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A Chip Off the Old Block: The Son Doesn't Fall Far From the Moon

By Bob Waldrep

There is trouble in the "True Family" home. Sun Myung Moon's eldest son, Hyojin Moon, appears to be in hot water not only with Moon but with the Massachusetts's judicial system as well. Last year he was removed from the Unification Church business due to his alcohol and drug abuse. Now, in a Massachusetts courtroom, he has pled guilty to violating a court injunction prohibiting him from contacting his estranged wife, Nansook Hong Moon, and their five children. The sentence handed down was eighteen months probation.

The Boston Globe reported, "Nansook fled the lavish family compound in Irvington, N.Y., last August to escape a marriage that she says was ravaged by her husband's alcohol and cocaine induced rages." (June 29, 1996, Metro Section p. 13) The article also stated, "Moon denies Nansook's charges of abuse and infidelity, but concedes the substance abuse that prompted the family to remove him last year as head of its Manhattan video production company." During the hearing Nansook told the court, "I had reached a point in my life when I could no longer endure and live with the constant threatening, verbal abuse and incidents of physical violence." (Ibid.)

Teaching on the family is a central doctrine of the Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, are called the "True Parents" and with their children they constitute the "True Family" in Unification theology. It is through them the heavenly kingdom will be established upon earth. (see "Moonshine for the Soul," page 4)

Obviously the activities of the heir-apparent, Hyojin Moon, reveal there is a serious flaw in the True Family and it is not the ideal, perfect family as proclaimed by Moon. However, this is not the only problem in Moon's family. One of Moon's daughters, Ye Jin, is said to have denounced her father while another, Sun-Jin, left her husband only weeks after having received her "blessing." (The Sunday Telegraph, November 5, 1995, cited in Fair News, Summer 1996)

In the September/October 1994 issue of Today's World (a Unification publication) Moon stated, "I have gone through the restoration process, step by step, and have won the victory. Your families must follow. I gave the blessing so you can make your family a model family that all the other families of the world can emulate. You must learn from our family and inherit from us...The conclusion is clear: I represent God, I represent the center of humankind, and I represent True Parents' family, God's family center." (p. 8) He further stated, "To establish the representative family is the direction of history. Every family needs to head in this direction. Your family and your descendants need to follow the pattern of the true Adam's [Moon's] family." (Ibid., p. 11) Moon's meaning was clarified by Dr. Tyler O. Hendricks, President of the Unification Church of America who wrote, "the true family creates persons of true love, and persons of true love, in turn, create true families. Thus once a true family is established, it will naturally expand and replenish both itself and everything around it." (Unification News, January 1996, p. 25)

Moon teaches that Adam failed to accomplish God's plan because of his sin; Jesus failed because he did not marry. (see "Moonshine for the Soul," page 4) Yet, by the standard of Unification teaching, Moon also fails to fulfill God's plan. As Hendricks asserted, "If all families were true families, the world would be a world of goodness and joy." It would be, among other things, a "solution to mental illness:...mental illness is bred by broken homes, in particular where grandparents are not present. Happy families breed sane, balanced people. Divorces breed children likely to divorce." He also wrote that true families are a "solution to drug abuse and alcoholism: same point as that of mental illness: healthy family life ends drug and alcohol abuse." (Ibid.) When this is applied to Moon's own family the inconsistencies become obvious.

One can only conclude that, apart from the demonstrable conflict with Biblical teaching, according to even his own teaching, Moon's cannot be a true family, much less the "True Family." Not only are Moon's children experiencing the very problems Hendricks states are indicative of unhappy families, Moon himself has experienced the same. Critics have long pointed out that Moon's first marriage ended in divorce. Some sources even indicate Moon had two other wives between the first Mrs. Moon and the current Mrs. Moon. (Steven Hassan, "Open Letter: The Truth About Sun Myung Moon," p.12; Saturday Oklahoman and Times, August 31, 1996, p. 19; The Christian News, September 9, 1996, p. 10)

The old saying goes, "The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree." Perhaps in this case it should be, "The son doesn't fall far from the Moon."

Rev. Bob Waldrep, MRE, serves as State Director—Alabama at Watchman Fellowship’s Birmingham, AL office. Bob is also an ordained Southern Baptist Minister and serves as Lay Pastor for the Church at Brook Hills. You can email Bob by clicking here.

For more information on the Unification Church (Moonieism), please visit the Apologetics or the Other Religious Movements sections of our web catalog; or click here to order a free information packet.