Stranger Things

April 1, 1981: Moon's Sect Losed Libel Suit In London (The New York Times)

QuoteIn a case that could have wide international repercussions, the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon lost a major libel suit today against a London newspaper. The Daily Mail, which won the case, had made the five-month trial into a far-ranging review of what it called brainwashing and kidnapping techniques practiced by the church. Accepting the newspaper's view, the jury today not only ordered the group to pay court costs estimated at nearly $2 million but also unanimously recommended that the church's tax-free status "be investigated by the Inland Revenue Department on the grounds that it is a political organization." ...

Through its British director, Dennis Orme, the Unification Church filed suit over a two-page article that The Mail published in May 1978 about the church. Under the headline "The Church That Breaks Up Families," the paper recounted two case histories of young Britons lured into the "sinister sect" while visiting California, and warned:

"It woos to its ways young people who walk out on their everyday lives, leave behind families in despair." In one of the two articles, David Adler, who had lost his son to the church and then won him back, described the church's members as ''robots, glassy-eyed and mindless, programmed as soldiers in this vast fund-raising army with no goals or ideals, except as followers of the half-baked ravings of Moon, who lived in splendor while his followers lived in forced penury.''

The jury heard 117 witnesses during the court case, one of the longest civil trials in recent British history. The church introduced dozens of members to argue and explain points of theology or dogma, and The Daily Mail introduced former members of the sect and distraught parents of present members, who testified, often in tears, that it was a force of evil. ..

June 24, 1981: Britian Wants To End Moonies' Charitable Status (UPI)

QuoteAttorney General Sir Michael Havers told Parliament he has asked the Charity Commissioners to investigate two Unification Church subsidiaries that have been allowed tax concessions as charities. ...

The church has about 60 subsidiaries, some of them outside the jurisdiction of the commissioners because they are based abroad, others constituted as regular businesses which pay normal taxes. The church has a registered income in Britain of about $3 million a year. The main tax benefit they now have is not paying a corporation tax, which at a rate of 30 percent, means a saving of $900,000 per year.

Ninety members of Parliament signed a petitition urging the Moonie subsidiaries to be removed from the charity register after the church's leader in Britain.

July 5, 1981: Weekend With The Moonies (The Spectator Archive)

Nov. 4, 2005: Moonies Leader in Britain Today After Ban Ends (The Telegraph/Internet Archive)

Nov. 5, 2005: Throw Out The Moonies' Messiah, Demand MPs (The Daily Mail)

QuoteThe leader of the Moonie cult is to use his visit to London to make the claim that he is really an 'ambassador for peace' who is concerned with 'the promotion of loving families'. But critics and MPs said he is dangerous and should be sent straight back to his home in the US.

Mr Clarke's decision to overturn a longstanding exclusion order against Moon will allow him to deliver a speech in London aimed at the 'rehabilitation of his reputation'. Moon's visit is the first since 1978, when the Daily Mail exposed the brainwashing methods by which the Moonies attracted young recruits and kept them separated from their families.

But Mr Clarke decided that "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 Home Secretary said: "I considered excluding him but I decided that at his age there was not a good enough reason." But Ian Haworth, of the Cult Information Centre, said: "In April 1981, the Daily Mail successfully proved that this organisation broke up families and brainwashed young people - what has changed? ...

Moonie spokesman Robin Marsh issued a statement which said: "Part of the reason for the Home Secretary's decision was that the Reverend Moon's visit was supported strongly by many of this nation's top religious leaders who have seen at first hand the great benefits that Reverend Moon's work for world peace has brought in the Middle East and elsewhere."

However, the Church of England said no leading figure had given any backing to Moon, while the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales said none of its leading clerics had given any support to Moon.

Last year, Moon staged a ritual in the US in which he announced: "Emperors, kings and presidents have declared to all heaven and earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's saviour, messiah, returning Lord and true parent."

Kook-jin Justin Moon, the fourth son, is a co-founder of brother Sean's splinter group

Aug. 18, 2022: Inside The Bizarre & Dangerous Rod of Iron Ministries (Rolling Stone Magazine/Internet Archive)

QuotePolitical extremism is a profitable endeavor, and the greater Moon family is no exception. In Sean Moon's church, guns are holy. But for his brother Justin, they're also business. By crossing the streams of end-times Christianity and Second Amendment fundamentalism, in the swing state of Pennsylvania, Rod Iron Ministries is making itself a powerful draw for MAGA politicians eager to communicate with the most based of the GOP base.

Sean Moon's gun-promoting church, in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, is closely tied to his brother's gun business, the Kahr Firearms Group, headquartered in nearby Greeley. (Both towns are exurban to Scranton.)

Kahr Arms Groups owns several gun brands including Thompson, and the company makes street-legal Tommy Guns as well as AR-15s. While the NRA touts Kahr as "a Premier NRA Industry Ally," the company actively partners with the even-more-hardcore Gun Owners of America, and fights gun-control legislation in Congress as part of GOA's "No Compromise Alliance."

Sean Moon describes his brother as "a member of our church," adding that "like any other member, he contributes what he feels in his heart ... to the organization." I asked Moon whether adopting the Rod of Iron branding for his church had anything to do with boosting his brother's business. "No," the pastor retorted. "Of course not."

July 22, 2010: A 'Common Sense' Approach to Leadership: An Interview With Kook-jin Justin Moon (Korea JoongAng Daily)

QuoteThe Tongil Group is owned by the Unification Foundation, and the mission of the foundation is to support the Unification Church. I am a member of the church and the members of the foundation's board of directors are members of the church. For these reasons, I can not foresee a situation in which the foundation and its business group could be completely separate from the church.

Eight years later, he called for his mother to be executed:

May 21, 2018: Locked and Loaded for the Lord (The Washington Post)

QuoteJustin Moon is a hyper defender of the Second Amendment. Private citizens, he says, should have unfettered access to any handheld weapon the U.S. military uses. "Were every woman in America to exercise their right to bear arms, America would basically eliminate its crime rate," he told me one morning at Kahr Arms. "Nobody would be able to rape them or rob them." ...

There seemingly is not much interest in reconciliation on the part of her brothers, however. Indeed, kicking Mom out of the family tree was not enough to satisfy Justin Moon. At a question-and-answer session with Church members in 2016, he explained that if a queen tries to usurp a king's throne, the ultimate price must be paid: "It's the king's responsibility to arrest her and execute her."

Hyung-jin Sean Moon now leads his own splinter group that focuses heavily on guns.
Some of his own reflections on his childhood are included in the following Washington Post and Rolling Stone articles:

May 21, 2018: Locked & Loaded For The Lord (The Washington Post)

QuoteSean Moon wrote about the downside of their gilded childhoods in a 2005 memoir. "We grew up many times seeing Parents one or two weeks, combined over various visits, out of the year," he recalled. "I many times felt scared, abandoned, and neglected. ... We were surrounded, constantly, by [Church] members. ... I sat and seethed in anger many nights, as I drifted off to sleep."

Aug. 18, 2022: Inside The Bizarre & Dangerous Rod of Iron Ministries (Rolling Stone Magazine/Internet Archive)

QuoteHe grew up cloistered in his family's 19-acre church compound in Westchester County, outside of New York City. Because of security threats his family faced, Moon recalls in a 2018 book, he was "not permitted to wander the neighborhoods, hang out with friends, or ride our bikes outside." His outlet from bitter isolation — home, he writes, "seemed like a prison" — was self-defense training, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, of which he's now a blackbelt, and, eventually, firearms. ...

He had a compelling reason to go off in search of himself. Sean was in college in October 1999 when his brother Young Jin "Phillip" Moon jumped out the 17th-floor window of a Las Vegas hotel. He was 21, a year older than Sean. They had been inseparable growing up. "For most of our lives we shared the same room, the same video games, and the same Doritos chips," Sean wrote in his memoir.

Heung-jin Moon sadly died at the young age of 17.

Jan. 3, 1984: Moon's Son, 17, Dies After a Car Accident (The New York Times)

QuoteOne of the 13 children of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, died early today in a hospital here, a hospital spokesman said.

A son of Mr. Moon - Heung-jin Moon, 17, of Irvington - had been in critical condition at St. Francis Hospital since an accident last month in which a car he was driving collided with a tractor-trailer on State Route 9 in Hyde Park.

And then, according to Moon, his soul returned to earth and into the body of a member from Zimbabwe.

March 29, 1988: Theological Uproar In Unification Church (The Washington Post)

QuoteEvery night last fall, students at the Unification Theological Seminary would gather for the latest revelations from the land of the dead. A senior named Charles was hearing voices -- "channeling," it was called -- and relaying startling messages: Heung-jin Nim Moon, the late son of the Rev. Sun-myung Moon, was speaking from the "spirit world," watching and judging them.

Then last November, the sprawling 230-acre campus in Upstate New York was abuzz. The moment had arrived, seminary officials proclaimed: "Lord" Heung Jin Nim, killed in a 1984 car crash at age 17, had come back, reincarnated in the body of a visiting church member from Zimbabwe.

"About mid-November, I was told there was a black brother from Africa who had been prepared by Jesus . . . and that Heung-jin Nim had assumed his body," said Dick Richard, a former seminary student who recently left the church. "It obviously scared a lot of people there . .. but they went along with the whole thing because it came from Rev.Moon, the Messiah."

Much more here. (Tragedy of the Six Maries)

And from the above link, two videos of that Zimbabwean, Cleophas aka "Black Heung-jin Nim", after parting with the Moons. He shares his version of events from 50:00 in the first video and claims it was all Moon's idea and shares knowledge of Moon's many affairs - although given the power differential between a "Messiah" and a young female follower, I don't think "affair" is the right word. And I have no idea of Heung-jin was a violent boy, but there are a lot of accusations that Black Heung-jin was.

Part 1: https://vimeo.com/39941021

Part 2: https://vimeo.com/39949809

Aug. 8, 2018: My life as a Moonie (Daily Mail/Losa Kohn)

QuoteThey played and became close friends with Moon's children – the 'True Children,' offspring of the Messiah, who were revered by the entire Church. 'It was wildness for kids, because they could get away with anything ... jumping off the loft in the barn and running through the hallways screaming and playing tag and basketball and riding motorcycles,' Lisa says. 'It was just playing, albeit with all those other layers to it.'

She adds: 'There were times when stones would be thrown at members and they would be grateful for that ... It was insane to think about, but they're the Messiah's children.' ...

Some developments within the Church, however, seemed arbitrary and unfair. Lisa writes that, at one point, she and Robbie were banned from seeing their mother; at another, Lisa says, they were barred from hanging out with the True Children, as members of the Church hierarchy believed they were bad influences.

'It was all about protecting the lineage,' Lisa says, adding that 'hierarchies exceptionally mattered' within the Church.

This was a link I bookmarked years ago. I was just browsing some of those older links, and I noticed Lisa's name:
Aug. 11, 2018: How Cult Leaders Use Music For Mind Control (Refinery29/Lisa Kohn)

QuoteLisa Kohn, author of the memoir To the Moon and Back: A Childhood Under the Influence, remembers her time in the Unification Church, which her mother brought her into at the age of 10, as one full of music. For Moonies, as they are colloquially known, singing religious music, both American and Korean, was a part of regular services that fostered a sense of community.

The rock music introduced to her by her hippie parents, from the Hairspray soundtrack to the Beatles, was banned, but the Moonies did sing some folk songs — with a twist. " [We would sing] folk music that was reworded, like 'Blowin' in the Wind' became 'the answers my friend were in the hearts of men.' They also took a Jimmy Buffet song and changed the words. They would do this with pop music to make it more spiritual, godlike, or more messianic," Kohn says. ..

For Kohn, it was paradoxically music – secular rock music – that helped her escape the Moonies. "He doesn't know it, but Bruce Springsteen got me out of the Unification Church,"

Comment: I have a very vivid memory of noticing this. I was in a supermarket with a friend I later learned was in Moonie-splinter group. Music was, as usual, playing over the supermarket's speakers. Suddenly, she stopped mid-step, and said with a glazed look in her eyes as if in a mini-trance: "This song reminds me of my church". It was quite eerie.

That group would change songs lyrics so they could be used to praise the leader. Something like The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" simply change the "she" to "he" and sing it in church while the leader's photo is projected on the wall. Presto: An instant musical memory between an often heard popular song and some obscure cult leader.

It is really quite fascinating and disturbing because a member who experienced that could almost never again hear that song without thinking of the leader, no matter how long has passed since that member broke free.

It is one simple way to keep the leader at the forefront of the member's mind when not at a cult event, simply going about their daily lives. And it doesn't take much to change the lryics of almost any popular song to associate it with a cult. Some off-the-top-of-my-head examples a male cult leader could use: "I Wanna Hold His Hand", "His Heart Will Go On", "Everything He Does, He Does it For Me", "He is the Wind Beneath My Wings", "Don't Stop Us/Him Now".... I could go on forever, which brings to mind another lyric: "now and forever, he will be my man".

Sept. 20, 2018: Unification Church Member Details Getting Out, Finding Happiness (Today Show Video/Lisa Kohn)

Nov. 2, 2018: What It's Like to Grow Up in a Cult (Marie Claire/Lisa Kohn)

QuoteIn her new memoir, To the Moon and Back: A Childhood Under the Influence, she tells the tale of joining, living in, and eventually breaking free from what many believe was a cult.

I looked up Lisa's memoir on Amazon, and I was surprised to see that I had bought it in 2018. That was around the time I was feeling a little burned out on the topic. I think I'm ready to read it.

2024:

July 1: Young Men Are Swinging Hard Right in Korea. It Could Be a Preview for America (Politico)

Aug. 27: The Rise of the South Korean Alt-Right: The 'Silent Counter-Revolution' of Young Men (Journal of Youth Studies)
Note: The abstract is available but the article requires a subscription.

Oct. 18: Assault Against 'Feminist' for Short Hair Recognized as First Misogyny-Based Crime (The Korea Times)

2025:

Feb. 12: Surge of Far-Right Populism Comes for Korea (Hankyoreh)

Feb. 12: What's Driving Rise of Right-Wing Populism in Korea? (The Korea Times)

Feb. 28: Attacks on 'Comfort Women' Heralded The Violent Far Right Seen Today in Korea, Advocate Says (Hankyoreh)

May 28: The Far Right Rises to the Surface – Current State of the Far Right in Korean Society (Hankook Ilbo Public Opinion Series)

Sept. 16: Right-Wing Korean Youth Group Holds Memorial Event for Charlie Kirk (The Korea Times)

Sept. 17: Tributes to Charlie Kirk Spark Controversy Among Korean Stars (The Korea Times)

Sept. 19: Fraternization of Korean Far Right, MAGA Proves a Headache for Seoul (Hankyoreh)

Oct. 3: How Charlie Kirk's Death Galvanized South Korea's 'MAGA' Conservatives (The Washington Post)

Oct. 6: The Circle Closes: Charlie Kirk & The Return of the Korean Revival (Open Canada)

1984:

July 4: Civil Case: Unification Church Told to Pay Fees (the New York Times)

QuoteA Federal judge ruled in Manhattan yesterday that the Unification Church and one of its members must pay $79,000 in attorneys' fees and legal expenses from a lawsuit.

The suit was brought by the church member, Anthony Colombrito, against Galen G. Kelly, who had sought to ''deprogram'' Mr. Colombrito and persuade him to leave the church.

The suit was dropped during the trial when the Rev. Sun Myung Moon was required to testify as head of the church.

Judge Richard Owen of Federal District Court awarded the costs ''incurred in defending against this vexatious, meritless action.''

The judge said the evidence had portrayed the church as ''an organization raising substantial funds at great personal cost to its members.'' Much of the money, he added, was spent on costly conferences and ''the lavish personal expenses of Reverend Moon and certain high officials of his various organizations.''

July 19: Criminal Case: Moon Ordered to Start Serving Term Tomorrow (The New York Times)

QuoteJudge Goettel said there was nothing in the record to indicate that Mr. Moon had been persecuted because of his religious activities. Justice Dept. Praised. ''On the contrary, to avoid prosecution would have been highly suspect,'' the judge said from the bench. He praised the Justice Department for pursuing the case, which he said had been ''politically unpopular.''

Mr. Moon, who lives on an estate in Westchester County, N.Y., was not in the courtroom as the judge heard motions by Mr. Moon's lawyers to reduce the sentence or allow Mr. Moon to leave the United States for a period of ''temporary exile'' instead of going to prison.

Michael J. McAllister, a defense lawyer, said Mr. Moon had been ''sufficiently punished'' by his conviction. Mr. McAllister said a prison term would have a ''tragic impact'' on Mr. Moon's family of 12 children and on the direction and work of his three-million- member church.

Brad M. Schwartz, chief of the criminal division of the United States Attorney's office in New York, said Mr. Moon had been convicted of ''serious crimes and serious activities.'' Mr. McAllister declined comment on whether other legal steps would be taken to postpone the start of the prison term.

July 24: Civil Case - Judge's Opinion & Order: Anthony COLOMBRITO, Plaintiff, v. Galen G. KELLY, et al., Defendants. (Case Mine)

QuoteDuring the course of the extensive trial I heard much uncontradicted testimony as to other young men and women being induced by an escalating and eventually heavy indoctrination to become followers of Reverend Moon. These followers were then placed in teams and sent out in vans to various sites throughout the United States to sell flowers and solicit money on the same approximate schedule as had Anthony. At the trial, Kelly flew deprogrammed young men and certain of their parents to New York from all over the country to testify to this, and to the fact that they had been questionably fed and housed. I heard little contradiction of the foregoing by anyone affiliated with the Holy Spirit Association. I also heard uncontradicted evidence of callousness by members of the Association in thwarting parents' efforts to meet with their children when it was believed a parent wanted to talk to the child about leaving. ...

The evidence regarding Anthony and other similarly situated Association members presented a picture of an organization raising substantial funds at great personal cost to its members. The great bulk of these funds were expended on such things as an annual multi-million dollar international conference and the lavish personal expenses of Reverend Moon and certain high officials of his various organizations, with but modest expenditure on works more traditionally regarded as that of a religious group. As plaintiff's claims involved allegations that defendant Kelly abducted him with a "class-based animus" of hostility to his religion, I concluded that, in light of evidence such as that referred to above, Kelly was justified in raising the question of whether or not the Holy Spirit Association was a bona fide religion. ...

Turning to an award of fees, I find from all the evidence that the Holy Spirit Association was using this action to harass Kelly. This is demonstrated by the fact that it was financing and controlling this — the Colombrito case — hard on the heels of the Vogel case against Kelly, which was also dropped. From Church of Scientology internal documents, which were obtained by the F.B.I. and were before me on this motion, it also appears that there was an "organized movement against Kelly by cultists," to drive him from the deprogramming scene. One of Colombrito's lawyers on this trial, who was earlier a lawyer for the Hari Krishnas, is prominently mentioned in those documents as a member of this "organized movement" with the intention to "get [Galen Kelly] and all others involved."

1985:

August 21: Criminal Case: US Releases Moon, Ending Prison Term On Tax Fraud Count (The New York Times)

From the above article (this deserves its own thread!, and it's news to me)- and I spotted a 40-year-old typo:

QuoteIn another action involving the church, a South Korean national who admitted kidnapping a top assistant of Mr. Moon last year was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and attempted extortion charges.

The man, Yung Soo Suh, 49, admitted in Federal District Court in Manhattan that he led a group that kidnapped the church official, Col. Bo Hi Pak, in Manhattan last September and held him in upstate Orange County.

Colonel Pak, who served as acting head of the church during the imprisonment of its leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, on tax-evasion charges, was held for two days. He was rleased when he agreed to transfer $500,000 in church funds to his kidnappers' secret Swiss bank account.

Six men, all Korean natives, were arrested two months after the kidnapping. Charges were dropped against three and another was acquitted of kidnapping charges. The last defendant, a retired South Korean Marine general, Sang Whi Nam, is to go on trial Nov. 18.

One more, but not from a US president, and I don't think they'd want this getting any outside attention. I think Mr Rushdie was marked for death for less.

The site's navigation is a little odd in that I can't seem to grab the direct link, but if you go to the homepage here, and then click on the image of Mohammed, you'll be taken to it:


Related 1:
Oct. 4, 2021: Why Does Depicting the Prophet Muhammad Cause Offence? (BBC News)

Related 2:
Dec. 21, 2017: Holocaust Victims and Queen Mother Posthumously Baptised By Mormons (The Guardian)

Mohammed's Message for Muslims and People on Earth

QuoteWhen God created human beings, each individual was to be an object of joy to Him. However, against His original will, due to the fall of the first human ancestors, from the beginning human history flowed in a wrong direction. Races divided, religions arose, and different cultures developed depending on the living environment. Nevertheless, the Creator of all human beings is only one, God. How painful His heart must be when He looks at the divisions of humankind into many races, religions and cultures. God is the Parent of all humanity, but when He has to watch His children fighting everyday, arguing over who is right and who is wrong, how must He feel? Earthly people do not know the overall direction and flow of God's providence, nor the relationship between God and human beings, and that is why there has been no harmony among religions for a long time.

God is the Parent of humanity. If examined carefully, the original source of all doctrine or truth is one. What religion would teach people to revere evil. Although their methods might differ, their fundamental purpose is to pursue goodness. Because God is the original being of absolute goodness and love, and every religion teaches about love.

Therefore, the fundamental teachings of each religion are quite similar. Now God's basic desires are to bring the truths and doctrines of all religions together and unite them as one. When it is done, God can finally rest. After countless days of waiting, God finally sent Reverend Sun Myung Moon for this purpose. Through him, the Unification Principle was revealed for the sake of the unification of all religions.

Dear Muslims, you too were born as children of God. I hope that you will unite in one thought. The reason is simple. The only God wants that unification. God at the time of Muhammad and God in this era is the same God, who is our unchanging Parent. Now is the time when we should be able to enjoy one brotherhood and realize world peace. God desires it all the time.

The possibility of world peace is remote without the unification of religions. Dear Muslims, Muhammad is petitioning you. Do not employ our own unique faith and doctrines to cause pain to other religious believers, but accept everyone with open arms and open hearts. By so doing, open doors to conversations on doctrines and join together. The four major religious founders have united in one thought and idea. Jesus accepted Buddha, and vice-versa. We personally experienced God who is rejoicing to see us at the same seminar. Through that experience, we resolved to remain united as one.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon came to the Earth in order to deliver God's will and to unite a divided and scattered humankind. He appears as the True Parent. I hope that my followers will also accept him with a humble attitude.

The one whom you have been attending is God. When you work with other religious believers after accepting God's love, both God and Muhammad will praise you.

And please read thoroughly the Unification Principle in a quiet place. Muhammad opened his heart all the way, after realizing from the seminar that its teaching is a true guide to human life. I know that you cannot do it overnight. However, if it is a path that everyone must go, I hope that none of you will fail in choosing the right and straightest way for your life.
April 9, 2001

Note: This is the only one I've seen so far that isn't written in the first person narrative voice - "I Muhammad can assure you that I am really Muhammad, really!". Perhaps they were being a little more careful with Mohammad, but still this could really piss off a lot of people.

May 21, 1992: A Decade of Service to God and America: 10th Anniversary of the Washington Times and Presentation of the Freedom Awards (Sun-myung Moon/TParents.org)

So much to unpack!
Note to self: Revisit with related links

QuoteAs the Founder of The Washington Times, I would like to extend my congratulations to the Freedom Award recipients, who richly deserve recognition for their service in defense of freedom. Tonight, as I look back, I remember the day in 1981 when I decided to create this newspaper. With the collapse of The Washington Star, the capital of the United States of America and the world's inspiration for freedom and democracy was left with just one liberal newspaper, The Washington Post.

At that time, the idea of starting up a new, conservative paper to challenge The Post was unthinkable. I assure you that if I had sought political influence, religious propaganda or personal riches, The Washington Times would have been the wrong project indeed. The fact is, I have invested close to one billion dollars in this newspaper during the past 10 years.

Why I founded the paper. I founded this newspaper only because I believed that it was the will of God. God loves America and its Judeo-Christian heritage, and looks to America to assume the central role in saving the world from the collapse of traditional values and to defend the free world from the threat of communism. I, therefore, created The Washington Times to provide America with responsible leadership in fulfilling this providential role. This Tenth Anniversary celebration commemorates the decisive role played by The Washington Times in the fall of communism and anticipates America's and the world's hope for a bright future.

In speaking of the future, allow me to share with you my hopes for a world of peace and harmony.

Ladies and gentlemen! What is the most precious thing in the world? It is true love centered upon God. If there is anything that you cannot buy with money or power, it is true love. True love is unique in that it cannot be actualized except within a relationship. A relationship requires give and take between two beings, a subject and an object. Love between husband and wife, parent and child, and brother and sister are all experienced within relationships.

In the same way, in order for God to fulfill the ideal of true love, He created the universe to be His object. Of all His creations, mankind, as His sons and daughters, was created to be His primary object of love. It is only through true love that we can experience true unity between God and man, between men and women, and among all the creatures of the earth. True love is the ultimate center of all unified and absolute values. This love originates from the act of sacrificing oneself for the sake of others. Give yourself to others and forget your giving. Then give again. This is the nature of true love. When God created His object of love, He gave Himself for the sake of His creation. He invested 100 percent of Himself. And then He invested again and again.

In nature, when air moves, a vacuum is created. Then air rushes back in a circular motion to fill the vacuum. In human life, when we give our love until we have no more to give, God's unlimited love rushes back into our hearts to fill the void. Absolute giving for the sake of others, therefore, will bring us unlimited energy. God stands in the subject position of giving love to mankind. His original nature of giving love again and again creates a perpetual dynamic motion characterizing His eternal existence. Thus, eternal life is the natural consequence of living the way of true love.

If you can stand in the position of having God's absolute and unchangeable love, you can be where God is. You will have the right to live together with Him all the time. If we as human beings resonate with God's love and enter a sphere of unified oneness with Him, then God's love will be our love, God's life will be our life, God's lineage will be our lineage, and God's creatures will be our creatures.

It is, therefore, by God's design that man is created to live for the sake of others. By living and sacrificing for others, the ideal of love can be realized. With this in mind, we cannot expect world peace to result from the contemporary philosophy of individualism, in which each person lives for him- or herself. It is the intention of evil to destroy the sphere in which the individual dwells as an object of God. When that occurs, what remains is the individual, living only for oneself. This is the fundamental cause of family breakdown, racial conflict, economic disparity and conflict between religions. America was founded upon the Judeo-Christian spirit of love. Then how did it develop this culture of individualism?

While fighting communism, I have continually tried to awaken America's youth and I have repeated my warnings to the free world so they would not be affected by this degenerating pattern. Yet America is still suffering from a variety of social ills. Drug wars, AIDS and increasing criminal violence still plague this great country. Even the considerable military, economic and intellectual might of America have not and can not cure these diseases. Decisive Role

I came to America only with the desire to help save her. Even after this country indicted me, I was still committed to this cause. I even made the decisions that created The Washington Times while sitting in the courthouse during my trial. Moreover, I gave instructions to start Insight and The World & I magazines while in Danbury prison. I am proud of the fact that The Washington Times played a decisive role in heightening America's awareness of the threat of communism. Although this country has repeatedly rejected me, I have continued my best efforts to awaken America to its providential responsibility.

The strategy of God to save mankind is to absorb the first blow and suffer loss, but over the course of time regain more than what was lost back to God. Evil, on the other hand, always strikes first and claims initial victory but, ultimately, in the end, loses all. As you know, during World Wars I and II and even the Cold War, the countries that struck first, eventually lost. If a righteous person endures persecution, his commitment to suffer for his faith plants a seed of respect and admiration in the consciences of his oppressors. Eventually, that seed will grow and transform the hearts of many for generations to come. This quiet revolution of the heart is heaven's secret weapon.

Investment to Save America. I have undergone immense hardship in my efforts to pioneer the way to a true and just world peace. When I founded The Washington Times, there were very few people who comprehended my intent, let alone who offered to help. But because I knew the winning strategy of God, I went forward. I foresaw that this newspaper would be an instrument to save America and the world, although it would mean sacrificing myself and my Unification Movement.

In the next decade, our task will be more difficult than ever. We cannot relax just because the fight with communism has ended. For example, who can halt the surging wave of immorality that is sweeping the globe? This is becoming a world that worships hedonism, and seeks only to stimulate carnal desires. The war against drugs in this country has been a complete and utter failure.

The riots that occurred a few weeks ago in Los Angeles, moreover, confronted us with issues that cannot be solved merely with more police, more laws, more money or more political negotiations. Without the true love of God on earth, that is, without people living and sacrificing for the sake of others, we will not be able to solve these problems. As community leaders, it is important to realize that giving and sacrificing for the sake of others is the only way to establish yourself as the head of your true family and society, and to become true leaders of your nation.

When your family, society and nation follow you in practicing the great principles of true love, then you will become the champions in the establishment of world peace. What we need is a revolution-a moral revolution, a revolution of true love. Moreover, this revolution is needed everywhere. Mrs. Moon and I are working to organize this now in Korea.

As you may know, I visited North Korea last November. That event shocked the world. It was considered an impossibility due to my lifelong stand against communism. As early as 1985, I had predicted and proclaimed the fall of communism and the economic disintegration of the Soviet Union. I was known in many communist countries as a national enemy. My trip, therefore, was a life-risking trip for my wife and me.

I went to North Korea out of love for my country and out of a fervent desire for the reunification of my homeland. I met with President Kim Il Sung and had a meaningful dialogue. Even with differences of opinion, dialogue is always useful. Isolation is always dangerous. For example, he promised me that the nuclear issue will be settled to the satisfaction of the United States. The moment of truth on this issue is coming soon. All in all, I feel my visit contributed tremendously to easing the tension in Asia and the world. In that atheistic country, I preached that God and true love must be the basis and spirit for national unification and permanent peace. The Reverend Billy Graham is well known for his great work, the first to preach in several communist countries. This time, however, it was my privilege to be God's instrument and speak God's words in communist North Korea. Today, The Washington Times and its magazines begin another decade of service to America and to God. There lie even greater challenges ahead of us. In order to meet these challenges, I need every one of you to be a champion. In the next ten years, let us build a moral America, a better world for our children. You can surely count on my support.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Washington Times is your newspaper as much as it is mine. Together we will make this great newspaper even greater.

Aug. 12, 1988: Reporter Quits Over Dukakis Story (UPI)

QuoteA reporter for the Washington Times said Friday he resigned from the newspaper in a dispute with his editors over their handling of a story suggesting Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis had sought psychiatric counseling. The reporter, Gene Grabowski, resigned Wednesday in a disagreement with editors who revised his original story appearing Aug. 4 to emphasize what Grabowski felt was a more remote possibility Dukakis had visited a psychiatrist. ...' This was the first instance in my personal experience where a story was changed substantially,' said Grabowski, who worked for The Associated Press for nine years before joining the Times in February 1987.

Note: The Washington Post is currently having issues of its own.

1991: A fascinating panel discussion from 1991:

• James Whelan was the founding editor of the Washington Times as well as the editorial page editor.
• Michael Warder was a Director of the Unification Church of America in 1977.

Transcript of Michael Warder's Speech (How Well Do You Know Your Moon)

QuoteOver a period of time I began to reach the conclusion that Moon had a literal, biologic, belief in the superiority of Koreans, and that they, among the orientals were superior, but that orientals were superior to all the rest anyway. So there was a real racial, nationalistic hierarchy involved in the concept. ...

We had a little girl. Shortly after her birth Moon established a nursery in Tarrytown, and all the couples were called together by Moon at a meeting in the New Yorker [Hotel] and basically ordered to put the children in the nursery in Tarrytown. We were living on 34th and 8th Avenue in Manhattan. Now this was very difficult, but we did it. We would see our daughter on the weekend, on Sundays.

Then about two weeks later, we had a meeting at the Belvedere Estate. This was phase two, and he must have known phase two before he started phase one. He basically ordered all of the wives to go on a three-year evangelical mission for C.A.R.P. on the West Coast. My wife at the time was three months pregnant, and she went off to California on this trip, led by Tiger Park.

Meantime, in the nursery, our daughter, she would literally, there would be one person assigned to take care of five infants and when one person wasn't there, they would have these tape recordings of Korean language so these kids would learn to speak Korean. The lady who ran the nursery could not speak English. The idea was that Korean was the heavenly language so they were going to get a leg up on the rest of us. It is pretty grisly, grim stuff.