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Letter to the Editor,
Salon Magazine
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Reference: "Bad Moon on the Rise", 9-24, by John Gorenfeld I do not agree with the precepts of Reverend Moon and his Unification Church and it disturbs me immensely that my tax money should be used to support faith-based initiatives like last year's grant by the US Department of Health and Human Services (USDH&HS) of $475,280 to fund Free Teens USA. But then nothing the Bush family does should surprise anyone. Take his plan to place a ceiling cap on ALL medical civil suits because SOME are frivolous. Perhaps someone should inform Mr. Bush that some civil suits of any nature are frivolous, therefore should we not place a cap on all civil suits regardless of the sometimes outrageous and often intentional action of some defendants. I noticed that you did not use the "C" word and yet in the 1970s many people thought of the Unification Church as a mind control cult. But thanks in large part to the visibility of the Washington Times and also to the endorsement of that church by George Bush (the father), few people associate cult with the Moonies (a name they may now not want, but a name that they first used on themselves) anymore. The Washington Times' Cal Thomas is a panelist on FOX News and Times editor Wesley Pruden appears on Ollie North's radio talk show. "G Man" Gorden Liddy reads and quotes from the Times religiously (pardon the pun). The Unificationist are not the only ones to hold court with the Bush White House either. You noted that last December James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, spoke at Moon's God and World Peace event. Well in 2001 Clifton Mitchell was Bush's Coordinator of Faith and Community Partners Initiative and special deputy to the director of USDH&HS's Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment when he spoke at a Scientology™ affiliated Narconon® drug treatment facility in Oklahoma. The Church of Scientology™ is another religion that I prefer my tax dollars not go to. Wellspring in Albany, Ohio is a place you send people to recover from a bad cult mind-control experience. Queen of FOX News, Scientologist™ and attorney Greta Van Susteren was an attorney recently involved in suing Wellspring. Republican congressman in Florida are flocking to Scientology™'s naval headquarters in Clearwater all the time. You noted that last December Bush appointed Unificationist David Caprara to head the War on Poverty program AmeriCorps VISTA. Well in 1989 Bush the father appointed Melvin Sembler ambassador to Australia and Bush the son has appointed Sembler as our current ambassador to Italy. So just who is Mel Sembler. Mel Sembler is the founder of that other cult that you hear little of--Straight, Inc. In its heyday Straight was the biggest chain of juvenile drug rehab programs in the world. There are reports of making kids scoop their own feces out of the toilet with their bare hands and reports of a bizarre clinical practice of spitting in people's faces and letting the spit dry to discourage them from using drugs. Forty former clients have committed suicide. The President's brother Jeb is on the advisory board for Straight under its new name Drug Free America Foundation. The US Small Business Administration has made a major grant under the Drug Free Work Place Act to the new Straight. On September 11, SAFE, a second-generation Straight in Orlando, sponsored a SAMHSA sanctioned National Recovery Month initiative. It's not about religion or rehabilitation or drugs. It's rarely even about war. It's about money and politics and power. It always was and always will be. Thank you for your well written and informative article on this strange brand of Christianity. Wesley M. Fager |