The authorship of these files on cults has his or her own motivations for providing them a

    [Fredric Rice, The Skeptic Tank:  The authorship of these files on
    cults has his or her own motivations for providing them and will
    contain his or her own bias.  What I find typical is that
    individuals and organizations which report on cults are usually
    themselves a competition cult yet like to think of themselves as
    "a religion, not a cult."  In actual fact, _ALL_ religions are
    cults by the primary, secondary, and terciary usage definition of
    the term.  Some of the information you find here is inaccurate and
    contains urban legend -- take what you find with a grain of salt.
    If you wish to acquire a copy of the Law Enforcement Guide on
    Occult Crime, contact myself at frice@stbbs.com or at The Skeptic
    Tank (818) 335-9601 and I'll forward the address and information
    you need.]

The Unification Church

The Unification Church (The Moonies)

Formed in 1954 by a North Korean electrical engineering graduate
called Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church is now based in
America where it owns hotels, newspapers, ballet academies, TV
stations and factories. The Church has openly global ambitions -
from 1975 to 1985, $746 million was sent to Moon coffers from
Japanese followers alone.

In 1990 a meeting between Moon and Gorbachov opened up Russia to
Moonie missionaries. The Church has been recruiting in China since
the late 1980s and backed Le Pen in the last French elections.
Edward Heath has been paid to address three Moonie-backed
conferences. When the Church's leader, Reverend Moon, was arrested
in 1982 for tax fraud, the Moonies spent $5 million on a public
relations campaign. Unlike cults who are accused of slyly exploiting
the cheap labour of their followers for material profit, the Moonies
make no bones about their money-raising agenda. The aim is to control
the world under Moon (whom most Moonies believe to be the Second
Coming) and only money can achieve that. Because of this, Moonies
are 'allowed' to lie to the public in order to raise money - in
Britain alone the group uses more than 50 front names, including
the Kensington Garden Arts Society, The New World Singers and the
International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences.

Moonies live ostensibly normal lives within the organisation,
though drinking, smoking and pre-marital sex are strictly
forbidden. Marriage partners are chosen for members by Moon
himself, often uniting couples who do not share a common language
and almost always couples who have never previously met. A 1992
mass wedding of 30,000 couples held at the Olympic Stadium in
Seoul put Reverend Moon into theGuinness Book Of Records.

The Moonies claim to have two million to three million members
worldwide.

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