Unification Church of the United States Unification Church of the United States The Unification Church of the United States, sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Moonies", is a new religious movement in the United States of America. It began in the 1950s and 1960s when missionaries from Japan and South Korea were sent to the United States by the international Unification Church's founder and leader Sun Myung Moon. It expanded in the 1970s and then became involved in controversy due to its theology, its political activism, and the lifestyle of its members. Since then it has been involved in many areas of American society and has
Unification Church of the United States success, the "Times" was well-read in conservative and anti-communist circles and was credited by President Ronald Reagan with helping to win the Cold War. In 1983 church members publicly protested against the Soviet Union over its shooting down of Korean Airlines Flight 007. In 1984, church member Dan Fefferman founded the International Coalition for Religious Freedom in Virginia, which is active in protesting what it considers to be threats to religious freedom by governmental agencies. In 1986 conservative author William Rusher wrote: "The members the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, now almost universally referred to as 'Moonies,' constitute a