Patrick Hickey (politician) had only recently been founded. Hickey worked in the Unification Church as a state leader and regional spokesperson. In 1978 he was matched with his wife, Shin Myung-hee of South Korea, by church founder Sun Myung Moon. They were married in 1982 in a Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church, held in Madison Square Garden in New York City, along with over 2000 other couples. They now have four grown children. Hickey moved to Nevada in the 1990s and worked as a reporter as well as founding a house painting company. In 1996 he was elected to the Nevada State
Sun Myung Moon also drew criticism, especially after they involved members of other churches, including Roman Catholic archbishop Emmanuel Milingo. He was also criticized for his relationships with political and religious figures, including U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, North Korean President Kim Il Sung, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Sun Myung Moon was born Moon Yong Myeong on 25 February 1920, in modern-day North P'yŏng'an Province, North Korea, at a time when Korea was under Japanese rule. He was the younger of two sons in a farming family of eight