I remember, decades ago, college age people going around and telling people about the Moonies. Some of them were asking people for donations. They appeared (to me at least, and probably to others) as being unfortunate brainwashed kids who had been duped and now had their minds controlled by an evil cult.
Several decades later, the Moonie organization possesses quite a
lot of wealth,
Wikipedia wrote:
The church-owned conglomerate Tongil Group has four subsidiaries listed on the Korea Exchange. Unification Movement is the largest U.S. sushi restaurant owner with 9,000 units. It is the second largest exporter of Korean goods. In some U.S. areas it is the largest employer.[170] For a while the Unification Church was the largest foreign investor in China. It manages the top Asian ballet company, the largest Asian helicopter plant, as well as the only automobile-manufacturing plant in North Korea, Pyeonghwa Motors. Three of its NGOs, namely Universal Peace Federation, Women's Federation for World Peace and Service for Peace, are in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. The church owns Manhattan Center during Africa Day event, which was cosponsored by an affiliated organization.[177][79] Unification Church-owned Yeongpyeong Resort, The Ocean Resort and Pineridge Resort hosted Expo 2012 in May 2012, and will sponsor the 2018 Winter Olympics and Formula 1. It also owns the Peace Cup, whose president, Chung Hwan Kwak, is a long-time church member and he holds the positions of Asian Football Confederation Social Responsibility Committee Chairman, President of K-league, President of Korea Football Association, which is part of FIFA. Most notable Peace Cup football clubs are Aston Villa, Juventus, Lyon, Inter, etc.
Economic interests of the Unification Movement include the petrochemical industry, construction of golf courses, non-ferrous metallurgy, automobile industry, avia carriers, yachts building, energy drinks, banking, Hollywood, etc. The church owns a mansion in a former Gothic Roman Catholic Church. The church ranks third in the tourism market in Korea. It provides tours to North Korea for separated familiesand built a golf course for tourists in Pyeongyang. Japanese members of the Unification Church are the largest share of the air travel market in Korea. The movement owns hotels, an airport, and all the necessary tourism infrastructure units. The movement operates medical tourism; thus, CheongShim Hospital is the largest hospital in Korea in terms of internationalization level.
Scientific interests include cancer research. The movement continues to work for the end of communism
The Moonies also run the Washington Post.
And, now, the children of the Moonies (who seemed such social pariahs a generation ago) are going to Korea for quickie Moonie-style mass weddings.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoK6fiUaew8[/youtube]
The Moonies seem to be having a better run of it than the Mormons did at this stage in their history.
What do you think? Are the Moonies a respectable Christian denomination? A dangerous mind-controlling cult? Or what?
The older paper that burst into national prominence by breaking the Watergate Scandal (woodward and bernstien, and all that) was the Post.
Its the Post's younger rival-the Times- founded in the eighties- that was bankrolled by the Moonies.
The Evening Star had long been driven to extinction and we needed a second paper. So I cant totally complain about Moons newspaper investment, but yes-our second paper is run by the moonies.
29 Jul 2012, 11:06 am
