Shining With the Reverend Moon

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the Omaha World Herald, June 24, 2004 with the headline, “Lawmakers Attend Moon’s Crowning.” Washington. More than a dozen lawmakers attended a congressional reception this year honoring the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, where he declared himself the Messiah, and said his teachings have helped Hitler and Stalin be reborn as new persons. At the March 23 ceremony in the Dirkson Senate office building, representative Danny Davis, Democrat of Illinois, wore white gloves and carried a pillow holding an ornate crown that was placed on Moon’s head. The Korean-born businessman and religious leader then delivered a long speech, saying he was “sent to earth to save the world’s 6 billion people.” Emperors, kings, and presidents have declared to all heaven and earth the Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s savior, messiah, returning lord, and true parent. Moon, 85, has been controversial, renowned for officiating at mass weddings, he received an 18-month prison sentence in 1982 for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Among the more than 300 people who attended all or part of the ceremony was Senator Mark Dayton, Democrat of Minnesota, who now says he was honoring a constituent receiving a peace award and did not know that Moon would be there. The event’s organizers flew in nearly 100 honorees from all 50 states to receive state and national peace awards. The only international crown of peace awards went to Moon and his wife.

Tom: Dave, there’s no doubt that Moon’s a crafty character, okay? (chuckles) He has duped a lot of people into attending functions, and his game plan has been, and is to, by having celebrities, in fact, that gives him more credibility, or if he has somebody who’s involved in the government, that gives him more credibility. He owns—his organization owns the Washington Times’ credibility. But when a representative of our government is there, and he has a pillow, and he’s holding the pillow with white gloves, and there’s a crown on it—what’s he thinking?

Dave: (chuckles) Tom, as you read this, it’s just staggering. Moon, you said, is a crafty character. How he could pull this off and get these important people, they were, and this is in the Dirkson Senate Office Building in the capital of the United States, and he is the one who is being honored—oh yeah, he cons them into thinking he’s honoring other people, and he flies in more than 100 honorees, it says, to give “peace awards” to them, a couple from every state, I guess—but the whole idea is to get them there and then he will be crowned and his wife will be crowned. And he declares himself—of course, this isn’t the first time…

Tom: No.

Dave: … he’s declared himself to be the savior, he is the messiah from Korea…

Tom: The lord of the second coming…

Dave: Right. The second coming, meaning what he explains is, Jesus failed the first time around. He got Himself crucified. Well, maybe you remember Pat Robertson when he ran for president, well, for the Republican nomination, and he said God had told him to do this, and later on he was interviewed, “Well, if God told you to run for president, why didn’t you make it?” And I remember very distinctly, Pat Robertson said, “You could ask Jesus the same question. Why did He fail the first time around and get crucified?” Well, Moon says Jesus failed because He didn’t get married and have a family. The whole thing, the Unified church, this perfect family, we’ve got to establish this perfect family—this is why he presides over all these weddings, and these are people, some of them didn’t even know each other, and he puts them together, he picks them, and now he is trying to establish under himself the perfect family. Well, it doesn’t seem to me that he has the perfect family himself. He’s had quite a few problems with some of his children…

Tom: Right, with suicides, his son…

Dave: Right.

Tom: …at least allegedly, committed suicide…

Dave: But anyway, Jesus failed the first time around. He didn’t get married, He didn’t have the perfect family, and now Moon has come and he is the lord of the second advent, and he’s got all these people there, listening to this and, by their presence, seemingly endorsing this, and it’s in a Senate building in the Capitol! Tom!

Tom: Now again, Dave, this is just one more example, but we could go back and address other functions put on by the Moonies, Sun Myung Moon’s organization in which they’ve had President Bush’s father, after he left the presidency, or they’ve had Jerry Falwell—now others, as I said, celebrities, what draws these people to this man?

Dave: And evangelical leaders.

Tom: Yeah.

Dave: Speaking for him. Tom, they get a very big honorarium, I know that. Whether that is it, I think that he lies to them, as this Senator, Mark Dayton, Democrat from Minnesota said, he was honouring someone from his state. He didn’t know that it was going to turn out the way that it did. But Moon is working very hard—time is running out on him, he’s 85 now, and he doesn’t have much more time to carry on these shenanigans, and I wonder what will happen when he’s gone—but the whole point was, Tom, how can he get so many respected people to attend a function like this? I think it was very clear that it was a Moonie organization, that this was what was going to happen, and yet, somehow, they wanted to be honored themselves, they wanted to receive this honor—from whom? From Sun Myung Moon? In John 5, Jesus says something very important to the Pharisees. He says, “You receive honor from one another; how can you be really men of faith when you honor one another, receive honor from one another, and you do not seek the honor that comes from God alone.” Why do we want honor from other people? But Tom, it’s in the Christian church—call me doctor, call me this, call me that, honor me on your program and I’ll honor you on my program…Jesus said, “You better seek the honor that comes from God only, not from men and God. God only.” And Tom, when the moment comes when that is not what we are seeking on this program, let’s shut it down.

Tom: Right.