This fascinating documentary (Wed 5 Dec 10pm) tracks down the people that participated in the mass wedding that took place in 1982: how did they get drawn into it and what have been their experiences since?
I am a follower of Reverend Moon and from what I have heard, this documentary is completely biased against the so called 'moonies'.
They disrespect the Unification Church by implying that it was a publicity stunt and a tragedy for the people involved, the issue is that there is no representation of the couples who are still happily married, as many of them are.
They claim we were uncooperative and wouldn't help them by giving testimonies but that is entirely untrue.
Today many of my friends have been protesting outside the channel4 headquarters in order to prevent the broadcast of this discriminatory and offensive insult. As a compromise channel4 have agreed to edit the program content...
I hope that they will decide to represent our movement more fairly and accurately, but we shall see tonight at 10.
I am a follower of Reverend Moon and from what I have heard, this documentary is completely biased...
How about we watch it first, eh? "...from what I have heard..." - what is it about religious types that you have to get cross about things before you've even seen them?
I am a follower of Reverend Moon and from what I have heard, this documentary is completely biased...
How about we watch it first, eh? "...from what I have heard..." - what is it about religious types that you have to get cross about things before you've even seen them?
Well I watched it and from what I see it was biased. 2070 + couples and they interview a hand full people. Not really representative is it?
As with most poor journalism a mix of emotive words half truths and lies, as far as I can see and I know a few of the people they interviewed.
well it certainly wasn't unfounded! The portrayal of the Unification Church was melancholy at the very best.
Many points weren't explained adequately making them seem ridiculous,and some statements were completely false such as 'Jesus failed in his mission' and 'we (couples) would then give birth to sinless children.'
I'm simply providing a bit of a balancing perspective on things because personally I don't like biased programs of any sort it's just a bit below the belt.
I have just seen this program and am really just saddened by the way the Unification Church has been portayed, yet again.
Sure, sometimes its practises seem bizarre. But isn't it the job of a documentarian to explain WHY the church has mass weddings, matchings, and different ceremonies? I've seen so many documentaries about the church, and they're all the same: they just focus on our weird customs and practises, they just talk to same group of angry ex-members.
To wit: All the couples interviewed in this doc were negative about the movement. But that doesn't reflect reality - there are thousands of couples who are still together, love each other strongly, and have stable families.
This was, once again, putting our religion on show for the sake of entertainment, and that is just wrong.
ps. "Moonie" is a derogatory term and it came up many times in the narration. The fact that we're a small group doesn't make it okay. (It's on par with n***er, y*d, f*g, etc.) We are "Unificationists."
Originally posted by C4 Culture Ed: This fascinating documentary (Wed 5 Dec 10pm) tracks down the people
Fascinating - NO
SAD - Yes
Way didn't the makers "track Down" some of the majority of the people who had a good experience since their Marriage and Blessing so poorly portrayed in this PSUDO-documentary?
2000+ Wedding you track down lass than 0.5% of them NOT VERY GOOD GOING
Admittedly I am a 2nd generation "moonie" (which is a derogatory term), however it is also true that my belief in the church is at times extremely challenged. That said I must also claim that this documentary was rather more sensationalist mockumentary then anything else. I know many couples for whom 'mass weddings' have not worked, I am one of them, but I also know from first hand experience that for many many people it has worked and has lead to fulfilled lives and loving relationships. My parents are an example, they recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary having attended a mass ceremony in 1982. They have had their ups and downs in marriage of course but that isnt due to being part of a mass wedding, that is due to being in a long term committed relationship (as I have seen the same in many other long term relationships not brought together by a mass ceremony). But I digress, my point is simply that we, meaning current "unificationists" were grossly under-represented. I believe adamantly in free speech and freedom of the press and freedom of opinion, I dont however believe in sensationalist media thrown together in a patchwork attempt to raise viewer ratings. I hope that perhaps people will keep open minds to the fact that there is another side to the story which was not shown.
I did watch it (or at least the last 35 minutes of it) and was rather disappointed. Channel 4 seems to have found a few people whose marriages didn't work out (so what's new there?) and the usual coterie of ex-moonies who 20 or 30 years later still feel compelled to publicly disavow a faith they one held.
Couldn't we have heard from one or two couples who lived happily ever after? Out of 2,000, surely there must be some out there? Did Channel 4 even bother to look? Or was their sole objective to make a group of people who obviously hold a strong faith, something clearly alien to the producers of the documentary, look like a bunch of twits?
Just the sort of objective reporting I'd expect from the channel that brought us Big Brother.
Before commenting, I wanted to watch the broadcast. Having just watched it, I feel a bit let down - where was the controversy? No offence to Double Band (the production company) but this was rather boring.
If anything, I feel offended that the beautiful and precious marriage of my parents has been mocked, especially with inacurrate and menacing reconstructions.
All of the people interviewed were ex-members, and almost all of them were labelled as "cult experts", even though they demonstrated fundamental misunderstandings of the teachings of Rev. Moon.
My parents were married in that blessing ceremony. Just recently they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, together with hundreds of other couples from the very same wedding! Of course there are ups and downs during marriage, but overall I'd say my parents are very happy. They have a beautiful family with three sons, one daughter, three daughters-in-law, one grandson and another grandchild on the way!
This style of ceremony was not a one-off publicity stunt; Rev. and Mrs. Moon continue to give the blessing of marriage to thousands of couples every year. My brothers and I have each participated in this style of marriage, saying our vows together with hundreds of other couples.
My experience with my wife was intimate and special. Our marriage was arranged by our respective parents and I believe it was guided by spiritual factors. Since our marriage, we fell passionately in love and have enjoyed more than three years together.
I already knew about the stick ceremony and the three-day ceremony, but there's nothing bizarre about that in my opinion, if it has been explained by people who understand the significance of the ceremonies.
I hope future programmes produced about the Unification Movement have more balanced input. Not one existing member was interviewed for this broadcast.
I feel deeply moved by the stories of the people documented. However I feel that this documentary was not representative of the Unification Movement but rather the stories of these sad individuals.
It is a pity that the documentary did not have any interviews with couples that had something good to say about their arranged marriage. My wife and I participated in a marriage arranged by Rev. Moon more than 25 years ago. We are deeply in love with each other, although there have been times when we had arguments and misunderstandings. I do think that our shared belief in the spiritual aspect of our marriage has helped us stick together through some difficult times. I was amused by the comment from one guy that he did not want God watching when he had sex. A bit hard to do while believing God is omnipresent! It was sad though to hear about the guy who really loved his wife Erica, he should have just got on the plane and gone to see her. But I know how rigid the church was in those early days of zeal. Thank goodness we have matured a bit since then.
I was in that wedding! I liked the documentary, albeit with some factual errors, and that funny funeral music at the wedding. It nice reminder of that wonderful day and time long past.. good memories. Too bad some folks had a bad experience, but hey, this is what makes interesting television. Who would want to watch a boring video of happy people!
Originally posted by Heselbine: what is it about religious types that you have to get cross about things before you've even seen them?
Aye that is a fair point, Im glad there wasnt a flood of message on this forum till the documentary was shown and over. However I, along with many of my friends read in todays newspapers the reviews from the presses preview of the show and their comments mirrored the documentary. In the LondonPaper for example they made a witty pun that perhaps it should have been called "Lock, Stock and 1999 divorces" hinting that these practices werent shown in such a positive light.
Although I do agree that it was a one-sided perspective, I do find it rather odd that most of the replies have been from Unificationists attempting to put their views across.
Where are the unbiased viewpoints and/or opinions?
From what I can gather, no one in this forum has advertantly or inadvertantly put your beliefs or way of life down.
One always has to be slightly sceptical when the automatic reaction is a defensive one.
However I do commend you on having such a strong conviction.
I do find it rather odd that most of the replies have been from Unificationists attempting to put their views across.
I would think that was a natural reaction to put the other side of the argument?
quote:
From what I can gather, no one in this forum has advertantly or inadvertantly put your beliefs or way of life down.
No the programme did that.
quote:
One always has to be slightly sceptical when the automatic reaction is a defensive one.
Lies, mixed with halftruth and truth together with a bit of specail effects needs pointing out. I wouldn't call that defensive. It's just setting the record striaght.
quote:
However I do commend you on having such a strong conviction.
There is always a reason - thank you. It is interesting to see not many other people have much strong feeling about this. Maybe it is a reflection of the poor quality of the program.
On the one hand, I did feel that this documentary was missing a certain something. We didn't quite delve deep enough into the reasons the couples featured got involved in the Unification Church and the mass wedding in the first place, and I do agree that it would have been better if they interviewed a happy couple. I would have liked to find out more about the symbolism and theology behind the apparently crazy rituals and orders. And those reconstructions were a bit of a waste of time, really. They were confused and didn't add anything to the stories. It was a lot of fancy camera work and sinster lighting and music - not exactly what was needed. I could scarcely see what was going on!
I do, however, think that overall it was pretty good. The stories were interesting, it was informative and I was particularly touched by Anna and Forrest. I thought their situation was so very sad, and was treated quite thoughtfully.
Why is someone commended for their strong conviction that something completely irrational is true?
I'm at a loss to explain why sometimes the non-religious think that a strong belief in nonsense is a good thing.
I guess that is because we are human, not robots. Gandhi striving for Indian independence may have seemed irrational at the time.
Furthermore, serious religious people do not believe in nonsense. Although there are strong arguments for the case that we have evolved through natural selection, nobody has yet proven that God does not exist. Therefore a belief in something that we can neither prove nor disprove does not mean we believe in nonsense.
I guess that is because we are human, not robots. Gandhi striving for Indian independence may have seemed irrational at the time.
Furthermore, serious religious people do not believe in nonsense. Although there are strong arguments for the case that we have evolved through natural selection, nobody has yet proven that God does not exist. Therefore a belief in something that we can neither prove nor disprove does not mean we believe in nonsense.
Well, yes, I totally agree. I was thinking pretty much the same thing as I prayed to the Invisible Pink Unicorn last night.
Please, lets try to have an intelligent discussion here.
Schoolyard-esque teasing doesn't take the place of having a valid point to make.
Anyway, I thought this documentary was dissapointing. I had hoped they would have come up with a different angle in 25 years. Really.
If only they had actually TALKED to a current member...but I guess we aren't as obligingly wacky as the people in another documentary they pulled on the "End of the World Cult", where at least they actually talked with the people! We unificationists are quite sane, I promise.
Still, they could have taken more of a "Big Love" approach...we do have a pleasantly quirky culture and really it would have been alot more entertaining to let members and nonmembers alike share their funny experiences. I mean, the title "My Big Fat Moonie Wedding" begs for content on the lighter side. The way they did it was just plain boring and sad.
Plus, where did they find that one guy? I mean, with the time and effort they had to take to track down a depressed ex-moonie(c'mon, I'm sure that there are SOME happy ex-moonies out there!), they could have easily just walked into one of our churches and sat down with whomever was in there. They probably would have gotten some yummy Korean or Japanese food out of it too.
Or were they too afraid that we'll somehow hypnotise them with our magical moonie eyes? C'mon now.
Plus, why is it always the MSG wedding that's picked on? My Big Fat Moonie Wedding last summer was a whole lot bigger and fatter. I'm feeling left out here. Poor journalism, really.
Hello, What a great discussion. It’s really interesting to hear such diverse opinions. This thread was one of our picks for Forum Buzz – a new feature that we’re trialling on The TV Show site, which gives viewers a barometer of forum reaction to C4 programmes. If people like it and comment on it we’ll make it a regular feature on the site. If you come across other discussions about channel 4 programmes – positive or negative – that are as good as this one, please alert us in The TV Show forum. While you’re on The TV Show site, maybe also check out the Cheers & Grumbles Top 10 to see which shows were most loved/unloved last month. Watch out for the 2007 Top 10 early in the New Year. And let us know
