Christianity in Korea Church has increased its membership by 70% in the ten years leading up to 2007. Numerous unorthodox sects, such as the Unification Church founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon, have also developed in Korea. The influence on education has been decisive, as Christian missionaries started 293 schools and 40 universities including three of the top five academic institutions. Christianity was associated with more widespread education and Western modernization. Catholicism and Protestantism are seen as the religion of the middle class, youth, intellectuals, and urbanites, and has been central to South Korea's pursuit of modernity and westernization after the end
United States v. Sun Myung Moon York Civil Liberties Union, called the prosecution "an indefensible intrusion in private religious affairs." The "New York Times" and the "Washington Post", which had both been critical of Moon, expressed concern about the government's prosecution of him and the consequences it might have for other religious groups. Michael Tori, a professor at Marist College (Poughkeepsie, New York) suggested that Moon's conviction helped the Unification Church gain more acceptance in mainstream American society, since it showed that he was financially accountable to the government and the public. In 1991 Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Carlton Sherwood wrote a book in Sun Myung Moon's