Wealthy Korean “cult” president of Family Federation and World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), Hak Ja Han Moon, arrived in the country on Monday ahead of the Peace and Family Festival, and there are some fishy reports claiming that a certain section of the Christian fraternity is organising an emergency morcha.
Reports are that the pastors are seeking an immediate clearance letter from the Zimbabwe Republic Police to rally their flocks to show their displeasure about the presence of Korean religious cleric.
The demonstration is reportedly planned for Tuesday afternoon in Harare.
Moon, a global peace crusader and the surviving spouse of Sun Myung Moon who founded the Unification Church, is in the country to officiate a Peace and Family Festival that will be held on 21 November 2018 at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
President Mnangagwa is expected to officiate the event.
Moon’s arrival in the country has, however, scared the living daylights out of some Zimbabwean clerics who have made it their business to raise national awareness, urging people to bury their heads in the sand on the day of the ceremony.
Commenting on Moon’s presence, GCFIC Ministries Bishop Dave Chikosi founder quizzed why the government would engage a foreign religious entity like the FFWPU with a theological malformation whilst we have different sound ecclesiastical consortiums like ZCC, EFZ and ZCBC.
“So Zimbabwe seeks peace through Hak Ja Han’s FFWPU. Why do we need a foreign religious entity to heal the nation when we have our own Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Council of Churches and Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference? Why is the government ostensibly endorsing a religion (one foreign to majority Zimbabweans)?
Majority of Zimbabweans are Christian. This group is not. Hak Ja Han calls herself the Only Begotten daughter of God. Her late husband Rev Moon claimed to be the 2nd Coming of the Messiah. Zimbabwe Christians believe true peace can only come from the Prince of Peace. Not this outfit,” he said.
On Monday New Zimbabwe Vision had it under its good authority that gospel musicians Minister Michael Mahendere and Janet Manyowa, who were slotted to perform at the fest alongside Oliver Mtukudzi and Hope Masike, had pulled out.
An insider who sits in the entertainment committee of the festival was quoted saying;
“I can confirm that there was panic in the movement over the weekend when Mahendere refused to accept the money offered to him for his scheduled performance at the peace festival. Mahendere allegedly did not know that the event was a non-Christian event since Johannes Ndanga a well known Christian leader was part of the organisers. Things changed when reports came out in the open that Mother actually does not subscribe to conventional Christian doctrines.”
Pastor Sengezo Muchengeti of Christ the King Fellowship who spoke to Bulawayo24 News welcomed the developments, saying they are praying to God that he opens the President’s eyes to see that some tragedies which have befallen the nation lately have been because of these cults he is endorsing.
“I am very happy that after we came out in the open and described this event for what it is; an official cementing of Korean cultism in Zimbabwe, seasoned Christians like Michael Mahendere and Sister Janet have disassociated themselves from this whole thing.
We just pray (that) God open the eyes of VaMnangagwa to see that some of these misfortunes happening in the country are because of these other gods whose alters we are erecting in Zimbabwe.”
Understanding Hak Ja Han Moon’s Religion, The Unification Movement
Founded by a Korean religious leader, businessman and socio-political activist Sun Myung Moon in 1954 in Seoul, South Korea, the Unification Movement or Unification Church (UC) is a worldwide new religious wave officially founded under the name Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC).
Its members are colloquially called “Moonies”.
The movement is a spiritually-based movement of legally independent organisations, including business, educational, political, and other types of organisations.
In 1994 Moon replaced the HSA-UWC with a new organisation, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU).
Beliefs
The Unification movement has received strong criticism and has attracted numerous controversies, including that of being a dangerous cult. Its beliefs have been criticised by both Jewish and Christian scholars.
The movement is among the minority of new religious movements who have introduced their own unique religious texts. Their beliefs are based on Moon’s book Divine Principle, which incorporates Christian teachings but differs on some points including its view of Jesus and its introduction of the concept of “indemnity.”
The Divine Principle or Exposition of the Divine Principle is the main theological textbook and was co-written by Moon and early disciple Hyo Won’eu. It was first published in 1966. A translated version entitled Divine Principle would later be published in English in 1973.
The Divine Principle lays out the core of UC theology and is held by its believers to have the status of Holy Scripture. Following the format of systematic theology, it includes (1) God’s purpose in creating human beings, (2) the fall of man, and (3) restoration – the process through history by which God is working to remove the ill effects of the fall and restore humanity back to the relationship and position that God originally intended.
Unification movement ceremonies include unique funeral and wedding ceremonies.
View of Jesus
Jesus has a great importance in the teachings of the Unification movement although its view of him differs from that of Nicene Christianity. Central to Unification teachings is the concept that fallen humanity can be restored to God only through Jesus the Messiah, who comes as a new Adam to become the new head of the human race, replacing the sinful parents, through whom mankind can be reborn into God’s family.
According to the Divine Principle, Jesus of Nazareth is this Christ.
In 1980 Unification theologian Young Oon Kim wrote:
‘Unification theology teaches that Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. As St. Paul wrote, Jesus was to be the new Adam restoring the lost Garden of Eden. For this purpose he chose twelve apostles, symbolising the original twelve tribes of Israel, and sent out seventy disciples, symbolising all the nations of the world. Like John the Baptist, Jesus proclaimed that the long-awaited Kingdom of Heaven was at hand (Matt. 4:17).
Jesus was appointed God’s earthly representative in order to subjugate Satan, cleanse men of original sin and free them from the power of evil. Christ’s mission involved liberation from sin and raising mankind to the perfection stage. His purpose was to bring about the kingdom of heaven in our world with the help of men filled with divine truth and love. Jesus’ goal was to restore the Garden of Eden, a place of joy and beauty in which true families of perfected parents would dwell with God in a full relationship of reciprocal love.’
The Unification movement view of Jesus, has, over the years, been criticised by mainstream Christian authors and theologians.
In their influential book The Kingdom of the Cults (1965), Walter Ralston Martin and Ravi K. Zacharias disagreed with the Divine Principle on the issues of the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth of Jesus, the Unification Church’s belief that Jesus should have married, the necessity of the crucifixion of Jesus, and a literal resurrection of Jesus and a literal Second Coming.
They add:
“Moon makes all men equal in ‘divinity’ to Jesus, thereby striking a blow at the uniqueness of Christ.”
The Divine Principle responds to this criticism by saying:
‘There is no greater value than that of a person who has realised the ideal of creation. This is the value of Jesus, who surely attained the highest imaginable value. The conventional Christian belief in Jesus’ divinity is well founded because, as a perfect human being, Jesus is totally one with God. To assert that Jesus is none other than a man who has completed the purpose of creation does not degrade the value of Jesus in the least.’
Unificationist theologian Young Oon Kim wrote and some members of the Unification movement believe that Zechariah was the father of Jesus based on the work of, English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition, Leslie Weatherhead.
Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (1994)
On May 1 1994, during the 40th anniversary of the founding of the HSA-UWC, Moon declared that the era of the HSA-UWC had ended and inaugurated a new organisation: the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) would include HSA-UWC members and members of other religious organisations working toward common goals, especially on issues of sexual morality and reconciliation between people of different religions, nations, and races.
The FFWPU co-sponsored Blessing ceremonies in which thousands of couples from other churches and religions were given the marriage blessing previously given only to HSA-UWC members.
In 2000 the FFWPU co-sponsored the Million Family March, a rally in Washington D.C. to celebrate family unity and racial and religious harmony, along with the Nation of Islam. Minister Louis Farrakhan was the main speaker at the event which was held on October 16, 2000; the fifth anniversary of the Million Man March, which was also organised by Farrakhan.
FFWPU leader Dan Fefferman wrote to his colleagues acknowledging that Farrakhan’s and Moon’s views differed on multiple issues but shared a view of a “God-centred family”
In 2003, Korean FFWPU members started a political party in South Korea, “The Party for God, Peace, Unification, and Home.” An inauguration declaration stated the new party would focus on preparing for Korean reunification by educating the public about God and peace. An FFWPU official said that similar political parties would be started in Japan and the United States.
Sad to relate, the Church’s involvement in politics has been heavily criticised.
Since 2003, the FFWPU-related Universal Peace Federation’s Middle East Peace Initiative has been organising group tours of Israel and Palestine to promote understanding, respect, and reconciliation among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
In 2004, at a ceremony on March 23 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, in Washington, D.C., Moon crowned himself with what was called the “Crown of Peace.” Lawmakers who attended included Senator Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), as well as former Representative Walter Fauntroy (D-D.C.).
Key organisers of the event included George Augustus Stallings, Jr., a former Roman Catholic priest who had been married by Moon, and Michael Jenkins, the president of the Unification Church of the United States at that time. Rep. Danny K. Davis played an active role in the ceremony.
On August 15, 2012, Moon was reported to be gravely ill and was put on a respirator at the intensive care unit of St. Mary’s Hospital at The Catholic University of Korea in Seoul. He was admitted on August 14, 2012, after suffering from pneumonia earlier in the month, soon to pass away on September 2.
About The Peace and Family Festival 2018
Peace and Family Festival will be held this week at the National Sports Stadium in Harare and at least 40 000 couples from over 200 countries will rededicate their marriages at a huge ceremony.
The rededication ceremony dubbed “Peace starts with me, Peace starts with my family”, is being hosted by the (FFWPU) Zimbabwe in collaboration with Universal Peace Federation and Women’s Federation for World Peace International, both of which have general consultative statuses at the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council.
Speaking at a Press conference in Harare, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Deputy Minister Energy Mutodi said FFWPU was not a church organisation, but an establishment that seeks to achieve lasting peace in the world through developing communities that respect family values. He said that it is a blessing that they afforded Zimbabwe the opportunity to host the inaugural ceremony on the whole continent.
‘This is the first time in Africa that such an event is going to be held and for us to have it done here is a blessing that we all want to embrace. We are happy to be receiving a delegation from South Korea.’
Reverend Bakare Camara, the Africa regional chairman of FFWPU, said the purpose of the gathering would be to heal the wounds of the past and support the Zimbabwe Government’s endeavours for peace and reconciliation.
Resources: Wikipedia, The Kingdom of the Cults, Divine Principle
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