Pandamabear

Without going into too much detail, I noticed a lot of hypocrisies among the leadership of the church. For example, sexual purity is one of the core tenets of the church. You're not supposed to have sex before marriage, or even kiss/hold hands, and divorce is extremely frowned upon. Yet the founder, Sun Myung Moon, had multiple wives and children out of wedlock, not to mention the sex ceremonies that happened very early on in their history.

My experience is not necessarily representative of everyone who has left this cult, but in my case, the price was losing a lot of friends, the disappointment I experiened from my parents, and the complete loss of the worldview I had used to navigate the world up until that point in my life ( I was 19 years old). Many people who are in a cult and leave, either come back or join a different one. You can't just empty your brain of beliefs and keep going, they have to be replaced by something, and that can be an incredibly difficult and precarious process.

There's no evidence Abe was ever a member, but plenty that he supported the church. Just last year, for example, he recorded a congratulatory message to one of the Unification Church's organizations. But you can check out this article that goes into detail on Abe's connections, that he actually inherited from his grandfather who was also connected to Sun Myung Moon, the church's founder.

Like most people who are religious, I was born into it, didn't really have a choice, and just assumed I was special enough/chosen to be born into the ONE correct belief system.

Most differences come down to different beliefs, but there are countless similarities between extreme religious organizations, and also between extreme religious organizations, mainstream religious organizations, and even celebrity/political followings. Here is a list of the most common similarities.

There's a saying "What's the difference between a religion and a cult? About a thousand years". I'm not anti-religion, I've seen religions do a lot of good. But the corruption of power within religious organizations, in particular any type of "cult" following, is just so, so common, that I try to avoid them altogether.