Moonies compared to Scientologists
Dear new friends, Thanks for your welcome. I joined the Moonies in 1970 in Boston. At that time it was called the Unified Family. At that time it seemed there was a cult on every corner trying to hand out literature or stop people and ask them/invite them to lectures, etc. There were the Hare Krishnas dancing and singing and the Guru Mararishis people and the Children of God and the Process Church of the Last Judgement. I don't specifically remember the Church of Scientology, but I'm sure I heard about them at some point. Yes, the founder, Sun Myung Moon, died last September. He was 92, so he had a good run I guess. He and his wife were the so-called True Parents of all Mankind. They were supposed to represent the male and female aspects of God on earth and bring the kingdom of heaven on earth by having sinless children and grafting everyone else onto their family through marriage (those mass weddings you've seen in the papers). I was married in Madison Square Garden in 1982 with 2,000 couples. My wedding pictures are hilarious. Anyway, there aren't too many "Moonies" left in America or worldwide. Even to attend his funeral there weren't tens of thousands like I'm sure he wanted or expected. When I joined in 1970 he had a similar message to LRH - time is short for the salvation of mankind, because the world is going to hell in a handbasket. We were supposed to run out and get everyone to join and be blessed by Moon and his wife, etc. There's a theology, too, the Divine Principle, but I won't get into that now. Needless to say, when I joined, I was very naïve and idealistic. I thought we would "win the hearts and minds" of all people and unite religions. Moon wanted to establish a theocracy, of course, with himself and his wife at the center. When I left in 1982, it was mainly because I saw abuses of power and also that love was quite conditional in the church which promoted the unconditional love of God. It was nothing like what Scientologists have seen and gone through, however. No one came after us (I was married and had a young daughter) and tried to shame us into coming back or try to blacken our names. There is no disconnection nor Fair Game rule in the U.C., thank God. For many years Moon matched all the couples in the "Blessings" himself. Many of the couples did o.k., but many were miserable. My marriage was not a happy one, because my husband was a closeted gay man trying desperately to be a straight Moonie husband. After we left the church we struggled along and finally he admitted to me that he was gay and had a boyfriend when our daughter was 15. So we got divorced, but it was amicable. I still loved him as a brother and had come to terms with the fact that he needed to live his own life. We are still good friends. And often when we get together, we end up talking about our time in the church and also what's going on in the church now that Moon is gone. Like I said in my first post, the Unification Church is in serious crisis now that so many things have come out. Many members are leaving or quietly "fading away" into the distance. The schism between Moon's son Hyun Jin and the rest of the group (headed by Mrs. Moon, SMM's widow) has caused a lot of questioning about the validity of the people at the top. Also, since his mission was to bring up the perfect family and he obviously didn't do that because the record shows that the eldest son beat his pregnant wife and was a drug addict and she left with their 5 kids (he later died of a heart attack), another son died from reckless driving, another son committed suicide, one daughter had the affair and an a child out of wedlock, another daughter left her husband for her riding instructor, another daughter is lesbian and has little contact with the family (Moon was just as homophobic as LRH), and the eldest daughter quietly became uninvolved for many years until her father's ill health brought her back in communication. They were all brought up to believe they were princes and princesses and everyone had to do what they said, etc. So basically they turned out to be spoiled, entitled and very rich brats. All my close friends have left but I still have a "spiritual daughter" (someone you bring in yourself to the faith is considered your spiritual child) who is in and still a die-hard believer. I am very glad to be done with it. It was an interesting interlude in my life but it's a long time ago now. I feel sympathy for the rank and file Moonie just as I do for the rank and file Scientologist. Most of them are really nice, decent and altruistic people who sign on because they want to make a better world. Anyway, I am very happy to be a part of this new community. I guess I can be an "honorary ex-Scientologist" because I'm totally in your corner and hope and wish the best for all who make that difficult and lonely decision to leave behind the life they once lived because they could no longer live a lie.