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Sun Myung Moon Crowned Messiah By Senators.

 
 
grant
15:01 / 24.06.04

Just when you think America can't get any weirder, it does.

The news was broken by a blog dedicated to tracking Moon's movements in DC, which happened to come across a video of the ceremony, which is available at that link in several formats.

There are also stills of the ceremony, which just baffles me.

Note: Moon owns the Washington Times, and is a big time DC insider. He has previously courted the religious right with his strong line on homosexuality and sexual purity. He is currently making inroads in African-American churches, and is spearheading a drive to take crosses out of the churches and have them replaced with crowns.

Ostensibly to glorify Christ as King, but bearing a close similarity to the one put on his head.

In the Senate offices.

By a Senator.

Church and State, anyone?
 
 
flufeemunk effluvia
17:27 / 24.06.04
It's rather ironic, especially where im posting from.

I'm at a debate camp in Lynchburg, Virginia. I'm in Jerry Fallwell's college. Fallwell is actually a huge supporter of Moon.

After watching that movie, I am officially moving to Canada. I cannot tolerate living under a theocracy.
 
 
Lord Morgue
10:36 / 25.06.04
Oh for fuck's sake.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
10:57 / 25.06.04
Don't you dare move to Canada, you lilly-livered sod. Take back your country.
 
 
pointless and uncalled for
11:47 / 25.06.04
Isn't that like asking someone to take back an undigested nugget of corn from the bowl and put it on tonights pizza?
 
 
Ria
15:58 / 25.06.04
a 'lither who goes to a college run by Jerry Falwell?!
 
 
Jack_Rackem
17:47 / 25.06.04
My own Senator, Mark David was at the event.
The Video's considerably hilarious the way they credit the fall of communism to Moon. (You mean funding the Contras?)
 
 
alas
19:31 / 25.06.04
clarification: a 'lither who goes to a college run by Jerry Falwell?

Ze said ze was at a debate camp, which is a short term program during the summer which happens to be taking place at a college run by JF; i.e., they rented the buildings for a few weeks....

Back to this issue, however: it's strange to me, because when I was a kid being raised by evangelicals "the Moonies" as the were derogatorily known, were seen as a dangerous cult--up there with Transcendental Meditation and the backward masking on "Stairway to Heaven" on the list of Things Good Christian Children Avoid. We were told never to look in a Moonie's eyes because they could hypnotize the unsuspecting.

Was it pure love of lucre that won JF and his ilk over? Or?
 
 
grant
21:18 / 25.06.04
Click the linky about "sexual purity."

Moon has many churches, and is a loud voice condemning sexual immorality. Making Moon and Falwell allies. The Washington influence probably doesn't hurt, either.
 
 
Ria
15:53 / 26.06.04
y'see I had never heard of a debate camp before so I got confuseded.
 
 
flufeemunk effluvia
21:24 / 26.06.04
I *just* got back from it, actually. I'm in High School debate, and i just wanted to... you know... get better. As much as I hate Fallwell, its the only game in town (under $500).

Seriously though, that Moon guy is too crazy for words. He talks about smelling his poop in a serious manner and gets paid for it.
 
 
flufeemunk effluvia
21:33 / 26.06.04
Sorry about double posting, but... on Moon and Fallwell: Definitely a link. Rather than post all of the links up here, ill just send you to the search because i am a bastard.

From the Rotten Library article on Jerry Falwell:

Although ostensibly motivated by hatred for the Democrats, The Clinton Chronicles had been primarily a moneymaking effort. Like any televangelist, money was always an issue for Falwell. His empire required continuous infusions of cash.

In 1994 Falwell quietly accepted $3.5 million from Korean cult messiah Sun Myung Moon as part of a larger deal to bail Liberty University out from under its horrendous debt load. Perhaps Jerry was moved by this staggering generosity. That might be the reason why Falwell publicly urged his friend President Reagan to pardon Moon's tax evasion conviction.

Jerry was widely criticized in the Christian community for lending legitimacy to Moon's organization. Moon had always claimed that he was Jesus Christ's successor and moral superior. It was inconceivable that a fundamentalist Christian like Falwell would regard Moon as anything other than a blasphemer. But, as always, whenever confronted with a choice between money, connections, or the appearance of propriety, propriety came last.


Heehee.
 
 
grant
15:38 / 28.06.04
Despite its cheesy design, this page is a trove of great links from a wide variety of sources about Moon and his growing influence.
 
 
grant
15:09 / 29.06.04
In the interests of accuracy, I should say that Danny Davis isn't actually a senator. I just realized. He's a representative, from Illinois. Still, there were senators in the crowd, apparently. And someone read a statement from Speaker of the House Hastert during the banquet.
 
 
alas
20:14 / 29.06.04
EeeK!

Wow--this is so much scarier than when evangelicals and fundamentalists looked at Moon as close to the Antichrist, or at least some kind of minion. Who knew? I guess I've been out of those circles a good long time, but still, not long enough. It does show pretty clearly how little the leaders are about the spirituality they confess and are almost completely about the power they seek.

On the topic of crazy cultish groups with power in D.C., have any of you--grant, esp.--heard of this group called "The Family"? It's described in an article by Jeffrey Sharlet in the March 2003 Harper's Magazine?

Lots of senators and reps involved, as well as presidents, and, according to Sharlet, '"[In their DC headquarters, Ivanwald] they forge “relationships” beyond the din of vox populi (the Family's leaders consider democracy a manifestation of ungodly pride) and “throw away religion” in favor of the truths of the Family. Declaring God's covenant with the Jews broken, the group's core members call themselves “the new chosen.”'

Just curious.
 
 
grant
15:01 / 30.06.04
News to me.

What the hell is going on?
 
 
+#'s, - names
15:39 / 30.06.04
Im trying to figure out what Chuck Mangione was doing there.
 
 
Planet B
19:48 / 30.06.04
I'm not saying this isn't true (because it is) but many of the US congresspersons at this event said they were duped, that they didn't realize that the event was a coronation for Moon. That said, they knew he would be there and receiving an award along with all the other peace awards given out. Why they would want to be associated with him at all is f-ed up, though it could be just a function of him owning the Washington Times (and wanting some good play at some later date).
 
 
alas
00:08 / 02.07.04
News to me.

What the hell is going on?


grant--you don't know how scary it is to me that you, my guru to all that is odd and worthy of Sun-sploitation, don't know about everything like this. We are in deeper trouble than I thought, clearly. Let's all just go into our 1950s suburban bomb shelters and cry and hug, ok?

I don't know what's going on, obviously, but my sister, who is a fundamentalist Christian homeschooling her 7 bundles of joy, seems to believe that gay people are causing all the problems. She just sent me a letter all about that today. So, she seems to know what's going on. Maybe I should ask her about the Moonies. Her literature (I almost wrote "litterature" which would have been a bit of a Freudian slip in her case) seems in love with James Dobson, of Focus on the Family fame. I wonder how those Christians see Moon and his ilk? Surely they're not all won over? I may see her this weekend; I'll have to ask.

If you do ever find out more about this shady Family group, I'd like to know more--kinda. But "head in sand" is awfully tempting. The letters to Harper's in response to that article weren't as vehement or weird as I thought they'd be, if I recall correctly--but I 'd need to find the May (?) 2003 issue to be sure.
 
 
---
07:50 / 25.07.04
This is mad. So has there been any more stories on this then?

Surely this guy doesn't just get crowned Messiah and then nothing else is said or written about it.

What the fuck is going on with this? If a mad story like this just dies then isn't it proof that we're fucked?

This guy's apparently the Messiah? What his plan then and when does it start? You can bet something's gonna happen here.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
17:14 / 25.07.04
Take back your country

Yes well perhaps you could start a class for those of us who don't understand what the standard proceedure is when taking back a country?
 
 
Lord Morgue
07:01 / 26.07.04
In Australia we have a cult called "The Family". Used to call themselves the "Flirty Fishers" and were notorious for using their own kids as child prostitutes to drum up membership. The Feds pretty much bungled the raid, and their case, and wasted years of their own work, and the cult is still around, albeit keeping a lower profile.
Different bunch, I think, but "The Family" is a pretty generic name.
 
 
bjacques
13:15 / 27.07.04
Cool! I'm going there in September. How far will they go to rope in believers? Cosplay? Furries? Dress up as Wonder Woman, tie someone up with her Magic Lasso and force them to tell the truth?
 
  
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