Stranger Things

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.

Update: The text is available online here in its entirety

I bought it and read it around 20 years ago. 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:



Oct. 13, 1998: Life With The Moons A Conversation With Nansook Hong, Former Daughter-in-Law of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon (Time Magazine - Internet Archive)

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..."

I'm skimming through the book as posted online here in its entirety

Primarily, I'm looking for references to Han Hak-ja, but I am also curious about signs of the Moon's wealth in the early 1980s.

End of Chapter 5:

QuoteI was all the more confused when I learned that Las Vegas is a gamblers' paradise. There were slot machines in the restaurants, casinos in the hotels. What were we all doing in a place like this? Gambling is strictly prohibited by the Unification Church. Betting of any kind is seen as a social ill that undermines the family and contributes to the moral decline of civilization. Why, then, was Hak Ja Han Moon, the Mother of the True Family, cradling a cup of coins and feverishly inserting them one after another into a slot machine? Why was Sun Myung Moon, the Lord of the Second Advent, the divine successor to the man who threw the money changers out of the temple, spending hours at the blackjack table?

I dared not ask, but I did not need to. The Reverend Moon was eager to explain our presence in a place I had been taught was a den of sin. As the Lord of the Second Advent, he said, it was his duty to mingle with sinners in order to save them. He had to understand their sin in order to dissuade them from it. I should notice, he said, that he did not sit and bet at the blackjack table himself. Peter Kim sat there for him and placed the bets as the Reverend Moon instructed from his position behind Peter Kim's shoulder. "So you see, I am not actually gambling, myself," he told me.

And this wasn't expected. ASMR Nan-sook Hong:


In this brief biography, Nan-sook isn't named:
2008: Hyo Jin Moon: Eldest Son of Rev. & Mrs. Sun-myung Moon - A Brief Biography (True Parents)

QuoteHe is survived by his loving wife, Yeon Ah Choi. He and his wife have five children together. Hyo Jin Moon also has five children from a previous marriage.

From the Unification Church to the Unification Movement, 1994-1999: Five Years of Dramatic Changes (Massimo Introvigne/CESNUR)

QuoteThe year 1998 saw less pleasant developments for the Unification movement. As a result of the Asian economic crisis, but also of internal mismanagement, a number of businesses of the Tong Il group in Korea collapsed under massive debts. Nansook Hong, the divorced wife of the Reverend and Mrs. Moon's elder son Hyo Jin Moon, penned a book, In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1998) ghost-written by Eileen McNamara, a journalist from the Boston Globe who had published a number of critical stories about Unificationism. The book depicts Nansook's fourteen years of marriage with Hyo Jin as plagued by her husband's drug use, adultery, and in the end physical violence. Although at the end of bitter divorce proceedings, one cannot expect either party to be truly objective, Hong's tale of abuse is credible, and the Unification Church had acknowledged Hyo Jin's personal problems well before publication of the book (Hyo Jin was "reblessed" to a new wife, Yun Ah Choi, on February 5, 1999, in Seoul, the first instance of "reblessing" among the "True Children" of the Reverend and Mrs. Moon). More serious was Hong's charge that, while promoting family values in their teachings, the Reverend and Mrs. Moon lost control of their own family, as evidenced by Hyo Jin's addiction problems and by the fact that other "True Children" left or became inactive in the church (sadly, another "true child" committed suicide by jumping out of an hotel window in Reno, Nevada, later in 1999). The Reverend and Mrs. Moon have admitted responsibility for the problems of some of their children, stating that the task of their worldwide ministry demanded the sacrifice of their family. Nansook's book offers a bitter portrait of Mrs. Moon, and accuses the Reverend Moon of sexual misconduct during his life, including fathering an illegitimate child. The Unification Church answered that the Reverend Moon "never violated the Principle nor violated his responsibility as the messianic protector of True Love," noting also that "Father [i.e., Rev. Moon] has taught extensively about the complicated biblical and providential history of the restoration of blood lineage, including the role of such providential figures as Jacob (Rachel and Leah and servants), Tamar (and her father-in-law, Judah) and others in fulfilling conditions in this area" (HSA-UWC North America Family Church, "Questions and Answers About Nan Sook Hong's Book," by Rev. Joong Hyun Pak, Continental Director, and Dr. Tyler Hendricks, President, October 3, 1998). Other figures such as Abraham (Sarah and Hagar) and King David (Bethsheba) have also been mentioned. This "complicated history" includes the Reverend Moon and his family, whose life - the church implies - cannot be judged by ordinary human standards. This, the church insists, does not in any way give permission to members to violate their blessing and the Divine Principle's fundamental standard of one man and one woman for eternity. Regardless, a number of members have been deeply disturbed by Hong's book.

The Hong book also revived earlier controversies associated with the late Chung Hwa Pak, one of Rev. Moon's first disciples, who had caused considerable controversy by confirming accusations of sexual immorality in the Rev. Moon's early career in a text widely circulated by critics (and later published in Japanese) called The Tragedy of the Six Marys. Park, who had left the Unification Church, claimed that Rev. Moon practiced during the church's early years sex rituals with, among others, six married female disciples ("the six Marys") who were to have prepared the way for the virgin who would marry him and become the True Mother. The church vehemently denied the allegations, and was able to rely on earlier Korean court rulings where critics who made similar accusations had been found guilty of defamation and libel. Park eventually returned to the fold and, shortly before dying, recanted all the accusations in a second text he authored in 1995, called The Apostate.

Quoteghost-written by Eileen McNamara, a journalist from the Boston Globe who had published a number of critical stories about Unificationism.

I feel that is a little attempt to disparage Eileen. A more unbiased writer would also have mentioned her many awards:

QuoteIn addition to the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1997), she has been the recipient of writing and the public service awards from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Sigma Delta Chi, the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation and others for a reporting career that focused on social issues as infant mortality, domestic violence and juvenile crime. In 2007, she was named a winner of the Yankee Quill Award, the highest individual honor given by the Academy of New England Journalists.

McNamara is the author of two previous books: Breakdown: Sex, Suicide and the Harvard Psychiatrist (which was an Edgar Award finalist in 1994) and The Parting Glass: A Toast to the Traditional Pubs of Ireland (with photographer Eric Roth).

She contributed to the Boston Globe's coverage of the clergy sexual abuse scandal by recommending that the Spotlight Team look further into the cases she had reported on previously. In the 2015 film Spotlight, McNamara was played by actress Maureen Keiller. Spotlight won the Academy Award for the Best Picture in 2016.

July 2020: Profiles In Conscience: Nansook Hong (Former Member Sansu The Cat/Medium)

By the same cat:

Jan. 26, 2022: Cult Fiction, Writing, & Healing: Seven Questions for Kenneth Gordon Neufeld (Former Member Sansu The Cat/Medium)

Feb 15, 2022: Why I Am Not A Moonie: Six Reasons Why I am no Longer a Member of the UC (Former Member Sansu The Cat/Medium)

I've only watched some of part 3, but this is really interesting and insightful. And I really appreciate summaries of some parts of the book I had forgotten, and those are combined with her own experiences. This is the kind of video that I wish all members would watch and those who support the UC through ignorance or greed:

March 30, 2025: 1. In the Shadow of the Moons - Faith Yün Commentary


April 6, 2025: 2. In the Shadow of the Moons - Faith Yün Commentary


April 13, 2025:3. In the Shadow of the Moons - Faith Yün Commentary


About Faith:

Quotefaith yün is a former second generation Moonie, born into the Unification Church. Since leaving the Moon organization in 2012 she has become an atheist and gone no-contact with both of her parents and most of her childhood friends. In 2022, after the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by former UC member Tetsuya Yamagami, faith dropped out of college and forfeited her conditional acceptance to transfer to UC Davis for a bachelor's degree in Anthropology. She is now spending all of her time helping herself and others recover from financial abuse and coercive control, using social media to expose widespread disinformation about the cult that raised her.