If, in 2020, you’ve ever even heard of the Moonies — i.e. the followers of the Unification Church, founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon — it’s probably been as a punchline: they’re a cult known for mass weddings and members who require deprogramming.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I never really bothered to think about any individual members of the church. To me, the Moonies were just an amorphous group of people who really needed to snap out of it, use their brain, and get a life.
Cara Jones challenges assumptions like mine in her first feature, “Blessed Child.” Jones and her brothers were raised in the Unification Church and while they have left, their parents are still high-ranking members. The doc sees Jones and her brother Bow — who also serves as the film’s DP — unpacking their childhood and struggling to reconcile the lives they now live with what the church taught them.
Cara, for example, felt her marriage, which was arranged by Moon, was a mistake even during her wedding. A decade later, she’s divorced and embarking on single parenthood with very mixed feelings. Meanwhile, Bow knew from a young age that he was gay, but was terrified to accept it, as the Unification Church is opposed to homosexuality. To this day, he grapples with his sexuality, admitting that he’s not happy being gay per se, but is resigned to it.
But then, as Jones and her interviewees inform us, there are also commendable aspects to the Unification Church, namely its mission of racial inclusion and equality. In other words, it doesn’t sound terribly different from most mainstream religions: it does espouse abhorrent, backwards ideas, but there’s enough good that you understand why people put their faith in it.
“I grew up with a lot of black and whites. There was blessed or fallen, true or false, good or bad. The seven-year journey of making ‘Blessed Child’ has, for me, been about resisting the temptation to tell this story that way,” Jones told us ahead of the film’s premiere at DOC NYC last year. “The process has instead been about discovering nuance and complex truths in a story that, in the media and my own head, has often been sensationalized and simplified. In these polarized times, I wanted to explore a narrative that left room for empathy and gray.”
“Blessed Child” undoubtedly succeeds on that front, but I do wish Jones had delved a bit deeper into why exactly she split from the church. The doc suggests she discovered a wider world in college and started to question the Moonies’ rules regarding sex, drinking, and drugs, and was disillusioned by Moon’s financial misdeeds. Is that the full story of how Jones went from devout to lapsed? The doc doesn’t really offer an answer.
I still see the Moonies as a cult, but because of “Blessed Child,” I recognize why people are drawn to it — and why some members feel the need to leave. Jones’ film ultimately offers a personal, specific take on faith, family, and how the two can collide.
“Blessed Child” is now available on VOD.
