moon is the president of the Unification Church of the United States and the daughter of Unification Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon. She was born in South Korea and moved with her family to the United States in 1973. She married Dr...
president of the Unification Church of the United StatesUnification Church of the United StatesThe Unification Church of the United States is a new religious movement in the United States of America. It began in the 1950s and 1960s when missionaries from Japan and South Korea were sent to the United States by the international Unification Church's founder and leader Sun Myung Moon...
. - Julia MoonJulia MoonJulia H. Moon also known as Hoon Sook Moon is the General Director of Universal Ballet in South Korea, and daughter-in-law of Sun Myung Moon, founder of the ballet company. She was the prima ballerina of the company.-Early life:Julia Moon was born in 1963 in Washington, D.C. as Hoon Sook Pak...
- widow (posthumous wedding) of Heung Jin MoonHeung Jin MoonHeung Jin Moon , also referred to by members of the Unification Church as Heung Jin Nim or posthumously as Lord Heung Jin Nim:, was the second son of church founders Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han. At the age of 17 he died in a vehicle accident in New York State...
. Born Hoon Sook Pak, oldest daughter of long time major leader and key aide Bo Hi PakBo Hi PakBo Hi Pak is a prominent member of the Unification Church. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was a major leader in the organization, running projects such as newspapers , schools, performing arts projects, political projects such as the anti-communist organization CAUSA International, and was...
. Prima ballerinaBallerinaA ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
and General Director of Universal Ballet in South KoreaSouth KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. - Kook Jin Moon - fourth son; also known as Justin Moon. Businessman and firearms designer. Owns and operates Kahr ArmsKahr ArmsKahr Arms is an American small arms manufacturer founded by Kook Jin "Justin" Moon , who currently serves as CEO and President. It is owned by the Saeilo Corporation , a subsidiary of Tongil Group, a South Korean business group associated with the Unification Church...
, a U.S. small arms manufacturer, chairman of Tongil GroupTongil GroupTongil Group is a South Korean business group associated with the Unification Church. It was founded in 1963 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon as a nonprofit organization which would provide revenue for the church...
, a South Korean business group associated with the Unification Church. - Nansook HongNansook HongNansook Hong , is the former wife of Hyo Jin Moon, first son of Unification Church founder and leader Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hakja Han Moon. They divorced in 1995...
- ex-wife of Hyo Jin MoonHyo Jin MoonHyo-Jin Moon was the eldest son of 14 children of Sun Myung Moon and Hakja Han Moon. For ten years he was head of the Unification Church-owned Manhattan Center Studios recording facility in New York City...
. Author of book about her experiences, In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family.
Unification Church members
- Ek Nath DhakalEk Nath DhakalEk Nath Dhakal is a Nepalese politician, belonging to the Nepal Pariwar Dal, and a leader of the Unification Church. He is the head of the Nepal chapter of the Universal Peace Federation....
, NepalNepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
ese politician. - Mose DurstMose DurstMose Durst is an author, educator, and the former national president of the Unification Church of the United States. He was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City; then an Orthodox Jewish community; to immigrants from Russia. He received a Master's degree and Ph.D while studying English...
- president of the Unification Church of the United StatesUnification Church of the United StatesThe Unification Church of the United States is a new religious movement in the United States of America. It began in the 1950s and 1960s when missionaries from Japan and South Korea were sent to the United States by the international Unification Church's founder and leader Sun Myung Moon...
in the 1980s, author, educator. - Daniel Fefferman - executive director of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom.
- Frank KaufmannFrank KaufmannFrank Kaufmann is the director of the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace . He is editor in chief of the IRFWP's academic journal Dialogue and Alliance, which in 2004 was named as one of the top ten religion journals by an independent panel commissioned by the American Theological Library...
- comparative religionComparative religionComparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
scholar; editor of journal Dialogue and Alliance; IRFWP director - Young Oon KimYoung Oon KimYoung Oon Kim was a leading theologian of the Unification Church and its first missionary to the United States.Kim was a professor of religion at Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea. After she joined the Unification Church, church founder Sun Myung Moon sent her to the United States as a...
(1914-1989) was a leading theologian of the Unification Church and its first missionaryMissionaryA missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
to the United States. - Chung Hwan KwakChung Hwan KwakChung Hwan Kwak is a prominent leader of the international Unification Church, having been appointed to many leadership positions in Unification Church affiliated organizations by church founder Sun Myung Moon. Kwak has been the Chairman and President of News World Communications since 2002...
- Unification Church leader; chairman and president of United Press InternationalUnited Press InternationalUnited Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
and of News World CommunicationsNews World CommunicationsNews World Communications, Inc., is an international news media corporation. It was founded in New York City, in 1976, by Unification Church founder and leader, Sun Myung Moon. Its first two newspapers, The News World and the Spanish-language Noticias del Mundo, were published in New York from...
, Inc.; leader of many other Unification-affiliated organizations. - Tom McDevittTom McDevittTom McDevitt is the president of the Washington Times, a newspaper in Washington DC, United States. He is a member of the Unification Church and in the early 1980s was the pastor of the church in Washington DC. McDevitt's wife of 20 years, Soon Ja, died in 2002. They have five children.-References:...
- President of the Washington Times, from 2007 to 2009. Unification Church spokesperson, and pastor of the Unification Church in the Washington DC region., - Bo Hi PakBo Hi PakBo Hi Pak is a prominent member of the Unification Church. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was a major leader in the organization, running projects such as newspapers , schools, performing arts projects, political projects such as the anti-communist organization CAUSA International, and was...
- Unification Church leader; founding chairman and president of The Washington TimesThe Washington TimesThe Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
; main translator (during the 70s and 80s) for Rev. Moon's speeches given to English speaking audiences. Author of Messiah, a biography of Sun Myung Moon. - Junko SakuradaJunko Sakuradais a Japanese singer and actress. She was part of a music trio in 1973, which included Momoe Yamaguchi and Masako Mori. Sakurada then became successful in a solo music career. In 1979 Sakurada appeared in a film made by the production company Toho, and became popular as an actress...
(桜田 淳子) - singer and actress. - Neil Albert SalonenNeil Albert SalonenNeil Albert Salonen is president of the University of Bridgeport, a private university in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is a member of the Unification Church and became the president of the Unification Church of the United States in 1972...
- former president of the Unification Church of the United States, now president of the University of BridgeportUniversity of BridgeportThe University of Bridgeport is a private, independent, non-sectarian, coeducational university located on the Long Island Sound in the South End neighborhood of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The University is fully Accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges...
. - Lee ShapiroLee ShapiroLee Shapiro was an American documentary filmmaker. His one feature-length film, Nicaragua Was Our Home, was released in 1986. It was filmed in Nicaragua among the Miskito Indians who were then fighting against Nicaraguan government forces...
(1949–1987) - Documentary filmmaker, died while filming in AfghanistanAfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in 1987, during the Soviet war in AfghanistanSoviet war in AfghanistanThe Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
. - Kevin ThompsonKevin Thompson (pastor)Kevin Thompson is the pastor of the Bay Area Family Church, a Unification Church congregation located in San Leandro, California. In 2006, he was indicted by a grand jury for violating the Lacey Act, a federal law which criminalizes the sale and purchase of certain protected species...
- pastor of the Bay Area Family Church, a Unification ChurchUnification ChurchThe Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
congregation located in San LeandroSan Leandro, CaliforniaSan Leandro is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is considered a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco. The population was 84,950 as of 2010 census. The climate of the city is mild throughout the year.-Geography and water resources:...
, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. - Jonathan Wells - author of Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth?Icons of EvolutionIcons of Evolution is a book by the intelligent design advocate and fellow of the Discovery Institute, Jonathan Wells, which also includes a 2002 video companion. In the book, Wells criticized the paradigm of evolution by attacking how it is taught...
and senior fellow of the Discovery InstituteDiscovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
's Center for Science and CultureCenter for Science and CultureThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
. - Andrew WilsonAndrew Wilson (theologian)Andrew Wilson , full name Andrew Murray Wilson, is a Professor of Scriptural Studies and the Academic Dean of the Unification Theological Seminary , the main seminary of the international Unification Church....
- professor at Unification Theological SeminaryUnification Theological SeminaryThe Unification Theological Seminary , is the main seminary of the international Unification Church. It is located in Barrytown, New York and with an Extension Center in midtown Manhattan. Its purpose has been described as training leaders and theologians within the Unification Church. The...
; editor of World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts.
Former members
- Richard A. Cohen - advocate of conversion therapy, author of Gay Children, Straight Parents: A Plan for Family Healing.
- Christopher EdwardsChristopher EdwardsChristopher Edwards is an American author. He wrote Crazy for God: The nightmare of cult life , a memoir of his experiences as a member of the Unification Church. In an interview while promoting his book, he said he travelled with a bodyguard and was afraid for his life.-Footnotes:...
- author of Crazy for God, which told of his experiences as a church member. - Tim FolzenlogenTim FolzenlogenTim Folzenlogen is a contemporary realist painter based in New York City. His work has been shown in more than 50 solo shows and he has sold more than 1000 paintings Most of his works depict architectural details in New York City, and the way features of buildings are illuminated by slanting rays...
- contemporary realist painterRealism (arts)Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
and philosopherPhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational... - Ford GreeneFord GreeneAylsworth Crawford Greene III is an American attorney from San Anselmo, California, noted for having successfully conducted litigation against Scientology and alleged cults. Greene is currently the mayor of San Anselmo and a twice-elected San Anselmo town councilman...
- attorney and mayor of San Anselmo, CaliforniaSan Anselmo, CaliforniaSan Anselmo is an incorporated town in Marin County, California, in the western United States. San Anselmo is located west of San Rafael, at an elevation of 46 feet . It is located about north of San Francisco. Neighboring towns include San Rafael to the east, Fairfax to the west, and Ross to the...
. - Steven HassanSteven HassanSteven Alan Hassan is a licensed mental health counselor and an exit counselor. Hassan was an early advocate of exit counseling, and is the author of two books on the subject of "cults", and what he describes as their use of mind control, thought reform, and the psychology of influence in order...
- author of Releasing the BondsReleasing the BondsReleasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves is Steven Hassan's second work. It discusses Hassan's theories on mind control and cults.Hassan wrote:...
and exit counselorExit counselingExit counseling, also termed strategic intervention therapy, cult intervention or thought reform consultation, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult...
. - Patrick HickeyPatrick Hickey (politician)Patrick Hickey is a politician from Nevada. He is currently a representative in the Nevada State Assembly representing Assembly District 25 in Washoe County. In 2009 his autobiography, Tahoe Boy: A Journey Back Home was published by Seven Locks Press of Cabin John, Maryland.Hickey was born in...
- Nevada state legislator and author of Tahoe Boy: A Journey Back Home. - Josette Sheeran - Executive Director of the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
World Food ProgrammeWorld Food ProgrammeThe World Food Programme is the food aid branch of the United Nations, and the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger worldwide. WFP provides food, on average, to 90 million people per year, 58 million of whom are children...
, formerly journalist and editor with the Washington Times.
See also
- List of people by belief
- List of new religious movements
- List of religions and spiritual traditions
- List of supporters of the Unification Church