Why are Dems Davis and Cummings Cozy with Moon?

[BurtWorm]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/06/21/moon/print.html

Hail to the Moon king

The deeply weird coronation of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in a Senate office building -- crown, robes, the works -- is no longer one of Washington's best-kept secrets.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By John Gorenfeld

...

On March 23, the Dirksen Senate Office Building was the scene of a coronation ceremony for Rev. Sun Myung Moon, owner of the conservative Washington Times newspaper and UPI wire service, who was given a bejeweled crown by Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill. Afterward, Moon told his bipartisan audience of Washington power players he would save everyone on Earth as he had saved the souls of Hitler and Stalin -- the murderous dictators had been born again through him, he said. In a vision, Moon said the reformed Hitler and Stalin vouched for him, calling him "none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent."

To many observers, this bizarre scene would have looked like the apocalypse as depicted in "Left Behind" novels. Moon, 84, the benefactor of conservative foundations like the American Family Coalition -- who served time in the 1980s for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice -- has views somewhere to the right of the Taliban's Mullah Omar. Moon preaches that gays are "dung-eating dogs," Jews brought on the Holocaust by betraying Jesus, and the U.S. Constitution should be scrapped in favor of a system he calls "Godism" -- with him in charge. The man crowned "King of Peace" by congressmen once said, according to sermons reprinted in his church's Unification News: "Suppose I were to hit you with the baseball bat to stop you, bloodying your ear and breaking a bone or two, yet still you insisted on doing more work for Father."

What, exactly, drew at least a dozen members of Congress to Moon's coronation? (By the Unification Church's estimate, 81 congressmen attended, although that number is probably high.) The event was the grand finale of Moon's coast-to-coast "tear down the cross" Moonification tour, intended to remove Christian crosses from almost 300 churches in poor neighborhoods -- the idea being that the cross was an obstacle to uniting religions under Moon. Yet the Dirksen ceremony was sold as a celebration of world peace. According to a cheery promotional video released by Moon's International and Interreligious Federation for World Peace, the ceremony marked the dawn of "the era of the Eternal Peace Kingdom, one global family under God." Moon's coronation also cured God's pain, the announcer explains.


...

Then, after Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., gave a speech declaring that Moon is "consistently standing up for peace," an unnamed Lubovitch rabbi took the stage declaring: "I have never seen this miracle where Jews, Christians and Muslims come together for peace!" Then Moon's cleric Chung Kwak took the mic. Before his days as the commander of the UPI wire service, Kwak, Moon said in a 1997 speech, was authorized to whomp on Unification Church members who slacked off. "Particularly those who are sleeping and hiding, Reverend Kwak's baseball bat will fall upon you at any time," Moon said. Now Kwak was standing in a Senate office building declaring Moon the king of the "second and third Israel." ...

[David__77]

1. People will disagree, but I say fine if Moonies break with right.

The Moons are clearly egomaniacal and I wouldn't work with them. But they are a religious group and I'm wary of bandying about the label "cult." There are elements of the Moon ideology that run counter to the neocons are I think it would be good if we saw Moon funding something other than the Washington Times or Insight Magazine, which they are closing by the way.

[BurtWorm]

2. But what is a Congressman doing crowning the Second Jesus

in a Senate office building? What happened to separation of church and state? It seems that $billions have collapsed the wall between them. If this event is not a sign of severe corruption, what is?

And did I read you correctly? The Moons are closing the Times AND Insight? Or just Insight?

[David__77]

5. I had read that Insight is being shut down but not the Times.

I think there is a growing cleavage between the Moonies and the rightists they are funding. Moon is less interested in the Cold War politics of yesteryear. He even has business ventures in N. Korea.

I do not support the Moons by any means. But I don't mind too much if a Democrat or two has some connections to them so long as they have a solid progressive voting record that is independent and not influenced by a Moonie agenda.

[BurtWorm]

7. The problem is Moon makes some bizarre demands on those he owns.

Like this coronation ceremony thing. How do you get that stink off of you once you've committed it?

[Cheswick2.0]

3. I do not understand this at all

WT hell has Moon done for peace?
I think these people are being paid by moon to do this for him. And I have no problem calling the moonies a cult.

[David__77]

6. Moonie "peace" groups have always been about promoting war.

Whether war against N. Korea or against the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Clearly, Moon is a reactionary. No one should trust anything that he or his disciples say.

[John_H]

4. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ n/t

[progressivebydesign]

8. Damn, I was just going to post the exact same thing! $$! N/T

[progressivebydesign]

9. Why don't the "journalists" cover this scary shit..

.. instead of focusing on Kerry's "rich man's vacation"???? If the Born agains and evangelicals got a whiff of Moon proclaiming to be the Messiah.. etc.. and how he is given free reign in Bush's White House, and how he's a cozy pal of the Bush family, they'd freak. There seems to be just a teensy little thing about that in the Bible, and the Commandments.