RELIGION: Unification Church promotes “Spiritual Globalization”

By Fabiana Frayssinet Reprint | | Print |

Fabiana Frayssinet

JARDIM, Brazil, Oct 3 1997 (IPS) - The Unification Church of South Korea’s Rev. Sun Myung Moon is active in the Pantanal region, considered one of Brazil’s ecological paradises, laying the groundwork for a project to recreate the Garden of Eden, following an economic model of globalization they believe was created by God.

“It is a project that we are beginning here, but it is not only for this region. Instead we are thinking of building it as a pilot program for peace and happiness for all humanity,” explained church “president” Kim Yan Sang.

Sang is local representative of the Unification Church’s founder. Moon, claims to have received from Jesus Christ a mission to liberate humanity from misery when he was 16-years-old, during an Easter morning on a mountain in Korea. Adherents to the church say they completed the first part of their instructions from God by combating communism, which they consider to be the “number one enemy of God.”

“The Reverend Moon fought ideologically against communism to weaken it. Now that it has lost its international influence, we feel this part of our work is done and now, in order for the world that God wants to be able to rise, we must revitalize the values of the family and of true love,” said Yan Sang.

In the area destined to be a “Garden of Eden”, located in the south Matto Grosso area of western Brazil, 80 kilometers from the border with Paraguay, the church says it is ready to invest some five billion dollars to begin its “new world.”

In nearby Jardim, Moon owns 30,000 hectares of land which which could expand to 100,000 hecatres by the end of the year, according to local real estate sources. Some 400 men and women of various nationalities work at the “New Hope” ranch, building the first stage of the centre: a traditional education center for Church doctrine, a hotel and restaurant.

“Reverend Moon has the conviction that the next century will be one of peace and harmony in the entire world, for that reason, globalization is not a casualty but rather it responds to a model of God that humanity should live as one great nation,” said Yan Sang.

According to Alejandro de Souza, an Argentine who became personal assistant to Moon in Latin America and an official translator for the church, the organization has put all of its hope into Latin America, which will play a fundamental role in the next century and will “continue to be a power that will influence the entire world.”

“The world is going to suffer very grave problems with food. For that reason, the oriental nations are going to move themselves here, because this is the only place that they produce food in the quantity and quality that the world requires,” he predicted.

De Souza criticized the actions of the United Nations in assisting countries, saying it only responds to the interests of rich countries, and has failed in its mission. The Unification Church, however, has taken up the cause raised by the United Nations in its global projects, that of locally sustainable development, he said.

For the nations of the southern common market – Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) – Moon wants to bring development to rural areas through projects of technological development in agriculture, forestation, ecotourism and agroindustry, in order to improve the quality of life for peasants.

“By concentrating himself in large cities, man has lost his economic and educational benefits, people become strangers to nature,” said Kim. “We are not here in Jardim to seek some religious end but rather to bring advanced technology here so that the people can exploit their resources, not by destroying them, but by multiplying them.”

To reach New Hope,travellers must cross a fast-flowing river in a small boat. The compound’s main house is surrounded by toucans, parrots, wild birds and even a wild boar that eats from the hands of the devotees like a household pet.

In the surrounding rivers, followers of Moon take part in one of his favorite hobbies, fishing. According to them, the new world will begin in ecological paradise and their activities have concerned leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.

“The people here are very poor. We are worried about how the Moon cult is circulating among us in a potent way, full of power, riches and monetary forces,” said Jardim’s parish priest, Bento Moreira, who condemns the Unification Church’s methods of indoctrinating youth.

“Take for example the question of marriage,” he said. “Visiting their ranch, one sees young people who were married over three years ago and still have not had sexual relations because they are waiting for orders from the Reverend Moon to do so.”

Leaders of a sect try to show that their methods are not “strange,” with mass prayers at the end of the day attended by devotees participating in the songs and prayers in front of photographs of Moon and his young wife set opn an altar.

“They say the Moon sect brainwashes young people. And its true, at least they did it to me, but in a good sense. Before, I always fought with my parents, today when I go to visit them, in the city of Comodoro Rivadavaia, I even bring them tea in bed,” said De Souza.

The church boasts a membership of more than 10 million world wide – one million here in Brazil. Its assets are reported to be about eight billion dollars and it operates many business concerns in the United States and Japan.

In the Mercosur countries, the cities of Foz de Iguazu in Brazil, Corrientes in Argentina and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay have been earmarked to be the next to receive investments from Moon, according to the Brazilian weekly magazine Gazeta Mercantil.

The church runs a bank, a newspaper and a five- star hotel in Montevideo in addition to a Latin American publication called “Times of the World.” It is in this region that spiritual globalization will begin, according to Kim. (FIN/IPS/ff/dg/cr-ip/dk/97)