Sun Myung Moon

Howard Chua-Eoan

Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon was proof that charisma is not necessary to start a religion; organization is. Through decades of steady expansion, his Unification Church became exceedingly wealthy. His organizing principle was the family, with himself and his second wife as the true father and mother of all adherents. In spectacularly staged mass rituals, they presided over the union of thousands of couples being wed at once. Most had never met each other before. Hailing from all over the world, the Moonies, as they were often derisively called, helped build the fortunes of Moon and his family, be it with income from selling roses on the street or publishing newspapers in the U.S. and South Korea. Outraged relatives of members often tried to rescue them with deprogrammers. The U.S. government went after him too, and in 1982, Moon was convicted of tax evasion and served more than a year in a federal prison in Danbury, Conn. After his death Sept. 3 from pneumonia at the age of 92, his biological sons and daughters – he had 14 – appeared to be gearing up for a dynastic battle over their inheritance. It was evidence that Tolstoy was right: even the most allegedly divine of families are unhappy in their own ways.

Howard Chua-Eoan, TIME