"One Week in Prison with Rev. Moon"

Timothy LaHaye
May 1984
President of Life Seminar, Chairman of the Moral Majority of California

You know something, I get the feeling that what's happening in this room is what America is really all about. Where else on earth can you look at a person that you disagree with, maybe 95% of the areas of his life, and yet respect him as a person, a preacher of God, and a fellow American, deserving of the privilege of worshipping God as he chooses. I am going to ask you to do something today. I believe we need a dramatic message to our government they will understand.

Friends, I believe what has happened with Reverend Moon is a long succession of events. It has happened to others, and it is time for us to do something within the framework of the law besides just meet and have a rally and stimulate one another. I believe I am with men and women of courage and religious conviction. What I am about to suggest, I do not know whether law enforcement will even permit it. But I think they will.

We believe that religious rights have been intruded upon and that what is happening to Reverend Moon is going to happen to us and it is time now for us to take a dramatic stand. If I understand the press, he will spend one and a half years behind bars. That means 72 weeks of time. His confinement, in a sense, is a prelude to our future confinement. Personally I do not believe he should be subjected to this alone. In a vital sense his confinement is our confinement.

Therefore I would like to challenge you to stand with me and say. "I will give one week of my life during that time and offer to spend that with Reverend Moon." Not that I agree with his doctrine, not that I agree with what he teaches because many of us don't know what he teaches. We have only read about it in the paper and you know how much we can trust the papers. What I'm asking you is, are you willing to stand with me and say as one individual, "I believe in religious freedom so much I am willing, if necessary and allowed, to spend one week of these eighteen months with Reverend Moon!" If you do, would you stand to your feet... (Almost the entire audience stands up)