Claim. Unification members are not merely fellow-believers but family — siblings under the same parents’ heart, inheriting the same lineage of heart — and their bond should govern even their relationships with physical siblings.
Elaboration. SMM gives the membership bond a familial ontology: “We call our Unification Church members ‘family members.’ Members should have the connections of brothers and sisters and be born under the same parents’ heart. Only then can we become a member… We should directly inherit the way of life, habits, and traditions of the parents” (9.1. Members relate through heavenly love, 155-211, 1965.10.30). The membership bond is even prior to physical kinship in its governance — “those gathered here are not physical siblings. People who are not siblings should come together and have stronger relationships than their physical siblings… Unless this happens, your home has no spiritual ties to you” (ibid, 49-209, 1971.10.10). The duty of solidarity is strict: “You should have sympathy with other members who are in difficulties… as though you yourself were facing trouble” (ibid, 25-291, 1969.10.5), and criticism among members is intolerable because the church loses what makes it distinguishable from “the evil world” (ibid, 49-62, 1971.10.3). The implication: brotherhood is doctrinal, not merely affective.