The Moonies in England

[Peter Daley]

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

In 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)

Attorney 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)

The 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."