Stranger Things

Cult Apologists/Cult Defenders (Apologetics Index)

1998: When Scholars Know Sin: Alternative Religions and Their Academic Supporters (University of Alberta - Dr Stephen Kent)

(Undated): Lawyer Massimo Introvigne Whines About My Professional Fees (University of Alberta - Dr Stephen Kent)

Dec. 4. 2000: Hurray!! Like the Germans, Massimo Introvigne Takes Me Seriously!! He Put Me on Cesnur's Website!! (University of Alberta - Dr Stephen Kent)

April 11, 2018: A New Academic Book Takes Apart Scientology & Pop Culture, & The Apologists Hate It (Tony Ortega - The Underground Bunker)

A lot of mentions of Massimo in the above piece. Here's a quote and please explore the article for context:

QuoteAnd our favorite example of Introvigne being either dishonest or clueless (or both) was this passage when he slams Susan Raine's chapter on the connections between Hubbard's science fiction and Scientology....Well, that's pretty rich, since Introvigne apparently has no idea what he's talking about.

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August 13, 2020: The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 23: The Apologist Academics (Tony Ortega - The Underground Bunker)

QuoteBut apologist academics can be a real pain for legitimate researchers who come under attack from these Scientology cheerleaders.

A good example that happened recently was the time and effort that the best academic in the business, Stephen Kent of the University of Alberta, had to spend cleaning up the mess created by a fake academic publication, CESNUR (founded by Massino), which stands for "pro-Scientology flapdoodle published in Italy for some reason."

CESNUR had got a lot of Hubbardists excited by claiming that critics of Scientology had never, ever produced evidence that L. Ron Hubbard had ever actually claimed, under his own signature, that he was the recipient of a civil engineering college degree. The notion that Hubbard had falsely claimed to be a college graduate was an impression created by sloppy researchers and some of Hubbard's own employees, CESNUR claimed.

Kent was attacked in the piece, and so he took it upon himself to produce a lengthy and thorough piece utterly destroying the CESNUR claim. In fact, this very website has published two letters written by Hubbard claiming to be a civil engineering graduate.

Anyway, that's just one example of how these apologist types not only muddy the record to benefit Scientology, but then create a lot of work for those of us trying to get out the truth about Hubbard and his creation.

Aug. 13, 2022: The Cult of Cult Apologists: Massimo Introvigne Part 1
Note: This is the best critique of cult apologists I have read. I'll just quote the one paragraph for a simple reason I explain below.

QuoteCult apologist Dr. Eileen Barker, for example, had her "research" into the Unification Church paid for by the Unification Church. Indeed, Reverend Moon paid  her expenses paid to attend 18 conferences held by the Unification Church. This is a clear conflict of interest by any standard. It is no different than Big Tobacco paying scientists in the 1950's to write studies proving that cigarettes were not harmful. Dr. Barker wrote a letter of support for Reverend Sun Myung Moon when he was seeking to move to the UK. How is this not being a paid cult apologist? There is no academic distance whatsoever. Rather, there is direct personal involvement with, and support for, the cult leader from an NRM scholar.

I had been thinking of that very same cigarette company doctor analogy when someone I knew mentioned their understanding of "New Religious Movements" was solidified by Massimo. That person does have some connection to the UC, which may or may not have influenced their thinking. I'll let any interested reader explore the full article at its source, and as far as I know, a part 2 has not been published.

May 21, 2023: Solidarity With Japanese Ex-Moonies & Responce to Cult Apologists (Medium - Former American Member)

Sept. 25, 2024: The Spy Who Loved Me: CESNUR Betrayed by Pro-Russian Subversive Group (Luigi Corvaglia)

Aug. 24, 2025: Meet the Shadowy Scholars Supporting England's Doomsday Cult (The GuruMag - Be Scofield)

And have some more links to post...

Yes, this is a thing. And I was late finding a mention in the media about this, but I finally found one:

May 21, 2018: Locked and Loaded for the Lord (The Washington Post)

QuoteUnification Church membership figures have always been elastic, ranging from tens of thousands to several million. In 2009, the Washington Times cited 110,000 "adherents." Whatever the correct number, it had peaked by the late 1990s. Yet the Rev. Moon pressed on. In 2003, a double-page ad in the Washington Times trumpeted this news: All 36 deceased American presidents acknowledged Sun Myung Moon's greatness. What's more, each one had written an endorsement letter from the Great Beyond. "People of America, rise again. Return to the nation's founding spirit," said Thomas Jefferson, once characterized as a "howling atheist" by political opponents. "Follow the teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Messiah to all people."

Messages from Former American Presidents (36 Presidents)

The following speech by Han Hak-ja doesn't mention the channeled messages from the dead US presidents, but she did mention Lenin and Marx, so it's not really a stretch from those two guys to the likes of Washington and Lincoln. And one member rather rudely confirmed to me that he believed these are genuine. I just hope I live long enough to see Trump's. He's already given some positive endoresments from the physical world aka planet Earth.
Note: I wrote that before I found the quote in the Washington Post piece linked above. But it's still interesting to note that she was in on the act.

The Counsel of Messages From the Spirit World

From the PDF: This speech was given at a series of Assemblies to Bring the Unity and Secure Settlement of the
Parents of Heaven and Earth into the Life of the World, held between August 10 and September
30, 2002, in Korea, Japan, and the United States.

QuoteIn our capacity as the True Parents of humanity, my husband and I already have united the entire spirit world. We are receiving messages of support and unity from the founders of the four great religions centering on Jesus, including Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad, and from 120 major disciples of each of these leaders. They sent these messages after having studied our teachings in Divine Principle and Unification Thought seminars in the spirit world. These leaders are filled with hope and feel immense gratitude toward the True Parents.

Even communist leaders in the spirit world, beginning with Marx and Lenin, have completed the Divine Principle seminar in accordance with True Parents' direction. They too are sending tearful messages of repentance and deep lamentation. ....

Soon you too will begin having spiritual experiences. The time has come when your ancestors will
directly observe and guide your life and even your thoughts. Numerous Unification Church members who
believe in and follow the True Parents' teachings are already experiencing this.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for coming here this evening. You are truly blessed, because you
are able to live in the historic and providential age when the Messiah, the True Parents of humankind, has
returned to earth.

This is the time when North and South Korea and all other nations will be unified, not by guns and knives
but with love and truth. This is the time when all the religions of the world will become one under the
guidance of the True Parents and when all the sages and ancestors in the spirit world will come down to
earth to live with us and communicate directly with us.

And in this article, it seems like Moon is referencing the dead presidents' messages.

Nov. 5, 2005: Throw out the Moonies' messiah, demand MPs (The Daily Mail)

QuoteLast year, Moon staged a ritual in the US in which he announced: "Emperors, kings and presidents have declared to all heaven and earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's saviour, messiah, returning Lord and true parent."

And another UC site has the messages, and it provides a date, location, and names of the "channelers" - one is listed as a sender and one is listed as a receiver. Your guess is as good as mine!

QuoteSender : Dr. Sang Hun Lee, Receiver / Reporter Young-Soon Kim
Date: June 8, 2002 to August 1, 2003
Place: Sun Moon University, Asan Campus

And that one starts with a message from God him/her/their/it self. I like that God wrote it at midnight, and I like the repetition. Not quite as effective as Martin Luther King Junior's "I Have A Dream" speech though. God should have asked Martin Luther for some help. I assume he's in heaven. But well, heaven sounds like a really strange place. As Trump would say: It's full of Moonies".

QuoteThe reports quoted the Trump associate saying: "If they don't like a subdivision of Mar-a-Lago, how will they feel when a thousand Moonies descend on Palm Beach every weekend?"

QuoteGod's Message to the United Nations
My beloved Children!
I am Jehovah, Lord of hosts.
I am Jehovah, Lord of hosts.
I am Jehovah, Lord of hosts.

The endless, thorny path, a path of everlasting endurance and patience over the tens of thousands of years I have sought my beloved children has been a path of blood and tears that I, Jehovah, have shed.

I, Jehovah, Lord of hosts, am your parent, the Father of all humanity. I am the parent of humanity, my children, my beloved children!

My dear children! I have cried out for you through endless nights for tens of thousands of years. I have yearned to call out your names and have called for you time and again. Yet, the words "dear children" have been ensnared for tens of thousands of years, so that even though I cried out for you, and my cries echoed around the world, you have been deaf to my calling. Can you understand even a little of this parent's heart, my heart, as I have wandered around looking for my children?

My beloved children, my children participating in the United Nations! Even though your skin colors, characters, languages and cultures are different, in my eyes all of you are equally my children. All of you are beloved children of God; you are brothers and sisters who must love each other.

Imagine how I must have felt as I watched brothers and sisters live separated from each other, hating each other, fighting and killing each other with swords, guns, missiles and brute force. Now, I hope all of you will realize deep down in your hearts that each and every one of you are incarnations of me who are very precious to me.

My children! My beloved children! What would you do if you were to see a child of God, one of your brothers or sisters, dying of hunger? Can't you be done with the past, in which you have lived thoughtlessly, and think of me as your parent, believe in me and follow me? Can you imagine your Lord God's countless days filled with grief and sadness as I have waited for tens of thousands of years with endurance and patience?

United Nations! Wake up. Stand up! Now, you must hold hands and become leaders and fighters in establishing the Kingdom of God. Then wouldn't the people of the world, among whom a vast gap exists between rich and poor, become brothers and sisters who would help and support each other and share everything they have?

I am Jehovah, Lord of hosts.
I am Jehovah, Lord of hosts.
I am Jehovah, Lord of hosts.

I ask you, I plead with all my heart for you to find the right path and follow it before more of the spirits of my beloved children fall ill.

Participants in the United Nations! What would you do if the sound of your children's wailing and moaning from hell rang in your ears? I wouldn't mind going barefoot on a path that is tens of thousands of miles long if I could save my children. I would run down that path in one breath. I have been going down that path for the last tens of thousands of years.

I have been a God of grief, a God of sadness, a God of waiting and a God of pain and suffering. If all the days of the tens of thousands of years could be tied together with a single thread, it would be made of only blood and tears. Look at history to the present day. Look back at our history. How is it possible to express in words everything that has happened in history?

My children who are participating in the United Nations! The problems that are obstacles to attaining peace for all of humankind cannot be solved by force alone. That is completely impossible. I have specially sent Rev. Sun Myung Moon, my beloved son, and the True Parent, as the Messiah to all humanity, so believe in him and unite based on his teachings. If you do so, you will feel, deep down in your hearts, that I am your parent and your Father even though you cannot see or touch me.

Listen to the inner voice in your heart. You will hear it echo, "God, my Father, please be with me always!" I am asking all of you, my beloved children, with all my heart to shoulder the many problems in your nations and solve them. I ask you to bear in mind always that the people of the whole world are one big family of brothers and sisters. Reflect on my heart, the heart of a parent who has to teach his own children, "I am your Father." Think deeply about it.

Jehovah, Lord of hosts

Midnight, August 1, 2003

The best source of information is the How Well Do You Know Your Moon blog. I have done some research for them, collecting scans of articles from the 1955 from a Korean newspaper. I forget the name as it was maybe 10 years ago - not far from Seoul Station. If you come across newspaper scans about the Ehwa Scandal sex scandal, you're welcome. And please explore the topics on the right side of the site. I'll post direct links to what I think are the most interesting topics when I have more time. And the topics I choose will probably be all of them.

And it was started some young members - second generation I assume when they were teenagers. And they pretty quickly received legal threats for posting material which they said was proven true soon after. Cults do not like the light of exposure. And 15 years later, they are still going strong, so you can draw your own conclusions from that:


Rick Ross has a huge collection of articles and links, divided by themes such as weddings, growing up in the UC, and The Washington Times. Here is a detailed article about Rick. I know two families he has helped, and they were very grateful for their help as their daughters were being groomed by a convicted serial rapist. And here is Rick's book - Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out, which I highly recommend.

Front groups are a necessary part of deceptive recruiting, and The Moonies are I think the world champion. Here is a list of fronts and related organizations, and I have a feeling there are more:

Sun Myung Moon's Closely Associated Entities (Steven Hassan)

And here is a website run by the UC about Han Hak-ja.

This article from last week came as a surprise as I was expecting only to find the 2013 article linked below.All the best Sam!

Sept. 17, 2025: Amazon Prime Video To Explore Moonies Cult (Deadline)

Quote...which will uncover the darker side of a cult allegedly committed to world peace that was founded in South Korea by the charismatic Reverend Moon. The Moonies: Married to the Cult (working title) features access to insiders, including Moon's illegitimate son, Sam Park, speaking out for the first time about his experiences of mass weddings, sex ceremonies and not being acknowledged by the man he believes to be his father ...

Actually, not true that he's speaking for the first time, although this will be his largest audience. He spoke at a conference that I attended and delivered a presentation at: the 2014 International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) conference in Washington DC. Here's the handbook, which includes a little trip down memory lane for me:


Thankfully, YouTube has Sammy's talk from the above conference, and I remember like most in the room, salt water welled in my eyes. Here is a transcript of his speech.


And six months before the conference:

December 9, 2013 Meet the Love Child Rev. Sun Myung Moon Desperately Tried to Hide (Mother Jones)

I don't really like the title of that piece, in particular the phrase "love child", as I really don't think Moon, as your typical cult leader, was capable of love, and he certainly showed none towards Sam.

And a few weeks earlier, the same journalist - Mariah Blake write an excellant piece for New Republic, granted it's been 12 year since I've read it:

Nov. 13: The Fall of the House of Moon Sex Rituals, Foreign Spies, Biden Offspring, & The Unification Church's War-Torn First Family (New Republic)

A distillation of my favorite quotes:

If Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon is arrested, it will not be the arrest of a woman—it will be the attempted crucifixion of a religion.

It is under siege.

what is happening is religiocide—the deliberate attempt to kill a religion

It is not about legal technicalities. It is about extermination.

This is not justice—it is liquidation.

The real motive lies deeper: a decades-long campaign by leftist lawyers, anti-cult activists, and Protestant deprogrammers who have found common cause in hatred.

This is not law—it is purge.

Evangelicals who claim to be anti-Communist now collaborate with pro-China activists to destroy a fellow religious movement.

They have entered a pact with the Devil.

The charges against Dr. Moon are not about justice—they are about annihilation.[/b]

The goal is to decapitate the movement in Korea and bankrupt it in Japan, while media campaigns abroad amplify the narrative.

The Roman persecutions taught emperors more powerful than a controversial Korean president that the blood of martyrs is the seed of faith. And the fire of persecution often forges the steel of conviction.

Let the persecutors beware.

Before I add the relevant links, these caught my eye:

June 22, 2015: Pope Says Weapons Manufacturers Can't Call Themselves Christian (Reuters)

January 18, 2025: Pope: 'Investing in weapons to kill is madness' (Vatican News)


----------------------------------

June 15,2010: Ex-Miss Korea Hopeful Models Guns for Moonies (The Chosun Daily)

April 7, 2013: Kahr Arms Donates to Gun Rights Groups

QuoteThe founder of Kahr Arms has donated $25,000 to three gun-rights groups to help the firearms industry combat gun-control measures rolling out in several states. The donation from Justin Moon will be split among the NRA's Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund, NRA's Freedom Action Foundation, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation's Political Action Committee.

"Educating society and voters regarding the history and background of the Second Amendment is crucial to the survival of our nation as a constitutional republic," said Frank Harris, Kahr's vice president of sales and marketing. "Current events, which brought on the onset of many restrictive new gun laws, do not provide a safer society, but rather they only infringe on the rights of responsible gun owners and violate the principles established by our Founding Fathers."

I think this is worth saving, and I've highlighted language that I found disturbing and ridiculous.

First some personal thoughts and sentences:

There's a correlation coefficient of one between the amount of shit the Moonies are in and the inflammatory vocabulary of their propagandists.

If aone of my students - I teach English at a university in Seoul - had submitted something like this, I would first commend her on her investment in and impressive use of a thesauraus: assassination, extermination, crucification, liquidation, annihilation, purge, destroy, and - my favorite: decapitate. It's quite an achievement to use all of those in a relatively short piece.

However, I would also ask her to write it as though she were a normal person not perhaps trying to incite violence with that "beware the persecutors" comment, for example. And wrong word by the way. The correct word is "prosecutors", and you really shouldn't be telling them to beware.

Sept. 20: Religiocide in Korea: The Attempted Assassination of a Faith (Bitter Winter - Massimo Introvigne)

QuoteI came to Korea not to observe only but to stand. The assault on the Family Federation should be called for what it is: religious persecution.
by Massimo Introvigne

Let us speak plainly. If Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon is arrested, it will not be the arrest of a woman—it will be the attempted crucifixion of a religion. The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, formerly known as the Unification Church, is not merely under scrutiny. It is under siege. And the name for what is happening is religiocide—the deliberate attempt to kill a religion, a term coined by scholars who have seen this pattern before.

This is not about bribery. It is not about political donations. It is not about legal technicalities. It is about extermination.

What we see in Korea did not start there. It started in Japan. In March, the Tokyo District Court ordered the dissolution of the Family Federation, citing decades-old civil cases and vague notions of "social appropriateness." This is not justice—it is liquidation. If upheld, the ruling (which is under appeal) will strip the movement of its legal status, confiscate its assets, and silence its voice. Japan, the country where the Family Federation achieved its greatest missionary success, now seeks to erase it from public life. The assassination of Shinzo Abe, a friend of the movement, was seized upon as a pretext, though the assassin was never a member. The real motive lies deeper: a decades-long campaign by leftist lawyers, anti-cult activists, and Protestant deprogrammers who have found common cause in hatred.

The campaign, the same, has now extended to Korea, where the assault is more visceral. The special prosecutor has requested the arrest of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, accusing her of bribing the disgraced former First Lady Kim Keon-hee with luxury gifts. Twenty witnesses say otherwise: that these were the rogue actions of a single Church executive. The idea that Dr. Moon—whose initiatives have drawn presidents and prime ministers, including Donald Trump—would need to bribe a Korean leader for small favors and ceremonial seats at a presidential inauguration is not just implausible. It is insulting.

The second charge? That Dr. Moon supported the conservative People Power Party (PPP) through donations, help in the elections, and church devotees who became party members. Even if true, it is not a crime. It is a constitutional right. Yet the Korean government now seeks to criminalize religious political engagement, targeting not only the Family Federation but jailing other religious leaders who supported former President Yoon or the PPP. This is not law—it is purge.

Who are the architects of this religiocide? Three forces converge in Korea as they did in Japan. First, Protestant fundamentalists, who see the Family Federation as heretical and sheep-stealing. Second,  leftist intellectuals and politicians, who loathe its anti-Communist and pro-family stance. Third, Chinese Communist Party operatives, who covertly support anti-cult campaigns to destabilize anti-Communist religious movements in Korea and Japan.

The irony is grotesque. Evangelicals who claim to be anti-Communist now collaborate with pro-China activists to destroy a fellow religious movement. They have entered a pact with the Devil, and in Korea, it has backfired. Evangelical leaders who cheered the persecution of the Family Federation, but supported the conservative PPP, now find themselves behind bars.

Make no mistake: this is not a scandal. It is a scandalization. It is not a prosecution. It is a persecution. The charges against Dr. Moon are not about justice—they are about annihilation. The goal is to decapitate the movement in Korea and bankrupt it in Japan, while media campaigns abroad amplify the narrative.
But history teaches us: religiocide fails. From the catacombs of Rome to the gulags of Siberia, persecuted religions do not die. They rise. They grow. They endure.

I am in Korea in these days; not to observe only, but to stand. To bring comfort to the afflicted, and to remind them: this is not the end. It may be the beginning. The Family Federation has weathered storms before. It will weather this one. The Roman persecutions taught emperors more powerful than a controversial Korean president that the blood of martyrs is the seed of faith. And the fire of persecution often forges the steel of conviction.

Let the persecutors beware. You may dissolve an organization. You may jail a leader. But you cannot kill a faith that lives in the hearts of its believers.
You cannot kill a religion.

And there is at least an admission that a crime has been committed.

QuoteTwenty witnesses say otherwise: that these were the rogue actions of a single Church executive.

I believe he previously wrote that there was no evidence of any crime. I'll look for that later.
Much more to unpack!

Cheon Il Guk Constitution

First scrolling through this, it was the section of the forfeiture of the rights of citizens that stood out for me.

QuoteArticle 20: Rights
1. Citizens of Cheon Il Guk are equal before the law, and there shall be no discrimination on account of gender, age, social status, property ownership, or race.

2. Citizens of Cheon Il Guk have the right to hold elections and to be elected under the terms prescribed by law.

3. Citizens of Cheon Il Guk have the right to submit petitions to any agency related with Cheon Il Guk under the conditions prescribed by law.

4. Citizens of Cheon Il Guk have the right to court hearings in accordance with the law, under judges qualified under the Constitution and the law.

5. Citizens of Cheon Il Guk have the right to education for perfecting the Three Great Blessings.

6. Citizens of Cheon Il Guk have the right to become public officials.

7. Citizens of Cheon Il Guk have the right to become Hoondok Home Church Leaders and Tribal Messiahs.

8. The basic freedom and rights of citizens of Cheon I1 Guk are not to be neglected simply on
the grounds that they are not enumerated in the Constitution.

9. In cases where it is required, the rights of Cheon Il Guk citizens may be constrained by law for the sake of the firm establishment and completion of Cheon Il Guk.

And this part:

QuoteArticle 23: Forfeiture and Recovery of Rights

1. Some or all of the rights of a Cheon Il Guk citizen shall be forfeited in the event that he or she is found to have committed any of the following:

(1) An act disavowing God and True Parents.
(2) An act disavowing the identity and ideology of Cheon Il Guk.
(3) An act disavowing the Cheon Il Guk Constitution.
(4) An act that hinders the substantial establishment and completion of Cheon Il Guk.

2. Matters related to the forfeiture and recovery of a Cheon Il Guk citizen's rights shall be prescribed by law.

Part of the CESNUR conference I attended included an afternoon at the the home of Han Hak-ja/Moonie HQ. We didn't meet her, but we were treated to a dance performance of her body guards that was quite funny in a good sense. And then we had a chance to ask the senior members there some questions. So I asked them about the above sections of the constitution something like: What happens to citizens who lose their rights, especially if the kingdom is the whole world. As you know many people have left your church, including some of Mrs Moon's children. What then is the place in a world ruled by Mrs. Moon for such people?

I imagined it would be something like the role of Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984. The answer I received was one of "Well, we need to think through that some more". I couldn't disagree!

Why then have such an impossible and unobtainable goal? Well, simply put: cult's need their members to have a sense of purpose and a goal to strive for. All the better of that goal is forever unobtainable. The point isn't to accomplish such a goal, it is to keep people working towards it, people who are instilled with the idea they are serving God's will and those opposed to them are under the influence of Satan.

Related: Sean Moon, the youngest surviving son of the Moon's has his own constitution for his splinter group describing the concept of Cheon Il Guk. Sean's version is described in two in-depth articles about the Moons and Sean's splinter group from The Washington Post and Rolling Stone Magazine.

May 21, 2018: Locked and Loaded for The Lord (The Washington Post)

QuoteMeanwhile, their mother, Hak Ja Han, claims the Rev. Moon, her husband of 52 years, passed the baton to her. The church they were fighting over has roots in both Korea and America. The Rev. Moon — born in 1920 in what is now North Korea but was then part of Japan — said Jesus appeared to him when he was 15 and asked him to take on the "special mission" of completing God's Kingdom on earth, Cheon Il Guk in his native Korean. ...

Sean Moon's Constitution of the United States of Cheon Il Guk is a powerful document. It throws the country in reverse and then steps on the gas. Consider just these few provisions: The House of Representatives will elect the president. The king will pick Supreme Court justices. Congress cannot levy income taxes or property taxes; nor can it fund health care, education, Social Security or Medicare. The constitution specifically states there will be no Central Bank, Environmental Protection Agency or national police force.

Aug. 18, 2022: Inside the Bizarre & Dangerous Rod of Iron Ministries Rolling Stone Magazine/Internet Archive)

QuotePreaching a last-days theology, Moon prophesies that a heavenly kingdom will soon be established on Earth — and that his heavily armed followers will help rule this land. "The citizens of the Kingdom of God, who will share in Christ's sovereignty, bear the responsibility to defend their family, neighbors, and nation with their own rod of iron," Moon writes in his book, Rod of Iron Kingdom.

Moon casts himself (and his progeny) as the monarchs of this future divine realm, which he calls the United States of Cheon Il Guk, shorthanded as CIG. He has even written its constitution, describing CIG as "a sovereign and actual nation [that] does not yet exist in this world, but is the long awaited culmination of the End of Time." The CIG constitution vaguely resembles the American one, but prominently bans abortion and gay marriage, and installs Moon as king.

By definition, establishing the United States of Cheon Il Guk will require an overthrow of the current United States of America. Moon denies that force will be required, rather that "people through self-determination and being led by the Spirit of God will organically institute that in their countries."

Nan-sook Hong's Wikipedia page

Her book In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family was published in 1998 is only now available secondhand as an expensive hardback for $99. I was hoping a Kindle version was available for convenient reading, but I do own a copy of her book in hardback. I bought it and read it around 20 years ago. Curiously, my Amazon account has no record of it - perhaps because it's not longer in print. I will read it again over the coming weeks as I both want to refresh my memory and also look for glimpses into the personality and life of her mother-in-law now that she has been arrested and is at the center of quite significant media interest. There are disturbing glimpses into her life in the 60 Minutes video below. Some other links and quotes I found interesting/disturbing and that might help someone new to her story to get a quick idea...

I actually just opened it a random page - page 105, and the word "promiscuous" caught my eye. Both pics are from that page:


Nov. 16. 1998: Unification Church: Inside Moon's Unhappy Family (Chritianity Today)

Nov. 22, 1998: The Dark Side of the Moons – Nansook Hong (Tragedy of the Six Marys - Reposting of Sunday Telegraph article)

QuoteNansook Hong was 15 when she was forced to marry into the 'True Family' at the head of the Moonies religious cult. It was the start of two decades of physical and mental abuse, from which she has only recently escaped. Here, for the first time, she tells James Langton of the 'hypocrisy and evil' at the heart of the Unification Church.

Dark Side of Rev. Moon: Generation Next (Robert Parry - Consortium News)

QuoteIn August 1995, a thin dark-haired Asian woman furtively led her five children in an escape from an elegant mansion on an 18-acre estate overlooking the Hudson River north of New York City. Fearful of her tyrannical husband, the woman was abandoning a life as a modern-day princess who had "wanted for nothing," a pampered existence with docile American servants tending to her every need. ...

In a sworn affidavit, Nansook described how she and other members of Moon's family lived the royal life inside the Irvington, N.Y., compound. But the price for that life of luxury was tolerating Hyo Jin's violent outbursts.

"From very early in our marriage, Hyo Jin has abused drugs and alcohol and is an addict as a result," Nansook wrote. "He has a ritual of secreting himself in the master bedroom, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, drinking alcohol, using cocaine and watching pornographic films. ... When he emerges he is more angry and more volatile."

Nansook described a pattern of abuse which included Hyo Jin beating her in 1994 when she disrupted one of his cocaine parties. "He punched me in the nose and blood came rushing out," Nansook wrote. "He then smeared my blood on his hand, licked his hand and said, 'It tastes good. This is fun'." At the time, she was seven months pregnant.

On another occasion, she said he forced her to stand naked in front of him for hours because "I needed to be humiliated." Meanwhile, Nansook complained that her in-laws did little to confront Hyo Jin. "Although Hyo Jin's family knew of his addictions and his abuse of me and the children, I received very little emotional or physical support from them," Nansook wrote. "I was constantly at the mercy of Hyo Jin's erratic and cruel behavior."

Sept. 13, 1998: Excerpts from 60 Minutes Interview:


Transcript, More Details and Articles (Tragedy Of The Six Marys - Updated July 9, 2021)

Review of In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family

Quote...Most members of the Unification Church get no closer to the True Family than the distance between the stage and their seats at some rally..."

General George Washington Supports Hyung-jin Moon in Moonie Power Struggle - The Internet Archive of Awake Into Freedom, an early official site:

QuoteGood Morning,

This is General George Washington.

Thank you for having a framed picture of me in your living room. It means a great deal to me.

I am coming to you at this hour of urgent desperation and urgent need.

We need a new Army of righteousness. There has been a coup. The Providence of God has been hijacked. There has been a quiet usurpation of authority and power, away from the rightful, official and legal authority. The rightful, official and legal authority in the nation of United States of America and throughout God's prepared lands belongs to the heir of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Mr. Hyung Jin Moon, along with his wife who effectuates as a proxy to True Mother at this time.

The citizens of the United States and people of the world need true leadership. This leadership and authority has been missing recently particularly after the Reverend Sun Myung Moon ascended to the spiritual world as a Glorious Victor of All Cosmic Victories. There has been a lack of leadership. There has been a void. There has been an hour of darkness that has descended on the country I love. Now things are dramatically changing and dramatically developing. But just like during the Revolutionary War, the battle is not easy. There will be bad feelings. There will be shocking twists and turns. There will even be some setbacks, but there must be a final victory, and there will be a final victory, if we remain steadfast, and if we remain true to our beliefs and convictions, and if we do not waiver.

Citizens of the United States!
The citizens of the world!

You have been ruled by a false authority. True Mother's authority has been recently usurped by entities other than Heaven's power.

My brothers and sisters of faith!
Please realize this urgent and disastrous circumstance that we are in. There is corruption at the highest levels. This cannot and must not stand.

Why did I fight?
Why did I lead a revolution?
To separate from corruption at the highest levels! We need to carry through the same exact accomplishment and we need to perform the duties of revolutionaries at this hour. We cannot be lukewarm. We cannot be mild. We cannot be placid. We cannot be complaisant. We cannot be half-hearted. We cannot be nonchalant. We cannot be bystanders. We cannot be observers. We cannot be on the sidelines.

Brothers and sisters. My brethren.

I am General George Washington. I know what you need. You need courage! You need conviction. You need to pound your chests and join the battle for righteousness. I am of course speaking in metaphorical terms. You need to have that conviction in your minds, and I am not saying that an armed insurrection is called for. But this time is serious and the times are grave.

The darkness had fallen over this country I love. So much division and hatred. Citizens! You must love! You must show charity! You must be pure in heart! And pure in mind! Do not follow false Gods. Follow truth. Follow the righteous path.

There is a young man now in the United States who is fighting the good fight. He is in Newfoundland, PA in a small church. Everyone who loves the United States must listen to this young preacher. He is vocalizing the nature of our threat. And he is explaining our predicament that affects my county and all countries.

We need to heed his words.
We need to heed them now. Not later.

I am George Washington, the General of the Revolutionary Army, and the first President of the United States. Do I not care about my country still? I cry for my country. So many things have gone wrong. But there is still hope. A new dawn is beginning. It begins with faith. Politics will follow later. Please have faith first.

You have to demonstrate that those who have ears to hear, need to understand that when the returning Lord–the Rev. Sun Myung Moon–stated that he has instituted an heir, he meant what he stated and wrote. There is no equivocation. It is plain and clear.

Because his authority was challenged and darkness fell on the land, we have had all types of instability and calamities in our political and geopolitical world. We have had beheadings of Christians and civilians. This has to stop by all means. But the cause of external conflicts is the lack of internal faith that drives the balance of the universe.

I am George Washington, brothers and sisters of Unification faith and Christian faith. The Lord returned to Earth. He won a victory over darkness. But his efforts are being usurped and hijacked. You need to stand strong and reject falsehood and abrogation.

You need to follow a man named Hyung Jin Moon.

This is my command to you.

General George Washington

The "origins" of that and other messages is "explained" on the site's first capture courtesy of The Internet Archive.

QuoteAn English speaking individual who resides in a western nation, wrote down the first one of the originally pen on paper written messages on April 17, 2015. This message, and the subsequent messages, were written via a mode of writing that is called "automatic writing." This means that while the person writing experiences that the writing was done with their own hand, the message originated from another.

The individual who wrote down the messages, the transcriber, has no doubt that for whatever reason, the first message from April 17, 2015 and the subsequent messages from their respective dates, are a communication from Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a religious figure born in Korea in 1920 who passed onto the afterlife (invisible substantial world) on September 3, 2012.
         
It should be stated that the transcriber was more than very surprised by the content of the first message.

Regarding the other messages, the transcriber has no doubt that the other communications from the other individuals are attributable as stated in the contents of each written down message.

As the message from April 17, 2015 states, the transcriber of the messages should not be considered great because of this transcribing ability, and therefore is not interested in calling attention to the transcriber, but instead to the contents of the messages. The messages are presented as received, for the information of all those who have an interest in what the legacy of Rev. Sun Myung Moon will be in the years to come.