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Moon lives in baronial splendor with his second wife and eight of his nine children overlooking the Hudson River. In the past few years his church, or its satellite organizations, has invested at least $19 million in California and the New York City area. Latest purchase: Manhattan's Hotel New Yorker, for over $5 million.
Where does the money come from?
Although there have been rumors of large donations from industries in Japan and Korea, this is not the case. But Moon has interests in a number of businesses in many countries, among them South Korea's II Hwa pharmaceutical company, which exports ginseng tea, and Tong II Industries, which manufac tures air rifles. Moon exploits the talent and energy of his hard-core disciples, who go on the streets to sell flowers, candles, peanuts and ginseng tea. Their take is considerable—perhaps $10 million a year, and because his cult is legally a religion, all income is tax free. "They told us that our work bought the Hotel New Yorker," a Moonie street peddler said proudly last week. It is also Moonies who are remodeling the hotel to make it a Unification Church hostel and headquarters.
The Moonies are overeducated for their work. Drawn mostly from middle-class families, many were college students originally attracted to the movement by various idealistic-sounding causes. Fort Worth debutante Cynthia Slaughter was drawn by an ad seeking someone interested in the "betterment of mankind" (see box page 50). Others learn about the movement when they go to discussions of "ecology," "morality," and the spiritual salvation of the U.S.
Once seduced into their weird new world, converts are surrounded always by warm, supportive Brothers and Sisters and are reassured by smiles, friendly pats and handholding (called "love bombing"). Premarital sex, however, is banned, as are drugs, and the moralistic tone of the centers generally attracts those looking for discipline and order. The disciples sleep only five or six hours a day, eat simply and are assigned tasks such as domestic work, proselytizing or selling. In order to peddle their wares they may claim to be helping drug addicts, orphans, anybody—since such lies are merely "heavenly deceit."
Heretics' Insights. The Moonies become infused with the "Divine Principle," Moon's doctrine as spelled out in his book, the movement's bible. Many converts come to believe that Moon is a second Messiah who will exceed Jesus Christ in glory. They also learn Moon's law of indemnity. Both their sins and their ancestors' must be atoned for through nonstop exertion. Many of them turn over their bank accounts to the movement, and willingly cut themselves off from their own families. They honor, even pray to, Moon and his wife, as their "true parents."