Rally Statement Advocating the Resignation of Chairman Kook Jin Moon
and a Solution to the Parc1 Crisis
April 17, 2012 - Seoul, Korea
We determine and declare the following on the occasion of the Rally Advocating the Resignation of Chairman Kook Jin Moon and a Solution to the Parc1 Crisis.
We have come to a point in the internal church battle, so-called “Battle of the Princes of the Unification Church” as it is known in the outside world, where we can no longer allow the situation to worsen. Not only has this situation shaken our members’ faith, but billions of won of church donations have been wasted each year in all kinds of meaningless lawsuits. God’s providence is nowhere to be seen and the status of the Unification Church and True Parents, which was built upon the sacrifice of our members for a long time, is being demolished.
Many conscientious Blessed Families of the Unification Movement have been calling for an awakening and have asked the church leadership to make efforts to resolve the situation many times. However, rather than listening to these opinions and righteous actions, the church considered them an act of betrayal and treason against the church. And the church even engaged in character assassination of these Blessed Family members.
We can no longer stand by watching as the Unification Church goes down the path of destruction. Therefore, we declare that Blessed Families of the Unification Church who share God’s will should take initiative in restoring the authority of True Parents and restoring the status of the Unification Church.
We point out that the cause of the confusion in the Unification Church originates from chairman Kook Jin Moon’s inept administration of the Foundation and the irresponsible leadership of Unification Church international president Hyung Jin Moon. After Kook Jin Moon was appointed as chairman of the Unification Church Foundation in 2005, he and president Hyung Jin Moon have controlled the church almost as dictators and they have completely demolished the foundation of the international Unification Movement that Rev. Sun Myung Moon had established. He minimized the once inclusive inter-religious peace movement that was the Unification Movement into a Unification Church-centric close-minded activity; he even proposed not witnessing to poor people, but only to rich people. He has branded his older brother and other Unification Church elder members “thieves” and even called them “Satan” to remove them from the church structure; and he has forced pastors to do loyalty pledges in front of cameras and ruthlessly fired anyone that doesn’t follow the Foundation’s policies.
Especially, chairman Kook Jin Moon has been pouring in millions and millions of dollars every year to initiate many small and big lawsuits which stirred a lot of social controversy. When a poor elder pastor who dedicated his entire life to the Unification Church pointed out the issue regarding lawsuits to him, chairman Kook Jin Moon hired a top law firm to sue the pastor for defamation. In Brazil, it seems that upon the urging of the Unification Church headquarters, the president of the Unification Church in Brazil filed criminal charges against Hyun Jin Moon. Some 1 billion won was sent to Brazil from the Japanese Unification Church with the pretext that it would be used for missionary work purposes, but it was actually used to file the criminal lawsuit. They have initiated an unreasonable lawsuit to cancel the development of the Parc1 project in Yeouido which was legally done through contracts. Currently they have lost in the first hearing of the Yeouido Parc1 case and are being asked to pay 45.1 billion won in damages, and it is very likely they will lose in the second hearing as well.
At a recent event where many elder Unification Church pastors were invited, Mr. Joon Soo Yang, representative of the “Unification Church Believers Committee” who works as the Unification Church Foundation’s informant, said that the Unification Church Foundation has a very high possibility of losing in the second hearing of the Parc1 lawsuit. He said that the only thing they can do and their current strategy is to drag the lawsuit on for as long as possible to make the defendant, Y22, go bankrupt. With his own words he demonstrates how thoughtless the actions of the Unification Church Foundation are.
On the other hand, rather than try to solve the situation International president Hyung Jin Moon has left the church empty for over 1 year and has basically passed everything onto chairman Kook Jin Moon. He degrades our members as sinners and he deifies Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon who had to set so many conditions despite all sorts of human limitations.
At such a time, the elders of the Unification Church should be the ones at the forefront who correct the situation in the Foundation and the Church, but they remain silent for fear of being publicly judged. Pastors in the Unification Church fear being dismissed and are demanding blind obedience from the members. There was a time when the Unification Church was persecuted for being a sect, but yet many young people came because of the vision. Nowadays it is hard to see the faces of any new young people at the church and even the Second Generation are refraining from going to church because of the disgusting things they see and hear.
We declare this an emergency situation in the Unification Church. We, who have served True Parents and dedicated ourselves to God’s Providence through the Unification Church for decades, can no longer permit the disgrace being done to True Parents and we do not want to pass down to our descendants this embarrassing image of the Unification Church as it is today.
We call to all conscientious members of the Unification Church to stand up to participate in reforming and setting straight the incorrect culture among our Unification Movement’s leadership. We urge you to raise your voices regarding incorrect policies in the church and move forwards with an unyielding movement.
Even if the church uses True Parents declaration and demands our submission we will not give up on our sense of justice and conscience, and we will not surrender our commitment and love towards God’s will. The stronger the persecution becomes we will stand again more resolute than ever for the liberation of God, True Parents and the Blessed Families.
With this letter that includes our plea and our determination, we declare the following to the entire Unification Movement around the world.
1. Chairman Kook Jin Moon should take responsibility for this entire crisis and has to voluntarily resign.
2. Unification Church International President Hyung Jin Moon must personally take action to resolve this crisis.
3. The leadership of the Unification Church should no longer shame the name of True Parents.
4. The Unification Church Foundation should immediately stop the Parc1 lawsuit that is bringing everything to destruction.
April 17, 2012
Participants of the Rally Advocating the Resignation of Chairman Kook Jin Moon and a Solution to the Parc1 Crisis
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Latest News
“Call for Resignation of Tongil Foundation Chairman Kook Jin Moon & Call to Resolve the Parc1 Crisis”
- On April 17 (Tue), members hold a rally in front of the Unification Church Foundation in Mapo to take the lead in resolving the division of the Unification Church
- Rally held by the Blessed Families Committee for Crisis Resolution of the Unification Church
- Three major police forces mobilized
The Blessed Families Committee for Crisis Resolution (Blessed Families Committee) was inaugurated in January to resolve the crisis in the Unification Church. On April 17, the Blessed Families Committee held a rally in front of the Unification Church (Tongil) Foundation building calling for the resignation of chairman Kook Jin Moon and for a solution to the Yeouido Parc1 situation.
Some 200 Blessed Family members from Seoul, Cheonan, Pusan and other provinces attended the rally. Most participants wore suits and one could feel the solemn and serious nature of the event. There was a strong reaction from the press because this rally represented the first time in the history of the Unification Church that members requested the resignation of the Unification Church Foundation’s chairman.
Mr. Sangjin Lee (6000 couples), representative of the Unification Church Member’s Council, was the master of ceremony for the event. Rev. Yong Ahn Kwon, Boon Bong Wang and co-representative of the Unification Church Blessed Families Committee, expressed that, “I never imagined I would raise my voice towards our leadership because of our internal problems.” Rev. Kwon said that even if we are powerless regular members we cannot allow the leaders to destroy the essential value of the faith that we have followed all our lives. He urged leaders not to demolish the monumental work of the Unification Church achieved through the exceptional spiritual guidance of True Parents.
Former board member of the Unification Church Foundation, Sung Hoon Park, started out as a pastor and then worked as a board member in the Foundation for 17 years. He clearly stated that the Yeouido Parc1 project was a project that began with True Parents’ approval. He expressed that he came out to the rally because the current leaders of the Unification Church are convincing members with all kinds of wrongful information and they have blocked channels of communication to the general membership to pass on accurate information. Pastor Park strongly put forth that the church should not pay for the immense legal fees and damages incurred because of the unreasonable lawsuits initiated by chairman Kook Jin Moon. These lawsuits are also not aligned with the Unification Church Foundation’s purpose as stated in its articles of corporation.
An elder member from the church in Pusan, Byung Oh Park, said that as he came to Seoul to attend the rally he was overwhelmed by feelings and lamented the sad reality of the Unification Church today. While asking himself, ‘Do I really want to go this far?’ he also considered that if members had stood strong from the beginning, then the work achieved throughout 60 years of the Unification Movement wouldn’t be falling apart as it is now. He said that when elder members who have been leading a life of faith for more than 20-50 years in the Pusan church saw how the Unification Church Headquarters monitored their respected pastor and suddenly dismissed him, they decided to stop attending church. These members were told by the church leaders they would be given an opportunity to talk with chairman Kook Jin Moon, and they went to the meeting. But at the meeting chairman Kook Jin Moon did not show the willingness to listen to them even for 1 minute, and he told them that they should leave if they don’t want to listen to him.
Shigako Izumiyama who came to Seoul from the church in Yeongi, Choongnam province, said she had to muster her courage to come and speak the truth. She gave a testimony of how the church became a strange place after chairman Kook Jin Moon and international president Hyung Jin Moon took over the Unification Church. She explained that she felt that the things happening under their leadership are very different from True Parents’ words and from God’s providence. As a Japanese wife who moved to Korea only thinking of God’s providence it is a very painful situation that we became an embarrassing organization and no longer can do things in the name of the Unification Church. She expressed that Blessed Families should open their eyes according to their conscience and that now is not the time to think ‘Something will happen’, but ‘How can I make something happen?’
Representative of the Unification Church Blessed Families Committee, Mr. Dong Woon Kim, requested the current Unification Church leadership for the self-resignation of chairman Kook Jin Moon and for an immediate stop to the lawsuit against Parc1. All participants shouted out the requests written in the statement following the direction of the master of ceremony.
The rally counted with the participation of elder members, Japanese members, Second generation and a wide variety of Blessed Family members which included people like Hyun Chul Kim, Boon Bong Wang of New Zealand, who have followed this path of faith for over 50 years. The event ended with a group of representatives from the rally meeting with the Unification Church Foundation’s representative.
The members who participated in this event unanimously expressed that chairman Kook Jin Moon should resign and that the Parc1 crisis—which is like a black hole destroying our church’s resources—has to come to an end quickly for the current situation in our church to be resolved. They stressed that this is not just the opinion of a few, but the desire of many church members around the world.
Executive representative of the Blessed Families Committee Mr. Dong Woon Kim expressed the Committee’s determination that, “We did not come out here from a one-time impulse. The situation at the frontlines is that the Unification Movement and God’s providence are being destroyed. A lot of members are revealing their willingness to participate in this rally. We will continue [with the rallies] until this desire is correctly conveyed to True Parents, and we will continue until chairman Kook Jin Moon along with the current Unification Church leadership who triggered this situation step down voluntarily.”
Pictures from the event
(See the attached document)
President of the Unification Church Member’s Council and master of ceremony for the event, Mr. Sang Jin Lee
Pastor Man Hoe Jung’s opening report prayer
Rev. Yong Ahn Kwon making the group statement
Statement by Unification Church Foundation former board member Sung Hoon Park
Statement by elder member Byung Oh Park from the church of Pusan
Statement by Shigako Izumiyama from Yeongi church in Choongnam province
Reading the statement of resolution by Dong Woon Kim, co-representative of the Blessed Families Committee for Crisis Resolution
Members repeating the words from the statement out loud
Church elders standing in the frontlines
Young member holding a sign asking for the resignation of chairman Kook Jin Moon
View of the rally (sidewalk next to the Mapo Dowon building)
Representative members from the rally meet with representatives of the Unification Church Foundation in the presence of the police
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watcher002 likes this
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explodingthemoons reblogged this from whatisonthemoon and added:
hullabaloo about demoting those shit bag children...such shit bag children
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Linda Feher submitted this to whatisonthemoon
