Eli Meets Moon: the Struggle for New Religious Movements at an Elite University

The Unification Church is what some scholars call a “new religious movement” (NRM). One such definition describes NRMs as religious groups that are characterized as being outside the norms and traditions of “mainstream world religions.”^[1] Many of these organizations spawned following the end of WWII. In 1954, Sun Myung Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for World Peace and Unification (now called the Unification Church) in South Korea^[2]. Moon claimed that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ and came to bring salvation to the world. Through intensive missionary activity, the Unification Church (“the Church”) spread to nearly every continent. The Korean Herald estimated global membership of three million.^[3] Membership in the United States has been estimated to be between ten thousand and twenty-five thousand^[4]. The Church, despite being such a relatively small group, received national attention for its various religious and political activities, some of which include its mass wedding ceremonies and its founding the conservative newspaper, the Washington Times. In 1978, Congress investigated the Unification Church and found that it collided with the Korean Central Investigation Agency^[5]. In the past three years, the Unification Church returned to public eye following the assassination of Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, was the son of a Japanese member. Yamagami had a grudge against the Unification Church as his family struggled financially after his mother donated 100 million yen ($674,916) to the Church^[6]. In an attempt to curb the Church’s so-called “spiritual sales” (the selling of highly-priced objects for spirituals purposes, which garnered controversy in Japanese consumer law), the Japanese court dissolved the Church’s status as a religious corporation^[7].

In September of 2025, South Korean officials arrested Sun Myung Moon’s widow, Hak Ja Han Moon^[8]. Prosecutors charged that the Church gave Kim Keon Hee, wife of the previous President Yoon Suk Yeol, $80 million won ($57,900) in luxury goods. They also accused Han of colluding with a former Church member to gift 100 million won ($67,764) to Kweon Seong-dong, a conservative member of the National Assembly. Han denied ever knowing of these acts of bribery or directing members to do so^[9]. Sociologist of NRMs Massimo Introvigne alleged, with little evidence, that the prosecution against Han was “religiocide” orchestrated by Protestant fundamentalists, leftist intellectuals, and operatives for the Communist Party of China to “kill” the Unification faith^[10].

The Unification Church, despite alleged persecution from governments around the world, continues to maintain an international presence in various cultural and economic sectors, such as ballet, American fish retail, and journalism^[11]. Fundraising and witnessing efforts by members, especially in Japan, finance the Church’s efforts in the United States and abroad^[12]. It witnesses new members on the street and in college campuses.

This historical account identifies the Church’s activities at Yale University. In the 1960s, Korean church members traveled across the Pacific as university students with the intent to proselytize Americans. In the 70s, the Church arrived in New Haven and Yale University. During their time at Yale, documented in the Special Collections at Yale University and the Yale Daily News, members engaged with Yale faculty and students through debates and events on campus. In the course of their existence, Unificationist Yalies sought support from skeptical college administrators, who could not deny the Church their right to organize at the university. However, the administrators imposed additional regulations on the basis of Church’s religious unorthodoxy. In 1979, the Church wrestled with a student organization founded for the purpose of countering the Unification Church at Yale. In less than a decade after founding a registered undergraduate organization, the Church departed from Yale University as they sought to invest in other campuses in the state of Connecticut. The history of the Unification Church at Yale highlights the exclusion of and difficulties for new religious movements to be welcomed in collegiate spaces, leading to their abandoning elite academic circles for other universities.

The Korean Messiah and the United States

Korean evangelist and self-proclaimed messiah Sun Myung Moon (文鮮明, born as Yongmyung Moon 文龍明)^[13] reported that when he was 15, Jesus Christ appeared before him on Easter

Sunday at Myodu-san, a mountain near his hometown in Chŏngju^[14]. Christ revealed that Moon had “a special mission” to complete during his lifetime on Earth—to liberate God and humanity of their suffering. Following his encounter with Christ, Moon acquainted himself to Korean Christian movements in Seoul. In 1946, according to historian and former Church member Michael Breen, Moon accompanied Christian leader Bak Moon Kim and his group to Pyongyang to revive Christianity in the Soviet-controlled North^[15]. Deviating from his colleagues, Moon preached that the Second Coming of Christ would return in Korea^[16]. Attracting unwanted attention from both communists and Christians alike, North Korean forces sentenced Moon, along with other Christians, to prison where they forced inmates to package fertilizers under brutal living conditions. Moon later escaped from Hungnam Special Labor Camp in 1950 with the help of American troops^[17]. He returned to Seoul on foot with an entourage of a few trusted followers. In 1954, Sun Myung Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in South Korea.^[18]

The Unification Church’s main beliefs are that Sun Myung Moon is the advent of the second coming, who God has sent to Earth to finish the mission of Christ.^[19] The main scripture of the Church is the Divine Principle, which holds that Jesus Christ failed to fulfill his mission because the people of Israel did not recognize Christ as the messiah^[20]. The Divine Principle states that Christ is supposed to have married and become the True Parents on Earth. Instead, according to the Church, God needed Sun Myung Moon to finish the mission—restoring humankind back to God’s lineage. While Moon had accepted his destiny, he needed to gather the people of God on Earth to save the world. The Israel he founded was the Unification Church.

Just five years after its founding, the Church sent a professor at Ehwa Woman’s University, Young Oon Kim, to the New World. Kim studied theology for five years at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan^[21]. Afterward she taught at a Bible College in Pyongyang and later at Ehwa, where she met Sun Myung Moon and the Divine Principle. in Seoul. During Kim’s time in Ehwa, she encountered Canadian missionaries who helped her attain a scholarship to attend Emmanual College, a theological college under Victoria University in the University of Toronto system. At Emmanual College, she earned a master’s degree in theology. After her studies in North America, the same Canadian missionaries invited Kim to travel to Europe, where she visited post-war Germany, Switzerland, and England. She was also involved in some projects for the World Council of Churches. According to her own account, she became disillusioned in mainstream Christianity upon witnessing the decline of Christian faith among the youth^[22]. She also believed that Christianity at the time was not equipped to counter communism; international Christian organizations were also not interested in unifying Christianity—a concern Kim alleged to have had during this period. Upon returning to South Korea to teach at Ehwa, she encountered Sun Myung Moon. Inspired by the Divine Principle and Sun Myung Moon, Kim enrolled at the University of Oregon to found the first chapter of what later became the American Unification Church.

Following Kim, other Church members traveled from Korea to the United States to spread the new gospel, such as David San Chul Kim, who arrived in the West Coast just ten months after Young Oon Kim.^[23]

In 1966, the Unification Church established the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP^[24]).The Japanese chapters were active in campus political and social life, debating and counterprotesting Marxist and left-aligned groups. Early members attempted to found an American CARP following the Japanese model. However, according to Church historian Michael Mickler, American CARP was initially neither active nor well organized. In earlier years, CARP leadership and organizers were primarily not students; instead, they were people who had already graduated from universities and seminaries. In 1979 , Rev. Chong Goo “Tiger” Park headed CARP and restructured the organization to enable its membership to grow from 100 to 1,000 students^[25]. While the Unification Church’s national history is well documented by various writers and academics such as Unification Historian Michael Mickler, former follower and journalist Michael Breen, and religious studies professor George D. Chryssides, specific stories of the Unification Church in unique contexts are infrequently discussed. Mickler’s master’s thesis covered the history of the Church in the Bay Area^[26]. Mickler and Michael Inglis’ book, 40 years in America: an Intimate History of the Unification Movement, 1959-1999, features a collection of autoethnographic accounts from early Unificationists. Amos Nyambo wrote a 2006 book on the Unification Church in Malawi^[27]. And Franco Famularo, for their master’s thesis at the

then-Unification Theological Seminary (UTS, now HJ Institute), compiled the history of the Unification Church in Canada^[28]. Mickler, who is faculty at the HJ Institute (the Church’s graduate institution) advised Canadian Church member Famularo. What distinguishes this article from other historical accounts of the Church is that this article will be the first to attempt a comprehensive history of the relationship between the Unification Church and a specific university community.

This paper argues that the skeptical and anti-cult tendencies that Yale admins, students and community members sanctioned created a hostile environment towards the Unification Church, potentially leading to the Church’s disappearance from campus. The Unification Church responded to Yale University aggressively, sometimes unapologetically violating school policies. This study utilizes three primary sources. The Yale Daily News (YDN) is the self-proclaimed oldest collegiate daily newspaper in the United States. Founded in 1878, it publishes during the workweek throughout the academic year. As the college newspaper, the YDN reported many episodes concerning the Unification Church and the Yale community. Additionally, students in the Unification Church utilized the YDN to advertise their events and viewpoints. Yale’s Manuscript and Archives collection contains several documents relating to the Unification Church’s activity at Yale in the late 70s and early 80s. Yale administrations were wary of the Church’s presence on campus, whose records are stored in the university archives. The Unification Church’s online community archive, a website that houses digitized primary sources about the Church, contextualizes events described in the YDN and Yale Special Collections.

Early Presence of the Unification Church at Yale

In its earlier years, the Unification Church had a rather sympathetic academic environment. With selective interactions with the Yale community, the Unification Church found likeminded scholars to support their early projects in forming an academic conference. Yet as the object of congressional scrutiny and the media, the Unification Church slowly developed a negative reputation in the greater New Haven area.

In 1965, Sun Myung Moon toured 39 nations to establish a series of holy grounds. In the United States, Moon designated 54^[29]. Holy grounds, according to Church theologian Chung Hwan Kwak, are designed as symbolic restoration of land into God’s domain. Under the Church’s theology, following the fall of man, God had lost ownership of creation itself; however, because of Sun Myung Moon’s marriage to his wife Hak Ja Han in 1960, God through Moon could regain control of creation, relieving it from Satan’s control^[30]. Moon established a Holy Ground in West Rock, New Haven on March 19, 1965^[31].

In 1970, a Unification Church center in New Haven connected the early Church to elite academic circles. The New Haven members contacted Edward Fröhlich Haskell, who at the time lectured at the Southern Connecticut State College (now Southern Connecticut State University^[32]). Haskell established an organization called Council for Unified Research and Education (C.U.R.E.) around 1948 to develop what he called the Unified Sciences—scholarship dedicated to the proposition that all of science can be understood in a single unified discipline^[33]. He collaborated with scholars such as Yale Professor of Chemistry Harold G. Cassidy and University of California at Berkeley Professor of Education Psychology Arthur R. Jensen^[34]. Jensen was a controversial figure in psychology for his 1969 paper arguing that IQ was a factor largely determined by genetic factors, including race^[35]. Haskell’s work attracted the attention of some scholars internationally such as German physicist Werner Heisenberg^[36]. C.U.R.E. played a considerable role in the First International Conference of Unified Science: Moral Orientation of the Sciences^[37]. In that same year, Haskell edited a book titled Full Circle: The Moral Force of Unified Science. The Unification Church remembers this event as the first International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) in Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City in November of 1972^[38]. Haskell’s work resonated with Sun Myung Moon’s theology. The Unification Church’s Divine Principle predicts the convergence of the world’s epistemologies—namely science and religion^[39]. Similar to dualist principles found in Taoism, the Church holds that science and religion represent the two dual aspects of knowledge—materialist and spiritual, respectively. United in the same cause for a unified epistemology, Haskell and Moon both spoke at the Conference of Unified Science^[40]. A Yale University professor, Harold G. Cassady, supported the endeavor, but the Church did not attract any identifiable attention from the greater Yale community.

Alan Engel examined ICUS pamphlets and documents and compiled a dataset containing the names of participants. The only Yale individual who attended the event was Cassidy. However, other professors from prestigious universities participated: Harvard philosopher professor Willard Van Orman Quine, Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti, Columbia anthropologist Conrad M. Arensberg, and Argentine econometrician Camilo Dagum^[41]. Engel’s dataset does not contain information on participants’ academic affiliation, rendering it difficult to discern how Yale affiliation with ICUS transformed over the course of ICUS’ existence or the names of other schools represented at the conference.

In 1971, a local journalist reported that a ‘Unification family’ lived together on 127 Dwight St^[42]. However, the earliest relationship between Yale University and the Unification Church was Richard Panzer. He graduated in 1973 from Yale College and lived in Ezra Stiles^[43]. His bachelor’s degree was in Media Studies, which may have proven relevant in his later work in FREE TEENS, a program to promote abstinence among the youth, consistent with his Christian and Unificationist orientation. He joined the Unification Church in 1973, a few months after graduating from Yale^[44]. Thus, he would not have started a Unificationist community while he was an undergraduate^[45]. Instead, the earliest evidence of the Unification Church at Yale was a 1974 YDN news article. On October 31st, the YDN reported that a “new student organization” named CARP would be introducing themselves in William Harkness Hall^[46]. Dinshaw Keki Dadachanji was to give a “special lecture” titled, “God—the Scientist's Dilemma.” Dadachanji earned his master’s degree in science at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, India and later completed his doctorate in Molecular Biology at Yale University. He finished his dissertation on mice DNA in 1992^[47]. It is possible that Dadachanji entered Yale in 1974 to begin his doctoral studies, already a Unification Church member. Seeing the lack of Unification Church presence on his campus, he sought to found a CARP chapter. In his dissertation, he cited Sun Myung Moon as an object of appreciation. The gap between 1974 and 1992 remains mysterious as while doctoral studies could take a decade, it seemed unlikely to explain the gap between his enrollment and his graduation. In 1975, Yale CARP hosted William H. Luke to discuss “the Racial Problem and Communism^[48].” William H. Luke was pastor of the Los Angeles Church of God. ^[49]He previously attended the Unification Church national event “Day of Hope.” At the event Luke said, “these people [the Unification Church] love God with a 24-hour sanctification. I took the advice of the Holy Spirit and I just humbled myself, and these folks taught me a lesson…Don't hold yourself away from these people; they love the Lord.” Pastor Luke, an ally for the Church, would have helped establish the Church’s local reputation; his attendance could have signaled to others that the Church was a legitimate Christian organization. Not much information was available on the event itself. The Unification Church’s earliest members hardly interacted with members of the Yale community in a negative light. In part because the Unification Church had yet to receive the public spotlight, only those who would engage directly and positively with the Church interacted with it as was the case of Edward Haskell and Harold Cassidy. Members of the Unification Church formed a likely unrecognized student organization to introduce the Unification Church to Yale. While little is known of how the university community reacted, Yale CARP sought to introduce itself through pastors from established Christian leadership. The fact that the Church may have felt the need to strategically align itself with Pastor William Luke foreshadows the difficulties Yale CARP would face in confronting university administrators and the student body for recognition as a new religious movement.

The Fight to Bring Unificationism to Yale

The late 70s were the peak of Yale CARP’s activity, and consequently the peak of anti-cult skepticism that influenced the decisions and actions of both Yale administrators and the Yale student community alike. CARP’s activities ignited campus-wide controversy. These conflicts were made public through the YDN, where Unificationists published defense of Sun Myung Moon and the Church’s practice. Anti-cult activists at Yale confronted Unificationists through published

op-eds and generated debate around campus. The interactions between CARP, anti-cult student groups, and the administrators reveal how the Yale community limited new religious movements and their engagement with the student body. Yale CARP and its leadership responded aggressively, which in turn further fueled the resistance against new religious movements. Seemingly, despite Dadachanji’s earlier presence at Yale, the Unification Church’s CARP chapter disappeared between 1975 and 1978. It may have been the case that this CARP chapter was likely not a registered organization in Yale’s registry. In the spring of 1978, the YDN reported that the Church hosted an event on Yale’s campus to introduce a Unification Church chapter^[50].

Paul Yasutake was director of the Unification Church in New Haven. Dadachanji was present at this very event. It drew some backlash from students—one claimed she had been searching for her allegedly missing sister for three years after her sister joined the Unification Church. Another claimed that the Church was “beginning to become an anti-communism lobby.” This individual found the Church’s overt political stance questionable as it would have violated the stipulation that tax-exempt religious corporations be politically neutral. YDN reported that the event attracted some critiques but also some interested students (however they could have already been members of the Church). This early interaction highlighted the controversy that the Unification Church would face in an otherwise hostile Yale student body, members of which were informed and concerned with the presence of a new religious movement—which they deemed a “cult.” By September of 1978, the Unification Church established a center in 750 Elm Street, much farther from Yale’s campus than its earlier Dwight street residence^[51]. While the YDN reported the New Haven membership count to be thirty, only five were students—three undergraduate and two graduate students. Dadachanji led this iteration of CARP, which officially began in 1977. While CARP membership was low, sixty students reportedly attended an event on campus involving Rev.

William Bergman, who led the Church’s Manhattan Center^[52]. 1978 marked a golden age in the Unification Church’s history at Yale. During this period, several influential persons who later joined the intellectual class of the Unification Church began their academic studies. Their presence is reflected in their contribution to YDN. Yalies skeptical of the Church published pieces condemning it. Peter Blackman’s “What price ‘Religious Freedom’? portrayed Moon as a nazi in the sieg heil stance^[53]. Susanna R. Miller’s ‘Unification and the Individual’ criticized the Church’s collectivism, comparing its membership to the Hitler Youth^[54]. Yale Unificationists responded to such comparisons. Just two days after Miller’s letter to the editor, the YDN published Church member Jhoon Sun Park’s “In Defense of Moon’s Unification Church^[55].” Johnathan Wells, then-first year graduate student in Religious Studies, wrote, “Inside the Moon Movement^[56].” In his article, Wells defended the Church, explaining how he met Sun Myung Moon, and did not find evidence of “brainwashing” or signs of “neo-fascism,” which were frequent accusations waged against the Church.

According to Wells (in a separate document dated to be from 1994), Sun Myung Moon sent him, among several other Unification Church members, to study in graduate school^[57]. Wells resolved to “devote [his] life to destroying Darwinism, just as many of [his] fellow Unificationists had already devoted their lives to destroying Marxism.” He enrolled in a doctoral program in Religious Studies at Yale University. His time as a Yale student ended when he completed his dissertation in 1986, titled “Charles Hodge's Critique of Darwinism: the Argument to Design^[58].” Wells argued that unlike other theologians whose objection to Darwinism were based on a belief that creation implied God’s existence, Princeton theologian and former principal Charles Hodge objected to Darwinian evolution because the existence of God already implied creationism. Three years after finishing his PhD at Yale, Wells enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of California at Berkeley to study embryology and evolution. In 2000, he published his most famous book Icons of Evolution: Why much of what We Teach about Evolution is Wrong^[59].The scientific community had largely shunned Wells’ work^[60].Some of these critiques alleged Wells of being parasitic towards science, arguing he produced zero original contributions to the discipline.

In 1979, Richard Panzer, who converted to the Church after graduating from Yale College, returned to New Haven to assist the CARP chapter and performed similar tasks as Wells and Park^[61]. He reacted fiercely to the YDN for what he believed were unprofessional and inaccurate coverage of the Unification Church. The YDN published an article written by reporter Sheilia Wellehan titled, “CARP Rally Draws Hecklers; Speakers Blast Soviet Policy^[62].” To write the article, she interviewed members of the Unification Church such as Panzer and Dadachanji and a Yalie named Ernestine Abel. In response, Panzer sent a letter to the YDN and claimed his letter was distributed throughout Yale’s campus and New Haven. He attached a copy of Wellehan’s articles and an article from the New Haven Reporter by an individual named Randall Beach who also reported on the Church. His letter was titled: “EDUCATION: A LESSON IN SHODDY JOURNALISM” (‘Education’).^[63]

In ‘Education,’ Panzer attacked the YDN for what he charged as biased reporting. In response to the YDN’s reporting of student opinions on the Church, Panzer responded with his annotation of Wellehan’s article, “who are you to judge someone’s motivation” or “a reflection of his personal bias.” Perhaps his most well-reasoned criticism of the article was Wellehan’s quoting of Ernestine Abel, who was the photographer for Wellehan’s story. Panzer took offense at the YDN for publishing the opinions of other Yalies though one would imagine the YDN was simply interested in how Yalies responded to the Unification Church. Panzer sharply critiqued Wellehan, who supposedly had interviewed Panzer for ninety minutes. He charged that Wellehan was either not interested—or not “able” to understand what he had told her. He signed his letter with a vindicative remark: “yet “idiots” on campus, including the Yale Daily News, quibble over which group on campus speaks the Truth. May God forgive you.”^[64] The record shows that Panzer sent two letters, one day after another to the YDN on this same topic.

Not all Unificationists responded to criticism writing hostile letters to Yale students. Indeed, in a letter by Josie Lawson to the YDN and larger Yale community, they write, “I understand your position Yalies. You're under intense scholastic pressure and tend to be strongly opiniated and individualistic, having sparse time or energy to deeply investigate a new group like CARP^[65].” She ends her letter writing, “we love you very much.” Lawson sent this letter on February 14 of that year just a day after Panzer sent his second letter^[66]. It contrasts with Panzer’s letter by promoting mutual respect between CARP and the Yale community.

Unificationists’ interactions with Yale newspapers and the community at large reflect the hostility that the Church faced in proselytizing the Yale community. Yale students were quick to compare the Church to Nazism, even portraying the most holy figure in the Church as Adolf Hitler. These students subscribed to the charge that the Unification Church brainwashed its believers—a claim propagated by many so-called “cult-experts.” Almost a decade after Wellehan’s article, sociologist Eileen Barker attempted to disprove this hypothesis in her 1984 ethnography, the Making of the Moonie. ^[67]In the case of Richard Panzer, he allegedly gave a Yale Daily News reporter one and a half hours of his time only for the majority of the content of that interview not to be included in the final publication. Rather than creating a robust introduction of the Church’s ideas to the Yale Community, the YDN focused on the controversy of the Church.

One should not, however, assume that the Church’s problems with YDN were merely the newspapers’ bias, but rather the very act of publishing the sentiments of students who were critical of the Church. This aggressive response mirrored the Church’s national policy toward skeptical journalists in its attempt to ensure the media portray the Church in a positive light. In 1979, the New York State Court of Appeals unanimously dismissed a $45 million suit against the New York Times, brought by the Unification Church^[68]. In 1978, the Times reported a declassified American CIA document that alleged that Kim Chong Pil, who founded the South Korea’s Korean Central Investigation Agency and helped install Park Chung Hee as dictator, founded the Unification Church as a political tool^[69]. While several historical documents and reviews later proved the claims in this document false, the Unification Church sought compensation for damages done to the Church’s reputation as a result of publishing these articles. The Church failed to convince the Court of Appeals that the Times should be punished for accurately reporting the contents of a CIA declassified document, even if the information on the document was false. Like the national Church organization, Panzer challenged the Yale newspaper for publishing students’ thoughts regarding the Unification Church.

Anticult sentiments and skepticism influenced Yale administrators’ aversion to include a new religious group on campus. When local Church leader Paul Yasutake, a non-Yale affiliate, approached University Chaplain John Vannorsdall, Yale administrators were uncertain of allowing the Unification Church to operate on campus^[70]. A letter, from Dean of Undergraduate Studies Martin Ignatius Joseph Griffen to Associate Dean for Student Affairs Marnesba M. Hill, revealed their reservations. As Dean Griffen explained in his letter, Yale had no basis by which to deny the Unification Church status as a student organization. Nonetheless, both Vannorsdall and Griffen believed that no religious agencies at Yale should cooperate with the Church. Additionally, Griffen proposed that administrators should require that the Unification Church agree to being subject to review at any time upon complaint received by the university. According to this letter, Yasutake admitted to the use of deceptive recruitment tactics but argued that the Church had since turned a new leaf^[71]. The decision to exclude the “new Christians” from Yale’s mainstream religious practice and to put the organization on high-alert indicates that the university subscribed to anti-Unification Church and cult-skeptic sentiments popular among Americans. In enforcing restrictions in how the Church can interact with religious life, Yale administrators decided what counted as the Christian canon and what did not. Effectively, at Yale, the Unification Church were “second-class” Christianity.

University administrators required CARP to agree to a higher standard of scrutiny to which Christian groups on campus were not subjected. One of those regulations was for CARP to identify itself as the Unification Church in its advertisement. CARP advertised a Florida Retreat and seminar on the Yale Daily News^[72]. The advertisement detailed a seminar titled “New Leadership for a New Age” from December 30 to January 3rd, during Yale’s winter break. Its only three requirements for admission were sleeping wear and toiletries, $20 and no alcohol or drugs. It did not mention religion or anything spiritual. It did not mention the Unification Church, which prompted Yale administrators to be concerned. Martin Griffin Jr. wrote to Marnesba M. Hill asking, “have we not required of the Unification Church that they identify themselves clearly in their publicity^[73].” It was likely Associate Dean Griffen Jr. and Dean Hill who required the Church to identify itself. Yet there seems to be little restriction on other Christian advertisements on the YDN. An advertisement from 1978 titled, “Why Do the Heathen Rage?: Psalms 2:1 and Acts 4:25,” did not contain any identifying information other than the address for a P.O. box^[74]. A similar advertisement appeared in the YDN in 1977—this specific advertisement had been published across numerous YDN issues at least between 1977 to 1979^[75]. The fact that there were consistent Christians publications without such restrictions imply Yale administrators subjected Yale CARP to a unique set of rules.

Advertisements for the same Florida Retreat likely led to Yale administrators punishing and fining CARP for not identifying itself as the Unification Church. Perhaps sometime in 1978 or 1979, CARP-affiliates shoved similar flyers advertising the Florida Retreat into student mailboxes^[76]. A staff member for the Master’s Office of Saybrook College wrote to Bobbi (a nickname for Marnesba Hill, the first African American woman in a senior Yale administrative position) that CARP-advertisements were placed in every single mailbox in each entryway of Saybrook College, a residential dorm for Yale undergraduate students^[77]. Hill suggested a $25 fine imposed on CARP. In another letter from Saybrook, the Master’s Office reported to Associate Dean Hill that the “girl” who distributed the posters at Saybrook may not have been a Yale student. While the record did not indicate a name, this individual at the very least did not know what “SSS” was (Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall). This individual could have been Jhoon Sun Park, who authored a letter to the editor on the YDN. It also simply could have been a missionary or a local member. None of the other CARP members discussed in this piece could have been a female student—indicating that it could very likely be someone from outside the Yale community.

CARP’s limited regards for Yale’s administrative policies proved a disciplinary issue for Yale. Not only had CARP placed advertisements into students’ mailboxes without permission but also failed to adhere to a policy that required it to identify itself as the Church. Administrators also took notice of the presence of potentially non-Yale affiliate distributing fliers in college residential spaces, a practice that would be unheard of at Yale today.

Yale’s imposition of a rule that required that the Unification Church identify itself likely originated from concerns from parents, who were worried of alleged “brainwashing” and losing their children to the Unification Church. Indeed, parents sought reassurance that Yale University, in loco parentis, would do their best to protect their kids from proselytization^[78]. One cited that the $7500 paid to Yale, for presumably tuition, should be used to ensure protection from walks from Payne Whitney Gymnasium, Ingall Rink, and other places students visit. One mother stressed that the Unification Church had to be observed and regulated closely. Yale University of course had to follow their protocols and ensure fairness—especially as blatant discrimination against CARP could amount to a violation of their First Amendment right. However, having to recognize CARP did not mean that Yale administrators would leave the group without scrutiny and strict regulations.

Yale, New Haven, and Anti-Cult Intelligentsia

As Congress investigated the Church for alleged ties to the South Korean government, 1978 marked the proliferation of nation-wide conflicts against the Unification Church. These countrywide developments mirrored the events that transpired at Yale and the New Haven community.

While these events may not have jeopardized Yale CARP’s status as a student organization, they did represent a pivotal moment in the rising hostility toward new religious movements. In 1978, Yale students against the Unification Church founded Eclipse^[79]. Throughout its application form, Eclipse mentioned the Unification Church four separate times where they detailed “goals and guidelines.” The organization sought to invite debate on religious cults and their societal implications. It specifically articulated its goals to counter the Yale CARP chapter. Paul Fishman wrote a YDN article as a founding member of Eclipse, warning his peers about the Unification Church^[80]. He alleged the Church’s New Hampshire “training center” practiced “love-bombing” and sleep-deprivation to indoctrinate members. He also called the Church misleading for failing to disclose the full breath of activities and responsibilities required of members in the Church—namely the alleged selling of tuition and street vending to raise funds. In the New Haven Advocate, Fishman wrote against Dadachanji and his attack on Fishman’s coverage of the 1978 Fraser Committee investigations^[81]. The 1978 Fraser Committee was a congressional hearing that found credible information that the Unification Church collaborated with the Korean CIA in staging a protest against Japan following the murder of Park Chung Hee’s wife^[82]. The alleged assassin was a Zainichi Korean, the Korean diaspora in Japan that identify North Korea as their homeland. While the original article that Dadachanji attacked had not been found in this study, Fishman reported that Dadachanji called his article comparable to “a write-up of the Jewish people by someone from the Nazi party...if the Jews had been the object of [Fishman's] bias, he would probably speak of 'Jews colonizing Yale.” Fishman charged the Unification Church’s religious text, Divine Principle, with antisemitism. He referenced A. James Rudin’s report of 130 antisemitic episodes in the text^[83].

Rudin, and Fishman, attacked Moon’s theology for what he saw as a justification for the Holocaust. In a 1978 speech, Moon said, “the indemnity paid by the Nazi persecution of the Jews made possible the restoration of the nation of Israel. If through that experience the Jews can resolve to unite with the Messiah [i.e., Sun Myung Moon] then God's blessing will be bestowed upon them^[84].” Moon also stated,

Christianity paid much indemnity when many were martyred during its first 400 years under the Roman Empire. Millions of Jews have been killed in history, but that was historical indemnity. Many lives were sacrificed all over the world, but that also is part of historical indemnity. Unless we fulfill it now, indemnity will go on and on for thousands of years more becoming an even more severe burden. We have to stop it somehow by paying it off. Indemnity can be condensed in my lifetime, allowing us to pay the historical debt all at once and leaving none for future generations^[85].

Moon understood the history of humankind as a history of indemnity. He traced all human suffering as retribution for four different kinds of sins—individual, original (the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis), collective (sins committed by the larger ethnic or national community), and hereditary (sins committed by ancestors^[86]). In applying this theology to the Jewish people, Moon offended Jewish individuals who believed that a theology that placed the Holocaust as a providential event amounted to justification and antisemitism. Such a viewpoint would certainly alienate those at Yale, as the university has had a large Jewish population.

On February 19, 1979, Eclipse held the “Forum of Religious Cults^[87].” They invited Rabbi Michael Manson and Rita Ashdale. Rabbi Manson was a local rabbi from Wallingford, CT^[88]. Rita Ashdale was a former Unification Church member. According to the YDN, Manson had worked with parents whose children had gone to the Unification Church. Ashdale joined the Church as a freshman in Boston University, who went to what she called, “indoctrination weekend.” When she tried to leave near the beginning of the program, a young church member grabbed her arm crying and asking, “why don’t you find out for yourself what we’re about?” Ashdale eventually left the Unification Church and became an activist. She advocated for deprogramming as a “simple process’ of “merely talking to [the individual in the Church].” In front of an audience of 100 people, she iterated that parents have the right to “get their children back, even through the most desperate measures.”

The event, which took place at Linsly-Chittenden Hall, faced resistance from the Unification Church. Prior to the event, Dadachanji inquired Associate Dean Hill about the “Yale Forum on Cults^[89].” He argued that Section IX of the Yale University Undergraduate Regulations (1978-9) stipulated that using "Yale's name required permission from the administration—if the use of the university name may imply endorsement from the university.” On February 26, the YDN published an article, where Associate Dean Hill reassured that Eclipse did not violate Yale’s policies^[90].

Fishman and Paula A. Goodman, representing Eclipse, filed a complaint to Yale College Dean Horace D. Taft^[91]. Eclipse alleged several violations of Yale’s undergraduate regulations. They purported that within eight to fifteen minutes, more than 200 posters about the “Forum on Religious Cults,” were torn down. They mentioned a student at Harvard faced a similar problem when their posters criticizing the Church were systemically removed. According to Eclipse, leader of the Church’s New Haven chapter Paul Yasutake denied ordering members to tear down posters. However, he said, “if the Nazis put up anti-Jewish posters, then Jews would probably rip them down.” Given that Fishman did not accompany a citation for Dadachanji and Yasutake’s account, their testimonies may not have been as similar as Fishman suggested them to be. Fishman had cited both individuals as having made brash accusations comparing Eclipse to Nazis. Such an approach by the Unification Church, however, was not unheard of. Bo Hi Pak, Moon’s right-hand man, called Democratic Senator Donald M. Fraser “an instrument of the Devil” during a congressional inquiry^[92]. For the Unification Church, which likely viewed Eclipse’s anti-cult tendencies as a threat, it would have appeared justified to protect their reputation.

During the event, the audience and Unification Church had an opportunity to ask Ashdale questions. According to Eclipse, Church members interrupted speakers and heckled, “lies, lies.” What Eclipse regarded as harassment was so severe that the main speaker, Ashdale, “broke down and wept.” YDN reporting corroborated the narrative that the questioning period was chaotic and dysfunctional^[93]. Wellehan, the same student who Church member Panzer called “idiotic,” wrote that both sides had divulged into partisan shouting battles. Attendees shouted, “we are being suppressed” and “thank god we live in a free country,” the former likely from members of the Unification Church. What may discredit Fishman and Goodman’s account was that Wellehan did not report that Ashdale had wept. While it could be the case that the journalist simply did not notice, should Ashdale the speaker of the event had cried would not YDN report that she had?

Wellehan wrote that Unification Church members felt as though their First Amendment rights had been violated. While the Unification Church had a history of portraying critiques of the Church as violations of their religious rights, CARP’s anger towards Ashdale should be understood through the context of deprogramming and self-preservation^[94]. Ashdale’s endorsed deprogramming in her talk. Deprogramming, a controversial and ascientific practice, is connected to violent acts of kidnapping young people including Unification Church members. The most disturbing deprogrammer Theodore Roosevelt Patrick (Ted Patrick) was a bar owner who worked under Gov. Ronald Reagan of California and became convicted as a felon for his deprogramming activity^[95]. Naomi Goss, James Roe, and Ted Patrick, were charged with kidnapping, abduction, and assault^[96]. Roe was charged with sexual battery. Prosecutors argued that the parents of a nineteen-year-old named Stephanie Riethmiller paid Patrick to deconvert their daughter, who they suspect to be in a same-sex relationship with her roommate. Prosecutors contended that the men kidnapped Riethmiller and sexually assaulted her to “attract her to heterosexual activity.” The jury acquitted the three from all charges, except for abduction, which they charged Goss and Roe^[97]. While Riethmiller was not a member of the Church, families of Unification Church members did arrange for their adult children to be kidnapped and forcefully converted against their will with various levels of success^[98].

Paul Yasutake responded to each of Fishman and Goodman’s four allegations in a letter to Dean Taft^[99]. The first allegation accused CARP of systemically tearing down Eclipse posters. Yasutake did not explicitly deny the accusation. He instead retorted that Fishman and Goodman had no evidence for their claim. Yasutake replied with an argument by absurdity: since CARP’s posters had also been “taken down every single time,” would the Church have the right to claim that Eclipse had been vandalizing its posters. Interestingly, Yasutake did not explain what kind of posters they were. Instead, he wrote that they were “Unification Church” related posters, not strictly CARP’s. Posters placed in locations considered improper by Yale policies or posters placed in certain locations without proper permission would also have been torn down, regardless of their content.

The second allegation Yasutake countered was that the Unification Church disrupted Eclipse event. Yasutake maintained that no Unification Church member disrupted the forum. He argued that they had tape recording of the event to corroborate his claims. Fishman and Goodman’s letter to the Dean Taft also mentions an individual with a tape recorder, who allegedly refused to identify with which organization he was^[100].

Yasutake’s commentary on the second allegation remains consistent with the historic records. Yasutake stated that the event organizers prohibited members from responding to the speakers; instead, they were only limited to asking questions. Yasutake explained that people asking questions were interrupted more often than the speakers themselves. Dan Kaferle at the New Haven Register explained that the event required that guests be given one question and only one question^[101]. Organizers did not allow participants to provide statements. Ashdale’s “team leader” from when she was a Church member was in the audience and could not respond to what the Church deemed as falsehoods. Yasutake framed this interaction as Eclipse’s refusal to allow the Church members to speak freely. Although most events at Yale with speakers have restrictions on the number of questions and statements one may make, both Yasutake’s commentary and the New Haven Register would suggest the event was more tightly organized and restrictive. While the New Haven Register could confirm the restrictions placed on the participants of the event, it contradicted Yasutake: Church members often disrupted the speakers and maintained that the speakers’ claims were false. While Yasutake may have had a tape-recording, he may not have regarded their introjections as disruptive, but instead as merely responding to allegations and lies against their Church and their Messiah.

The third allegation that the Eclipse organizers waged against CARP was that CARP defamed Ashdale. Eclipse alleged that the Church distributed flyers titled, “Yale Forum on Cults a Fraud,” which pejoratively called Ashdale a deprogrammer. Yasutake maintained that the flyers merely indicated that Ashdale was “strongly biased” against the Church. Dan Kaferle who covered the event reported that the flyers distributed by the Church indeed called Ashdale a deprogrammer—a title she allegedly denied at the event^[102]. Eclipse wanted CARP to provide evidence for their claim that she was a deprogrammer, whereas Yasutake denied such a claim were ever waged. The fourth allegation by Eclipse was harassment. Fishman and Goodman pointed to how CARP publicized the claim that Eclipse violated Yale policies. Yasutake retorted that Eclipse should be charged with harassing the Church—as its existence is based on “attacking Reverend Moon and the Unification Church.”

The Eclipse organizers sought several remedies regarding this interaction with the Unification Church. Interestingly, the Eclipse organizers explicitly asked the Dean not to bar the Unification Church from campus as Eclipse believed that the Church reserved the right to free speech. Instead, they wanted the University administrators to formally request that the Yale CARP chapter refrain from harassing their guests, cease vandalizing posters, and “respect the right of free expression by those persons who might disagree with the Unification Church-Yale student chapter.” Eclipse noted that the administrator should demand that the student organization adhere to the university chaplaincy regulations that the Church identify itself in its literature. Yasutake’s response to Eclipse did not mention any of these remedies explicitly other than noting that “I have no desire to prevent Mr. Fishman and Ms. Goodman from exercising their right to freedom of speech, even though they seem determined to use it to make accusations against the Unification Church.” His response likened to Richard Panzer—who was deeply offended that Yalies would even criticize the Unification Church.

As a local Rabbi, a guest speaker, and a student community created a space that restricted Unificationist voices and elevated the voices of critics, the Unification Church had little means to actively resist what they would have perceived as slander. The use of the academic forum, which previously elevated the Church’s reputation with other scholars, was now being used to portray the Church in a negative light. Attendees who were experiencing firsthand what guest speakers discussed and critiqued cannot respond; they cannot contest or evaluate the validity of the speakers’ claims. Between an esoteric spiritual group like the Unification Church and a student organization at an elite university, the latter would have been more effective in influencing the student body to be against new religious movements.

The End of CARP at Yale

Yale CARP gained some momentum organizing on Yale’s campus. However, as a student organization at an elite university, CARP’s connection to the Unification Church indirectly served as a liability. Donors were skeptical of their money potentially going towards CARP. Despite no clear connection to a non-profit with the same name, Yale University had to explain to donors that their money would not contribute to Moon’s cause. Neither New Haven, Yale nor the student body were concerned or worried about how the judicial system jeopardized Yale CARP’s status as a student organization.

In February 1981, CARP hosted a dinner in the President’s Room at Woolsey Hall.^[103] It honored Mose Durst, who became the new president of the American Unification Church. He spoke on the necessity of “higher moral ideals.” While fifty individuals attended the event, the YDN estimated that 80% were Church members and their family. Less than fifteen individuals were from the Yale community, though the age range present at the event was diverse and included both younger and older individuals. Unlike previous engagements with the campus, there were almost little involvement and interactions between students and the Church.

Religious leaders on campus had mixed responses to Durst’s appearance. President A. Bartlett Giamatti denied his invitation due to a prior commitment. University John Vannorsdall had welcomed Durst earlier but did not stay for dinner. James Dittes, who served as Chair of the Religious Department, and Associate Pastor Samuel Slie declined to attend the event. Both Dittes and Siles attempted to remain neutral in the matter, seeking neither to dissuade participation, nor to actively support it. Dittes, however, did acknowledge that he found some of the actions that the Church had been accused of doing to be reprehensible. Hillel Director Rabbi Bernard Och refused to meet with Durst and explicitly stated he in no shape wished to support the Unification Church. Och’s hostility towards the Church should be of no surprise. Like Fishman, Och could have found the Church’s portrayal of Jews as antisemitic. A month after Durst’s visit, Yale Hillel and the New Haven Federation of Jews sponsored an “evening on Cults,” an event that criticized the Unification Church^[104]. The reactions from university-affiliates and leadership demonstrated the degree to which Yale’s network used its resources to dissuades others from interacting with the Unification Church. While Yale CARP had to deal with on-campus criticism, the organization became the object of legal scrutiny through the first half of 1981. Yale CARP was a defendant in a lawsuit that may have contributed to its disappearance from Yale’s campus. Indeed, just less than three years since its revival in 1978, Yale’s CARP chapter ceased to exist. Its disappearance had nothing to do with its skirmishes with other Yale undergraduate organizations. Nor had it to do with conflicts with the Yale administration. Rather, CARP’s reputation and sheer misfortune spelled the organization’s technical death at the university.

In New Haven, there was another organization called Center for Advocacy Research and Planning, INC. Its acronym was also CARP (“NH CARP”). The organization worked on legal issues pertaining to racial minorities in New Haven. Flemming L. Norcott Jr., who served as a former Associate Justice on the Connecticut Supreme Court, co-founded and directed the organization (possibly around 1973, according to the Finding Aid for the John Arthur Wilkinson papers^[105]). It was originally founded as an affiliate to New Haven’s NAACP chapter, but became its own entity in 1974^[106]. NH CARP sought to file a name-dispute against CARP chapters throughout the state of Connecticut^[107].

In 1980, NH CARP sent a letter to John Dillenberger, a historical theologian who then-served as President at the Hartford Seminary (now Hartford International University for Religion and Peace). The letter indicated that NH CARP opened a legal dispute against CARP^[108]. In the letter, somehow in the hands of Yale College’s Dean’s Office, NH CARP requested information from the Hartford Seminary regarding CARP’s presence on their campus.

On July 22, 1981, the Superior Court for the Judicial District of New Haven ruled in favor of NH CARP^[109]. In CARP v. CARP (where NH CARP was the plaintiff), the court issued a temporary injunction against the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles. It required that the organization “absolutely desist and refrain” from using the CARP brand in New Haven and the greater New Haven area: including Hamden, Milford, Wallingford, Guilford, and Madison. The court reasoned that the Unification Church’s CARP organization would cause “irreparable harms” to NH CARP’s capacity to raise funds. Organizations seeking to donate money to NH CARP were confused as to whether NH CARP was affiliated with the Unification Church. The court cited an example provided by the plaintiff where an organization called United Way required Yale University to confirm through letter that Yale’s CARP organization was not affiliated with NH CARP. United Way considered it necessary to send that letter to potential donors. Many Americans were wary of unknowingly being involved in the Unification Church. Given NH CARP’s seniority and the damage that Yale CARP had unknowingly done, the court ruled in favor of NH CARP. In a letter to a New Haven banker, Clarance Joseph Jones wrote, “we won!...thank you for your interest in the real CARP.”^[110]

When Yale student journalists recognized the Church’s declining presence on campus, the Unification Church reassured the Yale community that CARP’s disappearance had nothing to do with the CARP v. CARP decision. Jim Ramuni, CARP coordinator at the Southern Connecticut College (now Southern Connecticut State University), explained that Yale CARP simply did not have enough manpower to maintain an organization^[111]. Indeed, CARP v. CARP should not have stalled Church members’ activity. In 1978, Johnathan C. Wells petitioned for a student organization called Students United for New Society to be formed^[112]. Should Yale Unificationists want to be involved, they could have founded their own organization or operated as an underground chapter, even if they could not be recognized as “CARP” proper. A brief description by a YDN journalist corroborates that Yale CARP’s disappearance had more to do with labor than the implications of CARP v. CARP. Linda Crone for the YDN writes:

Two years ago, [CARP] was everywhere on campus. Members stood on the walkway to Commons [one of Yale’s dining halls,] lecturing to anyone who would listen and handing pamphlets to anyone who would take them. But last year CARP members kept a low, almost invisible profile at Yale, and according to a CARP representative who wished to remain anonymous, “so far as I know they're not here.” He confessed he was "not sure" why they'd left^[113].

While snapshots of events may suggest an active Yale-Unification community, the Church had reduced its efforts at Yale. Other Unificationists corroborated this conclusion that not only had CARP ceased existing as a registered student organization, but that Unificationists who operated CARP activities had moved elsewhere. Why would the Church have suddenly left campus, so much so that a CARP member was simply unsure of the reasons? There could be practical reasons and operational reasons—lack of success witnessing to students or the need to create separate branding due to the CARP v. CARP decision. Nonetheless, CARP at Yale experienced deep disdain from the Yale student community and leadership. In having to follow extra regulations, the university reinscribed the Church’s status as a new religious movement, or “cult,” rather than a fellow group of devoted students. Its reputation and the anti-cult sensation cost CARP’s right to operate freely on Yale’s campus.

Yale After CARP

Following CARP v. CARP, the Unification Church lost its place as a community member at Yale. Instead, the Church played a role as a guest at the elite university. The lack of Yale’s recognition and decreasing Church labor and participation marked the end of a short-lived yet unequal relationship between Yale and the Unification Church.

The YDN reported that in April of 1983, the Unification Church returned to campus “for the first time in several years.”^[114] They tabled on Cross Campus, a field of grass in between several of Yale’s residential colleges and academic halls. They solicited students walking out of Durfee’s Sweet Shoppe (which closed in 2021). It was not members from Connecticut who came to proselytize Yalies. Instead, these members were traveling across the country to allow the non-Unificationist public to “find out first hand” what the Unification Church was about. According to a Roswitha Kidd, whom the YDN interviewed, the Unification Church had launched a nationwide campaign. In 1981, Tiger Park, who led CARP across the country, passed away. Yong Suk Choi led CARP for less than a year until he was reassigned elsewhere. Dr. Joon Ho Seuk, a former Seminary administrator, filled the void in January of 1983^[115]. Mickler maintained that under his new leadership the Unification Church held a “high profile on college campuses” and became a “genuinely national organization.”

In 1985, the Yale Political Union, a debate organization, invited Arnaud de Borchgrove to debate students^[116]. De Borchgrove was the editor-in-chief of the Washington Times, a right-wing newspaper. Moon founded the Times in 1982 to counter the Washington Post a year after the right-leaning newspaper the Washington Star ceased publication^[117]. In an event sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism and the YPU, de Borchgrove accused mainstream American media of having a liberal bias. He claimed that “Moscow had preempted Madison Avenue” (presumably referencing the advertisement district in NYC). Given the political context of the founding of the Times at the time, de Borchgrove’s appearance made sense. He led the national conservative newspaper in Washington at the time. According to de Borchgrove, then-President Ronald Reagan told him personally that the Times was the first thing Reagan read in the morning^[118]. The writing in the news article do not indicate a substantial Unificationist presence during the event.

On January 11, 1990, the Unification Church held the “Day of Hope” event at Yale^[119]. Day of Hope was the name of several Unification Church tours and events throughout its history. In 1990, CARP led a “God’s Hope for America” campaign with the assistance of the Church missionary organization International One World Crusade. The YDN did not cover this event—likely because it occurred during the winter break. Instead, church publication Unification News recounted it. According to the publication, the event was held in the “Yale University Chapel,” which supposedly had room for 100 persons. Given that the Battel Chapel has a seating capacity of 850 people, the location of the event likely was Dwight Hall^[120]. Dwight Hall Chapel’s 120 persons capacity fits the description of the article^[121]. Similar to the Church’s sudden reappearance in the spring of 1983, this Church event at Yale was not produced through members of the student body. But instead, it was most likely the product of external and potentially non-local organizing. Three years later, Kwon Jin Moon, the 8th son of Sun Myung Moon, spoke at the Law School, again with likely little local student support^[122]. Moon was at the time an undergraduate student at Boston University, who read a “theological address from the Moon family.” Kathleen Burton and David Burton likely organized the event. The Burtons graduated with a Master’s in Divinity from the Unification Theological Seminary in 1990. They served as “campus ministers” at Yale for eight years^[123]. The YDN reported that very few undergraduates attended the event and the ones with whom the YDN spoke said they attended it as part of a class assignment. Nonetheless, the Burtons maintain there were a handful of Yalies in the Church, and that these students and affiliate hosted weekly meetings at Dwight Hall.

According to the Chambumo Gyeong, one of the holy scriptures of the Unification Church, Moon’s wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, delivered a speech at Yale University in 1994^[124]. The event was part of the “True Mother and the True Children's Speaking Tour of 100 Universities in the United States.” Prior to speaking at Yale, she reportedly traveled to Harvard, University of Maryland, New York University, Cornell, Chicago State, Columbia, Princeton, Howard, and Penn. On March 20th, the day before the event, Han spoke at East Garden, one of the Church’s estates in Westchester County^[125]. In her speech, Han discussed “the logic of love” as a solution to modern problems. The YDN dedicated a captioned photo of Greg Oldin, today a reverend for the Church, soliciting a student to attend the event^[126]. Reportedly, thirty students, along with Church members, filled the Yale Law School auditorium. Consistent with other episodes in the post-CARP v. CARP era, Yale students played a minimal role in these Church events. In the 90s, Yale Unificationists did not write op-eds in the YDN in support of the Church as they had before. The efforts of Eclipse, Hillel and other groups on Yale’s campus may have succeeded. The new religious movement was substantially absent from campus life.

Yale and the Unification Church Today

This article examined the history of the Unification Church at Yale University with a distinct focus on the role of Yalies. In doing so, it argued that the skepticism and anti-cult sentiments influenced how Yale administration and students interacted with the Unificationist Community. The history of the Unification Church at Yale demonstrates the difficulties for NRMs to gain recognition as a legitimate religious group. As a response to their very presence, students utilized their newspapers to emphasize the Church’s controversies and elevate critical voices. Students hosted events that criticized the Church, which made it more difficult for it to recruit new members. This hostile environment in turn invited strong reactions from Yale Unificationists that culminated in a conflict that reached the ears of the Dean’s Office of Yale College.

In the late 70s to the early 80s, the Unification Church and CARP were active at Yale. In its initial years—congruent with the national CARP movement at the time—the Unification Church did not maintain a consistent and lengthy presence on campus until 1978. Yale CARP organized itself as an effective political force that made its presence known throughout campus. However, the organization faced several obstacles. The first was that two active members were graduate students

—who may have been preoccupied with their doctoral program (it took Dadachanji more than a decade to finish his dissertation). Two, members diverted resources away from Yale into other universities by the decision of the local chapter or national Church. Three, the Unification Church had to adhere to strict requirements in its advertisements. By forcing Yale CARP to identify itself as the Church, Yale administrators reduced the odds that university students would be open-minded about attending their events. Four, anti-Church events damaged Yale CARP’s reputation on campus, further isolating it from the university community.

While the disbanding of Yale CARP due to a lawsuit may have contributed to the decline in Church activities on campus, the claim that the Unification Church had told the YDN appears most plausible—it simply moved its activities elsewhere. Had Church Yalies wished to, they could have continued proselytizing through a different student organization. The fact that they did not do so confirmed that they had moved their resources elsewhere. Preferring to work within the Church structure, Yale Unificationist may have sought other avenues outside of Yale to conduct their missionary work. However, had the Yale community accepted the organization as a legitimate religious group, perhaps, the history of the Unification Church could have taken a different turn.

The Unification Church’s history at Yale can be understood as having a post-lawsuit, late era that follows 1984, when the Church’s presence at the university declined dramatically. Instead, the Unification Church sporadically utilized Yale spaces for their events. However, there was little evidence of the same level of activity as the Church had on Yale’s campus in the late 70s. Indeed, an event with the wife of the founder speaking would have had the appearance of CARP or a similar organization. There was no evidence of organization from any local undergraduate wing. In 1992, the University of Bridgeport was on the brink of bankruptcy^[127]. Professors World Peace Academy, a Church organization, purchased the university and gained control of its board of trustees. The Church utilized the university for various reasons that cannot be covered in the scope of this paper. This purchase could also have contributed to the decline in the Unification Church’s presence at Yale. The acquisition of a university in Connecticut may have resulted in the state community migrating to Bridgeport. Indeed, the Unification Church no longer has a center in New Haven, another indicator of its declining presence at Yale. While in 2019, the University of Bridgeport and the Unification Church had cut ties, the Church infrastructure still remains grounded to the Bridgeport area^[128].

The Unification Church at Yale today is at the brink of death. In 1978, Yale had an admission rate of 26.4%^[129]. In 2025, only 4.59% of applicants were accepted. Having a large Unification Church

presence at a competitive university would be difficult to maintain. However, CARP organizations in the past decade have existed in other competitive schools: University of California (Berkeley and Los Angeles), Princeton University, and Cornell University^[130]. By 2025, CARP continues to exist among west coast elite institutions; however, CARP Princeton and Cornell had since collapsed. Columbia CARP had been a “developing club” since 2024. CARP would have a greater chance of accruing members in colleges where most families in the Church send their students. Yale is not a school that is easy for a religious minority to form a community.

The history of CARP at Yale is intriguing as it shows the difficulties for new religious movements to establish themselves in elite universities. It sheds light on lesser-known moments of the history of the Unification Church that correspond to broader nationalized events, such as the Fraser Committee hearings. Indeed, the history of CARP at Yale contributes to how scholars may understand what the Unification Church was, beyond the ethnographic and autobiographic records. It also sheds light on how Yale University strategized against the Unification Church and denied it access to organized Christian groups on campus. It reveals the complex relationship between the Unification Church, local CT residents, and Yalies. Various factions used the university as a space to do ideological battle, where Yale undergraduates and greater New Haven community members enforced the nationalized anti-cult sensation—a disposition the Yale community may want to avoid in the future should it wish to become a welcoming place for all creeds and beliefs.

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