#moses durst

[whatisonthemoon]

Children of a Lesser God (2001)

Children of a Lesser God / THE MOONIES: Looking to its youth for survival Don Lattin, Chronicle Feb. 11, 2001

Mose Durst sat in the living room of a spectacular church-owned home in one of Berkeley's swankiest neighborhoods, just below the Claremont Hotel. It has an Asian flair, panoramic views of San Francisco Bay and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon looking down from a picture above the hearth.

Since the 1970s, Durst has been at the right hand of Moon, the Korean-born evangelist, conservative political activist and self-proclaimed messiah.

Durst has served as the Northern California leader, and the national president, of the Unification Church. Now he's back in the Bay Area, thinking about his legacy, and the future of his church.

On this afternoon, Durst is feeling contrite. He admits that the Moonies made mistakes in the 1970s, when they sent out an overzealous army of tireless recruiters. But it's time, he says, to give his church another chance.

"People perceive us as a bad religious movement, and they isolate us more," he said. "If you think we're evil, let's sit down and talk. Let's find common ground. Otherwise, you force us into a cul-de-sac, like at Jonestown or Waco."

For years, the Moonies have struggled to make the leap from "cult" to "religion," to win credibility among political and religious leaders in the United States and around the world.

Through such publications as the Washington Times, a church-affiliated, conservative daily newspaper in the nation's capital, and through alliances with priests and pastors across the theological spectrum, Moon and company have spent a fortune courting the opinion-makers of church and state.

Now the church is looking closer to home, at the next generation of Western converts.

Durst confesses that, in the early years of Moon's American mission, church leaders erred in assuming God would provide for the children of devotees. The first kids born into the movement, he concedes, did not always get the parental attention they deserved.

"We were trying to build the church up locally - we were hot to build the kingdom," he said. "There were times in the early years when the hardest thing was building a church, while being responsible for your family. You wanted to be part of a spiritual community. People would put their kids in a nursery. When it was not done well, there were all kinds of shortcomings.

"We made mistakes," he said. "We did dumb things."

Durst says there are about 10,000 members of the Unification Church in the United States. He concedes that the number is much lower than figures the church reported in earlier years.

"That's right," he said with a smile. "I no longer lie."

Worldwide, the Moonies claim 3 million members, with most of them living in Korea and Japan. Some scholars, however, say the actual number of committed adherents may be closer to 250,000.

Nevertheless, Moon has built one of the wealthiest religious movements in the world, with extensive business interests and land holdings in Asia, South America and the United States.

Today, the movement has reorganized into more familiar religious congregations. It has embraced the nuclear family and refocused its efforts on passing its teachings onto the next generation.

The new focus can be seen at the largest Unification Church congregation in Northern California, the Bay Area Family Church, housed in a nondescript building in San Leandro.

At a recent Sunday service, a band with guitar and drums played upbeat music while about 150 worshipers, a mix of Asians and Caucasians, found seats on rows of red padded pews.

There were a lot of children running around the complex, which contains a K- 8 school, the Principled Academy, for 125 children.

The communal days are over. Most Moonies live in their own homes, with their own children, and work outside jobs.

"We still proselytize," said the Rev. Bento Leal, associate minister at the San Leandro church, "but it's different when you have a house full of kids and a full-time job."

Many of the families in this congregation were brought together in a mass marriage ceremony in New York's Madison Square Garden in 1982, when Moon presided over the weddings of 2,075 couples.

Not only does Moon preside over these ceremonies, he picks the spouses for his devotees and advises them as to what sexual positions to assume when they consummate their marriages.

Although these prescribed marriage rites sound strange to the uninitiated, they are a key part of Unification Church theology.

Moon teaches that he and his wife are the "True Parents" of a new spiritual lineage born without original sin. This spiritual status is purportedly passed on to "blessed children" born from Moonie marriages.

According to a church survey released last year, 82 percent of the couples brought together in Madison Square Garden are still married, and still consider themselves members of the Unification Church.

They have had an average of 2.5 children per couple.

Because the oldest kids born from that highly publicized union are still teenagers, the church cannot yet say how many will keep the Moonie faith.

"The real test comes when they are in college and out on their own," Leal said.

Among the tested will be Christopher Barker, born in Manhattan to Moonie parents in 1983.

During the 1970s, his father, Garry, who had grown up in the Catholic Church and attended parochial school, joined the Moonies and started a coffeehouse, Aladdin's, on College Avenue in Oakland. They had great New York cheesecake and served it up with a dose of Unification Church theology.

Barker and Durst were part of "the Oakland family," which produced some of Moon's most zealous proselytizers and fund-raisers.

Recruits harvested from the streets of San Francisco or the University of California at Berkeley campus were whisked up to an isolated church compound in Mendocino County for days of "love-bombing" and alleged "brainwashing."

It was the height of the cult wars of the 1970s, a battle over religious liberty and personal freedom that would see its horrific crescendo in the South American jungle with the murder-suicide in 1978 of 914 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones.

Christopher Barker's mother, Renate, was approached by Moonie missionaries on the street in Munich in 1971, when she was 20 years old. Three days later, Renate joined the Unification Church.

"My mother was very upset," Renate recalled. "She thought I'd been drugged or something. My parents tried to kidnap me, but I was very dedicated."

What attracted her to Moon?

"I was always very religious," she said. "I'd studied the Bible and Oriental philosophy, but I looked at people who went to church, and their lives didn't change. It didn't have an impact on their lives."

Renate came to the United States in 1973 with 70 other European missionaries.

Their mission was simple - to save the world.

"Rev. Moon felt America was so important to the whole world, we thought that if we saved America, we would save the world."

Moon matched Renate and Barker in 1979, but they communicated only through letters for the next three years. They were married in Moon's mass marriage ceremony of 1982. Today, they live in Hayward with their three children, Christopher, 17; Amalia, 15; and John, 11.

During a recent Sunday service, the family stood outside the Moonie church in San Leandro. Christopher was asked what it was like to be a "blessed child."

"My understanding is we were born without original sin, since they were matched by the True Father," he replied. "We are the culmination of all that work, and it's up to us to carry on what they want us to do."

Part of that legacy is no sex before marriage and agreeing to a union arranged by the Rev. Moon.

His sister is saving herself for that day.

"You are waiting for that one person, and not wasting your love on other people," Amalia said. "We believe in total fidelity in your marriage, so you're not comparing them with other boyfriends you've had before."

Her older brother also has vowed to stay chaste until he marries.

"Dating is kind of like practicing for divorce," he said. "When you're done with that person, and when problems come up, you dump them and go on to someone else."

Both teenagers attended the Unification Church's Principled Academy through the eighth grade, and are students at Bishop O'Dowd, a Catholic high school in Oakland.

"I haven't told anyone there that I'm a Unificationist, or a Moonie," Christopher said. "My friends can see I'm not a normal teenager who has girlfriends and everything."

Renate Barker said she and her husband have learned lessons from the child- rearing mistakes of early Moonie parents.

"In those days, the thought was that the children would just automatically turn out good, just by God talking to them or something. We thought we didn't really have to take care of them. It was naive."

Garry says only time will tell if the Unification Church is a forgotten cult, or a "religious movement with legs."

"All religions start out like this," he said. "The proof is going to be three, four, or five generations from now. When Rev. Moon dies, nobody knows what will happen. That will be the big test."

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Ex-Moonie recounts his life as a follower of the Rev. Moon

Chicago Tribune March 1979

By Michael Hirsley

One week, he was a Yale University graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and philosophy, considering graduate school and beginning summer vacation in Berkeley, Calif.

The next week, he was on a farm with his new friends, jumping and pumping his arms up and down while chanting, “Choo-choo-choo-choo,” like a “choo-choo” train in a sort of rural Romper Room gone wrong.

After four weeks, he called his parents to assure them he was doing well. Within six months, his new California friends had become his only family.

He turned over to them his earnings from selling flowers, then from washing dishes, while settling for peanut butter sandwiches as nourishment, and four hours for sleep. Once, he sneaked away and bought himself a glass of milk and a cookie. After he finished them, his shame was instant. He threw up.

Why would a 22-year-old man with a college education begin acting like a child, pliantly follow orders and work for next to nothing, and be unable to eat a cookie in solitude without feeling like a traitor?

He met them that first week in Berkeley. A man who had been kind enough to direct him to a hotel invited him to dinner. There, he met the group.

“They didn't say anything about being a religious group. They were friendly and paid incredible attention to everything I told them about myself,” Edwards says. ‘‘I liked the atmosphere better than social hours in college.”

But still, it is disquieting to imagine that someone like Christopher Edwards — who still fits the Ivy League image in a vested suit, and still looks like a college student as he sips a cup of coffee in a Chicago hotel room — “gave” his soul temporarily to a cult.

His credentials are non-radical, middle-of-the-road: Son of a doctor, member of an upper middle class family, spent summers traveling in this country and in Europe... Was he really the typical college graduate he seemed to be when he became a Moonie?

“What’s typical?” he asks. “One of the last memories I have of college is sitting with a friend and watching (on television) the last troops leave Vietnam. I was somewhat disillusioned with the war and our society.”

He said his peers in the Moonies included many white, middle-class, college-educated men and women in their early 20s.

“There are people who are more susceptible to a religious group like this, people coming out of college, a little disillusioned, looking for a loving community,” he says. “But I really fight the notion that something has to be wrong with you to get involved in a group like this. I think only an extremely selfish, narrow-minded person would not be susceptible.”

He accepted the group’s invitation to go to the farm in California for the weekend. Once there, he ignored guards at the front gate, the silly “choo-choo” game and the fact that “someone followed me everywhere I went, even to the bathroom.”

Edwards admits he found those things “silly and embarrassing, and very odd, but they seemed harmless. I thought theirs was a simplicity that could be trusted.”

And, he concedes, that as a psychology student, “part of my motivation for staying was pure curiosity. Their tactics attracted me.”

His early days with the group consisted of repetitive exercises and lectures in which “you were praised for following directions and accepting repetitive boring speeches without questioning them,” he says. “I felt confident that I couldn’t be manipulated, but I was.”

Those childish games and dogmatic speeches were exercises to break down resistance to brainwashing, he says. “I was put in a hypnotic state,” he says. “I was in a trance.”

For nearly four months, his parents — Dr. Charles Edwards. a surgeon, and his wife, Betty, of Montclair, N. J. — were blissfully unaware of what was happening to their son. It wasn’t unusual to hear little from him when he was traveling on his vacation.

Even a letter, in which he described to them his work with a Creative Community Project in Oakland, caused them no anxiety until they saw the project name again in a newspaper article.

“It was about a meeting for parents who had lost their children to cults. It indicated that Christopher’s project was part of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, the Moonies,” Dr. Edwards said in a phone conversation from his New Jersey office. “We were shocked.”

The Edwards attended the meeting, and were shocked anew. “It was supposed to be a one-hour meeting, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.,” Dr. Edwards recalled. “It lasted until 8 p.m. There were over 500 parents there.” Unification Church membership is estimated at 80,000.  [There were never more than about 10,000 core members in the US and many of those were imported from Japan and Europe. If everyone who ever had any connection with the UC was counted the number of 30,000 might have been reached decades ago.]

After the meeting, the Edwards’ contacted Ted Patrick, the controversial “deprogrammer” who assists parents in kidnapping their children from the Moonies.

“Patrick had a three-and-a-half month waiting list,” Dr. Edwards said. While he waited for Patrick’s call, he read everything he could about the Moonies.

In January of 1976, Dr. Edwards met with Patrick to plot Christopher’s kidnaping.

The doctor closed his practice for three weeks. He flew to California, found his son after considerable searching, and said he just wanted to be sure Christopher was all right.

“I met him in a coffee shop were he worked,” Dr. Edwards said. “I saw all these kids there walking around with passive looks and mechanical movements. I thought they were in a trance, and I have had some training in hypnosis.

“I didn't say anything against the cult, and I was invited to lunch the next day. I watched recruiting techniques used on me. They looked me in the eye and spoke lovingly, flatteringly, and made me feel important.

The next day, Patrick and assistants helped Dr. Edwards pull his son out of a car and away from a fellow group member.

Dr. Edwards said the weeks of deprogramming that followed — including plane fares for five deprogrammers and assistants and a detective after the family received threatening phone calls and suffered two break-ins at their home — cost “tens of thousands of dollars.”

Christopher Edwards now lectures on cults, and has written a book about his experiences, entitled, “Crazy for God.”

“Its just coincidental that my book is coming out just when Guyana and Jonestown are making us worry about cults,” Edwards says.

“The People’s Temple suicides in Jonestown and thereafter; and an “informal” congressional hearing on cult worship last month; are heightening public anxiety about cults.

Edwards’ book provides fuel for such concern, citing mechanical movements, glassy eyes, and loss of intelligence and initiative as changes which cult members undergo hypnosis.

In one small section, where Edwards expresses hope that “a psychological test will one day emerge to verify these changes,” the book provides a scary glimpse at the potential for “psycho-war” between cults and deprogrammers.

“I fought against the deprogrammers for quite a while, and I told them I would die for my cult friends and leaders,” Edwards says “That still worries me a great deal.”

__________________________________

Crazy for God: The nightmare of cult life by Christopher Edwards

The Social Organization of Recruitment in the Unification Church PDF  
 by David Frank Taylor, M.A., July 1978, Sociology

Moonwebs by Josh Freed (the book was made into a movie)

__________________________________

Unification Church’s deceptive recruiting tactics - Part 1

4:00 Ford Greene “At the outset there is never a disclosure: 1) We are the Unification Church
 2) We believe that Rev. Moon is the second coming of Christ
 3) We believe that you are dominated by Satan 
4) The way for you to become free from Satan is by being unconditionally obedient to Moon because he is the only human being who has ever conquered and defeated Satan.”

1:30 Allen Tate Wood
“…The purpose of getting there is to get them off to a training center, run them through a training regimen of 7, 21 or 40 days. When that is complete that person is going to be on a bus for the next seven years, working 16 hours a day. They are not up front about that.”

Unification Church’s deceptive recruiting tactics - Part 2 5:00 Ford Greene:
 “The pitch that is always made is a pitch to conscience, is a pitch to a person’s highest, most moral inner yearnings and the ultimate result is enslavement.”

__________________________________

Ford Greene on Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church

Allen Tate Wood (was also interviewed by News Center 4) LINK to a webpage of interviews with Allen Tate Wood

[twobrothersatwork]

"When Michael the archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses, he durst not bring against him the judgment of railing speech, but said: The Lord command thee."

Epistle of St Jude 1:9 Douay-Rheims Bible.

Artwork: David Humbert de Superville, The head of St. Michael, detail from The Madonna with the scales.

[pugzman3]

Luke 20:27-40 KJV

27 Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him,

28 Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

29 There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children.

30 And the second took her to wife, and he died childless.

31 And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died.

32 Last of all the woman died also.

33 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife.

34 And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:

35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:

36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

37 Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

38 For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

39 Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said.

40 And after that they durst not ask him any question at all.

[lecoupdedeuxveuves]

5. Buch Mose 32:41-43

>>>Ich werde mich an meinen Feinden rächen. Ich zahle es allen heim, die mich hassen! Sobald mein blankes Schwert geschärft ist, bekommen sie, was sie verdienen. Ich nehme meine Feinde gefangen und töte sie und ihre Führer. Mein Schwert wird sie verschlingen, bis es satt geworden ist, meine Pfeile werden ihr Blut trinken, bis ihr Durst gestillt ist. Ihr Völker, jubelt Israel zu! Der Herr nimmt Rache für den Tod der Menschen, die ihm dienten. Er zahlt es ihren Feinden heim. Und seinem eigenen Volk vergibt er alle Sünden. Er nimmt die Schuld von ihrem Land.<<<

[bills-bible-basics]

RESIST THE DEVIL -- KJV (King James Version) Bible Verse List Visit https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/ to see more. "But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Matthew 16:23, KJV "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Luke 4:8, KJV "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44, KJV "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:13, KJV "Neither give place to the devil." Ephesians 4:27, KJV "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7, KJV "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." Jude 1:9, KJV "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren [Satan] is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." Revelation 12:10, KJV If you would like more info regarding the origin of these KJV Bible verse lists, go to https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/. Thank-you! https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/resist-the-devil-kjv-king-james-version-bible-verse-list/?feed_id=159841&RESIST%20THE%20DEVIL%20--%20KJV%20%28King%20James%20Version%29%20Bible%20Verse%20List

[bookoformon]

Helaman Chapter 8. "The Corrupt Judges."

Corrupt judges seek to incite the people against Nephi—Abraham, Moses, Zenos, Zenock, Ezias, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lehi, and Nephi all testified of Christ—By inspiration Nephi announces the murder of the chief judge. About 23–21 B.C.

1 And now it came to pass that when Nephi had said these words, behold, there were men who were judges, who also belonged to the secret band of Gadianton, and they were angry, and they cried out against him, saying unto the people: Why do ye not seize upon this man and bring him forth, that he may be condemned according to the crime which he has done?

2 Why seest thou this man, and hearest him revile against this people and against our law?

3 For behold, Nephi had spoken unto them concerning the corruptness of their law; yea, many things did Nephi speak which cannot be written; and nothing did he speak which was contrary to the commandments of God.

4 And those judges were angry with him because he spake plainly unto them concerning their secret works of darkness; nevertheless, they durst not lay their own hands upon him, for they feared the people lest they should cry out against them.

5 Therefore they did cry unto the people, saying: Why do you suffer this man to revile against us? For behold he doth condemn all this people, even unto destruction; yea, and also that these our great cities shall be taken from us, that we shall have no place in them.

6 And now we know that this is impossible, for behold, we are powerful, and our cities great, therefore our enemies can have no power over us.

7 And it came to pass that thus they did astir up the people to anger against Nephi, and raised contentions among them; for there were some who did cry out: Let this man alone, for he is a good man, and those things which he saith will surely come to pass except we repent;

8 Yea, behold, all the judgments will come upon us which he has testified unto us; for we know that he has testified aright unto us concerning our iniquities. And behold they are many, and he knoweth as well all things which shall befall us as he knoweth of our iniquities;

9 Yea, and behold, if he had not been a prophet he could not have testified concerning those things.

Now you know it was illegal for those Supreme Court Justices to overturn RVW and allow anti-abortion rights activists to poison our country and commit even greater acts of terrorism against their own fellow citizens. Every lawyer on that Bench knows of the sacred duty of the court to protect civil rights.

But along came a spider and a bunch of underage boys and girls sat down beside her and now they do what she says. Yes, Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Roberts, Gorsuch, Alito, and Clarence, we know all about that. You are all despicable pawns playing a losing game on a religious freak's chessboard and it is time all of you went to prison.It is time to pay for all the evil you have done, starting with the fact you all know you can't be subject to blackmail or intimidation as this compromises your ability to do your jobs. But all of you are thanks to John Coe, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney.

You are all going to resign and provide the public with statements this morning.

And be sure to ask Douglas Faneuil and Maria Bamford about Paul Ryan's mysterious bixexual gay sex life. And about Rick Perry and Aaron Schock, and don't hesitate to ask Tony Perkins what happened to that telemarketing group he hired to work in Josh Hawley's house during the 2016 Election Race. You are going to love it.

And then! Watch the Widows, and call Blue State Digital and ask them if they ever worked with the Family Research Council, ande when they say no, ask President Biden what the hell he is planning to do about it and WHY he didn't do it on his own when he first found out about it!

[shammah8]

RHAPSODY OF REALITIES DAILY DEVOTIONAL

LEVERAGE ON HERITAGE

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH 2023

...I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold (Acts  7:32).

PASTOR CHRIS OYAKHILOME

Though the Word of God teaches us about greatness, being greater than another should never be your dream. You can desire to advance or surpass previous generations in your exploits, but don't make it about greatness. Leverage on heritage.

For example, the children of Israel could never imagine or pray to be greater than Abraham, Isaac or Jacob; their greatness was dependent on the greatness of these patriarchs. Jacob couldn't have imagined being greater than Isaacs; he recognized that his blessing came from being Isaac's son.

Likewise, Isaac honoured Abraham as his father, knowing that his own greatness stemmed from being the son of Abraham. In Exodus 3:15 "And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob became His memorial forever.

The Lord Jesus is another example. God had promised David that his throne would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13). Read how Jesus identified in Matthew 1:1 "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."

So, even if you've achieved higher educational success than your biological father, remember that his role in bringing you into existence makes him greater than you. As great as you are, you're his product, you came from him, so that makes him  greater than you for you to honour him the way God wants you to.

Recognizing this principle is vital. It's one of the reasons we have great honour for those whom God sent before us in ministry, because without them, we wouldn't have what we have today. Through them, the Scriptures have been preserved through the ages; they diligently protected and passed down these precious teachings-the Scriptures that guild our lives. So, we remain grateful for what was done for us, leveraging on our heritage.

                PRAYER

Dear, Father, I thank you for my parents, spiritual leaders, mentors and everyone who has played a significant role in shaping my life and making me who I am today. Thank you Lord, for the wisdom I've gained from them, the experiences, and the examples they've set for me to live the victorious life, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY:

Exodus 3:15 AMPC; 1 Peter 5:5-6; Matthew 23:11-12

[kenespoint]

LEVERAGE ON HERITAGE

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 LEVERAGE ON HERITAGE – Pastor Chris …l am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold (Acts 7:32) Though the Word of God reaches us about greatness, being greater than another should never be your dream. You can desire to advance or surpass previous generations in your exploits,…

[jdgo51]

Don't Doubt the Devil

Today's inspiration comes from:

Peace for Each Day

by Billy Graham

"The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly." — Romans 16:20

"'Who is responsible for the infamy, terror, and agony that we see all around us? How can we account for the sufferings that we all experience if evil is not a potent force? Education has, in truth, impeded our minds. Because of allegedly scientific findings, some have lost their belief in the supernatural powers of Satan, while others worship him.

George Galloway summed up this dubious contribution of current education when he said, “The theory that there is in the universe a power or principle, personal or otherwise, in eternal opposition to God is generally discarded by the modern mind.”

The modern mind may discard it, but that doesn’t cause the evil principle itself to disappear! Once asked how he overcame the devil, Martin Luther replied, “Well, when he comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The Devil, seeing the nail-prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.”

What can you do when you are confronted with evil?

“The devil trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”

Resist and Pray

Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. — 1 Peter 5:9

A poet once said, “The devil trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”

We can depend upon the blood of Christ when we are under attack. There are times when we simply must hide behind the person of Christ and ask Him to handle our problems. Jude says, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (v. 9 KJV). That’s what we need to do — call upon God.

Now, the Bible says that we are to “resist the devil, and he will flee” from us (James 4:7 KJV). But before that, God says, “Submit yourselves… to God.” If you have fully submitted, 100 percent yielded and surrendered yourself to Christ, then you can “resist the devil,” and the Bible promises he will flee from you.

The devil will tremble when you pray. He will be defeated when you quote or read a passage of Scripture to him and will leave you when you resist him.

Does the devil flee from you when you pray in Jesus’ name?"'

Excerpted with permission from Peace for Each Day by Billy Graham, copyright Billy Graham Literary Trust.

[whatisonthemoon]

Fishing for Respectability - on the Unification Church’s “Global Economic Action Institute”

Washington City Paper Vol. 13 No. 22 | June 11-17, 1993 Fishing for Respectability by Alan Green and Larry Zilliox Jr.

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon has dominion over three separate worlds - the religious, the nonprofit, and the entrepreneurial. But in the Unification Church, worlds collide.

▲Sun Myung Moon and Rev. Yang Hur

Yamano Hana APPEARS to be no different than any other Japanese restaurant in Northern Virginia. It's in a nondescript strip mall on Leesburg Pike, halfway between Seven Corners and Baileys Crossroads. It has a sushi bar, a cocktail lounge, and a favorable mention from Washingtonian displayed out front. You can get salmon teriyaki there for $7.20, and among the chef-created specials is a crab stick and fried flower dish called the Full Moon. Lunch is served beginning at 11:30 a.m. Reservations are not required.

But if Yamano Hana is indistinguishable from other area Japanese eateries, one thing sets it apart: This restaurant is at the tail end of a vast, vertically integrated fishing operation whose components are all tied to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. Identifying the players in this network is like trying to navigate without a compass - and that's obviously the way Moon's followers want it because they've taken great pains to obfuscate their ties to one another and, most important, to the church itself.

Dig deep enough, however, and this elaborate connect-the-dot game yields a picture with at least a few clear edges.

Annual reports and other corporate records show, for example, that Yamano Hana is owned by Hana Enterprises, a Maryland company whose officers and directors have all been affiliated with other commercial enterprises run by Unification Church members. As recently as 1990, Hana Enterprises' corporate secretary was a director of New Wave Seafood, a Beltsville wholesaler that supplies Yamano Hana with its fish. New Wave's treasurer was at one time an officer of U.S. Marine Corp., a commercial fishing company whose catch ends up at church-affiliated wholesalers. Among U.S. Marine's wholly owned subsidiaries is Master Marine, which builds the boats used by the church-aligned fishing fleets. U.S. Marine is, in turn, under the corporate auspices of One Up Enterprises, a Virginia-based holding company whose president, R. Michael Runyon, is a longtime Moon confidant and an officer of other businesses controlled by Moon's followers. Virginia state corporate records also show that Runyon's wife, another Unification Church member, is a director of Hana Enterprises.

Keep following the serpentine paper trail, and you learn that the Washington-area seafood operations are just one part of an umbrella organization that includes some 65 Japanese restaurants across the nation - including Niwano Hana, on Rockville Pike - and at least a dozen seafood wholesalers in such cities as Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Bayou LaBatre, Ala.

There's even the tax-exempt Ocean Church, supposedly created to give young Unification Church members the experience of spending time at sea. Not surprisingly, Ocean Church branches are based at commercial fishing businesses run by Unification Church members. One Ocean Church branch even lists its address as a Gloucester, Mass., restaurant whose owners are part of Moon's octopan fishing enterprise.

These operations - and other marine-related ventures - are collectively referred to within the Unification Church movement as the "Happy Group," which derives its name from Moon's large Japanese trading company, Happy World Inc. Not officially part of this conglomerate - but nonetheless part of Moon's business network - is the Happy Mind Shop at Home Service, a catalog company in the 3500 block of V Street NE that sells everything from hardware and over-the-counter drugs to produce and, not surprisingly, fresh seafood.

This agglomeration of interlocking enterprises is just one component of a gargantuan corporate empire that includes hundreds of businesses and organizations around the globe. Moon may be well known for having founded the Washington Times and Insight magazine, which have bled his bank accounts of perhaps a billion dollars over the last decade, but these publications are just two pieces of an expanding international media conglomerate that includes foreign and domestic newspapers and newsletters, book publishers, video production companies, and a major interest in an American cable network.

Moon and his associates own travel agencies and health food stores, real estate agencies and office cleaning services, an equestrian center, and a company that bottles ginseng soda. In addition, Moon has financed the creation of dozens of religious and political organizations, including two benign-sounding groups headquartered here: the American Conference on Religious Movements and the American Freedom Coalition.

In Moon's world, however, nothing is benign, nothing is as it appears. Privacy may be universally valued, but Moon and his followers are so intent on keeping their affairs shrouded that even something as commonplace as selling fish becomes mired in a clandestine web.

Trying to trace this corporate lineage is an extraordinary challenge. Interlocking structures make ownership and control of businesses run by church members nearly impossible to figure out. Those who work for these operations will say little, if anything, about them. And the landscape is further blurred by an entanglement of nonprofit organizations, whose finances are subject to less governmental scrutiny than their for-profit counterparts, and whose affairs are therefore even harder to decipher.

The affairs of the Global Economic Action Institute (GEAI) provide a telling illustration of this.

GEAI is a 10-year-old nonprofit organization whose creation was inspired by Moon, supposedly to foster cooperation among nations in their efforts to achieve a stable international economic order. Over the years, GEAI has attracted an impressive collection of politicians, economists, and business leaders. It has published position papers and hosted international conferences, with support from the likes of the United States Information Agency and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It has received virtually no media recognition - and in fact has never sought any - but from all appearances, it has helped promote the sort of dialogue that might ease the world's economic problems. Finally, GEAI has received financial support from a wide array of corporations, foundations, and other institutions - the Unification Church among them. But it has always been widely believed that the church's contributions were not particularly significant, its influence on the organization tenuous, at best.

In truth, documents obtained by Washington City Paper show that GEAI has been used by Moon and his associates to facilitate contact with high-level executives around the world and advance the church's political and business agendas. GEAI's key staffers - all Unification Church members - have used the organization's resources to run their own for-profit corporations. Documents also reveal how GEAI's employees tried to recruit more than 100 of the nation's wealthiest individuals - including some well-known Washingtonians - into supporting an operation that appears to exist primarily to further Moon's goals, rather than the noble policy objectives outlined in the organization's charter.

But GEAI and the guileful manner in which the fishing operation is managed are not aberrations within the Unification movement. Relationships seem to be purposefully obscured.

The convoluted ownership of U.S. Marine Corp. is typical. According to a Dun & Bradstreet commercial credit report, 83 percent of the fishing operation's voting stock is controlled by the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA) - the nonprofit, religious component of Moon's empire usually referred to as the Unification Church. That part of the ownership picture is simple and straightforward.

But the remainder of U.S. Marine's stock is controlled by One Up Enterprises, the Virginia-based corporation that controls Moon's fishing businesses. One Up is in turn a subsidiary of a for-profit, Virginia-based holding company called Unification Church International (UCI), which operates a slew of firms whose owners are also followers of Moon.

UCI is so closely affiliated with Moon that the organization's amended articles of incorporation list as its operational purpose "To serve as an international organization assisting, advising, coordinating and guiding the activities of Unification Churches organized and operated throughout the world." What's more, UCI shares corporate offices with News World Communications Inc., the Moon-controlled company that owns both the Washington Times and the McLean home that Moon occupies when in Washington.

Despite this, HSA spokesman Peter Ross insists that the church is entirely separate from UCI, GEAI, and other ventures Moon has inspired or helped fund. "Rev. Moon is the leader of a religious movement," says Ross. "But he's free to engage in all sorts of activities. He's a patron of the media. He's an industrialist. That's all true, but that shouldn't mean the Unification Church is involved."

Ross' statements notwithstanding, additional documents obtained by City Paper tell an entirely different story. These documents, which chronicle GEAI's activities for 1990 and part of 1991, show that church money was sometimes keeping GEAI afloat. They show that GEAI's staff members sought to control the organization. They show that these same staff members aimed to convince GEAI's leadership to accept Moon's vision for the organization. Finally, the documents reveal that the church was so concerned about GEAI, members were actually instructed to pray for its success.

Since his release from prison eight years ago, Moon has been a shadow of his previously public self. But if he's kept a low profile, the founder of the Unification Church has only stepped up his campaign to expand his worldwide influence.

From all indications, his efforts have been successful, although the self-proclaimed messiah is now facing trouble anew.

On June 1, 1976, the Unification Church took over Yankee Stadium for its so-called Bicentennial God Bless America Festival, the highlight of which was supposed to be an address by the Rev. Moon. At the time, Moon was endlessly portrayed in the media as a cultist who enslaved young people and used their free labor as a means to amass a fortune for his church.

The Yankee Stadium speech, delivered in Korean and translated by longtime Moon confidant.

The Yankee Stadium speech, delivered in Korean and translated by longtime Moon confidant Bo Hi Pak, did little to quell the anxieties of nonbelievers. A wildly gesticulating Moon laid down his own version of divine law: America had been invaded by Satan, and God had dispatched Moon here to set things right. Moon's disciples were clearly enraptured by this homily, but spectators by the thousands stampeded for the exits. There was pandemonium, as the inclined rampways behind the stands swelled with a descending tide. Halfway through the speech, the stadium had the look of a visiting-team blowout in the bottom of the ninth: Down the lines and in the upper decks, only the die-hards and dreamers remained in their seats.

It would be another 17 years before Moon would venture on another national speaking tour, his 12-city roadshow having rolled through Washington on May 15. In the interim, he increasingly de-emphasized his religious pursuits, instead focusing his attention on politics and profit-making ventures. During this time, church real estate holdings increased. Moon's tangled web of businesses, once located primarily in Korea, Japan, and the United States, took root throughout Europe and eventually began creeping into Africa, South America, and even the Cayman Islands.

For his troubles, in '78 Moon faced a civil lawsuit brought by the U.S. government, but he escaped unscathed. His luck ran out in May 1982 when a New York jury found him guilty of four counts of conspiracy, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy to file false income tax returns. The felony offenses brought a sentence of 18 months in federal prison, and on July 20, 1984, Moon began serving what would ultimately be a 13-month term.

Since his release, Moon has rarely been seen in public. But behind the scenes, he's been all business. In fact, the aging industrialist has not only increased the pace of acquisitions by his front organizations, but he's tried to establish a business/religious/political foothold in Russia and China. He's even negotiated deals with the governments of Vietnam and North Korea.

These days, the 73-year-old Moon has lost any charisma he may once have had. His recent Washington speech, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, was a rambling, 75-minute patois that lacked the histrionics of years past. Moon delivered the address in halting, at times incomprehensible, English, repeatedly stumbling over words and stopping in mid-phrase, as if he were reading a phoneticized version of a text whose meaning he couldn't fathom. Occasionally, Moon almost seemed unaware that he was addressing an overflow crowd of nearly 3,000: Early in the speech, for example, he paused a full 10 seconds, and when he resumed, a mint in his mouth clacked against his teeth. The sound reverberated over the room's speakers, but Moon seemed either unaware or unconcerned. Instead, he just kept reading, poking at his eyeglasses every so often.

The speech itself, called "True Parents and the Completed Testament Age," amplified some of the same peculiar themes introduced in Moon's Yankee Stadium address - in particular, that America's role as a world leader hinges on its spiritual well-being, and God has dispatched Moon here to ensure that the country does not go off course.

"In these chaotic times," he told a rapt audience, which interrupted him with applause 25 times, "humankind is longing for a true direction and purpose, yet America and the churches have no confident answer. God has granted me an understanding of the forces involved in his providential history. Thus, I know the direction that humankind must go, and I, with the help of God, will lead the world there."

This time around, no one was fleeing for the auditorium doors. The room had been filled with invited guests instructed to RSVP. Business attire was required for admission. The audience was read letters of welcome from Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.); a proclamation from Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer declaring May 15 "Family Day" in honor of the event was also broadcast to the crowd.

Moon slowly made his way through the lecture, as onlookers unable to comprehend his broken English followed along with a printed text. As the speech progressed, it became more muddled and self-aggrandizing. Moon chastised Korean religious leaders for failing to believe that he was the Second Coming of Christ. He blamed the Cold War on the failure of the United States and worldwide Christianity to unite with him after World War II. And the self-proclaimed messiah railed against the media and other detractors.

"Can anyone disagree when I say that Reverend Moon is among the most persecuted religious leaders in the world?" he asked.

Not far away, a process server lay in wait, hoping to heap yet more bedevilment on Moon. A day earlier, a suit had been filed in a California federal court alleging that Moon and his associates had concocted an unlawful scheme to gain control of cable television's Nostalgia Network. In essence, the suit alleges that Unification Church International, One Up Enterprises, and other related businesses are all secretly structured to achieve Moon's objectives.

These charges are similar to others that have been leveled against Moon, and in each instance, the church has dismissed them as further examples of the religious persecution that Moon must endure. But the affairs of the Global Economic Action Institute may suggest otherwise.

The Global Economic Action Institute was founded in the summer of 1983, ostensibly to help promote policies that would foster world economic stability. The organization was incorporated in Washington on Dec. 1 of that year, with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson among its board members. A few months later, the IRS granted GEAI nonprofit status—important for the organization because would-be contributors could be promised that their gifts would be tax-deductible.

Much of GEAI's initial funding came from HSA, the religious component of Moon's operation, although in recent years dozens of foundations and corporations have signed on as benefactors. GEAI's membership roster includes individuals in some 75 countries, among them former heads of state, members of national cabinets, academics, and business leaders. Only one person on GEAI's original board of directors—Mose Durst—was affiliated with the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, thereby creating the appearance of autonomy from Moon. Former Sen. Eugene McCarthy was even enlisted as GEAI's chairman emeritus.

GEAI's headquarters are in New York, and until last year, the group maintained a Washington office. Copies of tax returns provided by the IRS show that GEAI's 1990 budget was nearly $1 million, about 59 percent of which was spent on producing a series of national and international conferences.

These same 1990 tax returns show that GEAI's three highest-paid employees - all Unification Church members - were Garry Barker, Jeremiah Schnee, and Laurence Baer. Together, this trio ran GEAI's affairs.

But that's not all they ran.

The Unification movement typically portrays its involvement with nonprofit organizations under its control as that of a beneficent donor supporting worthy causes. Unification movement members insist that the church exerts no influence over groups such as GEAI - that Moon has no personal involvement in the direction of their operations, for example.

But documents reveal that the Unification Church was attempting to use GEAI to advance Moon's vast business empire. Other documents show that Barker, Schnee, and Baer conducted for-profit consulting work out of GEAI's Washington offices; in effect, the three men attempted to create business partnerships among GEAI contributors, for which they would receive finder's fees or commissions. The evidence also suggested that GEAI was not reimbursed by these for-profit companies for the use of its resources, as IRS regulations require.

Answers about GEAI's affairs were not forthcoming. Schnee, who apparently now runs the organization with one assistant, did not return phone calls. Durst, former president of the nonprofit Unification Church of America, who two years ago severed his affiliation with GEAI, willingly volunteered information about Moon's original vision for the organization but would say little else. Durst did insist that Barker, Schnee, and Baer never ran businesses out of GEAI's offices. He also maintained that he didn't own the building from which GEAI conducted its activities, then admitted that he "might have."

In fact, District of Columbia property records show that Durst was a longtime owner of the townhouse at 821 Massachusetts Ave NE that once served as GEAI's Washington address. Records from D.C.'s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs and elsewhere also show that at least three for-profit corporations were conducting business from the Massachusetts Avenue address: RFR International, whose president was Jeremiah Schnee; Barker International Associates, headed by Garry Barker; and L.H. Baer International, run by Laurence Baer.

Although Barker, Schnee, and Baer were listed on GEAI's tax returns as full-time employees of the nonprofit organization - their annual salaries ranging from $36,049 for Baer to $57,251 for Barker - they were simultaneously conducting the business of their own companies. Internal memoranda obtained by City Paper show that the three men were trying to consummate more than 30 high-stakes business deals around the globe - from the sale of rare paintings to funding a Broadway musical to the sale of Nigerian light crude oil. In a number of instances, their would-be partners in these deals were the same people they had recruited - or were trying to recruit - for GEAI membership.

On Feb. 1, 1991, for example, Barker's daily agenda lists both GEAI activities and various for-profit undertakings, including a local real estate development project called Stafford Place that the GEAI staff had been trying to fund for at least eight months. The previous July, an internal memo describing the trio's ongoing business opportunities included an entry about Stafford Place and referred to a New York meeting with officials of some of Japan's leading banks. Among the banks represented that day was Fuji Bank and Trust, one of GEAI's corporate contributors.

A GEAI document detailing possible meetings in Washington on Aug. 1, 1990, once again lists both nonprofit and for-profit activities on the day's agenda. Among those whom GEAI staff members hoped to meet with that day was Richard Allen, national security adviser in the Reagan White House and now chairman of Federal Capital Bank, formerly Credit International Bank.

Allen was being actively targeted for a leadership role with GEAI, and the memorandum outlining the Aug. 1 meeting makes reference to discussing such a position with him. In addition, the memo says: "Explore likelihood of possible business ventures with Credit Int'l Bank customers."

The July '90 internal memorandum listing current business opportunities reveals that Barker, Schnee, and Baer hoped to include Allen in at least seven of their projects around the world. These included an overseas office/hotel complex, a European golf course, and a state-of-the-art jet-maintenance facility - a multimillion-dollar project that promised a 100 percent return on investment.

Other business projects that RFR, Barker International, and L.H. Baer were trying to develop from the GEAI offices included a Caribbean resort development, and the business opportunities memo notes that Abe Hoppenstein, a member of GEAI's international steering committee who worked for a New York investment banking firm, might be of help. Still, another project that GEAI's triumvirate hoped to involve Hoppenstein with was a Northeastern gold and ski resort. According to the memo, the investment banking firm was willing to give RFR a one percent commission. "Daiwabo director is interested and might want to visit," the memo added.

Sure enough, the Japanese textile firm Daiwabo was also a corporate contributor to the nonprofit organization, and GEAI's staff intended to take full advantage of their contacts. According to the July 18 summary of potential business opportunities, the Daiwabo connection was particularly promising: "Chairman Satoru Arinobe visited the U.S. in April. Likes [Jeremiah Schnee]. We get a 3% commission on the monthly volume of sales of the company's textiles. Possible Central American/Caribbean contacts. Possible buyers are Danskin, Fortunoff, Members Only, J.C. Penney, Phillips-Van Heusen, John Weitz Co., Donna Carron [sic]. Private arrangement where he helps us with Japanese companies and split commission 80/20 between RFR and Daiwabo."

Fortunoff's inclusion on the list of potential buyers was not just happenstance. Documents show that Elliot Mayrock, a principal of the Long Island-based M. Fortunoff of Westbury Corp., which manufactures such things as draperies and garden furniture, had pledged money for GEAI's upcoming conference in China.

This is the way Barker, Schnee, and Baer went about their business: Those who pledged money for GEAI programs were then targeted as potential business partners. According to a May 5, 1990, document detailing the fundraising efforts for "Campaign 21" - an effort by the staff to quickly raise $21 million - Mayrock had pledged $80,000 for a conference in China, $30,000 of which had been received. The memo notes that Mayrock had agreed to join GEAI's international advisory council as chairman of Fortunoff, and he referred his cousin, Josh Green, to Schnee.

Schnee was obviously glad to have such a referral. A document created by him and his two cohorts called "Individuals to Include in Various Business Deals" features this entry: "Children's Video/Animation. Josh Green. Connect him to animators in communist countries. RFR gets 50% of the difference in cost between U.S. animation costs and local costs."

John Haley, chairman of the board of Pace University, was another contact who Barker, Schnee, and Baer found valuable. A July 1990 confidential memo from GEAI President Lev Dobriansky to the organization's officers noted, among other things, that Haley had joined GEAI's international steering committee.

Other documents show that by the time Haley had been awarded his place on that committee, GEAI's staff had already tagged him as a possible participant in two business deals, including one involving a Midwestern chemical manufacturer. The chemical company's president was not only working with Schnee, Barker, and Baer on various for-profit schemes, including a Moscow office/hotel complex, but the three had also enlisted this corporate executive's counsel for GEAI's chairman search committee - even though he wasn't even a member of the organization.

There was a good reason why this person's counsel was being sought: Edward Kime, another member of GEAI's international steering committee, confided that the would-be business partner had "definitely decided" to give money for the organization's upcoming conference in Moscow. The May 18 documents detailing GEAI's fundraising efforts notes about this person: "Ed Kime says, 'The more active, the more $$.'"

And was he ever kept active. The July memo from Dobriansky to GEAI's officers reported that a delegation had recently returned from Moscow in preparation for the organization's upcoming conference there. Among the "prominent Americans" joining the GEAI group were this same chemical company president and J.B. Fuqua.

Fuqua is the chairman of the Atlanta-based sporting goods and garden products manufacturer Fuqua Industries. According to the May 18 fundraising memo, Fuqua was "very interested" in the U.S.S.R. and was looking for joint ventures there. The memo also states that the GEAI staff offered Fuqua the opportunity to be the international chairman of the organization's Moscow conference - for the sum of $75,000. According to this same memo, Fuqua's response when presented the deal was: "I'm listening."

And so it went. The men who piloted GEAI activity recruited high-level business leaders from around the world to make tax-deductible contributions to the organization. The next step was to get these donors to participate in GEAI's policy seminars. Finally, Barker, Schnee, and Baer tried to marry these same people in business deals, for which the trio was promised hefty commissions or finders' fees.

Such dealing raises questions about compliance with IRS regulations. IRS spokesman Domenic LaPonzina would not comment specifically on the activities of GEAI or its three employees, but he would say that, in general, the government requires that there be an "arm's length relationship" between nonprofit and for-profit activities and that individuals not receive "personal inurement" from their affiliation with a nonprofit organization. "Generally, if someone is benefiting personally from the equipment, facilities, or resources of a nonprofit, that's prohibited," said LaPonzina.

The law also says that a nonprofit organization may permit its employees to use the group's facilities for personal profit-making activities but only if those employees pay a fair market rental rate. If the organization doesn't comply, it can lose its nonprofit status - meaning, of course, it can kiss those tax-deductible contributions goodbye. In addition, there may be tax consequences for anyone who used those facilities and didn't pay for them.

There's little dispute that Barker, Schnee, and Baer ran their for-profit businesses from GEAI's offices. The address and fax number on both Schnee's RFR business card and Baer International's letterhead matched those on GEAI's stationery. Facsimile transmissions sent by the three are identified on the top as having been sent from GEAI's machine.

But if the three men were using GEAI's facilities to run their own for-profit businesses, there's no evidence to suggest that the organization required them to pay for these services. Neither is there evidence that the men voluntarily reimbursed the organization. Attempts to reach the three men for comment were unsuccessful.

An internal GEAI document detailing the group's finances for '90 and the outlook for '91 lists outside income from various sources, including corporate membership payments and rental income from a company called MVA. Nowhere in these documents are RFR, Barker International Associates, or L.H. Baer International listed as having made any payments to GEAI in '90, nor is there anything to indicate that GEAI anticipated income from the three firms in '91.

Related links and notes below

Chicago Tribune: Unification Church Invests Heavily Uruguay (December 1994)

Emperor of the Universe video ‘Privatizing’ covert action: the case of the UC / FFWPU

The Imperial Ghost in the Neoliberal Machine (Figuring the CIA)

C-Span videos of Global Economic Action Institute conferences and panels - one of these videos ("Foreign Trade and Domestic Subsidy Policy") features Most Durst

Moon on why he founded the Global Economic Action Institute:

I founded the Global Economic Action Institute to help distribute and re-invest inactive, or "sleeping" money to make it work for the world. A world-level bank is necessary to go beyond the boundaries of any one nation. This bank will not lend to individuals, but only to nations. The world is coming into unity, which means that independent governments will merge into one to be more operable on a global scale. Only global thinking and institutions can solve the world's economic problems.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Mose and Onni Durst – their legacy

I remember when the Dursts were a big deal, what with her being the notorious Onni, and him becoming the UC president in the U.S.

Dr. Durst used to be seen a lot on TV, and even when I was still in the church in the mid 80’s, I thought his TV manner was just a little too inauthentic to be believed by a lot of folks who might watch him. For example, his oft-repeated “If our eyes are glazed, they are glazed because we are crying for the world”, just came across as practiced and obvious. After the Oakland church was no longer the recruiting powerhouse it had been in the 70’s, it seems like its time had just sort of passed. It had been sort of a cult within a cult, with some of the older members, especially women, speaking in near-worshipful terms about “Omma and Oppa”. I always thought it was kind of weird, the level of admiration those members held, with the Dursts (and Kristina Morrison/Seher) being regarded as infallible. I wonder how the Dursts got along with all the later changes: becoming rather marginalized, the loony stuff like Black Heung Jin and the Hyo Jin revelations, the fractures in the so-called “True Family”, and the developments of the last year or so. I wonder what they think now? What is their relationship with the present and recent UC leadership really like? Do they (or Dr. Durst, anyway) see the deficiency of the Korean and Japanese leadership’s understanding of how to reach Americans? I wonder what they really think of the (ahem) “True Children”. They brought a lot of people into the church. They must know how many longtime members have left, and why. Do they ever wonder how it is that all their grand ideas for an “ideal city”, all the pie-in-the-sky they promised the members, all the statements of how things would be by now, have come to naught? Do they ever lie awake at night and wonder if drawing people in with big ideas and big words (and all the deception, dissembling, and subterfuge they used to retain recruits), was a mistake? That their lives have produced little of lasting substance? That they hurt people?

________________________________

“Onni Durst is a woman of guts. While she was at a slot machine in Las Vegas, she completely ran out of coins; she went to the next person, smiled, and borrowed some coins.”

Sun Myung Moon (May 19, 1980, New York City)

________________________________

Onni Durst’s trips to Las Vegas casinos, New York, and Seoul – and her luxurious lifestyle.

Childcare in the Unification Church of Oakland

$27,000 Mercedes for Onni Durst – “Take it back”, she said, “It’s the wrong color.”

Onni Durst lied under oath

Onni Durst is a supporter of the Woo group – led by another illegitimate son of Moon

The “sophisticated honey of 1960’s counterculture jargon” by Mose Durst

Boonville – “It was a very complex set of manipulations”

UC/FFWPU Recruitment – The Boonville Chicken Palace

Barbara Underwood and the Oakland Moonies

Ford Greene – the former Moonie became an attorney

Inside Look at a Boonville Moonie Training Session

Papasan Choi and Boonville’s Japanese origins

Moonwebs by Josh Freed (the book was made into a movie)

Crazy for God: The nightmare of cult life by Christopher Edwards

Camp K, aka Maacama Hill, Unification Church recruitment camp

The Social Organization of Recruitment in the Unification Church PDF  by David Frank Taylor, M.A., July 1978, Sociology

[childofchrist1983]

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. - Jude 9-10 KJV

The Book of Jude doesn't get much attention. It's very short, just one chapter, but it gives an interesting insight into the early Church.

The person mentioned, Diotrephes, has made himself the sole judge of authentic teaching and rejects even those missionaries sent with letters authorizing them to teach and preach, men who have been declared to be preaching truth. We might think that division in the Christian community is something relatively new, but if we read the letters of the New Testament, we see that there were problems there as well. The introduction to the Epistles (letters) of Jude, as well as the third letter of John, talks about Diotrephes as someone who was a leader but who had taken upon himself authority that was not appropriate. He is described as hostile and ambitious and doesn't accept letters or visitors that have the backing of the church leaders.

For centuries, there have been periods of dispute over doctrine and practices, over who has truth behind him or her. I have often thought that it has only been because of the presence of the Holy Spirit that Christianity has survived for two thousand years. If it depended on human leadership, it would have died out a long time ago. Leaders have been both good and bad, saints and sinners, and yet Christianity is still flourishing in the world. We are not so different today than in the first century and I, for one, am grateful for the guidance and protection of the God and His Holy Spirit in the past, present, and the years still to come. Thank the Lord for sending us the Holy Spirit to guide us and the Church!

May we always work for the greater good and put ambition aside as we bring His Gospel message to others worldwide. May we make sure that we give our hearts and lives to God and take time daily to seek and praise Him and share His Truth with the world. May the LORD our God and Father in Heaven help us to stay diligent and obedient and help us to guard our hearts in Him and His Word daily. May He help us to remain faithful and full of excitement to do our duty to Him and for His glorious return and our reunion in Heaven as well as all that awaits us there. May we never forget to thank the LORD our God and our Creator and Father in Heaven for all this and everything He does and has done for us! May we never forget who He is, nor forget who we are in Christ and that God is always with us! What a mighty God we serve! What a Savior this is! What a wonderful Lord, God, Savior and King we have in Jesus Christ! What a loving Father we have found in the Almighty God! What a wonderful God we serve! His will be done!

Thanks and glory be to God! Blessed be the name of the LORD! Hallelujah and Amen!

[microposter]

2. Mose 17. Kapitel 3-4

3 - Da aber das Volk dort aufgrund des Wassermangels Durst litt, murrte es gegen Mose und sagte: “Warum hast du uns nur aus Ägypten hierher geführt? Etwa, damit ich und meine Knder, mein Vieh, hier verdursten?”

4 - Daraufhin betete Mose laut zum HERRN mit den Worten: “Was soll ich mit diesem Volk machen? Es fehlt nicht mehr viel und sie steinigen mich!”

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Monday 3 December 1838

8 20

12

rainy night and morning – breakfast at 9 ¼ - SW. came to A- about 10 and Holt to me at 10 ½, as I came up from Ibbotson of Breakneck cottage who came and paid me his last years rent up to 1 November last = 3 guineas,  and had him till 12 – read him SW-‘s letters to me and mine to him respecting the Engine – H- denies that he had anything to do with ordering the Engine, or that he knew anything about it .:. SW-‘s letter to the opposite effect a downright falsehood – neither H- nor John Oates were at all consulted – H- thinks with me that there is no written agreement – for SW. said to him on Saturday, he could not pretend to shew such an agreement as that made with Garforth to Mr. Hird - .:. there is neither guarantee nor anything – H- thinks Booth might have been quicker about the ashler in the 1st instance by a week or ten days, but said he had behaved very well about it for he had saved all he could – more than the engineer was for letting him who declared

SH:7/ML/E/22/0074

he would be master but B- shewed that he had the same thought at less expense that would have been gained at greater and Holt said B- was right in that respect But Holt thought that the engineer seeing B- delay in the beginning began to delay himself – Read H- my note as follows to ‘Messrs. Hird and co. Low Moor Iron works’ ‘Shibden hall Monday 3 December 1838. Gentlemen – I shall be much obliged to you to let me know the earliest time at which you can answer for completing and fixing the engine, and all its appurtenances at Listerwick pit; and if any particular directions should be given to the masons, Mr. David Booth I shall be obliged by their being sent to him at Shibden hall, as immediately as possible – I beg to apologize for troubling you to give me a copy of the agreement entered into by Mr. S. Washington respecting the engine, he having mislaid his copy – I am gentlemen etc. etc. A. Lister’ If no written agreement had been made, desired Holt to bring me one of some sort – to let me have a statement of particulars that I might what I should have to pay – and begged him to make some settlement about guarantee and fire-man – and to arrange the matter in every respect as well as he could – If not too late in returning he will call tonight – and if not tonight, in the morning – thinks 50 yards length underground of water lodge will be enough – will be done in 2 or 3 months – and thinks we may make an agreement with the fire-man to attend a few hours extra – thinks if the engine works from 4am to 9pm i.e. 7 hours out of the 24 it will be enough even while the underground Lodge is making – sure the engine will not cost near £6 per week – the privileges in this colliery very valuable – if he was in my place, he would stop altogether then let Stocks come in – but said S- could do no harm to this colliery whatever he did at Wilsons’ – at last, said I would wait quietly till the engine was working and then we could calculate and see what should be done – what could be made of the coal and what the expense would be – mentioned my idea of letting on a running lease from year to year to which H- made no objection – said I should be glad for all to be paid but the outlay would be £7,000 before all was done, and the concern could not afford to have more managers than necessary - .:. excused H- mentioning the thing at all to his brother as yet – we will see what can be done for the best – shewed H- the bill sent by the assignees of Holt and Thomas – H- said he could prove that I had never ordered the engine – he himself going to Low moor about a bill for iron furnished in his name on his own account for this said engine = £52 odd which he should have to pay – shewed him also Greenwoods’ bill – to be examined and signed by Holt – he went away at 12 – a minute or 2 after in heavyish rain and I soon afterwards saw Moses Barker who came to ask A- to let him have stone on Micklemoss – about 3 or 4 DW. in all for which he durst average to give 2/. per yard – but would make an opening at his own expense if A- choose and then give what she would take, or give the thing up and charge nothing for the opening – 2/. a yard and make all into land again – I said if A- thought of paying any attention to his offer she would let him know between this and tomorrow week – but if he heard nothing from her, he was to conclude she would have nothing to do with it – from about 12 ½ to 2 ¾ wrote out the whole of p. 138 except the first seven lines – and wrote out the whole of the tow last pp. and had Robert and helped him to move large Kendal mahogany drawers from 1 place to another in my blue room and moved also my bureau so that this and now and the drawers now stand close together each backing against the east side of the room against the kitchen chamber – my aunts’ camp-bed that has been latterly in the blue room is now taken down (and put by in the kitchen chamber) and Robert is putting up in its stead the oak-French bed made originally for the little upper buttery now butlers’ pantry – had just written so far at 2 50 – Mrs. Dyson called between 1 and 2 today and left her card – John returned from Hx- opened my banking book – Mr. S. Washington has drawn out of the bank on my account £945!!! having only my authority to draw £160 – what can this mean? – immediately wrote as follows to ‘Mr. Samuel Washington, Crownest’ ‘Shibden hall – Monday 3 December 1838 – Sir – I wish to see you here at half past nine, or ten tomorrow morning – but, if you cannot come so early, let me know at what hour during the day you can come – I particularly desire to see you tomorrow – I am sir, etc. etc. A. Lister’ -  out at 3 40 set off to meet A- and send George back with the note to SW. – met A- just past Listerwick pit – SW. at H-X and going to Leeds in the morning – sent George (without the note) to H-x to find him if he could and tell him to call here this evening – talked the matter over with A- as she rode and as I walked home – there is but one thing for it said I – that is, that he is steward for some Miss Lister in the town, and the one is put down for the other – A- looked over the bank book – she cooler than I, at once discovered that Mr. Kean had made a mistake in putting the letter W- after the payment of £460 to Mr. Gray – this was a gleam – then turned to SW-‘s midsummer rent letter - £155 of expense accounted for up to that date – I had empowered him to draw £200 and this he had only exceeded about £130 – But how was this – A- had talked me into quiet when Joseph Mann came – with him about ½ hour till after 6 – It seemed from his book that SW. had paid him above £160 – thus I became satisfied save as to the engine job – JM. within 4 yards of the coal at Airgate pit – A- had sent to the bank for three hundred pounds – she had put up ½ in a letter parcel and brought it to me with a look of pleasure that affected me – I took the parcel with a mere thank-you, adding I shall not say much – dinner at 6 ¼ I had thought it would be a saving to A- and enough for me if she would  keep the establishment as I had mentioned before   I said I thought it would be better for her and me too and then I would never have more from her than for the establishment to m[y] surprise she said she could not do that and do for her estate which was in worse order than mine her father had been very kind to her and she did not think it right not to do for the estate and she cried and said it was very hard she had no comforts herself   this upset me   seeing this she tried to console me  but this only made me wors[e]  and in a burst of tearful grief I went up to my own blue room   A- with me I lay down  walked up and down the room then went to A-s’ room and sat in my aunts’ great chair A- by me  I left her about eleven declining her invitation to sleep with her   my mind was made up to leave her    I somehow got attendrie when I thought all over  I longed for a nutshell to live quietly in and yet the thought of her and the parting distressed me – Rainy day with gleams