An Analysis of the "UCI Court Case" and the Underlying Unification Movement Religious Schism

By
Howard C. Self
President, Right To Believe

INTRODUCTION

After over 10 years of contention, the infamous Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) et al v Hyun Jin Moon et al court case has now gone through a public hearing in the District of Columbia Appeals Court on June 17, 2021. [1] Prior to that hearing, on April 22, 2021, lawyers for FFWPU filed its 80 pages of formal response to the two defense briefs submitted earlier; one brief by UCI- the religious non-profit at the center of the case- and the second brief by the other defendants- all-volunteer board directors of UCI. See the Plaintiffs’ response here: Brief of Appellees.

UCI and its board director defendants had also submitted a final reply brief to the Plaintiffs’ response. As with the earlier two defense briefs, the UCI response brief clearly exposed the fallacy of the Plaintiff’s narrative, the emptiness of their arguments, and the errors of the court in both violating the First Amendment and its failure to carry out proper due process throughout the case. You can find the UCI final response brief here: Reply Brief of Defendant – Appellant UCI

The defendants are appealing a summary judgment order by Judge Laura Cordero on October 31, 2018 [2], and an unprecedented (and for many champions of the First Amendment, outrageous) Remedies Judgement issued by Judge Jennifer Anderson on December 12, 2020. Anderson’s controversial ruling leveled extreme punishments on the defendants, which included fines totaling over $500,000,000 being levied on the board directors! By her ruling, the UCI board is to be reconstituted with the participation of the plaintiff, FFWPU. [3] This ruling would be an unprecedented reordering of a religious non-profit board. To come to this conclusion, in spite of all parties being involved in a highly contested religious schism, the Plaintiffs and the Court have tried to ignore or dismiss all questions of faith and religion. They have done so by applying the theory of “Neutral Principles” to aspects of the case where it did not properly apply.

Those seeking to know the truth about the UCI court case must examine the proceedings of the court very closely, all the while keeping a close eye on the Constitution and First Amendment for guidance. Truth seekers must also understand in detail, the development and nature of the underlying Unification Movement Religious Schism.

Controversial Application of “Neutral Principles” to Bypass the First Amendment

The FFWPU response brief does nothing to relieve the fears of religious freedom supporters that the First Amendment has been egregiously violated by the court in this case. Although the case sprang from an ongoing, hotly contested religious schism within the Unification Movement of the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the judge and plaintiffs have declared that so-called “neutral principles” can be applied to the case; which supposedly then completely avoids conflict with the First Amendment. Because the Unification religious schism involves questions of leadership, structure, and polity-all of which are entangled in the UCI case- many were rightfully skeptical that such an act could be pulled off. And, according to two amici curiae (friends of the court) briefs-one submitted jointly by the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty [4] and the other by a concerned group of 10 renowned scholars [5] of religious freedom- the skepticism was well justified. They have unanimously stated that it is a violation of the First Amendment for courts to interfere in religious issues and are advising that this case be dismissed on “Religious Abstention” grounds. (It is telling that early in the “UCI case”, the case was dismissed on those very grounds. [6] It was on appeal by FFWPU that the case was remanded back to the DC Superior Court where it has festered for another eight years.)

In layman’s terms, the “Neutral Principles” rule premises that a court should apply decisions grounded in rules found in law—not rules based on personal beliefs or interests. In the present case, the court reasoned that there are certain generic principles and responsibilities involved in the running of a board. These responsibilities supposedly are “neutral” and have nothing to do with religious questions. Potentially any religious board can be considered by the court as if it were a business board that has nothing to do with faith. The “Neutral Principles” rule allows judges to make evaluations and judgments of decisions made by a given board, years or even decades after those decisions were made, without regard to the elements of faith that would naturally affect such decisions. For example, a volunteer board director, such as one on the UCI board, is serving there first of all because he/she is a faith believer in the religious non-profit, its spiritual leadership and so on. Considerations of theology, proper spiritual leadership, etc. are naturally going to be brought into play in his/her mind when the board director makes any important decision regarding the organization. Even though the board’s decision will naturally result in concrete, mostly financial, results that MIGHT look exactly like a business board’s decision, it is those invisible matters of faith that the First Amendment was designed by the Framers to protect. Well-established First Amendment legal precedent makes it clear that no court can consider any case where disputed religious aspects are at the center of the argument. Clearly, in the UCI case, all of the disputed elements of the Unification religious schism–theological questions, legitimate leadership questions, structural questions, etc –- were long ago brought into the management decisions of UCI. How can the judges avoid stepping all over the First Amendment prohibitions regarding religious disputes in this case? There is a certain air of judicial arrogance involved on the judges’ part in making this decision. That arrogance is matched by the plaintiffs, as seen on page 69 of their response brief where they state, “The plaintiffs are in the shoes of the Prosecutor”. [7] In truth, the judges cannot and did not avoid violating the First Amendment. They have done so until now simply by improperly applying “Neutral Principles” rule in a case where it does not fit—because this case clearly involves religious disputes. It is no wonder that the appeal of the Superior Court’s draconian Remedies Judgement has drawn the attention and support of a growing legion of First Amendment advocates.

FFWPU’S False Narrative

The plaintiffs’ false narrative, tragically adopted wholesale by the court, focuses on Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon as the culprit; as the “bad guy”. He is presented by the plaintiffs as a disgruntled, jealous, greedy son who became so upset when his leadership roles were turned over to his younger brother that he decided to steal UCI away and use its assets nefariously for his own “purposes”. Though it is never explained by the plaintiffs or judges, these “purposes” of Dr. Moon are somehow also “wrong” and of no positive value or worth. Two of the projects that UCI supported with donations- Global Peace Foundation (GPF) and the Kingdom Investments Foundation (KIF) are two major “purposes” that the plaintiffs deemed unworthy, because the plaintiffs claim that these are not part of “the Unification Church”. The UCI response destroys the plaintiffs’ argument by pointing out that 1.These two projects are very much part of the Movement and are in line with the general purpose of the Unification Movement to “promote world peace and harmony” and 2. The great majority of the recipients of donations from UCI all throughout its existence, have been entities like a newspaper, a ballet company, soccer teams, etc. all of which obviously were not part of the FFWPU itself, but were part of the larger Movement. [8] The false narrative continues that the UCI board directors, are either related in some way with Dr. Moon, OR even more sinister, they were shown to “have worked closely” with him for some time! At any rate, they were all under his “sway”. They therefore voted for supporting proposed projects, not from their conscience, but because of the “sway” Dr. Moon had over them. The court never even attempts to explain how the plaintiffs or the court itself can delve into the minds of the directors to know what their consciences were telling them as they voted. But since the magical “Neutral Principles” are being applied, the court can avoid any consideration of religious belief or conscience on the part of the defendants. That this avoidance by the court infringes on First Amendment protections has been given no real consideration to this point by the parade of Superior Court judges. Hope remains that the appellate judges will have greater regard for the Constitution.

The UCI response brief shows clearly the nonsense of the Plaintiffs’ argument: They are left to insist the Directors abandoned a Church that Plaintiffs mention 167 times in their brief but whose structure they refuse to define, whose leader they refuse to name, and whose theology they refuse to describe. And they (like the court below) implausibly divine that conclusion from a bare, undefined reference to “the Unification Church” in UCI’s 1980 articles, even though no legal entity with that name existed then or now. [9]

The falseness of the plaintiffs’ narrative is also obvious to anyone who either knows Dr. Hyun Jin Moon, or who bothered to check the voluminous collection of facts about him that were presented by the defense. Dr. Moon, like his father before him, has led a very public and dedicated life. As a middle schooler, he showed an amazing ability to give powerful sermons and public speeches. As an adult, he is renowned worldwide as a public speaker, often speaking many times to crowds of tens of thousands, as he did in 2008 to 30,000 at the U.S. Capitol. In middle school, he captained the school’s football team. From 14, he often captained a crew of adults on quite dangerous deep-sea tuna fishing boats.

While still in high school, he began training in equestrian competitions that led to his being an Olympic athlete. Dr. Moon performed on the Korea Olympic Equestrian teams in both1988 in Seoul and 1992 in Barcelona. He graduated from both Columbia University (degree in History) and the prestigious Harvard Business School (degree in Business). He also graduated from the Unification Theological Seminary as the valedictorian of his class with a Master of Religious Education degree. Dr. Moon was recognized by the magazine Inc. as having led one of the nation’s fastest growing businesses. He has successfully led numerous international non-profit organizations, founding several. A greatly admired family man, Dr. Moon married at the age of 18 and is the father of nine children and grandfather to six. (Three of his sons have attended the West Point United States Military Academy).

But out of all his myriad of accomplishments and roles, Dr. Moon, also like his father, is best known and trusted internationally, to hundreds of thousands as a spiritual leader….as the spiritual leader of the Unification Movement. It is this critical role that the Plaintiffs and the court have been so desperate to either downplay or ignore in the UCI case.

Plaintiffs and Court Willfully Ignore the Spiritual Leadership Role of the “Chief Defendant”, Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon

Along with ignoring First Amendment protections basically by just stating that they are not needed under the “Neutral Principles” rule, the plaintiffs and court continue to do their utmost to dismiss or ignore this central matter of the UCI case: the spiritual leadership role of Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon. Dr. Moon is labelled as the “chief defendant” in the UCI case. The plaintiffs made a point of making sure that his name was included in the official title of the case. From the beginning of the Unification Schism, Dr. Moon was and continues to be the central target of FFWPU and the other plaintiffs. Revealing the plaintiffs’ targeted animosity toward him is the disturbing fact that the UCI case is just one of 30 court cases on three continents against Dr. Moon and/or his associates by this same set of plaintiffs (or by individuals or organizations closely allied with them). The plaintiffs throughout the UCI case and in their response brief here make it very clear that Dr. Moon is always the main target of their venomous accusations and false charges.

As much as they wanted to make sure that he was marked as the “chief defendant”, they have been just as determined to dismiss the clear fact that Reverend Moon appointed him as his heir in 1998; at the same time that he installed Dr. Moon as an international leader of FFWPU. Reverend Moon soon after famously announced that all Unification Movement members and leaders up to 48 years old (the vast majority of members) were henceforth under Dr. Moon’s direct leadership. He went on to proclaim that Dr. Moon was appointed to the providential role of “Fourth Adam”. This appointment means that Dr. Moon holds spiritual authority over , not just all of the foundation that Reverend Moon had built, but also all of the providential responsibilities that Reverend Moon’s mission entailed, including the spiritual moral authority to lead the entire Unification Movement. These responsibilities included completion of the restoration of the first Adam’s family. (The Bible explains how the first Adam’s family was lost to God with the fall of the first Adam and his wife, Eve.) Reverend Moon taught that since the fall of the first Adam, there have been only three others given this title and tremendous responsibility….Jesus is called the Second Adam in the Bible, Reverend Moon received the same mission from Jesus at the age of 16 and is known by all Unification Movement members as the “Third Adam”. Then, Dr. Hyun Jin Moon was appointed and anointed as the “Fourth Adam” by Reverend Moon in 1998.

Being the Fourth Adam meant that Dr. Moon took responsibility to take up and complete all central efforts and projects that had been initiated by his father. It also meant that Dr. Moon held the same spiritual authority within the Unification Movement as his father. Therein lies the central reason for the plaintiffs wanting to dismiss or ignore Dr. Moon’s spiritual leadership role. The UCI response brief states: Nowhere do UCI’s articles require Rev. Moon’s support for donations; his support matters only insofar as he was the Church’s spiritual leader. But that is precisely why the succession issue cannot be avoided: As the Fourth Adam, Dr. Moon is the spiritual leader of the Church; his support imbues GPF and KIF with the same legitimacy that Rev. Moon once bestowed on the Washington Times, Universal Ballet, etc. [10] One can see that this religious question…of Dr. Moon’s authority and spiritual leadership over the entire Unification Movement, including UCI, must be answered when considering the actions of any board that he is directing. By the first amendment, it just can never be answered by a court! It can legally only be answered by the members of the faith group in question in this case, the Unification Movement.

In spite of the all-out attacks against him, Dr. Moon has never relinquished his spiritual mission as Fourth Adam nor the responsibilities that go with it. Subsequently for example, he took the leadership role in the reunification of Korea effort- a task very dear to Reverend Moon’s heart and to all true Unification Movement members worldwide. For that purpose, Dr. Moon authored and published the best-selling inspirational book, Korean Dream, in 2014 and with that guiding vision, inspired the development of the largest grass-roots movement for reunification in Korea’s history. [11] That vital reunification movement continues to develop rapidly.

Another project dear to Reverend Moon and considered as “providential” by Unification members worldwide was the “Y22” project in Seoul. The project was envisioned by Reverend Moon to be two adjacent business office towers that would form an unprecedented positive influence on the entire economy of South Korea. The then sitting president of South Korea had enthusiastically endorsed the project and stated as much. As the UCI response succinctly states: “…the Y22 project was Rev. Moon’s life-long dream, and he tasked Dr. Moon to get it done.” And Dr. Moon did “get it done”. [12]

The successful completion of the amazing Y22 project was accomplished while Dr. Moon was under the suffocating attack engendered by the cabal consisting of Hak Ja Han, unprincipled Unification Movement clerics, and a few of his siblings. UCI had always been the source of funding for major “providential” projects. Billions of dollars had gone to The Washington Times through UCI, for example. It was a natural and not unusual procedure to shift funds out of UCI to enable a much larger project to be completed for the sake of the Unification Movement. With that shift of funds, a great good was accomplished. All Unification members certainly know how important this project was to Reverend Moon and to Heaven. Yet, the FFWPU, buttressed by the judges’ wholesale acceptance of the plaintiffs’ false narrative, has tried to relegate this giant achievement to being “unauthorized” and therefore unworthy. The plaintiffs and court say that UCI was “damaged” by the amount of money transferred to KIF that was used for Y22. On the contrary, the board directors and tens of thousands of Unification Movement members undoubtedly feel that this was a crowning achievement of UCI! (By the way, the funds for the project in question were brought into UCI by Dr. Moon in the first place.)

By ignoring Dr. Moon’s role of spiritual leadership as the “Fourth Adam”, the court fails to grasp the religious nature of the board’s decision to fund this “providential” project. The court cannot see the bigger picture of the religious nature of such a decision. These decisions are not the result of a greedy, small-minded, resentful view on Dr. Moon’s (or the UCI board’s) part. Rather, a decision like the one for Y22 is a heroic, far-sighted, brilliant, religiously inspired decision that resulted in a great accomplishment for Heaven’s purpose. This effort is completely in line with the purpose Reverend Moon had for UCI when he created it. The directors should be applauded, not punished.

Of course, the court, having swallowed the false narrative “hook, line and sinker” has ruled following the opposite and completely wrong view. The amount of funds donated by UCI to KIF that made Y22 possible has now been added to other fines imposed on the UCI board directors, bringing the total of fines imposed on the volunteer directors to over $500,000,000! No less than startling is the glaring fact that the cabal’s opposition to the Y22 project included a long court case that was fought all the way to the Supreme Court of South Korea. The FFWPU lost at every level in that shameful legal process, yet they fanatically carried on the case despite the costs of many millions of donated dollars. Initiating that case caused the Y22 project to be immediately shut down for years after reaching 25% completion! This is just one of the devastating episodes from the Unification religious schism. Quite disturbing is the truth that the facts of this maddening saga have been kept from most members of FFWPU by its corrupt leadership. FFWPU’s members are continuously solicited for more and more donations, while FFWPU continues its scurrilous attacks on Dr. Moon and the good works he is leading.

It is undeniable that Dr. Moon has held the most significant providential spiritual leadership role of “Fourth Adam” since 1998. The Unification Schism was initiated by Mrs. Hak Ja Han, unscrupulous clerics, and a few of Dr. Moon’s ambitious siblings in their vain attempt to wrest this position from him. Those in the Unification Movement that remained faithful to Reverend Moon’s direction, have always recognized Dr. Moon’s position as the Fourth Adam ever since 1998. Others follow either Mrs. Han or the discredited younger brother, Sean Moon. Thus the Unification Religious Schism has splintered the Unification Movement, which under Reverend Moon had the spirit of a united, loving international and interracial family. Alien to that family spirit, culture and history have been FFWPU’s misguided reliance on secular courts around the world to address key providential issues. Reverend Moon was wrongly imprisoned six times in four different countries by secular courts. More importantly to him however was the spiritual principle, expressed in the Bible, that the secular courtroom is no place for important providential decisions to be made or for disputes “with your brother” to be resolved. This is a principle that sadly FFWPU discarded long ago- to the detriment of all.

The “Inside Story” of How the Unification Religious Schism Developed

It is ironic that, although all Unification Movement members have seen the effects of the religious schism within their faith, most have not known the actual origin of all that conflict and division until now. The UCI court case is providing them an opportunity to understand precisely the deeds of each central “player” in the development of the conflict. The more we learn about the UCI case and its underlying Unification Religious Schism, the more evident it becomes that a great injustice is being perpetrated against Dr. Moon, his co-defendants, the entire Unification Movement, the court system, and indeed, God’s providence.

As has been stated in a previous commentary, the Unification Religious Schism began with a break between Reverend Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han. In his later years, Reverend Moon often chastised Hak Ja Han publicly and spoke on numerous occasions about how difficult it was for him “to raise up” his wife. (Most, if not all, of those comments, have been deleted in recent years from the public record by Hak Ja Han’s direction). [13] Hak Ja Han was 16 years old when she married the 40 years old Reverend Moon in 1960. She faithfully supported her husband, giving birth to 14 children. However, unfortunately for many years, Reverend Moon had expressed disappointment about her disunity with him. Understandably, the membership around the world was shocked when the rift between them led to Reverend Moon, in the last year of his life, stating bluntly in the middle of his prepared speech to over 10,000 in Korea in 2012, “Reverend Moon has no wife. Mother does whatever she wants to do!” [14] This pronouncement, captured on video, was directly contrary to the 50 years old perception of Reverend and Mrs. Moon as the completely united couple known to the Unification Movement as “True Parents”. One can only imagine how desperate Reverend Moon must have been in order for him to let his faithful know the truth of his marital relationship in such a way just months before his passing. Whether one could believe Reverend Moon’s pronouncement at that time or not, it has been Hak Ja Han’s own actions since then that have proven that she separated from Reverend Moon’s vision and mission.

Years before this revealing pronouncement by Reverend Moon, Hak Ja Han had decided that she could no longer follow the vision and plans of Reverend Moon; especially when it came to the essential matter of succession. For whatever set of reasons, she began to believe that she, not Reverend Moon, was the real messianic figure for the age. (She now spells this out in her Only Begotten Daughter [OBD] theology which teaches that it was Reverend Moon being elevated by her through their marriage, not vice versa; that the last 2,000 years of Christian history were preparation for her coming, etc.) [15] For her, it became an obsession that she, not her son, Dr. Hyun Jin Moon become the leader of the Unification Movement upon Reverend Moon’s passing. Her immediate problem was that Dr. Moon had already been anointed as the Fourth Adam by her husband in 1998. But there were other problems presented by Reverend Moon’s teachings that were equally challenging.

For instance, Reverend Moon had always taught that it was critical in the process of humankind’s restoration that three generations of the ideal family be united on God’s side, with God Himself representing the first generation. Then, through Father/Son cooperation in unity with God, the second and third generations could be represented by Reverend Moon and his son. Reverend Moon called this the “Three Great Kingships” and included it in the “Family Pledge” which all Unification Blessed Families still recite frequently and strive to fulfill. In his speech on the day of Dr. Moon’s appointment to be the Fourth Adam, Reverend Moon stated how happy God was that finally, “on this day”, the three generations on Heaven’s side were victorious! [16] It was made abundantly clear by Reverend Moon, over and over again, that the messianic mantle must be passed to a son from the next generation of his family, not to his wife. Undeterred by such considerations, Hak Ja Han began to assemble the cabal that would strive to destroy Dr. Hyun Jin Moon through combining a personal smear campaign within the Movement, with an incessant legal campaign that so far has led to 30 court cases on three continents.

As soon as he was appointed to be the international vice-president of FFWPU and simultaneously, as its overall spiritual leader (Fourth Adam), Dr. Moon had invested 100% effort into building the international and interreligious movement, centered on world peace organizations, which represented the culmination of Reverend Moon’s lifework. Reverend Moon, at FFWPU’s founding, had announced the “End of the Church Era”, and called for a “family and member-led” movement to replace the old “leader-led” hierarchical institution of the Unification Church. A number of highly placed church leaders (hereafter “clerics”) who had enjoyed the power and privilege of being near the top of church leadership, opposed this dramatic change. Though they gave “lip service” approval to the change when in front of the aging Founder, in practice they opposed the new development in every way that they could. This led them to view Dr. Moon, the “on the ground” leader of FFWPU, as their number one opponent. Hak Ja Han thus found them to be very willing allies in her campaign to oust Dr. Moon. Some notables among the clerics include: 1. Chang Shik Yang, a former North American Continental Director of the church. Yang infamously penned a completely false “Spirit World Message” that directed all of Dr. Moon’s leadership roles to be turned over to his younger brother, Sean. Yang told Reverend Moon the lie that the message had come from his recently deceased son, Hyo Jin Moon. He later confessed to writing it himself, but only after the damage purposed by it was accomplished. [17] 2. Peter Kim, the person who was overall responsible for many years for looking after all of the Moon children. He was elevated suddenly by Hak Ja Han to be the number one leader outside of the Moon family. She stated, “Peter Kim is above all organizations”. In that exalted position, Peter Kim helped lead the international attack against Dr. Moon, denouncing him in front of a number of international leadership meetings, etc. [18] His wife, Phyllis, led the national tour across the USA [19] that labeled Dr. Moon as “Fallen Adam”. In the last years of Reverend Moon’s life, Peter Kim was the main “gate-keeper” to Reverend Moon, ensuring that neither Dr. Moon nor anyone in support of him, could see Reverend Moon in person. 3. Douglas Joo, former Director of UCI, former Chairman of The Washington Times, and former President of Washington Times Aviation (WTA) played a major role in undermining Dr. Moon in numerous ways. After being fired as President of WTA by Dr. Moon, Joo illegally transferred $21 million dollars from the WTA account, faked some “loan” papers, sending the money to Korea to be given to the Mission Foundation where it could be used by the cabal against Dr. Moon. Fortunately, this illegal absconding of funds from WTA was stopped by the Korean government and the plan fell apart. Because of the illegal absconding of such a large sum, WTA, by U.S. law, was forced to take Joo and the World Mission Foundation to court, in order to retrieve the funds. Because Hak Ja Han was placed in the position of Chairperson of the Mission Foundation, her name appeared on the lawsuit. [20] The cabal then promoted widely to the Unification members that “A son (Dr. Moon) is suing his mother!” without providing the needed details. In this way, they could use their own nefarious deed to further smear Dr. Moon. These are just a few of many examples of the clerics’ outrageous and unrighteous deeds in helping Hak Ja Han internationally to destroy Dr. Moon’s personal reputation and leadership role.

The third component of Hak Ja Han’s cabal was a trinity of her other grown children-In Jin Tatiana, Kook Jin Justin and Hyung Jin Sean, who had their own ambitions and, as would become evident, their own bitter jealousies toward Dr. Moon. First, Hak Ja Han had to engineer the elevation of the three siblings in her cabal to high positions within the Movement; positions from which they could challenge Dr. Moon’s leadership and authority. In this task, she often gave directions without Reverend Moon’s knowledge.

In 2005, Hak Ja Han secured for Justin Moon the leadership of the Korea Foundation, an important non-profit that received and dispersed funds donated primarily from Japan Unification Church, which has always been the Movement’s greatest source of funding. From that position, Justin Moon refused to cooperate with or acknowledge the overall leadership of Dr. Moon, initiating a number of lawsuits and eventually cutting off all funding to UCI. Justin became an important ally for Hak Ja Han’s campaign against Dr. Moon.

The second sibling, In Jin Tatiana Moon, against Reverend Moon’s express directive, moved away from the Moon home in New York and took her family to Boston around 1998. For ten years, she had nothing to do with any organization of the Unification Movement. Suddenly, in 2008, Hak Ja Han persuaded Reverend Moon to give Tatiana a leadership position. Records show that Tatiana was given the role of a pastor to the U.S. movement by Reverend Moon. However, with Hak Ja Han’s support, Tatiana claimed to be the CEO, or overall leader to the U.S. (then later expanded that to all of North America, and then even to the entire Western Hemisphere) which of course conflicted directly with Dr. Moon’s leadership role. Here, the corrupt clerics played a key role in propping up Tatiana’s sudden claims to ever-widening leadership. She made an attempt to take over the church’s (HSA-UWC) board, then with Hak Ja Han and the clerics’ support, convinced the 88 years old Reverend Moon that it was not her, but Dr. Moon who changed the board without consulting with the Founder. [21] Tatiana changed the name of the church in the USA to “Loving Life Ministries” and imposed her own personality cult upon the USA Movement, not allowing any sermons to be heard except her own throughout the nation. Throughout her time of leadership, she led an all-out assault on Dr. Moon’s character, even organizing the national tour where he was denounced as being “Fallen Adam”, etc. Her leadership ended when she delivered a baby from a long-running extramarital affair that had begun well before her ascension in leadership roles. Her first husband, James Park, who from the start was well aware of Tatiana’s affair, had assisted her in pulling off the entire scam on the Unification Movement. Tatiana then married her new husband, ignoring her wedding vows from many years before.

The third sibling recruited by Hak Ja Han was the youngest son, Hyung Jin Sean Moon. Hak Ja Han’s elevation of Sean as a great spiritual leader and then her eventual total expulsion and repudiation of him is a peculiar story. Hak Ja Han first had Sean elevated to being the pastor of a prominent Unification church in Korea. It was reported to Reverend Moon and throughout the Movement that Sean was such a great spiritual leader that his church was growing by leaps and bounds. Many new members were suddenly joining there….a virtual Pentecost was happening! (However, the real truth came out later. The way that Sean’s church had grown so suddenly was because Hak Ja Han had the national leadership in Korea close down all the surrounding churches around Sean’s church. So, in effect, the members from a number of churches had no choice but to attend Sean’s church- a complete fraud on Reverend Moon and the Movement!) Soon, from that one church’s leadership, Hak Ja Han had Sean elevated to being the National Director of the entire Unification Movement of Korea. Soon after that, in the real coup that Hak Ja Han desired, Sean was made the international president of FFWPU in a hastily arranged small ceremony. While in the role of FFWPU president, Sean attended a special ceremony by Reverend Moon of the “Coronation of God”, in which Reverend and Mrs. Moon, and Sean and his wife, all wore crowns and robes. In his speech for that ceremony, Reverend Moon spoke of God’s coronation, but nothing about Sean being “crowned”. [22] However, Hak Ja Han and Sean claimed afterward that he had been crowned as the heir to Reverend Moon in that ceremony. To this day, Sean calls himself the “Second King”. With such a preposterous charade, Hak Ja Han tried to usurp the providential position of Fourth Adam from Dr. Moon! Both Sean and Justin were in their high positions when their names were included as named plaintiffs in the filing of the UCI lawsuit.

However, after three years of Sean being the FFWPU international president and supposed heir, Reverend Moon passed away in 2012. Hak Ja Han was now forced to get rid of Sean, or she would have to compete with him for leadership of the part of the Unification Movement that had stayed in submission to them both. So, Hak Ja Han unceremoniously fired both Sean and Justin and expelled them from the Movement. Sean, who had promoted the divinization of Hak Ja Han as the “Only Begotten Daughter” of God [23] while attacking his older brother, Dr. Moon, now could not find enough vile things to say about her. [24] A rather small group of members left with Sean and Justin and created the “Sanctuary Church” which is a survivalist type fringe group that requires members to own AR-15s and other assault-type weapons. [25]

CONCLUSION

It is apparent that the Superior Court of Washington, DC has made egregious errors in its handling of the “UCI court case” and in its subsequent rulings. As a growing litany of voices is expressing…..the First Amendment has been seriously violated in this case. The court should have followed its original opinion and never have gotten involved in a dispute obviously based on religious issues. The UCI final brief encapsulates this best: “Entities like UCI must therefore do their best to advance what they believeto be the Church’s true mission. Plaintiffs want the judiciary to swoop in and bless theirvision, deciding the Movement’s future by fiat. But there is no role for courts in thisprocess; a decade of litigation has only caused tremendous confusion and expense forthe Movement. The Unification faithful must be left to sort this out themselves.” [26]

In addition to sorting out the court case, the “Unification faithful” have also the responsibility to come to the right conclusion regarding the ongoing Schism within the Movement. Sufficient time and events have passed for the hearts and spirits of each of the three “factions” to be seen clearly. An important question arises from the ashes of this tragic saga: “Who has, and who has not changed their stand, their vision, their principles or their identity from the beginning to the end of this sad Schism? The “Inside Story” above presented details of how the Schism developed that perhaps many have never seen before. Right To Believe urges everyone to read, re-read and then contemplate seriously about how this Schism should be brought to an end.

^[1] YouTube video, D.C. Court of Appeals, Live Oral Arguments of case Family Federation for World Peace and Unification et al v Hyun Jin Moon et al, June 17, 2021

^[2] Omnibus Order on Motions for Summary Judgment, Case No. 2011 CA 003721 B, D.C. Superior Court, Judge Laura A. Cordero, October 30, 2018

^[3] Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Remedies for the Individual Defendants’ Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Case No. 211 CA 003721 B, D.C. Superior Court, Judge Jennifer M. Anderson, December 3, 2020

^[4] Brief Amicus Curiae of The Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty and The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in support of Defendants-Appellants and Reversal, March 29, 2021

^[5] Brief Amici Curiae For Professors Elizabeth A. Clarke, Robert F. Cochran, Jr., Teresa Collett, Carl H. Esbeck, Richard W. Garnett, John D. Inazu, Douglas Laycock, Michael P. Moreland, Robert J. Pushaw, And David A. Skeel In Support Of Defendants-Appellant, March 29, 2021

^[6] Order, D.C. Superior Court, Judge Anita Josey-Herring, December 19, 2013

^[7] Brief of Appellees, Case Nos. 20-CV-714 and 20-CV-715, D.C. Court of Appeals, April 22, 2021

^[8] Reply Brief of Defendant-Appellant UCI, Case Nos. 20-CV-715 and 20-CV-715, D.C. Court of Appeals, May 5, 2021

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Ibid.

^[11] Korean Dream: A Vision for a Unified Korea, Centennial Edition, Hyun Jin Preston Moon, Morgan James Publishing (March 31, 2020)

^[12] Reply Brief of Defendant-Appellant UCI, Case Nos. 20-CV-715 and 20-CV-715, D.C. Court of Appeals, May 5, 2021