Moonies
From Free net encyclopedia
The term 'Moonies' is a derogatory term for members of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Movement. Members prefer the term Unificationist. The term was coined by the New York newspapers The Daily News and The New York Post, in 1974 during their 'Madison Square Garden' campaign. The prevailing media-created term 'Moon-children' didn't easily fit a tabloid-size headline.
Some Unificationists falsely believe that Cat Stevens had studied the Unification Movement's Divine Principle in the early 70s and had incorporated some of the church's themes in his rock music, particularly in the song Moonshadow. However in a 2004 interview with United Press International vice president Larry Moffitt (a Unificationist), the singer, who had left the music business in 1974 and adopted the name Yusuf Islam, set the record straight. He said "Moonshadow" was inspired by seeing his own shadow by the light of a full moon on a beach in Spain. He said, 'I looked down and, even though it seems like an obvious thing, I noticed for the first time that the full moon is bright enough to cast shadows.' He said he had never studied the Divine Principle.
After some years of silently enduring the media's use of the term (the proper response in Korean culture for innocents who are publicly maligned), the Unificationists changed their public stance in the mid 1980s, when they asked major media organizations to stop referring to them as 'Moonies,' on the grounds that the term is demeaning and bigoted. The term has since fallen into disuse, except as a pejorative, such as when The Washington Times (founded by Sun Myung Moon) is referred to as the 'Moonie Paper' or 'Moonie Times.'