Editing Sun Myung Moon (section)

==Views of Moon by his followers==

The ''[[Divine Principle]]'' itself says about Moon: "With the fullness of time, God has sent one person to this earth to resolve the fundamental problems of human life and the universe. His name is Sun Myung Moon. For several decades he wandered through the spirit world so vast as to be beyond imagining. He trod a bloody path of suffering in search of the truth, passing through tribulations that God alone remembers. Since he understood that no one can find the ultimate truth to save humanity without first passing through the bitterest of trials, he fought alone against millions of devils, both in the spiritual and physical worlds, and triumphed over them all. Through intimate spiritual communion with God and by meeting with Jesus and many saints in Paradise, he brought to light all the secrets of Heaven."<ref>[[Divine Principle]] (translated 1966), [http://www.unification.org/ucbooks/expodp/DivinePrinciple-intro.html Introduction] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628141405/http://www.unification.org/ucbooks/expodp/DivinePrinciple-intro.html |date=28 June 2014 }}</ref>

In 1978, Rodney Sawatsky wrote in an article in ''Theology Today'': "Why trust Rev. Moon's dreams and visions of the new age and his role in it, we ask? Most converts actually have had minimal contact with him. Frederick Sontag (Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church, Abingdon, 1977), in his interviews with Moon, appears to have found a pleasant but not overwhelming personality. Charisma, as traditionally understood, seems hardly applicable here. Rather, Moon provides a model. He suffered valiantly, he knows confidently, he prays assuredly, and he lives lovingly, say his followers. The Divine Principle is not an unrealizable ideal; it is incarnate in a man, it lives, it is imitable. His truth is experienced to be their truth. His explanation of the universe becomes their understanding of themselves and the world in which they live."<ref name="Dialogue with the Moonies"/>

In 1980, [[sociologist]] [[Irving Louis Horowitz]] commented: "The Reverend Moon is a fundamentalist with a vengeance. He has a belief system that admits of no boundaries or limits, an all-embracing truth. His writings exhibit a holistic concern for the person, society, nature, and all things embraced by the human vision. In this sense the concept underwriting the Unification Church is apt, for its primary drive and appeal is unity, urging a paradigm of the essence in an overly complicated world of existence. It is a ready-made doctrine for impatient young people and all those for whom the pursuit of the complex has become a tiresome and fruitless venture."<ref>Irving Louis Horowitz, [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=6720&mode=toc Science, Sin, and Society: The Politics of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211142618/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=6720&mode=toc |date=11 December 2008 }}, 1980, MIT Press</ref>

In 1998, [[investigative journalist]] [[Peter Maass]] wrote in an article in ''[[The New Yorker]]'': "There are, certainly, differing degrees of devotion among Moon's followers; the fact that they bow at the right moment or shout ''[[ten thousand years|Mansei]]!'' in unison doesn't mean they believe everything Moon says, or do precisely what he commands. Even on important issues, like Moon's claiming to be the messiah, there are church members whom I met, including a close aide to Moon, who demur. A religious leader whom they respect and whose theology they believe, yes; the messiah, perhaps not."<ref>[[Peter Maass]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20010411094005/http://www.petermaass.com/core.cfm?p=1&mag=48&magtype=1 Moon at Twilight], ''The New Yorker'' 14 September 1998.</ref>

In his 2004 book ''The New Religious Movement Experience in America'', [[Eugene V. Gallagher]] wrote: "The ''Divine Principle's'' analysis of the Fall sets the stage for the mission of Rev. Moon, who in the last days brings a revelation that offers humankind the chance to return to an Edenic state. The account in the ''Divine Principle'' offers Unificationists a comprehensive context for understanding human [[suffering]]."<ref name = gallagher2004>Eugene V. Gallagher, 2004, ''The New Religious Movement Experience in America'', [[Greenwood Press]], {{ISBN|0313328072}}, page 23.</ref>