The Unification Church: Major Financial Supporter of the Christian Right

The Unification Church has spent great sums supporting conservative causes. Since the 1970s, Unification Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon has been involved in right-wing politics in the United States. He has been critical of democracy and calls America ”Satan’s Harvest.” Moon’s name first became associated with American politics when he was accused of funneling South Korean money to 115 members of Congress in a scandal called “Koreagate.” A House committee found he was spreading around KCIA money among members of Congress in order to influence U.S. policy. Even Reverend Moon has admitted to declining church membership, but he still has somehow found billions to invest in various ventures, many of them political in nature. Other funds were used to win allies in the American Religious Right.

It is known that the KCIA has close ties with him and that much of his money comes from Japanese yakuza gangsters Ryoichi Sasakawa and Yoshio Kodama and from various operations in Latin America. Some have suggested his organization could be involved in drug running and money laundering

Ironically, Reverend Moon was also tied to the South Korean dissident Kim Dae Jung who had long battled authoritarian regimes and had even spent time in prison for his political views. Despite Moon’s problems with South Korea’s autocratic rulers, he had ties to the Korean equivalent of the CIA, which helped the Unification Church expand elsewhere in Asia. According to the Ripon Society, a moderate Republican organization, the Unification Church gave money to the College Young Republicans in 1981 and provided cheap labor for Accuracy in Media in 1983. In 1983, Grover Norquist, then head of the College Republican National Committee, interrupted Ripon Chairman, Rep. Jim Leach at a press conference, claiming Leach was a liar in asserting that Moon money had reached the College Republicans.

In the Reagan-Bush years, Moon poured money into his Washington Times , founded in 1982, and conservative causes. Reagan called the Times his favorite paper. Moon hired conservative fund-raiser Richard Viguerie to run a slick campaign to attract subscribers. Moon solidified his ties with Viguerie by having one of his subsidiary corporations purchase a Viguerie property for $10 million. Despite these efforts, it was necessary for Moon to subsidize the paper with tens of millions of dollars in the eighties. It was a fierce defender of the Reagan administration during the Iran-Contra controversy, Moon’s American Freedom Coalition ran a video in praise of Oliver North 600 times on 100 TV stations during the Iran-Contra Controversy.

The Times, in 1988, circulated rumors about Michael Dukakis’s mental health. Reverend Moon’s lieutenants bragged that their operatives circulated 30,000,000 pro-Bush pamphlets in that year. In 1992, it suggested that Bill Clinton betrayed his country while visiting Moscow, implying the KGB had recruited him. President George W. Bush invited its editor to the White House to praise him for his contribution the conservative cause. Moon's Women's Federation for World Peace was later to pay George H. W. Bush large fees for speeches. Moon has also acquired United Press International. The paper lost huge amounts of money in the 1980s, sometimes as much as $50 million a year By 2004, Moon’s Unification Church poured $1 billion into the paper to cover its losses. George W. Bush appointed David Caprara, head of Moon’s American Family Coalition, to be director of Volunteers in Service to America.

Moon claimed that God has designated him as the second messiah, to complete the work of Jesus Christ who failed because he did not marry and have children. Though claiming to be a Christian, Moon believes Christ was not divine. In 1984, Moon began to serve thirteen months in a federal prison for a 1982 mail fraud conviction. After his release, his former daughter-in-law charged that the organization was still playing fast and loose with the law, moving cash across the borders. Though a known womanizer and despite theological views that were clearly heretical to conservative American Christians, Moon developed close ties with some Protestant fundamentalists. In 1995, a Moon front called the Christian Heritage Foundation, bailed out Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University by purchasing half of its $73 million debt for $3.5 million. In 1996, a Moon organization made a $400,000 unsecured loan to Liberty. In return for financial assistance, Falwell, who may have received as much as $76 million in assistance from Moon, appeared at Moon functions. In 1998, Elliot Abrams, an official in the administrations of both Bushs, gave spoke at three Moon rallies

Reverend Moon’s high status in Republican circles was signaled 2001 when President George W. Bush permitted onetime aid Doug Wead to arrange an Inaugural Prayer Luncheon sponsored by Moon. In 2005, his Unification Church contributed $250,000 to George H.W. Bush’s second inauguration. At Moon’s 1996 Family Federation for World Peace event, evangelists Robert H. Schuller, Beverley LaHaye appeared, as did right-wing strategist Ralph Reed and conservative politician Gary Bauer. Reed insisted that Moon’s followers were counter revolutionaries, simply intent on resisting liberal culture and values.
Direct Mail Communications, a firm owned by two Moon operatives, built a mailing list for Colonel North and worked for the National Rifle Association. It has also worked for the Republican National Committee and George W. Bush. The firm has done solicitations at less than cost for Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour, Liberty Alliance, and Liberty University. On July 26, 1994, Falwell was on hand when Moon created his Youth Federation for World Peace. Maureen Reagan was photographed at Falwell’s side. In 2002, Moon hosted a gala anniversary party for his self-proclaimed “unbiased” outlet. Conservative therapist Dr. Laura Schlesinger addressed the crowd and Moon treated them to an hour-long sermon

There can be little doubt that Reverend Moon has made a substantial contribution to the success of the Republican Party. His growing influence within the New Right is of interest in part because he has expressed disapproval of American institutions and democracy. Speaking of himself, he once said: “That is Father's tactic, the natural subjugation of the American government and population." There is almost no possibility he can accomplish this goal. He attracted some conservative American converts with his fierce anti-Communism during the Cold War, but he no longer has that tool at his disposal.




Sherman has written African American Baseball: A brief History, which can be acquired from LuLu Publishing on line.http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?search_forum