Sun Myung Moon
From EvoWiki
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon is the founder and head of the Unification Church. Born in 1920, he claims that he had a vision of Jesus Christ on Easter morning, 1936, in which Jesus Christ told him either "to restore God's perfect kingdom" or that he was "the completer of man's salvation by being the Second Coming of Christ". He claims that he had some other such visions of Moses and the Buddha and so forth, and he ended up founding his church in Pyongyang, North Korea. He got in serious trouble with the Communist regime there, and he eventually set up shop in South Korea, founding the "The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity" in 1954. Not stopping there, he claimed to have further revelations, like his 1957 book Divine Principle, which he claimed was revealed straight to him by Jesus Christ. He considers that book a "third testament" superior to the Bible.
His doctrines are a mishmash of Christianity, Eastern mysticism, anti-Communism, pop psychology, etc. He claims that salvation will come from establishing a perfect family. Adam and Eve tried and failed, Jesus Christ tried and failed, and Rev. Moon claims that he will succeed where his predecessors had failed. He regards himself and his wife Hak Ja Han as the "true parents" of humanity -- all of humanity is to become his "family". With him as its head, of course.
His church runs a variety of businesses and front groups, including the newspaper Washington Times. He is active in financing various right-wing causes; In 1994, he bailed out Jerry Falwell's then-insolvent Liberty University, channeling the money and buying the debt through the front groups "Women�s Federation for World Peace" and "Christian Heritage Foundation". This may be why various religious-right personalities and groups have tended to look the other way at his eccentric theology.
His church has a reputation for autocratic control of its followers, sometimes called "Moonies". They are often recruited in less-than-honest ways through various front groups, a tactic described as "heavenly deception".
Closer to "home", he has supported the efforts of Jonathan Wells to "destroy Darwinism". And given the extent of his funding of similar causes, he and his numerous organizations may be involved in supporting other creationists and creationist organizations.
