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The '''Unification Church''' was founded in 1954 by [[Sun Myung Moon]], a religious minister who was raised in a [[Christian]] household. Moon was originally from northern [[Korea]] and founded ''The [[Washington Times]]'', a conservative newspaper. The church's adherents are known colloquially as "Moonies". The church preaches a universalist doctrine of salvation based on a doctrine called the Unification Principle.<ref>The church's teachings are written in Korean, and were re-translated in 1996 as ''Exposition of the Divine Principle'' [http://www.unification.net/dp96/] </ref> Rev. Moon, calling himself the Lord of the Second Advent, believes he is the new [[messiah]], sent to complete the elimination of evil, the establishment of a perfect society on earth and the cleansing of mankind of [[original sin]].
The '''Unification Church''' was founded in 1954 by [[Sun Myung Moon]], a religious minister who was raised in a [[Christian]] household. Moon was originally from northern [[Korea]] and founded ''The [[Washington Times]]'', a conservative newspaper. The church's adherents are known colloquially as "Moonies". The church preaches a universalist doctrine of salvation based on a doctrine called the Unification Principle.<ref>The church's teachings are written in Korean, and were re-translated in 1996 as ''Exposition of the Divine Principle'' [http://www.unification.net/dp96/] </ref> Rev. Moon, calling himself the Lord of the Second Advent, believes he is the new [[messiah]], sent to complete the elimination of evil, the establishment of a perfect society on earth and the cleansing of mankind of [[original sin]].
==Controversy==
==Mass suicide rumor==
In the aftermath of the [[Jonestown Massacre]], rumors circulated that Unification Church members were of like mind to members of the [[People's Temple]]. However, basic differences include a prohibition on [[suicide]] (classed by the church as a worse sin than [[murder]]), an international base (as opposed to one large, local community); minimal pressure to maintain membership, resulting in a 94% voluntary dropout rate in the years 1975 to 1995, a repudiation of the doctrine of [[Reincarnation]], and an God-centered ideological opposition to [[Marxism]].<ref>The church published ''Communism: A critique and counterproposal'' in the 1970s</ref>
In the aftermath of the [[Jonestown Massacre]], rumors circulated that Unification Church members were of like mind to members of the [[People's Temple]]. However, basic differences include a prohibition on [[suicide]] (classed by the church as a worse sin than [[murder]]), an international base (as opposed to one large, local community); minimal pressure to maintain membership, resulting in a 94% voluntary dropout rate in the years 1975 to 1995, a repudiation of the doctrine of [[Reincarnation]], and an God-centered ideological opposition to [[Marxism]].<ref>The church published ''Communism: A critique and counterproposal'' in the 1970s</ref>
==Anti-semitism charge==
Unificationists deny that they are anti-Semitic, yet the Church has been dogged by charges of [[anti-Semitism]] for many years, and in 1976 the American Jewish Committee published the report "Jews and Judaism in Rev. Moon's Divine Principle", asserting that "every time Rev. Moon mentions Jews or Israelites he portrays them collectively as reprobate, with evil intentions." In 2003 Moon gave a sermon at Arlington, [[Virginia]], describing the death of six million [[Judaism|Jews]] in the [[Holocaust]]: "Through the principle of indemnity Hitler killed 6 million Jews. That is why. God could not prevent Satan from doing that because Israel killed the True Parents."<ref>[http://www.unification.net/news/2003/news20030302_1.html Sermon] 2 March 2003</ref>
==Notes==
==Notes==