Sun Myung Moon
![Moon delivering a speech in [[Las Vegas]], 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Rev._Sun_Myung_Moon_speaks%2C_Las_Vegas%2C_NV%2C_USA_on_April_4%2C_2010.png)
Moon was born in what is now North Korea. When he was a child, his family converted to Christianity. In the 1940s and 1950s, he was imprisoned multiple times by the North and South Korean governments during his early new-religious ministries, formally founding the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, simply known as the Unification Church, in Seoul, South Korea, in 1954.
The Unification Church teaches conservative, family-oriented values from new interpretations of the Christian Bible mixed with theology from Moon's own text, the ''Divine Principle''. In 1971, Moon moved to the United States and became well known after giving a series of public speeches on his beliefs. In the 1982 case ''United States v. Sun Myung Moon'', he was found guilty of willfully filing false federal income tax returns and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. His case generated protests from clergy and civil libertarians, who said that the trial was biased against him.
Moon was criticized for making high demands of his followers, and at many times requesting their life savings be donated to church activities. These demands led to many struggles for families of those who donated. Many of his followers were very dedicated and were often referred to in popular parlance as "Moonies". His wedding ceremonies also drew criticism, especially after members of other churches took part, including the excommunicated Roman Catholic archbishop Emmanuel Milingo. He was also criticized for his relationships with political and religious figures, including US presidents Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush; Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev; North Korean president Kim Il Sung; and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Provided by Wikipedia