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The Moonies (Unification Church)

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Hail to the Moon king

The deeply weird coronation of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in a Senate office building -- crown, robes, the works -- is no longer one of Washington's best-kept secrets.

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By John Gorenfeld



June 21, 2004 | You probably imagine your congressman hard at work in the Capitol debating legislation, making laws -- you know, governing. But your newspaper probably didn't tell you that one night in March, members of Congress hosted a crowning ritual for an ex-convict and multibillionaire who dressed up in maroon robes and declared himself the Second Coming.

On March 23, the Dirksen Senate Office Building was the scene of a coronation ceremony for Rev. Sun Myung Moon, owner of the conservative Washington Times newspaper and UPI wire service, who was given a bejeweled crown by Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill. Afterward, Moon told his bipartisan audience of Washington power players he would save everyone on Earth as he had saved the souls of Hitler and Stalin -- the murderous dictators had been born again through him, he said. In a vision, Moon said the reformed Hitler and Stalin vouched for him, calling him "none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent."


To many observers, this bizarre scene would have looked like the apocalypse as depicted in "Left Behind" novels. Moon, 84, the benefactor of conservative foundations like the American Family Coalition -- who served time in the 1980s for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice -- has views somewhere to the right of the Taliban's Mullah Omar. Moon preaches that gays are "dung-eating dogs," Jews brought on the Holocaust by betraying Jesus, and the U.S. Constitution should be scrapped in favor of a system he calls "Godism" -- with him in charge. The man crowned "King of Peace" by congressmen once said, according to sermons reprinted in his church's Unification News: "Suppose I were to hit you with the baseball bat to stop you, bloodying your ear and breaking a bone or two, yet still you insisted on doing more work for Father."

What, exactly, drew at least a dozen members of Congress to Moon's coronation? (By the Unification Church's estimate, 81 congressmen attended, although that number is probably high.) The event was the grand finale of Moon's coast-to-coast "tear down the cross" Moonification tour, intended to remove Christian crosses from almost 300 churches in poor neighborhoods -- the idea being that the cross was an obstacle to uniting religions under Moon. Yet the Dirksen ceremony was sold as a celebration of world peace. According to a cheery promotional video released by Moon's International and Interreligious Federation for World Peace, the ceremony marked the dawn of "the era of the Eternal Peace Kingdom, one global family under God." Moon's coronation also cured God's pain, the announcer explains.

By all accounts, most of the congressmen in attendance didn't expect a coronation. Instead, they thought they were heading to an awards dinner honoring activists from their home states as "Ambassadors for Peace." A flier for the event claimed an impressive who's-who of organizers, including Republicans Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland and Charlie Black, a top Republican strategist. Democrats were named, too, like Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee, who, incidentally, claims to have not even heard of the event.

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And then there was Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., the only congressman who has publicly expressed pride in the crowning ceremony, who praised Moon for bringing religious leaders together in his Ambassadors for Peace tours to Jerusalem and beyond. Davis, it was revealed this week in the Chicago Reader, took money from Moon-organized fundraisers, who also gave to a charity of his choice. Davis told an Anglican magazine that Moon's remarks were "similar to a baseball team owner telling team members that 'we are the greatest team on earth'" to get them fired up.

At the time, the surreal event went uncovered by the Washington press corps, save for Moon's own Washington Times, which ran a brief description of the festivities. The story is getting some traction only now, after it was recently reported in the online magazine The Gadflyer. But what transpired at Dirksen two months ago remains a mystery to most Americans -- and those constituents of congressmen who attended Moon's crowning.


The crowning ritual indeed began as a somewhat normal awards ceremony. Ribbons that looked like Olympic gold medals were given to Rep. Bartlett and others. But then it took an odd turn. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., whose office maintained he did not attend the event until I provided photographs of him there -- spoke beside a photograph of himself pinning an American flag on Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, back when President Bush was praising him for abandoning WMD programs and before he was suspected of trying to kill the leader of Saudi Arabia.

Then, after Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., gave a speech praising one of Moon's Ambassadors for Peace, the civil rights veteran Rev. Walter Fauntroy, an unnamed Lubovitch rabbi took the stage declaring: "I have never seen this miracle where Jews, Christians and Muslims come together for peace!" Then Moon's cleric Chung Kwak took the mic. Before his days as the commander of the UPI wire service, Kwak, Moon said in a 1997 speech, was authorized to whomp on Unification Church members who slacked off. "Particularly those who are sleeping and hiding, Reverend Kwak's baseball bat will fall upon you at any time," Moon said. Now Kwak was standing in a Senate office building declaring Moon the king of the "second and third Israel."

It might almost make sense for conservative congressmen to honor Moon in this way. After all, a writer in Moon's magazine Insight wrote in February that it's long past time for Republicans to thank the billionaire Korean preacher for his gifts. "[T]he continued refusal of Beltway conservatives publicly to acknowledge their steadfast patron is, of course, scandalous," wrote contributor Paul Gottfried. Moon has sunk an estimated - billion into the money-losing Times, and countless other causes -- like Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.

Moon has also made inroads in the Bush administration, as Salon reported last September, with plum appointments for former or present Moon VIPs, and almost half a million dollars in abstinence-only grants supporting Moon's anti-sex crusade. To teach teens that "free sex" is revolting, they're asked by Moon's followers to drink other people's spit out of a cup, and then consider how much more vigilant you must be when sharing other body fluids.

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While Moon once focused his energies on anti-Communism, making him popular among Republicans in the Reagan era -- his organization gave the first 0,000 to Oliver North's Nicaraguan Freedom Fund -- he has now shifted gears, aiming left. He's planning a "Peace United Nations" entwining religions instead of countries and is trying to make friends in the Congressional Black Caucus, like Rep. Davis. No congressman, on the right or left, has publicly denounced Moon for his momentous speeches describing his "peace kingdom" as a place where "gays will be eliminated" in a "purge on God's orders" he says will be like Stalin's. And many are surprisingly comfortable around a guy known for over-the-top speeches about the holy "love organ of life" and its various fluids. In a 1994 speech, he asked: "Do you like the smell of your husband's semen? Answer to Father. Does it smell good or bad? You may not like the smell of your wife's stool, but do you smell your own? Why don't you smell your own but you smell your wife's? Because you are not totally one."

But if Moon pulled off his greatest trick on Mar. 23, fooling some unsuspecting congressmen into attending his coronation, it's not as if his stunt was new -- for more than 25 years, Moon has sought to surround himself with powerful people to gain credibility and legitimacy, including presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. If the congressmen had simply run "Ambassadors for Peace" through the Google search engine, they would have discovered the group was tied to Moon and his grand plans for the future of Christianity -- plans to "reconcile" religions by tearing the Christian cross off church walls and persuading Jews to sign apologies for giving Jesus over to the Romans.


Weldon, for one, had a long time to do that Google search. As far back as June 19, 2003, he's listed in a speech by Rep. Danny K. Davis on the floor of the House of Representatives honoring Moon: "Many of my colleagues will join me and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon), co-chair, in giving tribute to some of the outstanding Americans from our districts," said Davis. "We are grateful to the founders of Ambassadors for Peace, the Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung [Moon], for promoting the vision of world peace, and we commend them for their work."

As for Moon's vision of world peace, there are widespread reports, even acknowledged within Moon's church, of allegations that in 1989 he allowed brutal inquisitions to take place. The inquisitor, a man Moon apparently believed was the reincarnation of his son, was allegedly encouraged to tie people to radiators and beat them. As a result, Moon's trusted lieutenant, Bo Hi Pak, was said to have suffered minor brain damage. Wrote his daughter-in-law, Nansook Hong, in her tell-all book: "Sun Myung Moon seemed to take pleasure in the reports that filtered back to East Garden of the beatings being administered by the Black Heung Jin. He would laugh raucously if someone out of favor had been dealt an especially hard blow." Members of Congress may want to do their homework before they crown their next King of Peace.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected since its original publication.

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http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/06/21/moon/

Lawmaker's take on Moon fete is crowning oddity


Published June 20, 2004


The most disturbing thing is not that U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D.-Ill.) attended an elaborate coronation ceremony in Washington for the controversial Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife.

And it's not that Davis took an active role in the ceremony, carrying to the dais on a velvet pillow one of the jeweled crowns that were placed upon the heads of the robed Moons.

More than half a dozen other congressmen and senators also were in attendance, according to several reports, including one in the Washington Times, a newspaper Moon owns.

The event took place March 23 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building under the banner of the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, a Moon-led organization.

"People crown kings and queens at homecoming parades all the time," Davis said when I called him Friday to ask for his thoughts now that the story, which had been incubating for months in Web logs, has gathered momentum. "We do a lot of things in our society that are simply symbolic."

Davis said it was his understanding that the crowns represented the Moons' achievements as "true parents, both to their own children and I guess to lots of children and other people. I think they were being feted for their promotion of parenthood, of family values and family traditions."

That's quite a thought. In its heyday, Moon's cultlike Unification Church was famous for separating adherents from their families and promoting mass arranged marriages that violated American family traditions.

And the "Crown of Peace" honor that Moon in effect bestowed upon himself that day in the federal office building was no mere Good Daddy prize.

As he made clear toward the end of his speech to the gathering, Moon believes himself to be "God's ambassador, sent to Earth with his full authority."

He said, "I am sent to accomplish his command to save the world's 6 billion people, restoring them to heaven with the original goodness in which they were created."

Moon went on to tell the gathering in simultaneously translated Korean that he's been in communication with the spirits of Hitler, Stalin, Marx, Lenin and "the founders of five great religions," and that these men and other notables have unanimously "declared to all heaven and Earth that Rev. Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's savior, messiah, returning lord and true parent."

Rep. Davis said: "I think he was simply saying that he's a promoter of a message and that he thinks his message of peace and world peace make sense, not that he's a messiah in the traditional sense."

It's disturbing that Davis, who has spoken and appeared at numerous other Moon-sponsored gatherings in his seven years in Washington, would have missed the plain assertion in Moon's speech, an assertion Moon has made frequently and that Davis says conflicts with his own Christian beliefs. But it's not the most disturbing thing.

No, the most disturbing thing is that, to this day, Davis expresses no regret about assisting in the pageantry designed to burnish and inflate the reputation of a man who, divine or not, wants to abolish Western-style democracy, compares gay people to dung-eating dogs, and in exhorting Jews to convert and follow him, told them: "You have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity, Hitler killed 6 million Jews."

San Francisco-based magazine journalist John Gorenfeld did early and extensive reporting on the coronation story for his Web log (http://www.gorenfeld.net) devoted to Moon watching. Thanks in part to the astonishing photos of Davis playing white-gloved courtier to the unconventional clergyman, it spread to other sites and, in the last week, to publisher Rich Miller's Capitol Fax, a news and commentary service devoted to Illinois politics, and to the Chicago Reader.

I asked Davis whether in retrospect and in light of the flabbergasted tone of this coverage, it had been a mistake for him to lend his good name and credibility to Moon?

"A mistake?" he asked, chuckling in that distinctive, friendly baritone. "No, not a mistake. This was about the promotion of peace. That's all. We were recognizing Rev. and Mrs. Moon as parents. I find it difficult to see that as far out in any way."

As I said--disturbing.

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Emps
 
Lawmakers attend Moon ‘coronation’ in Dirksen

By James Kirchick


Coronations are not everyday occurrences on Capitol Hill — the Capitol being the people’s house, an indelible symbol of the republic, etc.

So it’s odd that a man was crowned in the Dirksen Senate Office Building earlier this year in the presence of several lawmakers and that the event is only now drawing attention.


It appears that at least some lawmakers were drawn to the event unaware of what would happen and who would be there. Others who the organizers claim were present say they were not.

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, former felon and current owner of The Washington Times, was the man in the spotlight, declaring himself humanity’s “savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent.”

The event, which took place March 23, was sponsored by the Washington Times Foundation and the International Interreligious Federation for World Peace (IIFWP), a Moon-led group. Present at different points during the event were Reps. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Sen. Mark Dayton (R-Minn.).

One of Moon’s claims that evening was that “Hitler and Stalin have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons.”

In a video on the IIFWP website, Cummings is seen giving a speech saying Moon is “always standing up for what is right.” Davis, wearing white gloves, places a jeweled crown on Moon’s head. The video, and articles about the event, were taken down from the website Friday.

Asked if he thought the crowning unusual, Davis, who has attended several Moon events, replied, “I see people crowned. I go to parades quite a bit … [and see] the queen of the homecoming parade, queen of the festival.”

Moon founded the Unification Church in Seoul, Korea, in 1954 and moved it to the United States in the 1970s. In 1982, he received an 18-month prison sentence for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He has been derided as a megalomaniac cult leader and is most famous for mass weddings at which he marries thousands of couples simultaneously.

“I’m not involved in any cult activities,” Davis said. In an interview with the Chicago Reader newspaper published last week, Davis said Moon’s organization “put together a little fundraiser one time and gave me a few thousand dollars.”

The invitation for the event lists Davis, Weldon and Bartlett and Reps. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) as “Congressional Co-Chairs.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Reps. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Phil Crane (R-Ill.) and GOP consultant Charlie Black were listed as members of the “Host Committee.”

In an e-mail sent to reporters, Dayton said he “stopped by” the ceremony “to greet” Minnesota Rev. Rosilyn M. Carroll, who was honored by the IIWFP. Dayton denied he helped reserve the Dirksen room or accepted an award.

“I did not see anyone identified as a Rev. Moon during the brief time I attended the reception to visit with Rev. Dr. Carroll,” wrote Dayton, “nor did I see any award given to a Reverend Moon.”

Devika Koppikar, a spokeswoman for Cummings, said the “only reason [Cummings] went was at the request of his constituent” Bishop Joseph Showell, who was honored by Moon. She added that Cummings did not support Moon’s claim that he is the Messiah.

Weldon, whose office initially denied that he attended the event but retracted that claim upon being shown photos, gave a brief speech about his recent trip to Libya.

Michael Conallen, a spokesman for Weldon, said he “was not there for the crowning” and “had no idea that the Reverend Moon was going to be at this event. … If we had known that Reverend Moon was going to attend the event, be crowned and make an unbelievably interesting speech, the congressman likely would not have attended.”

Bishop said he did not attend and added, “My Messiah is Jesus Christ.” His spokeswoman, Jennifer Hoelzer said a woman came to Bishop’s office “frequently” inviting him and Bishop eventually decided to accept an award in absentia. Bishop did, however, attend a Feb. 4 event at the Ronald Reagan Building presided over by Moon’s son.

Mark Sherman, a spokesman for Ford, denied any association with Moon, saying, “If we were contacted [about the event] it’s not clear that they represented themselves as being with Reverend Moon’s church.”

Lisa Wright, a spokeswoman for Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md), upon whom Moon bestowed an Ambassador of Peace Medal at the ceremony, said Bartlett was “notified that he was a recipient [of the award] by the Washington Times Foundation” and Bartlett “does not recall” being there for Moon’s speech. She said, “Congressman Bartlett will decline to attend future and similar events to receive awards from the Washington Times Foundation. … There was no representation of personal involvement by the Reverend Moon in connection with the event.”

Tami Stough, a spokeswoman for Crane, said he “was absolutely not there” and was at other events that evening.

The offices of Rep. Tom Davis and Sen. Graham did not return calls seeking comment.

An outside group must be sponsored by a senator to get a Dirkson room. Susan Irby, spokeswoman for the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, refused to say which senator sponsored the Moon event.

Archbishop George Augustus Stallings Jr., a member of the invitation committee and founder of the Imani Temple in Northeast Washington, D.C., said letters were sent to all Congress members stating that Moon and his wife would be at the event and “every member on the host committee agreed to be on the original [Feb. 4] event.” Stallings said “a follow-up letter” went to those members, confirming their status on March 23 and that unless they opted out in reply their names would remain on the invitation as such.

Lawmakers are regularly asked to serve as honorary co-chairs of such events, he said. It’s “so common that congressmen … would not have the slightest idea” they were named as sponsors.

Asked if Weldon’s name appeared incorrectly on the event invitation, Stallings said the lawmaker had been to several previous Moon events: “I can state clearly that Congressman Weldon’s name did not appear for the first time on an invitation for an event that the IIFWP has sponsored.”

The Washington Times Foundation could not be reached for comment.

http://www.thehill.com/news/062204/moon.aspx
 
Utahns deny ties to Rev. Moon's bizarre D.C. event



By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON -- A recent awards ceremony for peace advocacy began like many Washington receptions with music, a meal and a series of presentations that included a former Utah congressman and a current state senator. But it took a jarring turn to the peculiar as the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church, mounted the stage and proclaimed that he had saved the souls of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.

Through his teachings, Moon said, the genocidal dictators had declared him "humanity's savior, Messiah, returning Lord and True Parent." Moon was then draped in flowing red and gold fur-lined robes and presented a tall golden crown by Democratic Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois.

The event, sponsored by the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, founded by Moon, went unnoticed when it occurred March 23. But it has created a stir in Washington after it was described on Salon.com, with members of Congress and politicians disavowing any association with the ceremony.

Those would include Utah Rep. Chris Cannon, listed on the invitation as a member of the host committee but who says his name was used without permission and that he did not attend.

Utah state Sen. Howard Stephenson, who had presented an award earlier in the evening to an American Indian leader, said he was surprised by the religious tenor the meeting took and he walked out of the room.

"It shifted to a more religious tone with his speech and then the honoring of him and I just didn't feel comfortable with that," Stephenson said. "I didn't know for sure what was going on and I didn't want to imply any endorsement."

Stephenson, who received an award from the foundation in February for his conservative stands as a state legislator, was listed on the invitation as a member of the host committee along with Cannon, also a one-time "good governance" honoree.

But Stephenson says his name also was used without his permission. A Cannon spokeswoman said the congressman had two other receptions scheduled that night and was not present at the Moon function.

A call to the federation seeking comment was not returned Thursday.

Cannon did give impromptu remarks at the February gathering, endorsing Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolent resistance as a solution to conflict in the Middle East.

"I did not, have not, and would not speak about Rev. Moon or his religious beliefs," Cannon said in a statement. "I do encourage efforts to find solutions to the violence in the Middle East."

Howard Nielson, a former congressman and Utah state senator who was given an award for championing conservative causes during his political career, could not be reached to discuss the event.

Moon told his "respected guests" that as people purify their hearts, they will come together to ultimately create the "true peace world kingdom," fulfilling God's will and creating heaven on Earth, according to a text of the speech on the Unification Web site.

The number of people around the world who have accepted Moon's teachings is growing, Moon said, and they are banding together to build the peaceful kingdom.

"I am sent to accomplish his command to save the world's 6 billion people, restoring them to Heaven with the original goodness in which they were created," Moon said. "Even Communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin, who committed all manner of barbarity and murders on Earth, and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons."

Stephenson said he had been to events before sponsored by the Washington Times Foundation, including his award ceremony in February, but if he is invited again he probably would not attend.

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06252004/utah/178738.asp

And I never knew people from Utah were Utahns - you learn something new every day.

Emps
 
Maryland Representative Defends Unification Church Ceremony

Jul 2, 2004 6:15 pm US/Eastern

(WJZ) Rep. Roscoe Bartlett says there was nothing peculiar about his assisting the Rev. Sun Myung Moon during a coronation ceremony at which Moon declared himself the Messiah.

Videos of the March 23 event in Washington show Bartlett holding Moon's robes, bowing to Moon and his wife, and participating in a four-way handshake with the couple and another representative from Illinois.

Bartlett says he had gone to the event to accept a peace award from the Washington Times Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Moon's Washington newspaper. He said he was unexpectedly asked to participate in the ceremony.

"What was so strange?" Bartlett asked. "I'm not rude, and if I was there and asked to do something that was benign, handing a robe to an old person and honoring him for his contribution to world peace and fundamental morality, now why wouldn't I do that if I was asked to?"

More than a dozen lawmakers attended the congressional reception, in which Moon declared himself humanity's savior and said his teachings have helped Hitler and Stalin be "reborn as new persons."

Bartlett said he didn't know Moon would be at the ceremony. Many of the congressional members in attendance have said they felt misled into making an appearance that was later used to promote Moon's Unification Church.

However, the group had denied tricking the congressmen, saying those invited knew Moon would be there.

http://wjz.com/localstories/local_story_184181645.html
 
Cult leader detained on fraud charges

Park Bo-hi, 74, allegedly the second-ranking official of the Unification Church, has been arrested and detained by prosecutors in Seoul on charges of fraud. The church was founded by Rev. Moon Sun Myung, a controversial religious figure who has called himself the "son of God."

Mr. Park allegedly received 2 billion won ($1.7 million) from a real estate developer in December after promising the developer the rights to build an apartment complex on land in Guri, Gyeonggi province, owned by Ilhwa Corp., a food processing company owned by the church. The sum was a down payment for the sale of the land, prosecutors said.

Mr. Park failed to make good on the promise, although the circumstances surrounding the contract are not fully known. Mr. Park returned only 1.3 billion won to the developer.

A Unification Church official told the JoongAng Ilbo that Mr. Park was no longer an official of the church, and is only a lay member. He said Mr. Park had not asked the church to pay back any of the funds that had been given to the developer. It was not clear whether Mr. Park had any church sanction for the contract.
Mr. Park was the key official in arranging for Rev. Moon to meet the late North Korean dictator, Kim Il Sung, in Pyeongyang. He founded the Washington Times, a church-owned daily newspaper in Washington, D.C. in 1982; he was also the publisher and president of the Segye Ilbo, a Seoul daily, from 1991 to 1993.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200407/20/200407202340333879900090409041.html
 
Ex-Uganda leader weds by satellite

Often Moonie couples meet for the first time on their wedding day

Former Ugandan President Godfrey Binaisa has married his Japanese bride without meeting her.

The 84-year-old exchanged vows with Ms Yamamoto by satellite link in front of followers of the Unification Church, also known as Moonies.

"Not only does she like me, she loves me - and I love her too," Mr Binaisa told Uganda's Monitor newspaper.

The ceremony took place on 26 July, along with thousands of other couples at a stadium in South Korea.

'Whole-hearted support'

Ms Yamamoto, 58, who lives in the United States, is reported to be joining her husband in Uganda next month.

I am sharp. I am smart. And I move very fast
Godfrey Binaisa
Former Ugandan president

"She will arrive in style... [my family] support me whole-heartedly. They welcome her with both hands," Mr Binaisa said.

According to the paper, Mr Binaisa could not remember his wife's first name, but said they had spoken a great deal on the phone.

Mr Binaisa, whose first wife died last year, was deposed as president in a military coup in 1980.

He lived in exiled, mostly in New York, until his return to Uganda in 2001.

The movement of the Unification Church was founded by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1954 and is dedicated to building world peace through loving families.

New families are established through arranged marriages, and couples are matched by photograph - often not meeting until their wedding day.

The religious sect caused a stir in Zambia in 2001 when Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo married Maria Sung, a Korean doctor in a Moonie mass wedding.

But after pressure from the Vatican the cleric broke off the relationship.


BBCi News 03/07/04
 
Moonies' leader allowed into UK

Moonies' leader allowed into UK
The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church or Moonies, is set to visit the UK after the lifting of a ban dating from 1995.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke scrapped the exclusion order imposed by predecessor Michael Howard in 1995.

The Daily Telegraph said Mr Moon would arrive soon to attend a conference.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke was quoted in the Telegraph saying he had considered excluding Mr Moon, but had not had sufficient reason.

Mr Howard said a visit by him could threaten public order.

The 86-year-old Korean is perhaps best-known for his church's mass weddings, involving tens of thousands of couples.

He has always strenuously denied allegations the church uses inappropriate methods to recruit new members.

The Daily Mail was locked in a lengthy libel battle in the 1980s over its allegations of brainwashing.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We can confirm that the exclusion order against him has been lifted.

"We keep exclusions under review. The Unification Church in the United Kingdom is extremely small and any visit by its founder is considered unlikely to pose any threat to the public order of this country."

The conference would see a 1,000-strong audience, including theologians and academics, listen to a lecture by Mr Moon on world peace, the Telegraph said.

The Unification Church was at one point said to have as many as 500,000 followers although that number is believed to have dropped.



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4406364.stm

Published: 2005/11/04 10:30:01 GMT

© BBC MMV
 
Apparently he is appearing in Dublin tonight, the Gresham Hotel i think.
 
Rev. Moon's Conjugal Visitations

By John Gorenfeld, AlterNet. Posted April 17, 2006.

We all know the religious Right wants to tell us what we can't do in the bedroom, but no one asks what they want us to do instead.

Among the trendier gripes about why liberals lack power in American politics is that there isn't enough tolerance for America's faithful. A big problem, Rabbi Michael Lerner recently sighed, is that "the Left's hostility to religion and spirituality has become such a major stumbling block to the chances that progressive forces will ever win enough power" to make a difference. So the new advice, from Hillary Clinton to the New Republic's Gregg Easterbrook, is: Stop making snickering remarks at Jerry Falwell's expense. Cheer the innovation of $2 billion in federal tax money carted off to religious groups last year. Drag the "Left Behind" series into your Amazon shopping cart.

And listen, I should add, to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, owner of the conservative mouthpiece the Washington Times and self-proclaimed Messiah. Moon's warning to America is that we must have sex the way he entreats us, in the positions he has designated, or else forfeit our "love organs," as he dubs them, to the dark lord Satan.

We all know the Right wants to decide what we can't do in the bedroom. But no one ever seems to ask what the Right wants us to do instead.

"After the act of love," read the instructions from the Rev. Moon's conservative Family Federation, "both spouses should wipe their sexual areas with the Holy Handkerchief. Hang the handkerchief to dry naturally and keep them eternally. They must be kept individually labeled and should never be laundered and mixed up."

Maybe the best explanation of our widespread ignorance of the Washington Times owner's sex rites is liberal squeamishness. For those of you who suckled on secular humanism and feminist tracts (which Moon calls Satanic, by the way), these prescriptions from God might seem as off-putting as a Castro Street postcard storefront to Dr. James Dobson.

But in order to usher in a national dialogue on faith in the public square, it's important to look beyond stereotypes of the Right to understand the diverse philosophies behind public movements for state-enforced morality.

Rev. Moon, whose Washington Times is a crown jewel of the conservative media Death Star, offers the essential lessons. He's the last man most Americans would associate with Republican power circles, but is in his own secretive way as important a figure in the Christian Right as Jerry Falwell, who's still in business thanks to a $3.5 million bailout from Moon in 1995, or Tim LaHaye of the Council For National Policy, who took money to serve on the board of a group rehabilitating Moon's image, and once wrote a letter addressing Moon as "the Master."

Just how big is Moon's standing in the Right? The "Republican Noise Machine" is a mighty edifice built with $3 billion in gifts from various right-wing philanthropists. Moon's gift of the Washington Times to the conservative cause alone places him in the club as a charter member; the paper owes its existence to a staggering figure of over $2,000,000,000 since 1982 in donations in Moon's mystery money.

Moon also also controls United Press International, one of the world’s largest wire news services. In addition to having a hand in the creation of modern-day Christian Right politics, Moon has given huge sums to Richard Viguerie, the "founding funder" of the Reagan revolution; Terry Dolan, the pioneer of the "liberal bias" attack; and George W. Bush, who received $250,000 from Moon in 2004.

By 1989, U.S. News & World Report was reporting Moon had built "a network of affiliated organizations and connections in almost every conservative organization in Washington, including the Heritage Foundation," but that "conservatives ... fear repercussions if they expose the church's role." In 2004, a veteran Christian Right lobbyist, Gary Jarmin, arranged to have Moon coronated the "King of Peace" in a kitschy ceremony on Capitol Hill in which he wore a glittering crown and royal robes.

Moon, the first President Bush said, while touring South America with the True Father in 1996, is "the man with the vision" whose newspaper "restores sanity to Washington." So why must the gatekeepers of the mainstream media bar his ideas from the public debate on morality? Why does his own employee, Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley, whose paper Moon says he mainly established to "tell the world about God," hold back from telling the McLaughlin Group about the greatness of Rev. Moon’s plans for society?

In the interest of healthy public discourse, it bears upon us instead to consider the philosophy fueling Moon, who has long acted on his professed longing to see gays and "free sex" banished from America. Moon's Federation offers an instruction manual explaining, among other things, on which occasions the man should be on top, how Satan can be banished with the spank of a wooden paddle and franker lessons still.

Recipe for love

There is, as Moon sees it, a profound sex crisis in America. "Satan," the Times publisher said in 2004, "is clinging to our sexual organs." Women are a "line of prostitutes," who should be punished for selfishness. "The concave organ [vagina] should be sealed with concrete."

"The women are the problem in history," he said in 2004. "Women who don't want to have children should cut away their breasts, bottoms and love organ because the purpose for those was first for the children. If they don't fulfill that purpose, then they are not needed."

"Woman's sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with poison," he said in 1996. Men don't get off any easier. Keep pliers in your pocket, he says, "and when you go to the bathroom, once a day, pinch your love organ. Cut the skin a little bit as a warning."

Moon has even a darker vision for gay men. Moon told an audience he'd like to see them removed in a "purge on God's orders.... Gays will be eliminated, the three Israels will unite. If not, then they will be burned. We do not know what kind of world God will bring, but this is what happens. It will be greater than the Communist purge but at God's orders." (No wonder the Times style guide puts "gay" in quotes.)


Far from being confined to his church, his philosophy has fueled years of voter mobilization drives, state and local candidacies and public campaigns opposing sexual liberties for nonmembers -- such as birth control, sex education, gay rights. There have been Moon-sponsored rallies for "pure sex" in the streets of Chicago, featuring mascots dressed up as gonorrhea bacteria. So don't mistake his sexual beliefs for a party to which you aren't invited. "By 2004, we have to reach the level of Jesus occupying Rome," he said in 2001, speaking of his American ambitions. "Invite me as master and owner, or it all will fade away and be broken. The Capitol Hill, the U.N. -- I should be the king."

The goal of getting involved in politics and social services, say his clerics, is to cleanse Satan from humanity's bloodline. Meanwhile, under George W. Bush's Healthy Marriage Initiative and abstinence-only grants, his pastors have won nearly $1 million in public funding. Moon's abstinence-only education group Free Teens USA, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, instructs school kids in New Jersey: "It's not just your body, it's your whole lineage forever." In a lesson plan featured online, a "family tree" exercise appears to be inspired by Moon's teachings. And to teach that loving carelessly is vile, youths are asked to drink from a cup of spit, according to a lesson plan featured online.

Conjugal visitation

So let's say you've married a spouse chosen for you by the creator of the Washington Times at one of his 2,000-couple stadium weddings. You've gone through a Moon-ordained period of sexlessness, but now the time has come to get down to business for the first time with your new husband or wife.

Not so fast. At some date prior to the lovemaking, Moon's "indemnity stick ceremony" is used to paddle Satan's spirit from your lover-to-be. The evil spirit is present, according to one church testimony, because "men and women misused each other's sexual parts, for selfish purposes, [and] it gave birth to this resentment ... So we receive three hits of the stick."

According to the Family Federation website, Satan will not be purged until newlyweds carry out his "Three Day Ceremony" in specified sex positions, in Holy Gowns, in front of his photograph. You're to meet at a location that's "as holy a place as possible" -- one of Moon's churches is OK. You should have a number of items on hand, according to the instructions available online, including a Holy Handkerchief, a church-supplied cloth, and a photo of the Washington Times publisher and conservative benefactor with his wife, Hak Ja Moon. By now you have embraced them as your True Parents, maybe even replacing your biological mom and dad. Next the room must be sanctified to ward off any potential Satanic comeback, with prayers, a candle and the sprinkling of holy salt.

Over three nights, there must be three acts of sex. The first night, the woman is on top. The second night proceeds much the same as the first. But this time there is emphasis on the idea the man-on-bottom has progressed to "Growth Stage Adam."

Night three: time for the "man to restore dominion." Missionary position.

Moon appears to recognize that not all men will be able to sustain an erection during this procedure.

"The act of love should be a complete act (penetration and ejaculation)," the anonymous authors make clear. "In the event that it is difficult to achieve this, strive to achieve as much penetration as possible and continue with the remainder of the ceremony.

"For the act of love, it is all right to caress each other. Insertion must be accomplished. The couple should continue the act of love until ejaculation, but if it is difficult to reach ejaculation, the act may be stopped at that point. However, insertion itself must be accomplished. If insertion is not possible because the husband does not have an erection, the wife must take her husband's sexual organ in her hand and guide it into her sexual part in order to successfully do the ceremony. If the act of love is not fulfilled and it is delayed, it must be fulfilled within 24 hours starting from the beginning of the ceremony. It is not permitted to use a condom or any other apparatus during the act of love."

In an America where the separation of church and state have widely come to be seen as an urban legend, these ideas deserve as much consideration as the Silver Ring Thing, until recently the inspiration for a $1 million grant in Pittsburgh to push someone else's religious crusade: "to saturate the United States," as the mission statement said, "with a generation of young people who have taken a vow of sexual abstinence until marriage and put on the silver ring. This mission can only be achieved by offering a personal relationship with Jesus Christ ..."

And this is the risk of inviting God into the public square. One man's Silver Ring Thing is another man's Holy Handkerchief.


http://alternet.org/mediaculture/34072/

Surely crazy made up liberal nonsense??

I refer you to the Moonies themselves:

www.tparents.org/library/unification/to ... remony.htm
 
man, i had only recently come across an article about this guys "coronation," and i had finally persuaded myself that it hadnt really happened and maybe i had even hallucinated the article itself.....
i think i also read something about him wanting to form some kind of "spiritual UN" in an attempt to bring together the religions of the world. or something to that effect. anyone hear anything more about that?
ordinarily the idea would pique my curiosity, but coming from him its just.... i dont know, kinda suspect....
 
Sorry to be late with this, but it's well worth a listen:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s08g6

Fly Me to The Reverend Moon

When American Studies student John Waite was approached in Manchester in the early 1970s and offered the chance of a free trip to America, he jumped at the opportunity. Only once he, and a plane load of other sudents, actually arrived at a large estate in upstate New York, did he learn that the people footing the bill were the Unification Church, known to tabloid readers across the world as The Moonies. Over the course of the following days and weeks John and the students were kept on the estate as the Church tried to win them over, in order that its message might be taken back to Britain with these bright young things. In "Fly Me to the Moon", John goes back for the first time to tell the story of what happened to him and the rest of the students when they were taken in by one of the most controversial religious groups of the day. He meets up with people who went on the trip with him as well as former Church members who were active in the organisation at the time - and reflects on how the experience as a young man ready for adventure has shaped him in the decades since.

I know they were a joke to most people in the 1970s, but this is worrying even if they do say they don't do this sort of thing anymore, even more so in that they provide so many powerful people with money. Really interesting story, listen quick 'cause it'll be gone by Monday!
 
Full story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19459604

'Moonies' founder Sun Myung Moon dies at 92

Self-styled messiah Sun Myung Moon, whose Unification Church became famous for marrying thousands of people in a single ceremony, has died, aged 92.

Moon set up the Church, whose members are often called Moonies, in the 1950s in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

He claimed to have millions of members, many in the US, but was accused of brainwashing and profiteering.

Moon built up a global business empire, setting up newspapers, arms factories, universities and food distributors.

He was a fervent anti-Communist and was closely associated with US President Richard Nixon's administration in the early 1970s.

Church officials told the Associated Press news agency that Moon died on Monday at a hospital near his home in Gapyeong, north-east of Seoul.

He had been admitted to the hospital, which is owned by the Church, two weeks ago suffering from pneumonia...

So much for another messiah. You can't take it with you, Rev...
 
Masked Mass Marriages.

In sickness and in health: Thousands of couples - many wearing face masks - marry at mass church service in South Korea, despite fears over spreading coronavirus
  • Thousands of couples - some in facemasks - tied the knot in a mass Unification Church wedding Friday
  • The church founded by Sun Myung Moon - revered as a messiah by his followers - welcomed 30,000 people
  • South Korea has recorded 24 cases of the novel coronavirus outbreak that emerged in neighbouring China
By RYAN FAHEY FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 10:07, 7 February 2020 | UPDATED: 12:46, 7 February 2020

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7977853/Thousands-couples-marry-mass-church-covering-faces-service-South-Korea.html
 
Moonies sacked from Japan's cabinet by PM.

Despite its left-wing-sounding name, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is conservative, and many high-ranking members have ties to the right-wing cultish Unification Church (aka "Moonies") founded in South Korea by Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012).

The man accused of assassinating former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July said he shot Abe because his mother (a Moonie) was bankrupted after she was coerced into to donating large sums of money to the church.
In response to rising public outcry against the Unification Church's influence in Japan's politics, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has moved at least seven parliament members out of his cabinet.

From Reuters:

"We need to respect freedom of religion but it's only natural that these groups need to obey laws and be dealt with if they veer from them," Kishida told a news conference, adding he did not believe he had any connection with the church.

https://boingboing.net/2022/08/10/japanese-prime-minister-kicks-7-moonies-from-his-cabinet.html
 
More Moonies madness.

The Japanese government has asked a court to order the dissolution of a church that was investigated after the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, local media reports.

Abe's shock killing last July put the spotlight on the Unification Church, more popularly known as "Moonies". His assailant, Tetsuya Yamagami, said the church bankrupted his mother and blamed Abe for promoting it. The church says it has been unfairly vilified over Abe's assassination.

The investigation, which was ordered by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, ran for a year. If dissolved, the Unification Church will lose its tax benefits but it will still be able to operate as an organisation.

Yamagami claimed his mother was forced to donate to the church, where she was a member for three decades. Similar allegations have been the subject of lawsuits worth millions of dollars.

Under Japan's Religious Corporations Law, a religious order can be dissolved if its actions are "clearly recognised as being substantially detrimental to public welfare".

Japan's education ministry earlier asked the Tokyo District Court to fine the church for failing to answer queries about its activities.

Abe's relationship with the church was the subject of much speculation before his death, especially on social media.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66704255
 
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