Word: moone
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Moon lives in baronial splendor with his second wife and eight of his nine children overlooking the Hudson River. In the past few years his church, or its satellite organizations, has invested at least $19 million in California and the New York City area. Latest purchase: Manhattan's Hotel New Yorker, for over $5 million...
Although there have been rumors of large donations from industries in Japan and Korea, this is not the case. But Moon has interests in a number of businesses in many countries, among them South Korea's II Hwa pharmaceutical company, which exports ginseng tea, and Tong II Industries, which manufac tures air rifles. Moon exploits the talent and energy of his hard-core disciples, who go on the streets to sell flowers, candles, peanuts and ginseng tea. Their take is considerable-perhaps $10 million a year, and because his cult is legally a religion, all income is tax free...
Heretics' Insights. The Moonies become infused with the "Divine Principle," Moon's doctrine as spelled out in his book, the movement's bible. Many converts come to believe that Moon is a second Messiah who will exceed Jesus Christ in glory. They also learn Moon's law of indemnity. Both their sins and their ancestors' must be atoned for through nonstop exertion. Many of them turn over their bank accounts to the movement, and willingly cut themselves off from their own families. They honor, even pray to, Moon and his wife, as their "true parents...
Some observers are tolerant of the Moonies. "I just wonder why we can't get more motivation like the Moon motivation in our own churches," says the Rev. Dan Potter, director of the Council of Churches of the City of New York, which nevertheless has refused to admit the Unification Church to its membership. Adds Potter: "We are all a collection of groups grown out of the insights of so-called heretics." Religious orders have long sequestered their initiates from the world, and ceaseless work can be seen as beneficial...
...there is little evidence that the Moonies' efforts contribute to anything but Moon's coffers, and the glassy-eyed behavior of the youngsters has so alarmed many parents that they have resorted to illegal kidnapings and "deprogrammings" to retrieve their offspring. The best known of the deprogrammers is Ted Patrick, 45, an ex-middleweight fighter and onetime community relations aide for Governor Ronald Reagan in California. Patrick claims to have rescued 1,000 youths from the Unification Church and other cults. Mrs. Jenetta French of Greensboro, N.C., who has "lost" two daughters to Moon, described how Ronda...