BOYS OF ST. VINCENT

The movie The Boys Of St. Vincent is a movie, a docudrama, that is based on a scandal of a Catholic-run orphanage in Newfoundland in the 1970s. Boys were sexually molested by a pedophile priests. It is a damning condemnation of both the Catholic Church and the government of Newfoundland who tried to cover it up.

DANGEROUS?

The use of the word dangerous by Hassan and anti-cultists is not precise. If a dog is dangerous it will kill you. People who are dangerous are criminals like Al Capone and Saddam Hussein. They attack with violence. No matter how fierce the debate between those who favor big government and those who favor limited government in American politics never gets to the point that one side tries to ban the other. The two party system began with the fight between Jefferson and Hamilton and continues today between the Democrats and Republicans. Each side thinks the other is leading the country down the drain but no one talks of the other side with the venom that Hassan writes about Moon. Hassan has crossed a line by using the word dangerous. Rev. Moon and his followers are not "dangerous." They are not criminals that need to be jailed or killed because they are a threat to law and order. The beatings and jailings of Rev. Moon and his followers has been a gross injustice. The truth is that for most people coming in contact with the UC is good for them. Rev. Moon is the greatest thing that has ever happened to this world. The UC has made and continues to make many mistakes. So what. So does Steve Hassan. Edward's book mentions Hassan as part of the deprogramming he went through. He considers his activities in his early days as wrong. Why doesn't he give others the slack to make mistakes? Billy Graham is squeaky clean, but he also is a milk toast who refuses to get controversial like Jerry Falwell. When Falwell shows up at Harvard to speak the Liberals line up and protest calling him all kinds of names.

Hassan and company fail to see things in perspective. Hassan says he is Jewish. God tells Moses and Joshua and those who are going to enter Caanan that they are the Chosen People, and they are to commit genocide on the inhabitants of Isral. They are to kill every man, woman and child. When Joshua enters Caanan he attacks Jericho The Old Testament says "they took the city. Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword" (Joshua 3:21).

MOSES

The religious writer Karen Armstrong hates this about Jewish history. She quotes Moses in her book A History of God saying, ".. when they arrived in the Promised Land they were to have no dealings whatever with the native inhabitants. They 'must make no covenant with them or show them any pity' (Deut. 7:3). There must be no intermarriage and no social mixing. Above all, they were to wipe out the Canaanite religion: 'Tear down their altars, smash their standing stones, cut down their sacred poles and set fire to their idols,' Moses commands the Israelites, 'For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your Elohim; it is you that Yahweh our Elohim has chosen to be his very own people out of all the peoples of the earth' (Deut. 7: 5-6). Contrary to the quotes taken out of context by Hassan, Moon has made it crystal clear that he and his movement will not anything like the greatest leader in Judaism did. What does Hassan have to say about Moses? Hassan says he is a Jew. Would Hassan have followed Moses? Or would he have left Moses cult and gone into Canaan and warned the people that there was a madman named Moses who heard voices and who had evil followers who were coming to commit genocide in the name of God? Obviously, Moses, by Hassan's own neat little formula, is a Hitler like authoritarian leader -- a danger to freedom of mind and body.

Mohammed fought a tribe of Jews once. After he defeated them he lined up 700 men and had their heads cut off. The first Christian political leader was the Roman Emperor Constantine. He persecuted the pagans. Karen Armstrong condones this in her book Muhammad with the logic that it was a primitive time and that's what leaders did. Jesus did not go along with the custom of stoning adulterous women. The whole notion of anti-Cultists that everything has to be just right and everyone has medical insurance, works according to OSHA standards of safety, and it looks like Billy Graham who has no followers is ridiculous.

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC -- CULT OF TWO

Abraham is the considered the father of all three monotheistic religions and he had a cult of one. Remember how he told his son Isaac to get on an altar so he could plunge a knife in him because God told him to do it. Isaac, like any good glassy eyes zombie, faithfully did as his Jim Jones father told him to do. God finally stopped him. It was a test. How can Hassan be so sure that God is not testing him and all of us with the words of truth from Rev. Moon who made thousands of young people give up everything and follow him. What career opportunities and training did the followers of Jesus get? Could we say that they and St. Paul were high intensity? They were all killed for their witnessing. They were all seen as dangerous and killed. When the majority sees a small group as dangerous that small group will be attacked. Americans should know better but repeat the past and kill Joseph Smith and imprison Rev. Moon. What is normal about anyone or anything in the Bible and the Koran? Hassan thinks his sacred text, the Torah, is just fine, but the theology and history of the DP and Unificationists is "dangerous." Aren't there millions of people who think Jews are dangerous in this world? They hate them so much that they blow up buses of innocent people in Jerusalem. Is his fellow Jews squeaky clean and making no mistakes?

CHOSEN PEOPLE

Hassan defines a cult as a group who thinks they are God's gift to mankind -- a special group who are the chosen ones -- the favorites of God who will be the special group that the Messiah comes to. This is what the Jews have said for 2000 years. Hassan never mentions these things when he attacks minority religions. Christians and Jews have been waiting for the Messiah for thousands of years. The Christians feel he is coming again and Jews wait for the first one. Does Hassan believe in a messiah coming to save the Jews? Remember the scene in the movie Fiddler on the Roof where a Jew says that their being forced out of their homes now would be a good time for the Messiah to come? Wouldn't it be a good time for the Messiah to come now to the Jews in Israel as they are surrounded by enemies and may soon have nuclear weapons? It is obvious to me that we are living in the time of the Last Days. Does Hassan think he would see the Messiah so clearly if he came to save Israel or whole the world? Will he accept the messiah when he comes? What will he look like? I'm not an expert on what Jews and Christians feel about the coming of the Messiah, but it seems to me that there is little anticipation of the messiah coming among the Jews. In the book Idiots Guide to Catholicism there is no mention of the second coming of Christ. To find passion for the second coming you have to read Protestants like Billy Graham and Tim LaHaye. Graham says in his book Hope for the Troubled Heart, "We should live as Paul did, serving faithfully and anticipating Christ's return." Billy Graham thinks Christ will return on the clouds and only a few Christians will see him. What does Hassan think his messiah will look like. If he is a man, do you think he might be "high intensity?" Do you think he might be more passionate than Abraham and Moses? The Bible says Abraham had to suddenly leave his home. He lied to the Pharaoh and let his wife, Sarah, go to bed with the Pharaoh. The followers of Moses were constantly whining and rejecting his leadership even though he did miracles. Is Steve sure he is going to be a good follower? Abraham and Moses seem awfully authoritarian and "crazy for God" in the Bible.

It makes sense to me that the Messiah would bring a logical teaching and then marry every division who fight each other. Rev. Moon has matched and married thousands of couples who are black and white, Muslim and Jew, and catholic and Protestant. Nothing else will unite mankind into one family so we can have peace on earth.

Sun Myung Moon proclaimed in all 50 states in the early 70s on a public speaking tour that the coming of the Messiah and the teachings of the end of the world are the most important thing there is. Everyone is to prepare for that. He says, "When Jesus promised his Second Coming, he conveyed a feeling of great imminence. From the day Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, Christians have been watching for his return to earth. For the last 2,000 years of history, it has been the hope of every Christian to see the returning Christ. But this extraordinary event has never occurred. Many people tired of waiting. Some finally decided this Second Coming would not happen literally. They came to think, 'This is just one of God's methods to keep us alert.'"

"Tonight we must clarify the meaning of the end of the world as the Bible prophesies it. We must also know how the Lord will reappear when he comes in the fullness of time."

Her said, "... the vital issue of the Second Advent -- the most important question of our time. ... the time of the Second Coming of Christ is near."

Stephen Carter, in his recent book, The Dissent of the Governed" says, "Tolerance is not simply a willingness to listen to what others have to say. It is also a resistance to the quick use of state power — the exclusive prerogative of violent force, remember —t o force dissenters and the different to conform." The result of Hassan and company is the use of force such as used in Waco.

At his website, Hassan writes, "I am deeply interested in the faith-based initiative that your office is undertaking. One of your most serious challenges will be to distinguish authentic faith-based organizations from fraudulent and destructive ones. The task is serious because you and your colleagues will be called upon to account for the spending of taxpayers' money. Support of questionable groups could inspire enormous controversy. Already my local paper the Boston Globe has run several stories questioning the support of destructive groups such as Scientology and the Moonies. Even more serious, a decision to fund a destructive group could do enormous damage to those who seek the services of such organizations." Hassan is wrong in thinking the UC is fraudulent and destructive.

DISCERNING WHAT IS OF GOD

Hassan is confident he can detect cults with his formula, but it falls apart because the founders of religions would not have passed the test of Hassan. Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, that has around a billion followers, grew up in wealth as the son of a king. This pampered prince was married at 16 and had a child. At age 21 he walked out on his wife and child without saying anything and spent years following gurus who told him to live an ascetic life. He almost died in denying his body. Then he got a revelation that he was the great teacher of mankind and started getting followers. Eventually he went back to where he was born and begged for food door to door. His father and wife were in pain to hear this. This is often the pattern in religion -- leave your home and deny yourself. Parents and relatives and friends freak out. Hassan would have been at Buddha's side asking for thousands of dollars and they would figure out how Steve would talk to Buddha and show him how ridiculous his life was. Then Steve could spend his entire life getting Buddha's followers, especially those who became celibate monks and nuns, to get a life. To follow people who give up sex is obviously neurotic and I'm sure there were some who felt their time with Buddha was a waste of time and they should ask for reparations for the years lost and for some the loss of children from being celibate. Does anyone really believe Steve would discern that Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, John the Baptist, Paul, Muhammad and Buddha were not dangerous and evil? In the book Pontius Pilate, Ann Wroe writes that Israel at the time of Jesus was "filled up with mavericks, prophets and impostors." What would Steve have told Pontius Pilate about Jesus? Would he have told Pilate that Jesus would become the most important man in human history and his followers would create the greatest nation on earth 2000 years later? Remember how Jesus said he heard voices that said he was the only way to God? Want to put money on who Steve would have supported in the history of religious persecution?

Hassan is the tired old persecutor who pounds away at his Big Lie. The UC has the Big Idea, the Big Dream. It is a refreshing breeze of idealism and hope for a utopia that is realistically based on democracy, capitalism and freedom -- in other words, the Constitution of the United States. Hassan spreads lies that the UC is a Nazi organization even though there has not been any pattern of criminal behavior by Moon or his members. If there has been some reluctance of foreign members not abiding by immigration laws, well, who says every law is of God? I don't know what the handful of members from other countries do about immigration. I have not seen any large scale rebelling against them. Most of the foreign members I see are married to Americans. There has not only been no dangerous behavior by Unificationists for the 40 years they have existed in America. Hassan is the cheerleader of persecutors and whips up a frenzy about peaceful groups and the result is a modern day burning at the stake at Waco. Hassan probably sincerely feels he is a crusader for freedom. He gets a few people to agree with him and the yellow journalistic press adore him, but any thinking person will dismiss him as just another scared person in the mob yelling for Jesus to be crucified. We fear and become afraid of what is spiritually higher -- truer -- and different. Fallen man is afraid to stretch and think deeply. Love is patience and people like Hassan are not patient.

BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE

Eugene curtin write in an article in the UNews about the Boston Globe having an article positive to Hassan and negative to the UC. Hassan, he says, is "a man whose entire professional life revolves around denigrating religious faiths held dear by hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of fine, law-abiding Americans." There are, he says a "number of reputable non-church experts both religious and secular who think Hassan is a paranoid fraud." He goes on to write:

Peter Ross wrote the following about Hassan that appeared in the UC's newspaper the Unification News in February 1997:

Letter to Steve Hassan TO: Steve Hassan FROM: Peter D. Ross RE: Recent correspondence DATE: January 15, 1996 Beyond the audacity of your January 13 letter, please be assured that I have only imparted to John Koch the truth about who you are, the discredited junk science you pedal, and the illicit activities you have engaged in. Furthermore, I have sought to facilitate communication between John and those whom you have so egregiously abused for your own profit that the Globe might publish an objective account. If this is "unflattering" to you, I believe you should follow the dictates of your conscience, publicly apologize to the Unification Church, and engage in a more pleasing line of work. You must have anticipated that sooner or later your fifteen minutes of fame would reach an inevitable and natural conclusion when an informed public would exclaim that the emperor has no clothes! On a personal note, Steve, I believe that many years ago during a brief association with the Church you had a profound religious experience. Unfortunately, before you had time to fully comprehend it and take responsibility for it, it was ripped away from you. Through the abusive process of faith-breaking you were indeed victimized. In the interim, beyond the crass commercial use you have made of your apostasy, I believe you have not been able to fully heal from that tragic occurrence. It is obvious to me that while you never really joined the Unification Church you have not been able to just leave it behind. However, when you are ready to take responsibility in this regard, I am confident you will experience the forgiveness and compassion of those whom you have wronged.

 

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