Everyone loves a mystery.
It’s been weeks, but no one is willing to admit to having reserved a Senate office building room for a bizarre coronation ceremony for Sun Myung Moon in March. As the LA Times put it last week:
[T]here is someone left in Washington with a sense of embarrassment over Moon’s antics: The name of the senator who gave permission for Moon to use the Dirksen Building remains a mystery.
For those of you who are enjoying the ongoing tale, as I am, you’ll be pleased to know that a Moon front group, the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, hosted an event yesterday morning to explain what the coronation was all about. A couple of my friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State were on hand and wrote up a must-read report for the group’s blog.
Several Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders attended the event to show solidarity with Moon and salute him as a peacemaker. The March 23 event, the Rev. Phillip D. Schanker said, was designed to acknowledge “community workers, interreligious heroes and other activists.” The event, he said, also promoted reconciliation among religions and the races.
During the ceremony, Schanker said, “ceremonial robes and crowns” were placed on Moon and his wife “in the context of their role as king and queen of peace.”
Schanker and another Unification Church official, the Rev. Michael Jenkins, said the event had been distorted by writers who did not attend it. This, they claim, generated controversy and caused members of Congress to distance themselves from the Moon gala.
The event, Schanker said, was “mischaracterized” by “independent writers” who made “ugly” charges. “We are here,” he said, “to set the record straight.”
I’m pretty sure they’re referring to John Gorenfeld, who’s been driving this story from the start.
Of course, none of the new claims make any sense. The Senate event in March wasn’t about peace; it was Moon.
Claims that the event was merely about peace among religions seem to conflict with a description of the ceremony that appeared on a Unification Church website. On Moon’s Family Federation for World Peace and Unification website a few days after the crowning, top Moon official Chung Hwan Kwak was quoted as saying, “So in effect, the crowning means America is saying to Father, ‘Please become my king.'”
Observed Kwak, “The ‘outside’ view of the Capitol Hill event was that Father received a crown, an award for his years of dedication and leadership in reconciliation and peace-making. The ‘inside’ view of the event was that America surrendered to True Parents in the king’s position.”
Nevertheless, speakers at yesterday’s press conference didn’t want to talk about the question that has everyone curious.
Archbishop George Augustus Stallings, founder of a breakaway Catholic church and a frequent Moon ally, spoke at the press conference and took questions. But Stallings dodged the most important question and refused to say which member of the Senate arranged for Moon’s group to use the room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. (Under Senate rules, such requests for Senate space must be submitted by a member of that body.)
Asked directly to name the senator who had put in the room request, Stallings said, “We do not know.” Asked how they could not know, Stallings said, “We don’t. Read my lips.”
Stallings’ line was quickly contradicted, however, by Phillip Schanker who said the Moon group does know but has decided to keep the information secret.
But that doesn’t mean the event was a complete waste of time.
A representative from Church & State attended the press conference and asked Stallings if it were true that religious leaders who work with Moon are paid for their efforts or receive expensive gifts. A clearly agitated Stallings called the question racist, saying it implied that black ministers can be bought. (In fact, it was a white minister in Minnesota, who worked with Moon but later broke with him, who first told Church & State about this practice.)
“There’s always this instinct, that black pastors can be bought,” said Stallings. “Let me set the record straight, black pastors cannot be bought. It is a racist and loaded question.”
A moment later, Stallings admitted he had received a gold watch from Moon and flashed the watch briefly. He also admitted that he receives payments from Moon’s Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Stallings described the money and watch as compensation for services rendered, saying, “Anyone who does work for any organization deserves to be compensated.” He then joked that he doesn’t get enough.
Here’s a pic of the watch Stallings initially denied receiving:
Looks pretty nice to me. Plus, if he’s receiving untold amounts in regular payments, I’m sure he’s not exactly hurting for Moon money.
The plot thickens…