Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church President Park Chung-hee. She said: "I join in a trans-religious spirit. I like the Unification Church way of interpreting the Bible, incorporating the Quran and Buddhist scripts". In 2013, four months after the death of Sun Myung Moon, the church held a Blessing ceremony for 3,500 couples in South Korea, while another 24,000 followers took part in other countries via video link. This ceremony was presided over by Hak Ja Han. Moon's practice of matching couples was very unusual in both Christian tradition and in modern Western culture and attracted much attention and controversy. Members of some churches have expressed
Unification movement the "Chicago Tribune" was picketed after referring to members as "Moonies". Minister and civil rights leader James Bevel handed out fliers at the protest which said: "Are the Moonies our new niggers?" On an October 6, 1994 broadcast of "Nightline", host Ted Koppel stated: "On last night's program ...I used the term 'Moonies'. This is a label which members of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church find demeaning and offensive, and I'd like to apologize for its use." In other contexts it is still sometimes used and not always considered pejorative. On February 25, 1920, Sun Myung Moon was