Family Federation For World Peace And Unification

Cult or religion?

         
           The flag that flies in the front yard at Fargo and Sheridan (7450 N Sheridan) carries its church symbol which comes in red and black. Tough to get a good picture of the flag emblazoned with the red icon without a good breeze. What is most noticeable about this place is the baby blue school bus. This interesting religion and church keeps a pretty low profile in the quaint, sleepy burgh of Rogers Park, Illinois.
         
Please continue reading for more pictures and story

          FFWPU is otherwise known as the Unification Church. The church members are known pejoratively as "Moonies"  after the founder and messiah Sun Myung Moon. He died this past September in 2012. Mr. Moon died a billionaire and before his death planned to build paradise on Earth in Paraguay. This article is written by someone who visited this utopia which is currently under construction.

           The religion originated in 1954 in Seoul, South Korea. It has a textbook called the Divine Principle. The origin story for this religion goes like this, when Mr Moon was 15 or 16 years old Jesus appeared before him and gave him some unfinished business to take care of. Before he could start his religion he was imprisoned by North Korea until he was released during a skirmish in the Korean War. By 1955 just a year after officially founding the religion there were thirty churches in Korea.

Church Symbol On Flag

           Mr. Moon moved to the United States in 1971 to spread the good word. In 1976 the world wide headquarters of the Unification Church was established at the New Yorker Hotel. This article from the New York Observer in 2011 recounts the bizarre ritual which took place there in 1982. Mr Moon walked with his followers from the hotel into Madison Square Garden where strangers were entered into marriage contracts en masse under the direction of Mr. Moon. Strange happenings like the one just recounted have put this religion in many people's minds into the cult category.

          In this article Steve Hassan recounts his indoctrination and brain washing with "the Moonies". In it he describes a forty day separation period where he wasn't able to communicate with anyone from the outside world and he dropped out of college spending over two years with them. Searching the internet you quickly get more and more riveting news stories concerning this church. This is a photo from CNN of the first mass wedding since his Mr. Moon's death. This mass wedding in South Korea where 3000 - 3500 couples were wed took place this past February 23rd 2013. Women must under oath declare themselves to be virgins and after the wedding the couple cannot have sex for forty days.

Nearly all (couples) were personally matched by Moon, who taught that romantic love led to sexual promiscuity, mismatched couples and dysfunctional societies.

Many were married just hours after meeting for the first time, and Moon’s preference for cross-cultural, international marriages meant that they often shared no common language.

                 The Unification Church of Rogers Park has been located at 7077 N Ashland since 1996 after the Rogers Park Women's Club (which has its own interesting history) folded. Not much information on this church online save an oddball review by Alfau posted here under city search listing. The back story of this religion and from different members' accounts the Unification Church is most similar to L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology, an even weirder philosophy dreamt up by a science fiction writer.

What is the function of this building?