Fogbuster
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Well, followers of the Unification Church are mocked and disparaged enough as is, so it's really not my intention here to perpetuate this intolerance or even to criticize your religion. But I do find the quoted passage above a bit odd. Though Sun Myung Moon has suffered social ostracization, persecution and hardship, especially in the US and his native South Korea, I really can't say it's at all comparable to what Christ is said to have suffered. Obviously, Christ never had mansions throughout the world including Gloucester MA, nor did he own the Washington Times, was once the owner of the international new wire service UPI, nor did he possess extensive holding throughout the world including the Brazilian football clue Sao Paolo. I really wouldn't say Christ or even the Dalai Lama for that matter had such extensive holdings.
Well, you are only talking about more recent history of Rev. Moon's life. His early years were marked by torture and imprisonment by Japanese authorities for his involvement with a Korean national movement when Korean was occupied by Japan from 1905 until its defeat in 1945. Then, after liberation from Japan, Korea was partitioned and the North became communist. Again, Rev. Moon was imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and then sent to a death camp at Heung Nam, until the UN forces liberated the city during the Korean War. And, of course, there was the infamous treatment he received from the U.S. government which imprisoned him for a trumped up tax case that forever changed how American clergy kept their bank accounts: no more "pastor's funds" accounts, as almost every pastor in America had up to that point, from Roman Catholic to Southern Baptist. The first time in my life I had ever been invited in to a RC Bishop's office in Boston was when I went to discuss Rev. Moon's case. Ditto for most everyone, from the Unitarians to the Episcopalians to the Methodists, and everybody in between. Some 30 churches and other legal entities joined to file an amicus curiae brief defending Rev. Moon during his trial.
The point is, Rev. Moon is not unlike most religious pioneers: he has received an intensely hostile reception by some religious leaders for the simple reason his has something new to say, and the entrenched establishment almost always has problems with new messages. See what St. Francis of Assisi went through, for example.
As for how this compares to Christ Jesus' life: Jesus came as the King of kings, was prepared and heralded by God, had wise men from the East attend his birth, was born to a people prepared for four thousand years to receive the Messiah, and then they call him a "blasphemer" (like being called a "cult" leader today) for saying he was the Son of God. Rev. Moon says Jesus called him to fulfill the mission of building God's Kingdom, and now he gets the same kind of treatment Jesus got, except instead of physical crucifixion he's gotten verbal crucifixion and character assassination. Meanwhile, he goes on about the business of building God's Kingdom through the enterprises you mention, plus more. We are living in the most exciting time in human history, a time of fundamental change in the world. God's will is coming to fruition! Just don't look for it on the evening news; it's coming "like a thief in the night" to most, although we should prepare ourselves with prayer and humility.
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