http://www.religionnewsblog.com Religion news about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:01:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25660/unification-church-attacks-seoul-skyscraper-plan http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25660/unification-church-attacks-seoul-skyscraper-plan#comments Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:51:15 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=25660 Unification Church, often known as the Moonies, who own the land.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25660/unification-church-attacks-seoul-skyscraper-plan/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25208/cult-leader-sun-myung-moon-marries-thousands-in-mass-wedding http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25208/cult-leader-sun-myung-moon-marries-thousands-in-mass-wedding#comments Mon, 11 Oct 2010 07:58:37 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=25208 Some 7,200 South Korean and foreign couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage vows Sunday in the Unification Church's second mass wedding this year.

Critics say the mass weddings prove the church is a cult that brainwashes its followers.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25208/cult-leader-sun-myung-moon-marries-thousands-in-mass-wedding/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25048/25048 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25048/25048#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:16:49 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=25048 Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon is regaining control of the Washington Times after allies of the South Korean cult leader agreed to acquire the paper for just $1 and assumption of most if its debts, according to an internal memo.

The memo contradicts rumors that a feud among the Moon's sons over control of the Washington Times prompted the father to buy it back for tens of millions of dollars.

The deal is financially similar to the one the Washington Post cut in selling its money-losing Newsweek to businessman Sidney Harmon.

Paul Bedard details the deal -- and the internal feuding in the Moon family -- in U.S. News & World Report. Mind you, he also writes that Moon "started the newspaper in 1982 as a conservative and Christian voice in Washington." Theologians know that the Unification Church is, at best, a cult of Christianity. As such, it is impossible for the paper to provide a "Christian voice."]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25048/25048/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24773/moonies-burial-site-is-approved http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24773/moonies-burial-site-is-approved#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:52:15 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24773 A religious sect has been granted planning permission to create a burial ground in a village near Swindon, UK.

The Family Federation For World Peace And Unification, more commonly known as the Moonies, can now turn a field in Stanton Fitzwarren into a memorial woodland burial site, despite objections from the parish council, the local councillor and villagers. ]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24773/moonies-burial-site-is-approved/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24015/unification-church-members-looking-for-less-radical-faith-version http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24015/unification-church-members-looking-for-less-radical-faith-version#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:45:52 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24015 With cult leader Sun Myung Moon turning 90 in February, how the movement will survive beyond him is unclear. Moon's children are at odds over how to run the church's business empire.

Some second-generation Unification Church members are now looking for a less-radical version of their faith.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24015/unification-church-members-looking-for-less-radical-faith-version/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23776/mass-marriage-cult-leader-sun-myung-moon http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23776/mass-marriage-cult-leader-sun-myung-moon#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:46:45 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23776 Nearly a half-century after the Rev. Sun Myung Moon performed his first mass wedding, the 89-year-old leader of the Unification Church is getting ready to marry off tens of thousands of people in spectacles from the United States to South Korea.

Critics who accuse the church of engaging in cultlike practices say the mass weddings prove it brainwashes its followers.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23776/mass-marriage-cult-leader-sun-myung-moon/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23770/unification-church-8 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23770/unification-church-8#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:10:15 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23770 The Rev Sun Myung Moon, now approaching 90 and still one of the world's most controversial religious figures, is handing over day-to-day control of his Unification Church to his sons.

Critics maintain the Rev Moon is little more than a charismatic cult leader who brainwashes followers.

Still, some analysts say that by anointing a new generation, Moon may ensure the church endures after his death.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23770/unification-church-8/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23715/workers-at-unification-church-related-company-pressure-customers-into-expensive-purchases http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23715/workers-at-unification-church-related-company-pressure-customers-into-expensive-purchases#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:51:51 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23715 Four members of a seal stamp company in Osaka, Japan have been arrested for intimidating customers into buying expensive products.

The suspects -- whose company is connected to the Unification Church, a religious cult -- contacted three women through fortune-telling services and threathened them over many hours. ]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23715/workers-at-unification-church-related-company-pressure-customers-into-expensive-purchases/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23690/paraguaw-protest-against-unification-church http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23690/paraguaw-protest-against-unification-church#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:21:44 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23690 Hundreds of peasants from a town in western Paraguay on Tuesday blocked the national highway that runs to Argentina and Bolivia to demand the distribution of land donated by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.

The protest is the latest in a series staged by peasants from the Puerto Casado region in recent years against Victoria S.A., a company owned by the Moon cult.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23690/paraguaw-protest-against-unification-church/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/22952/moonies-uk-global-peace-festival http://www.religionnewsblog.com/22952/moonies-uk-global-peace-festival#comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:12:30 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=22952 A peace group involved with the controversial Unification Church, who are often given the name of Moonies, is tomorrow staging its biggest ever event in Britain.

Anti-cult activists fear it could mark a British renaissance for the group, which experienced a growth in numbers during the 1970s and 80s.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/22952/moonies-uk-global-peace-festival/feed 0