Former Member: K. Gordon Neufeld

[Peter Daley]

I have a lot of links to add here, and I have a soft spot for Gordon as his memoir Heartbreak and Rage: 10 Years Under Sun-myung Moon was the first memoir of any cult that I read, and I had the brief pleasure of meeting him in 2014 at ICSA conference held in Washington DC.

March 1, 2008: Where Have All the Moonies Gone? (K. Gordon Neufeld)

But on the second day of a visit to San Francisco, I encountered two members of Moon's Unification Church on Fisherman's Wharf, and my resistance to religious-sounding messages was neatly circumvented. The strangers told me of a free dinner sponsored by the "Creative Community Project" where, supposedly, I could meet people from all backgrounds and dispositions. Having no other plans, I went.

At the dinner, I was invited to a weekend on a farm in northern California, near the town of Boonville. Although they told me there would be discussions about their ideals, as well as games and recreation, my hosts made no mention of the Unification Church or Moon. (In fact, as I later learned, they went out of their way to conceal this connection).

Jan. 24, 2014: K. Gordon Neufeld : On the Moonies & Their True Parents (The Mind Renewed Podcast - 66 Minutes)

Jan. 18, 2019: K. Gordon Neufeld : Stories of Extreme Beliefs (The Mind Renewed Podcast - 60 Minutes)

Winning Writers: K. Gordon Neufeld

He studied Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia, but after graduating with a B.A. in English in 1976, he travelled to California for what he expected to be a two-week trip.

That two-week trip turned into a 10-year episode in his life. While in San Francisco, he was recruited into the Unification Church of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon (the "Moonies"). He remained in the Moonies for a decade, and even participated in the mass wedding in Madison Square Garden on July 1, 1982. However, he never actually got to live with the woman he was "blessed" to in that ceremony, and by 1986, he knew he was going nowhere in his life and that he would have to make the difficult transition back to his old life. He returned to Canada and went back to the University of British Columbia, from which he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing in 1997. While at the university, he resolved to write a book-length memoir of his experiences in the Moonies, which he later published under the title, Heartbreak and Rage:  Ten Years Under Sun Myung Moon, A Cult Survivor's Memoir ...

After publishing his first book, Mr. Neufeld was contacted by a woman who was also a former member of the Unification Church.  He began visiting her, and in 2009, he married her and became a permanent resident of the United States.  He now lives with his wife and stepdaughter in upstate New York.