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17
Unification Church
In 1954, Sun Myung Moon and a small group of his followers founded the
Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World
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Christianity (HSAUWC) in Korea. Through this group, Moon preached his
interpretation of the Bible; many of his doctrines were summarized and
expounded as The Divine Principle, which is essentially Moon's gospel. Although
Moon's teachings were not accepted by traditional Christian churches in Korea,
his movement attracted enough converts to enable it to expand beyond South
Korea beginning in the late 1950's.
Moon sent one of his followers, Choi Sang Ik, as a missionary to Japan to
establish the movement there; another follower, Kim Young Oon, was sent to
Eugene, Ore. in 1959 for the same purpose. By the early 1960's, Choi Sang Ik,
having established the movement in Japan, had moved to San Francisco, where
he attempted to spread Moon's teachings. Kim Young Oon had by then moved to
Berkeley, Calif., while David S. C. Kim, another early Moon convert, was in New
York City. In 1961, Pak Bo Hi, an English-speaking Korean Army officer, was
assigned to the Korean Embassy in Washington as a military attache. Pak had
joined Moon's movement in 1957, and while in Washington he helped to recruit
and proselytize on behalf of the movement.
In September 1961, Kim Young Oon and several other Moon followers living
in the San Francisco area formed a California corporation which they called Holy
Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. The following year, Pak
Bo Hi registered an association of the same name in Virginia. Its address was
given as Pak's home in Arlington. Also living at that address, and a member of
the original board of trustees along with Pak, was Jhoon Rhee, who later became
well known as the owner of a chain of karate studios.
Both the California corporation and the Virginia association declared that they
were organized solely for religious, charitable, and educational purposes and that
they would not, to any substantial degree, engage in:
* * * carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, or
participating in , or intervening in (including the publication or distribution of
statements), any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public
office.(251)
Both the California and the Virginia organizations applied for and received
exemption from Federal income tax.(252)
The various Holy Spirit groups in Korea, the United States, and elsewhere
gradually came to be known-collectively and individually--as the Unification
Church (UC). (Unification Church is a direct translation of the Korean term Tong-
il Kyohoe.) The California corporation became the legal foundation for the
national Unification Church, (Unification Church of America), which eventually
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