Bittersweet Infamy - #42 - Moonstruck

Episode Date: April 17, 2022

Josie tells Taylor and guest host Mitchell Collins about controversial religious leader Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church, more infamously known as "the Moonies." Plus: the inspiration behind a beloved movie musical, and the Survivor contestant who didn't survive — but which one really happened?

Welcome to Bitter Sweden for me. I'm Taylor Basso. I'm Josie Mitchell. On this podcast, you tell the stories that live on in you, shocking, the unbelievable, and the unforgettable. The truth may be bitter, the stories are always sweet. We're back here in person. We are. Vancouver, Canada, 2022. So the way that this goes is, this is Mitchell by the way. Oh yeah. Hey, I'm on this podcast back in Vancouver. Love it. It's better the second time than the first. Yeah, it's much better. We've had Sushi since and it's it was really enjoyable. He had the salmon lover. So the way this is gonna go, I'm about to tell you two stories. One of them is real, one of them is fake. April Fools. What is April Fools and

they're both fake? They're not both fake. They're not. They're not. I promise you from the bottom of my heart one of these is real. I appreciate that and I believe you. Okay, I'm ready. Story number one. Movie lovers around the world enjoyed the Feel Good 1992 musical hit Sister Act. Oh well, yeah. It's a great movie. Story of Whippy Goldberg as a Las Vegas lounge singer who is put into witness protection after seeing her mobster boyfriend commit a murder. Yeah. She is forced to live at a convent disguised as a nun running the sisters choir program in order to earn her keep. But few know the true story that inspired the comedy classic. Oh, well, make sure do you know? No, but I'm excited. This could be fake. It could be entirely fake. It could be so true and

I never heard of it though. Like, I love the movie, but I don't know about a true story. You know the listening end here? I'm just like, it's a whole other it's a whole other deal. Yes, it can be. Bottom of the glass boat has just disappeared. It's just a leaky boat now. Let's go. Chicago 1948. Is this story too or this is? No, this is the same. Why would I lie? I mean, you are going to lie presumably. Okay. 23 year old Sylvia Martin was on a date with her boyfriend of several months, Carl DeMoto. When he disclosed to her information about the recent murder of a criminal associate that had been in the news. Namely, he did it. Oh, man. Oh, shit. He's like, did you say 1948? 1948. Okay. So we just post WW2. We're and we're about a year after

Al Capone died. If that puts you anywhere. And he's Chicago. So yeah, out of an abundance of caution because key witnesses in mob cases have a bad habit of going missing and or retracting their testimony. The FBI was immediately contacted and they determined that Sylvia needed to be hidden somewhere. Not even the Chicago mob would look. And where better than the Benedict Dean sisters of Chicago, the city's oldest congregation of nuns. Sylvia assumed the persona of Sister Louis Mary, maybe Louis Mary. I don't know how to read. A novice nun and the newest member of the Benedictine sisters. Like in Sister Act, the operation was so hush hush that only Sylvia, the mother superior and law enforcement knew what was going on. And like Sister Act,

Sister Louis Mary proved her worth through elevating the church's music program. Oh my gosh. Well, the older nuns were initially reluctant to take advice from such a young novice. Sylvia had a natural gift for music. Her parents being a vocal teacher and a concert pianist. Sadly, unlike the movie, she didn't rearrange the hymns into funky pop tracks. Oh well. What's the worth of her? And the Pope never showed up. Worthless. But all in Sylvia stayed amongst the sisters for nearly six months enjoying their hospitality. Carl DeMoto was eventually convicted and sentenced for the murderer. The murderer. He's the murderer. He was sentenced for the murder. When asked what the hardest part was of living at the convent, Sylvia said that she missed her family and scotch.

A fascinating tale. But did it happen? Can I just say two points? Please. First point, I'm completely won over by this. I believe it. So far, so far. Maybe you'll feel that way about the next one too. It might be the case. It might very well be the case. Second point, DeMoto. That's come up before in the tickler story y'all did. Oh, that's a deep cut. Episode 10. Wow. Look at you. DeMoto. I'm a true fan. I listen to every episode. I don't know how I feel. I'm gonna reserve complete judgment. I like that. Because you're a liar. But yeah, both true, that is how I am a liar. So let's go. Okay. Episode two. Story two. Survivor just premiered its 42nd season. 42nd. Interesting because this episode is the 42nd episode. Oh, maybe that's an

omen. Maybe that's an omen. We don't know. The reality TV juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down. It's based on the Swedish show Expedition Robinson. Survivor premiered in 2000 to ratings and water cooler buzz. X amount of people starving on an island, skimming against each other. It's a winning formula that birthed the next decade of competitive reality television. Truly. The hype around the show has since died down, but its reaches only expanded with international editions all over the globe. One such edition was 2009 Survivor Bulgaria 4, which answered the question of what happens when a contestant on Survivor doesn't survive. Oh, no. I was like in the middle of a laugh because I thought it'd be funny and then it wasn't. Nope. It's a side-eye. On day 14,

while completing a physical challenge, 53-year-old mayor, Nancho Vodenicharov of Radnevo, Bulgaria maybe I was faking not being able to read that. You don't know. Unfortunately suffered a fatal heart attack. I don't mention this story because it's all that unusual that someone would pass away while filming something, as Mitchell knows. Especially something- You killed somebody on a movie? No, he did an episode about it before, babes. Oh, thank you. Especially something as physically grueling as Survivor. The thing that's unusual about this situation is that they kept going with the show. Oh, what? In the wake of Nancho's death, a few of the castaways dropped out of the show as did the brand new host. Parentheses, he had to be replaced by the old host.

But otherwise, Nancho's passing was treated as a very sad elimination and this show pushed forward. Oh my gosh. Why the tiki torches? Yeah, just snuff him out. Snuff him out. No, opposite. You gotta snuff. Fire represents life on this island when your fire is out, so are you. Thank you. You gotta snuff that shit. A 19-year-old Georgi Khyov won on day 52. The season was aired on television, including Nancho's death, although his actual passing occurs off camera. And if you go to the Wikipedia page and look at the voting chart where it lists how everyone was eliminated, how many votes they received, etc., and so on, under Nancho it simply says died. Or maybe none of that ever happened. It's up to you.

Is Taylor a sick fuck if he devised the murder, the death? A murder? Where is the stronger word? It's not a murder, or is it? Death. You've really put me in a bad light here, a sick fuck. Fuchs, it's pronounced puke. It's such a nice features. So how are you feeling about this? I feel, okay, I have a lot of feelings. That was the idea. And some of them are as follows. Sick fuck situation. Also, I wouldn't there be like maybe legal ramifications with the survivor, but it's survivor Ocario, right? They'd live behind the iron curtain for a while, man. They're different stock than you and me. Yeah, no, I know. So I'm thinking of that. I'm also thinking 1948. Sylvia? Sylvia, Sylvia Martin.

Sylvia Martin. The inspiration behind Sister Act. I, what's like bling bling bling for me is the scotch. You don't think she likes scotch? 1948, they weren't drinking scotch. That's your theory. Women weren't drinking scotch. I think she was drinking a lot of scotch. It's a man's drink. No, I think she was probably drinking a lot of scotch. I don't know if she would have said it in 1948. What if she was a sassy gal? What if she was a sassy gal with a lot of moxie? To me, I feel like that's exactly the furthest that you're allowed to get in 1948 in terms of being a sassy gal. Maywest rule. Exactly, the Maywest rule, like pre-code. I'm leaning towards the second one being fake, but I'm also like, you did a work of art because it's very believable.

But I do think there's like these little details. Also, like having been a loyal listener, it has like your style. It's like your storytelling style and I love it, but I'm going second one's fake. Second one's fake. How about you, Josie? I think the sister act is fake. I think survivor's fake. Josie, you are right. Oh, good job. The sister act was completely fake. That's just a happy movie with Whoopi Goldberg. Sylvia Martin was my ninth grade math teacher. Incredible. Well done. So are you trying to tell us that Survivor Bulgaria 4 is real? Yes. And then a man died. A man died. They kept going with the show. Hold on a sec. I'm going to show you this Wikipedia. Stomped. But you know, Taylor, my theory was not very sound in terms of the sick

fuck theory because it could have happened, but it happened like he died like falling off a cliff or like heart attack. The sick fuck theory. Here's your boy. Oh my god. Oh my god. And it says just died. He ate. It's the credit. Noncho. Noncho just died and then his tribe had to go to Tribal Council anyway, which is a real sad story. Well done, Taylor. You magician you. How did you find that story? I've watched all 42 seasons of Survivor and I've often thought what if someone died? So yeah. And the side of the show is called Survivor. Incredible. Stranger than fiction. I'm wowed by that. And they air the episode. You can find the clip. It's they don't show him dying, but like he's kind of not feeling so he's in his little black speedo and he's walking

back from the challenge and he's clearly not feeling so great and then you see everyone incredibly upset and then we've got a new host. Oh my god. There you go. Who got Josie? You got it right, right? She did. You bitch. I'm sorry. I got skunked. Josie got Josie went 100% on the April Fools gimmick. I'm mad. Next year I'm going to fix you. Josie wait till 2023. It's over. I would have not seen like the April Fools being like the bad blood between you guys. I would have. I kind of saw it coming. It was like it'll either be the wedding theme or the, I was stacking up gimmicks. I was waiting for a fight. One of these will go off. Josie, you got your little book open in front of you. You about to tell us a story.

It's July 1st, 1982. I love the 80s. New York City. And it's your wedding day. It is. You know that you've always wanted to marry and this begins a journey to build your family, which is something that you've always wanted. Yeah. Vendors across the city, bridal shops, barbers, florists, dry cleaners. Dry cleaners. Them too. Yeah, okay. They're all touting amazing deals. So you know it's meant to happen. It's the real. You've picked out a classic black suit and you're sporting white gloves to be extra dapper. Fuck, I think a lot of myself. Yeah. White gloves. White gloves. I really think of Mr. Belvedere. Yeah, okay. Or you're like an orchestra. Yeah, I don't know. Mickey Mouse.

Mickey Mouse, yeah. Mickey Mouse, okay. Okay. Good, good. It's a classic wedding. Just, just bride. Bride in a group. High dress. Nails. I know what weddings look like. Well, sometimes you get confused. It's hard. The wedding you've always envisioned. Okay. You are so thrilled and so nervous. Yes. But you know you won't be alone. I just looked over to Mitchell with such like love in my eyes. I got you. We got this. We got this. We got this together. We're not going to be alone. No, God no. You won't be alone because you'll be marrying your forever partner along with 2,074 other couples. Yeah, I will. When you walk into Madison Square Garden.

Fuck yes. Fuck yes. I'm Roman Reigns. Let's go. Just me come down everyone. I'm like, this is the wedding of my dreams. The air is electric with so many young couples about to tie the knot. Yeah. You look over at your soon to be spouse who you've known for a few weeks now. A few solid weeks. That's a long time. It took us that long to get to the altar. He's, you know, going to be your husband. That's what I know about him. Yep. Here's this guy. He's going to be my husband. His hair is brown. His name is neck. I think his mother was a doctor or a nurse.

One of medical something or was that his father? He was vague. On a stage, there's an older couple standing in front of two elaborate thrones. Oh no, thrones. They're wearing crowns and they're dressed immaculately. This is true mother and true father. Yes, the fuck they are. Your true parents. Yep. I could have got you there too. It is just amazing to you to see them in person again. The last time you saw true father, he pointed to you and your soon to be husband. He knows intrinsically that you two would be partnered for attorney. Yeah. And that your union will help shape peace and unification around the globe. When do we touch each other's clits? It's going to be a

minute. I'm getting the feeling it's going to be a hot meal. Any clits are involved. Probably so. Probably so. True father who is up on this elaborate stage, he began speaking in Korean, which you learned as a young child. Mama always said that the heavenly kingdom, we'd all speak Korean. She did say that. They tried and trued. Anna did always say that to me. She's like, listen, a couple things. Number one, here's something that she did sincerely always say to my brother and I, and she said this all the time to the point, I'll just put it out to you. She said, if you're ever stuck in the desert and you need to, if you're like lacking hydration, you should drink each other's piss out of each other's dicks because that way it won't hit the air

and sterile. So that was her number one. Number two, she did say in the kingdom of God that we would all speak Korean. She's a wise woman. She's got all these great things to say. From wilderness survival training, I learned that you can only drink your or another person's piss three times before it becomes toxic. Anna, you didn't tell me there was a limit. That could have been dangerous, Anna. That's too many times. She said like drink the piss from your friend's dick, but only three times. But does it start over if it's a different friend? I think absolutely not. I'm gonna do some serious folks and please don't take any of this as like medical advice. When the plane crashes in Tunisia, don't. You know what I mean? It's limited to three,

three piss decks. Go ahead, Josie. We're back in Madison Square Garden. We're getting married. So True Father speaking in Korean and you know, you recognize what he's saying, but a translator is there who follows True Father's statement and he asks this large group, this 2075 couples. Yeah, it's a lot of couples. Do you pledge to be the center of love before the society, nation, world, and universe based upon an ideal family? I have questions about ideal family, but I feel like you're probably going to answer them without even asking them, so I'm not going to bother asking them. And then he follows with a second question. Do you pledge to establish an eternal family with which God can be happy?

Oh, again, I have big questions about what God's happy with. So you might be there kind of like... Yeah, that sounds like what I would be like. Thousands of others in the stadium shout yes. Confetti fills the stadium and the crowd roars with joy. Yeah. This is your blessing. This is your wedding day and it is called... This is awesome. Sorry. This is a new wrestling chance. So good. So everybody's just like, just got wed at the same time. Yeah, we're all wed at once. We're all just getting so wed right now. It's... Dude, Madison Square Garden is hard to rent out. Oh, it's years in advance. You got to book that. Right. It's expensive as fuck. Tell us just what to get to the good part.

This is your blessing in the Unification Church, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit Association of the Unification of World Christianity. It just say dash UWC. It's out. Okay. This is your blessing, your wedding day in the Unification Church, your true father, Sun Moon Moon. I don't have... Has made this... Is this the Moonies? This is an A-Lister. Josie, the Moonies. Your true father, Sun Moon Moon, has made this wedding day and everything else in your life possible. This is your Moonie wedding day. Honey Moonie, burger surprise. Let's go. All right, dudes. So, a little bit of history to get us started. February 25th, 1920. Sun Moon Moon was born in Korea when Korea was under Japanese rule. He was born in what is now

known as North Korea. Okay. At about 10 years of age, his family converted from a traditional Confucian belief system, those kind of customary in that area at that time, to a Christian church, specifically a Presbyterian church. Can you explain to someone out there who doesn't know what Presbyterian is? Certainly not me. You're the expert on that. What is Presbyterian? Well, you went to like a... Oh, no, you're a Episcopalian. No, I don't know anything about it. Like, I'm legit like dumbass. Like... The handy thing about at least this story is that his Presbyterian is tick upbringing has really nothing to do with it. So, according to the Unification Church and their doctrine, Jesus came to Moon in a vision in 1936. So, Moon is 16 years old. And in this vision,

Jesus tells Moon that he has been chosen to complete the work that Jesus could not complete before his crucifixion. Okay. And this work is to unite all sects of Christianity so that everything condenses. Taylor doesn't have to worry about looking all this history up anymore. Thank God. Yeah. It's been very stressful for me. And luckily enough too, all the religions in the world will come together in unification. Thank God. Let's streamline. Uh-huh. No, exactly. Jesus, according to the Mooney Scriptures, which are specifically called the Divine Principle, so it's like a collection of writings that are in addition to the Christian Bible. So, in the Divine Principle, Jesus was always meant to get married and to have a family. That was how he would enact God's will

on earth. Like Jennifer Rubinx. Oh, shit. My mom always said that I'd be a great mom. So, you're saying that like in his interpretation, then the crucifixion was like a failure? That it was like that was an interruption of the plan? Yes. Oh, interesting. But how do you, but then how can you say that it was the plan if it was interrupted? Exactly. If you have an all-knowing, all-powerful God, shouldn't the plan go off? I'm just saying it's cool fan fiction. I'm into it. I love it. AO3.com Wattpad. Let's go. Let's make this happen. So, I'm going to take just a brief minute here. When we say the term Mooney, the term was coined by American media in response to kind of this upsurge of this religion in the U.S. It was used and has, is still used by members of the church.

Okay. And at a certain point, it was used by Sun Moon himself. And then in the 80, or sorry, in the 90s, the church was under some, 80s and 90s I'll say, the church was under some negative pressure and this extra term was deemed pejorative by the Moon family. So, there are still practitioners who refer to themselves as Moonies. But they're self-identifying. Whether pejorative or not, that's the term that we recognize. That's the term that's echoed through infamy. Yes. Boom. I think that's the term that both you and I were recognized. Yes. That's what I, because I said to you, are you doing the Moonies? That's the term that I've heard. So, that's there. And we can say Unification Church, that works. Now we know. Back to Moon's

history. 16, Vision from Jesus. He's the next dude. He goes to Japan to study engineering. That's good. Yes, exactly. After World War II, the Japanese occupation ends in Korea in 1945, which starts Moon's preaching. So, he moves back to North Korea to set up a church and preaching these ideas that he has been visited by Jesus and he is essentially the next Messiah. Super sweet 16. Yeah. I got a Gucci bell and Jesus came and said, you're the guy. All in, good day. Yeah. A little win. Two-tiered cake down as a win. Two-tiered cake with a fondant figure of me on the top with a little Louis. You know what I mean? Like a pot, like one of those little teacup chihuahuas. It's a good day. And Jesus was there also. Dear Journal, you'll never

believe what happened. Yes, he showed up. So, he begins preaching in North Korea, where he is arrested on an allegation that he is actually a South Korean spy. Is that founded? Yeah. He spends two years, sorry. He's sentenced to five years in a North Korean labor camp. Jesus. Yeah. That's, I don't want that for me. No, anybody. Yeah. A little over two years into his stent there though, the U.N. sends troops to free the prisoners and dismantle the camp. Okay, that's good. So, he's out of the camp and he's loving life. Oh gosh, I would assume. Breathing in the air, sniffing the grass. He moves to Seoul and he starts his church, the Ka-fa-kawak. Ka-fa-kawak. Kwa-kwa-kawu-kawak. Holy Spirit Association of the Unification of World Christianity.

It's 1954 when this starts. Okay. And the religion, the preachings, they spread like crazy. So, within a year, there are 30 church centers in South Korea. Do you have any sense of what it is about this manner, these teachings that makes them so compelling to people? He is pretty charismatic. He has kind of a very friendly way about him, very fatherly, of course, true father kind of vibes. Yeah. If you got to be the true father, you got to be a patriarch. Yeah. I saw an interview with him when he later went to the U.S. television and the interviewer was like, so supposedly you're the messiah. How does that work? Fair question. And Moon responds, I didn't say I was a messiah. You just said I was a messiah, which is not...

I love that. He's all very smiling and giggly and happy and he just, he has this kind of charismatic way about him. Okay. Super popular. Good, I love that. The Unification Church takes over South Korea, but then it's also in Japan, the Philippines, across East Asia. 1959. Moon takes the show to the U.S. of A. He begins with a stronghold in San Francisco, in California, and we talked about in a previous episode on One Taste how San Francisco in the Bay Area was kind of a hotbed. Yeah. A little incubator. Yeah. It wasn't kind of still is, I think. Perhaps. Yes, it is. Yeah. Was this the same time as... No, no, no. One Taste is more recent. Yeah, this is in the 60s to the 70s. So it's really popular. Many what have become called first generation members,

so this like first introductory to it, they were attracted to the religion's emphasis on world peace. That's what would get me. We talked about this during One Taste. I love the idea of world peace. I think we're all too scrappy with one another and I'd love to calm it down. Well, and the other angle with this too is that marriage is central to the Unification Church because it's this idea that marriage is kind of a microcosm for the larger unification that will happen across the world. And the marriages... Yeah, right. I was like, that's a little metaphorical. But it sounds like to me, like, because this happened, it was like the 50s or the 60s. 50s but getting on, like 50s for 50s and so forth. Because like to me now, it's like 2020s and I'm

like the marriage thing is like that's very old fashioned as a like a progressive fixture to the cult. But like, I can imagine a lot of like left-leaning Americans, you know, or anybody in like that time. It's like the idea that like interracial marriage is going to fix the world. I can totally see that catching up. Yeah, because that's the other tenant that's part of this arranged marriage. Large unification idea is that interracial marriages are encouraged. I see. And they're arranged marriages. So it's not just encouraged. They're kind of like you and you. You're going together. I mean, I love interracial marriage. I don't know about forced interracial marriage. Exactly. I feel like that's where it gets a little dicey. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. No, I mean, like,

yeah, it's not like it's not like it just makes total sense. I'm just saying like if you're the kind of person that would join a cult back then. Yeah. Well, another angle that makes the unification church so attractive to this, yeah, kind of white liberal, more or less white. Gotcha. Is it's 1960s 1970s? The sexual revolution is taking place in the US. And these are the people who are just like very uncomfortable with that. They love the idea of world peace. That sounds great. Interracial marriage, not a problem, but like boning sex. That's the line. No. Interracial marriage, but boning no. Okay. Yeah. The idea of, so you're saying like the idea of premarital sex is like, whoa, dog. Like that's too much. Yeah. That's funny. When are we? It's 60s into the 70s.

It's the counter to the counter cult. Yeah. Oh, I see. Yeah. I don't know. That seems a little so there's this very intense emphasis that's placed on abstinence and purity, no drugs, no alcohol, absolutely no premarital sex. There's even limited like PDA that goes in this. Okay. So very, very conservative and attractive to young, young people who want this world peace, but they don't want to suffer through the sexual revolution. They also seem to, they don't want to have to choose their partner either. They're like, Oh my God, this is sexual relief to just like Yeah, I get it. It's like done and now we're just going to be not everything is for everybody. Not everything is for picking a mate wanting to bang. If you're like, if you're like a play

day sexual who just wants your own space, this is the dream. Well, you do have to make kids though. Kids is like, Oh, is that is that a big, is that a big component? Because it's the family unit. That's it's the marriage, which begets the family. It's a lot of like a lot of religions. So like, I feel like if I may, I feel like it's all quite vague. I feel like it's all a lot of like, fuck each other, parentheses, interracial good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and and world peace is good. That's it. Is that the gimmick? That's how they get you in the door. But like, no, that's why you get you walk into Madison. There's a lot of specific little details though, with all the vagueness. Fair enough. Okay. Okay.

Let me let me hear you. Let me hear you. I'm confused about it though. Let me hear you. Okay. So within the divine principle, which is the scripture of the unification church, there's the Genesis story of Jesus coming to moon and saying, dude, you're tapped. You're ready. It's you. Baby, it's you. So Adam and Eve within the unification church ideology were believed to be the perfect beings until Eve was seduced by the serpent, aid of the apple of knowledge, which this is just Christianity. This is just this is built off. Yeah. And that knowledge means that within the unification church, at least that Adam and Eve bang, they, they understand carnal knowledge. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. And therefore humanity is burdened with original sin.

Okay. So according to moon, he is the perfect Adam in quotes, the perfect Adam. And he is ordained to help humanity regain its original goodness. Every cult is just about, oh, why don't you all just be like me? Exactly. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to say. That's the vibe. That's what it is. So in 1960, which is kind of at the start of, of this popular, popular time in the US, moon marries the daughter of a cook. Her name is Hapja Han. And at the time she is 17 years old. And he is 40 years old. That's real gross. So because he has this doctrine about Adam and Eve and carnal sin, and that he is the perfect Adam, then therefore his wife is the perfect Eve. Right? Yeah. So that means that she is responsible for the way that humanity has been put in the

crapper. Oh, fuck that. So moon claims that after they were wed, it heralded an era called the completed Testament, where he would reverse the sins of Adam and Eve's fall. What this actually means in all practicality is that Hapja Han is made to enact the penance. Right. She's isolated from her family for three years. Oh, really? Meanwhile, he has sex with her. That not according to him. Not according to him. Not according to him. Right. But for three years, she's kept in a rented room, living in poverty. For marrying him, the cult leader. Because she needs to wife. She's dragging a rock up a hill for this. Right. Yeah. Stupid. Even though it's all his idea. Yes. Yeah. Interesting. Made up. And once she has completed this penance, then she has begun

this absolute obedience. And that means that from then on, she can bear children that are free of sin. Fuck off. That's so fucking stupid. Stupid baby. So their first child is born three years or so, I suppose, after their marriage, and they have 10 children in total. Oh, my God. A lot of kids. That's painful. A lot of kids. So a lot of kids. Moon's preachings also have very close ties to nationalistic purposes. They're supposedly grounded in love and peace, but they're also very reverential of the state. So remember in Madison Square Garden, and the translation was like, do you pledge to be the center of love before the society, nation, world, universe? Right. Yeah. So with this nationalistic bent, when he's still in Korea, he believes that,

when he's still in Korea and when he's in the US, he believes that Korea is the holy state. He called Korea the Adam nation, and he believed- He's really into this Adam. Yeah. Well, you know, you get a story stick to it, right? Listen. Yeah, exactly. If the Adam thing's working over here, maybe it's working over there. Let's try it out. Korea is the Adam nation, and he believed the US to be the Archangel nation. Oh, I like that. It's fancy. Yeah. It's a little bit of a doily for me. It's a little frilly, huh? That's the vibe. Take off your coat, bro. It's like, oh, he's really swinging. The Adam thing's a little boring, but Archangel. Okay, I see what he's doing. It's a little bit joss weed in there. Yeah, fair. What that means is that the

US would help Korea eradicate communism from the world, clean up the world's act in general, and then once that was ticked off the list, the US would essentially abdicate and allow Korea to lead a peaceful new world order. Does this sound like you guys? No. Let's tell y'all stuff. No disrespect. That's not your style. I do believe the Declaration of Independence says something very different. I do think it is, in a lot of ways, in terms of the language. Israel and America both use this peaceful world order language, when in fact, even though that's the language, in action, it's incredible violence to maintain the order that suits them. And in terms of that, it actually fits really well with American ideology. But it also fit really well with Koreans

at this time, after the Korean War, particularly English-speaking anti-communist entities. Apparently, there were quite a few members of the church who then were placed or posted in the Korean government. So these geopolitical ties that are intrinsic to the Unification Church make the church not only popular with those first-generation members who are like, oh good, I don't have to pick a partner, and this sex is uncomfortable, so I'm not. Okay, great. So it's popular with them, but with these geopolitical ties, it's also very popular to US politicians, which is exactly what you were picking. So wait, at this time US politicians are like, sounds cool. Yes. That's crazy. Moon had a pro-Nixon rally in front of the Washington

Monument during Watergate. Oh, shit. Signs read like, God loves Nixon. God loves, God loves, I don't know that you can say that. That feels like a stretch. But to me, that means that like, because obviously, like we were all talking about how that's like, a lot of his beliefs sound very like Republican adjacent, but so he was aware of that connection. Totally. He's like, he's working it. He's working it. He's like, oh, Nixon fans are gonna love this. Since the 70s, Moon has had ties to every Republican presidency. And why is that the case? Because money. When Moon got some money pulled from Korea, because it was so popular there, when he got to the US, he starts investing funneling funds into a series of endeavors,

a shipbuilding firm, a recording studio, cable TV, the New Yorker hotel, and a 50 statewide seafood operation. That's all of them. That's all of them. As many states as one could have seafood in. Yes. Unless you want to start doing Puerto Rico in the Virgin Islands, it stops there. Yeah. Well, and he started a newspaper called The Washington Times, which is a very ultra conservative periodical that apparently Reagan read religiously every morning. So like Reagan probably did a lot of religious shots. Yeah, that's true. So with these increased ties to politics, also this garnered increased scrutiny on the Moonies. A lot of people viewed Moon as a political tool of the Korean spy agency. Not the first time he's been accused of that,

right? Yes, yes, yes, history. And so there were more and more people looking into his dealings. And of course, things were not coming up all even bright and beautiful. There were issues with immigration and in particular issues with tax evasion. Okay. And this comes out in the media. This is talked about on the Senate floor and in retaliation, the Unification Church files a lawsuit against a representative who is the head of the investigation committee. And this lawsuit is 30 million dollars. That sounds like a fake amount of money. It's a big ass. You can't take someone seriously when they're, anyway, early 80s. That's a lot. That's a lot of bullshit, bullshit, no bullshit. That you look fake there. You look fake. Like you look fake. You look like you're

doing a slappy slap lawsuit. Well, and it failed. And he was convicted of tax evasion. Wow. Yeah, because like in 1980s, saying 30 million dollars, that's like Dr. Evil being like one beauty. No jet. Yeah. He's convicted of tax evasion, and he's sentenced to 18 months in jail. He serves 13 and he pays a fine of $15,000. You can already probably tell that there's some unsavory elements to the Unification Church. I didn't get that vibe, actually. No, it was just all, well, no Jesus visited him when he was 16. Yeah. It seemed very on the up and up. But But despite in my intro, when you got to choose your own suit and marry a man that you barely knew that was running for you, you would not be able to marry someone from the same sex.

I appreciate you engaging with SLGBTQIA plus rights by providing me that option, however. A true ally. Anytime. Yes. So what you're trying to say is that the Moody's are rampantly homophobic. Really? Yes. To the point where conversion therapies are tied to the church. I mean, that's right. That's not good. And the whole very conservative ideology with it too is like, well, you can't produce children. It's pretty, pretty intense. What you're saying is it's not this particular thing where they're saying, oh, yeah, we like gay people, but they can't reproduce or whatever. So they just don't belong in our vision of the future. It's in fact a hateful thing. Yeah. It's like aggressively anti. Yeah.

It's not like a footnote. It's a feature. Yes. But I think in like the soft, vague opening, welcome to Madison Square Garden, spiel, that wouldn't be at the forefront necessarily. Of course, yeah. And I also think when we are two is important because the idea that gay people are people is pretty recent. Yeah. And the rest of the 20th century, it was it was an aberration or it was whatever. So I like, we should, that's the truth alarm. We should center ourselves in history, however, that doesn't make it right or just. Especially because that belief is still held by the church. Oh, yeah. Guys. Yeah. Bro. Right. Buddy. Wow. Yeah. Some other unsavory elements. There is this practice of arranged marriage, and I shouldn't maybe put that under the

umbrella of unsavory because there's plenty of arranged marriages practiced around the world. They're chosen by everybody involved and it's all consensual. I think the element of coercion that happens with the Unification Church might send that arranged marriage into another category, though. Yeah. There's just a lot of other things happening with it. Yes. There's mass wedding ceremonies, which MSG. You all ready for this? Here upon the grid. As you so perfectly just expressed, this captured the American imagination. Yes. So this is how the Mooneys came into the limelight, where the term Mooney came from in terms of like the rose popularity within news cycles. Yes. And everyone's like, what is going on? All these people getting married.

There's, like I said before, a very strong emphasis on sexual abstinence and purity, but also abstinence from any type of alcohol or drinking, any type of drug, purity. We had a real theme in our episodes here of like abstinence from drugs and premarital sex and things. Yes. The marriage episode, everybody. Yes. Those are the important things about marriage. Number one, don't fuck. Number two, don't drink. Number three, question mark. The rest of it you can kind of make up as you go. So in the Unification Church, as you can imagine with an arranged marriage, vast majority of these young adults who've been told to abstain, abstain, abstain on their marriage day are probably like, I get to bone. This is great. Yes. This is wonderful. Yes. Except

according to the doctor in the Unification Church, you have to wait 40 days. What's the point of that? What? You mean after you get married? After you get married. What? So what happens in those 40 days? You chill, you hang out, you work on some hobbies, you do your music. It's essentially an edgy thing. I'll crochet. It's an edgy thing. You're like, oh, we're married now, but still no. After these 40 days, then there is a three-day sex ceremony. Oh. I did not see that coming. Yeah. Of course, you are a virgin up until that point. So this is the moment where you lose your virginity for three days. In the three-day sex ceremony. This is mid-summer. It's a little wild. Is it communal? Are they alone? They are alone. You are alone as a couple. Okay. But you are

boning in front of a portrait of the True Parents. There we go. I'm back. I'm back. I love this story now again. If anybody at 824 is listening. Yeah. Serious notes. They're like, we've got a movie. What's Tony Collette doing right now? They're like, we've got a movie. We've got the portrait of the mother and father. We've got a movie. Oh my god. I can hear the shrieking violin chords in the trailer now. The first day, the woman is on top. The second day, the woman is on top. The third day, the man is on top. Whoa. Changing up the formula. Yes. Wow. The man being on top, being the last one, like that's the arrival point. I suppose so. That's the climax. Part of this sex ritual, too, involves a handkerchief. Okay. That you are meant to dip into

a bowl of pure water, purified water, and wash each of you do this with the same cloth. Wash yourself before you have sex. Classic. Like a sponge bath. But then also after you have sex with the same handkerchief, you are meant to never wash this handkerchief. So you're going to keep it around? You use it as you like sex rag, but you never wash it. Sex rag? Is it the comrade? Is it the comrade? It truly is. But it is also a relic of your love, and it is meant to be saved for the rest of your eternal, sexy time together. I love it. I dig it. I have no notes. I'm into it. Let's keep the sex rag. I'm excited that you're excited. I'm pro. That's the one thing that you've said that I'm into. So despite the fact that moon places

suction emphasis on the family, and that that is the unit which will unify the world and bring world peace across the planet. Yes, yes. All of everything, all together, all in one. His own family is total fucking mess. No, no. These 10 kids are the 10 shiniest people. I just remembered he had 10 kids. Oh, shiniest kids. Oh, no. They've been told that they are gods, essentially. They are the children of the Messiah. I'm so glad I wasn't told that when I was 14. Oh, my God, imagine. Oh, my me. The pressure. It's like, do I keep listening to Jimmy D World? Do I eat world? Because I could. I could do whatever I want. This was exacerbated as well because moon, nor did his wife raise these kids. They were always sent to nannies,

they were always sent to boarding schools. Well, if you have the money. Exactly. Moon bought a manor, a huge estate in New York State that he called East Garden. Oh, bougie. It contained its own bowling alley. Oh, I love that. I love bowling. It had six pizza ovens. Too many. And a waterfall in the dining room. Yes. Yes. Oh, fuck yeah. No, no notes. My little place in Syracuse with the waterfall in the dining room. Absolutely. Taylor just wants to live this life of like bowling alley, waterfall, dining room, sex ride. I don't want that. I don't want the cult. That's too much. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Do you want my sex ride? It's preserved in a little cloche, a little glass dome, like Scrooge's number one lucky dime.

These moon kids were absolute shitholes. Apparently one of the oldest son, Steve, the oldest child, Steve, he shot his fellow students with a BB gun. Oh my god. This is moon's kid? Yeah, at his boarding school. And he was like, so what? I'm god. Wow. It was a little rough. I was going to say something like that when you said like, how do you think you'd feel if you were a god and you were a teenager? And I was going to say some bullshit like that. BB gun rampage. Yeah. He obviously has some rage issues. Yeah, seems maybe like that. His father sent him to live with another official in the church who has his own kids. And this official, of course, can't discipline Steve whatsoever.

Steve. They all have Korean names and they have American names, but they're called both. Steve is just a very average guy named, so I'm enjoying it in this context. Yeah, it's really nice. The official who Steve is sent to live with can't discipline him because he's the child of God. And apparently, according to reports, he got into a habit of disciplining his own son, James. Steve's son, James. No, the official who? Oh, sorry. Yeah, no, it's okay because it's confusing. So the dad would spank his own son James when Steve would do bad things. Because he had to do, he had to educate somebody and he wasn't allowed to educate this God child. Oh, Christ. There's something really fucked up about that. Steve has eventually sent to Korea

where he joins a rock and roll band. I love that. And drinks a bottle of whiskey a day. I love it. His sister. This is just succession now. This is just like season two of succession. The problem with this podcast is whatever the last thing Josie says is the thing that weighs on my mind. So the part where there's all the weird bad shit happening I don't like, but the part where he joins the rock band I like very much. Yeah, I love Steve. I know. Bottle of whiskey a day, go guy. What a guy. His sister, Injin, there's multiple daughters. I believe she's the oldest and she has a very strong taste for American culture. She not only idolizes her brother because he's her brother, but because he's in this rock band because he's a heavy drinker

and a partier. And so she begins to party and drink in the same way, which is of course completely against their father's teachings, which are all about purity, purity, purity. Yeah, I keep it very buttoned up. So these kids are, these two in particular are just out of control. And so Moon's solution, like his solution in every facet of life is marriage. Okay. Steve is married off to a 15 year old Korean girl named Nansuk Hong, Injin, who is 18 at the time, is married to James Park. James was the son who would get this banking. Oh my God, that's just cruel. It's very cruel. What is James Park doing these days? I hope James Park has like, half his head is shaved, he wears eyeliner, he's smoking a lot of clothes and he's just

decompressing from this whole incident. I hope he's having a real good time. Yeah. Apparently at their wedding, he was so overcome that he was marrying a Moon, that he had this speech that was super groveling. He was like, every day, every moment of my life. No, you're better than them. I will, I will prove to God that I am worthy of Injin and it was... Ay, Mira. Oh man. Apparently the whole time Injin had this big crush on his younger brother, Sam, too, who was kind of like this rapscallion of a guy who was like, slightly mischievous. James is your younger brother. Yeah. Oh man, that's... Let's see, that makes me sad though, because that's just young people crush bullshit, but it's, but it involves a marriage and a cult. Yeah. It's also like, to me, if she

has a crush on his younger brother, then she should just marry his younger brother. Well, I'll tell you why she should have it all like that. Another strange and very weird thing that Moon does at this point. One of his sons, Hyungjin, dies in a car crash. His Jeep goes off on a frozen road and he crashes into a snow bank and he dies. But within Moon's preachings, the only people who can enter the gates of heaven are those who are married. So Moon's solution, of course, marriage, he has James's sister, her name is Julia, marry his dead son. No. At a mass wedding, she walks down the aisle with a portrait. She marries a dead person. I did not know we were heading here. Yeah, that happened. It's tough. It's really tough. Do we have any insight into like

what her feelings were about this? Probably that guy. I would think like horrified. I think it was bad. I'm going to go out on a limb here. We don't, we try not to conjecture that. But also, but also you don't like, I don't, I don't want to conjecture anything because like maybe in that context for her, it felt different than bad. But also at the same time, looking at it from the outside, I'm like, oh, my love, marry, marry a live one. Yeah, we're looking at like late 90s at this point. Steve, the oldest son, owns a music venue in New York City. Of course, owns means the unification church provided funds and let's see if he needs something to keep busy, especially because he has a huge drug problem. Don't we all? He's inhaling cocaine constantly. Aren't we all? At the same time,

Johnny Depp was like heading the Viper Room. Steve was over in New York with his Viper Room. Yes, no, exactly. In these drug doubt states, he would also abuse his wife. Yeah. Eventually, she divorced him. Good. And she wrote a tell all book called, and I think you'll like this Taylor, in the shadow of the moons. Oh, that's good because there's a little bit of a mystery there. Yeah. Evocative. This book comes out. It's kind of a bombshell for the family because she shares a few secrets that have not been shared before. And it's assumed too that she's a relatively reliable source. Yeah. One of these secrets is that moon had another marriage before he married True Mother. That shocks me in no way. Right? It's like now we have like... I feel like I already

knew that he had a new marriage, another marriage somehow. Like that just kind of felt right. No, right. He was married to a woman named Jun Kil Choi and they had a son together. Was this before after his other marriage? This was before his other marriage. Oh. So he kept a marriage secret from us. Pre him marrying the 17 year old, he had this whole other thing. Yeah. Does the second wife know that the first wife existed? Not officially, I suppose, because it's always denied, denied. Yes. Primarily she might have. Right. Yeah. Part of that marriage too is that they did have a son, but the pregnancy was hidden. She was brought to the hospital by another official in the church who claimed to be her husband. And that son was born and then he lived with the official.

That's too many. There's a lot of... Too many cogs. Yeah. Someone's always going to leak it. Yeah. No. I'm running my cult in my head folks, I'm a Virga. She's got to just make these things work. That son was Sam Park. Okay. So that's James's younger brother, the rapscallion. Yeah. The engine had a crush on. Yeah. And you're like, oh man, arranged marriage. Probably a good thing. She didn't marry this guy because it's her half-brother. Oh my God. The guy she had a gun and a twist. There's a lot of outs. Josie, you brought me a mystery. I brought you a mystery. I hang here in person, sitting on my living room floor and you brought me a mystery. I know exactly who I am. I had this moment just now where I thought we were still playing truths and lies. Yeah. No, this sounds

like bullshit. I think you're lying. Is it all bullshit? No. So she had a... Wow. That's very complicated. Crush on her brother. But she didn't know it was her brother. But the other, but the one that she married is in her brother. No, that's, no. Half-brothers hidden away into this family. Fucking love it. Yeah, me too. Oh, you know exactly what I like. Yeah. James, we just talked about who's married to Ingem. Yeah. He has a PhD in finance from Columbia and a law degree from Harvard. Oh, very accomplished. He is starting to be known as this hedge fund guru, and he begins an investment... I still don't know what hedge fund guru is. No, no one knows. It's fine. He begins an investment firm called Global Partners and it's raking in money. Meanwhile,

Ingem, who has a philosophy and political science degree at Columbia, she's at home with the babies until they grow up to a certain point and then she goes for a doctorate in philosophy. At that time, she's also very, this is also, this is the daughter who's very enraptured with American culture. Yes. Her older brother is in a rock band and she's all about that life. Yes. So she is getting into music herself. She's writing pop songs. Let me share. This is the 90s still, right? Yeah. Let me share some of her lyrics here. You can see how I burn beneath your gaze. Grace. You can see how I yearn to be a meadow where you graze. It's hot. That's good, hey? Yeah. She's talking about sex. Oh, yes. She's talking about lambs. She's definitely talking about sex and she goes on to have an affair

with the keyboardist in a rock band. I like that for her. Yeah. I've never heard of anybody who was into the keyboardist in a rock band, but it makes perfect sense. That's my type. If there's any keyboardist listening to this, visit him for me at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram. James Park, her husband, her betrothed, is tortured to learn that she was having an affair. Yeah, he seems like he was gonna take that hurt. Absolutely devastated. So much so that he develops a crippling drug habit. Oh, man. I hate James. I'm not laughing because it's funny. James. And his Hague Schwann Company, which has been rebranded as Paradigm somewhere in the past, up to this point. Paradigm suffers so much so that he needs to sell it. He's in a position where he needs to sell it off. I really want the

best for James and I don't like this room. Inter-Hunter Biden. What the fuck? This story has everything. Yes. Did you just say Inter-Hunter Biden? Yeah. Twisters upstairs. Okay, hold on. So let me, I'm just gonna take that. I'm not even gonna react to it. I'm just gonna take it seriously. What year is it right now? Probably like 2006-2007. Okay. So this is before Hunter was the meme queen. Yes. This is pre-laptop, pre-everything. Yeah. The idea is that Hunter will buy Paradigm, this Hague Schwann Company. Hunter will buy Den. And he will take over as the CEO, even though he does not have any financial experience. Why enter Biden? Where did he come from? What's his interest in this? So according to this New Republic article called The Fall of the House of Moon,

written by Mariah Blake in 2013. So it says, at the time Biden was mulling a 2008 presidential bid, according to sworn statements from people involved in the deal, he worried that his son Hunter's lobbying career would hurt his campaign and asked his brother James, James Biden, to find Hunter a new line of work. Apparently Hunter Biden has disputed this account in an interview with the New Republic. But again, there are sworn statements from other people. So yeah, it's pretty much like we got to get Hunter busy. And like it gives off the vibe that now Hunter doesn't like that narrative. Potentially. I mean, he doesn't have a lot of financial understanding. And so as things start to get processed and move over, it's clear that James needs to be somehow involved. James

Park needs to be somehow involved because he is the guru, right? But James has developed a crippling drug habit. So Hunter, I'm not laughing because the man has a crippling drug habit, it's a nervous laugh. Hunter helps James find a treatment center and gets him enrolled there. He's living there, he's trying, he's getting better. But at the same time, it's revealed as more things are being processed that the deal is not as solid as Hunter Biden had thought. And so they go back to the negotiating table, and the deal is dropped from its initial $1.5 billion to $8 million. That's significantly lower. Significantly lower. It's like three digits lower. Yeah, it's a big one. Part of that is that there's an investor on the Biden's side who has fallen away. So there's just

there's not the funding. They go to James Park with this and James feels personally indebted to the Biden's because he's been downtrodden. James gives himself so many deaths. I know, I know. I really want to, James, I think you need a strong hug. Yes. From a brother who loves you. Yeah, for somebody who loves you. I just want to smoke weed with James. James would just be like, bro, what you're saying doesn't make any sense. Just like, free yourself, James. There's a bigger world out there, James. James says, okay, that's fine. Let's do it. No, don't. And then 2008. And I did, I did economy collapse. I had motions there. Thank you. And Paradan, the hedge fund company, files for voluntary liquidation.

As they all did. So all of the money just seeps out the bottom. Fart noises in unison. Yeah. Moon at this point. So it's first decade of 2000s. And he's in his 80s. He's considering his legacy and looking at all these fucking numbskulls that he's raised. And world peace did not happen. It is not looking good. It's a classic story, right? The oldest moon son, Steve, who shot people with BB guns. As you do. He has a heart attack and dies at the age of 45. Oh my God. Oh no. And as the oldest son, he's meant to kind of really take things over. So when moon is... Yeah, but there's 10 of them. I'm not trying to be flat, but he's got some successors. One of whom is In Jin, the daughter who's had this affair with

the keyboardist. Right. She positions herself for the takeover of the U.S. branch of the church. So In Jin is trying to vie for probably the most marketable and most money making enterprise of the whole shabu. And though her youngest brother, Sean, is also very interested. And of course, there's lots of kerfuffles between the siblings and who gets what and who gets that. In Jin at this time has also started a band to be represented of the... I love that. She's very into the music. No, I love that. That's what it's about, man. It's about the music. We're like in the early 2000s now. Yeah. And she has a band that's like, this is gonna be the Mooney band, essentially. Sonic Colt. It's called Sonic Colt? Yeah. Oh my. No notes. Yeah, I'm with you on this one, Taylor.

Sonic Colt? Beauty. I'm amazing. In Jin loves Sonic Colt so much that she has another affair with the lead singer. Fuck yeah. She becomes pregnant by the lead singer. She has a baby as a result of this affair. And because this is so antithetical to the unification church teachings at this point, but she is swept away to a lovely home on Cape Cod. Fuck yeah. Where her pregnancy is hidden from public view and the birth of her child. Sick. Yeah. Sounds really nice. Where's my little cabin with a little wood shed outside, but if I don't want to chop the wood, someone will come by and do it for me. Is that how I'm traveling? Thank you. I agree. It's 2012 and Sun Moon dies. He dies in pneumonia. And he initially said that he would leave

everything to his wife, Mrs. Moon. Yep, that's right. This is the same wife that he married when she was 17. All that. His second marriage. Yeah, she was the second marriage. Jesus, it's very complex. It's a lot of genealogy, this family tree. Yeah, this tree is, there's a lot of branches. So it comes out publicly that she is not at all interested in the U.S. In fact, she thought that Moon's focus on trying to align U.S. politics and bring the religions to the U.S. It was just totally misguided and he wasted his time there, which may or not be true, but that means that what she's most interested in taking over is all the operations in Korea. So that falls to her and Injin is left with the U.S. branches of the church.

She comes in with some pretty big changes. Okay. All of these little church centers throughout the U.S. their function in these communities so that every church sermon is delivered by an elder within that church. So that elder interprets the divine principle. They talk about their own marriage and what this means. She dismantles that and replaces those sermons with simulcasts from the New York venue that Steve used to own, which is now the headquarters of the church, included in those simulcasts are performances by rock bands. Fuck yes. So it was very Christian rock. No, but you've got to bring the rock and roll of the people. She's coming in hard with kind of the Christian rock. It reminds me of like beanie wearing Christian rock.

Lord, I lift your name on high. She purchases for the church with a church response. I can't wait for whatever this is. A grand piano covered in rhinestone. Fuck yes. I knew it was going to be good and it was. I knew it was going to be good and it was. She calls it the Liberace piano. Yeah, it is. It's certainly that. I love her for how she loves this stuff. This is she's the best one. Sorry, James, it's over. She's the one. In purchasing this piano, she kind of goes on and on about Liberace and how she saw him as a young child and how she was so enamored with him and how he like flew around the stage. I'm just imagining like this is like the bulk of the first sermon that says simulcasts where she's just talking about Liberace. I know we're all thinking of it,

but there is so much going on here. So much unpack. Lots unpack. At this point too, obviously, because she's had affairs and things are. She's had a lively life. She's encouraging love marriages rather than the arranged marriages. I love her. I would be in her cult. That's the cult I would be in. But all of these ultra conservative Americans are not too happy and membership in the church plummets. It cuts to about half of what it was. It's tough. Sean, the youngest son. It's this love marriage. It's very radical. Yeah. You're not ready. You've never heard of it. Sean, the youngest son who was trying to vie for the U.S. branches of the church. Of course, he got knocked out. So he starts his own offshoot of the unification church called the Ministry of the Iron Rod.

Fuck yeah. Wait, what? So he's got his own. It's very complicated. You're talking about Sean. A lot of ends. A lot of ends. Can't remember 10. Hold on. Before we talk about the Iron Rod called the Sean. Yeah. Can we talk about all the like... What are the other eight doing? Yeah, that's what I've been wondering. Are they just like, they're just like really happy to be like working in like developer jobs

in tech companies? I was just gonna say this is the one with the undercut in the eyeliner that I was talking about before. So am I gonna find out that one of my favorite like musicians is actually one of the moon kids? Well, Hyunjin died in the Jeep crash. Yes, gone on the Jeep crash. It's a lot that's happened. I've forgotten all of it and every time you bring it up, I'm like yes, no, that did happen. There's another brother who committed suicide by jumping off a Harris casino in Las Vegas. Oh my god. Fuck yeah. I'm not laughing because it's funny. I'm laughing because I'm shocked. It's intense. Yeah. So and then Steve has passed away from a heart attack in the age of 45. Yeah. So that's three down and we know the whereabouts too. So yeah, there's about five who are... I would

love to be one of the five. The fat five. Money, money, money from the cult and I'm sure a lot of shit to wrestle with with your nice therapist and casino. So I'm going to leave you with this lovely, lovely little snippet to end things. Please. Sean, the youngest brother who was vying for the US churches, he fails to do so and therefore he begins his own offshoot of the church called the Ministry of the Iron Rod. Yes, incredible. Iron Rod is a term pulled from the Book of Revelation, which is the most whacked out book of the Bible, if you will. Sean and the Ministry interpret Iron Rod to mean a gun, an AR-15. Specifically an AR-15. An AR-15 is deemed as like the weapon of choice within the Ministry of the Iron Rod. So number 10, Sean, when he says

I'm the Ministry of the Iron Rod, he means I'm the Ministry of the AR-15. More or less. It's based on this principle that the shepherd from the Bible and from Christian belief is there to protect his flock. And therefore, in order to protect the flock, you need to bear arms. But Jesus. Yeah, I don't like it. Jesus, what did Jesus do? Jesus. No, it's just, this is certainly aligned with Trump, aligned with Second Amendment and aligned with this sense that the Second Amendment and American rights are under attack, and that they are certainly being eradicated from the face of the earth, right? Right. Sean and the Ministry of the Iron Rod keep up the commitment ceremony aspect. Oh my god, the fucking, every single thing you

remind me that you said is a dagger in my heart. Remember the gloves? No, I didn't. At all, remember the gloves. The Mickey Mouse gloves. Yes. Holy shit, I really need to listen to this episode back. So they keep up the commitment ceremony, but they just add some guns to it. This mass wedding, people are holding guns. Y'all ready for this? They're wearing crowns made of bullets? I don't like it. It's a similar ceremony to the original Unification Church ritual, but now they've got guns and bullet crowns. Yeah. But this is considered not the original cult anymore. It's a new one. Yeah, kind of a sick crown though. If I was being like a sexy bullet boy for Halloween at like a gay party in an abandoned warehouse, I would wear that.

Yeah. Not for an actual wedding. But would you just describe just like a fun group of that? Yeah. A wedding makes it scary. Yeah. Yeah. That's a fair assessment. Yeah. Apparently, the Ministry of the Iron Rod held a festival that included a commitment ceremony the weekend after the Parkland shooting. Very close by as well. Oh my God. And there's no uncertain terms because it's documented on Twitter that Sean and other members of the Ministry were at the January 6th insurrection. Sick. Yeah. I mean, we talked about cults and the nature of them and sometimes like the squishy ins and outs of cults. But I... What is a cult? What isn't a cult? What's the difference between Christianity and the Moonies?

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that's always a question that's available to ask and try and suss out an answer. And it's always going to be a little different because I think there are some people who take part in this religion and they don't believe in the AR-15, but they believe in family values and coming together as a family and having more kids. And that's not all that different from other, especially Christian religions that I'm familiar with at least. Yeah. But then I think about all of these teachings that Moon had and then look at looking at his own family and it's like, oh, well, that's where the crazy comes in is because there's just so much dissonance between what he was saying and what he expected of people from

the church and what his children. But if I had 10 kids, I would be like, this is a soap opera for my amusement go. Like if I like, I don't want any kids, but if I had 10, if I had to jump from zero to 10, I would be like, I want a good mix of personalities. I want them always fighting. And I want one of them to be at least one to two of them to be really, really into American rock. That's beautiful. Yeah. Thanks for tuning in. If you want more infamy, go to bittersweetinfamy.com or search for us wherever you find podcasts. We usually release new episodes every other Sunday. You can also follow us on Instagram at bittersweetinfamy. If you like the show, consider subscribing, leaving a review

or just telling a friend. Stay sweet. The sources that I used for this episode were a documentary film called Blessed Child, made by Cara Jones in 2020. I looked at the Wikipedia pages for the Unification Church and for Reverend Samuel Moon. I read an article published in the New Republic entitled The Fall of the House of Moon by Mariah Blake, published November 12th, 2013. I watched a series on c-span books called The Shadow Moons. It aired September 1998, and it was an interview with Namsuk Hong about her book titled In the Shadow of the Moons, My Life and the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family. I read an article published in Vox, March 2018, by Tara Isabella Burton.

The article was called The Cult-like Church Behind a Ceremony with AR-15s and Bullet Crowns, explained. I read an article published in BBC News, July 2012, by Chloe Haji Mathau, Moon Wedding, Getting Married with 4,000 Others. I listened to a podcast called Growing Up Moony by Hideo Hikashi Baba, and this is about his personal time growing up in the Unification Church combined with research. And lastly, I watched a short video from Yahoo News called Unpacked with Danny Clayton and Joe Thorneley. The interstitial music that you heard earlier is by Mitchell Collins, and the song that you are listening to right now is T-Street by Brian Steele.