Unification Church: An Apology --
2000 Years of Persecution From Jesus to Sun Myung Moon

APOLOGY -- I'M SORRY

This is an apologetic book. Apology can be defined in two ways -- as a defense and as saying one is sorry. I am doing both. I am defending the UC against its naive and vicious enemies, and I also apologize for the mistakes the UC and I have made. I apologize for the thousands of people I deceived when I fundraised. I told people I was fundraising for "Christian Youth Counseling." This is like President Clinton saying he did not have "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky. Words are important. Clinton did have sexual relations and I was not a Christian in the eyes of those I fundraised to. Clinton and I deceived people.

The ends do not justify the means. I was wrong as well as thousands of other members who did not clearly say the names Rev. Moon and Unification Church. In this book I will not focus on the wrongs of the UC. Dr. Durst does a good job of talking about the mistakes the UC made in his book that we will look at later. The focus of this book is to defend the UC against its critics.

I believe Rev. and Mrs. Moon have taken on the most difficult job ever given a couple -- the role of restoring Adam and Eve. They have worked to earn the position of being the first True Parents of mankind. They are not God and they do not teach that anyone is to become a god. When we say that the Moon's are perfect, we must define perfect as being mature. It does not mean that they or anyone else who grows to perfection does not make mistakes. Rev. and Mrs. Moon have succeeded in their role of being mankind's first True Parents. Jesus was murdered before he could marry and teach the revelations God gave him.

Many Christians are wrong in thinking that the goal of human history is for most of mankind to spend eternity in a burning chamber of horrors while the small minority of mankind, the fundamental and orthodox Christians, will live in heaven. God is greater than that. Christians have a weak God. They say that God will "allow" the vast majority of mankind to be tortured by Satan forever. God will not allow this to happen. Eventually the world will be restored, not doomed to eternal suffering. All things are possible with God. Christians accuse Moon of teaching that God is weak. The very opposite is the truth. In traditional Christian theology, God is weak because he cannot abolish evil. The Principle is the truth that will elevate Christian thought out of its childish belief that God will send the Messiah to save just them like some superman who will carry them off to a safe home. The DP teaches that we must grow up and take personal responsibility. Because mankind is tortured every day the Messiah feels God's urgency. Would you have a sense of urgency if your children were being tortured and you knew where they were? You would work round the clock until every one of them was restored to their home safe and sound. Rev. Moon feels God's urgency and teaches that we must not waste any moment. He is on the greatest crusade the world has ever seen. The Moons have given mankind the greatest dream and goal in history -- the vision of the ideal world. They have brought the blueprints of how to build it. They have brought the truth that explains the Bible, the greatest book in history. It doesn't matter that their course has been messy. Some of their own children reject them. Jesus was rejected by every one of his disciples when he went to the cross for being a dangerous enemy to the state. In time he has been shown to be a good man and his movement to be a good movement even though many of his followers have and are today brutal and evil.

Rev. Moon moved to America in the early 1970s and has worked hard every day to lead his movement to restore America to its founding beliefs such as traditional family values, free enterprise, limited government, freedom of religion, and sexual purity.  In other words, he is championing Biblical values that most Americans have abandoned.

He has also brought something new -- the true view of Jesus and the Bible which says we are to build an ideal world on earth.  No one believes that.  But in time everyone will.  Rev. Moon is famous with his followers of not getting very much sleep.  He gets only two hours of sleep a night and even as he approaches 80 he outworks any member, no matter how young and fanatic that member may be.  Why does he work so hard?  Because God and Jesus have chosen him to be the Messiah who is a teacher of God's truth and vision. He teaches that we must be workaholics.

HONESTY

Rev. Moon has always taught and demanded for honesty. Sadly, many members have fundraised and not said Rev. Moon's name as he commanded them to do. They have often invited people to workshops and not said Rev. Moon's name, especially in the early days of the American church in the 1970s. I was witnessed to this way by Onni's New Age front organizations called International Re-Education Foundation. I lived briefly with Dr. Durst who later became the president of the UC. I saw a list of UC centers on a wall once and asked him who that group was. He told me they were "friends" and "associates" of their group. I was uncomfortable there and left. I traveled from California to my home state of Nebraska. I got the number of the Unification Church from the phone directory, called and asked if I could come over. I went over and discovered that Dr. Durst had deceived me. This is wrong and the church has paid dearly for this. I apologize for not saying Rev. Moon's name and church along with thousands of other stupid UC members when we made millions of dollars deceiving people at millions of doors. Durst writes in his book, To Bigotry, No Sanction, that he and Onni didn't know how to build a church. Obviously, they should have it a church instead of a giving it a secular name and never mentioning Rev. Moon until after a person had joined. When I met them in 1973, Joy Irvine sat next to me during a DP lecture. To me it was obvious that this was a religious organization. During a break, I told her I was excited to find what is obviously a church. I asked why they didn't call it a church. She said something about how there were already churches and they were building something brand new. The problem with this is that every other member in America were calling themselves the Unification Church. NBC exposed Onni.

Is Dr. Durst a satanic liar and deceiver like Satan is called in the Bible? Is it the true nature of Rev. Moon and his followers to see lying and deceiving as God's way? Dr. Durst meant no harm when he didn't tell me the whole truth. Technically, I never lied the four years in the 1970s when I knocked on tens of thousands of doors and said I was fundraising for "Christian Youth Counseling." I felt we were Christian, that we dealt with mainly young people who came over to our center and by hearing the DP lectures they were counseled and guided to become good, religious people. Many who visited were taking drugs and leading immoral lives. When they joined they changed. But it was wrong for us in the early days to say such things.

Some members look back at what they did in fundraising and have a clear conscience because they told people that they were getting donations for one of Father's organizations, such as CARP. This is the name of the Church's college organization. They also think that because in some cases the money they got went almost entirely to supporting their center and it was a legitimate organization that they are off the hook of being criticized. This is just a rationalization for wrong doing.

I saw a news show on TV by a consumer watchdog reporter on one of those news shows like Dateline or 20/20 in which the reporter warned people about a man who was obviously a scam artist but not doing anything illegal. He would advertise and ask donations for organizations that sounded like nationally respected health organizations such as The American Heart Association. I don't remember the exact wording, but he would change it slightly to something like The National Heart Association and people would donate money, sometimes large amounts of money to this guy and not realize they were donating to some creep working out of his house and doing nothing to help others with the money he was given.

Technically, he was not breaking any law. He registered the name of his many organizations that all sounded very close like all the nationally recognized charitable and research organizations. Those few people who have stayed since the 70s have this idiotic nostalgia for the days of the MFT and see it as a wonderful episode in their life of faith. As the members grow older and the Church matures, fundraising will decline. But there is still enough of it to still upset people when they learn that the check they made out to is one of Moon's many organizations. Because Father has such a rotten reputation we should go the extreme to not give any appearance of deceit.

There are several former members who have websites and denounce the church for the grueling hours they put in for years. They don't look back and see spiritual growth. They see abuse. Craig Maxim (xmoonies.com), Ingo Michehl (http://trancenet.org/moonism/) and Steve Hassan (freedomofmind.com) say their life on the MFT was a nightmare. Out of all the tens of thousands of words of Father they find a few that sounds like he is for slavery and lying. There are times when it is right to lie. The victims of Steve Hassan's cruel deprogrammings had the right to lie after they had been lied to. Hassan is a former deprogrammer who believed that the ends justify the means and used force on members to convert them to his view of life. He now says this was a mistake. No "zombie Moonie" has ever done such a heinous act as incarcerate people and abused them as Hassan has done. The "maniac" and "dangerous Hitler-like Moon" has never done such a vicious thing as Hassan has done. Yet Hassan accuses the church of using "coercion." They have never used coercion. Hassan and Hitler have, but not Moon.

Hassan now says he doesn't believe in deprogramming. Yet, his constant harassment of the church and relentless attempts to create an hysterical paranoia toward the church has caused many to resort to violent kidnapping and abuse in locked rooms that sometimes goes on for weeks and months. Steve has never apologized for his evil deeds. Steve feels he can make mistakes and move on, but others cannot. Dr. Durst has apologized for his stupidity and for the mistakes of those in the church. He eloquently states his case in his book To Bigotry, No Sanction. Hassan can't even be humble enough to apologize and what he did is light years more wrong than anything that Durst and the church have done.

Life is messy. We are all learning by trial and error in this fallen world. We all make mistakes. Dr. Durst's book correctly puts the mistakes of the church into proper perspective. Hassan, Maxim and Michehl make mountains out of molehills. They take a few quotes of Rev. Moon out of context and conveniently leave out the quotes that show the real truth. They don't mention that Christians have killed each other for 2000 years over passages of Jesus in the Bible. It is easy to see contradictions in all religions and political movements. People read Jesus and Thomas Jefferson and come up with totally different conclusions. For example, those who read Jesus and say he is a socialist, feminist and pacifist are wrong. From God's viewpoint Jesus is for capitalism, traditional family and defending oneself from aggressors. Everyone was in a frenzy to kill Jesus because they saw a dangerous virus that had to be eliminated for the safety of society. Many people also misjudge Rev. Moon with the same ignorant passion of bigotry. Hassan, Maxim, Michehl and Ross see themselves as some kind of Paul Revere riding through the night screaming "The Moonies are coming!" Most America hated George Washington. History has shown them wrong. And history will show that anti-Moonists were like all those pathetic people in history who jailed religious pioneers.

TABLOIDS

Anti-Moonists don't tell their readers what the average member is really like. They are like the sensationalist tabloids at the grocery store who tell lies or half-truths. They can't see the forest for the trees. These poor souls really believe Moon is a Hitler and his followers are SS Troopers. They see a dangerous organization that is out to destroy democracy, freedom and family. The truth is that our oldest son (as we write this part of the book now) is in the US Navy. He is an Eagle Scout. In fact, his scoutmaster said he was the finest scout he has ever seen. He said publicly that our son could be the poster boy for scouts. When he was interviewed to become an Eagle scout he told the men in at board of review that he admired America's Founding Fathers. He was not lying or deceiving anyone. It would never occur to him to do that. He is constantly harassed on his submarine for being a virgin. Our children are exemplary people. I am the president of my neighborhood organization. I know hundreds of people in my community and no one would agree with with the ravings of Hassan and other former members that I have lost the ability to think clearly. It is they who lie and deceive. Most Unificationists are exemplary people. Anti-Moonists accuse members of being zombies who have no brains. This is unbelievable nonsense, but like Hitler who kept pounding away that the Jews were dangerous, people believe persecutors.

My wife was the first member to go through the terrifying ordeal of deprogramming. She did not lie to her family. But her family and relatives all lied to her in their scheme to break her faith. She was even illegally put into a mental hospital. Later, Rev. Moon personally told her to love her parents and forgive them. Hassan says Moon teaches members to kill their parents. They can find some quotes taken out of context that they feel back up their malicious attacks. They are so consumed with irrational fear and resentment they can't think straight. Everything they say is just projection of their little minds.

Not only are they ridiculous in their hyped up accusations, they can't see that every mainline church has a history that makes whatever wrong doing of Moon and his followers pale by comparison. Countless Christians and Jews have a long history of making terrible mistakes. Even today, Catholics and Protestants kill each other's children in Ireland. The history of the UC is not as terrible as the history of every Christian denomination.

Anti-Moonists make the mistake of seeing the church as half-full. Anti-Americans do the same thing. America has made many mistakes, but overall it is on the side of good and Hitler's Germany was on the side of evil. Anyone with simple common sense will not see my family as evil. Eventually the lies and nonsense of bigots like Hassan, Maxim and Michehl will be understood. Eventually reporters for NBC News will stop seeing Hassan as some kind of expert and reject him as a snake oil salesman. What Hassan and his friends are doing to the UC is just business as usual in the history of religion. Persecutors have used the Bible and interpreted it to rationalize everything from enslaving black people to killing each other in Ireland today. The latest tactic is to use the idiotic argument of mind control. This is just another rationalization for persecuting a minority. In time America and the world will see the truth.

Let me give you an example of how shallow the thinking is of angry, hate-filled former members like Maxim. He says in his website that it is "disgusting" that almost 2000 ministers honored Rev. Moon at a banquet when he got out of jail. Some of those pastors were the most distinguished and famous religious leaders in America such as Jerry Falwell and Joseph Lowery. These two men are at the opposite extremes politically but they came in support of Rev. Moon. They do not agree with his theology, but they see him as a good man of God who was persecuted by the government. Maxim and his persecuting buddies cannot understand how such famous people, even Presidents of nations, including Presidents Bush, Ford and Reagan have praised Rev. Moon. They can't because they are so possessed by Satan's hate they can't think clearly. Maxim denounces those ministers who come from every denomination, even one of the highest leaders in the Mormon church was there. Maxim dismisses them as being there only because of money. He says these men were not there because of freedom of religion and to honor Rev. Moon. He says they were there because they love money. I rest my case.

He says, "In one of the most repulsive episodes in Christian leadership, Moon assembled an enormous group of so-called Christian Ministers (1700 according to church sources) that celebrated Moon's release from prison. Jerry Falwell and Joseph Lowery were two notable ministers that gave speeches. Jerry Falwell reportedly even called for a presidential pardon for Moon. Moon served them an expensive dinner, and they talked about religious freedom and separation of church and state. Money had united them ... not truth, not God, and not Sun Myung Moon ... but money, the god they all serve together."

This is one of the stupidest statements I have ever heard in my life. It shows that it is the bigots who hate Moon who have their minds controlled. They are possessed by Satan. They are dupes of Satan. They are incapable of thinking clearly. Jerry Falwell and Joseph Lowery would denounce them as bigots if they saw their websites and read their books. Maxim is like all those in history who have persecuted religious pioneers out a profound and pathetic ignorance of what religion and freedom mean. Take your pick -- 2000 thousand of the most prominent ministers in America or Maxim who sees them as dancing around a golden calf while he holds the truth God has revealed to him. Obviously the ministers are of God and Maxim is of the devil. Maxim is just one of those dumb people who were in the crowd shouting down Jesus as a danger to society. Maxim is to be pitied. Let's pray he and his handful of loser friends will someday rise to the level of those 2000 ministers who came to hug Rev. Moon.

The UC is a good organization. Mose Durst is correct in his apologetic book, To Bigotry, No Sanction, that their mistakes are not great enough for them to be hated and to be accused of being "dangerous" and "abusive" and therefore to be crushed. Every organization has its dark side. How many priests have sexually abused children in its long history? There is physical and mental rape going on in every organization. No organization is totally squeaky clean. It is easy to see the bad. The trick is to discern correctly whether something is to be tolerated or punished. People have usually not judged correctly in human history. The greatest mistake ever made was when the Jews killed Jesus. If today's anti cult people were in the crowd around Jesus they would have led the crowd to shout "Crucify him!" The errors of the UC members are not great enough to put them in jail. Overall, the Church is half-full, not half-empty. This is not the case with those who attack Rev. Moon and his church.

The rest of this book will be a critique of those poor souls who seek to abolish peaceful new religious movements. Anti-cult "bigots" people are what Jefferson despised with every fiber of his being. A prominent bigot has even taken Jefferson's quote and made it the name of his book, Eternal Hostility. The key is to see from God's eyes. And from God's eyes, he loves his many messengers of truth that this world has despised. The list is long. For the last 2000 years there have been many champions of God who were persecuted by the anti-cult crowd of its day. Sadly, some of these champions and their descendants became persecutors themselves.

One book against Moon is Hostage to Heaven by Betty Underwood who explains that she is a Quaker. Mankind continually repeats history of evil because people don't learn from the past. Later in this book we will tell the story of George Fox, William Penn and the early Quakers. If you think "Moonies" are nuts, take a look at those who started the Quakers. To fight new religious movements has got to be the stupidest thing a person can do. God has always sent his messengers as non-conformists with a message of sacrifice. His champions are masters at giving warnings to a spiritually sleepy people. When it comes to "phobias" the founders of religions are masters at scaring the hell out of people. And the ignorant masses kill the messengers.

Scandal in Rev. Moon's Unification Church