Horror stories in the UC and UBF

(Related: 1, 2, 3)

This was a post from February about horror stories told in the Unification Church and in UBF about former members:

I was reading something written by Ingo Michehl, a former Moonie. He and I may have crossed paths around 1989-90 at UIC in Chicago while I was going to school there and he was recruiting there for CARP, a student organization and Moonie front group. As expected, there are echoes of UBF in a lot of what he writes about his Moonie experience. Something I wanted to highlight is his experience of the horror stories that were told about what would happen to those who left the group:

My last leader, Mr. Tetsuo Yoshizumi, in Chicago once came to me after my not having followed one of his directions completely. He stuck a few hundred dollars into my shirt pocket, pushed me and yelled “I don’t want you in my center any more! You are satan! Go back to Germany – with satan! NOW! Pack your stuff and GET OUT!”

I was shocked! If I obeyed his command I would commit “spiritual suicide” (since we were taught that upon leaving the church, satan would invade us completely, destroy our family, cause us to become insane or die through some horrible accident. At meetings we would continuousely hear testimonies of leaders about members who would not “unite” with their leaders (called CF’s or Central Figures). One story the regional director of Chicago, Rev. Hong, one of Mr. Moon’s first disciples, told was that upon disuniting with his directions, a member’s child had just been born without ears. Another disobedient member had developed cancer – satan’s punishment.). What would you have done in my situation if you had been indoctrinated with all these very real fears? Well, some part of me was rebellious, saying “OK! If all my work is not enough, and you really want me to leave – I’ll go!”. Yet the other part which was dominated by fear, guilt and low self-esteem which my leader had beaten into me (verbally as well as physically), was stronger, so I lowered my head and said “I repent! I’m sorry! I’ll never do it again!”

Here are some of the UBF defenses of the horror stories told by Sam Lee, defenses that I’ve heard and read:

• “You have to know the ‘context’ and Dr. Lee’s motives.”
• “Was it wrong for Dr. Lee to tell such stories? No.”
• “You should not ask whether it was wrong for Dr. Lee to tell such stories. Rather, you should ask whether the stories are true.”

Mother Teresa and "Mother" Barry

Were you there one Sunday when Sam Lee compared Sarah Barry to Mother Teresa?

Author: Joe
Subject: Mother Teresa and “Mother” Barry
In reply to: Truth seeker ‘s message, “Happy are those who abandon little children!For” on 16:31:44 07/10/04 Sat

>ALL THIS WITH THE BLESSINGS OF MOTHER BARRY!
>What did Mother teresa do on the contrary? She
>picked up abandoned children of calcutta slums
>and treated them like gifts from God,
>irrespective of whether they were born to hindus
>or moslims.

To top it all off, I was there in 2001 when Sam Lee, during his rambling Sunday announcements, stated that “Mother” Barry was better than Mother Teresa. Why? Because “Mother Teresa only served one nation but ‘Mother’ Barry is the mother of many nations.” It’s amazing how overtly Moon-like Lee became toward the end of his life.

BTW, Mother Teresa gave much of herself to the poor and set an example of giving. By contrast, “Mother” Barry’s message is “keep on giving to UBF without fail.”

"Moon holds coronation at Capitol"

There’s a report about the kinds of things that are made possible by the general ignorance about the cult problem. Also see this and that article.

Moon has gotten a lot of mileage by appealing to social and religious conservatives in the US, both with money and by co-opting the message of “family values”, “christian values” and “world peace.” (*) The Wheaton College student newspaper editor has even done an internship at the Washington Times, owned by Moon.

Moon parades around the Capitol, UBF holds a conference at Wheaton College, UBF holds large conferences at major universities: all made possible by ignorance, lack of information and the deceptive face that cults like to present.

(*) It’s funnhttp://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=131y to hear UBF USA leaders also go on about America’s Christian roots, about school prayer, about “In God We Trust”, about America being the “City on a Hill” because it fits into the UBF “vision” and catchphrase of KOP & HN. (They are strangely mum about abortion, though. Hm.) Easier to talk about America’s problems than their own.

---

Also, from the blog of the freelance journalist who covered this Moon coronation:

(Add the love of baseball bat “training” to arranged marriages on the list of things that the Unification Church and UBF have had in common)

Capitol’s King of Peace wants to whale on you with a baseball bat (not the original article, but similar)

As James posts in the comments section, still no baseball team in Washington. But in 1997, future UPI wire service president Chung Kwak was given standing orders to hit slacker Unification Church members with a baseball bat. The man recently coronated in the Senate offices as the King of Peace declared:

How much easier it is for you compared to True Father’s course. You have absolutely no excuse. […] (Applause) Father wants Reverend Kwak to keep a baseball bat in his hand all the time and if he sees anyone neglecting their mission in this regard then he can freely use it. Particularly those who are sleeping and hiding, Reverend Kwak’s baseball bat will fall upon you at any time. Father is ordering all of us to make our absolute commitment to Reverend Kwak to accomplish the 3.6 million couples Blessing this year.

Reverend Moon has been talking about hitting people with baseball bats for some time now. In 1976 he said:

I will never retire. The only thing you can do to stop me is to leave no work for me to do. Do you think that if you do, I would hit you with a baseball bat and tell you to go away, stop blocking my way? Suppose I were to hit you with the baseball bat to stop you, bloodying your ear and breaking a bone or two, yet still you insisted on doing more work for Father.

In 1980:

A great champion would say, “Thank you Father! Next time you bring your baseball bat to hit me, I will be ready.”

In 1987 he imagined what would happen if Satan came along and tried to steal Moon’s act:

You have a relationship with True Father, but suppose Satan comes along with a thick baseball bat made of iron.

From the 1998 Gates of True Love” speech:

What if Father tries to beat you out of the Unification Church with a baseball bat? Will you leave?

There’s really nothing funny about this violent false Messiah, just as there’s nothing funny about the violence that Samuel Lee perpetrated, instigated and ordered while he was leading UBF.

One thing I remember clearly: In the early 90s, I was there one Sunday during Lee’s lengthy announcements when he said that he had learned some “good” things from Sun Myung Moon.