Unification Church of the United States term "Moonies", a special use of the word "indemnity", and the expressions "True Parents", "heartistic", "doomsday cult", "love bombing", and "crazy for God"—the last coined by Moon himself. 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
Unification Church of the United States the government and the public.(see also: United States vs. Sun Myung Moon) In the 1970s the American news media began using the word "Moonie" to refer to Unification Church members. This was widely considered to be derogatory. In the 1980s and 1990s the church undertook an extensive public relations campaign against the use of the word by the news media. In 1989 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