Moonies Recruit Christian Clergy for Mass "Blessing"

Religion Today/April 26, 2002

On April 27th, controversial religious figurehead, alleged cult leader and self-proclaimed Messiah Sun Myung Moon, is to officiate over a mass "blessing" of clergy couples at a ceremony in a Washington, D.C. hotel.

The event claims to be part of a simultaneous worldwide wedding of 144,000 clergy couples via satellite link.

"The public thinks that the Moonies have gone away. They haven't. They have been quite busy in recent years, focusing their recruitment efforts to Christian clergy, politicians, and business people," says Steven Hassan, former Moonie, author, licensed counselor and mind control expert. "They are still deceptive and quite dangerous," Hassan wrote in a press release.

Moon is an 82-year old Korean billionaire and convicted felon who served 13 months in federal prison for income tax evasion and conspiracy in the mid-1980s. Moon owns the Washington Times newspaper, U.P.I., Insight magazine, The University of Bridgeport (CT) and The New Yorker Hotel.

"I am certain that Christian clergy who are planning to participate in this 'blessing' are not aware of the real theology of Moon, says Hassan. "What people have to understand is that destructive cults use deception and extensive manipulation to achieve their goals - in this case to help legitimize and mainstream Moon."