Subject: Get the word out! Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 07:40:49 +1000 (GMT+1000) From: Jan Groenveld < > Newsgroups: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn,alt.religion.scientology,alt.recovery.mormonism,alt.recovery.religion,aus.religion.christian,alt.recovery.fundamentalism,alt.support.ex-cult,alt.religion.apologetics,alt.support.ex-cult.siddha-yoga,alt.abuse.recovery

Folks, this may not be the group you came out or or are interested in .... but unless we all pull together - regardless of our background - we won't make a big enuf indent on their activites. Get the word out folks ..... let people know what these groups are up to .........

JanG

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 26 Dec 1999 20:38:43 -0000 From: Freedom of Mind Confidential Mailing List < > Subject: NY POST - Moonies recruiting for Upcoming Mass Wedding

MOON-LIT MATCHMAKERS NIBBLE AT APPLE

By CHRISTOPHER FRANCESCANI ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for love and companionship? Forget the bar scene -- join the Moonies. A small army of Moonies has taken to the streets to woo recruits for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's next mass wedding in Seoul, South Korea -- on Feb. 13. Japanese women are staked out on Midtown sidewalks, holding signs reading "Looking for Love?" and "Find Your Ideal Mate" and directing likely prospects to the church's New York City headquarters on West 43rd Street. The women -- who recruit in pairs -- are volunteers from Moon's Unification Church in Tokyo, said New York church spokesman Richard Lewis. "It's not a recruitment drive. It's just trying to help people as couples," Lewis told The Post. "We're trying to build families." The eager emissaries are stationed along Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the 40s. For hours at a time, the women smile and wave their signs in the faces of passers-by, male and female, young and old. They are mostly ignored. But when someone stops, they giggle and point to the headquarters address on their sign. All the women observed by The Post spoke very little English and answered questions largely by pointing and waving. When a prospect agrees to visit the church, they take him -- or her -- by the arm and try to walk the prospect there. It's not the first such recruitment drive, says Steve Hassan, a former high-ranking Moonie who's been tracking the church since he left it 23 years ago. "Right now, Moon is hurting, and he needs money, and so they're doing this major fund-raising drive," Hassan said. "They do this often right before mass weddings. They want Americans, and they want their money, so they go after the lonely and lovesick." Those who visit the 43rd Street headquarters meet "counselors" like Mary Moriarty, an Australian photographer who moved to New York several years ago after being "matched" to a church member. To be paired with a mate, she said, an applicant must attend a daylong seminar at the church, submit a photo of him or herself and pay $100 -- "to show that you are sincere, that you are genuinely interested." Then Rev. Moon looks at the photo and divines with whom the recruit will spend the rest of his life. Several days prior to the wedding, she said, you meet your mate and spend some time together to become acquainted before the ceremony, which is usually held in a football stadium or arena. Denis Beltran, who was approached by church members in his native Peru and on the streets of New York, was matched last year to a Japanese stewardess. "I wanted to try an alternative" to more traditional dating methods, said Beltran, who works for a Manhattan nonprofit organization. "I'm a guy who wants to get married just once." Beltran said he studied for more than two years, attending seminars and volunteering within the church -- remaining sexually abstinent, as per church rules, before he was married at last year's mass wedding ceremony in Madison Square Garden. He said he's so happy with his spouse that he brought his sister and brother into the church and both recently found matches. "Rev. Moon and his wife are like a parent for all mankind," Beltran said. "Now I have many friends who I consider family." Beltran said he never felt pressure to give the church money. When he was asked for $1,000, he said, he donated what he could afford: $300. Moon critic Hassan contends Beltran and others are being scammed by a money-mad egomaniac who calls himself the Messiah and breaks his own rules. "It's mind-control," he said. "It starts with a lecture and it goes to a three-day workshop, then a seven-day workshop, then a 21-day workshop, and, at least from my experience, that's the point at which you take your money out of the bank, quit your job and move in." Hassan -- author of the upcoming "Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves" -- said, "They try to keep you away from your family and friends, they interrupt your phone calls, and they try not to let you be alone at all." Church spokesman Lewis dismissed Hassan's claims as "ridiculous" and said hundreds of millions of church members around the world can attest to the success of the matchmaking.

NOTE: For those of you who didn't know: that Moon's 21 year old son, Phillip Moon committed suicide from a hotel window on October 27th in Reno, Nevada; that Hyo Jin, eldest son of Moon was divorced by Nansook Hong and that her book, In the Shadow of the Moons, detailed his cocaine problem, adulterous behavior and violence. It is amazing to me that there are still people who don't realize that there are still thousands of people still trapped in the delusion and mind control of the Moon cult. There is so much overwhelming evidence that Moon is a lying, immoral man who is exploiting them- but they are still in denial- or are simply afraid to come out and rebuild their lives. Many gave up their educations to become members. Now they have children, and feel like they have no choice but to remain. Many have family and friends "given up on them"- thinking that they have been in so long, there was no hope. Well, there is hope! But we can reach out and talk with these members. I do believe that deep down inside people want to know the truth and they want to feel loved and not exploited. Cults don't practice loving their members, so in the end they will always feel alienated the longer they are involved. Practice unconditional love with the person still in, and over time they will grow closer to you- just like a plant turns and looks for the sun. -----Steve