The Tamesis
December 15, 2025
Seoul— The Marriage Church, long recognized for its stadium-sized mass wedding celebrations that draw in worldwide focus and by the label “Moon” extensively utilized by its fans, is once more at the facility of South Korea’s broadening political tornado amidst complaints of unlawful lobbying and gift-giving entailing political leaders.
The fees, entailing calls with both significant celebrations prior to and after the 2022 governmental political election, have reignited an old yet unsettled inquiry: Why do spiritual motions consistently locate themselves knotted with political power?
Viewers claim the solution exists not simply in the most up to date complaints yet in the church’s historic DNA, which has actually been formed by years of political interaction, worldwide passions and inner situations.
” For the Marriage Church, it is tough to different national politics and faith,” Tak Ji-il, teacher of spiritual background at Busan Presbyterian College and editor-in-chief of Faith Month-to-month, informed The Korea Herald on Sunday.
” National politics is faith and faith is national politics – this structure is essential to recognizing the existing rumor,” De included.
Unlike mainstream spiritual teams, which officially distance themselves from political impact, the Marriage Church has actually viewpoint political engagement as a way to, as opposed to an inconsistency from, spiritual ends.
Established In 1954 by the late Sunlight Myung Moon, the church broadened swiftly throughout the Cold Battle, driven by intense anti-communism and a very central business framework. It is never ever restricted to prayer. Schools, media, companies and structures create an international network that obscures the lines in between confidence, organization and diplomacy.
Moon himself acts honestly on the globe phase. In 1990, he fulfilled Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow; in 1991, he fulfilled North Oriental leader Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang– an amazing accomplishment for a spiritual number at the end of the Cold Battle.
The Church calls these experiences “tranquility diplomacy.” Movie critics after that and currently see them as proof that spiritual companies run as geopolitical stars.
” Throughout the Moon Sun-Myung age, political accessibility depended greatly on the creator’s personal appeal and worldwide links,” De discusses. “This was not systemic lobbying in today’s feeling– this was Moon’s very own lobbying.”
With Moon Jae-in’s fatality in 2012, this individual authority went away – with effects that have actually formed the church’s current habits.
After his fatality, management passed to his widow Han Xuejia, yet a sequence disagreement quickly burst out in between her and Moon’s children. Drawn-out inner problem has actually broken up the motion, causing lawsuits, factionalism and a loss of communication.
Spiritual scholars explain the post-2012 duration as one of critical susceptability. Without Moon’s distinct authority, the church has actually progressively counted on business approaches– consisting of political accessibility– to preserve impact and authenticity.
” Tasks that the church has actually long advertised– tranquility campaigns, abroad advancement, the Korea-Japan undersea passage– can not be attained with spiritual impact alone,” De stated. “They require political power.”
It protests this history that district attorneys think the supposed lobbying tasks have actually escalated.
The searchings for of the unique consultatory team led by Minutes Joong-ki show that tape-recorded declarations by Yun Young-ho, the previous head of the Marriage Church’s globe head office, show that the company does not check out selecting national politics as a public procedure yet instead as a possible resource of impact.
In recordings revealed throughout the current examination, Yun stated the church had actually ended up being a “crucial ballot” in advance of the 2022 governmental political election and emphasized the demand to stay clear of seeming straightened with just one camp.
” If you take a look at its past– lobbying united state Republicans, Japan’s ruling event, South Korea’s armed forces routine– this really did not appeared of heaven,” he stated. “What has actually altered is the range of danger they want to take.”
The 2022 political election duration additionally accompanies a significant worldwide occasion pertaining to the Marriage Church, the Oriental Peninsula Tranquility Top, went to by worldwide political leaders. District attorneys think the occasion belonged to a more comprehensive initiative to forecast political importance and recover inner authority amidst sequence chaos.
Additionally, the church deals with stress from abroad.
The Marriage Church’s fundraising techniques and political incorporate Japan, among its biggest economic bases, have actually come under enhanced examination complying with the 2022 murder of previous Japanese Head of state Shinzo Abe.
Court judgments and management activities given that have actually badly compromised the church’s procedures in Japan, removing a significant resource of profits.
” Japanese contributions compose a big part of the church’s funds,” De kept in mind. “Shedding that will certainly shock the whole company.”
Experts claim rewards to look for political assistance are most likely to expand amidst economic restraints and management competitors.
The Marriage Church released a declaration on Friday urging that the supposed lobbying and gift-giving were accomplished by people alone.
Nevertheless, the church’s main position appears not likely to secure it from more examination.
The dispute motivated a straight action from heaven Home, highlighting the level of sensitivity of the problem in a nation whose constitution clearly ensures the splitting up of faith and state.
Head Of State Lee on Wednesday purchased an extensive examination right into accusations of unlawful web links in between spiritual teams and political leaders, his workplace stated, amidst expanding examination of the Marriage Church’s supposed connections to political organizations.
Lee’s instruction came a day after an unique district attorney turned over an instance entailing supposed connections in between the Marriage Church and legislators from the judgment Democratic Celebration to authorities, amidst objection that the examination had actually formerly targeted just participants of the resistance Individuals’s Power event.
” Head of state Lee routed the authorities to carry out an extensive examination right into accusations of unlawful participation in between certain spiritual teams and political leaders, no matter event or position,” Cheong Wa Dae stated at an interview.
As the examination proceeds, South Korea is required to face a decades-old unpleasant inquiry: Just how much should spiritual motions be permitted to go when confidence and national politics come to be identical?
