Cain & Abel, Church & State

There's an old joke that the difference between "crazy" and "eccentric" is a million dollars.

After reading (via Atrios) John Gorenfield's Gadflyer report on the waxing influence of the Rev. Moon, we can revise that upward: the difference between stark raving bonkers and eccentric seems to be a billion dollars, liberally shared with sympathetic politicians:

Should Americans be concerned that on March 23rd a bipartisan group of Congressmen attended a coronation at which a billionaire, pro-theocracy newspaper owner was declared to be the Messiah -- with royal robes, a crown, the works? Or that this imperial ceremony took place not in a makeshift basement church or a backwoods campsite, but in a Senate office building?

What's that bit about a crown?

... Cut to the ritual. Eyes downcast, a man identified as Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) is bringing a crown, atop a velvety purple cushion, to a figure who stands waiting austerely with his wife. Now Moon is wearing robes that Louis XIV would have appreciated. All of this has quickly been spliced into a promo reel by Moon's movement, which implies to its followers that the U.S. Congress itself has crowned the Washington Times owner.

Gaah!

Gorenfield notes that this coronation was attended by several members of Congress, including: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah), Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) and Davis. Also attending was my own representative, Curt Weldon (R-Pa.).

Again, Gaaah!

This goes way beyond humoring a wealthy supporter -- this man is massively delusional and presents a real danger to himself and to others. Gorenfield provides some highlights to illustrate Moon's world view:

* He has claimed the endorsement of Jesus, Confucius, Buddha and Muhammad, as well as of every dead American president and of the late tyrants Hitler and Stalin, whom he says have repented after their deaths.

* He calls on rabbis to "repent for betraying Christ" and "said Hitler killed six million Jews as a penalty for this rejection."

* He says that homosexuals -- whom he calls "dogs" -- and non-"repentant" Jews will be destroyed by God in an event he says "will be greater than the communist purge but at God's orders."

So he's an anti-Semitic, homophobic cheerleader for genocide. But there's more. Consider Moon's views on church and state:

... he's frank about calling for democracy and the U.S. Constitution to be replaced by religious government that he calls "Godism," calling the church-state separation the work of Satan. "The church and the state must become one as Cain and Abel," he said in the same sermon.

It's hard to make any sense out of that comment about Cain and Abel "becoming one." And I don't understand how the story of Cain and Abel is supposed to refute the idea of "church-state separation."

Cain, you'll recall, killed Abel. The idea of the separation of church and state arose precisely because, if they are not kept strictly separate, one will destroy the other. It matters little which is the last one standing, the end result will be tyranny, an abomination that brings desolation. This tyranny is Moon's goal.

Moon's most pernicious recent activity involves his attempt to infiltrate and buy off black churches. He earns an extra measure of my contempt by misappropriating one of my favorite hymns for this effort:

... now that he's forged unbreakable ties with conservative Christians, Moon has moved on to African-American ministers, and, through them, allies in the Democratic Party. This has been below the radar of the press, but not for lack of outlandishness. Moon celebrated Easter Sunday, 2003 by launching a coast to coast series of "tear down the cross/Who is Rev. Moon?" events, targeting pastors in poor neighborhoods. From the Bronx to L.A., Moon's people were convincing pastors to pull the crosses off their walls and replace them with his Family Federation flag. An old hymn was invoked: "I'll trade the old cross for a crown."

That old hymn would seem to be "The Old Rugged Cross, the chorus of which says:

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
'til my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to that old rugged cross
and exchange it someday for a crown.

(Here's a RealAudio snippet of Jerry Lee Lewis singing that chorus.)

Moon is asking black congregations to stop clinging to that old rugged cross, to exchange it today for a crown -- a crown he will wear as Emperor Messiah.

I'm not worried that Moon's insane quest to be Emperor Messiah of the world will succeed. But short of that he is still capable of doing real damage.

I think I've been a bit too dismissive of Rev. Moon up until this point -- thinking his views were so outlandishly insane that he couldn't possibly have as much real influence as he does. But as I've learned in the case of others, just because someone's views are ridiculous and heretical doesn't mean they can't end up having real influence on otherwise reasonable people and shaping the world all of us have to live in.

Comments

[Patrick Mullins]

You said it, kid. Some of the dumbest people in the world are holding major sway--and not just religious cult people either, of course.

I met an arranged-by-Moon marriage in 1996. They insisted upon being happy about it even though the girl said the husband "wouldn't have been her type otherwise." Talk about a "forced marriage," that was sure it--they did the self-brainwashing about it 24/7. Pretty ghoulish. I think I recall that they also spent a lot of their own money to fly to Korea to do what they wouldn't have done naturally.

[bellatrys]

Rev. Moon is the Anti-Christ?

(not a personable urbane Romanian politican after all...)

[Edward Liu]

Howdy,

Might the influence Moon wields among the supposedly powerful in Washington be purely due to the fact that Moon owns the Washington Post? I think it might be illuminating to explore the Post's coverage of the politicians who showed up for Moon's coronation.

-- Ed

[MannyJ]

I'm pretty sure Moon owns the (wingnut) Washington TIMES, not the Washington Post. Nobody has ever accused the WT of objectivity or honesty, so no real point bothering to check each politician's coverage therein.

[Chris]

It just goes to show that the religious right only uses prophecy to support their own hysterical political agenda. Can anyone imagine what would happen if Moon was more liberal in his social policy or supported Democrats instead of Republicans, can you imagine how fast these latest antics would be seen as a sign of the Apocalypse? Encouraging people to reject the Crucified Christ, crowning by Congressmen, declaration of Messiah-hood? Less than five minutes is my guess.

[Edward Liu]

Howdy,

MannyJ points out: "I'm pretty sure Moon owns the (wingnut) Washington TIMES, not the Washington Post."

Oooorrgughgghh. OK, well, um, never mind my question, then.

I am so smart...S-M-R-T...

-- Ed

[Barry]

Not hard, really, to see this effect a religious figure can have over influential people.

Look at all the Hollywood stars who profess fealty to a dead science fiction writer (and bad sci-fi at that...)

[Tuxedo Slack]

Rev. Moon is the Anti-Christ?

Exactly.

[patrick Mullins]

This is somewhat relevant to your Christian Entertainment post as well.

Julia Pak, "posthumous wife-widow" to Rev. Moon's dead son is the "General Director" and,at least in 2001, was still the "prima ballerina" of the Universal Ballet, which will perform "Romeo and Juliet" at the New York State Theatre 3 times in July. As recently as 3 months ago, there was a "Christian missionary weekend" in Manhattan, when they said they intended to try to contact "arts people and organizations." I doubt they got anywhere knocking on Peter Martins's door, but there will be a Moonie "Romeo and Juliet" right on his stage: Universal Ballet has been getting its foot in the door there for several years. The Universal Ballet Academy advertises itself as "formerly the Kirov Academy of Ballet," calls itself "the Juilliard of Korea," and that the company itself is "the world's first international ballet company, with headquarters in Seoul and Washington." A review I just found from 2001 by Philip Anson in something called "On the Aisle" said that "the soloists are not at the level of the stars of American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet," but that "they work hard and smile freely."

This is definitely as alarming as any reality TV. The 4th floor practise rooms of Juilliard have been well-stocked with their own Koreans for almost 25 years. Anson concluded his idiotic review with "The UB performances were well attended but not by the usual New York dance crowd (the socialites are away for the summer).."
He probably meant the NYCB itself, performing at Saratoga.

The Moonies sure want to infect every aspect of culture they can, but it's good to see they are still in the "sucking stage" at Lincoln Center until they can arrange a hostile takeover.

It sounds like something that isn't exactly a Christ or an anti-christ would have to stop this--somebody with a really strong stomach, because this really stinks.

Poor Julia Pak has to remain faithful to her posthumous Moon-husband.

[K. Gordon Neufeld]

With regard to Moon's cultural pretensions, this is just all part of his egomania generally. Since Moon has vast quantities of wealth, most of it extracted from hard-working members who live in meagre conditions, he spends it freely on his pet projects. For example, one of his daughters was interested in horse riding, so he went out and bought an equestrian stable. Moon's "daughter-in-law" (in the strangest possible construction of that term) was interested in ballet, so he literally bought a ballet company. He was able to get some good instructors from Kirov Ballet in Russia due to the dire economic conditions in that country following the Soviet collapse. Moon believes he's the Messiah and that therefore everything in the world, be it politics, sports, culture or media, would be better if he ran it. I'm a former member of Moon's church and attended many of his speeches. If you'd like to read more about what it was like for me to be a "Moonie" for more than a decade, I suggest you read my recent book, Heartbreak and Rage: Ten Years Under Sun Myung Moon, A Cult Survivor's Memoir, which is available from Amazon.com. A sample of the book can be read by visiting my website, http://www.moonbook.com.

[Ann Weekes]

Have read your article with comments about Rev. Moon's involvement in ballet - is the Universal Ballet Academy in Washington a 'front' to get the young people into the Unification Chirch or is it divirced from all that and solely focused on the training of dancers in classical ballet?

[Sue Wicks]

I would also like to know whether this Academy is focused on ballet training or is a front for the Unification Church. I have a very talented son who is considering applying to train at Universal Ballet Academy and so I need to know the truth behind all the comments.