Message
Moon Waning in
U.S.?
From one point
of view, the $9 million mass marriage/marriage rededication illustrates the
durability of the Moon organization, which still manages to get prominent
figures to take part in myriad church-sponsored events and cultural
organizations, often for high fees. It has also been adaptable, now downplaying
the anti-communist thrust which was a staple of the Cold War era in favor of
"saving" the family, a theme which resonates widely
today.
On the other hand,
the church, although apparently growing overseas, seems to be declining in the
U.S. - it claims 50,000 members here; experts say the number is 2,000-5,000 -
although contacts with important people are still significant and it remains
a vast multinational business enterprise fueled by cash from the Far East.
Sociologist David Bromley compares the church to the Shakers and Amanas in
19th century America, new faiths that began with a burst of energy but
settled into entropy dominated by their business interests.
The Rev. Moon,
perhaps in response to his advancing age, failure to recruit in the U.S.,
personal family scandals, and a sense of disillusion among longtime followers,
has declared that "the period of religion is passing away" and his church must
be dissolved. He has directed followers to work instead through the Family
Federation for World Peace and Unification, the non-profit that holds events and
stages conferences, to promote Moon's worldview. "Things are very much in flux,"
said a spokesman, who added that Moon wants to "get beyond
denominationalism." The church, says its U.S. president, Tyler Hendricks, has
traditionally been structured to save the individual; now it is a
"family-centered" structure.
Whatever its form,
numbers are declining in North America even as they rise in South America and
Africa. "Their time has run out in the United States," said Frederick Sontag, an
academic from Pomona College in California, who has studied the group and
occasionally worked for Moon-sponsored organizations. "Moon's is a religion
based on power, and the fact is they're not going to dominate the world. In the
'60s and '70s, kids in this country were looking for something different. Now
they're not." A former church official says only about 10 percent of recruits
from 1972-75 remain. Some members and many outsiders see the opening of the
marriage rite to people of other faiths as an admission that Unificationism as a
religion is at a dead end. (It used to take seven years of fundraising and
recruiting to be eligible for marriage.) Moon's sermons today are filled with
dislike for the America, now "a lost nation," he once hoped would embrace
Unificationism. He spends most of his time in Uruguay today in order to
concentrate on Latin America, while urging U.S. members to join other
denominations and win people over the Moon's teachings (which some observers
call "infiltration").
Another reason for
some long-term members quitting recently is the divorce of Moon's apparently
dissolute son from his wife, who has accused him of beating her, and the public
expression of doubts about Moon himself, and their faith, by two of his now
estranged daughters. One is said to be in hiding and writing a book about her
experience in the church's founding family, adding further to the erosion of
Moon's authority and moral stature, according to former members. When Sontag
asked Moon if his empire would disintegrate when he dies - in the absence of a
clear successor - Moon responded: "I will continue to lead the church from
the spirit world." (The Washington Post, 11/19-25/97)
For a
comprehensive report on the history and status of the Moon organization, see
issues of The Washington Post for Nov. 19-30, available on the paper's
web site at: www.washingtonpost.com.
