A Cult Mass Marriage - Moonies

0:00 Hello Bizarre story friends. If you're tuned in now, you are listening to the Bizarre AF, a place where we talk about the strange, the unusually unknown, and all things bizarre AF. I'm Alicia, your Hostess for today's episode, and as always, we ask that you keep an open mind, keep a skeptical ear, but keep on listening to those facts as we take you on our newest journey, a cult mass marriage, the Moonies.

0:59 Well, hello. Hello. How are you, my little Boo? I'm doing well. How are? You. I'm I'm good. What were you going to say? I was going to call you true Kevin. That's and I totally forgot. So wait, let me well, hello, true Kevin. How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you today? I'm doing well, yeah, yeah. We realized we we might start doing this. I don't know Kiwi and Chichi. Yes, yeah, yeah. So we had realized last night we were talking and what were we talking about?

1:40 Like e-mail? Addresses. E-mail addresses, yeah. So I was like, yeah, you know my e-mail address is cuz Roy was asking me for. It right? Yeah, exactly. And so he's like, that's cute. I'm like, thanks. I said it was a nickname cuz my sister couldn't say my name. So my nickname's Shishi. So that's what it has to do with. And he said, my God. Yeah, I said. That's funny. I couldn't pronounce my name as a kid and I called myself Kiwi and so my family, that's my nickname, is Kiwi. So it's Kiwi and Shishi. It's like so perfect and it's taken us like over five years. To like figure this to figure it out. That's nice. That's totally nuts. So today we are talking about a cult and we we have not ever done a cult.

2:30 Episode, you know, we mentioned them and they come up in our episodes, but we've not really dedicated an episode on them. No, we haven't. Yeah. They can be really intense. They're incredibly intense. And I was talking to Kevin before I was like, gosh, I actually, I'm like, I'm I was having a hard time knowing what to keep in and what to keep out because there's so there's so much. Yes, it within a cult. You can talk about that. I'm like, gosh, how do I how do I keep this like down too? Yeah.

3:11 So there's a reason why we haven't done like. Exactly, exactly. So yeah, I'm, I'm interested to go down this road with you. Yeah, yeah, it's well and like trying to cut it, I'll, I'll definitely try my best to cut as much information as I can and keep it short and sweet. But really, we've said this about a few topics. We could have multiple episodes on this and I think this one could probably have like 5 different episodes, honestly. Like we could go in depth about some of the weird shit that happens and like, you know, the leadership, things like that. But we're not going to do that. So this is like a, an overview and a kind of fun, a fun, a fun overview of like the cult, the Mooneys, which have you ever heard of them?

3:55 Did you ever hear about the Mooneys Cult I. Hadn't before we had kind of talked about it. Yeah, fascinated to hear. Before you dive in, I just want to tell the listeners that, you know, a lot, this extra content that we're talking about, we're going to start offering for our subscribers. And so you can get a lot of this bonus content and this extra content. We're going to do bizarre bits. And when these types of discussions get more intense or we have a lot of really good juicy stuff, we like to kind of keep our episodes down, you know, to a little under an hour. We're going to put that in for our subscribers. So just a little teaser if you want some extra content. Yes, yeah, absolutely.

4:43 So when I was like thinking about, OK, this, you know, podcast episode cults, like what do I think of when I think of a cult? Well, the first thing I think of is like Rocky Horror Picture Show or like the room, but that's not a cult that has a cult following, right, Right. We're talking this, this is a real life cult that is actually still recruiting and I had never heard of it. You had never heard of it. I actually found it on TikTok. Really. Yeah, it was this. Were they like blatantly advertising this cult or what were they doing? So yeah, that's the thing. So I was, I saw this girl and it was like, you know, it was this girl who's like, I'm wearing my mom's wedding dress like it had come up on my FYP. And I was like, oh, oh, that's really sweet. Like she's wearing her mom's wedding dress. And then like, I look and she's sitting, they show her in the wedding dress and it's like a bunch of people in the room all in like white wedding dresses.

5:38 All the women were. And I'm like, oh, huh. This is starting to look a little culty, a little like I'm questioning. Like. And she was like, yeah, she said, you know, I'm, I've, it was my mom's wedding dress for the same ceremony that I'm going to be taking. And I'm like, Ding, Ding, Ding, here's a fucking cult. And I started scrolling through her. And then I was like, what is the Moonies? And and so they do a thing called like a mass sweating. We'll talk about it, but I could not believe how how I'd never heard of it. So have you have you got ever gotten like close to joining a cult or anything like that? Like is there anything that you would? I'm trying to think the answer is absolutely not OK. No, no, and I'm and I'm so hypersensitive about it. I mean, that's how much I don't would not be part of a cult that I'm so hypersensitive about it that I I would I could catch it. You know what I mean?

6:42 I don't, I really don't feel like I could be a sucker because I'm so in tuned with it and the signs and like. That stuff, the warnings of it. The warnings of it, yeah. OK, well, let's say you're not, you're not going to be doing a cult, OK, But like anything can be a cult. Like let's say, OK, not theatre, like theatre you can't be a cult. But like I think if there was a cult, we we've joined the theatre one. OK, so like a closet obsession that you have. Is there any closet obsessions that you have like? Gotcha. Or close to. I know what you're saying. No, I don't think so.

7:23 I like like Pickles and fermented foods. Like maybe there's there's a pickle cult, I could do that. So I think that brings up a good question. What what? What makes a cult? What does a cult make? Yes, it's a great question. Yeah. And I think like there, like there are definitions of what does make a cult. And a lot of times it's it's control, trying to control a person's behavior. Thoughts. And a lot of religions would actually follow into a. Cult. Exactly. And that is exactly why I will not participate in it, because I will not be controlled. Yeah. It's, it's it's all about power and control and like absolute power, right. Typically for monetary gain, often times or, or if it's not monetary gain, it's just the power of controlling power, you know, Exactly.

8:14 OK, so let's say hypothetically, yeah, God forbid you and Roy had never crossed paths. What are your thoughts on arranged marriages? Preposterous. Like a double-blind marriage. Ridiculous. No. No. Would you do it? No, no. Let's say you're OK 150 years ago, maybe you would have had to. I definitely probably would have had to. Yeah, maybe I wouldn't have a choice. So there is a map this cult the Moonies actually does do like they do a mass like marriage ceremony and the people who are marrying each other, they often times don't meet each like they don't know each other and they're assigned and. Why so why is it, Is it OK?

9:02 Is it like 'cause this is like about reproduct enforcing reproduction? Like yeah, yes. OK, yes, so we're here for some strangeness and I like one. Before I get into like the cult and everything, I think that it's all these cults and movements. Like today it's easy to assume that it's a whole bunch of weirdos wearing like the same color or whatever with diets that are consisting of like bark or vegan shit and they're banging drums and each other. Exactly. Yeah, that's stereotypical. Yeah. So like that can be the case, right? Like there is a stereotype for a reason. There can be nuance behind it. So with the exception of a person who was born into a cult, these are folks that share more similarities to you and with you and I than they do differences.

9:54 And I think it's super easy and even fun for us to poke fun at the OR poke holes at the bizarre and ridiculous. But but I also think that it can be dangerous if we lose the narrative of humanity when we're telling these stories true, you know, like, these are real people. At the end of the day, they're real people. Who are actually affected and like have That's right. That being said, you're right. It's still fucking weird. Yeah, yeah, we're going to talk about some weird shit, namely a cult with mass marriages along with other things and that call themselves the Moon, the Unification Church, but we're going to be calling them the New Moonies. So for short, the Unification Church is actually what this cult is. The. Unification Church. So the Moonies are named after the founder, which is Sun Myung Moon or Moon Myung Myung, and he was born in 1920 in what is now North Korea.

10:44 At that time it was all Korea was all one. So it's important to note that it's important to note these items because it does have an effect on the his own belief system that matures and creates this cult. Korea at that time was under Japanese rule. Do you know anything about Korea and Japan? Japan's like history I. Don't. I didn't either, which is why I think it's like it's important to talk about it. You know, I didn't learn that. I maybe learned it in school, but probably not because we're Americans and we exactly because we're idiots. Yeah, totally. And it's not like super white so. Right, exactly. So I'll give you the Cliffs Notes version.

11:25 So historically Japan did not want to have interference within their country for trade and stuff. But Korea is relatively close, so they kind of use Korea as their middle man. And like any bully in a movie, the bullies treat their own minions and nerds like shit, right? Giving them like nuggies, putting their heads in the toilet, give for swirlies, the whole 9. So in Korea, that looks like using valuable land and putting railroads, et cetera, all over the place to try to move transportation for, you know, trade, et cetera, and forcing the Korean people to speak Japanese and not Koreans. They're trying to control.

12:06 Yeah, the culture. So they assassinated the defiant queen of Korea. And this was going on for years. And slowly the Korean people started having uprisings, wanting independence from Japan. And that was going on. And what was going on in 1939 in the world of. War. Yes, World War Two, Yeah. So Japan forced millions of of Koreans, 5 million to either fight in World War 2, move to Japan and work, or if you are unlucky, unlucky enough to be a girl between the ages of 12 and 17, you were a comfort woman. So which is an entirely different thing. It's fucked up.

12:54 It's ultimately what a comfort woman was was like. They Wood Forest young girls to serve Japanese soldiers as prostitutes, which is just. Exactly what I thought. It's whatever you think it is, it's bad. It's even worse than that. And there, that's an entirely different, like dark hole that we could go into. But suffice it to say, that's still an issue within Korea and Japan, and it drove a further wedge in the already frustrated and rightfully angry Korean people. So we know the outcome of World War Two atomic bombs. Japanese surrendered, and this left Korea able to move into the direction of true independence without, you know, Japan trying to be their overlords, right? So there, that's when the internal struggles of North and South Korea, you know, occurred.

13:47 So North Korea was down for communism. South Korea's like, fuck that, you know, and I know it was a little bit of a history lesson, but you know how nerdy I get with this. And it's important to note that at that time in Korea, it was very unstable and out of instability. A lot of weird shit will happen, right? There's like a there's a vacuum, power vacuums and people are searching for purpose. So our boy, son and opportunity. Opportunity. Yes. Bingo. Bingo. Yeah. So our boy, son, young Moon was in the thick of it. And if it formed some of his extreme beliefs because of it. So he was raised in a farming family of 13/8 of them survived.

14:29 And it's important to note that he actually was first raised under the tenants of Confucian Confucianism. Do you know? Yes, yes. OK, So you know, so essentially the dude was a Chinese sage and he really put importance on the idea of family bonds, being loyal to those related to you, respect elders, you know, do you know that thing like do do not unto others what you would not want done into yourself? That was him. And Christians also like fucking took it too, but whatever. Like it's it was Confucius. So he was more of a morality guru than on a religious icon. And he valued education, skill, judgment, self cultivation instead of following rules, which I can get behind. But this is where Moon came from. So at 10, his family converted to Presbyterian Christianity, which was my brand of upbringing as well. And yours, too, right?

15:32 Yeah. So if you were as boring as I am and you are, like, we wouldn't be talking about him. No, He had to take shit to an extreme. So around the age of 16, Moon claims to have been praying on a mountainside in North Korea, as you do, And he saw Jesus. And Jesus had asked Moon to, quote, take up his shoulders, the mission that Jesus himself was not able to fulfill. End Quote. So essentially. Take over my job. Take over what I was unable to do. Yeah, essentially like Jesus spills the ultimate tea to Moon saying that like, you know, he failed his mission to bring God's Kingdom to earth because of a little thing called the crucifixion.

16:15 You know, and. And Moon's just sitting there happily sipping away like, Oh my God. Oh, you're gonna. Choose me. Yeah. So, Kevin, I know that you're thinking, wow, the dude, you know, this guy got a message from Jesus at 16 and his whole world shifted right? If you were on that mountain side and Jesus came to you, what would you do? You'd be like what the fuck? Yeah, yeah. Oh, you have a mission for me? Yeah, like, oh God, that's hard. I'm trying to step outside of my belief system, but yeah, and stay open minded as we ask everyone on the show to do. I if I was a believer and I truly believe that Jesus said that to me, then yeah, I guess I would feel like I had to go. That would be my purpose.

17:19 Yeah, it would totally change everything, right? If I had Jesus visit me, I would 100% listen and not fuck around. I'd be like, OK, are you for sure Jesus? Can you like, here's some water, turn it into wine, you know, like can you walk on that, on that water for me? Really. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I would listen 100% and I would not fuck around with it. But fuck around, Moon did for nine years, not doing anything with the information that he was given air quotes by Jesus. It took a whopping 9 years to get the download that Jesus didn't finish the first time. So at at that time Moon wrote the Divine Principle which is essentially the staple book for the Moonies.

18:04 It's like their their Bible and I have a link if you guys would like to peruse in the show notes. And been translated clearly. Well, yeah, so, so he, it was, it was eventually translated, but it all of this was in Korean. So essentially, like Reverend Mooney says, no, I wasn't sitting on God's plan for nine years. Like I, I, he was revealing it to me in a very dangerous area, which was North Korea, right. It sounds like really sound reasoning if Jesus was going to come down or God was going to come down. Like, out of all the places to choose, it seems like like North Korea is one of the best ones. Sure.

18:51 I'm totally kidding. It's like the worst fucking place. Like. Yeah, all right. Exactly. Like, it's right. Yeah. Potential. Like Messiah, let's put him in the Demilitarized Zone. Like, that's still a fucking issue today. Like North and South Korea are still struggling anyway. Maybe that's where he thought he could do the best. Good. I love how you're like, right, You're, you're, you're really like, you're really here with me. And I appreciate that, Kevin. I just want to just want to note that. So the divine principle is viewed as Holy Scripture and the three points of the main three points are the principle of creation, that all creation is in God's image. But there's also like bipolarities. So you have the inner character, which is an invisible form of reality and the outer form, which is all that we can see like so you have your mind, which is invisible and then and then your body, which is visible, right. And then he also sprinkles in yin and Yang, feminine, masculine into it.

19:53 So he's taking that like, Chinese upbringing and trying to like, mesh it in with Christianity. And there's also a hierarchy of existence, which is really important. So we'll just like, place it in a triangle where the top is the most important. Who do you think is at the top of the pyramid? Jesus or him? God, Yeah. God. So God's at the top and then there's man and woman, and then the bottom are kids. So ultimately God wanted humanity to to have true parents. That's what Son like would say. So he wanted to have them, to have True Parents and Adam and Eve. And the only way to have True Parents is copulation. Kind of.

20:38 OK yes, but Adam and Eve had birthed us as sinners, so since they ate from that damn apple. Eve was a bitch. Yes, yes. And Speaking of the whole time when I was like writing this, this is the song that was in my head. Oh my God, are. We gonna hear it. I we're gonna hear it. Yeah. I asked. I asked Kevin to have it ready for us. So here, here's the beginning of it. I love it. Oh my God.

21:28 It's so you have to listen to the whole song because it's so fun. It's. So fun. So we are all sinners thanks to mother fucking eating. OK yeah, everyone's going to have that song stuck in their head right now. Exactly. So Eve, they birthed us, we're sinners because they ate the apple and son argues that we're still sinners because Jesus's top job, which was to be that second Adam character, his second job was Jesus's job was like to get married to Eve, he had to get married to Eve and he didn't. He didn't have any Eve. He never got married right? Historians will probably disagree with Son because he probably they say that he probably did have a wife, but it's not mentioned in the Bible so Jesus fucked that one up. OK.

22:22 So he didn't get married to Eve, but he got 'cause he got crucified. So we're all still sinners. Every single one of us are still sinners. Wait, sorry, I'm lost and I'm not a Bible reader so you have to help me out here. Happy Jesus was the Son of Mary. Yes, and the Son of God. And the son. Oh wait, I'm confused. Yeah, a lot of people are confused by this point. So it was like called like an Immaculate Conception. Yes, Mary had an Immaculate Conception. She had. She did. Not have intercourse, right? She was a virgin. She has the Son of God, Jesus.

23:02 Yes. Jesus was supposed to marry Mary. Jesus was supposed to marry a woman. To then copulate. To copulate and, and undo what Adam and Eve did, which was, you know, ultimately we get, we're going. To get, I'm sorry, what Eve did. What Eve did, Eve fucking ate. And so ultimately, it wasn't actually, you know, it wasn't just that Eve ate the fruit of the, you know, so OK, so going back to your point, you were trying to say Jesus was birthed by God and Mary, right? So he was supposed to be in Moon's world. He was supposed to be the the Messiah, but he was unable to complete his mission.

23:52 'Cause he got because the crucifixion got in the way. 'Cause he died and he never had a child or children and never got married, OK. That was supposed to help humanity, OK. The original sin was not just because Eve ate from the fruit, it was also because she fucked Satan. Right, which I guess is implied by her eating the snake fruit of snake of the snake of the of Satan, right? Because is that implied? I mean, you can imply a whole lot of things in the Bible. You. Can you can imply a lot and a lot of these, you know, a lot of these tales were told as oral traditions that were just passed down initially and then written down years after, you know, so, so a lot of it is up to that's the whole point is like it's up to you.

24:40 Like their morality tales just don't like, I don't know. I think it's, you know, temptation is not, it's not good to always give in to temptation, right? It's right. Which is really ultimately what it. Is what it that's what it boiled down to, right? And then, then they and then Adam and Eve did their biz. But she was impure. She was, she was the one who was impure because she had sex. She literally, like Moon thought she had sex with Satan. So because of that, we, you know, we are sinners. So he's saying, you know, in 19 or excuse me.

25:22 So son, son was supposed to take on the map mantle and get married to Eve, right, And become humanity's true parents. So that's like when I called you true Kev, Kevin, like that's the true parents of humanity. That's what Son's here for. He's the true father, like the Messiah. And then he needs to find an Eve who is the true mother in order to absolve us sinners of all the sins and like be able to restore God's Kingdom. OK. OK, and because Jesus picked him, then he's pure.

26:04 He's pure. Well, yeah. He must be. Yes, that's the. That's the like, it's super unfair, right? Because Eve had sex with, you know, Satan and then she had sex with, you know, Adam and Adam's just a fucking bystander, you know, like he didn't do anything. It was it was all Eve's fault. So you know, we clearly cannot trust the women. I've always said no, I'm just kidding. You motherfucker. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. So he can't really trust the women, which is really the issue. So son's supposed to take that mantle and get married to that Eve and and we would have the True Parents. So, 1954 Reverend Moon starts evangelizing and spreading the good word, and it's picking up some steam. OK.

26:56 People are like, Oh my gosh, actually like the whole idea of like unifying and like having True Parents, especially at this time in Korea where there's a lot of instability, there's war, there's they're trying to recalibrate their own culture. And so sorry, one more back up, one more time, yes. Please. True Parents. So it has to be son and whomever this woman is, they're tech. They can. They're the start, the True Parents. Yes, so. So he's essentially Adam 2.0. Right, exactly. And so but he can. He is he gonna make other people the ability to be True Parents? No, OK, no, because there's only one Messiah. There's only one Jesus got it.

27:47 And we would not be talking about it if anyone could become it. Like that's the whole point of a fucking cult. There's only one person. One. Yeah, yes, OK. There's there's a a pyramid and he's at the top because he's like kind of God Incarnate. Yeah. All right. So he's, you know, in Korea, it's picking up steam. And thank goodness that Moon is already married because people are like, well, we need our true Parents. We need this true. Like, we need to restore humanity, right? And we need to have God's plan get carried out. But it wasn't her. She wasn't the true Eve.

28:28 She wasn't the. YouTube. No. No, no, of course not, Right? No. No. So he was really into testing out Eve's SO Eve. Yeah, well, yeah, you got to make sure the merch is I. Have to make sure that. Yeah, yeah, like, like is it right? Can I, you know, live with this for the rest of my life. So at that time he actually had a child and, you know, wife, he was married and he had, he was trying to get away and escape too, because as his religion is picking up steam, people are paying attention, Communism is starting to come into North Korea. He ends up going to South Korea, leaves his child and his wife alone. Well, of course, because he has a higher calling. He has a high yes, he definitely has a higher calling, but he also and and he's the Messiah, right? Like, like what?

29:25 They've they're irrelevant because they're not even pure. Do as I say, not as I do, right? Right. Exactly. So this poor woman's left in in North Korea and Moon Moon ditches her hard via pycream, which Kevin, I sent you the definition of pycreum through. Text. My God, you did. Can you can you please read it for the class? Yes, yes, Miscellany John. So assuming that the original sin was in fact illicit sexual intercourse between Lucifer and Eve, which we just talked about, therefore contaminating the entire lineage of humanity, a woman's sexual union with a pure Masonic leader and then her husband could purify her lineage. Her whole lineage.

30:21 Wow. Yeah. So all you would have to do is have sex with the the Messiah, the Messiah, and then you're absolved of all sin and and not only you, every person who was related. To this case. Perfect. So now we have a way for him to fuck whoever he wants legitimately, yes, in order to purify them and allow them to make these be pure, pure people, right? Parents, yeah. This cult is is culting. It's sounding like a cult, my God, because there's sex involved and there's it always. I don't know what it is, but especially when it comes to male driven cult.

31:07 Why? Yeah, because men are pigs. Men are pigs. I love when you say that. They are. I I don't disagree. I don't disagree. So yeah. So it always devolves into I'm going to fuck as many people as I want to as the Messiah and you're so lucky to be having sex with me of. Course. Yeah, you're privileged. You're incredibly privileged. You're going to want to do it. Even if I'm like this fucking disgusting motherfucker, Like who's? It smells like shit. And like, yes, they always are. They always are. I like we don't need to get. We have a. Hot Messiah, please.

31:47 I mean like some of the images of Jesus is pretty hot. Like I wouldn't mind. Oh, yeah, totally. I'm sorry. I mean, can we have a hot cult leader? That's what I meant to say. Yes, you know what? David Crush wasn't too bad looking, right? He was the Waco dude, right? Yeah, he. Wasn't bad. He wasn't bad. Yeah. Right. He wasn't. He wasn't the worst. Yeah, he looked like maybe he didn't shower. Yeah. Which is really, yeah, an issue. He looked like a cult leader. He did. Yeah, he definitely did. So Moon has a harem of disciples, ultimately calls them the disciples that help to restore humanity, right? Because he's fucking all of them. And through these disciples, he ends up finding his the true mother, which is his wife. Let me tell you, he went through like five women who he married like four or five women.

32:37 Well. He actually married them. He. He married them. Yeah. Yeah, he had divorced his wife. Uh huh. So is this Was he? Was he married to all five of them? At the same time, no, he married, divorced. Married, divorced. It's like, OK, he had to. It took him a little while to find the true mother. And this girl, excuse me, not girl, No. Yes, child. This child was basically, you know, raised to be the true mother or to be not even the true mother to be with son. So like they groomed her from the beginning. She was like. Basically. She was 17 or something when she got into the when. She would they have known about his. Other wives.

33:21 No. Would they have known about him while they were? I mean, were they raising her to be him, his wife, or just like a Messiah's wife in general? I think, well, there's only one Messiah. Right. But like, did they know of him 17 years ago? She was, oh, oh, was she like born specifically? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think that's necessarily the case, but her, her family were, they were involved in the cult when she was small. So, like, I'm sure all of these children were being groomed to, you know? Yes, be his. Concubine, disciple, harem, whatever to to please him and to make him happy, because he is the way that we're.

34:04 Going What an honor to be the wife of the Messiah, right? Yeah, and what a mindfuck. Like this woman truly believes in it, right? Like she truly believes and drank the the drank the fucking Kool-aid because she she didn't have the opportunity to, you know, really developed her prefrontal frontal cortex before she met this man. She was groomed into this situation and like probably having sex with him, I'm assuming because this dude was just having sex with everyone and there was like there were whole sex, you know, rights and and ceremonies around restoring humanity. It's part of a ceremony. It's legitimate. Doesn't matter what you're doing. Yes.

34:47 It's. Holy, it's necessary. It's necessary. Yeah. So, you know, he like, and one of the things that like, once again, we're talking about these cults and like we are sitting here saying, what the fuck? This is crazy. It starts out small. It's a small little thing that ends up, you know, it, it slowly starts to add up. Like his original thing that he, that Moon was saying was the true purpose of God's creation is to experience the joy of love, which that sounds beautiful, right? Like, sure. Like, you know, love, Love Is All you need, you know, So, so I, I do think that it, it's beautiful. It doesn't sound so bad.

35:31 And that's why these people start following him and get into this, this cult. So dude was a great speaker. OK. That's the key to they all are. And they can talk you into, you know, the, the oceanfront property in, in the desert kind of stuff, right? Yes, yes. That's what makes them so good. Yeah, and he was really into moolah, into money, monetary donations and stuff like that. So as he's, he's picking up steam, a lot of people are wanting to find answers. There's, you know, they're going through war time and shit like that. And like, you know, this guy saying about communism because he's now in South Korea, he's like, communism is wrong. We need to get back to like the earth and like back to what God wants us to be.

36:21 We need to really like, you know, believe in a family system and like, love people. And when you're surrounded by war, Oh my God, family. Doesn't that sound amazing? Yeah, it's like, it's like, it's quite literally heaven on earth when you have experienced absolute, no doubt, hell, no doubt. So you can see why he was picking up steam, why people wanted to follow him. He had these answers that were good. And here's another thing. People wanna be told what to do. Yeah, they want to be told, OK, life is hard. Yes, I have the answers. Of course. This is what's going to make you happy. Yep, It's a lot easier than having to try to figure it out for yourself or having to come to the conclusion of like, I don't know, maybe fucked up shit happens in the world and like there is no, there is no divine plan for it.

37:12 It's just fucked up. And, you know, seeing children being, you know, basically raped like that is by Japanese soldiers and stuff. Like there's a, there's, there's a purpose behind this. O, you know, he goes through five women, gets the true mother. They start amassing like they have businesses and money and they start investing in different properties and ublications, newspapers, they're anti communist. So they're also working within the government of Korea and world governments because they, they're making a lot of money. So working within these world governments.

37:52 And I think it's Bob Dole was even like spoke on behalf of them were like, oh, the Unification Church is great. You know, all these things. So you have like politicians who are being paid by the Unification Church, by the Moonies and are in the pockets of of these folks. So once again, it adds legitimacy to this cult. These politicians, you know, of these businesses like the Washington Post, I believe they had like a stake within the Washington Post, which is a publication. Like they had money in their hands in everything. And and it was a small South Korean, you know, church that ended up starting to get bigger. Another thing with the cult, Moon said. OK, forget English.

38:36 English is not the true language, it's Korean. Right. Sure. All right. So you if you want to. Well, Jesus. Picked him, so it must be. Jesus picked Jesus and God picked him in North Korea. Yeah. And one like Jesus came was like, sorry, bro, you have to take this mantle, you know, like, you have to do this. But yeah, he's like, yeah, no, everyone has to learn Korean and like, you have to say our prayers in Korean. But this is that mind control. This is where that control aspect is coming into it. So like, even the way you speak is being controlled by Moon. You have to learn Korean. You have to, you know, perform these sexual ceremonies. You have like he's in control of everything and telling people how to live life, which, you know, people like. So around in the night.

39:27 Well, actually let's go into the the thing that people love talking about the most, which is one of the ceremonies, the blessing ceremony, which is the marriage ceremony. OK, so the traditional steps for completing the sanctity of the blessing ceremony is first the chastening. So this is one, once again, we have two people, typically these mass marriages, these two people get together, they don't know each other, right? It's it's like an arranged marriage with a bunch of other people. The first step that they have to do is the chastening ceremony, which is where the couple strike each other three times symbolically to prepare for a new beginning.

40:10 So like beating the shit out of each other before at the very beginning? OK. So once again, we're getting into that conditioning. You're conditioning people to beat each other and this is the first act that you're doing together as as a couple, as in a unification setting. The holy wine ceremony is Step 2. And this the couple share a cup of holy wine or grape juice, symbolizing their grafting into God's sinless lineage. So, you know, it's, hey, we just beat you. You have a glass of wine afterwards, take the edge off a little bit.

40:51 Then you have the holy blessing ceremony, which is where the couple exchange vows and a prayer is is sad and then they're sprinkled with holy water. So once again, we're pulling little aspects of Christianity from into the ceremony. Then you have the separation period. So once again, it's all about control. The couple refrains from having sexual relations for a period, which is most often 40 days, but in some cases much longer. And I'm sure that some of that has to do with, you know, maybe Moon would be like, oh, this is a hottie. Like, I'm gonna take her, you know, for a little bit longer, you know. So before they can consummate and re consummate their marriage, they have to, you know, abstain, abstain.

41:38 So you're like, cool, I'm married to this person. I have to be around them all the time. I can't fuck them. It's control. It is. It's total control and then there's a three day ceremony so the couple begins or re begins their married married life. So some people will choose to get remarried in a in a setting like this. So people join the. Cult. Would do this so in a very high, highly symbolic ceremony over three days, which is considered to be the reverse, a reverse of the fall of Adam and Eve, which was that original sin that we were talking about before, have a different like ceremonies that go within that. So the blessings, they say there are these four vows to become a true man or woman who practices sexual purity and lives for the sake of others #2 to become a true husband or wife who respects true parents, which is Moon and his wife, their example, and establishes an eternal family which brings joy to God.

42:37 Three, to become a parent who educates his or her children to follow the tradition of true love for the sake of the family and the world. And then the final vow is to create an ideal family which contributes to World Peace. Oh my God, Oh my God. So what ultimately happens is if they have a child that doesn't want to be part of the OR religion or the organization, then Can you imagine they've just broken #3 like, it's so clever to keep everybody in control and in this cult, cult fucking, it's a cult.

43:23 It's a cult, yeah. That's FT. It's super fucked and this is the beginning. This is the very beginning of your marriage or your relationship or starting a new family. Well, a part of the ultimate family, which is what they would call themselves. You're taking on these, these four tenants or these four vows with your partner that you have also not had sex with yet, right? So like these people are like really like having some issues and they're like, OK, we already got married. We're going to do like this crazy ass ceremony, which they do and then they can have they can finally have sex, But before that they're taking on these vows.

44:04 So their heads are probably already swimming and not you're not thinking in your like, you're not thinking with any kind of logic, right? Like you're the logical part of your brain is bye, bye. It's not there. So, so that that is, you know, that's what they're dealing with. And that's just at the beginning of a of, of a marriage, right? Right. So in let's see and you'll, you can see if you go online, there is a lot of footage and when you type in the Moonies, this is typically what you see, which is the footage of. In 1997, Reverend and Missus Moon presided over a blessing ceremony in Washington, DC. That's when 28,000 of the 30,000 couples taking part were previously married.

44:54 So, so all of these people, including including Baptist minister and civil rights advocate Alan Sharpton and his wife Catherine, they were there to help and like take part in this blessed like marriage ceremony where, you know, Moon is like marrying them. It has something to do with money. It's all money. It's all money. So there was one in 2000 that also included couples in North Korea, which you will see. You can see not in North Korea, but like you'll see a lot of Koreans who are taking part in this because it's there. So people will also get remarried, right?

45:39 So you might have an older couple there. So if you guys are watching it, it's not all 19 year olds like it'll be people who join the family, the ultimate family, right? So I guess, you know, people are saying that that the marital aspect, like historically within the Unification Church actually does work. Like people do stay together. Why do they stay together? They have no choice. You have no choice. You're being controlled. You're not using logical skills to think about these things. If you leave, you are not going to be connected to the rest of the everyone you know exactly. You lose everything, which is a problem.

46:21 That's how all cults operate. That's how they keep their people in. That's how they do it. It it it's, Yeah, every single one of them. None of them. They all are in this. They're rooted in the same. Yeah, they are in the exact same shit. So, and like right now, like those these marriage ceremony blessing ceremonies and stuff like that's like their bread and butter. So a lot of people are like, oh, I really like, I like being part of this. And they still have, like a lot of people in South Korea who are becoming members. It's not as popular as it used to be, but people are still getting married. Well, there's a huge problem in South Korea of women who are willing to get married to men right now. Have you heard of that the HBHB something movement? So.

47:05 It's a movement in South Korea where women are just like, we're either going to marry each other or we're just choosing not to get married because there's a lot of issues within a Korean Society of like, there's a lot of sexism, there's a lot of abuse. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of women not being able to, you know, be independent, which is a huge problem. And So what are they? Doing they're choosing to not get married or or becoming gay or marrying each each other like for, you know, domestic purposes. Like women marrying women, you mean? Women marrying women, women just having partnerships with women like, you know, to whether it's like a sexual or not non sexual. Oh right. And choosing to just straight up not marry men.

47:46 They're like, we are over this. We're not going to deal with this. We're not going to deal with like abuse and. Yeah. And I don't want to stereotype, but I've seen a lot of that Asian stereotype male culture of the women being less than, yes. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a huge deal. So the Unification Church is also dealing with that and the what they're, what they're doing instead. So is bringing in immigrants saying, Hey, you want to, you want to, you know, come here and become a citizen in South Korea, which is relatively, you know, Westernized, you know, come from the Phil, come the Philippines, like Thailand, you're not living the best life. So come on over because and and they're they're contracting them through marriage agencies too, because there's such a lack of women who are willing to marry men in in South Korea, but they still need to bring in the numbers. So the Unification Church has the moolah to do it and they are bringing them in from other countries. Good God.

48:50 So, you know, we were talking about it like in 1997 there was like 22,000 people who are getting married. In 2009 there were, there was a ceremony for 7000 couples. So once again, it's trying to go down, we're starting to go down in this marriage ceremonies. And because one thing that the Unification Church does is by political, you know, politicians. Sharpton, I like I said, he wasn't there because out of the goodness of his heart, Yes. No. You're not there because you're like, I just really want to check this out. It's like he was probably paid for it, right? Yeah. So there was in some form or fashion. Yes. And at this at this 2009 blessing ceremony, there was a vice speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea and the daughter of the late President of Korea, Park Chung Hee. So once again, they're just being paid, but they're saying things like little, like, you know, snippets like I join in trans religious spirit.

49:54 I like the Unification Church's way of interpreting the Bible, incorporating the Quran and Buddha and Buddha script. So he, you know, he's pulling from a lot of religions to form his own. You can see like the tenants of his upbringing coming in, in the, in the major items, but he's like picking and choosing what he wants, you know? Well, he can. He's the Messiah. Yes, yeah, he's the Messiah. He can kind of do whatever the fuck he wants. But you know, with that, a lot of people are having have issues with the Unification Church because they're doing these arranged marriages and like, well, this isn't right. This is like kind of a throwback. So oftentimes like, well, the Catholics are like, you know, this is not OK.

50:38 There's a lot of issues with these marriage ceremonies that different religious practices have. I just as a person, have an issue with. Them. Yeah, exactly. Just as a free human being. Yeah, yeah, just because I think it's fucked up. So we were talking about like, you know, how Moon's like amassing money and, you know, creating businesses and he, it ends up sending missionaries because that's what you do if you have you send missionaries to different countries and stuff. And he they're typically underground, which is why like in North Korea, they had like an underground movement and there are a bunch of people who got married in North Korea are still part it. It's all underground kind of makes it a little sexier, right? Like if you're like, oh, part of this like underground, like secret society kind of thing.

51:24 It's kind of hot. And Moon ends up going to jail for tax evasion. You don't say. You don't say. Yeah. So he did not pay his taxes, ends up going to jail for a few years. What does that do to a religious leader? Well, didn't that? Well, nothing, right? Kind of makes him a martyr. Yeah. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, look what the man's doing to. You yeah, they just don't want to they don't want to be a part of the true family. They can't see your your true vision like like this is this is the sins of the world. This is the sins of I've already absolved all of you from it.

52:06 But that's why I'm being, you know, persecuted. I'm being persecuted by instead of like I'm I, I. Just broke the fucking law I. Broke the law. I'm not paying taxes and it's a lot. It's a lot of money. Like if they're putting you in in jail for years, it's a lot of money that they exactly because this guy also has been paying off like. Yeah, all the people in his pocket. Yes, so so. You know, it's hardcore. It's hardcore like, like they can't hide it anymore, right? They have to kind of do something. So that's what they end up doing. And Moon actually moves to the United States in 1971 even it. I'm surprised he has to. Maybe they have different rules. I'm surprised he has to pay taxes cause Scientology, you know they. As a religious.

52:47 Yeah, exactly. Well, so, but he was in Korea. Exactly. He was not, he was not in. Yeah, he was a Korean citizen. So he was not paying taxes in Korea. So he went to jail in Korea for and among other things, right. Like he was also sending fucking missionaries to different places. And they're like, we don't want your missionaries. And they're like, he's like, no, no, no, you do like, by the way, give us money, right? Like, so he's just a fucking charlatan. So he ends up he remains a, a citizen of, of North or of sorry of the Republic of Korea. And he gives, he actually gave in the 70s a series of speeches, public speeches in the US One of them was in Madison Square Garden in New York City. And then he also took over the Yankee Stadium in New York City, Washington Monument in Washington, DC. You have all these iconic places that this man's going to and it's like, oh, well, it must be something, right? And he, he said that he was speaking God's hope to America for, you know, 300,000 people.

53:49 This is a lot of fucking people who are, who are there to see him, right? One of his largest gatherings in history was or largest peaceful. One of the largest peaceful gatherings in history of Korea was one of his 1.2 million in South Korea. So he was fucking popular. But with great popularity comes people starting to say well who the fuck is this guy? So there's a huge anti cult movement in the 1970s. It starts to happen and people are like, well, what the fuck? Like, who is this guy?

54:33 Like, what is he doing? He, he's brainwashing these members. And actually there is a guy who, OK, so we're talking about Bob Dole in 1976. Like they're trying to create, like get more politicians on their side. One of the Unification Church presidents goes to meet with Bob, Bob Dole to defend, you know, the Unification Church's rights. And, and because a lot of people are coming out saying, I have a family member who joined this cult, I haven't seen them. I don't this is, this is dangerous. We need to do something about it. So they're going to say, oh, no, it's fine. Like these loved ones, they just don't understand.

55:14 And you know, whatever. And fucking Bob Dole's listening to him. So I told you, you know, we're, we have all these people who are becoming brainwashed and like the idea of brainwashed is happening. There's one man who was a Mooney in the 1970s ends up getting deprogrammed. His sister, like, basically kidnaps her or kidnaps him. And it's like, you're brainwashed. And he's like, no, I'm not. Oh, yeah, maybe I'm not sleeping. I'm not Like, there's a lot of things that are being controlled, like the what I'm eating, what I'm, what I'm doing, when I'm doing it, where I'm working, you know, everyone I'm interacting with. So he ends up getting on brainwashed. And today he's one of the leading deprogrammers in the United States.

55:59 So he deprograms people from you know, people will say that, you know, LDS like the like being Mormon is a cult. So he's like deprogrammed people there. He's any like there are a ton of cults that are going on currently like that six M cults and stuff like. And then you'll have, but then you'll have the people saying, well, he's just programming them differently like the that's their argument, right? Yeah, well, true, True. Right. Oh, he like the Unification Church, like the Moonies would say that. Yeah. Oh, well, he just wants to. Yeah. Tarnish your brain. Yes, exactly. He's just programming you. He's just programming you. He's just, he's just trying. He he's trying to take you away from your true purpose, like when you're using in in this, that's what I think makes moon so great is he's so good at using words like like really strong words. So like true Parents.

56:50 What is truth? What is, you know, truth, love, like these things are, you know, are supposed to be they're they're not up for discussion. Truth is not up for discussion. It's either true or it's false. There is nothing. So a true parent you don't have, you know, like there's there's something very powerful and just the way of thinking. So it's like deprogramming these people. He's already done all the work to say like the world doesn't love you, like I love you. I'm your answer, I'm your salvation. If you just do these things, then these and these people are, I don't know, sometimes somewhat happy, but but this guy ends up finding out how to deprogram.

57:31 And so he's like a huge deprogrammer, still doing it today. And he has books on it. He actually helped create like, you know, the ways to figure out whether or not you're in a cult. And like, there's like a series of questions, you know, around control and like, you know, lack of sleep and things like that, that, you know, help people identify whether or not this could potentially be cult. Yeah. So we were talking about, you know, tax evasion dudes, you know, evading taxes left, right and center. He also ends up being very highly involved within the seafood industry. And he ends up bringing they, they invested in in the 70s, millions of dollars into the United States to try to bring more seafood over. And he starts working this in to some of his, his sermons, right? So one of them, one of his speeches was called like the way of the of tuna, the way of tuna.

58:32 So he was claiming this is him like trying to make the the case for like, give us, give me more money. After we build the boats, we catch the fish and process them for the market and then have a distribution network. It's not just on the drawing board. I've already done it. And he started calling himself the king of the ocean because, I mean, he's already the Messiah, might as well also be the king of the ocean, right? So he, he is getting people and American investors to, you know, give into this dude was actually really great at business. I mean, when he was like paying his taxes and stuff like that, Like he knew what he was doing and he made a shit load of money, which is insane. So and he, you know, like I said, he helps found and his members help found like this News World Communications, which you know, their first two papers was the News World, which was later renamed the New York City Tribune. And he also did Spanish language publications. So they're also in these newspaper just trying to recruit members.

59:36 That's always like the number one goal. But ultimately he ends up dying because he's although he's the Messiah. Dude has had a long fucking life of a. Debauchery. Yes. So on August 15th in 2012, he was reported to be gravely ill and he was put on a respirator at an intensive care unit in in Korea. So he's back in Seoul. He was admitted on the 14th of August and he was suffering from an pneumonia earlier that month. So this dude was just, his body was just breaking down. So he ends up, he ends up dying, right?

1:00:21 And then there's kind of a power vacuum within the church. Yeah. So who takes over? How many kids does he have? Oh my God, he has so many kids. So that was one thing. Like they didn't know how many children he had one of them. Like there's a woman who had come out and was like, I was pregnant with his child because I did like these. Of course dude's not going to use a condom, right? No, that's like, he's the son of God. Don't you think he would? He would have like been able to control whether or not a woman had gotten pregnant. Well, sure, but he didn't. Want to he didn't he didn't want to so she ends up having a baby when she was like, you know, 16. I this was just like a story that I'd read and he she ended up getting shipped off during the time that she was pregnant. They the there was a woman like one of the presents when the high people in the church ended up his wife started wearing like a like padding around her stomach to make her look pregnant and they took on her child as their as their own kid. So nobody knew that that was and and he was not marked as a true, you know, one of the true children. So he probably had, I mean, hundreds of children, but the true children, I think it was only like 14 that he had said were his true children.

1:01:39 So did his wife try to take control? His wife ends up taking control, and so now they're still like very much revering like him. He's still like the true father, but now the true mother is the one who's like kind of taking over the mantle. So it'll be interesting to see what happens when she dies. Like Mother Earth. Yeah, yeah. So this was, it's like 5, this is like 10 years ago. Yep, yeah, like 12 years ago at this point that he had died. So they, so he has children who are kind of taking up some of them are, are still within the church. Others have drug problems and like are fucked up because come on, like that's a fucked up thing to, to experience as a kid.

1:02:36 So even though they might be the true children, they're still like dealing with the ramifications of growing up in a cult and like having that control. So one of his younger sons actually founded, he founded the Iron Rod Ministries, which is also known as the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary Church. And it's been incredibly controversial. Controversial because they get involved in politics and they have there's a lot of advocacy for for private ownership of firearms. And they also supported January 6th capital attack, like the capital United States capital attack. So you know, I know it's like really fucking surprising Iron Rod Ministries, you know, part of the Unification Church. But I mean, like I said, like we could go into this for it's still going on.

1:03:32 We can like if you guys go on to TikTok, there are members who are actively posting on there and they will share like the they have a a museum. So you can like see the Museum of the Unification Church that like has like this whole room. It's like the true family. And like, it's kind of like a mini, like, yeah, it's a little mini museum like that has it looks beautiful, but it's a means for them to recruit new members so you can find them. And, and the the great thing is like when you're looking at the Moonies, there's not a ton of biased media against it. So you can still see what the what the church members, how they're trying to recruit people actively today. Because let's be honest, like the the cult, I don't know what it is about cult websites.

1:04:26 Don't get me started. That's my you know, you know, that's my pet peeve. And they do. And the cult ones and like the like the UFO one, like they're all like what is wrong with you people? It's like Geo sites from like the 1990s. Exactly why? Why? I know we've talked about this. It's. Almost creepy. It is super it's super creepy and like really dated yes and and so they have websites that you can go to not very they're not very great so like. And hello, this is 2024. Fucking get a modern website.

1:05:06 You want people that this is what people are on 24/7. Get a good website. Yeah, yeah. Build an app. Build an apps Yeah, yeah, make them download your app. Like, yeah, it's funny. You know, we've talked about this. I was having this conversation with a friend, too, and it's like, it's always the worst. Like the guy who's like the jackhammers, like under construction. Yeah. It's like so bad. Coming soon. Coming soon, Yeah. Yeah. It's like, like everything is just really bad. But another way that they're trying to recruit actively today. The younger members have TikTok, Tik Toks, and they have Instagrams. And so they're showing their lives and you can see. How great that we are and yeah, yeah. Well, look how great it is.

1:05:50 I got to wear. That's how I heard about it. I got to wear my mom's dress that she wore in the 1970s. And like, this is the perfect life. Like here's here's a look into my life. And oh, by the way, you're going to have an arranged marriage and you're going to have sex rituals and yeah, don't. Let's not talk about that. Yes, yeah. God. So question before we leave, how, what, where's the money? Like how does he get his money from the members? So like Scientology, for example, you have to spend a shit load of money to go through classes, right? They make a lot of money on their members from the books and the classes.

1:06:30 Do they do that with their members or are they getting their money from other sources like the businesses and the all of that? Well, OK, so one thing with cults that they often times do is you have free labor. Yeah, you. Have you're working for the betterment of Yes, the cult. The Cult. And maybe the betterment of the cult is working for a newspaper agency, and all of your money's just going directly back into the church. Right, right. So whatever money you're making is really not yours. It's actually the true family's money. Yeah. So they're getting it from their members. They're also getting it. They have multiple streams of income still whether and and they're and they're affecting policy today.

1:07:12 Yeah, these people are affecting policy today. Well. Because they have money. Because. They have money, so the money is coming from the members. Free labor, right? People donating money like they will ask for donations and I'm sure everything costs money. So like, I'm sure that there are things that you can, you know, buy through it, but I think the, the main source of income is the free labor that they get from people. If they're working for your, you know, tuna company, that money is not going to them. They're, you know, maybe they're staying at a church owned like home or whatever because they're also huge in. Communal living. They there's some communal living, but they're huge in real estate.

1:07:57 Oh, yeah. Oh, OK, so Scientology. Yes, yeah, a lot of churches are, Yeah. And if you're a church, you don't have to, like in the United States, you don't have to pay taxes like property taxes, which is fucked up. Well, so here's the thing. Like, he's not nearly as fucked up as Sherri Shepherd. And I know I say this like on my broken record, but he he's, I feel like people would flock to him more easily. His shtick, yeah, is more. It's palatable. Palatable. Yeah. Yes, so I think, I mean, I skimmed over a lot of fucked up things. Like I said, I could, I could go over what a fucking monster this guy is 'cause he is.

1:08:45 He sounded like it just from the little bit we heard. Yeah, it's very. I mean, he is, he's really fucked up and he's still a cult leader. But like at the essence of it, it's it's a very relatable message. That he shares. That's how you get your members. That's how you get them, yeah. Relate to them so well. Thank you for a very thank you for finally diving into this. Topic. I know, I know, I know. I'm like, gosh, we're thinking now I'm like, oh, there's so many things I could have gone over that I missed. Well, we'll have the bonus content for subscribers, yes, and they can hear all of this up crap. And like, some of it, like, yeah, it is really fucked up. Like going into like the rituals and stuff. I would like to go into some good. We'll do that.

1:09:27 We'll do it. All right. Thanks again for a great episode. We'll see you later. See you later. Bye.