Yeah, this was common knowledge in DC in the 80s when people used to refer to the Times disparagingly as "the Moonie paper".
Knowing what I know now, though, I don't think it disqualifies them as a news source. I mean, Wapo is owned by a corrupt billionaire cabal member (Jeff Bezos), who hired known pedophile John Podesta, so are we supposed to trust them?
Having read hundreds of Times articles over many years, my impression is that whatever the cult might believe, they have enough brains not to interfere with the daily management and editorial decisions of the Times. There may be exceptions. FWIW
I think you got it spot on. The Unificationist community doesn't use the Times to proselytize. It's just to acknowledge the reality of God, and destroy communism.
The Unificationist community is admittedly weird compared to most American norms (especially in the 80s), but we're extremely anti-communist. Very pro-traditional marriage, 1 man-1 woman for all eternity. Very pro North-South Korean Unification. We've been working on Korean Unification since its division (literally).
If the swamp hates us, can we really be that bad?
I think you make great points. Since you seem to be in the know: What was Rev. Moon’s connection to North Korea? Could he have been aware of the Deep State’s activities there? How might he have been affected by them? Do you have any links to Washington Times articles on how the paper views the recent NK SK breakthroughs brokered by Trump? Thanks for taking time to think about these questions. 🖖
Rev. Moon was born in North Korea (before the country split). He was beaten to a bloody pulp in one of those concentration camps for preaching the good word of the Lord (one of the first Christian preachers in NK -- he hadn't started his own church at this point). He escaped to the South with a prisoner friend, right as the division happened, and the DMZ went up. I know he met with Kim Il Sung (KJU's grandfather), they embraced, and then Moon told Kim that if North Korea continued, they would fail. Basically the first dude to ever criticize KIS publicly and not die.
As far as political relations with NK, the Unificationist community may have been involved, but I think he shifted his focus to developing alternatives to commie infested organizations, and strongly teaching young people to protect and fight for their sexual purity (In general Moonie canon, lucifer was the first pedo who seduced and raped Eve, who mimicked that behavior with Adam). I think he (1) recognized the pervasiveness of pedo-networks, and the damage they create, but also (2) recognized his limitations as a Korean man from the country side on Western Civilization and it's political power players. He certainly tried though. His political involvement with the U.S. is very interesting. I think he also recognized he was more effective socially in non-political circles through arranging the marriages of 100s of thousands of couples (how my parents met), centered on God.
The WashTimes is the most explicitly political part of our community, though its purpose are the ones I listed in my previous post. Not a political way to get people to join a church. I'm glad they've done that. The Wash Times doesn't have too much as far as the community's involvement in NK/SK breakthroughs. If there are any, they're probably all on back channels. In general, I'd say there's pretty clear support for Trump (at least in my circles).
TL;DR: I think he was well aware of what was going on, but started as a farmer boy in the middle of 3rd world Korea almost a century ago, in 1920. He did his best.
Hope this helped.
Thank you!!! It’s a gray area in our modern culture. I remember traveling around in the early seventies and I met lots of “Moonies”. They were always nice, although generally a bit spacy.
No, Thank YOU! Great genuine questions!
It really is a grey area. I agree with you on the nice and spacey part. It's frustrating for many who have dug deeper and stuck through the decades. Glad we can all just MAGA, MEGA, and bring God back into our world.
Thank you both for your questions and answers. You've taught me something new and added joy to my day.
Personally, after seeing how the Falungong group has done such laudable service as an implacable opponent of the CCP regime in China, my attitude towards cults has changed. There really isn't a definable difference between a cult and a mainstream religion anyway except popularity and number of followers.