Those Who Cannot Remember -- 01b

GOOD RELIGION -- BAD RELIGION

Hassan lists the religions and groups he finds too bizarre and high intensity and guild ridden. I didn't see the mainline churches such as the Catholics and Lutherans on the list. It seems that it is safe for anyone to go to a Mosque or Synagogue or the Baptist Church. They are good religions, I guess. Bad religions that believe in Jesus are Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jehovah Witnesses and the UC. Other groups like the Hare Krishna's and Scientologists are portrayed as being cruel to children as well as adults just as Christian Scientists and Jehovah Witnesses kill children by keeping them from proper medical care. Hassan presents himself as a Santa Claus -- an "expert" who knows who is naughty and nice. He is the psychologist savior who can define what normal is. Fringe groups are the biggest threat to mankind. Arabs and Jews killing each other are not the focus of his crusade. Catholics and Protestants killing themselves are not mentioned in his website. He has no cure for these religious problems. Sexual abuse by priests and psychologists are not mentioned. Jesus in not explained. Past history is not explained. Anything good about his hated groups is not mentioned, even though he says they deceive people. Can you imagine Hassan sitting down with some lost soul who has joined Moon and showing him all the good literature about the UM? All he can do is paint a picture of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- a picture of America gone mad with millions of zealots wandering around like heartless vampires with no conscience like some Night of the Living Dead.

ANTI-CULTISTS ARE DANGEROUS

Anti-cultists cannot see that it is they who are dangerous and destructive to freedom. It is they who trash the First Amendment. Tom Brokaw of NBC news, Katie Couric of the Today Show, Barbara Walters of 20/20 and Oprah haven't got a clue to what religion means and finds Hassan type hysterical rantings as interesting news and are unaware they are doing sloppy reporting and just doing yellow journalism like Pulitzer and Hearst did at the turn of the century with their hyped and inaccurate headlines that whipped Americans into an emotional frenzy. Hassan is the true cult leader -- the real snake oil salesman -- the real Elmer Gantry. He is the deceiver and liar.

We live in what the Bible calls the Last Days. Hassan says nothing about Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell because they seem so normal, but it is they who have a more frightening message than Father. They say Steve and his psychologist friends are going to burn in a fiery hell forever. Father teaches that Steve will live in the same perfect heaven as everyone else will. Father is not for using the force of government to regulate religion. Hassan and his friends are the true quacks constantly pushing for police with guns enforcing laws that would ban Father from even living in America. Some countries, like England, Germany and Japan, have already made Hassan and company happy by banning him from entering their country. Hassan would be a more scary neighbor than a stereotyped Moonie. If you don't fit into Hassan's neat world of religion where no one aggressively witnesses then prepare for court and jail.

The title of this book says that the UC is bona-fide religion. There are plenty of distinguished non-members who have testified to this. Hassan will never mention that to his prey. Father has shown by the test of time that his movement is peaceful, even though his eldest son was a cruel monster as his wife vividly wrote in her book. The UC has had its rapes and perversions and insensitivity's and stupidities, but so has any group, but the UM has shown over time to be peaceful and moral group, not some Nazi SS troopers like anti-cultists portray them in their propaganda.

Hassan uses the idiotic phrase "coercive persuasion" to define Unificationist tactics, but no member has ever been charged with forcefully kidnapping anyone and putting them in a situation like the prisoners of war in Korea went through that Lifton writes of. Hassan has done deprogrammings and has never repented for this. No group is perfect. Life is messy and all new movements exist to shake things up. Eventually they settle down and God has to send someone to wake them up again. Politics and religion are controversial and emotional. Over thousands of years mankind has slowly been growing up. Still we have intellectual children like Hassan and company who just don't get it. They twist Jefferson's precious words to be their words. Someday they will be seen as being like those ignorant and scared bigots who threw stones and killed Stephen. History keeps repeating itself, but one day we will all get off the merry go round of Satan and live by divine law as taught by men like Jefferson and Sun Myung Moon.

HASSAN ARGUES THEOLOGY

Hassan tries to break the Divine Principle with his logic in his website. Does Mr. Hassan have a theology that is better than the DP? Is Judaism higher than Christianity? I don't think so. Jesus is the Messiah. The DP says Jesus is the Messiah. Steve doesn't believe this and he wants to argue theology! What has more logic -- orthodox Christian theology that Jesus is God or the DP that says Jesus was not. Is it so strange to say that Zachariah was Jesus' father? Is the DP so weird when it says that Christians are wrong in thinking they are going to heaven in a rapture while Steve and I burn together in some fiery hell forever as Jonathan Edwards in colonial America and Billy Graham of today preach. Talk about fear and how a person cannot leave a church. This is the ultimate con job. Leave this fundamentalist church and you will be tortured forever and God will forsake you forever.

On the parallels of history taught in the DP he says Allen Tate Wood, a former member, demolishes the numbers in his website. I wrote to Mr. Wood and told him to try to break the parallels in my Principle. He never wrote back. The numbers in the Parallels are perfect. The entire Principle is perfectly logical. For the first time the Bible is clear. Billy Graham's books, Jerry Falwell's books and the Book of Mormon do not explain the Bible. They are so wrong that it is as if they know nothing about God. This is not arrogance any more than Jesus telling a disciple to not go to a funeral of a relative because it is just the "dead burying the dead." To Hassan and his friends this is Jesus tearing up families with mind manipulation. Jesus said he came with a sword to divide families. Only in the Divine Principle do we learn what in the world he meant by this. There is no way that anyone who brings truth is going to have everyone understand it immediately. Jesus told the parable of how some seeds take hold and other blow away. Everyone sees Jesus and George Washington as great men today. Truth hurts and it takes time for it to be absorbed. Eventually the truth will rise and Hassan will just be another Judas, another Benedict Arnold. I just thank God that America has as much respect and tolerance for those who they see as the fringe. Hassan and his buddies have tried to finish Father off in court but they have been unable to crush the UM that will just keep growing and maturing. There were a lot of mistakes in this young religion. This does not make Moon a con man anymore than Jesus being deserted on the cross by everyone makes him a phony and loser.

WACO

The comparisons of the UM and other new religious movements with Jonestown and Waco is sloppy thinking. For one thing, Waco was not a suicide. Hassan and his incompetent friends keep saying that Koresh was a murderer and his followers were mind controlled. They were non-conformists, but they did not deserve the brutal treatment that they received. People like Hassan, Singer and Rick Ross were influential in creating a crazy environment around Waco. The voices of truth from such professors as Tabor were drowned out by the witch hunting hysteria of Hassan types who get lots of press. Hassan had no respect for Koresh and his followers as people who had a right to live their religious beliefs. They were portrayed as psychopaths. The result was an inquisition and punishment by fire. History repeated itself. Jefferson and Washington fought for tolerance and Hassan spits on it in the name of freedom. It is like the old Soviet Union using the word democratic in its name. Satan loves to corrupt and confuse words. People like Hassan have brainwashed America. Hassan does not mention the video Waco: Rules of Engagement that Siskel and Ebert say prove that those who were burned at the stake in Waco were not zombies in a cult, but a church. I don't like some of the things Koresh did, but they deserved to be left alone and not stalked by Hassan and company and then harassed and then punished. American ideals should be that of extreme patience with what we see as extremists. If we don't, then may repeat history and kill the second coming of Christ.

FALSE ACCUSATIONS

Hassan writes in his website that "This group is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate which seeks to establish a one world theocratic government run by Sun Myung Moon." Jesus said he was the king of kings. If Father is going to be the ruler of a one world government then he hasn't much time. He is in his 80s. Hassan is selective in what he says about Father. He omits little facts like the basic teachings of Moon say there will democracy. Let's look at logic thought for a moment. If Moon is the Messiah then doesn't it follow that every person will be saved by his universal truth. If the DP is the absolute truth revealed by God to Rev. Moon then every person will eventually accept it and there will be no need of passports because the world be untied. That is why he called his movement -- unification.

Hassan says, "The Moon organization has a long and documented history of controversy which includes systematic deception, separating new members from their families and friends, intensive mind control indoctrination and shady business and political dealings. Despite it wealth and power, it is interesting to note that burdensome members are sometimes discarded, penniless, after long years of dedication and service. These people were promised that they would be taken of for the rest of their life, but when illness or misfortune strikes them, they are often instructed to fend for themselves."

Controversy? Hassan's lame brained theory of mind control is denounced by many distinguished scholars. Hassan is controversial in his field of mental health and judges do not accept him in their court as an expert witness. Again, he does not say this in his website. He pushes for Unificationists to announce all the dirty laundry in their organization when they meet someone but Hassan says nothing about this in his website.

Systematic deception? There was a lot of that in the early days because of the yellow journalism of Time magazine. Members were afraid to say who they were. For decades now the UM has done very little proselytizing and has been spending most of its energy with other projects in which they always mention Moon's name. For example, Whitney Houston said she was deceived when she agreed to sing at a wedding ceremony at RFK stadium for one million dollars. The press reported that her contract clearly said Moon's name. The book, Inquisition, Carlton Sherwood shows that Hassan is wrong in his judgment that Unificationists are fundamentally deceptive and criminal.

Separating members from families? Jesus denounced his mother in the New Testament. He said his followers were his family and wouldn't see her when she showed up with Jesus' brothers to deprogram him. There are many members whose parents are fine about finding a new church. Those who are not have been brainwashed by the ignorance of people like Hassan who have no idea of what religion is. Religion has a long history of making people do things that seem outrageous and scary to the regular person who does not feel called by God to fervently pray, witness and band with their new friends. Does fasting sound like a rational and reasonable thing to do? Under Hassan's formula fasting would be "dangerous" because it is too high intensity -- too cruel. Or maybe he feels fasting is ok. Steve doesn't really get into any details about what is proper and not. It's all vague with Steve. Father stopped the commune life many years ago and even told the members to go to their hometown and serve their families. Does Hassan mention this little fact? No.

Intensive mind control indoctrination? Oh yeah? Steve's opponents in the academic community argue that this makes no sense because so few have joined in the last 40 years. If Moon and his followers like me are such geniuses at hypnosis then why is it there are so few members -- about a thousand or so after 40 long years. The truth is that Unificationists are terrible at getting people to join and when they do, most leave.

CONVERSION

Hassan seems to not believe in religious conversion. I feel I was converted to a faith like countless millions of people have done and not had my mind controlled like some victim in a science fiction movie.

Promised that they would be taken of for the rest of their life? This is not accurate. There may be a tiny few exceptions that I have not heard of but it is very clear in UC doctrine that no one is guaranteed a pension. It has never been set up that anyone is taken care of like nuns are in the Catholic church. Steve is lying again.

Hassan paints a picture of Unificationists as having not even one ounce of character or intelligence or morality. He says, "Basically, like many mind control cults, the 'ends justify the means'. In other words, whatever will help Moon and the organization to achieve its goals is moral." This is true of Communists that Father has been fighting, but this is yellow journalism -- biased and inaccurate reporting. This tone of character assassination by Hassan does not stand up in the bright light of truth. There are many people who have spent time with the UM and give the very opposite testimony. Hassan writes in a tabloid sensational manner.

He says, "It has a wide variety of front groups: religious fronts; political fronts; media fronts; social and cultural fronts; recruiting fronts; Educational fronts; and business fronts." Hassan misuses words. The Washington Times is not a front, for example. It is legally a newspaper and run by non-members. Other organizations deal with many aspects of life. It is ridiculous that his ballet company should have Moon's name or church. What does Hassan want for a name of his ballet company for instance. Moon's Ballet Company? Get real, Steve.

He says, "The Moonies will learn as much as possible about you and your background and use that information to manipulate and gain control. Usually, in the beginning of a recruitment, they flatter and praise effusively. They give and give and give to you. So much so that you naturally start feeling indebted to them and want to reciprocate. They often use money and promises of power to entice and seduce people in a step by step fashion into their clutches." Hassan has no class and loves to say the word "Moonies." At the beginning Father and the members even used the term, but it became apparent that it had the connotation of "nigger" so they announced that no one should call them that. It is disrespectful. Most people have gone along with the UM's request and will not use this bigoted word. Hassan is so far gone in his hate that he can't stop.

As for the charge of love-bombing, the truth is that members genuinely care for God and Jesus' command that we witness. They are not phony, but genuine missionaries who love the truth that they know will bring happiness to others. The truth hurts but it is what people must hear if they are to find complete happiness. Unificationists are no different in their motivation and heart than countless other missionaries have been in human history. There are no meetings behind closed doors about how to "seduce" anyone "into their "clutches" anymore than Billy Graham tries to "seduce" people so he can have more power and money.