Tag: Sun Myung Moon

The late Sun Myung Moon, a fantasist who claimed to be the Messiah, once said that after he died, “I will continue to lead the church from the spirit world.” If that’s so, why is the cult going through a power struggle?

Muslim cleric Yousuf Badri is belligerent and rude during a television interview, but the female hosts puts him in his place.

And we go back to the Seventies, with the Source Family.

Today: Sun Myung Moon is the latest is a long string of self-proclaimed saviors to be buried. Also: Scientology watcher Tony Ortego is leaving The Village Voice in order to pursue a book about the cult in its time of crisis.

Plus: followers of the ‘religion of peace’ riot, pillage and murder in a temper tantrum about a movie deemed offensive to Islam founder Muhammad.

Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, who has claimed that when after he dies he “will continue to lead the church from the spirit world,” has died.

Moon believed himself to be sinless, and that he was the true father of mankind. Believing that Jesus had failed in his mission, Moon also declared himself to be the Messiah.

In today’s issue of Religion News Briefs: Already jailed for violating residential zoning codes, ‘home bible study’ pastor Michael Salman now faces a series of felony charges.

Plus: the condition of cult leader Sun Myung Moon worsens.

A daughter-in-law of Samuel Mullet, the leader of a breakaway Amish group on trial on hate crimes charges, says he coerced her into sex. Meanwhile his sister says Mullet’s group is a cult.

The Israeli government has distanced itself from a new Scientology cult center in Jaffa.

Also: the authors of a new study say the common assumption that natural and supernatural explanations are incompatible is psychologically inaccurate.

Plus, the latest issue of ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) Today has an in-depth article about the history of the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center — non-profit residential treatment facility that provides a program of counseling and instruction to victims of cultic abuse, religious abuse and/or mind control.

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.”

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.

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.