Moon Sun-myung, the founder of the Unification church known globally as the Moonies, has handed over control of the movement to his Harvard-educated youngest son in what is being seen as an attempt to broaden the controversial religious organization’s appeal.
In a ceremony near Seoul last week, 28-year-old Moon Hyung-jin was anointed chairman of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the name the church has used since the late 1990s.
“I hope everyone helps him so that he may fulfill his duty as the successor of the True Parents,” Moon, 88, said, in a characteristically immodest reference to himself and his wife.
Moon the younger, who was born in the state of New York, promised to “develop the church and to connect as many people as possible” to his parents.
“I will do my best to bring the love of the True Parents and God to every corner of the world,” he said.
Experts say Hyung-jin, the youngest of seven sons, who has five children of his own, is being groomed to secure his aging father’s legacy more than 50 years after he founded the Unification church in South Korea, declaring himself the new messiah with the aim of establishing a single world government under his leadership.
The new leader, a philosophy and theology graduate, practiced Zen Buddhism and lived in a Catholic monastery, and has been described as the “most spiritual” of Moon’s children.
In his book, A Bald Head and a Strawberry, he writes: “I was the youngest boy of the family and probably the most nutty.”
“[Moon] has been grooming his three sons for a bigger role for three years,” said Timothy Read, a spokesman for the Unification church in London.
“The Unification church is not just a church these days, but an international organization with many interests. Religion is just one aspect of that. The reverend decided a while ago that it would encounter difficulties if it was simply known as a church and decided to broaden its activities,” he said.
Under Moon’s leadership, the church has built a worldwide membership estimated at 250,000 — although the church claims more than 10 times as many followers — often using questionable methods to recruit followers and secure their loyalty to an movement that critics denounce as little more than a personality cult.
Its presence is particularly strong in the US, South Korea and Japan where, former followers say, members have used recruitment methods such as palm-reading and routinely take out loans to meet fundraising targets.
Despite last week’s apparent transfer of power few expect Moon Sr, who was convicted in the US of tax evasion in 1982, to loosen his grip on power.
“He may have appointed his son, but Moon is constantly giving orders and people do as they’re told,” said a former member. “He is unlikely to transfer any actual power to his sons.”
Experts say Moon’s eldest son, Hyo-jin, might have been a more obvious choice as successor but was overlooked after scandals over drugs and extramarital sex. He died of a heart attack last month, at 45.
The former disciple, who left several years ago in protest at Moon’s increasingly narcissistic behavior, said he expected the church to step up its fundraising activities under Hyung-jin and to forge alliances that go well beyond its pseudo-Christian origins.
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