Biblical Ignorance/Distortion

Peter Stephenson
March 19, 2014
Open Letter to the Unification Church of America

An open letter from me, Peter Stephenson to the Unification Church of America:

SHAME ON YOU -- UNIFICATION CHURCH OF AMERICA.

What odious, despicable, liars we have become. I endured the worst kind of slander for being a Unificationist over the last thirty years and never once felt ashamed but these days the name of our movement is becoming a byword for 'liar' within our own selves.

Capitalizing on the very biblical ignorance within our membership that our own church culture has inculcated, the 'leaders' of the American movement send yet another money grubbing demand-letter in which they deliberately lie about the Bible in order to guilt the mostly poor members into donating huge amounts of money.

Is there no sacred truth that we are not willing to bastardise and adulterate in order to squeeze more money and service from the faithful members? Here is part of the letter and following this is what the Bible actually said.

$2,500 By August 1st for Las Vegas Palace $5 Million Appeal Letter 3-16-2014

March 16, 2014

Dear Family,

Becoming Owners of True Parents' Dream in Las Vegas

We are strongly reminded of the time when the Israelites built the first temple in Jerusalem. At King Solomon's invitation, every family and clan contributed according to their ability, considering it an honor to be included. I hope you'll feel the same way, and join in completing the foundation for this magnificent building.

http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Balcomb-14/Balcomb-140316.pdf

Actually, Solomon enslaved his people and the Temple was built with harsh use of the lash and military enforced taxation (As God, through the prophet Samuel predicted he would when the Israelites asked for a king).

Here is the verse in '1 Kings' regarding Solomon's building of the Temple:

1 Kings 9:15:
Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD's temple, his own palace, the terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.

It was Moses (not Solomon) who, in the desert, relayed God's wishes that only those who feel it within their heart should contribute to building and furnishing the Tabernacle.

Here is the verse in Exodus which shows this.

Exodus 35:1-35:
Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, "This is the thing that the Lord has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze.

I'm not saying that building a Las Vegas temple/education center is either a good or bad idea. I have no opinion on that. It should be up to the American church leadership and the congregation to have a discussion about the worthy use of their resources.

However, the Church leaders in American should be ashamed of themselves for distorting the Bible to further their aims; and they cannot plead ignorance of the Bible (as if even that wouldn't be shameful) as many of them are graduates of the Unification Church Theological Seminary. Rather they should be ashamed of themselves for being willing to distort any truth, tell any lie, and ruin any person in service of their sycophantic pursuit of a vertically obtained pat on the head.

The most depressing thing about this isn't even the lie and distortion of one of our most holy texts but rather the fact that such lying has become so mundane and every day that they don't even know they are doing it anymore.

The great irony being that if they stopped being lazy and actually, passionately explained the purpose and aspirations of the 'education center' (if that is its true use) then they might find that the members would be inspired by the vision and actually would gladly 'give from their heart'. The reason this can't happen though is because the establishment are incapable of trusting the members and treating them like adults and instead choose to treat them like children and manipulate them.

Even God throughout the Old Testament history reasoned with the Israelites and put a choice before them and let them choose; this is why God used the word 'listen' so often – as in 'hear me oh Israel'. Our God is a God of covenant where he places his children on equal footing with Himself and treats them as adults but our Unification Church leadership are leaders of the most patronizing, lying, cynical kind where they see the members as nothing more than raw material to be ground down for only the most base use.

Sometimes I wonder if the North Korean regime isn't God's way of just getting the poor North Koreans used to blatant lies and propaganda so that if we ever do become the state religion there then they won't be so disillusioned by the craven nature of our 'leaders'.