Unification Church Members Taking Message to Hometowns

The Unification Church is beginning a worldwide program to send its members back to their hometowns to help transform what the church views as the evil that is pervasive in society, according to the leader of the Unification Church in America.

That reflects the church’s teaching that the world is in a second Pentecost, the Rev. James A. Baughman, president of the church, said in an interview.

He explained that just as Jesus left his work to the apostles after he ascended, Unification founder Sun Myung Moon, 70, who claims to be “the first generation of a new tradition that comes to fulfill Christianity and Judaism,” is passing responsibility to his followers.

The Rev. Moon, still the leader of the church, returned with his wife to South Korea “to spend the next four years in his own hometown.”

Visiting Congregations

After 14 years in the church, Baughman, 37, became president of the church in America in January. He is visiting Unification congregations across the country.

He said the church has about 10,000 “fully committed” members and perhaps 45,000 more associated in various ways in the United States and about 3.5 million members worldwide. In the United States, there are about 235 congregations.

Baughman replaced Mose Durst, who had been chief executive for about eight years. Durst continues as chairman of the Board of Directors.

“Many things culminated in the United States on Dec. 20, 1988,” Baughman said. Baughman called the current phase “tribal Messiah hometown providence.” He said Moon introduced the concept to U.S. leaders in March.

When members begin returning to their hometowns during the next few years, he said, they will be resources to help find solutions to such evils as drug abuse, bigotry, crime and family violence, he said. “They will not necessarily be trying to make converts” but will help people “rejuvenate faith in their religious tradition.”

In a sermon here, Baughman said, “This is the last days . . . when the Messiah comes on the Earth.” Many members, called Moonies by outsiders, regard Moon as the promised Messiah.

Positions of Responsibility

Unification believers are gaining credibility, Baughman contended. He told the congregation that members are being asked to take positions of public responsibility and run for public office because the believers are known for their high moral standards.

Baughman warned members against compromising their beliefs. To do so “we will decline like other churches. . . . We must feel we are Messiahs to our own communities. We are not in control or command. We are to go with the heart of a parent and in the shoes of a servant.”