Those Who Cannot Remember -- 002

Hassan is the latest in a long line of persecutors. He is a reincarnation -- the return -- of ignorant finger pointers. He is the McCarthy of religion. Senator Joseph McCarthy went on a witch-hunt in the early 1950s. He scared Americans into thinking that there were many traitors in the State Department. In 1950 the Korean War was going badly and Communists around the world were aggressive and scaring Americans. McCarthy gave a speech in 1950

saying that he had a list of 205 communists in the State Department. Some people attending his speech had tears in their eyes. For several years McCarthy attacked and finally he was exposed as a fraud. Hassan is just like McCarthy with his list of hundreds of evil and dangerous religious leaders and groups who he says in front of every camera he can get in front of that are a threat to freedom that Americans hold so dearly.

Hassan's List

Hassan is the darling of the media now but the day will come, just as it did with McCarthy when his stack of cards will come down and he will be exposed a snake oil salesman -- a fraud and charlatan - the very things he accuses others of being. He is a pathetic descendent of people like those at the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. He is the same as the governor of Puritan Boston, John Winthrop kicking out Anne Hutchinson from Boston because she was a non-conformist. He is the same as all those who incited the mob to kill Jesus in Israel and Joseph Smith in Illinois. Hassan's list is as real as McCarthy's. Hassan has a tiny few psychologists in his camp, but he is outnumbered by the long list of distinguished leaders in every area of society that speak out for Rev. Moon -- even Senator Bob Dole who in the 70s held a hearing about cults. Hassan maligns their character by saying that people like President Bush, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Senator Orrin Hatch, and Rev. Jerry Falwell befriend Moon because they wanted money. Even after Moon is 80 years old Hassan still hyperventilates over his delusion that Moon is a crafty Hitler and his followers are vicious SS troopers lusting to create a totalitarian nightmare where no one will be free. At the 15th Anniversary of the Washington Times Senator Orrin Hatch was the keynote speaker. When Rev. Moon was giving his speech, he turned to Moon's daughter, In Jin Nim, and said, "Your father is a great man." Is Steve not being deceitful when he leaves things like this out of his website and books? I think so. Steve would say the Washington Times is a front organization. Is it? What is it supposed to be called -- Moon Times? If you will allow some sarcasm, Hassan comes up with the brilliant idea that men like Alexander Haig and the Prime Minister of England, Edward Heath, have been a friend of Rev. Moon for decades because they have been bought off and are stupid for not seeing that Moon is a Hitler. The only possible conclusion a rational person can have in observing the hysteria of witch hunters is to say to them -- "Get a life."

Tim LaHaye is a famous Christian writer. He correctly writes in his book Mind Siege: The Battle for Truth in the New Millennium that the danger of mind control -- of persuasion in America is from the Left -- who he calls in his book the Secular Humanists. The media and schools are controlled by these people who teach against God's absolute laws. If anyone has brainwashed America it is the National Education Association. This union has ruined the minds of millions of children, many who have grown up and are now hateful toward God's laws. Hassan is wrong when he says the Washington Times is just a tricky way for Moon to butter up powerful people who will give him respectability while he prepares to take over America and create a theocracy that will ban the freedoms in the Bill of Rights. God is on the side of the conservatives in this cultural war we are in. In the book The Cultural War Since 1848 by John Godwin (read entire text at www.DivinePrinciple.com) it explains how the most respected social critic on the cultural divide in America is Professor James Hunter's book. He mentions the Rev. Moon and his teaching, the Divine Principle, as part of the Right that is battling the Left. It is God versus Satan. Satan is behind the Washington Post. Rev. Moon is fighting from many angles. Politically he is conservative.

The following comments about LaHaye's book at Amazon.com is typical of how limited the Left is in understanding where conservatives are coming from. A friend of Hassan is Frederick Clarkson who writes in his book Eternal Hostility that Moon is part of the vast right wing conspiracy. He sounds like the following reviews at Amazon for LaHaye:

According to Tim LaHaye, there is a huge conspiracy afoot to destroy Christianity. Who is behind this conspiracy? The evil secular humanists, of course, who LaHaye sees behind every bush and around every corner. Why, they're probably reading over your shoulder right now. Boo!

LaHaye's paranoid ravings fill this book. One thing that DOESN'T fill it is actually factual information. For example, he decries evolution as being a failed theory, but doesn't provide anything to back up his claims. I suppose his intended audience won't be asking for proof anyway, but some of us actually find such things useful. The same is true of pretty much all his claims. He expects the reader to believe him and charge on Washington to prevent the evil secular humanists from taking over....

Shrill Polemic -- Tim LaHaye goes once more unto the breach with his hysterical conspiracy theory - Good Christian America is under attack from the Satanic forces of secular humanism. Of course, LaHaye's definition of "Secular Humanism" encompasses anything, literally anything, that irks the author, be it atheism, psychology, blacks, feminists, postmodernism, or anything else that fails to conform to his own brand of shrieking, evangelical Christianity.

The truth is that the Right is not to be feared. Clarkson fears that if conservatives like LaHaye and Moon get into power they will abuse it. If they have absolute power they will abuse it absolutely. Clarkson and Hassan really see the Right as dangerous Hitler wannabes. A reviewer at Amazon explains that Christians are not to be feared. They hate the sin, but do not hate the sinner. We read:

This book [LaHaye's] is Not about hurting groups such as homosexuals. This book is Not about bombing abortion clinics. This book is Not about forcing people to become Christian. Such things were Never taught in the Bible, though sadly some people have made their own doctrines of evil under the title of Christianity -- and even worse, the liberal media has clumped truth loving Christians with violent monglers and false prophets.

Public debate in America often gets very heated. In the 2000 election there was the usual fears from the Democrats and Republicans that each was ruining the country and hurting people. But nowhere did either side denounce the other with such absolute hatred as Hassan does Moon and his followers. Hassan calls Moon "evil." Words are important. Evil can be applied to Mafia Godfathers and terrorists. Hassan has a chilling effect on freedom of religion in America. He and his friends who get on TV and denounce Moon and other small religious groups instill fear in people that result in an atmosphere of panic. The result is the burning of children in Waco. Hassan tries his best to distance himself from any blame for this but he is the one who has brainwashed Americans to fear non-conformist groups with his constant media barrage. He is the big brother on the TV inciting intolerance. He is the one who is un-American. He is one Jefferson fought against. Hassan is not a freedom fighter as he says he is; he is the very opposite.

I want to make it crystal clear from the very beginning that neither Rev. Moon nor I or any of his followers have any desire to create a Nazi state of terror where there is no freedom. The UC has always been conservative. We are for limited government, not big government. I agree with Murray Rothbard's statement about freedom in his book Conceived in Liberty:

My own basic perspective on the history of man, and a fortiori on the history of the United States, is to place central importance on the great conflict which is eternally waged between Liberty and Power, a conflict, by the way, which was seen with crystal clarity by the American revolutionaries of the eighteenth century. I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself (or, with Lord Acton, as the highest political good), but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that mankind cherishes: moral virtue, civilization, the arts and sciences, economic prosperity. Out of liberty, then, stem the glories of civilized life. But liberty has always been threatened by the encroachments of power, power which seeks to suppress, control, cripple, tax, and exploit the fruits of liberty and production. Power, then, the enemy of liberty, is consequently the enemy of all the other goods and fruits of civilization that mankind holds dear. And power is almost always centered in and focused on that central repository of power and violence: the state. With Albert Jay Nock, the twentieth-century American political philosopher, I see history as centrally a race and conflict between "social power"-- the productive consequence of voluntary interactions among men -- and state power. In those eras of history when liberty -- social power has managed to race ahead of state power and control, the country and even mankind have flourished. In those eras when state power has managed to catch up with or surpass social power, mankind suffers and declines.

For decades, American historians have quarreled about "conflict" or "consensus" as the guiding leitmotif of the American past. Clearly, I belong in the "conflict" rather than the "consensus" camp, with the proviso that I see the central conflict as not between classes (social or economic), or between ideologies, but between Power and Liberty, State and Society. The social or ideological conflicts have been ancillary to the central one, which concerns: Who will control the state, and what power will the state exercise over the citizenry? To take a common example from American history, there are in my view no inherent conflicts between merchants and farmers in the free market. On the contrary, in the market, the sphere of liberty, the interests of merchants and farmers are harmonious, with each buying and selling the products of the other. Conflicts arise only through the attempts of various groups of merchants or farmers to seize control over the machinery of government and to use it to privilege themselves at the expense of the others. It is only through and by state action that "class" conflicts can ever arise.

Hassan says at his website that it doesn't matter what belief system a group has, it just matters what they do. This is wrong. It is essential that we study what a group or person says. The venom of Mein Kampf for Jews is the same as Hassan's for Moon. Rev. Moon and the UC do not get on TV and denounce religious groups. The UC is like a big Boy Scout organization. The Left hates the Boy Scouts because they see them as mean spirited. The truth is that the Boy Scouts is a wholesome organization as well as the UC. There have been human errors in the Scouts and some have died and others molested. The same can be said for every good organization -- including America itself. We have to have perspective. Hassan is like the Liberals who sees evil where there is really good. And the mistakes he sees are turned from molehills into mountains. The Boy Scout Handbook says that they believe in traditional morality and they also believe in being tolerant of others. I have sons that are Eagle scouts and they have been taught, as all Unificationist parents teach, to be tolerant of other religions. Rev. Moon is constantly bringing together faiths and encouraging them to love each other. Hassan takes a few quotes out of context and misses the mountains of words and deeds that show the UC to be a movement of good. Hassan's words are one of intolerance. You will find the Mormons attacked at his website. He has gone over to the dark side and can't see he is out of touch with reality.

BO HI PAK

An elder Korean leader in the UC and translator for Rev. Moon, Dr. Bo Hi Pak, wrote the following taken from several speeches. The flavor of his words show that Americans and the world have no reason to fear the UC and in fact should and will someday see it as a force for freedom:

I want you to know that the spirit Father kept in Danbury was proclaimed in the United States Congress. When Senator Orrin Hatch invited Father to the United States Senate on June 26, 1984, to give his testimony, Father said:

"I am honored to dedicate myself today to the preservation of religious freedom in this country. If I can raise up a beacon warning Americans of the danger which lies ahead, then my sacrifice will serve a great purpose. The issue today is the very survival of America and the free world. To assure this survival, I'm willing to suffer any indignity, to go any distance, to do any labor, and to bear any cross. I'm even willing to give my life if that will insure that the nation and world survive and do God's will .... I have no hostility toward the United States government. Instead, I pray for this country. I thank God that He is using me as His instrument to lead the fight for religious freedom and ignite the spiritual awakening of America in this most crucial hour of human history."

Yes, a miracle came in Danbury. Public opinion changed. The attitude of established Christianity now has been changed. When Father's court case was brought to the attention of the Supreme Court, 40 prominent organizations and individuals petitioned on behalf of Father. These individuals and groups represent over 160 million American people. Thus, in this sense, through Father's court case, Father won 160 million American people to his side.

... the truth is coming out. That truth is this: The Unification Church and Reverend Moon have been probably the worst victim of character assassination, and that same enemy today, Dr. Falwell testified, is trying to destroy the Moral Majority to the degree that they have to change their name into Liberty Federation; trying to malign Dr. Falwell as a racist, Ku Klux Klan, Farrakhan, John Birch Society, and so forth. He came to the realization that the common enemy which is trying to destroy Reverend Moon, the Unification Church, is now trying to destroy him. That is not all: trying to destroy America.

Dr. Falwell feels that we have got to have a common defense in order to survive and ensure, as Congressman Siljander so beautifully stated last night, to bequeath God-loving, freedom-loving America to our children, our grandchildren.

Our Unification Church has been constantly condemned for brainwashing young people. If that is the case, I am the product of that brainwashing. Tom Ward is a product of that brainwashing. Bill Lay is the product. Antonio Betancourt is the product. No, you are eyewitnesses to a group of probably the finest young men and women America can produce, those who have become members of our church. They are taught honor, dedication, service, selflessness, and commitment.

I would like to say one thing about Reverend Moon. Reverend Moon came to America not for his own selfish purpose or goal. I would like to read his own words. This was spoken on June 26, 1984, at the Senate Constitution Committee, headed by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch. He said:

"In 1971 God called me to come to America and lead a movement to revive the fervor of Christianity and restore the founding spirit of the nation. He has sent me to bring about a dramatic spiritual awakening. The survival of the entire world depends on America fulfilling her responsibility. America is the last bastion of freedom. For the last 12 years I have given my heart and soul and every drop of sweat and tears for the sake of this nation."

America Is the Final Bastion of Freedom

It is his belief and my belief and that of many members of our movement that America is the final option, the final bastion of freedom. As America goes, everything goes. Even without America going, if America just does not demonstrate determination to stand up for the freedom of the world, then the rest of the world will go. America may last a little longer, but America will eventually go. For that reason we want to defend America. But as we know already through today's presentation, the confrontation today is against this insidious communism, the confrontation of ideology. The war of ideas, war of commitment. So we really want to engender a God-centered commitment, patriotism, love for freedom. That was the basic thrust of our movement and the teaching of Reverend Moon. No wonder that international communism looks at us, and especially at Reverend Moon, as the archenemies of communism.

Those days of communes and MFT's are gone now, thank God, but the legacy still haunts the UC and it will take many years before this image of crazed robots living a brutal ascetic life will go away. These authors feel they were hurt in the UC and those who come in contact with it are hurt. I think they exaggerate the numbers who are hurt. In fact, I believe that most people who visit and even join the UC are better off because of it. Some may feel they are psychologically damaged because Hassan and others have told them are victims. How many black people, for example, feel victimized because leaders like Jesse Jackson keep pounding away that blacks are victims and need special treatment. They keep saying black people have been tortured and now white people should give them special favors. The truth is the opposite of what rabble rousers like Jackson says on TV. The truth is the opposite of what Hassan, Kemperman and Edwards write. They are right in saying there was high intensity, but the falsehoods they write are so great that their books cannot be seen as having any truth.

No matter how much they worked for no pay for the few months or few years they were in, nothing that members have gone through in the history of the UC can even begin to compare with the intensity and sacrifice that hundreds of thousands of religious monks and nuns from Buddhists to Catholics go through today and have lived for thousands of years. No one in the UC has taken a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience. I was like Hassan and the other authors of what they think are exposes. I fundraised for years and was treated like a child. But the end result of my life and the vast majority who stayed for life has been having a marriage and family -- something the Dali Lama does not have. The Pope lives in splendor but he has no children. He wears strange clothes. I don't. There are horror stories of abuse of young people in the Catholic Church. Catholics are even killing Protestants in Ireland.

The vicious attack on Rev. Moon by Edwards, Kemperman and Hassan show them to be ignorant of religious history and history in general. They are no different than those who mocked and killed Jesus. The three major monotheistic religions are Judaism, Islam and Christianity. All three have founders that started out small and experienced persecution from people who sound no different than Hassan and company. Hassan was on Bill O'Reilly's cable show in 2001 and gave his usual fear mongering about how the UC was "dangerous." O'Reilly didn't buy Hassan's arguments. O'Reilly said he was a Roman Catholic and there is a long history of wrong doing but that doesn't mean it is overall bad. Every organization from the Catholic Church to the family to America has its horror stories, but that doesn't mean the family and America is "dangerous."