PittsburghPost-Gazette: A Moon for the misbegotten

"The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's self-coronation at the Dirksen Senate Office Building before a dozen members of Congress provides a window into the doings of a cult leader with a criminal record who is steadily buying his way into the mainstream of political life.
Billed as an awards ceremony organized by the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, the widely ignored March 23 gathering began unremarkably. Members of Congress, like Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., were handed "crown of peace" awards. U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., gave a speech about his official visit to Libya.
Then, in an exquisitely bizarre finale, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., carried a bejeweled crown to the front of the room. Moon and his wife donned crowns and robes and Moon told the crowd of doings in the spirit world where Marx, Lenin,
Hitler and Stalin have learned from him.
"They have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Rev. Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent," Moon beamed. "This resolution has been announced on every corner of the globe."
Not every corner. The story in the next day's Moon-owned Washington Times diplomatically ignored its founder's assertions of godhood. It took three months and some very strange photos of Moon and his wife in crowns and robes to push the story out of the margins.
"We all think he's losing his mind. He's getting crazier every day," said Steven Hassan, a former official in the American branch of Moon's Unification Church who is now an anti-cult consultant.
But as Moon gets crazier, he also seems to get more access to power and his lieutenants become more skillful at husbanding it. He has a long history of seeking out the powerful, currying favor and looking like just another statesman, even after recklessly free-associating like a psychic on LSD.
The modus operandi is this: Get someone such as former Vice President Dan Quayle, Sen. Richard Lugar or some regional do-gooder into a Moon front group's event and be sure to get a photo. When Weldon's press secretary initially denied that her boss was at the Dirksen ceremony, she was confronted with photos, pulled from the Moon Web site, of Weldon in attendance. When she said he did not speak, up came another photo of Weldon giving a speech.
"The pictures not only give the illusion to members that the group is growing, but they're helpful with other famous people: 'Look at these people coming to our meetings. Why don't you come?' " Hassan said.
Twenty years ago, Moon was sent to prison for 18 months for tax evasion. Upon his release, he held another in his series of mass weddings for couples he had personally paired. Ordinarily, this sort of behavior would scare off power-brokers in Washington, but Moon has instead refashioned himself as a billionaire donor with a few eccentric notions. His organization claims membership in the millions worldwide, a number more likely to fall somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 with at most 10,000 in the United States, according to Hassan. But with an array of businesses on four continents, and an array of official-sounding organizations, Moon purchases legitimacy.
Eight years ago, launching a newspaper in Latin America, Moon was shunned by Argentine President Carlos Menem. Former President George H.W. Bush felt no such misgivings. He was flown to Buenos Aires and praised Moon -- "the man with the vision" -- and told the audience The Washington Times "brings sanity to Washington, D.C."
This "sanity" is the work of a billionaire with links to the Korean CIA and whose church gained prominence by recruiting lonely college students who were put on the streets in the 1970s to sell "Bicentennial God Bless America Candy." The proceeds financed a rajah's lifestyle and a metastasizing empire that now includes fisheries, restaurants, stores and two firearms manufacturing plants.
To buy the access he craves, Moon has paid out millions in speaking fees to an array of powerful people, including the elder Bush, former President Gerald Ford and members of Congress. Through innocuous-sounding groups with names such as Interreligious and International Forum for World Peace, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles and The Women's Federation for World Peace, Moon passes out awards to various civic leaders, then invites their members of Congress to attend ceremonies where their constituents are honored. Last week President George W. Bush visited Philadelphia where he was hosted by a local supporter, the Rev. Herb Lusk. Three years ago, Lusk was among those on the dais with Moon, receiving the "National Service Award" from the Washington Times Foundation.
Moon bought the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and United Press International. One Moon-run firm, Saeilo, owns Kahr Arms, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of eight-shot, 9 mm handguns. Kahr, in turn, acquired a machine-gun maker. Three Moon groups have obtained non-governmental organization recognition from the United Nations. Another, the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, passes as an umbrella group for others.
"Moon has always had tons of money," said Larry Zilliox Jr., a Virginia investigator who has spent years investigating the cult leader. "He probably controls more private real estate in the world than anyone else. The thing to remember when you're looking at this is you're looking at the movement -- you're looking at everything as one. Everything works in furtherance of his goals and activities." The goal, by all indications, is Moon as an acknowledged world leader.
A decade ago, Moon's followers arranged to have him and his wife honored by Congress. Moon's theology holds that he and his wife, Hak Ja Moon, are the "True Parents of All Humanity." That is the title by which they are known among followers.
In 1993, Moon's followers arranged for Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., to introduce a resolution "to recognize and support True Parents Day and the restoration of God-centered families in our society." The measure failed. A year later, Moon's forces had better luck in the U.S. House. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., introduced a measure recognizing "Parents Day." The Moon connection became clear when Burton mentioned the co-chairmen of the National Parents Day Coalition. They included Walter Fauntroy, former House delegate for the District of Columbia and now a regular at Moon events, and Robert G. Grant, one of the founding members of the Moon-affiliated American Freedom Coalition.
Burton's office did not respond to inquiries about whether the Indiana congressman knew he was dealing with a Moon front. It would not be an unusual denial.
The official story from Davis' office was that he had no idea what was about to unfold when Moon went to the stage.
"We didn't anticipate the event to be one of a crowning ceremony for Rev. Moon," said Richard Boykin, Davis' chief of staff.
Why, then, was Davis carrying the crown to Moon?
"In the spirit of decorum, you just don't walk out," Boykin said.
Davis' profession of surprise would carry more weight if his own ethics disclosure forms did not show him accepting honoraria totaling more than $5,000 from two Moon fronts, the Family Federation for World Peace and the Pure Love Alliance.
The Pure Love Alliance, a pro-chastity group, worked its way into the curriculum of the Chicago Public Schools until it was ejected after someone noticed it advocating a Moon theory called "absolute sex." The theory, as espoused by Moon, suggested sex with a partner chosen by Moon.
Davis personally gave a speech on the floor of the House praising the federation and its work.
Weldon's press secretary said he was unaware of Moon's involvement in the March event and had no enthusiasm for Moon. Yet Weldon's ethics disclosure statements, on file with the Clerk of the House, reflect a $3,000 honorarium for a speech before the Moon-run IIFWP in 2002. That year, the IIFWP budget allotted $282,000 for speaker honoraria, although tracking down every recipient is a needle-in-a-haystack task.
Angela Sowa, Weldon's press secretary, said her boss didn't realize Moon would be at the Dirksen event and left before Moon took the stage.
"The congressman was asked by Bill Gertz, who was a Washington Times reporter, to speak about his trip to Libya," Sowa said. Gertz confirmed as much, saying he'd hoped to sit at Weldon's table, but that the congressman left early.
In fact, by the end of last week, it was hard to find a congressional aide willing to say the boss was there. They had missed the Messiah's debutante ball. No worry. With this many front groups, Moon will be orbiting Congress in years to come."