In The Shadow Of The Moons -The Daughter in Law of Sun Myung Moon exposes her life as a victim of abuse in the Moon family, and how she escaped with her children to find freedom and a new life.
Current Wife of Sun Myung Moon
There is debate on whether Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon is the "second" or "third" wife of Sun Myung Moon. From all available sources, it appears that Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon is the second "Legal Wife" of Rev. Moon, but for purposes of theological placement in the Unification Church, she is considered Moon's "third" wife. This difficulty comes about due to that fact that during Moon's separation with his first wife: Songil Choi, Moon impregnated a young university student, whom he sent to Japan to give birth, because adultery was a jailable offense in Korea at that time. Because of the birth of a son: Hee Jin, it became neccessary to make this affair fit into a theological framework for justifying his actions to members. Because the Moonies believe in a process called "Formation, Growth and Completion" which states that all things must go through three stages of growth until perfection. In this way, Mrs. Hak Ja Han can be considered the "third wife" or "completion level" wife.
POSITION: Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon is called "True Mother"
and "Perfect Eve" and is co-messiah with Moon as "The True Parents". In the Unification Church, the messiah is both man and woman together. Mrs. Moon upon her husband's formal acknowledgement, was granted equal status with her husband, and appears to be the designated successor to Moon, as she is 24 years younger than her husband and will certainly outlive him by 3 to 5 decades. Hak Ja Han is being groomed for this role now, and has taken on a much more publicly active role in official church projects.
BIRTH DATE: January 6, 1943 (Lunar Calendar)
BIRTH PLACE: Village of Sinli - Anju-gun District - North Korea
MOTHER'S NAME: Soon-ae Hong
Co-Messiah Status
MARRIED: 1960 - March 16th. To Sun Myung Moon
Hak Ja Han's marriage to Sun Myung Moon is her first marriage (she was only 16 years old). His second "Legal Marriage" but the third woman he has had children with. Moon selected a 16 year old child to be his second wife, and initiate his idea of "True Parents" which is a buzz-word for messiah in the moonies. There is no evidence that Moon's first wife was ever considered "True Mother" or a potential co-messiah with Moon until "after" Moon had finally found a woman that he could control and mold into absolute submission to him. There was never any ceremony with Moon's first wife as with Hak Ja Han. The marriage with Hak Ja Han was celebrated as "The Marraige Supper Of The Lamb" spoken of in Revelation in the Bible. Moon went through a formal ceremony and they were actually married "twice". Once in western style clothes and also in traditional Korean clothes. Speeches were given by Moon's disciples and Moon proclaimed the importance of the day, saying that now members were allowed to praise Moon as "true parents" and not just "Master". Strangely, none of this elaborate worship was present in Moon's first marriage, lending support to the idea that Moon only "decided" he was a messiah, "after" following other religious groups that had their own "messiah's", and not as a 16 year old boy as he claims.
A boy, Born early 1970's
Moon apparently fathered a child through adultery, while married to Hak Ja Han Moon, according to several sources. Below are quotes directly from two sources, and several ex-members have confirmed these details to me as well.
~In late 1994, during conversations in Hyo Jin's suite at the New Yorker Hotel, "he confided a lot of things to me," Pretorious continued. Hyo Jin had discovered, too, that Rev. Moon had fathered a child out of wedlock in the early 1970s. Moon arranged for the child to be raised by his longtime lieutenant Bo Hi Pak, Pretorious said. The boy -- now a young man -- had confronted Hyo Jin, seeking recognition as Hyo Jin's half-brother. Pretorious said she later corroborated the story with other church members.
"Here's a guy who struggles with a weakness for women and finds out that his father screws around," Pretorious said. "This is even after he [Rev. Moon] has been married to the present Mrs. Moon." Pretorious found the new revelations about Rev. Moon also upsetting because of the central place that the marriage "blessing" plays in Unification Church theology, as a way to purify mankind.
Nan Sook Hong (Moon) was married to Hyo Jin Moon and gave him five children. She lived with the Moon family for more than a decade, suffered brutal abuse and finally left and wrote a book of her experiences. In this quote she is speaking of her husband Hyo Jin's justification for his adultery, because his own father Rev. Moon had committed adultery. The quote below shows that Hyo Jin Moon, Rev. Moon and Mrs. Moon, all have admitted that the elder Rev. Moon had an adulterous affair, but that it was "God's Will", Nan Sook says:
Providential Adultery?
"I trusted Hyo Jin who said 'I know what I'm allowed to do.' He never even gave me a hint that I would be falling with him," Annie would write me later. "Madelene told me some story about Father(Sun Myung Moon) having a relationship outside of Mother(Hak Ja Han Moon) and a son being born. This was later confirmed to me by Hyo Jin and Jin Sung Nim. We discussed if it could be true and what it meant. I never questioned Father's purity or his course. But I certainly began to feel that there must be a lot going on providentially within the True Family that I can't understand or judge."
~I went directly to MRs. Moon with Hyo Jin's claims. She was both furious and tearful. She had hoped that such pain would end with her, that it would not be passed on to the next generation, she told me. No one knows the pain of a straying husband like True Mother, she assured me. I was stunned. We had all heard rumors for years about Sun Myung Moon's affairs and the children he sired out of wedlock, but here was True Mother confirming the truth of those stories.
~I told her that Hyo Jin said his sleeping around was "providential", and inspired by God, just as Father's affairs were. "No. Father is the Messiah, not Hyo Jin. What Father did was in God's plan." His infidelity was part of her course to suffer to become the True Mother. "There is no excuse for Hyo Jin to do this." she said.
~Mrs. Moon told Father what Hyo Jin was claiming and the Reverend Moon summoned me to his room. What happened in his past was "providential" Father reiterated. It has nothing to do with Hyo Jin. I was embarrassed to be hearing this admission from him directly. I was also confused. If Hak Ja Han Moon was the True Mother, if he had found the perfect partner on earth, how could he justify his infidelity theologically?
~I did not ask, of course, but I left that room with a new understanding of the relationship between the Reverend and Mrs. Moon. It was no wonder she wielded so much influence; he was indebted to her for not exposing him all these years. She had made her peace with his faithlessness and betrayal. Perhaps all the money, the world travel, the public adulation, were compensation enough for her.
~They would not be enough for me. For once Hyo Jin Moon was going to see that every action brings a reaction, that for every misdeed there is a consequence to be faced. I received the Reverend and Mrs. Moon's permission to send Annie away (Hyo Jin's lover).
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