Farrakhan, Moon Make an Odd or Perfect Couple

Washington Post/October 12, 2000
By Marc Fisher

Monday's Million Family March on the Mall will feature "a Sacred Marriage Blessing Ceremony for 10,000 new couples." For $550, cash up front, you get Million Family March (MFM) wedding rings, velvet sashes, an MFM lapel pin and a copy of the official vows, signed by Louis Farrakhan.

Mass marriage ceremonies at big public events? Isn't that the signature of another self-proclaimed prophet?

Sheck out the new happy couple: Monday's march turns out to be a bizarre marriage of Farrakhan and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church.

The blessing ceremony is the giveaway. "This reflects the way Reverend Moon has influenced Minister Farrakhan," Unification Reverend Phil Schanker told Salon, the online magazine that broke the story. Unification memos say Moon decided to help organize the march after he heard about "Farrakhan's personal desire to ask him to bless all the families at the MFM."

Moon and Farrakhan have become buddies of late, and Moon's minions have been ordered to cough up $300 per family and work round-the-clock for the march's success.

In a letter to Unification families, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification - a key cog in the Moon machinery - directed followers to "commit all of our hearts and efforts" to the march. "This is the will of heaven as directed by our True Parents" - church lingo for Moon and his wife. You have to hand it to Moon: He managed to sell his mass marriage scam to a guy who's made a career of slamming Asians, among others. Of course, Moon and Farrakhan have hates in common. Both condemn homosexuals, and both would consign women to servility. Neither is big on Jews.

The closer you look, the more these characters seem peas in a pod. Both men boast empires of mansions and fancy cars paid for by the faithful devotion of impoverished followers. Both strive for credibility, wooing celebrities and politicians at every turn. Moon did time for tax evasion and Farrakhan has admitted helping to "create the atmosphere" that led to Malcolm X's murder.

And both hawk wacky cosmologies: Farrakhan focuses on UFOs and a mad scientist named Dr. Yacub who created whites in an evil genetic experiment. Moon preaches that all beliefs except Unificationism and all languages except Korean will vanish from the Earth. Moon, who teaches that he paved the way for Jesus to ascend to heaven by marrying him to a Korean woman, will then have total power.

Members of both movements are puzzled by the alliance. The Rev. Levy Daughtery, a prominent Moon ally, this week explained that "every prophet starts his ministry ... among his own people and race." Now, he says, those who attend the march "are the new chosen people."

Farrakhan, too, sought to calm his followers: "I am grateful for the help of ... Reverend and Mrs. Moon, and I don't want us to get bent out of shape because a folk of another race desires to help make the Million Family March successful."

Despite recent claims of a new moderation, Farrakhan has not disavowed his many anti-Semitic, anti-white and anti-gay comments. He alternately praises Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and then questions the vice presidential candidate's allegiance to this country, suggesting that since Lieberman is Jewish, he might be more faithful to Israel.

In case you need a quick refresher on Moon's special kind of philosophy, here is a taste of his most recent address to U.S. followers, as posted on his church's Web site: "American women have thinner lips. Women's lips are thinner than men's lips. It is because you have to talk ten times more than the father to educate your children. Thick lipped women cannot have as many children. Having thin lips, big breasts and hips guarantees many children. Thick lips cannot speak fast and with clarity, so such women cannot deal with ten children."

"Who among American are greater than I am?" said Moon, 80, who lately has spoken often of his legacy. "I have power, in a way, through the Washington Times ... As long as you follow my footsteps you will have power and attract people."

This wedding needs a whole lot more than a blessing.