An Encyclopedia says that the church received help from many mainline churches when Rev. Moon was sent to jail: "many Americans regarded the movement with suspicion and referred to Unificationists derisively as 'Moonie.' Nevertheless, Moon's conviction of tax evasion by a U.S. court in 1982 and his subsequent imprisonment triggered protests by a broad coalition of religious groups, including the National Council of Churches, which viewed his prosecution as harassment."

Dedicated missionaries

The book Missionaries, is based on the six-part BBC television series. It says, "For almost two thousand years missionaries have pursued the Great Commission to take the 'Good News' to the ends of the earth. In the battle to extend Christendom, God's foot soldiers have displayed some of the most admirable, and some of the least attractive, human characteristics: selfless dedication and altruistic devotion but also extreme racial and cultural arrogance. To some, missionaries represent the ideal human endeavor; to others they are blinkered zealots who wreak irreparable cultural damage."

Victorians called it the "Great Commission." We are to do as Jesus dictated: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations ..." Matthew 28:19.

Missionaries have "had a profound influence on the course of history. Christianity is the only religion can be described as universal. Until the nineteenth century it was largely a Western belief but it is predicted that by the year 2000 Asia, Africa and Latin America will have substantially more Christians than the rest of the world put together; and although there are many countries, notably in the Muslim world, that are totally closed to missions, it is still claimed that every country in the world has a Christian witness of one kind or another. This has been the achievement of Christian missionaries. They have transformed an obscure, persecuted Jewish sect into a world Religion with believers in every nation."

"There are a growing number of missionary faiths. Many of the most active and aggressive are ... Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, the Unification Church."  These are the three main "cults" Christian bookstores warn mainline Christians about. 

Thomas Aquinas

One book writes, "While the Dominicans were delighted that Thomas decided to be one of them, they did not know quite what to do with him. (Some years before in 1235, they had considerable trouble with another novice who came from a noble family of the vicinity. This man’s family broke into the cloister by night and took the novice away.) Normally Thomas would have spent his novitiate years at San Domenico praying , reading, and listening to the lector in theology. But that course was out of the question for an offspring of the powerful Aquino family." So they decided to send him far away from his family in Italy to a house they had in Paris. 

His mother was furious and ashamed of him joining a new cult so she sent his brothers to use violence if necessary to kidnap him. She got the military leader who was a friend of the family there to give the brothers some soldiers to go along and help. When they found Thomas walking on a road with other friars, the military guard tried to talk him out of removing the Dominican habit he was wearing, "when persuasion failed, the soldiers tried to take it off by force." But he argued with them and they finally gave up talking to him and set him on a horse and forced him to one of the family’s castles. The first night, the brothers sent in a beautiful prostitute into his cell to seduce him and break his will. He angrily "picked up a burning stick from the fire and drove the girl from his room." His mother, Theodora, ordered that he be brought to her and she tried to talk him out of being with the new order and join the old, established Benedictines so he could have power and bring influence to his family as well and be respected in their country. 

The Dominican Order protested the abduction and asked the Pope to interfere and punish those responsible for it but their efforts came to nothing. For one year "the Aquino family did everything to persuade him to go along with family plans. Nothing could persuade him to abandon his Dominican vocation or to change his mind about " theology. "One sister, Marotta, tried to argue with Thomas and convince him [he was 19 years old] to obey his mother [his father was dead] After numerous discussions Thomas convinced her to give up the world and become a nun." After a year the family was exhausted from trying to break his faith and let him go. He went on to become the most famous philosopher of the Middle Ages and the Roman Catholic Church has made him a saint and his book Summa Theologica is the cornerstone of the Catholic Church’s theology. 

Kidnaping and forced deprogramming is against god

St. Francis grew up as the richest boy in his town. His father was a successful cloth merchant. He had many friends who all wore fancy clothes and partied constantly – feasting and drinking. He began to have dreams and visions of God and Christ calling him. His father was furious at him for rejecting his parent’s lifestyle and used force to lock him in a cellar. His mother later freed him. Francis became an acetic beggar for Christ. His father was ashamed to see his son beg from door-to-door and father and son were separated for life.

Twelve men followed Francis. Also a wealthy girl, eighteen years old, Clara, left home and joined him and formed a group of women who built a convent and lived a life of poverty and chastity. By the end of his life he had thousands of followers.
 

Galileo

Galileo was tried in Rome by the Church and forced to recant his beliefs. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.  He was smart in recanting his beliefs to these government deprogrammers and then continue to write as best he could.  We have to choose our battles and arguing with idiot deprogrammers is a waste of time.  Tell them what they want to hear and then hope these thought police will leave you alone.  Then decide how best to proclaim the truth and not get attacked by them again.

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