Feuding sons, questionable finances threaten Unification Church
By Ian Shapira and Michelle Boorstein
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON | Inside the Unification Church, past the lobby photograph of
the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, soothing melodies beckoned worshippers on a
recent Sunday morning.

But outside the church walls, the quest for inner contentment is
overshadowed by a fractious Moon family dispute. This month’s abrupt
purging of top executives at the Washington Times, which Moon founded
and subsidized, and downturns at some Moon-connected businesses have
rattled some Unificationists already worried about the future of their
movement.

Outside experts on Moon’s empire and church officials say it’s unclear
how Unificationism will fare when Moon, 89, dies. Moon is the
theological center of the movement he founded in 1954, as well as a
global business magnate. Followers of the church believe that Moon is a
messiah sent to complete Jesus’ unfinished work.

The ranks of the church’s U.S. followers have thinned since the
movement’s heyday in the 1970s, according to church officials.
Worldwide, the church has about 110,000 “adherents,” according to a
report in the Times in October.

Last month the church announced that Moon was passing day-to-day control
to his three U.S.-educated sons.

But an apparent feud broke out this month between two of them when Hyun
Jin Moon, often known as Preston, and Hyung Jin Moon, known as Sean,
issued dueling memos asserting competing claims of control over portions
of their father’s empire.

Joshua Cotter, the church’s executive vice president, declined a request
for an interview. In response to questions, Cotter wrote: “Rev. Moon has
inspired many activities and projects with the goal of promoting world
peace. He and our Unification Church members in America and worldwide
continue to pray for the success of these projects.”

In the Washington area, several organizations with ties to the church
have suffered financially over the past year, including Moon’s media
holding company, News World Communications, which owns the Washington
Times, the United Press International wire service and the Atlantic
Video TV production facility. As of August 2008, analysts estimated that
Moon had subsidized the Times by at least $1 billion since it was
launched in 1982.

Some of Moon Inc.’s New York-based operations remain profitable,
according to a church media relations consultant who said he was not
authorized to speak publicly.


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The righties here have denied the connection between the Moonies and the
Wash Times for a long, long time.

Time to ESAD, boys.

--
If you are flajim, herring, loogy, GC boater, johnson, topbassdog, rob,
achmed the sock puppet, or one of a half dozen others, you're wasting
your time by trying to *communicate* with me through rec.boats, because,
well, you are among the permanent members of my dumbfoch dumpster, and I
don't read the vomit you post, except by accident on occasion. As
always, have a nice, simple-minded day.