The Moon Organization: 70 Years of Extremism, Power, Money, and Sex

With Ed Coffman

The Unification Church (“Moonies”) now goes by the name The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. The authoritarian cult was founded in the early 1950s by Sun Myung Moon. My family hired ex-members to deprogram me from it, following a severe van crash in 1976. Moon’s wife, Hak Ja Han, has been in charge of the international Moon organization (aside from the schisms with her two sons) since his death in 2012. Deceptive recruitment and a program of systematic social influence induce people to become involved. Undue influence and immoral tactics describe a corrupt organization under any circumstances. Authoritarian political leaders, malignant narcissists, labor, and sex traffickers all use these practices to maintain power and control. When used by a person or organization claiming exclusive spiritual knowledge and a divinely ordained role in the salvation of the world, this type of exploitation becomes malicious and dangerous.