Short Biography of Sun Myung Moon (1920 – 2012):
Sun Myung Moon (1920 – 2012) was born in Jeongju, North Korea. His parents – poor farmers – joined the Presbytarian Church when he was 10 years old. Sun Myung Moon reports to have had a vision of Jesus when he was 15 while praying in the mountains on Easter Sunday. Jesus asked him to fulfill his life’s work, whereas he refused twice. Being asked for the third time he finally promised “I will do it.”
After 9 intense years of studying and praying he had discovered what has later been systematized as the “Divine Principle”. Expelled by Christian groups and persecuted by the North Korean communist regime Sun Myung Moon eventually was imprisoned in 1948 in Heungnam labor camp. On the eve of his execution in October 1950, he was liberated by United Nations forces under the leadership of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Returning to South Korea Sun Myung Moon started again with his public ministry, eventually founding the Unification Church (Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity) in 1954. Beginning with Japan and America, missionaries were sent to every corner of the world.
He married Hak Ja Han in 1960 with whom he came to have 14 children. Sun Myung Moon’s understanding of salvation was never limited to a merely spiritual or transcendent dimension. He has always invested into the fields of family values, culture, arts, science, technology, economy, media and politics with the aim of benefiting mankind. Especially noteworthy are his endeavors of countering the destructive force of world communism in a strategy and program called “Victory over Communism”.
In 1985 he predicted the downfall of the Soviet Union, yet he met Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 in a spirit of reconciliation. A cordial meeting with North Korean president Kim Il Sung followed suit in 1991.
In 2005 Sun Myung Moon founded the Universal Peace Federation which aims to introduce an interreligious council at the United Nations in order to enable the world’s religious leaders to contribute concretely to world peace by upholding and fostering the sacred values that all religions hold in common and to serve the international community with a united vision and shared responsibility.
Sun Myung Moon passed on at the age of 92, on September 3, 2012.
Sun Myung Moon Quotes 