Posted by:
anybody
(
)
Date: August 01, 2022 06:58AM
This will sound familiar to ex-Mormons.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/01/revelations-shinzo-abe-death-unification-church-moonies-political-influence-japanDetails emerge showing Unification church’s political ties go further than Japan’s longest-serving prime minister
Japan was still struggling to make sense of the violent death of Shinzo Abe when the man suspected of killing him gave police information that has sent shockwaves through the country’s political establishment.
Tetsuya Yamagami said he shot Abe because of the former primer minister’s links to the Unification church, also known as the Moonies, which he blamed for bankrupting his family. Yamagami’s mother, a longtime member of the church, reportedly gave it ¥100,000 in donations two decades ago, plunging their family into poverty.
Three weeks on from Abe’s death, details have emerged showing that the church’s ties to politicians extend well beyond Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, angering voters and raising questions about its influence on the ruling Liberal Democratic party’s policies on gender equality and sexual diversity.
In a letter to an anti-church blogger sent the day before the attack, Yamagami said his teens had been ruined by his mother’s “overspending, family disruption and bankruptcy”, adding that her loyalty to the Unification church had “distorted [her] entire life”.
The letter, reported by Japanese media, accused Abe of being one of the most influential supporters of the church. During questioning, he has also reportedly blamed Abe’s grandfather and postwar prime minister, Nobusuke Kishi, for promoting the church in Japan in the 1960s as a countermeasure against communism and trade unions.
The church, known for conducting mass weddings in sports stadiums, was founded in South Korea in 1954 by Rev Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who preached new interpretations of the Bible and conservative values, including a strong anti-communist streak.