"This was written for the Connecticut press in response to the media hype concerning the affiliation of Bridgeport University with PWPA."

Recent events in Los Angeles have confronted America with one of it's great and unresolved wrongs: racism. The images from Los Angeles of Rodney King's excessive beating, of a prejudiced jury and the murderous free-for-all that ensued, showed us all that racism still lurks in our streets. While some steps have been adopted to alleviate any public acceptance of racism, nevertheless the human heart is unchanged by mere legislative action. Superficial remedies cannot heal the deepest hurts.

As seen by the international community, white, black and yellow were pitted against each other in a violent eruption of historical resentments.

Los Angeles is not the exception. The inflammatory racist statements made recently by various "leaders" in this country have been staggering. These champions of U.S. industry, economics and politics have popularized anti-Japanese rap and made it into the whipping post for every national economic or industrial gripe. While British and Dutch investments in the U.S. each exceed those of the Japanese, why is there hostility only towards those of the Japanese? Because they are Asian.

English and Australian ownership of American newspapers is readily acceptable, while Korean ownership of a newspaper is suspect, with hysterical voices crying out in alarm. European interest in Hollywood is welcomed, while Japanese interest is gravely looked upon! Why? Because of racism.

And so to Bridgeport. The Professors World Peace Academy, an international organization of distinguished scholars, negotiates and then signs a deal to assume control of the University of Bridgeport. Suddenly, there is an eruption of intense and vehement opposition. Why? Because the Academy receives significant funding from Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

Abruptly, Bridgeport finds itself as a microcosm of the same malady that afflicts the larger nation. All the players are present: black, white and yellow. What would otherwise be a mundane and academic event now becomes a scene from the theater of the absurd. Reason is relegated to the bleachers and Hate comes up to bat.

The oxygen that this smoldering fire needs in order to conflagrate is provided by bigotry. Sadly, this is another of America's primal guilts. The patterns that pervade bigotry throughout the history of religious persecution in this country are easily recognizable. Anti-Catholicism, Anti-Semitism, Anti-Mormonism and Anti-Unificationism are all replete with the same ignorant and inflammatory assertions: "they're out to control the world; they're not a religion but a political front; they're not loyal to America but to some alien agency; their practices are secretive and dangerous: they control and manipulate their followers: they are all deceptive." Apostate atrocity accounts serve to add spice to the feeding frenzy.

Nowadays these feasts come prepared and pre-packaged in a CAN, just add a little heat and voila! The purveyors of this rancid material are groups like Cynthia Kisser's, Cult Awareness Network. Rev Dean Kelley has described CAN's actions, (criminal abduction, false imprisonment, sexual and physical abuse), as "protracted spiritual gang-rape."

Rev. James Bevel the civil rights activist and former chief strategist with Dr. Martin Luther King stated: "if we study the demeanor, attitudes, expressions and intensity in the Cult awareness people, we would see that it is identical to the demeanor, attitude, and expression of the Ku Klux Klan." It is easy to characterize this phenomenon for there is little innovation in racist and bigoted slogans and practices. The drum beat is the same.

Why should the press in Connecticut grant CAN and their ilk, (outsiders who probably have never even visited Bridgeport), an open microphone and free space to promote their own hate-mongering enterprise. It is an outrage, particularly when CAN's interests are so diametrically opposed to the viability of the University itself and the future well-being of the community of Bridgeport.

In their treatment of this event the media have chosen to disregard any substantive investigation of the PWPA. and to focus instead on dredging up old mud that has been thrown at a religious minority. No attempt has been made to date, to inquire as to why this prestigious collection of Nobel-scholars and international academics chooses to endorse the work and vision of Reverend Moon in the field of education.

Any attempt to otherwise diminish the significance of this relationship without such an examination can only be seen as malicious. (As we say in Ireland "when a thief sees a saint all he sees is his pocket.") Instead the press have chosen to listen to the jaded and absurd accounts of the Unification Church from unqualified and disreputable members of a hostile chorus, like Daniel Junas, who's sole and dubious credential is his claim to be writing a book on the Church!

Why not question those such as Dr. Joseph Fichter or Dr. Sebastian Matczak? Both are Catholic priests and both are nationally distinguished scholars in their own rights who have researched and written extensively on the Unification Church in a rational and balanced manner.

The womb of both racism and bigotry is ignorance. Many people today are disturbed at the alleged cover-up of the truth as presented in Oliver Stone's JFK. When the American people learn of how the truth about Reverend Moon's investment for the sake of America has been maliciously misrepresented they will call upon those responsible to account for their actions. But in the meantime, examine for a moment the immense work Reverend Moon has done in the world, despite bitter and unrelenting opposition.

Ask the countless numbers of non-Unificationists, who participate in Reverend Moon's many projects all throughout the world, if his presence and investment in each area was beneficial or detrimental. In the Book of Acts (5:34-39), the respected Gamaliel gave this wise advice: "if this work be of men it will come to naught. But if it be of God you cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found to fight against God."

The leadership and community of Bridgeport, as well as the faculty and students of the University, are faced with a choice. Should they buy into the self-serving agenda of those intent on propagating racism and bigotry? Or, will they see through the smoke and mirrors and see a tremendous opportunity to resolve historical differences of race and religion in a prototypical manner?

The latter option bodes well not only for Bridgeport but for a nation in need of lasting remedial measures. Harmony produces progress, while division born out of racism and bigotry fosters chaos and destruction.

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