2022/08/07

Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his Family's Books

Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his Family's Books

www.Tparents.org

Sun Myung Moon, FFWPU and the Unification Church in their own words

www.Tparents.org - Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Founder - Gary Fleisher, Webmaster

Home - Sun Myung Moon and family - Unificationists - Links
Sun Myung Moon - Family Photos - Publications and Books - Moon Family Talks


Library, Moon Family,
Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Books

A Bald Head And A Strawberry - Hyung Jin Moon

A Life of Prayer - Prayers of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon - Book One - Compiled by Zin Moon Kim - November 6, 1991 pdf

A Time Line of Prayers by Sun Myung Moon - January 14, 2014 pdf

As A Peace-Loving Global Citizen - Autobiography of Sun Myung Moon (October 2009 pdf)

As A Peace-Loving Global Citizen - Autobiography of Sun Myung Moon - with photos (October 2009 pdf)

A Prophet Speaks Today - the words of Sun Myung Moon - W. Farley Jones - May 1975 pdf

Blessing and Ideal Family

Blessed Marriage and Eternal Life
(Official text of April 1998 North American Speaking Tour)

Chambumo Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon - 2016

Cheon-Hwa-Dang - The House of Heaven's Harmony - Hyung Jin Moon (2006 pdf)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2014: The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk, an anthology of True Parents' teachings

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2014: The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk [Graphic Version]

Cheon Seong Gyeong - Sun Myung Moon

Cheon Seong Gyeong Rough Draft Version - Sun Myung Moon

Father's Life in His Own Words - Sun Myung Moon

Father's Words on the Divine Principle - Sun Myung Moon - Compiled and Edited by The House of Unification for World Peace - circa 1999 pdf

Forgive, Love and Unite: September 2012~December 2014 - A collection of True Mother's Words to members since True Father's Assension to the spirit world (March 15, 2015 pdf)

God's Hope for America 2014 Speech Book - Sun Myung Moon - July 9, 2014 pdf

America in God's Providence - Two Speeches by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon - 1976 pdf

God's Warning to the World - Reverend Moon's Message from Prison

God's Warning to the World - Book II

God's Will and the Ocean

God's Will and the World

Home Church

Hoon Dok Hae Books

   Blessing And Ideal Family (Part 1)

   Blessing And Ideal Family (Part 2)

   Way of Unification (Part 1)

   Way of Unification (Part 2)

   The Way Of The Spiritual Leader (Part 1)

   The Way Of The Spiritual Leader (Part 2)

   Unification Family Life

   Raising Children in God's Will

   The Way For Students

   The Way for Young People

   The Way for a True Child

   The Tribal Messiah

   True Parents

   Earthly Life and Spirit World (Part 1)

   Earthly Life and Spirit World (Part 2)

Master Speaks, Questions and Answers from Reverend Moon (1965)

Mind Garden (Ye-jin Moon - October 1976 pdf)

Mother of Peace - And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes A Memoir by Hak Ja Han Moon - February 2020 - Text Only Version

Mother of Peace, the Memoir - Hak Ja Han Moon February 2020 - Draft Version - Entire Book - Graphics and Text (pdf)

Mother of Peace, the Memoir - Hak Ja Han Moon February 2020 - Draft Version

New Hope - Twelve Talks of Reverend Sun Myung Moon

One Family Under God -- The life of Sun Myung Moon - Chung Hwan Kwak - February 12, 2008

Owning The Creation Of The Culture Of Heart - Hyun Jin Moon - Vol. 2

Peace King: Essays on the Life and Work of Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon Chung Hwan Kwak - February 23, 2007

Peace Messages (Pyunghwa Hoongyeong - Pyeonghwa Shingyeong) - Sun Myung Moon (September 2007)

Prayers, A Lifetime Of Conversation With Our Heavenly Father - Sun Myung Moon

Proclamation of the Messiah

Pyeong Hwa Gyeong 2014: The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk

Pyeong Hwa Gyeong 2014: The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk [Graphic Version]

Restoration of True Love

Red Rooster Collection sto True Mother's Speeches - 2019 - Anton Smirnov

Science & Absolute Values, 10 Addresses by Sun Myung Moon

Sermons of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 1
(April 8, 1956 through December 30, 1956)

Sermons of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 2
(January 6, 1957 through August 4, 1957)

Sermons of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 3
(September 8, 1957 through February 9, 1958)

Sermons of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 4
(February 16, 1958, through October 19, 1958)

Sermons of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 5 
(November 9, 1958 through March 8, 1959)

Sermons of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 6
(March 15, 1959 through May 24, 1959)

Sermons of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 7
(July 5, 1959 through October 18, 1959)

Sun Myung Moon and the Foreign Missions to 120 Nations in 1975 (Paula Petersen Fujiwara - 1989 pdf)

Sun Myung Moon's FBI Files

Sun Myung Moon’s Life In His Own Words

Sun Myung Moon's Philosophy of Education

Sun Myung Moon's Philosophy of Peace

Sun Myung Moon's Photos from the Early Days

Sun Myung Moon Speaks to Unification Theological Seminary Students

Textbook for World Peace

The Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom I - 1997

The Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom II - 1997

The Book of Genesis

The Completed Testament Age and The Ideal Kingdom

The Essentials of God's Providential History - Selections from the Speeches of Sun Myung Moon - 2000

The Heart of True Mother - Hak Ja Han - May 1991 (pdf)

The Life and Mission of Jesus Christ

The Mother of Peace Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon - Official Web Page October 20, 2019 - FFWPU USA

The Prayers Of Reverend Sun Myung Moon Volume 1

The Prayers Of Reverend Sun Myung Moon Volume 2: The Entreaty Volume

The Prayers of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon - Volume 3: The Determination Volume

The Reunification of Korea and World Peace

The Tribal Messiah

The Way of God's Will - Interlinear in Japanese, Korean and English - Sun Myung Moon - 1980

The Way of God's Will

The Way of Tradition Volume I - 1980 (Curated by Anton Smirnov pdf)

The Way of Tradition Volume II - 1980 (Curated by Anton Smirnov pdf)

The Way of Tradition Volume III - 1980 (Curated by Anton Smirnov pdf)

The Way of Unification - January 1, 2000

To Him I Offer All The Glory And Honor - Speeches by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday - February 2000 pdf

True Families Gateway to Heaven - 2009 pdf

True Family and World Peace

True Family Gateway To Heaven - 2009 pdf

True Families: Gateway to Heaven - 2014 translation pdf

True Love and True Family

True Mother Hak Ja Han Moon: An Anthology - August 22, 2017

True Parents' Textbook for the Unification of Korea and the World

With the Heart of a Father - A historical overview of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's tax case in America and his speeches, guidance and lifestyle before, during and after being sent to Danbury prison in 1984 - Compiled and edited by Stephen Stacey - November 19, 2015 pdf

Words of Life from True Mother - September 2, 2015 - A collection of True Mother's Words to members (pdf)


Search: Sun Myung Moon, Moonies, FFWPU and the Unification Church in their own words

 
 
What's New?

Advanced Search


Home | Moon | Unification | Links | Myths | Tparents
Sun Myung Moon Talks | Moon Publications and Books | Moon Family Photos | Moon Family Talks

I'm A Moonie And I Love It - Talking Spirituality And Fish Powder With Alaskan Followers Of The Reverend Sun Myung Moon - Euge

I'm A Moonie And I Love It - Talking Spirituality And Fish Powder With Alaskan Followers Of The Reverend Sun Myung Moon - Euge

The Words of the Harnett Family

I'm A Moonie And I Love It - Talking Spirituality And Fish Powder With Alaskan Followers Of The Reverend Sun Myung Moon

Interview of Eugene Harnett and Neil Drucker

Hal Horton Jr.
July 13-19, 2000
The Anchorage Press

I come bearing good news: the Messiah is now walking the earth. He is in excellent health, considering his age. He is optimistic and spending His summers fishing in Kodiak.

And still better news: the Messiah has a sizable band of adherents, whom you are lovingly invited to join. There is even a handful of such families in Anchorage. They are members of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, or "The Unification Church," for short.

You probably know them under another name.

"The term 'Moonie' shall not be used in your article," Pastor Eugene Harnett informs me.

Harnett is head of the Anchorage Family Church, the local branch of the Unification movement, and a follower of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the church's leader and messiah. Pastor Harnett has been kind enough to meet with me on short notice to discuss theology, the Unification Church's Kodiak congregation, and what it is like to cast for kings on the banks of the Olds River while standing next to the Lord of the Second Advent.

The Unification Church has invested heavily in Kodiak. It owns International Oceanic Enterprises, the parent company of both International Seafoods of Alaska, a Kodiak processing plant, and U.S. Marine, a subsidiary which runs a fleet of fishing boats on the island. Moon's church has become the largest tax-payer on Kodiak, and the largest private employer, which has done wonders to quell controversy among non-believers on the island, who once wielded picket signs in protest against the people you are now allowed to call "Unificationists."

Pastor Harnett compares the term "Moonie" to "the N-word:" in short, it's only permissible to say it if you're doing so in love, and you are one yourself.

Harnett has a point. Under "the M-word," followers of the Reverend Sun Moon have been subjected to the most virulent press coverage of any new religious movement of modern times-with the obvious exceptions of those that ended in mass suicide or in flames and gunfire.

Some headlines from a collection of U.S. and European papers in the late '70s:

"Reverend Moon's plot to rule the world;"

"Parents fight 'brainwashing' by bizarre sect;"

"Mass suicide possible in Moon Church, 3 say;"

And my personal favorite from the Paris Match of 1975: "Le Dieu Moon nous arrache nos enfants"-"The God Moon snatches our children."

Pastor Harnett looks nothing like a child snatcher. He is a youthful and friendly 44-year-old with red hair and large, freckled hands. His eyes are extremely intense when he is passionate about his subject-for instance, the subject of his 1982 arranged marriage.

For Pastor Harnett, "it was very personal. I had a match. Someone I could commit my life to. She was from Japan. And she-you see this chipped tooth? Her tooth was chipped the same way. The same tooth. When we met each other it was like that."

When they met, Harnett and his wife-to-be were standing with 5,836 other couples in a stadium in Seoul, Korea. The matches had all been made by the Reverend Moon.

"It's not like a herd of cattle," Harnett says. "Visually it might look like it, but each individual has his or her own relationship with God and is building a relationship with another person.... When there is no love, but there's a commitment to find love, that marriage can be stronger. Do you understand?"

I am not sure I do. I ask if he ever wonders about that chipped tooth-if he hadn't chipped it, might he now be married to someone else?

"What I'm trying to say is that there's a commitment to the relationship, even before there's love," Harnett says. "A lot of marriages, you fall in love, you become passionately in love with each other, like a pot of boiling water. And then you get married. And then that pot of boiling water starts to simmer and cool down as the years go by.

"In my situation, it's like we started out as that tepid pot of water. But as you add love, and you go through those times when there is no love and you're asked to find some-especially when it's over an expanse of culture, which it was with mine, or skin color, or language-then you're asked to find love over difficult circumstances, but when you do it becomes a boiling pot of water. And it gets hotter and hotter and more passionate. That's been my experience, over eighteen years."

The American contingent of the Unification Church began with a single missionary from Korea who landed in the Bay Area in 1959. Membership growth was incremental over the next decade. Fundraising relied on members' tithing and a few small church businesses. In 1972, however, a few church members in Maryland began asking for "donations" in exchange for candles. By July 1973 average sales per convert were nearly $1,000 a week, and the church established "Mobile Fundraising Teams," whose members lived communally, worked out of vans, and sold flowers and peanuts for long hours. Individual members of the Unification Church saw none of the proceeds, although their basic needs were provided for.

This era also saw the advent of "the love-bomb."

A conversion technique popular within Bay Area branches of the church, love-bombing involved gathering groups of Unificationists around a reluctant new recruit and "bombing them with love." (Keep in mind that each Unification group in the United States operated independently. The national leadership cannot be proven to have condoned any of this.)

In 1974, the church bought a mansion in Westchester County as a personal residence for the Reverend and his family. Two years later, the church bought Tiffany's. Both purchases were indicative of an underlying Republicanism which often surprises those unfamiliar with the inner-workings of the movement-including many of its professed members. During the Watergate hearings, for example, the Reverend Moon directed mass demonstrations in support of President Nixon. During the political unrest in Central American in the 1980s his church established CAUSA, an anti-communist group implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal. CAUSA funneled money to General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez who, according to Amnesty International, directed Honduran death squads.

But this is all old news, according to Pastor Harnett, along with the almost certainly false reports of individual members being psychologically infantilized and barred from seeing their families.

Such reports likely arose because, people asked, why else would members spend years raising money for a self-proclaimed messiah from Korea?

Harnett raised funds for the church for three years. It's a question he's happy to answer.

"Because [fundraising] is an education in how to love people," he says. "If you go out every day trying to make money like that, you're going to hit a brick wall. But if you go out trying to love people, if you go out with that idea, then you can break through those brick walls. . . . From a spiritual-training point of view, from a ministering point of view, it's excellent."

Harnett says that like many in the first wave of Unificationist converts, he was unfairly maligned.

"When I joined, or a couple years after I joined-a young kid, right? Nineteen, 20, 21. I was bright, I was sharp, a straight-A student. I knew what I was doing. And I'd meet people sometimes, and they'd start talking about all this stuff, digging it up and going at me, this, that, and the other thing, all this about Reverend Moon, and he's this and this and this. And I'd say 'look'-because you know they called us brainwashed, right?-I'd say 'Look, look at my eyes. Do I look brainwashed.'

"And you know what they'd say? 'Yes.'"

It is impossible to sustain for even a second the illusion that Jean-Paul Franquelin has been brainwashed. If there were such a thing as brainwashing-and there is not, outside of loss of identity brought on by extreme physical torture-it would take a peculiarly American naiveté, a hayseediness, to be susceptible. The French would be automatically immune.

The plant manager at International Seafoods in Kodiak and a Unificationist, Franquelin is from Amiens, a city about 70 miles north of Paris. He has a strong accent and looks a little like a middle-aged Jean-Paul Belmondo.

I have come to ask Franquelin about fish powder. In recent years, the Reverend Moon has become enthusiastic about grinding the parts of a fish you don't want to think about into protein powder.

The fishing industry is notoriously wasteful-from out-of-season species hauled up in nets to byproducts of the slime line-and the Reverend Moon wants to turn that waste into food for the hungry. He has invested millions in Kodiak to develop a machine that will take fish waste and turn it into a water-soluble, human-consumable powder that is 90 percent protein.

Fish powder is Pastor Harnett's first example of the charitable causes which might justify the Unification church's massive business holdings, and it seemed to me a sort of charmingly quixotic mission-one of the small surreal touches that makes the Unificationists so interesting.

Unfortunately, the machine they built in Kodiak is so far not entirely successful. According to Franquelin, it had "decanters and high-speed machine equipment, you know..." For an instant he shakes his head as if it were attached to a piston rod. "Vibrations. And it was on the second floor. We were afraid it would fall through to the first floor. And there were other business-related problems. And the quality of the powder was not so good, not what we wanted. You could see little flecks of bone-not high enough grade."

The machine is currently dismantled for repair, though it did produce enough powder for the church to send 1,500 pounds of it to Burundi in 1994. The shipment ran into a snag-fish powder was not on the list of U.N.-approved comestibles-so distribution was limited to Christian Disaster Relief agency sites.

(There have been no reports of what famished Hutus thought of the taste, but the church baked Kodiak fish powder into desserts at a press tasting in Seattle that same year. According to wire reports, the cookies were fine, but the brownies tasted a little fishy.)

Once he's finished explaining why the fish powder machine is down, Franquelin details, in a cheerfully uncomplicated way, the way in which he came to the Unificationists: he met someone in Paris, agreed to come to a meeting, and liked what was said. The fact that Franquelin's employer is also his church is not of much import to him-work is not therefore prayer.

"Americans are strange about their jobs," he tells me. "They know how to work hard, always-" and he jabs at the air to demonstrate his point. "It is not the French way. I am serious about my job, I am serious about what I believe, but-no."

International Seafoods will hire qualified workers, regardless of their spiritual beliefs-a few of the top managers at the plant are now non-members. It is becoming a business like any other, and, the vagaries of the fishing industry being what they are, it does not always turn a profit. To the people of Kodiak it has become, in a word, uncontroversial.

I suggest to Franquelin that a true Messiah would not have spent so much time and money investing in things that are more properly Caesar's. For instance, this processing plant.

"When Jesus was alive and preaching nobody followed him," the plant manager tells me. "People said Satan made the miracles, and in the end even the disciples abandoned him. And finally the people killed him. If he had fulfilled his mission, of course they would have given him clothes, so on," and he rolls his hand to signify the various fine things the Son of Man would have received.

"The Reverend Moon is more humble than any man I've met so far. He is always trying to spend for the sake of others. It is not like he is eating like a king."

He pauses for a moment, regarding me. "You know, if I had seen Jesus and he had told me he was the Messiah, I would have checked before I threw a stone at him. I would not just go by public opinion. Because truth is not always easy to listen to."

Nor does it always make for light reading. The Divine Principle, the Unification movement's book of theology, has none of the rolling, pleasant, King-Jamesian doggerel of, for instance, the Book of Mormon. It has the style of an engineering manual, and its metaphors are mostly geometric-a soul is compared to a circle becoming a sphere; husbands and wives are meant to triangulate off of God. Certain significant numbers appear again and again: Ten is the number of revelation, 40 is the number of "indemnity" (the process by which trials in this life cleanse us of sin). The Reverend Moon finds a pattern of repeating numbers in the years between Old Testament prophets, a pattern which was repeated after the advent of Jesus in such a way as to point to the era of the Reverend's own birth

But most central to the theology-arguably more central even than Jesus-is the Unificationist take on the Garden of Eden. It goes like this: Adam and Eve were intended by God to form a kind of holy trinity with him, whereby Adam and Eve would become True Parents and all their children would be "Blessed." Evil would not exist in the world. But then Lucifer the fallen angel snaked in. The familiar episode is sexualized-the apple of the Tree of Knowledge is a metaphoric fruit. First Lucifer had a "spiritual" sexual relationship with Eve, and then Eve convinced Adam to have physical intercourse. The triangulation was, therefore, based on Satan, sex occurred before God blessed the union, and Original Sin entered the world.

The Divine Principle dismisses Immaculate Conception-of course Mary wasn't really a virgin-and restates God's aims for the various Biblical personages. Moses, Abraham and even Jesus Christ are rendered as failures. What God really wanted for his Son was to see him married. Tragically, Jesus was murdered instead-and not at God's will; what Father could plan such a thing for His Son?

The crucifixion prevented Jesus from achieving His true mission, which was to enter into holy matrimony and to become a True Parent in the physical sense, as much as He is in the spiritual sense.

Instead, the world had to wait for Sun Moon.

I spent a few hours in Kodiak bars trying to get a sense of public feeling about the church. I found the people of Kodiak, or at least those who drink in public, remain almost universally ignorant about Moon's doctrine. Previous controversies on the island-in the early '80s, when the church was buying up the last remaining frontage on the Kodiak dock-had more to do with the movement's media image as starry-eyed freaks and kidnappers than with any Christian heresies.

In the mid-'90s, though, angry letter-writers to the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported wall-to-wall Unificationists in matching orange raincoats lining the banks of the Olds River. These church members were flown to the island-mostly from Japan-and were bussed to rivers along the road system in groups of as many as 200. Eyewitnesses reported that the Reverend himself was landing 25 or 30 salmon during one day's fishing-as his followers would hand him their pole whenever they hooked a fish.

"He is very intense when fishing," Harnett says of the Messiah. "He becomes very focused."

Barstool opposition to the church's presence on Kodiak lingers, though it's no longer particularly articulate:

"Motherfucking bunch of brainwashed motherfuckers."

"They ain't Moonies. They're morons. Ought to call themselves Moronies!"

More often than not, though, I found the Unificationaist presence was regarded as a non-issue.

"They're nice people. Everybody in Kodiak gets along fine with them."

And what of the accusations that church-sponsored tenders once undercut other processors and handed out twelve-packs of beer to fishermen willing to do business with them?

"Bunch of crap. They pay the same as anyone else, pay taxes like anybody else, run the plant like anybody else. And they don't drink, you know, don't mess around at all. So if they want to believe like a bunch of idiots, I say let them."

This Saturday night gathering of public opinion ended badly. The bartender at the Breakers objected to me recording people, things got ugly, and the whole episode ran out into charges of criminal mischief, a brief stint in jail, and a lawyer named "Razzo."

Suffice to say I was in the mood to be love-bombed come Sunday morning.

And I wasn't disappointed, although the experience was, at most, a light love-strafing.

The service began in Angel Garden with the singing of Unificationist hymns, which have the structure and melodies of folk songs. Pastor Neil Drucker strummed an acoustic guitar in his stocking feet.

Such scenes may be the reason people still think the Reverend Moon leads some kind of hippie cult-the church remains an odd cross between the restrictive discipline of other conservative Christian groups and the free-love stylings of the period in which the American Unificationist movement came of age.

The truly impressive thing, though, was the racial makeup of the congregation, in a country where we do nothing in so segregated a fashion as the worship of God. Kodiak has 17 or so resident Unificationist couples, and their families are strikingly diverse. A handsome black family sat in the front row of folding chairs. Pastor Drucker himself is ethnically Jewish. Mixed-race children, who comprised half the congregation, were permitted to squirm and make noise in admirable freedom.

Another impressive thing-impressive in a different way-is that Pastor Drucker did not mention the Reverend Moon once in his sermon, which was on the family as the basis for social and religious renewal. If Adam had created a church, he said, it would have been just a family. And this intimate, sacred relation would have remained among all peoples for all times.

"Family Work, Family Town, Family State, Family Nation," said Pastor Drucker. "And Family World."

His wife, Diane, thanked God eloquently and at length in a spontaneous prayer, another guest and I were introduced, and then the service was over.

A few people came over to greet me, among them Mr. and Mrs. Hokanson. It is difficult when first meeting Unificationist couples to resist evaluating the match. Mr. Hokanson is a tall, gangly, slightly awkward white American, and for a short time I suspected his wife, a first-generation Korean American, was too beautiful for him. But Mr. Hokanson has a compensating generosity of spirit. He works as a boat captain for U.S. Marine, and was also captain of the first Unificationist fishing boat in Gloucester, Massachusetts. (The entry of the church into that fishery made any of the Kodiak controversies look neighborly-at one point the mayor of Gloucester told the Reverend "you'll have strap marks on your ass before you get a permit out of me.")

Mrs. Hokanson has spoken with the Reverend Moon. I just missed him on my recent trip to Kodiak, which is just as well since the Reverend refuses media interviews. But he goes to Kodiak twice a summer for at least a few weeks-during the salmon runs-and so of course everyone I met in Angel Garden had also met the Reverend Moon. But Mrs. Hokanson speaks Korean, and the Reverend's English is not strong, so she has talked with him at greater length than most in Kodiak.

I was fascinated by this, of course, and pressed her for information. Up until that point I was told of nothing but the Reverend's humility and physical stamina-the man is 80, but Pastor Harnett says, "He could probably take down you or me."

Mrs. Hokanson's English was excellent, but accented enough to prevent me from understanding one word.

"The Reverend Moon thinks of himself as a-"

At first I thought she said "Samuel," meaning the Old Testament figure who anointed the first two kings of Israel, but I was wrong. She repeated herself.

"As a ceremony?" I asked.

"Salmon," puts in Mr. Hokanson.

"Oh," I said.

"It's the 'L," said Mrs. Hokanson, smiling.

The journey of the salmon, she explained, is like humanity's quest to get back to the Garden-to return to the place from whence we came, after so many years of wandering the world. The Reverend Moon sees himself as returning to the heart of creation, where it all began, to make things right for the world.

"And when the salmon return to the spot, they find a mate. . . ."

"And spawn and die," I put in.

"Yes, but their children-they help their children. The young."

"Nourished by the bodies of their parents," I said, and then regretted it, as the metaphor fell into pieces around us and drifted away, leaving us in awkward silence.

Fortunately, Pastor Drucker likes to talk. He is a broad-shouldered man with Jewish features, and he told me about how he joined the church in Israel as we walked across the church's Kodiak land.

The two church buildings, set among tall spruce, are bigger than barns and painted a late-'70s puce. We emerged from "Angel Garden" and made our way across the drive to "North Garden." Nansook Hong-the Reverend's ex-daughter-in-law-reports in her 1998 book In the Shadow of the Moons that the Reverend has at least nine mansions to call his own.

In Gloucester he owns "Morning Garden," in Westchester Country both "East Garden" and "Belvedere." "West Garden" is in L.A. "South Garden" is in South America.

All of this may be true, and the Reverend may also own "North Garden," but Drucker, his wife Diane, and their two children live in it.

Neil Drucker was once a surf-rat and experimental film-maker in California, and you would have to meet Drucker to understand how surprising this is: he is soft-spoken, a little shy, and anyone would have guessed a more timid history.

In Jerusalem, of all the unlikely places, Drucker became a follower of the Korean prophet. Living in the crux of so many world religions for so long has made Drucker uncommonly ecumenical. "Jerusalem has 12 gates, so everyone's coming from a different direction," he said. "But hopefully we arrive all at the same place."

But what would he say to those Christians who object to him not believing in, for instance, the Immaculate Conception?

"I consider it would depend upon the openness of the individual, whether to become emotional from what he understands and shut the door, or really to bring anything he hears to his own personal relationship with God and check it out. I consider God as never saying 'You must do this or you'll go to hell,' and that sort of thing, but as a father, as a parent. God would say, 'Test it out, check it out, make sure what I'm telling you makes sense.'"

I reviewed everything negative I've read about Reverend Moon: That he is an entrepreneur in the field of manipulating faith for profit. That he funded death squads. That as a younger man he was notoriously unfaithful. That he dyes his hair "shoe-polish black." That he is, in every sense of the term, a false prophet. The question I asked Pastor Drucker is this: Suppose Reverend Moon were in some way thoroughly and finally discredited. Would Pastor Drucker then abandon his theology?

He did not pause. "No. True love, the ideal family, these are good qualities. And if I got to the end of my life and someone told me 'It's all not true,' I would look back and think, "What did I do in my life?" And maybe I'll look back and see if I was faithful to my wife. If I was good to my family. Good to my fellow man. That's what will be important."

 Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
 Table of Contents
 Information
 Tparents Home


===

The Words of Reverend Sun Myung Moon from 1992

Vision for Fishing

Reverend Sun Myung Moon
Kodiak, Alaska
September 21, 1992

The following are some of the key points from a talk by Father to the Korean elders and their American proteges on September 21, 1992, at the beginning of the first of four workshops Father organized in Kodiak last fall.

I have spent twenty years developing oceanic enterprises. I wanted to develop three hundred fishing grounds, with ten good-sized boats in each fishing port, and use them as a springboard for developing sightseeing, fishing, and business ventures.

I am also interested in recreational hunting. In Canada we have the largest deer farm in North America, with about five hundred deer. There is another one in New Zealand with over a thousand head. We have another one in England. Once we are ready we can ship the animals to hunting preserves around the world, set them free, and charge people to come and hunt them. We can invite rich people and charge them a lot.

Fishing and hunting expeditions will be among the most exciting sports. We can build big hotels in port cities and have tackle shops. Our ocean activities can handle all the arrangements for sport fishing.

You need to become a master in terms of dealing with boats, fishing, and training young people. Then witnessing will be easy.

Predicted years ago

Originally I planned to sell a boat to an interested young person in a port city-the son of the mayor or police chief, for instance, someone with good character and credit references. We could set him up with a fishing boat and encourage him to develop the sightseeing and fishing business, selling fresh fish locally. Once he masters that, he can make a living in the city and pay off the boat in several years. If we give five boats to five promising young people, you will have a group of committed people. With that kind of foundation, after five years you can buy a fifty-foot boat, even a hundred-foot commercial trawler, just by coming up with a twenty-percent down payment. I was thinking of making some kind of association of fishermen all over the country and have them contribute a certain amount each month to help young people buy boats.

If fishermen can't make a living on the fish they catch, they may have to combine fishing with sightseeing. I predicted this twenty years ago, and that is why I encouraged one hundred twenty young people to launch this project. I went to Germany for six months and when I returned, many of them had disappeared, because they didn't pay enough attention.

Now you have some experience dealing with Good Go boats and fishing. If you are really well trained and determined to multiply people like you, then we still have hope. That is why I called you here for training.

The fishing and sightseeing business is ideal, because America is surrounded on three sides by ocean, and seventy-five percent of the world's fishing grounds are within American territorial waters. Out of this, about eighty percent of the fish are around Kodiak. That is why I established this fishing area in Alaska. Other fishermen went bankrupt and left town. Yet I started taking over one by one. We have been losing money up until now, but I never gave up. Even this year, many businesses have been shutting down to save money, but I pumped another five million dollars into it, building surimi and fish-powder factories. I spent over ten million dollars to establish factory boats. To be successful in the fishing business, you need to cover every aspect.

Wherever we establish this kind of project, we become controversial.

I want to establish ocean church projects and centers again. That is why I developed many kinds of things here, where International Seafood Association (ISA) and our factory are located.

Couples from the Blessing of the 30,000 can come here and then publicize our activities in their countries.

We should be able to develop fish farms everywhere, even in the desert or on the top of a mountain. We can channel ocean water anywhere, with advanced technology.

Select them live

Ten years ago I could see that people would be interested in eating live fish, if they could see them live and select the one they want. People will pay five times more for a fish caught in the ocean than for one raised in a fish farm. That is why I made many Japanese restaurants all around the country, so people could go fishing in the night and bring their live catch to the restaurant to sell them the next day.

You should establish four teams in each state, making two hundred teams around the country. Take people out to the ocean and fish. While fishing, teach them Divine Principle. Do you think you would be wasting your time talking about Divine Principle every day?

I have been planning this for twenty years, but nobody could follow me. You didn't know back then the consequences coming in the future. I have been striving all alone for twenty years but nobody really followed. Now you see the reality.

I began tuna fishing in the Boston area. I made innovations here with salmon fishing. You are young people. You have so much hope for the future. Work hard. Mobilize young people. Educate them and train them to follow your footsteps. Otherwise you will be accused when you go to the spirit world.

You may not know about it, but I have sent fishing fleets around the world. For example, Japanese brothers are in Spain. They set out a three-mile-long net in the ocean around Spain to catch tuna. Other companies trying the same tactic caught only two to three hundred, but our net caught 1,664 giant blue-finned tunas. We keep them alive in the net and feed them, fattening them to sell in Japan when the price is highest, around Christmas and January. This is a natural fish farm.

Fish lay millions and millions of eggs at a time, but they become part of the food chain, in which big sea creatures eat the smaller ones. So over ninety-nine percent are usually eaten and only a very small percentage get hatched. If we can control that system, the resources will be unlimited.

We have to realize that sixty thousand people are dying every day of starvation. Think about the position of True Parents. Shouldn't we worry about that? I am very concerned about it. We have to prepare to solve that situation. If we develop a strong foundation of fishing and sightseeing and people come to know what we are doing and why, rich people around the world will support my project and go to Africa for fishing, sightseeing and farming. Then the African people will be able to survive.

Look at all the high-level people following me through the Professors World Peace Academy. Once the project is going well, they will follow me and bring everybody else.

Prepare yourself to receive me any time I give a call from Korea. I may have the photo album of you and go through it and choose certain states and call you up. You should be prepared to receive me at any time. I may not show up myself but send someone else. If you are not fully ready, you are a failure.

We catch fish here in Kodiak and have many trawlers. You should be able to sell them in your region and earn your living expenses.

I will put you through special training, not just how to catch fish but how to cut them, gut them, and all the necessary steps. It is serious training. You can develop fish farms.

Interracial couples have some advantages. For example, an American husband and Japanese wife: in Japan, the wife can represent the project, because you have to have a Japanese president, and in America the husband can be the president. So you can do business both there and in America. You can borrow money from both Japanese banks and American banks, if you utilize your connections. That way you can make a successful international foundation.

I will teach you to catch fish

The Korean regional directors are in my position and will be responsible to push this project. The Korean regional leader will be like the elder brother and the state leader the younger brother. You must follow the elder brother. You need to multiply people like you, because the Korean regional directors are getting old, and we need younger blood. You have to educate other people.

During this workshop, each team will have a tent. If you don't fulfill your responsibility you have to stay out, even overnight, until you reach your goal. You did not come here to have a good time. Tomorrow I will teach you how to catch fish on a boat, how to navigate the boat. In the future you will be trained to repair boat engines, too.

People will be assigned as team captains according to age, and will rotate by turn.

Even though our Good Go boats are safe and do not sink, we want to avoid accidents. Those of you who are here for the first time and are strangers to fishing, I think the fish may try to catch you! Listen carefully to what I will teach you. I cannot be on your boat, so every day I will teach you what to do. I will talk to the first team that meets their goal and gets back. If I went out, it would be too easy. I would be able to finish before noon.

Just like people, fish like to be around scenic areas. They like cool, shady spots. If you see nice mountains and rocks, you will find fish in those areas.

You do not have to use a lot of energy to cast your line. Keep the angle of your line at about thirty degrees. If the angle is perpendicular, the fish are more likely to notice it. Usually fish stay about a foot above the bottom. Wind your lure slowly. Adjust the weight of your lure and sinker to keep the bait floating at about a thirty-degree angle. You will learn the rest by experience on the boat.

Once you go back, you will repeat this kind of session. Send people out to two hundred fifty cities, and then twenty-five hundred cities. Blessed couples must participate. This is the way we will save America. Who will save this country? You will.

You have to be trained to be a lecturer wherever you go. Whomever you meet, you should be able to give lectures to. We should be able to mobilize campus ministers so that they can give lectures every day, just like you. This way we can multiply our membership and also the people who can lecture.

Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Copyright Information
Tparents Home



Concentrated Fish Protein from Under-Utilized Fish in Alaska being Delivered to Rwandan Refugee Camps — SunHak Institute of History USA

Concentrated Fish Protein from Under-Utilized Fish in Alaska being Delivered to Rwandan Refugee Camps — SunHak Institute of History USA






WELCOME
PARTNERS
CONTRIBUTE



Concentrated Fish Protein From Under-Utilized Fish In Alaska Being Delivered To Rwandan Refugee Camps



A shipment of 1500 pounds was delivered to Christian Disaster Response in Winter Haven, Florida for transport to refugee camps in Burundi and Rwanda. The fish protein powder is made from the arrowtooth flounder fish currently under-utilized in Alaska. The concentrated fish powder is being offered to the refugees as a protein supplement. Christian Disaster Response is heavily involved in the refugee relief effort in East Africa. They will be using the protein fish powder along with other special food supplements to nourish the refugees back to health. The fish powder was supplied to Christian Disaster Response by the International Relief Friendship Foundation, a United Nations non- governmental organization founded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Alaska fishermen hope that this new product can create a worthwhile use for nearly 400,000 harvestable tons of the arrowtooth flounder in the Gulf of Alaska. Mr. Al Burch, director of the Alaska Draggers Association, said that he "had to tie up his boats because the arrowtooth had spread to all of the fishing locations." It is hoped that this fish can be harvested in large quantities to produce this very unique fish powder and thereby aid millions of people who are in need of a high-value protein food at a low cost.

For the past four years the International Relief Friendship Foundation has been working with International Seafoods of Alaska, Inc. of Kodiak, Alaska to develop this fish protein concentrate in order to provide a high-protein concentrate food for the third world. Recently in a joint effort of: International Seafoods of Alaska; National Marine Fisheries Service Utilization Laboratory in Kodiak; Kodiak Island Chamber of Commerce; Borough, Alfa Laval Industries; and the State of Alaska-the new product was produced with a protein concentrate of 85%. Approximately 40 grams can supply the essential amino acid requirements of a day. The 1500-pound sample shipment will provide the daily essential protein requirement of approximately 15,000 people.
0 LIKES

Sushi and Rev. Moon – Chicago Tribune

Sushi and Rev. Moon – Chicago Tribune

INVESTIGATIONS
Sushi and Rev. Moon
By Monica Eng and Delroy Alexander and David Jackson
Chicago Tribune
Apr 11, 2006 at 2:00 am

===
On a mission from their leader, five young men arrived in Chicago to open a little fish shop on Elston Avenue. Back then, in 1980, people of their faith were castigated as "Moonies" and called cult members. Yet the Japanese and American friends worked grueling hours and slept in a communal apartment as they slowly built the foundation of a commercial empire.

They were led by the vision of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed messiah who sustained their spirits as they played their part in fulfilling the global business plan he had devised.

Moon founded his controversial Unification Church six decades ago with the proclamation that he was asked by Jesus to save humanity. But he also built the empire blending his conservative politics, savvy capitalism and flair for spectacles such as mass weddings in Madison Square Garden.

In a remarkable story that has gone largely untold, Moon and his followers created an enterprise that reaped millions of dollars by dominating one of America's trendiest indulgences: sushi.

Today, one of those five Elston Avenue pioneers, Takeshi Yashiro, serves as a top executive of a sprawling conglomerate that supplies much of the raw fish Americans eat.

Adhering to a plan Moon spelled out more than three decades ago in a series of sermons, members of his movement managed to integrate virtually every facet of the highly competitive seafood industry. The Moon followers' seafood operation is driven by a commercial powerhouse, known as True World Group. It builds fleets of boats, runs dozens of distribution centers and, each day, supplies most of the nation's estimated 9,000 sushi restaurants.

Although few seafood lovers may consider they're indirectly supporting Moon's religious movement, they do just that when they eat a buttery slice of tuna or munch on a morsel of eel in many restaurants. True World is so ubiquitous that 14 of 17 prominent Chicago sushi restaurants surveyed by the Tribune said they were supplied by the company.

Over the last three decades, as Moon has faced down accusations of brainwashing followers and personally profiting from the church, he and sushi have made similar if unlikely journeys from the fringes of American society to the mainstream.

These parallel paths are not coincidence. They reflect Moon's dream of revitalizing and dominating the American fishing industry while helping to fund his church's activities.

"I have the entire system worked out, starting with boat building," Moon said in "The Way of Tuna," a speech given in 1980. "After we build the boats, we catch the fish and process them for the market, and then have a distribution network. This is not just on the drawing board; I have already done it."

In the same speech, he called himself "king of the ocean." It proved not to be an idle boast. The businesses now employ hundreds, including non-church members, from the frigid waters of the Alaskan coast to the iconic American fishing town of Gloucester, Mass.

Records and interviews with church insiders and competitors trace how Moon and members of his movement carried out his vision.

In a recent interview Rev. Phillip Schanker, a Unification Church spokesman, said the seafood businesses were "not organizationally or legally connected" to Moon's church, but were simply "businesses founded by members of the Unification Church."

Schanker compared the relationship to successful business owners-such as J. Willard "Bill" Marriott, a prominent Mormon who founded the hotel chain that bears his name-who donate money to their church.

"Marriott supports the Mormon Church but no one who checks into a Marriott Hotel thinks they are dealing with Mormonism," he said. "In the same way I would hope that every business founded by a member based on inspiration from Rev. Moon's vision also would be in a position to support the church."


LEADER'S SEAFOOD STRATEGY

But links between Moon's religious organization and the fish businesses are spelled out in court and government records as well as in statements by Moon and his top church officials. For one thing, Moon personally devised the seafood strategy, helped fund it at its outset and served as a director of one of its earliest companies.

Moon's Unification Church is organized under a tax-exempt non-profit entity called The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. The businesses are controlled by a separate non-profit company called Unification Church International Inc., or UCI.

That company's connections to Moon's Unification Church go deeper than the shared name. A 1978 congressional investigation into Moon's businesses concluded: "It was unclear whether the UCI had any independent functions other than serving as a financial clearinghouse for various Moon organization subsidiaries and projects."

UCI as well as its subsidiaries and affiliates such as True World are run largely by church members, Schanker said. The companies were "founded by church members in line with Rev. Moon's vision,'' he said. "It's not coincidence."

Sometimes the links are more direct. The boatbuilding firm US Marine Corporation shares its headquarters offices with the church and lists the church as its majority shareholder, according to corporate records.

SERVING THROUGH BUSINESS

A portion of True World's profits makes its way to the church through the layers of parent corporations, Yashiro said, adding: "We live to serve others, and this is how we serve by building a strong business."

Moon predicted in 1974 that the fishing business would "lay a foundation for the future economy of the Unification Church." In fact, while Moon and businesses affiliated with him reportedly have poured millions of dollars into money-losing ventures including The Washington Times newspaper, the seafood ventures have created a profit-making infrastructure that could last-and help support the church-long after the 86-year-old Moon is gone.

Much of the foundation for that success has its roots in Chicago. True World Foods, Yashiro's wholesale fish distribution business spawned near Lawrence and Elston Avenues, now operates from a 30,000-square-foot complex in Elk Grove Village.

The company says it supplies hundreds of local sushi and fine-dining establishments. Even many who might have religious reservations about buying from the company do so for one simple reason: It dependably delivers high-quality sushi.

"We try not to think of the religion part,'' said Haruko Imamura, who with her husband runs Katsu on West Peterson Avenue. "We don't agree with their religion but it's nothing to do with the business."

Like Moon himself, who served a 13-month prison sentence for tax fraud in the 1980s, the seafood companies have at times run afoul of U.S. laws.

In June 2001, True World Foods' Kodiak, Alaska, fish processing company pleaded guilty to a federal felony for accepting a load of pollock that exceeded the boat's 300,000-pound trip limit. The firm was fined $150,000 and put on probation for five years under a plea agreement with prosecutors.

The company also has been cited for sanitation lapses by the Food and Drug Administration. Last year, after repeated FDA inspections found "gross unsanitary conditions" at True World's suburban Detroit plant, the facility manager tried to bar inspectors from production areas and refused to provide records, according to an FDA report. The plant manager told the inspectors that his True World supervisor was "a great man, that he was a part of a new religion, and that if we took advantage of him, then `God help you!'."

Later, according to that FDA report, an employee wearing a ski mask approached one female inspector, put his thumb and forefinger in the shape of a gun, pointed at her and said: "You're out of uniform. Pow!"

Saying they had been "hindered, intimidated and threatened," the FDA inspectors took the unusual step of securing a court order compelling True World to let them inspect the facility. Yashiro, chief executive of True World Foods, said in a written statement that the "isolated instance ..... arose from a miscommunication." The plant is now closed; Yashiro said its operations were consolidated into the Elk Grove Village plant in January, adding: "We maintain the highest standards of food safety."

THE OCEAN KING'S VISION

In the late 1970s, Moon laid out a plan to build seafood operations in all 50 states as part of what he called "the oceanic providence."

This dream of harvesting the sea would help fund the church, feed the world and save the American fishing industry, Moon said.

He even suggested that the church's mass weddings could play a role in the business plan by making American citizens out of Japanese members of the movement. This would help them avoid fishing restrictions applied to foreigners.

"A few years ago the American government set up a 200-mile limit for offshore fishing by foreign boats," Moon said in the 1980 "Way of Tuna" sermon. But by marrying Japanese members to Americans, "we are not foreigners; therefore Japanese brothers, particularly those matched to Americans, are becoming ..... leaders for fishing and distribution" of his movement's businesses.

Sushi's popularity had flowered enough by 1986 for Moon to gloat that Americans who once thought Japanese were "just like animals, eating raw fish," were now "paying a great deal of money, eating at expensive sushi restaurants." He recommended that his flock open "1,000 restaurants" in America.

In fashioning a chain of businesses that would stretch from the ocean to restaurant tables across America, Moon and his followers created a structure uniquely able to capitalize on the nation's growing appetite for sushi and fresh fish.

Some of the business start-up funds came from the Unification Church. In a seven-month period from October 1976 to May 1977, Moon signed some of the nearly $1 million in checks used to establish the fishing business, according to a 1978 congressional report on allegations of improprieties by Moon's church.

After acquiring an ailing boatmaking operation, Master Marine, Moon and his followers turned their attention to establishing the next link in the network. Church members who saw fishing as their calling took to the seas, many powered by Master Marine boats. Moon's Ocean Church would bring together members and potential converts for 40-day tuna fishing trips every summer in 80 boats he bought for his followers.

Many of the tournaments took place off the coast of Gloucester, Mass., by no coincidence one of the first homes to a church-affiliated seafood processing plant. Moon proudly declared in his "Way of Tuna" speech that "Gloucester is almost a Moonie town now!" (The church has since rejected the term Moonies as derogatory.)

FROM ANGER TO ACCEPTANCE

Sometimes working surreptitiously, Moon affiliates and followers bought large chunks of the key fishing towns--in each case initially sparking anger and suspicion from longtime residents.

The church and its members created an uproar when they bought a villa that had been a retirement home run by Roman Catholic nuns. Moon was hanged in effigy in the local harbor.

Eventually, such resistance withered away. In Bayou La Batre, Ala., Russell Steiner was among community leaders who clashed with the newcomers. But like many in the town, Steiner has mellowed considerably since the church's arrival. "They have been very active in the community and are very nice people, actually," he said.

The Alabama shrimp business is among the largest in the Gulf of Mexico, and the nearby boat-building plant has not only built more than 300 boats, but also done repairs on the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy ships, according to federal documents.

And the fish businesses have thrived. Company officials say the wholesale distribution arm, True World Foods, had revenue of $250 million last year.

According to True World Foods, its fleet of 230 refrigerated trucks delivers raw fish to 7,000 sushi and fine-dining restaurants nationwide. Dozens of those trucks leave each day from the Elk Grove Village warehouse, one of 22 distribution facilities around the country.

True World Foods' Alaska plant processes more than 20 million pounds of salmon, cod and pollock each year, the company says. Its International Lobster operation in Gloucester ships monkfish and lobster around the world from a 25,000-square-foot cold storage facility that is among the largest on the East Coast.

And it is again in an expansionist mood. True World recently opened up shop in England and established offices in Japan and Korea, setting its sights on the world's biggest market for sushi.

AN EMPIRE'S CHICAGO ROOTS

When Takeshi Yashiro arrived in Chicago in 1980 to help set up one of the earliest outposts of the fishing empire, the area had just a handful of sushi joints. That number has ballooned to more than 200 restaurants statewide, and Yashiro's fish house has flourished.

The son of an Episcopalian Japanese minister, he immigrated to the U.S. and joined the church as a student in San Francisco. On July 1, 1982, Moon blessed Yashiro and his bride along with more than 2,000 other couples in one of his mass wedding ceremonies, in New York City's Madison Square Garden.

The Rainbow Fish House that Yashiro and fellow church members founded on Chicago's Northwest Side has become not only the city's dominant sushi supplier but also the nation's. The fish house became True World Foods, which buys so much tuna from around the world that it has seven people in Chicago solely dedicated to sourcing and pricing the best grades.

One of True World's advantages is that its sales force speaks Chinese, Korean and Japanese, making it easy for first-generation ethnic restaurant owners to do business with them.

"It's kind of tough to compete in this industry with a company that is so global, has a major presence in almost every market and that is driven by religious fervor," said Bill Dugan, who has been in the fish business for almost 30 years and owns the Fish Guy Market on Elston Avenue, near the original Rainbow shop. "We should all be so blessed."

But not all of True World's employees are church members. Tuna buyer Eddie Lin recently left True World for Fortune Fish Co., a local rival. Lin said his former workplace was not overtly religious, but he added that as a non-church member he felt his ability to advance was limited. "You can feel the difference between the way they see members and non-members," Lin said.


FAITH-BASED BUSINESS CULTURE

While disputing such assertions, Yashiro noted that new employees "have to know that the founder is the founder of the Unification Church. … It's a very clear distinction between joining the church or not joining the church. There's no discrimination, but I think our culture is definitely based on our faith."

It's that faith that makes some uneasy. Wang Kim, a Chicago-area youth ministry director and Moon critic, was certain he could find local Korean Christian sushi restaurateurs who didn't use True World because they might consider his views heretical. As Kim said, Moon "says that he is the Messiah, and we hate that."

But Kim called back empty-handed. "I checked with several of my friends,'' he said, "and they know it is from Moon but they have to use [them because] they have to give quality to their customers."

The sheer success of the venture has left lingering questions even in the minds of Moon's dedicated followers. Yashiro, the Chicago pioneer who now heads True World Foods, remembers dedicating his career and life 26 years ago to achieving Moon's dream, which included solving world hunger.

But that part of Moon's grand vision has yet to materialize. "I was wondering if we are really here to solve the world's hunger," Yashiro said. "Every day I ..... pray on it."

He still hopes True World Foods eventually will help end hunger. But until then, he said, his role will be to grow the business and make money.

여수 교계 "통일교 의도적 여수 개발과 침투 반대" < 호남뉴스앤조이 < 기사본문 - 뉴스앤조이

여수 교계 "통일교 의도적 여수 개발과 침투 반대" < 호남뉴스앤조이 < 기사본문 - 뉴스앤조이



여수 교계 "통일교 의도적 여수 개발과 침투 반대"
통일교 그룹 (주)일상의 '여수 디 오션 리조트' 7월 초 개장…기독인들 시설 출입 자제 요청
기자명 문규옥
승인 2008.06.18 


점차 통일교 성지처럼 변모하고 있는 여수시 상황을 보다 못한 여수시교회연합회(회장 배용주 목사·이하 여교연)와 교단 대표들이 지난 6월 12일 통일교에 의한 여수시 개발 중단과 의도적 여수 침투에 대해 적극적인 반대 입장을 천명했다.



▲ 여수시 교회연합회는 지난 6월 12일 통일교의 의도적인 여수 침투와 개발을 반대하는 성명서를 채택하고 적극적인 대응 입장을 표명했다.ⓒ여수종교문제연구소 사진 제공


여교연은 먼저 "통일교가 2012년 여수 세계박람회를 계기로 순교의 성지요, 구국의 성지인 우리 여수를 장악하려는 음모가 있음을 알고 이같은 성명서를 채택하게 됐다"고 밝혔다.

여교연은 "정부의 J프로젝트의 일환으로 여수시 화양면 일대가 개발 예정지구로 지정된 것에 우리 모두 큰 기대를 걸고 있으며, 또한 차질 없이 진행되기를 희망한다"고 전제 한 후 "그러나 이 거대한 국가적인 사업이 본래의 목적에 부합하지 않는 방향으로 진행되고 있다는 우려를 금할 수가 없다"고 밝혔다.

여교연는 우선 "사업시행자가 처음 미국의 3개 회사에서 1년여가 지나자 통일교 그룹의 (주)일상(현재는 해양산업주식회사)으로 바뀌었는데 이는 통일교가 자신들의 정체를 감추기 위한 의도로 처음부터 계획적으로 재경부나 여수시를 기만한 것이라는 의문이 제기 된다"고 밝혔다.

이어 "통일교는 여수시 화양 지구가 경제자유특별구역으로 발표되기도 전에, (주)일상을 통해 예정지구의 땅 수십만 평을 미리 매입한 사실이 있으며, 이후 지정된 사업과는 아무 관계가 없는 여수 일대 요지의 땅을 매입했다"고 설명했다.

▲ 여수 디 오션 리조트 공사현장. ⓒ여수종교문제연구소 사진 제공

여교연은 특히 "화양지구 관광특구 기공식 때에는 통일교 문선명 교주가 직접 참석하여 사업과는 아무 상관이 없는 통일교 교리에 대해 장시간 설명하면서 자신과 통일교를 선전하였다"며 이 모든 사업이 문선명 교주의 평화 사업의 연장선상에서 추진되고 있다고 지적했다.



이어 여교연은 "여수세계박람회를 준비함에 있어서 여수의 개발은 너무도 중요한 일이지만 이 중요한 사업이 특정종교집단의 선전과 개인 우상화의 야심을 위해 이용당한다면 정부나 여수시는 돌이킬 수 없는 과오를 범하는 일이 될 것"이라며 "이에 통일교의 의도적인 여수침투와 통일교 교주의 메카화를 절대 반대하며 그것을 저지하는데 끝까지 총력을 다할 것을 천명한다"고 밝혔다.

한편, 여수노회 이단사이비대책위원 신외식 목사(여수종교문제연구소)는 "통일교 그룹 (주)일상에 의해 추진 중인 '여수 디 오션 리조트'가 7월 초 개장을 앞두고 대대적인 홍보에 나서고 있다"며 "특히 2012년 여수 세계박람회 유치가 자신들의 공로인 것처럼 선전하며, 리조트 시설을 통해 지역경제를 살리고 유익을 준다는 식의 선전을 통해 지역민들을 유혹하고 있어 기독교인들의 디오션리조트 시설 출입 자제와 주의를 요청한다"고 당부했다.

문집단침투에 대한 여수시 교회연합회 성명서

우리는 문선명 교주와 그 집단(이하 ‘통일교’-우리는 문선명과 그 집단이 성경과 교리에서 완전히 이탈하여 있으므로 정통적인 교회라고 인정하지 않지만 일반적으로는 통일교로 알려져 있으므로 통일교라 함)이 2012년 여수 세계박람회를 계기로 순교의 성지요, 구국의 성지인 우리 여수를 장악하려는 음모가 있음을 알고 이에 성명서를 채택하는 바이다.
정부에서는 전라남도에 J프로젝트의 일환으로 여수시 화양면 일대를 개발 예정지구로 지정 발표한 바 있었다. 우리 여수 시민들은 낙후된 지역이 개발되고 많은 외부 자본이 투자되며 일자리 창출은 물론이요 삶의 질을 높일 수 있고, 특히 우리 여수의 미래를 바꿀 수 있는 대단위의 사업이 유치된다는 점에서 한껏 꿈과 기대에 부풀어 있었다. 따라서 우리도 이 사업이 차질 없이 진행되기를 진심으로 희망하였고 지금도 그 기대를 버리지 않고 있다.

그러나 이 거대한 국가적인 사업이 본래의 목적에 부합하지 않는 방향으로 진행되고 있다는 우려를 금할 수가 없다. 우리는 처음 화양면 관광 특구 투자 신청시에는 세계 굴지의 미국의 3개 회사를 통해 개발하는 것으로 되어 있었고, 이를 재경부나 관계관청이 긍정적으로 평가하여 도움을 준 것으로 알고 있다. 그런데 그 후 1년여가 지나자 그 미국 회사들은 투자를 철회하였고, 사업시행자가 통일교 그룹의 (주)일상(현재는 ‘해양산업주식회사’로 상호변경함)으로 바뀌었는데 이는 통일교가 자신들의 정체를 감추기 위한 의도로 처음부터 계획적으로 재경부나 여수시를 기만한 것이라는 의문을 갖게 한다.

통일교는 여수시 화양지구가 경제자유특별구역으로 발표되기도 전에, (주)일상을 통해 예정지구의 땅 수십만 평을 미리 매입한 사실이 있다.

2005년 6월 문선명 통일교 교주는 여수지역 기관장과 주민 오십여 명을 거문도에 초청하여 사업설명회를 갖고 여수를 통일교의 메카로 육성하겠다고 공언하고, 여수시가 협조하면 일본 은행에 예치된 3억불 등 많은 자본을 투자하겠다고 공언한 바 있다. 통일교는 지정된 사업과는 아무 관계가 없는 여수 일대의 요지의 땅들과 여수시 남면 거문도 수월산 일만 평을 매입했고 계속해서 거문리 일대 주요 관광지를 매입하려고 주민들을 현혹하고 있는 실정이다.

2005년 12월 여수시 소호동 오션리조트 기공식 석상에서 (주)일상 회장 황선조는 문선명 교주의 평화 사업의 연장선상에서 이 사업이 추진된다고 밝힘으로서 그동안 통일교와 연관을 끈질기게 부인하던 저들의 주장이 위장이었음을 스스로 밝혔다.

특히 2008년 1월 29일 화양지구 관광특구 기공식 때에는 통일교 교주 문선명씨가 직접 참석하여 사업과는 아무 상관이 없는 통일교 교리에 대해 장시간 설명하면서 “누가 돈을 내는가?”라고 그 자신의 우상화를 유도하면서 자신과 통일교를 선전하였다.

===

세계 사람들이 방문하는 여수세계박람회를 준비함에 있어서 화양지구를 포함하여 우리 여수의 개발은 시민의 꿈과 희망을 심는 너무도 중요한 일이다. 그러나 이 중요한 사업이 특정종교집단의 선전과 개인 우상화의 야심을 위해 이용당한다면 정부나 여수시는 돌이킬 수 없는 과오를 범하는 일이 될 것이다. 그러므로 우리는 자랑스런 여수시의 발전과 후손들을 위해 아래와 같이 주장한다

-문집단은 2012년 여수 세계박람회개최가 30만 우리 여수시민과 온 국민의 열화와 같은 염원과 노력의 결집으로 얻어낸 결과임에도 오직 통일교 자신들의 공로인 것처럼 선전하는 것을 즉각 중단하라.
-광양경제자유구역청은 화양지구 경제자유특구가 여수시에는 아무 혜택도 없이 오로지 통일교에게만 엄청난 혜택이 돌아가게 된 경위를 명확하게 밝히고 특구지정을 즉각 철회하라.
-우리는 세계적인 물의를 일으켜온(브라질 등) 통일교에 의해 우리 고장 여수가 개발되는 것을 절대로 반대한다.
-문집단은 지금이라도 기업과 종교의 쌍두기형적인 형태를 청산하고 시민에게 사과하라.
-여수시는 통일교가 교리적인 의도성을 가지고 여수개발에 뛰어든 경위를 파악하고 그들과의 관계를 확실히 청산하라.
-여수시민들은 경제논리 때문에 구국의 성지 우리 여수의 후손들의 장래가 통일교에 의해 저당잡히는 것을 철저히 경계하라.

우리는 5백여 교회와 9만여 성도뿐만 아니라, 진정으로 여수를 사랑하는 시민들과 함께 통일교의 의도적인 여수침투와 통일교 교주의 메카화를 절대 반대하며 그것을 저지하는데 끝까지 총력을 다할 것을 천명한다.

2008년 6월12일

여수시 교회연합회장 배용주 목사