Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
A harrowing new Prime Video documentary has shed light on the dark billion-dollar cons, political control, sexual coercion and child abuse that was inflicted on members of the hotly debated Unification Church - nicknamed the 'Moonies'.
Arguably, the most sickening alleged crime committed by the controversial 'cult' was the molestation of the leader's son by his own mother.
Titled The Moonies: Married to the Cult, the stomach-churning, feature-length film homes in on the 1954 founding of the Christian Unification Church in Seoul, South Korea, by Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han.
Advert
Believing himself to be the 'Second Coming of Christ', Moon - who died in 2012, aged 92 - wrote his own version of the Bible, distributing his largely unhinged teachings around the world - most famously to the US and Japan.
Single members inducted into the church were invited to take part in mass marriages, which saw tens of thousands of couples - each dressed in identical garments - exchanging vows in the same room.
For married members, meanwhile, Moon invited them to similar simultaneous ceremonies, which would see them renewing their vows.
Only in recent years would it be revealed that the unique spiritual matchmaking process was actually the guise for a vast collection of controversies - including the alleged widespread sexual abuse of its members.
Sexual abuse
Leading the latest exposé, Sam Pak - the illegitimate child of Moon himself - claimed his father had used the group as a means of satisfying his own sexual appetites, having engaged in orgies with his brainwashed 'disciples'.
"As part of his first Blessing, he slept with all of the women three times, and by doing that, they would be restored. It was known as 'Purification of the Womb'," he told viewers. "Sex was used around very important ceremonies."
On New Year’s Day, in order to inaugurate that spiritual holiday, he slept with six women at the same time."
Sam also alleged that his father would make couples consume 'Holy Wine' during wedding service, which had been laced with his own semen.
"He can’t copulate with every woman to make perfect people, so what can he do?. What makes the wine ‘holy’ is that it contains some of the Rev Moon’s semen. It’s father’s way of sanctifying these couples."
Incest allegations
Another deeply disturbing aspect of the documentary centres on the abuse Sam himself - who'd been told as a child that Moon's right-hand man, Bo Hi Pak, was his father - endured.
"The Unification Church has been nothing but dark masquerading as the light," he told viewers. "It’s about keeping secrets. But I don’t want to pretend any more. There is one major secret that I have kept and I expected to keep to my grave and that regards my mother and our relationship."
With his father ceaselessly busy with official obligations, he recalled a female senior member of the church, known as Auntie Annie, caring for him and his siblings from the age of five.
"She was very kind to me and would bring me toys and candy and I would go to her house and talk about things with her," Sam continued. "When I was 13 I had a dream that was so disturbing I didn’t know what to do with it.
"I dreamed that Reverend Moon came to me and took me in his arms and said, 'You are my son.' Because I was confused, I went to my Aunt Annie and asked her what she thought it was about.
"She looked at me and said, 'It’s true.' And I thought, 'What the f**k? I am the Messiah’s son.'"
Annie supposedly then told Sam that she and Moon were his parents, claiming the religious leader had attempted to marry both she and her sister years earlier, but after the latter backed out, he married another woman.
Despite this, he continued sleeping with Annie on the side, with the two going on to welcome Sam together.
Though Annie had disclosed the secret of Sam's heritage to him, in the years that followed, she began abusing her son.
"By the time I was 15, our relationship was sexually consummated," he said after revealing the abuse began when he was around five-years-old.
"She talked about me and her being sexualised as a providential thing. She believed that my father’s mission had failed. Rev Moon swore before God that Annie was the next True Mother and I am heir apparent to my father."
He added: "She explained that by having sex with her, I was able to prepare myself to become the next True Father. All of this made sense to me at the time. It gave me something to hold onto.
"The last time I saw my mother was a few months ago, at her nursing home and I said to her, 'What possibility do we have to be in a relationship if we don’t heal this in some way? Help me'.
"And she said, 'Many people knew what was going on'. And I said, 'I thought this was our secret'. And she said, 'No'."
Why else were Moonies seen as so controversial?
Before his death, Moon and several senior church members founded, owned and supported related organisations in business, education, and anti-communist politics.
The group also demanded staggering financial contributions from members under the guise of contributing to religious missions and business endeavours, robbing individuals of millions.
The church was also linked to the 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the killer having believed that the politician had ties to the Moonies after making a video appearance at one of their events.
Upon his apprehension, Tetsuya Yamagami claimed that his mother had been financially by Moon's group, after being expected to cough up billions of yen and becoming bankrupt.
Despite an investigation later finding that Abe had no affiliation with the group, it was discovered that a number of conservative ruling-party lawmakers had received donations and electoral support from Moonies directly.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.
Topics: Crime, True Crime, Real Life, True Life, Amazon Prime, Documentaries
Rhianna Benson