Sun Myung Moon

The Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon (born January 6, 1920) is the founder of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, first established as the Unification Church on May 1, 1954, in Seoul, South Korea. With his wife Hak Ja Han, he is co-leader of the Unification Movement. Rev. Moon's followers regard him and his wife as "the True Parents of humankind" and hail him as the Messiah.

Name and forms of address

The Hanja for "Moon" (文), the reverend's surname, means "word" or "truth" in Korean. The character "sun" (?)contains Chinese character for fish. The character "myung" (明), part of his given name, means "bright" or "shining", and is composed of the Chinese characters for sun and moon. Much wordplay has been made of the fact that Sun and Moon are parts of "Sun Myung Moon", although the Korean words carry no connotation similar to the English words they resemble. For example, Evangelical author James Bjornstad entitled his theological critique on Unificationism The Moon is Not the Son, thus asserting that Rev. Moon is no Christ, i.e., not the "son of God".

Related Topics:
Hanja - Surname - Son of God

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Members call Rev. Moon "Father" (short for "True Father"). Some ministers (chiefly Americans of the Baptist faith) who have recently come to associate themselves with the Unification Movement have taken to calling him "Father Moon". Similar titles are used for Mrs. Moon.

Related Topics:
True Father - Unification Movement - Mrs. Moon

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At scientific or other scholarly conferences, the form "Dr. Moon" has been used since Rev. Moon received an honorary doctorate from Shaw Divinity School.

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