The dissolution procedure relies on hostile ex-members. The voice of current devotees is also important to understand why believers donated to the church.
by Masumi Fukuda
Article 3 of 4. Read article 1 and article 2.
Shocked at the court document
Kazuko Asada (pseudonym of a 70-year-old lady), residing in Tokyo, had a connection with the FFWPU when a believer came to her home to sell a set of three seals. Subsequently, she was invited to an exhibition and purchased a marble vase for around one million yen. There was no threatening involved.
The family of Asada’s husband is old and distinguished, with four hundred years of history. An ancestor who succeeded as a merchant was known to make substantial donations to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, taking on the responsibility of collecting contributions from people and accumulating significant “virtue.”
Ancestors understood the essence of donations and knew that money is not meant solely for personal enjoyment, she said. “Moreover, on my side of the family, my grandfather and great-grandfather were monks in Nagano, and my mother always worshipped the family altar, so the value of having faith was deeply ingrained in me. Therefore, rather than saying I make donations, I prefer to say, ‘I am accumulating virtue.’”
Asada joined in 1987. Her husband, the owner of a business company, became a believer six months later, encouraged by his wife who introduced the UC’s ideas to him as a teaching of love that benefits others. Since then, the couple has made donations exceeding 100 million yen.
“For example, when the Cheon Jeong Gung, where Mother (Hak Ja Han Moon, Reverend Moon’s widow and the current president of the FFWPU) resides, was being built, I felt a desire to do anything I could. It is unthinkable to argue that I was coerced or forced, as claimed by NNLASS [National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales]. First of all, if someone threatened me, I would quit the church. If I were shown a family tree and told something was wrong, I would be angry. While we did accumulate considerable ‘virtue,’ we did not go bankrupt. We did not lose our house or land. On the contrary, our family is harmonious, and I am very happy,” she said.
“Donations are an expression of individual freedom,” she added. “The church simply informs us that something like this will be constructed, for example at the headquarters in Korea. They only announce plans for upcoming projects. How believers react is up to each individual. There is no coercion or threats involved.”
However, Asada has been involved in a lawsuit related to believers’ requests for refunding donations. A fellow female believer from Asada’s church had a falling out and left the church. Subsequently, the brother contacted NNLASS, and a lawsuit for the return of donations was initiated with the sister as the plaintiff. Asada was astonished when she saw the court documents from the plaintiff’s side.
When the sister was still a member, she expressed a desire for a particular ornament for good fortune. Asada’s church did not deal with it. Therefore, Asada, who was the head of the women’s group, made efforts to obtain the ornament and personally delivered it to the sister’s home
However, the plaintiff twisted the story and claimed, “Asada had forcibly shown to my sister her family tree and threatened her, and my sister had bought the item out of fear.” Asada expressed her frustration, saying, “After I went through considerable trouble to find the item that she wanted and deliver it to her home, the entire story was completely distorted into a fabrication.”
A staff member from the church headquarters reported, “The texts of the court documents related to cases involving NNLASS are almost all similar. The story is that someone from the church threatened and scared them into buying goods or making donations.” This case was resolved with the church entering into a settlement.
Asada is aware of many legal cases that she believes are false accusations from the church’s perspective. “No matter what we members say or present as evidence, we are not believed. In the end, the false claims from the plaintiff’s side prevail. It is frustrating, and I cannot sleep at night.”
In forty years, approximately 200 million yen in donations
Ryoko Shinoda (pseudonym of a 73-year-old lady), who resides in Hiroshima City, found herself deeply troubled by what seemed like an unreasonable event in 1983. Living an ordinary life, she couldn’t fathom why such things were happening. Despite exploring various religions in search of answers, she came up empty-handed.
During this time, her elder sister, who was a FFWPU believer, wrote and explained the Unification Principle on paper. Although Shinoda didn’t immediately grasp its meaning, she sensed a glimmer of hope. Wanting to study the Unification Principle more thoroughly, she started attending the church in Hiroshima City. As a result, she came to understand that God genuinely desires to improve this conflict-ridden world and felt a desire to contribute to the realization of God’s dream. Additionally, when she looked at the life course of Reverend Moon, she was deeply impressed by the hardships he endured for the sake of the salvation of humanity.
“Initially, my husband and I considered divorce because our perspectives were different,” she said. Her husband also understood that, if it came down to it, she would prioritize the church over him. So, her husband decided to visit the Video Center to listen to the Unification Principle that his wife believed in. He wanted to find fault with the doctrine so he could tell her to quit the church. He watched the videos seriously, considering what would happen next because he was trying to refute his wife’s beliefs. However, as he kept watching, his questions were all solved one by one.
“In the end, my husband became a ‘mummy catcher turned mummy,’” she remarked. [Translator’s note: This is a Japanese expression that means one sets out to do one thing but ending up doing the opposite.]
Shinoda laughed as she said this. In this way, her husband also joined the church in 1986. She and her husband, who engaged in a broad range of electrical wiring work, were blessed with three daughters. Over the forty years they have been members of the UC, they donated approximately 200 million yen, with a significant portion coming from inheritances from both parents and other relatives.
“Seeing this amount, you might think we are being mind-controlled, but that’s not the case. It is normal to want a house, certain things; in fact, we built a house. But beyond that, thinking about God’s love and Reverend Moon’s journey, I want to do anything I can. I believe the Unification Principle is wonderful, so no matter how much the media criticizes it or tries to discourage us, I won’t be shaken, and I have no intention of quitting,” she said.
Finally, in the case of A, a Family Federation male staff member, he said that due to donations exceeding 50 million yen, his family’s household finances became so strained at one point that they couldn’t afford rent.
“Interestingly, my wife was more enthusiastic about donations than I was,” he said. “Every time she encountered information about donation opportunities, she would get motivated and say, ‘We must do (donations) at our home.’ Initially, I doubted, thinking, ‘If you say so.’ But somehow miracles happened. When our child was born, my father sent a substantial amount of money, and relatives who started living with us contributed a significant portion of living expenses. We allocated a portion of these funds to donations. Also, when I used my bank’s cash card for cash advances, for some reason, the borrowing limit expanded. I thought, ‘This must be something I should do,’ and borrowed several million yen for donations. Of course, the monthly repayment amount skyrocketed. Nevertheless, thinking that I would be OK because I was protected by faith, even if I had to push a bit, I continued the cycle of borrowing and repaying. However, eventually, it became challenging to pay the rent, and I had to take on a night-shift part-time job.”
Why did they go to such lengths to make a donation? “We believed that he Messiah of the Second Advent [Reverend Moon] was engaging in the final battle against evil authoritarian regimes like communism to save humanity. If we could contribute to it, even if it was on the financial side only, it was the most grateful thing we could do. However, if they would hear something like this, organizations like NNLASS would probably claim that giving money there, where there is supposedly no God or Buddha, is nothing but self-damage, a result of mind control,” he explained.
Religions find meaning in doctrines that deviate from secular societal norms. Because of this, they often face prejudice and attacks from those in the secular world. To protect specific religions and their believers from such prejudice and attacks, the concept of freedom of religion, a human right, exists. NNLASS lawyers, by labeling what they do not understand as “cults” and insisting that believers are “brainwashed,” thoroughly ostracize them. This is nothing short of fascism.