Friday, January 23, 2009

Søren Kierkegaard, Sun Myung Moon, and Liberation

One of my favorite philosophers is Søren Kierkegaard who, along with one of my other favorite philosophers Albert Camus, developed the theory of philosophical absurdism--the belief that "the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to humanity." I'm not an orthodox absurdist but one of the things that leads me to give credence to the tenets of absurdism is the fact that a complete nutjob like Moon has become a power player in the capital of the most powerful nation in the world and how the Washington media has relinquished its role of watchdog regarding Moon (apparently, if you are good enough of a thief to be able to buy a printing press and subsidize it for a quarter of a century from the proceeds of a scam that wiped out the life savings of many bereaved widows, then somehow in the logic of many DC journalists, then you're one of the gang.

Martin Herbst, a former head of the Moonies in Slovenia, who according to this rough translation of a Danish journal, decided to leave Moon's sphere of influence after he read Kierkegaard. Perhaps I can send some of Kierkegaard's writings to members of the Washington press corps.

3 comments:

nunya said...

Good idea...tho, hmmm, umm, do they read, the Washingotn press corps?

Anonymous said...

Herbst has been out of the group for ten years, so he had a good bit of time to put his thoughts into the book. If I understand the translation correctly, he figured out the org wasn't what it was cracked up to be when he attended Moon's theological seminary, UTS, and read Kierkegaard. Said he realized there was a double standard of what was preached and what was practiced. Anyone know if the book will be published in English?

Sad story about him giving up his son to a childless Moon following couple and now can't see him.

Apparently giving away your 'extra' kids is not uncommon in the Moon org. Moon matched Bo Hi Pak's daughter to his dead son, Heung Jin, the one Moon claims Jesus serves in heaven. I understand Moon's sons Hyo Jin and Hyun Jin each gave her one their kids.

Moon's daughter, In Jin, has said Moon and his wife had nothing to do with raising the Moon kids. They were raised by members and bowing servants.

Also, Michael Warder said that the Moon org wanted to take his child and that was one of the reasons he gave for leaving the group.

Moon says "exchange marriage" or intermarrying of nationalities and races is high on God's "you must do" list and yet Moon matched all of his own kids to other Koreans. Moon says "family" is important and they give their kids away, swindle widows and then rationalize it's God's will.

Is there anything Moon does that is not rooted in fraud?

Kenneth Gordon Neufeld said...

I was a student of the Unification Theological Seminary from 1978 to 1980 and it was my experience that many students became less committed to the organization and developed broader viewpoints there because the Seminary permitted them to read more widely and to have time for private thought. This freed them from the normal church life of constant frantic activity, and the resulting freedoms slowly chipped away at the mind control that was imposed on them when they first joined.

I would attribute my own eventual departure from the Moon cult to my 2 years at the Seminary, but it should be noted that it was not until another 6 years had passed before I finally determined to leave.

Generally, the most intelligent and capable members are the ones who become disaffected during their time at the Seminary and eventually leave, while the less talented ones who are slaves to conventional thought remain committed to Moon(because they are less involved intellectually) and therefore it is these people who go on to become leaders in the Moon organization.