Quote:
Originally Posted by OpieCunningham
The Washington Times is indeed a crazy paper. Literally.
The owner is the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. He believes himself to be the Messiah. Sold 12 nuclear missle-capable submarines to North Korea, calls America "Satan's Harvest" and was recently (March, 2004) "corronated" by members of the U.S. Congress in a ceremony held in a Senate office building.
He has also paid for a few speaking engagements by George H.W. Bush. Who has called and saluted Moon as a "man with a vision".
My favorite Moon quote:
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Is this the same Rev. Moon that ran the mother of all cults and took massive donations from his "religious converts" more aptly known as "Moonies" in the late 60's and 70's.
The same one that the federal government under Nixon tried to prosecute and deport for extortion, plotting terroristic activities, kidnapping and a grocery list of other crimes, until he befriended Nixon during Watergate?
The same one Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell claimed were evil?
"In the early stages of the Reagan Revolution that embraced the Washington Times and Moon's anti-Communist movement, it was embarrassing to be caught at a Moon event. Until George H.W. Bush appeared with Moon in 1996, thanking him for a newspaper that "brings sanity to Washington," famous guests often spoke at front groups that concealed ties to the Unification Church. Bill Cosby was horrified to discover he'd agreed to speak at one. The reputation of future "Left Behind" author Tim LaHaye suffered after his wife accidentally gave Mother Jones a recording of him dictating a fond letter to Moon's lieutenant Bo Hi Pak, plotting to replace Vice-President Bush with Jerry Falwell on the 1988 ticket. To many Christians, Moon was offensive, preaching that Jesus failed and that he would clean up the mess."
The same Rev. Moon that on Easter of 2003 started a series called,
"coast to coast series of "tear down the cross/Who is Rev. Moon?" events, targeting pastors in poor neighborhoods. From the Bronx to L.A., Moon's people were convincing pastors to pull the crosses off their walls and replace them with his Family Federation flag. An old hymn was invoked: "I'll trade the old cross for a crown.""
(LINK to above quotes:
http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=131)
The same Rev. Moon that in the 90's gave N. Korean leaders money?
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's business empire, which includes the conservative Washington Times, paid millions of dollars to North Korea's communist leaders in the early 1990s when the hard-line government needed foreign currency to finance its weapons programs, according to U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents.
The payments included a $3 million “birthday present” to current communist leader Kim Jong Il and offshore payments amounting to “several tens of million dollars” to the previous communist dictator, Kim Il Sung, the partially declassified documents said.
(Link:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/101100a.html)
Other links to research this man Bush is hailing as a "great American" "a visionary" that shows what kind of person Bush believes is a "great American".
Wonder how his Christian followers would vote if they knew the truth about whom Bush is praising?
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen01142003.html
http://www.perkel.com/politics/moonies/bush.htm
http://www.gorenfeld.net/blog/2004/0...-kim-jong.html
The same Rev Moon Congres earlier had a coronation for and he declared himself "THE MESSIAH"

LINK:
http://www.iht.com/articles/526375.html)
WASHINGTON As a shining symbol of democracy, the United States capital is not ordinarily a place where coronations occur. So news that the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the eccentric and exceedingly wealthy Korean-born businessman, donned a crown in a Senate office building and declared himself the Messiah while members of Congress watched is causing something of an uproar.
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A Democratic congressman from Illinois, Danny Davis, wore white gloves and carried a pillow holding one of two ornate gold crowns that were placed on the heads of Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, at the ceremony, which took place March 23 and capped a reception billed as a peace awards banquet.
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Davis, for the record, says he held the wife's crown and was "a bit surprised" by Moon's Messiah remarks, which were delivered in Korean but accompanied by a written translation. In them, he said emperors, kings and presidents had "declared to all heaven and earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent."
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By Wednesday, after the event had been reported in the online magazine Salon and various newspapers, Capitol Hill was in full-blown backpedaling mode, as lawmakers who had attended but missed the coronation- or saw it and did not think much of it - struggled to explain themselves.
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"I remember the king and queen thing," said Representative Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican. "But we have the king and queen of the prom, the king and queen of 4-H, the Mardi Gras and all sorts of other things. I had no idea what he was king of."
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Others, like Senator Mark Dayton, a Minnesota Democrat, insisted that they had been duped and had had no idea that the organization holding the reception was connected to Moon.
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Dayton said he had attended because a constituent was being honored. He left before the crowning ceremony. "I never saw Reverend Moon present during the time I was there," he said. "I did not stay for any formal program."
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At 84, Moon cuts a curious figure in Washington, where he mingles with the city's elite by dint of his dual roles as religious leader and media mogul. He owns The Washington Times, which bills itself as a conservative alternative to The Washington Post, as well as United Press International, the wire service. He calls himself "Father" and has drawn notoriety for officiating at mass weddings. As a conservative, he claims close ties to President George W. Bush and the Republican Party.
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Moon's Unification Church has many branches, including the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, which held what it called an Ambassadors for Peace awards banquet in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 23. Lawmakers were told that "exemplary leaders from across the nation will be honored with the 'Crown of Peace' award for leadership in reconciliation and peacemaking."
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An initial invitation, sent to all members of Congress, stated that Moon and his wife would also be present and honored for their work. But follow-up letters, including one provided by Dayton, mentioned only the peace foundation and simply told lawmakers what individuals from their states would being honored.
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Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, an organization devoted to preserving the separation of church and state, said that Moon often drew lawmakers into his fold in this manner. Lynn said it seemed that Moon was particularly courting black lawmakers, including Davis of Illinois, and Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, who attended but said he did not stay for the coronation.
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"Reverend Moon has been very intentional about promoting his activities within the African-American church community," Lynn said.
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He said he was disturbed by lawmakers' "flimsy excuses," adding, "You had what effectively amounted to a religious coronation in a government building of a man who claims literally to be the savior."
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Cummings, however, said the invitation had been similar to many requests he received to honor local constituents.
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Bartlett said he had attended to support The Washington Times. "I'm a conservative," he said. "I'm delighted that we have a middle-of-the-road paper in Washington."
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The event itself attracted little notice, and the uproar did not occur until this week, when John Gorenfeld, a freelance writer in San Francisco, published an account of the event in Salon. Gorenfeld, who wrote that at least a dozen members attended, said he had been researching Moon on the Internet when he stumbled on a video of the coronation ceremony.
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Archbishop George August Stallings, pastor of the Imani Temple, an independent African-American Catholic church in Washington, who helped coordinate the reception, does not see what all the fuss is about. "From his spiritual perspective," he said, referring to Moon, "that is how he sees his role, as ordained by God."
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He added: "This is not the first time the man has been on Capitol Hill. It's not the first time he's spoken there."
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As to whether it will be the last, that is an open question.
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Yep, I want a president that thinks this is a great man and visionary..... how about you?
