6/1/2004
Moon: Lightning strike inspired me to "tear down the cross"
The Moon organization now says that its campaign last year to remove the symbol of Christianity from 123 church walls was inspired by an act of weather at the Unification Church's theological institute.
Also, credit where credit is due: in a rare claim to philanthropic acts beyond the glorification of Moon himself, the organization says it has raised money for homeless Palestinians. On the other hand, in the '70s it raised money for sick children that mostly went to a PR firm for the Unification Church, as a Congressional probe reported.
Happy Easter
WorldNetDaily Hypocrisy on Rev. Moon
Joseph Farah, owner of the WorldNetDaily, has a commentary today about the Reverend Moon that is filled with hypocritical statements. He begins by telling of his experience over a decade ago, being invited to a Moon event in South Korea and sitting on the stage behind Moon as he declared himself the Messiah. Farah writes:
"Imagine my shock, as I read along in the translation to learn that Moon was saying that night that indeed he was the messiah. I was embarrassed to find myself sitting behind this man, perhaps, even, in some small way, lending credibility to his preposterous claims."
It was a lesson to me at the time on just how easy it is to be compromised."
And just how well did he learn that lesson? Not very well, it turns out. His actions since that event of a decade ago certainly don't support the claim that he was in any way concerned about lending credibility to Moon's activities "even in some small way". Farah's column appears in the Washington Times Weekly Edition, owned by Moon, every week, and the WND sells subscriptions to it (they may have just stopped doing so, the link is down but says nothing about it). The link on "shopnetdaily" that sold subscriptions included this glowing plug from Farah: "If you want the perfect weekly print complement to WorldNetDaily, I strongly recommend the Washington Times Weekly, edited by my friend Robert Morton." Boy Joe, it sure sounds like you were looking out for anything that might "lend credibility to Moon's activities" in some small way. What better way to show such concern than to pimp his publications on your website and give them a feverish plug as something your readers should subscribe to, insuring that he makes more money?
But it doesn't stop there. Last year, WorldNetDaily began sharing content with Insight, another Moon-owned publication, and they also began selling subscriptions to that magazine through Shopnetdaily (and again, the link has suddenly disappeared for it). Farah himself even wrote an e-mail to all WND subscribers urging them to subscribe to Insight, calling Moon's Insight editor "an independent thinker who digs deep and hard for the facts and draws conclusions based on what he finds rather than on some ideological assumption." And in a striking instance of "you scratch my back, I scratch yours", Moon returned the favor by featuring an interview with Farah in Insight to promote his new book. That interview also calls attention to the fact that Farah was awarded "The Washington Times Foundation National Service Award" in 1996 - also well after the event that Farah alleges made him "embarrassed" to be part of anything that might be "even, in some small way, lending credibility to his preposterous claims."
So basically, we're left with a case of actions vs words. Which is more plausible, that Farah was genuinely embarrassed and mindful of doing anything that might lend credibility to Moon's actions over a decade ago, yet continued to do all the things I listed above, or....that he has spent the last decade profiting from his business dealings with these businesses he knew were owned by Moon (he refers to the Washington Times as "Moon's heavily subsidized daily newspaper") and is trying to strike an implausible pose as the noble opposer of Moon's madness now that the shit has hit the fan? The answer seems obvious to me.
And yes, Farah is posing as the man who finally broke the story about Moon's coronation. He says:
"I was reminded of this experience recently when my daily, nationally syndicated talk-radio show broke the news of Moon's "crowning" achievement at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in March. Stories followed in Salon, the Washington Post and elsewhere."
Uh, no. You did not "break the news". John Gorenfeld broke the news and dozens and dozens of bloggers followed suit to bring the issue to the attention of the media. Farah wasn't even the first radio host to break the story, which appeared on Garafalo and Seder's show on Air America radio on May 21st, over 3 weeks before Gorenfeld appeared on Farah's show.
The bottom line is this: Farah is portraying himself as the noble savior, bravely battling the evil Reverend Moon since he found out over a decade ago that Moon falsely claimed to be the messiah and decided that it was important not to do anything that might lend credibility to Moon's insanity. The truth is that Farah is not the one who broke the story, and that in the decade since he claims he was "embarrassed" and "learned his lesson" about dealing with Moon, he has been profiting from association with Moon's publications and even accepted an award from one of them that he knew was owned by Moon. If that isn't rank hypocrisy, I don't know what would be.