c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon _ who officiated at a marriage blessing ceremony here Saturday (Nov. 29) attended by some 40,000 people _ appears torn between trying to broaden its appeal and holding to a theology presenting Moon as a messiah and the church as the one, true path to salvation.

Saturday’s event marked the first time Moon included non-Unification Church members in a”blessing”ceremony celebrating marriage and family, both of which are central to church theology.

Of the 28,000 couples gathered at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium for the event, no more than 2,500 were Unification Church members who consented to marriages arranged for them by the church. The others were non-Unification couples, many of them long-married, who appeared attracted by the event’s advertised focus on strengthening family life.

At the same time, however, Moon did not shy away from the claim that he is the”third Adam”_ God’s own messiah following in the footsteps of Adam and Jesus to rid the world of sin. Such claims prompted the National Council of Churches in 1977 to declare Unification Church theology”incompatible with Christian teaching and belief.””Jesus was supposed to build the ideal family centered on him,”Moon said Saturday.”His mission has been put off until the third Adam comes … This third Adam comes as True Parents”_ the latter a reference to Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, who are viewed within the Unification Church as the spiritual parents of all its members.

Massimo Introvigne, director of the Center for Studies on New Religions, based in Turin, Italy, said the double-message offered here by Moon indicated an uncertainty within the controversial church, founded by the Korean-born Moon some 44 year ago.

Introvigne, who attended”Blessing `97,”said it is unclear whether Moon wants his church to move from the religious fringe to the mainstream as a denomination, or whether he wants it to become”a cultural, parachurch, trans-denominational movement like Promise Keepers,”the inter-denominational, evangelical Christian men’s movement.

Bolstering the latter possibility were reports Moon is in the process of actually disbanding his American church, favoring a foundation structure in its place. Introvigne said Moon might be directing his church toward becoming”a Promise Keepers for couples.” But another expert on new religious movements, who also attended”Blessing ’97,”viewed Moon’s attempt to be both inclusive and exclusive as a sign of Unification Church decline in the United States.”The Unification Church has been in a period of stagnation for the past two decades,”said J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, Calif.”It’s become just one of many newer groups on the American religious scene at this point, and not a particularly successful one at that.” According to Melton, the Unification Church is down to between 3,000-5,000 members in the United States. At its peak some two decades ago, the church had only about 7,000 actual members, Melton added, despite the widespread attention it has received.

Moreover, Melton said, a drop in the American church’s non-Asian membership accounts for most of the attrition.”Most new members coming into the church come from the Korean-American community,”he said.”For Americans, Moon just hasn’t acted as a messiah. He’s seen more as a manipulator of money, like a corporate exec,”said Melton, referring to Moon’s 1982 conviction on tax evasion charges, for which he served 13 month in a federal prison. Moon reportedly heads a multi-billion dollar global empire.

Moon _ who at age 15 claimed Jesus had appeared to him, urging him to complete the task of establishing God’s realm on Earth _ is also”negatively viewed as something of a showman,”added Melton, noting the church leader’s penchant for staging mass weddings and patriotic extravaganzas.

Saturday’s”Blessing `97″_ which capped a week of cultural, sport and religious events in the Washington area organized by the church _ underscored Melton’s labeling of Moon a showman.

Church officials claimed the ceremony was linked by satellite to 54 countries and included 3.6-million participants from 185 nations, although they offered few details to substantiate the claim.

At RFK Stadium, Moon and his wife, bedecked in white and gold robes, descended a red carpeted stairway to the applause of the crowd. They sprinkled 36 representative couples with holy water from silver bowls as others mirrored the act on the stadium field, where the 2,500 new couples in wedding attire were seated.

Because Moon’s ceremony had no legal standing, the new couples _ most from Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan _ must marry in legal ceremonies at another time. Couples also came from Africa, South America and Europe, said Chris Corcoran, public affairs director for the Unification Church of America.

Unlike previous Unification marriage blessings, the ceremony included people outside the church who were encouraged to rededicate themselves as married couples. The majority of the non-Unificationists were from the Washington metropolitan area, but others came from Chicago and several East Coast cities, said Howard Self, public affairs director for the World Culture & Sports Festival, the Moon organization that officially staged”Blessing `97.” In addition, six religious leaders billed as”representatives of the world’s religions,”offered prayers and comments about the importance of marriage. Of the six, only the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan was well-known to Americans _ and Farrakhan is, at the least, just as controversial a figure as Moon. The others were Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist who represented only themselves or relatively small followings.

Melton said by inviting Farrakhan to the event, Moon had”insured that from now on neither mainstream Muslim or Jewish leaders will likely attend his events.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)

Most mainstream Muslim groups view Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam as holding beliefs about race and the organization’s founders that put it beyond the pale of acceptable Islamic theology. Jews have long regarded Farrakhan as anti-Semitic, which he denies.”Marriage is the cornerstone of family,”Farrakhan said.”Family is the cornerstone of a nation, but what is the cornerstone of marriage? The greatest strength of all is the strength of God himself. If God is the cornerstone of your marriage, your marriage shall never fail.” Farrakhan, who had a cheering section of people dressed in the traditional black suits and long white gowns and veils of the Nation of Islam, was applauded warmly by the crowd, estimated at 40,000 by church officials.

Melton said Farrakhan’s inclusion in the ceremony was an admission by the Unification Church that its efforts to move away from the fringe of mainstream religion are over.”It’s almost communicating, `We’ve given up,'”he said.

But Unification Church members at the stadium found the participation of the six religious leaders particularly significant.”That was cool,”said Jennifer Perry, 25, of San Francisco, who met her new mate, Sebastien Jean, 24, of Kingston, N.Y., who was selected for her by the Unification Church, just a week before the ceremony.”I was so jazzed by that. They all said, in essence, the same thing. They said God needs to be a part of family life and married life in particular.” Jean voiced similar enthusiasm.”There was that kind of unity amongst world religions,”he said.”It’s like one pillar of energy sent to God.” Unification Church of America President Tyler Hendricks said it would be a”disservice”to the religious leaders to view their presence at the ceremony as a sign that they support everything about his church.”They’re supporting God,”he said.”They’re supporting humankind and … families.” Hendricks said dedication to one’s spouse is”the best of what religions is all about. … People who detract from that, I’ll say, God bless them. Maybe they’ll get it some day.”

DEA END RIFKIN