THE MOONIES: Married to the cult (Prime, released 2 November) is a feature-length documentary examining the influential religious movement that became the byword for cults. The Unification Church was founded in 1954 in South Korea by Sun Myung Moon and, by the 1960s, had spread to the United States.
Its belief system and recruitment strategy were strikingly similar to those of other cults, such as the Jesus Army: a charismatic leader, the targeting of disaffected young people, community housing ostensibly based on New Testament principles, a theology of endless personal sacrifice, and a view of sexuality as the root of all sin.
In keeping with other cult leaders, Moon had a serious messiah complex: whether he genuinely believed it or not, his followers were taught that he was the Second Coming. He taught personal purity while behaving in a sexually degenerate way himself, and treating most of his followers like slaves.
The line between some expressions of mainstream religion and dangerous cults seems very fine indeed. Some of the tactics deployed by the Moonies are uncomfortably familiar: the strategic selection of attractive people to send out and befriend lonely teenagers, under the guise of just having a conversation; sophisticated marketing cynically deployed to manipulate emotions, and the concerted obsession with sexuality.
It is also sobering that the Unification Church is still active today, led by Moon’s widow, and is thought to be worth in excess of $1 billion. As always with cults, underneath the veneer of religiosity, it’s really all about the money.
The finale of The Celebrity Traitors (14 October) (BBC 1, Thursday) exceeded expectations, ending with the triumphant traitor Alan Carr as the hilariously unexpected surprise winner. If only the hapless Faithfuls Nick Mohammed and David Olusoga had stuck by Joe Marler, instead of turning on him at the last moment; but, as Professor Olusoga quipped, he wouldn’t have believed that Carr was a traitor even if he’d arrived for breakfast wearing a cloak.
Professor Olusoga was soon back on safer ground in his historian day job, presenting a new series, Empire with David Olusoga (BBC 1, Friday): a historical investigation into the rise and fall of the British Empire. He begins with a stark quotation: more than one quarter of all nations on earth are former British colonies. It was an empire that covered one fifth of the earth’s surface, lasted more than three centuries, and then collapsed over the course of one generation. The legacy of this is a living one and includes billions of people.
Looking at primary sources and archaeology, he considers the economic implications of empire, the cash crops that came to dominate, and the tactics used to transform a poor and insignificant nation into a superpower. This is not a politically neutral telling, but it is essential viewing.