#unification church member

[whatisonthemoon]

Moonie Larry Moffitt honors Ray Cline and calls Douglas MacArthur II “my longtime friend and mentor”

The end of September saw the successful completion of the Ninth World Media Conference, which like every previous conference had a noticeably better quality of speakers and participants than the ones before.

For example, our slate of distinguished speakers included three U.S. congressmen; Mrs. Anwar Sadat, widow of the late President of Egypt; Mrs. Salvador Laurel, wife of the Vice President of the Philippines; John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy; Douglas Kiker, national affairs correspondent for "NBC Nightly News"; Yoshiki Hidaka, vice director of NHK Television Network in Japan; Ray Cline, former deputy director of the CIA; and Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, my longtime friend and mentor.

from a report by Larry Moffit on the 1987 Ninth World Media Conference

Related

The U.S. Global Strategy Council

On Moon’s Political Network and their Deep Connections to Global Terrorism

On Arnaud de Borchgrave, Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Times and Friend of Gladio Terrorists

Clouds Over George Bush (1998) Moonies alienate our children and serve the CIA Contragate and Counterterrorism: An Overview On Yamashita’s Gold, Singlaub, and the Events Following Marcos’ Departure

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Warning For Second Generation: Potential Incoming Outreach to “Inactive” “Blessed Children”

via WIOTM

Did you know that UC has a new president? Demian Dunkley was appointed the end of May when church held an inauguration in the New Yorker the end of May. Dunkley was president of UC about three years ago then Mrs Moon sent him to what the church refers to as Asia 1 (India, Thailand…). He was also pastor of Las Vegas church during In Jin’s Lovin’ Life time. You can’t deny Demian has a charismatic guy. He has this blind faith and unbiased devotion to Mrs Moon. He also has relationship and respect of many second generation and members. He has the expectations of not only Mrs Moon but membership that his leadership will bring a new wave to the dying church. In his speech he referred many times that the UC will now be referenced as -The Witnessing Church. Dunkley was leader of Vegas church under Lovin’ Life under In jin during which LL was able to organize the second generation and unite them under ball room dancing, sports festivals, mega church, rock bands, etc. She created a vibe for the church with hopes to witness to younger people. I get the feeling that Dunkley will use some of these tactics for the new witnessing push. During the inauguration speech he introduced 6 of twelve “sisters” that will be witnessing leaders. To seal the deal each woman received a special sweater from Mrs. Moon’s own wardrobe. These “sisters” were all second gen. It seems like every three years the church dusts off its witnessing campaign and part of their plan of action is to target inactive and ex members to bring them back. So-second gen. be warned— if a church friend calls you to invite you to picnic, dinner, sports festival or whatever. It’s not because they want to talk, spend time with you but more like they have a quota to reach.

Related

Demian Dunkley Admits Fraud - from the twitter of ex-Moonie podcast Falling Out

Demian Dunkley on Steve Hassan

‎Falling Out with Elgen Strait: S4 E9- The Empress' Old Clothes on Apple Podcasts - dissecting a recent fundraising video by Dunkley

[zvaigzdelasas]

At least 334 out of 2,570 prefectural assembly members in Japan have had dealings with the Unification Church or its affiliates, with over 80% of them belonging to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, a Kyodo News survey has found.[...]

In the survey, 13 of 47 incumbent and incoming prefectural governors and nine out of 20 major city mayors also acknowledged dealings with the Unification Church or its affiliated groups.[...]

The response rate of the survey was around 94%, with 157 assembly members not providing answers.

The no-response rate among prefectural assembly members was the highest in Yamaguchi Prefecture, where Abe's constituency was located, with 11 out of 47 members not responding.[...]

The Unification Church [was] established by a staunch anti-communist [sic] in South Korea in 1954

& remember - this is self reported ties [5 Dec 22]

[stackslip]

chapter 140 thoughts under the cut

fujimoto's goal of rewriting fire punch with a bit more silliness continues (i love the chainsaw pews)

fujimoto said i know writers who do subtlety and they're all cowards

BROBENI CONFIRMED. now to know if he's her younger brother who was gonna be put through college by kobeni's exploited labour (which..... gd damn that parallel with denji and nayuta......). also i've been told nobana is traditionally a female name.......... hm.

real, though in this context it sounds more like anti usamerican imperialism language repurposed for nationalist ends..... it's not fujimoto is uncritical of america either though considering the gun devil in part 1. fascinating to see where this might go and how much that kind of language parallels irl pro-japanese imperialism and nationalists' own discourse.

i find it fascinaing that kids are considered the only acceptable members of the cult only to be introduced to an adult leader several pages later lol. but obviously the cult (because this 200% is a cult) is filling a gap--the first half of part 1 showed us how much it fucking SUCKS to be even an ordinary kid both irl and in this world, the lack of agency and the poverty and being preyed upon by adults or abandoned entirely, and then mocked on national tv when they take the deaths of their classmates and friends seriously..... so of course so many would end up here, being told that adults really ARE dangerous and incapable of seeing the world the way they do. cleverly done, i hope fujimoto expands on this and doesn't fall back on Let Adults Take Care Of This

similarly i hope this doesn't fall into the liberal storytelling trap of "the government is bad, but this new group has appeared that's Even Worse, so the government is actually good now" that also appears in so many shounen tbh. i don't think he will bc even outside of the church public safety is still so fucked up

denji's expressions this chapter are top tier lmao. genius move to make denji the "straight man" in the previous few chapters where he's genuinely flabbergasted by how batshit everyone else is

FUCKING CRYING. yeah the implications are dire but. HOWL

again jokes asides there is SO MUCH to unpack here. you'll get married AND THEN become a member of the church (implying marriage is a requirement or, as said later, strongly encouraged to join the cult at all). sex is consummated immediately in the next room. so far we've mostly seen men and boys in charge of the church, except for fami/kiga......... which...... does not bode well. makes me wonder how many are pressured into marriage/sex both as a way to attract new male followers and as a way to keep control over all

speaking of which. it says student but they mean /high school students/, maybe even middle school students, aka again children! and again the language of Modernity Has Lied To Us, Child Marriage And Ownership Is The Way right there being recited. the appeal to nationalism and what is "natural", kids as property of their parents and the church,.... and yes i AM reminded of behemboth(?), the patriarchal city-cult of fire punch whose entire horrid existence is justified with "it's natural" and "we are saving people by giving them shelter here". the patriarchy is central here!

and of course the part about kids being born and raised into the church themselves...... after shinzo abe's death, japan's having a bit of a reckoning re the influence of cults in political life and vice versa, and particularly the impact on children raised in said cults. there's also been a reactionary backlash to the idea of *foreign* cults (like the unification church, originally from korea) having "too big" an influence on japan, versus the Good National Japanese Cults that are spared some of that backlash. so i find it interesting that fujimoto firmly grounds this as a *japanese* nationalist cult that claims to be trying to save the country from foreign influence. obviously i'd love to know more, bc i'm sure there's a lot of language and references in the original that i'm missing and that mirror irl japanese politics and reactionary tendencies.

denji's backlash in forcing kids to get married.... i do wonder how much of his backlash comes from the idea of forced child marriage (and being forced in general), or if he would have been okay with someone being pressured to have sex with him without marriage, or he wouldn't have thought about it tbh.

i want to see the chainsaw man bathroom............

the hybrids all coming together.... wonder if this means reze and quanxi will be back PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. but also in the context of the church.... the weapon hybrids were used as various governmental projects and living weapons for years--japan, china, the ussr, and i imagine the usa and other western powers had their own as well. then they got controlled by makima, and now they're in the church.... i hope we explore more of the abuse and parallels they have with denji, and see just how and why miri trusts in the church so much as a refuge compared to his previous abuse. ALSO BRING BACK REZE AND QUANXI GD PLEASE......

this is 200% the guy who was in the shadows telling haruka it was all planned. and again the irony of nobana talking about how this is a church by and for children, only to immediately be threatened by someone who is very obviously an adult in charge

his eyes REALLY freak me out btw, fujimoto did a great job at his expressions lol. also really love the detail of the suspenders and the

barem.... the closest i could find for that name's meaning was the hebrew for "son of nation" which. hm! worrisome!

so idk if fujimoto was TRYING to give this dude the vibes of a sexual predator but between the cult's pressuring kids to get married and have sex, his role as one of the sole adult "humans" around, his treatment of nobana, and his general demeanor and manner of speech + the themes of sexual abuse and predation in the series in general........ gd he gives me the absolute creeps lmao, incredible design and tone. also what he says here about asa which gives me SO MANY red flags and makes me think more of the patriarchal aspect of the cult too

the name of the chapter is "scales"..... which is associated with kiga, as the horseman of Famine. and of course during the whole chapter we hear about how the church is necessary and its actions help save lives etc etc etc. just as we heard the yakuza justify their existence to makima, just as public safety justified its own existence in terms of killing devils while really using them as a way to terrorize the population and threaten other nations.

i find it interesting that in a way, kiga gave a similar deal to asa but in far more positive a view. do these things for us, become this weapon for us, and this person you care about (or think you know even if briefly) will live. kiga was just a lot better at presenting it and obsfucating the actual horrors that would follow--denji however is in too deep, and doesn't buy into the bs anymore. so he's given much more stark and open a choice! just as public safety tried to threaten denji to keep quiet lest they kill nayuta and raise her as their own all over again! gd he and asa's lack of agency..... fuck me up so so bad

wondering if we're eventually going to come back to denji's motif of choosing a third choice and refusing the dual choice entirely! wonder if asa herself will only see a single solution in front of her every time......

anyhow. good chapter. there's gotta be a lot that i'm missing here in terms of relations to current japanese political context and i'd love to learn more on it tbh.

[esters-notepad]

Possibly relevant background: my family is Lutheran, and I still call myself that. But I've been to many different churches. I was a member of a Baptist church for a while. Then a united Calvinist/Lutheran church. I'm still formally a member there, but for the last couple of years, in practice I belong to a Catholic parish.

I wish all Christians would come together into one Church. But I never thought that this one Church would be the Catholic Church (such as 'everybody converts to Catholicism and all other churches cease to exist for dearth of members'). Nor did I imagine the one Church to be the Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church or any other current denomination. I was rather surprised today, when I learned that this is how some people picture unification.

I always thought that if the divided churches come together, they would form something new. To pick the two traditions I know best, if the Catholics and Lutherans were to come together, I always imagined the resulting church to be neither Catholic nor Lutheran, but something which has kept the best of both. I don't think any one human being has all the right answers about God, and I also don't think any one church has all the right answers. I think all the right answers are out in the world, but in a way that the Orthodox got some things right, the Catholics some other things, and the various Protestant denominations yet other things. I don't know exactly which parts Luther got wrong, but he was a fallible human, I'm sure there was something. I think if everybody were to convert to being Lutheran, then everybody would make the same mistakes, and we would lose the parts that other churches have gotten right but Lutherans got wrong.

When I say that I want the denominations to come together into one Church, I don't mean that I want to declare all theological differences to be unimportant. I mean that I yearn for God to give us love (drawing us all together) and humility (to realize that I might be wrong and the other might be right) and wisdom (to actually percieve what is right and what is wrong).

I don't believe that God's true Church is any one of the denominations. I believe that it's all of them, taken together. That's the universal apostolic church I think about when I say the Creed.

Of course, all of the above could certainly be one of the things that I personally have gotten wrong.

[badassbutterfly1987]

Okay my thoughts are too scattered to properly formulate it yet but I feel like there's a very valid queer interpretation of the Coldfire trilogy and not just with the Damien/Tarrant subtext. A brief caveat, I'm still on book 1 and know some general spoilers for the rest of the series.

To start with Tarrant: from the prologue we learn that he founded the Unified Church (a religious and political institution), that he at least partly defined their teachings. And what do they do when him being an Adept comes out?

The main religious institution rejects him and condemns him to a very real hell when he's dying (I don't think I need to point out the real-world similarities). Because an inherent aspect of him is revealed, part of his identity that can be hidden or repressed but not removed. And he's immortalized as the Fallen Prophet.

Then roughly 900 years later, we get Damian, who doesn't view the two aspects of himself as irreconcilable. Who doesn't reject this part of him (even if he's wary of elements of the fae) and encourages other Church members to accept it as well, attempting to fix the division from the inside.

Unlike with Tarrant, the Church is a little more open to it this time, at least the Western half is. They set up an experiment that at least one of his superiors (who is suggested to be an Adept himself but one who has firmly repressed it) expects him to fail. If Damian is unable to perform satisfactorly then that's going to limit the unification attempt if the Church continues to treat a specific group as The Enemy.

And then these two form a genuine relationship with each other that's filled with subtext. And I think in book 2 or 3 Damian prioritizes dragging Tarrant out of hell over religious teachings that would say that's justice (which it arguably is for his other atrocities).

[spurgie-cousin]

The Unification Church is confusing. Is it a Korean cult? In some pictures, the crowds look mostly Korean, but in others, they look mostly white.

The Unification Church was founded in South Korea around the time of WWII, and spread pretty rapidly there and in neighboring places like Japan until the late 60s and 70s when it started to branch out to Russia, eastern Europe, South America and eventually the United States (esp in areas with big south Korean populations).

One of their big things is to "promote intercultural, interracial, and international cooperation through the Unification world view" which sounds innocent enough, but it's just a PC way to say that they put a big focus on finding people to convert. Once they find someone who they deem convertible (preferably of a different race compared to the majority members of the church) they pull a "Married at First Sight" and marry then to a random church member, in a huge ceremony with tons of other couples, where they basically get married and converted officially at the same time.

So that's why sometimes you see large homogeneous looking congregations with only a small bit of diversity, or vice versa, because diversity is the main thing they're looking for when looking for converts and some church are better at it than others lol.

[milkboydotnet]

From Deprogramming Imperialism (org founding statement here):

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that representatives of the Unification Church (UC) admitted to members of CORU (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations)—a CIA-backed far-right militant group known for assassinations and bombings against the Cuban government from the 1970s through the 1990s—that the UC provided 85% of the funding for the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The WACL supported repressive dictatorships and funded and trained paramilitary groups worldwide, including in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Nicaragua. The WACL and the more explicitly UC-directed CAUSA played a key role in organizing conferences in the Philippines after the fall of Marcos, where US and Philippine intelligence agents, politicians, and civic leaders mapped out a “low-intensity conflict”, “unconventional warfare” counterinsurgency strategy relying heavily on militias and paramilitaries in order to stamp out communist insurgency.

It’s crucial to understand that the UC was not just an abusive organization that promoted “right-wing values” but that it was and is actively aiding an anti-communist, imperialist agenda, endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats.

As we face an era of heightened political repression and creeping fascism under Trump, it’s important to recognize that Biden’s own counterinsurgency policies have led to the raids of Palestinian activists’ homes and the classification of groups like Samidoun as terror organizations. Billions of US tax dollars have funded the Philippines’ fascistic counterinsurgency strategies since the 1980s, regardless of which party holds office. Though the DNC postures itself as a progressive force for marginalized sectors, they have time and time again revealed that their interests are in upholding imperialism rather than serving its working class and exploited constituents.

As much as we decry the Unification Church’s role in the formation of the institutional Religious Right, and their role in promoting reactionary ideas and policies in the Republican party, we recognize that DNC is just as responsible for imperialist exploitation and global fascistic terrorism.

As we look for the root causes of the vile policies and actions of the RNC and DNC, as well as the abuse and corruption in the Unification Church, we find imperialism at their core.

We must confront the reality that the UC’s abuses weren’t just internal corruption—they were part of the global imperialist project. The UC’s labor trafficking, racial hierarchies, support of right-wing coups, and human rights abuses reveals itself as a microcosm of the global imperialist project, which demands exploitation to uphold the interests of imperialists and their lackeys.

Deprogramming Imperialism is an educational collective of former UC members dedicated to creating resources that expose this reality, reclaiming our agency through organizing, and building solidarity in the fight against imperialism. Want to contribute to these efforts? Reach out to us and join our study group! DeprogrammingImperialism@protonmail.com

[kudouusagi]

oh so Langa and Reki have different religions. langa is a catholic and reki can just be a follower of another religion??

Okay... well... Japan has a complicated history with religions.

Most people in Japan consider themselves "non-religious" and have negative views on organized religion.

This has always been the case but it's been becoming more of a thing in recent years. People have been even more vocal about this after Abe was assassinated because of his political affiliation with the Unification church.

Also there's a horrible association of shinto being the religion of Japanese nationalism and militarism.... but we're not going there right now lol.

There is an annual survey that is done of all the religious institutions in Japan and a lot of the Japanese people hate it because they don't have a say in it. It's only a servery of the shrines/churches and who they say is affiliated with them. Every year the servery finds that the combined total of people who are considered "shinto" and "buddhist" is higher than the total population of Japan.

Servery total = 179,560,113 people (2021)

Population of Japan = 125,700,000 people (2021)

Some people might interpret this as that people identify as both shinto and buddhist, but really it's just showing that people have interacted with a shrine in a way that got their name recorded. And if so it doesn't usually go away. Shrines don't remove people from their records often. Most people don't even know they're "affiliated" with any of them.

When they ask the population directly they get much different results.

68% of the people asked said they aren't religious at all.

Even a good portion of the people who said they were religious said they thought of it negatively or didn't care about it at all.

But having said that, Japan has a lot of traditions that are tied to religion and people have no problem participating in these activities. Most festivals are because of a shinto or buddhist holiday. They buy omamori. They visit shrines on new years. They have altars in their houses for dead family members. There's a lot of outward signs of religion that seems to just be people following along with traditions rather than being believers in the religion.

Old graph but still true today. People have shinto babies, christian style weddings, and buddhist funerals. They're just the popular ways to do things.

So the question of are the characters religious? The answer is probably that they wouldn't say they are.

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 9.18

Holidays

Aging Awareness Day

Astronomy Day (Armenia)

Big Brothers Big Sisters Day (Canada)

Celebrate Your Name Day

Celebration of Talent (French Republic)

Chiropractic Founders Day

Clemente Day

Day of National Music (Azerbaijan)

Deceased Motorcyclists Remembrance Day (Ukraine)

Dieciocho (Chile)

Eleven Days of Global Unity, Day 8: Human Rights

European Heritage Days (EU)

Feast Day of the Walloon Region (Belgium)

Festival of Inner Worlds

Festival of Labour (French Republic)

Fiesta Patrias (Chile)

First Love Day

Global Company Culture Day

Hug a Greeting Card Writer Day

International Equal Pay Day (UN)

International Pitt Hopkins Awareness Day

International Read an eBook Day

Island Language Day (Okinawa, Japan)

Jeannie in a Bottle Day

Jitiya Parwa (Only Women Employees; Nepal)

Jonny Quest Day

Long Playing Record Day

Mickey Mantle Day (New York)

Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday (Taiwan)

Mountain Meadows Massacre Anniversary Day (by Mormon Church Members; Utah)

Mukden Incident Anniversary Day

National Cannabis Day (Germany)

National Ceiling Fan Day

National Colton Day

National Day of Civic Hacking

National Fitness Day (UK)

National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day

National Museum Day [also 5.18]

National Music Day (Azerbaijan)

National Play-Dough Day

National Rehabilitation Day

National Report Kickback Fraud Day

National Respect! Day

National Science Reading Day

National Tree Day (Canada)

Navy Day (Croatia)

New York Times Day

918 Day (Oklahoma)

Persian Literature and Pony Day (Iran)

PCOS Awareness Day

Scouring of the White Horse (Wantage, Berkshire, UK)

Shima-kutuba Day (Japan; Okinawa)

Top Ten List Day

U.S. Air Force Day

Victory of Uprona (Burgundy)

Vulver Awareness Day

World Bamboo Day

World Knot Tying Day

World Medical Ethics Day

World Water Monitoring Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Brett Day

National Cheeseburger Day

National Chocolate Day

Rice Krispies Treats Day

Independence & Related Days

Buddie Union (Declared; 2015) [unrecognized]

Chile (a.k.a. Dieciocho, 1st Gov't Junta, 1818)

Free Republic of Silbervia (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

3rd Wednesday in September

Banned Websites Awareness Day [3rd Wednesday]

Ember Day (Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches) [Wednesday after 9.14]

Human Resource Manager Day [3rd Wednesday]

Hump Day [Every Wednesday]

Mouth Cancer Awareness Day (Ireland) [3rd Wednesday]

National Attention Deficit Disorder Awareness Day [3rd Wednesday]

National Rehabilitation Day [3rd Wednesday]

National School Backpack Awareness Day [3rd Wednesday]

Quarter Tense (Ireland) [Wednesday after 9.14]

Wacky Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wandering Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Website Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wiener Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Weekly Holidays beginning September 18 (3rd Full Week of September)

Wear Cotton Week (thru 9.25)

Festivals Beginning September 18, 2024

Eurofurence (Hamburg, Germany) [thru 9.21]

Festival du Film Merveilleux et Imaginaire (Paris, France) [thru 9.20]

Lost Lands (Thornville, Ohio) [thru 9.22]

National Cattle Congress (Waterloo, Iowa) [thru 9.22]

Walnut Valley Festival (Winfield, Kansas) [thru 9.22]

Feast Days

Amoeba Assimilation Day (Pastafarian)

Anton Mauve (Artology)

Arcadius, Bishop of Novgorod (Christian; Saint)

Ariadne of Phrygia (Christian; Martyr)

Bidzin, Elizbar, and Shalva, Princes of Georgia (Christian; Martyrs)

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (Artology)

Castor of Alexandria (Christian; Martyr)

Constantius (Theban Legion)

Ear Wig Fitting Day (Shamanism)

Edward Bouverie Pusey (Episcopal Church)

Eleusinian Mysteries begin (Ancient Rome; Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Eugene’s, Bishop of Gortyna (Christian; Saint)

Eustorgius I (Christian; Saint)

Ferreol (Christian; Saint)

Feast of Ceres (Roman Goddess of Agriculture & Grain Crops)

Festival of Labour (French Republic)

Foundation Day (Unification Church)

Hilarion of Optima (Christian; Saint)

Joe Kubert (Artology)

John Harvey Kellogg Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

José de Rivera (Artology)

Joseph of Cupertino (Christian; Martyr)

Juan Macias (Christian; Saint)

Konstantin Kakanias (Artology)

Leonardo da Crunchy (Muppetism)

Lord Berners (Artology)

Lynn Abbey (Writerism)

Mark di Suvero (Artology)

Methodius of Olympus (Christian; Saint)

Plataia (Ancient Greece)

Richardis (Christian; Saint)

Rosmerta (Celtic Book of Days)

Samuel Johnson (Writerism)

Scouring the White Horse begins (Everyday Wicca)

Sophia and Irene of Egypt (Christian; Martyrs)

Third Nostril of Christ Day (Church of the SubGenius)

Thomas of Villanova (Christian; Saint)

Tzom Gedaliah (Fast of Gedalia; Judaism)

Vanaheim Day (Pagan)

Vondel (Positivist; Saint)

Zay Day (Sus God Zay) [Wear red or purple hoodies]

Lunar Calendar Holidays

Chong Chao (Macau)

Chusok (South Korea)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [38 of 53]

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [31 of 37]

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [24 of 30]

Unlucky 18th (Philippines) [3 of 3]

Premieres

Abacab, by Genesis (Album; 1981)

Abou Ben Boogie (Swing Symphony Cartoon; 1944)

The Addams Family (TV Series; 1964)

Birthday, recorded by The Beatles (Song; 1967)

A Bully Frog (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1936)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Film; 1958)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Animated Film; 2009)

Continental Divide (Film; 1981)

Crazytown (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1959)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Film; 1951)

Dog Daze (WB MM Cartoon; 1937)

Enough Said (Film; 2013)

The Farm of Tomorrow (MGM Cartoon; 1954)

Fatal Attraction (Film; 1987)

Five and Dime (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1933)

The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Film; 1981)

Funny Girl (Film; 1968)

Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss (Albums; 1978)

Get Smart (TV Series; 1965)

Goldfinger premiered in UK (1964) [James Bond #3]

Goo Goo Goliath (WB MM Cartoon; 1954)

The Gullible Canary (Phantasies Cartoon; 1942)

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1959)

Heartache Tonight, by The Eagles (Song; 1979)

I Likes Babies and Infanks (Fleischer Cartoon Popeye Cartoon; 1937)

In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak (Children’s Book; 1970)

The Japoteurs (Fleischer Cartoon; 1942) [#10]

Jennifer’s Body (Film; 2009)

Jonny Quest (Animated TV Series; 1964)

Making Money, by Terry Pratchet (Novel; 2007) [Discworld #36]

Maple Leaf Rag, by Scott Joplin (Song; 1899)

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (Film; 2015)

The Moffatt Translation of the Bible (Bible; 1922)

More Than a Feeling,, by Boston (Song; 1976)

New York Times (Daily Newspaper; 1851)

Old Rockin’ Chair Tom (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1948)

Pain Strikes Underdog, Parts 1 & 2 (Underdog Cartoon, S2, Eps. 1 & 2 1965)

Pink in the Clink (Pink Panther Cartoon; 1968)

The Road to Ruin or Mine Over Matter (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 55; 1960)

Rockin’ with Judy Jetson (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Movie; 1988)

Rush Hour (Film; 1998)

School Daze (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner (Novel; 2010) [Maze Runner #2]

Serve It Forth (Art of Eating), by M.F.K. Fisher (Food Essays; 1937)

Severed Relations or How to Get a Head (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 161; 1962)

Sicario (Film; 2015)

Singles (Film; 1992)

Smiley Smile, by The Beach Boys (Album; 1967)

Strange Little Girl, by Tori Amos (Album; 2001)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Film; 1951)

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (TV Series; 2006)

Superman: Doomsday (WB Animated Film; 2007)

That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles or Me and My Chateau (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 162; 1962)

Tired and Feathered (WB LT Cartoon; 1965)

Two Flying Ghosts or High Spirits (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 56; 1960)

Wagon Train (TV Series; 1957)

War Pigs, by Black Sabbath (Song; 1970)

Where’s Wally, by Martin Hanford (Puzzle Book; 1987)

WKRP in Cincinnati (TV Series; 1978)

Today’s Name Days

Herlinda, Josef, Lambert, Rica (Austria)

Alfonz, Irena, Jonatan, Josip, Sonja (Croatia)

Kryštof, Oskar (Czech Republic)

Titus (Denmark)

Tiido, Tiidrik, Tiidu, Tiit (Estonia)

Tytti, Tyyne, Tyyni (Finland)

Nadège, Véra (France)

Alfons, Herlinde, Lambert, Rica (Germany)

Ariadne, Ariadni, Evmenis, Kastor, Romylos (Greece)

Diána (Hungary)

Eumenio, Giuseppe, Maria, Sofia (Italy)

Alinta, Elita, Gizela, Liesma (Latvia)

Galmantė, Mingailas, Stefa, Stefanija (Lithuania)

Henriette, Henry (Norway)

Dobrowit, Irena, Irma, Józef, Ryszarda, Stefania, Tytus, Zachariasz (Poland)

Eumenie (Romania)

Elizaveta, Raisa (Russia)

Eugénia (Slovakia)

José, Sofía, Sonia (Spain)

Orvar (Sweden)

Irene (Ukraine)

Clint, Clinton, Corbin, Corwin, Corwyn, Korbin, Korvin (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 262 of 2024; 104 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of Week 38 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Muin (Vine) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 8 (Guy-You), Day 16 (Yi-You)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 15 Elul 5784

Islamic: 14 Rabi I 1446

J Cal: 22 Gold; Oneday [22 of 30]

Julian: 5 September 2024

Moon: 99%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 10 Shakespeare (10th Month) [Racine]

Runic Half Month: Ken (Illumination) [Day 12 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 91 of 94)

Week: 3rd Full Week of September

Zodiac: Virgo (Day 28 of 32)

[newx-menfan]

Interesting analysis of Prodigy’s appearance in X-Factor…if anyone wants to give it a read.

*Honestly…I don’t know HOW I feel about that plot point, if I am being honest.

It’s obvious Williams ending was rushed and she was hurried to explain how Prodigy died. Would more care have been made if there had been less pressure to tie up all the loose ends? Probably.

On the “Battle of the Atom” podcast, Williams more or less admits writers and editors were making changes to the last issues (basically more or less saying the same things Kelly Thompson/Sina Grace/Jeff Lemire have said over the years about lack of control writers really have with the X-Men line).

It’s not like real world stories HAVEN’T popped up in X-Men before- Chance’s church in Fallen Angels Vol.1 was very clearly based off of the Unification Church. Magneto is a concentration camp survivor….just to name a couple examples.

Still- using the name “Buck” Thatcher, essentially making it a very clear it is meant to be Ed Buck…felt and feels a little bit questionable, since we don’t know how the family members of the victims would feel about this…

When reading this issue the first time back in 2021, I did find myself thinking about Rosenberg’s representation of Wolfsbane’s death as an allegory for violence against trans people a few years ago…and the question of whether comics SHOULD be the space to talk about honestly a pretty complex and sensitive issue…

But I do also see the other side of it- in a world where there’s a LOT of debate about LGBTQIA+ rights- isn’t it important to talk about the reality that LGBTQIA+ identities often face a higher likelihood of being victims of violence?

(https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation/study-finds-lgbtq-people-much-likelier-to-be-crime-victims)

(https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-lgbt-violence-press-release/)

But I also see fans feeling tired of every LGBTQIA+ story focusing around depression, violence, death, suicide, and repression…

The originally planned but ultimately shelved story of Anole killing himself, IS, I think a good example of this problem. Anole HAS been pretty positive representation and the idea of using Victor’s death as a wake up call for Elixir when looking at it now- IS pretty problematic…

I am personally GLAD editorial cut the Anole story and I prefer the direction D+W took instead with Academy X.

I personally didn’t find the issue as graphic as many were critiquing it for online, when it first came out…but I do feel a tad bit uncomfortable that it is based on a real case, in a situation where again, you don’t know how people close to the victims would feel about it being incorporated in fiction….

While I definitely don’t think Williams meant any harm with issue #10…I think the reality is there isn’t a clear answer on this issue of representation, other than if you ARE going to tell these kinds of stories…make sure you are doing it in the most sensitive way possible.

[whatisonthemoon]

2nd Gen Research in Japan

Another post taken from a thread made by Twitter user @nowwarmom https://twitter.com/nowwarmom/status/1642383646848962560

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Morsko and the team of 2nd-gen former Unification Church members have compiled, mapped, and published a database of information on election candidates whose relationships with the Unification Church have been reported in the media. The data includes → 

candidates for governor and ordinance-designated city mayor, as well as candidates for prefectural assembly member and ordinance-designated city assembly member. It also provides links to media reports on what kind of relationship the candidates had with the Unification Church.

More info (in Japanese):

https://twitter.com/morusukochan/status/1642000925232594944

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

A WACL Rogues' Gallery

Covert Action Information Bulletin (Winter 1986)

The World Anti-Communist League, having adopted the cause of "freedom fighters" around the world, includes many members whose own political activities and philosophies belie the very idea of freedom or democracy. Despite the new WACL "pro-freedom" image displayed in Dallas, WACL remains rife with Nazis, racists, and death squad leaders. Among the delegates at the convention were:

Mario Sandoval Alarcon, whose National Liberation Movement (NLM) party organized the White Hand death squads in Guatemala in the 1960s. The NLM was reportedly responsible for the murders of eight to ten thousand civilians in 1966 and 1967. According to investigative reporter Craig Pyes, Sandoval introduced El Salvador’s neo-fascist leader Roberto D’Aubuisson to his WACL contacts in Argentina. They later arranged for Argentinean generals to visit El Salvador to help set up safe houses from which death squad operations were carried out. D’Aubuisson, who was recently forced out as head of the ARENA party, has announced he will head a political institute in San Salvador affiliated with WACL. Dr. Yaroslav Stetsko, a member of the WACL Executive Board, was a prominent Nazi collaborator who briefly headed a puppet government in the Ukraine. Joe Conason, Murray Waas, and Kevin Coogan reported in the Village Voice on other Nazis in attendance, including Chirila Ciuntu of Canada, a member of the Rumanian Iron Guard, notorious for its pogroms against the Jews in the early 1940s, and Ivan Kosiak, a member of the wartime pro-Nazi Byelorussian Central Council. Dr. Manuel Frutos, also a member of the WACL Executive Board, chaired the 1979 WACL conference in Paraguay, said to have been the "most Nazified" of all their annual meetings, at which former Nazi SS officers and wanted neo-fascists from Italy were present. Benito Guanes, former chief of Paraguayan military intelligence, who supplied passports for Chilean agents who came to the U.S. to assassinate Orlando Letelier. John K. Singlaub, head of the CIA's "counter terror program" in Vietnam in 1965, according to Anthony Herbert's book, Soldier. This operation, the Intelligence Coordination and Exploitation Program — later known as the Phoenix Program — ran assassination units which killed thousands of Vietnamese civilians. In 1978, Singlaub was reassigned from command of U.S. troops in Korea for insubordination after repeated public attacks on President Carter’s Korea policy. Singlaub announced in Dallas that in honor of the twelfth anniversary of the "military overthrow of the Allende regime in Chile" and the ninety-eighth anniversary of the "Paraguayan Republic," congratulations would be sent to General Pinochet and the head of the ruling Paraguayan Colorado Party. Takeshi Furuta, representative of the International Federation for Victory Over Communism, the original political organization of the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Moon asserts that democracy must be replaced with "unificationism" in order to strengthen the West for the final assault on communism. Moon also blames the Jews for the death of Christ and explains the suffering of the Jews in history, including the Nazi holocaust, as "indemnity" for this "collective sin." William Starr, a Moonie from Tucson, Arizona, attended Moon's CAUSA as an observer. (Osami Kuboki, a longtime member of the WACL Executive Board, was not present in Dallas; he heads the Japanese WACL chapter, which is dominated by the Unification Church, whose Japanese branch he also leads.) Hubert Kelly of the Christian Patriots Defense League (CPDL) was present as an official observer. According to an Anti-Defamation League report, "racism and anti-Semitism are an integral part of the CPDL ministry." The group’s official statement of purpose, signed by president John Harrell, says CPDL is "dedicated to the preservation of Anglo-Saxon, American-type culture… We believe the forced mixing of races of people is a self-evident, obvious, proven tragedy. We believe such forced integration results in racial suicide, creating an endangered species problem." … CPDL runs several paramilitary training camps in the U.S.

Related:

The Moonies and 'Victims of Communism’

The Dark Shadow Cast by Moon Sun Myung’s Unification Church and Abe Shinzo – Asia-Pacific Journal Japan Focus

Singlaub Recruits His Own Army in the Philippines

Private Groups Step Up Aid to ‘Contras’ (1985)

John Singlaub: ‘An Anti-Communist’s Anti-Communist’

The WACL and CAUSA’s Role in the Ruthless Violence of US-Philippines Counterinsurgency

On Moon’s Political Network and their Deep Connections to Global Terrorism

[scotianostra]

On February 11th 1659 William Carstares, the radical Scottish Presbyterian cleric was born in Cathcart.

William was the son of Rev John Carstares who was a member of the Covenanting party of Protestors. He was classically educated by John Sinclair, the minister of Ormiston, before entering Edinburgh University to study for his Bachelor of Arts, which he received in 1667. Due to the dominant Episcopalian nature of the University at the time, his father encouraged him to study theology at Utrecht.

He moved to London in 1672, probably as an agent of William of Orange, and was held in Edinburgh Castle 1674-9. During 1682-3 he helped to organise a rising by the Whigs and the earl of Argyll. He was captured in 1683 and under torture made a partial confession on the promise that it would not be used as evidence; but it was used in the trial of George Baillie of Jeviswood, who was executed.

Carstares was exiled because of his involvement in the “Rye House Plot” to overthrow King Charles II. He became chaplain to William of Orange, and after the Glorious Revolution in 1688, he headed the Church of Scotland during the reigns of William and Mary, and later Queen Anne. Carstares was instrumental in securing Scottish support for the Act of Unification between England and Scotland.

On his release from prison he went to the continent in 1685 and became minister of a Scottish congregation at Leiden. He accompanied William of Orange as chaplain to England in 1688, and on campaigns in Ireland and Flanders, 1689-1702. He took part in drafting the legislation for establishing Presbyterianism in Scotland as part of the “Glorious” evolution Settlement of 1690

From 1695 he began meddling in Scottish politics, earning himself the nickname of 'Cardinal Carstares', though his power waned abruptly on William's death in 1702. He was Principal of the University of Edinburgh, 1703-15, and a minister of Greyfriars Church, then of St Giles, 1707-15. Carstares was also four times Moderator of the General Assembly.

He died in December 1715, a strong supporter of the Union to the last, he is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, he also remembered with a plque in St Giles in the Old Town.

Much more on Carstares, in which they describe him as "a scoudral by any standards", can be found here https://bonniedundee1689.wordpress.com/.../birth-of.../

[interactivemediayear1cd]

My favourite cults and secret societies,

Our first terms brief is about cults and secret societies set in the 19th century and so I am researching and laying out here my favourite societies and cults, why I personally find them interesting, there beliefs and finally there often swift falls from grace.

1.Heaven’s gate:

Heaven’s Gate was a cult founded by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles in the 1970s. They believed in extraterrestrial salvation and that a spacecraft would transport them to a higher plane of existence. Members adhered to strict rules, including celibacy and cutting ties with the outside world. The cult gained notoriety in 1997 when 39 members, including Applewhite, committed mass suicide, believing it would allow them to board the spaceship trailing the Hale-Bopp comet. This tragic event marked the cult’s downfall, highlighting the dangers of extreme beliefs and isolation from society. I really like this cult due to their resolve and tenacity with their two surviving active members still running their website all these years later, a website you can visit at https://www.heavensgate.com/ ( I neither endorse nor condone the actions committed by the members of the heavens gate cult, neither do I support there beliefs.)

2. The Ant Hill Kids:

The Ant Hill Kids cult, led by Roch Thériault in Ontario, Canada, during the 1970s and 1980s, engaged in extreme practices. Thériault claimed to be a prophet, promoting a mix of Christianity and apocalyptic beliefs. Members endured physical and psychological abuse, including amputations as punishment. The cult's downfall came when Thériault murdered one of his followers during a ritual, leading to his arrest in 1989. The trial revealed the cult's gruesome activities, resulting in Thériault's life imprisonment in 1993, marking the end of the Ant Hill Kids cult. Many gruesome and horrific acts where committed by Roch that I won’t detail here but this man was pure evil and I truly wish that if there is something after death for him I pray there is only torment. I don’t like this cult per say but it is of great interest to me due to it displaying what a master manipulator can do when given power and what people will do when they think god has ordained it.

3.The Order of the Pug (Mops-Orden):

This secretive society offer a breath of fresh air from the last two entries, containing not a hint of violence or death however there isn’t much information written online on this organisation, there is a rather good video essay on YouTube detailing its history and activities (https://youtu.be/nWkn2yWU9aU?si=AoG7Jev-Nu102QUp), The order of the pug was a para-Masonic society founded by Roman Catholics in 1738. The constitution of the Order of the Pug allowed women to become members, as long as they were Catholic. The Pug was chosen as a symbol of loyalty, trustworthiness and steadiness. Not only do I personally adore pugs but I admire the society’s willingness to stand against the largest religious figure at the time the pope.

4. The Unification Church:

The Unification church also known as the “Moonies” due to their founder Sun Myung Moon, where founded in the 50’s. It mixed a lot of Christian ideals and teachings with Moon’s own teachings, Moon proclaimed himself as the messiah and sought to establish a world of peace which one wouldn’t necessarily think given a lot of their doings and beliefs, a breakaway faction within the church even believing Jesus Christ, yes the Jesus Christ son of god, had an AR-15 not like some allegory for one a literal Armalite assault rifle.

[ausetkmt]

Diane Benscoter, former member of the Unification Church cult and founder of Antidote.ngo, joins Reliable Sources to explain the similarities between cult leaders and former President Donald Trump.

_________________________________

Comments:

Shawn The Great:

It is a cult when your leaders says “Don’t believe what you are hearing or seeing” I [have] never been in a cult but that seems like a cult to me.

teeohpee:

The only thing I remember from high school, beside the bullying, was a 2 hour special assembly about how not to get trapped in a cult. I’m so happy I paid attention that day. I actually used the tactics I learned at the don’t-get-trapped-in-a-cult assembly a few years later when the Moonies tried to get me while I was sitting by myself in Washington Square Park. Every school in the nation should be holding Don’t Get Trapped In A Cult assemblies.

B Bodziak:

[Trump’s] first wife wrote in her book that came out around 2001 said Trump only had 2 hobbies: Golfing and repeatedly watching Hitler’s speeches for hours and hours. She wrote this long before he decided to run for office.  So, the similarities between the two wasn’t necessarily coincidental.

Comment: Sun Myung Moon also studied Hitler and other dictators. Moon repeatedly watched the Nazi propaganda film, “Triumph of the Will” and it showed in his mannerism at his September 1974 Madison Square Garden speech.

▲ Sun Myung Moon in 1974

AllyC890:

[Trump] also must have studied some about Mussolini because he copies his facial expressions–specifically jutting his jaw out and raising his face up, just as Mussolini did.

Anthony Lagunas:

Don’t forget Donnie himself has said “ If you tell a lie enough times people will believe it”.

Golgotha_Mythos69:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

~Hannah Arendt

TheBioExplorer:

I’ve been saying this ever since he kept doing the rallies even after winning his first term. Presidents have done speeches and stuff but these rallies were different. I watched some of his closer. From the choices of music that target his demographic to the carnival like atmosphere and repeated phrases to get repeated responses. It’s purely psychological manipulation. This is why even after being sworn in he immediately started scheduling more even though he should have been figuring out how to govern. He put off appointing people and other critical things…. but he kept up the rallies. Presidents don’t need to do rallies within a month of taking office and keep them up all through their term. They might go back on the campaign trail at some point in the 2nd half of their term but not like him.

Comment: Sun Myung Moon kept doing rallies, which the members had to support, even flying from country to country to fill the halls. Moon was so unpopular in Korea that his first rallies were held in the US. Only then did he return to Korea, claiming he was loved in the US. He did have photos of himself with Richard Nixon, and others, to wave around. The UC was always prepared for every photo-op and used the images for maximum leverage.

▲ Sun Myung Moon at his September 18, 1974, Madison Square Gardens rally. He used to practice in front of a mirror.

Joni Beehive:

I’ve lost dear old close friends of 30-40 years in the past 6 years over political beliefs. The current state of affairs in the United States is so heartbreaking and terrifying.

andan04:

An obvious trait of a cult is the pressure to conform to the leader and group. This is accomplished by suppressing independent thought with the threat of ostracization. Ask Liz Cheney if she knows anything about that.

M L.:

When lies have no consequences a democracy cannot exist.

David J.:

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who taught at Harvard Medical School, wrote a paper titled Cult Formation in the early 1980s. He delineated primary characteristics, which are the most common features shared by destructive cults like Trumpism.

1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.

2. A process of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as coercive persuasion or thought reform commonly called “brainwashing”.

The culmination of this process can be seen by members of the group often doing things that are not in their own best interest, but consistently in the best interest of its leader.

3. The exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling members.

Here are some warning signs of a potentially unsafe group or leader.

• Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.

• No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.

• No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget or expenses, such as an independently audited financial statement.

• Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.

• Former followers are always wrong for leaving, negative or even evil.

• The group/leader is always right.

• The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing “truth” or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is acceptable or credible.

“This man is a genius at every level! Why can’t we all be like him? He must be something special, and we are clearly not. Ergo, let’s listen to him since he knows best.” — Trump supporters

Mark Green:

Attempting to use empathetic discussion with those who have fallen into a cult is perhaps the only way to slowly help them extract themselves from their delusion. This is not an easy process and it is especially difficult when they also keep getting cult supporting messages every day from other cult members as well as media sources such as Fox, OAN, Newsmax, etc. There is a small part of them, however, that knows they have accepted lies as truth and it is important to try to reach that part of themselves so they can work on themselves when they’re alone.

QueenFae21:

As a former cult member myself, i agree the first place you gotta get to is empathy for the people in there. Understand that they aren’t idiots or evil they were simply misled into a really deep hole and now they can’t even see daylight anymore, yet they think they are being bathed in the sunlight of truth. It’s unproductive to argue with them since they won’t accept anything that doesn’t align with dear leader’s word.

Nancy Chace:

Good interview. More like this is needed in the national discussion. What are the “tools of communication” she mentioned that can help diffuse this? She is a good example of the young people that were recruited by the “Unification church” back in the 70s. Apparently this happened all over the country shortly after the Vietnam war. There was a lot of it on the west coast. Glad she was one of the ones who got out if it. Thanks for your report.

David J:

“I have a chapter in the book on malignant narcissism as a characteristic of destructive cult leaders. These are people who have a deep need for grandiosity, to be the center of attention, who need to control others, and who lack empathy and lie without hesitation. These are psychological traits perfectly attuned to manipulation and projection.

But the malignant part is about sociopathic tendencies. Almost every cult leader thinks he’s above the law, which is why he’s allowed to persecute and harass or harm anyone he wants. When someone really believes this, they can rationalize all kinds of destructive behavior.” — Steven Hassan, The Cult of Trump

Narcissistic cult leaders like Trump thrive on chaos. They’ll create crisis situations. When they walk in the room, you never know if they’re going to be good and kind-hearted or be mean and call someone out or create some kind of dangerous situation.

A cult leader is also a master of manipulating information, so that his followers will only trust details that come from him. This is what Trump accomplishes every time he cries “fake news” or discredits a reporter as “terrible” or “nasty.” He knows that Americans have access to all sorts of information, so he has to make his followers distrust other sources.

A cult environment like “Q” and Trumpism discourages critical thinking, making it hard to voice doubts, when everyone around you is displaying dogmatic faith and obedience to their leader. A process of indoctrination is in use that can be seen as coercive persuasion, or thought reform, commonly called “brainwashing”. The resulting internal conflict, known as cognitive dissonance, keeps them trapped, as each compromise makes it more painful to admit that you’ve been deceived..

Steven Hassan, is an expert in cults and an ex-Moonie cult member (as in the Unification Church, founded by a Korean businessman, Sun Myung Moon), published “The Cult of Trump” last spring. When polled, Trump cultists come across as having abandoned their commitment to libertarianism, family values or simple logic in favor of Trump worship. They’re lost to paranoia and farcical talking points,  just the way Hassan was lost to Sun Myung Moon..

Hassan remembers, during his Moonie days, shouting, “I don’t care if Moon is like Adolf-H. I’ve chosen to follow him, and I’ll follow him to the end.“ Hassan finally broke free, and became an expert on cults and how to leave them. He has spent his career proving it’s possible.