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By E.K. Ccscccio
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church has
been compared by some to the Nazi youth movement.
Others say its members (Moonics) are thin, bleary-eyed
and easily brainwashed from a starchy, meatless diet and
16-hour workdays.
In a telephone interview, Marc Leef director of the
Unification Church in Pennsylvania, called this fcnage
-absurd,"
Lee said members eat meat, vegetables, bread asd
milk, lie said Moon eats the food and one of Moon's
favorites is McDonald's hamburgers.
Lee, who has planned two of Moon's speaking tours,
is an assistant to Unification Church President Neil
Salonen.
Lee describes Moon as a "wonderful, warm-hearted,
loving, family man." Moon has rune children.
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"He tints his members like children also, Lee said,
"All needs are provkied."
Lee, 25, grew up in San Francisco and attended the
University of California at Berkeley for a year. The
following summer he said he joined the Unification
Church "as a time in my life when I was interested in
Eastern philosophy.
This was six years ago when, he said, the church had
about 100 members. Today more than 30,000 Moon
followers are in the United Sutes.
Lee said he wants to get married and have children
because "the family is instrumental to creating a better
society.
Lee said he is happy in the Unification Church.
There has been nothing that brought me greater
joy, he said. "We believe in joy. Joy comes through hard
work.
The work for most members is at least 12 hours of
fund raising a day, sixays a week, followed by evening
prayer meetings.
Members are given a "missionary allowance of a
few dollars a day, Lee said. Recreation includes an
occasional trip to the beach or to a movie.
"We don't feel we have so much time for fun, Lee
said. This is a time when sacrificing is not too popular.
America is in a more critical state than most people
realize. We feel communism poses a major threat to the
free world, in that it opposes God.
"I feel like anybody who tries to take a member
from our church is opposing God,' he continued.
Lee said members believe Adam and Eve failed in
their mission to form the first God-centered family.
Christ came, he said, as the "second Adam to restore the
individual and then the perfect family"
"Ve see Moon as a prophet or a modem-day
instrument of God. God is speaking through him to
prepare people for the Second Coming-the same position
, as John the Baptist.
The Messiah will bring the kiniom cf Heaven on
earth, Lee said. "Many think he (Moon) is the Messhh.
He his never said he is.
Lee said he thought Horn could be the lUsdzh be
cause f 'oca is trying to bring the world together.
"I war.t to bring God to America and to make God a
substantial part of everyone's life, Lee said. "My goals
arc the goals of the Unification Church."
He said the charge that members are brainwashed
and need "deprogramming" is ridiculous. He compared
brainwashing to torture and said the Unification Church
uses "traditional educational methods." .
Lee called deprogramming "an outrageous process
it's kidnapping.
Deprogramming is when a member is taken-usuaily
by parents- from the church. A former member then
tries to convince the member, using Eble passages, that he
or she has been deceived by Moon's teachings.
Lee said his parents like the Unification Church and
members are encouraged to "write and visit their parents
as much as possible.
The door is open and we can walk out. Some
members do leave," he added.
Parents unite to inform about cult
Cy E.K. Cssaccio
Cheryl is convinced laundry work is a unique job.
Cheryl is a Moonie.
A Moonie is usually a young adult of legal age who
belongs to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification
Church. The Unification Church is a cult based on Korean
evangelist Moon's Divine Principle, a 500-page document
explaining the religion.
According to EarbaraVamke of Omaha, Cheryl's
mother, Cheryl became involved with the Unification
Church last fall after attending a weekend meeting with
her boyfriend at a Greenville, Iowa indoctrination center.
Cheryl returned, quit school at Kearney State Collage
after one month 3nd lived at the Unification center at
401 6 Davenport St. in Omaha, Warnke said.
She said she last saw her daughter before Cheryl was
sent to ffew York in November 195.
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Warnke said she and parents like her decided to start
a local organization in Omaha called Save Our Children,
Inc., to combat Moon and other cults. As vice president ,
of the group, she says she hopes to help other parents
and "make the public aware of what these cults are."
Dennis Ythelan, executive director of Council Huffs'
Total Awareness, Inc., and a part-time private detective,
aba works for the group. Total Awareness works with
young adults with problems. Rimy are runaways or drug
users. ' ,
Whelan said he believes two-thirds of the 39jDG0
American youths involved in the Unification Church are
fundraisers.
"Each kid (fund raiser) averages $100 a day, six days
a week," Whebnd said. "Multiply that by all year and
that's that man's (Moon's) income.
: "The only thing we've found in common between the;
cults is all the leaders are getting wealthy," he added.
Moon's wealth has been reported between S15 million
and $20 million.
Some contact
The Warnkes, unlike some clut member's parents, know
where Cheryl is and occasionally talk with her on the
phone.
"She lives there (the New Yorker Hotel that Moon
owns) and works in the laundry," Warnke said. "She tells
us she loves it and they have her convinced it's a unique
job.
"She doesn't have any spending money of her own.
I just talked to an ex-member who had seen her and she
didn't even have a toothbrush. I don't think they have a
good diets."
Whelan said a diet of mostly rice and vegetables, with
no meat or protein, along with 12- to 14-hoiiJ lecture
sessions are part of Moon's methods.
He said he has taken about SO members out of cults
for their parents.
Once home, he said, these kids have to be deprogram
med. He says this is a "process used to bring a person back
to a natural or normal state."
Whelan said former Moonies need to get involved in
something Hke deprogramming.
"They have to have a purpose to rephce serving the
leader," he said.
Warnke said Cheryl was a cholarry4ype person, got
good grades in school, was a great artist and had a quiet
personality, but enjoyed dating.
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"She had personality even in her vclcs. Where as new
she talks like a zombie," Warnke szfd.
"She just does what they te2 her to. She dossil have
any plans of her own. There's something there that
changes the mind so radically, some kind of mind control
or brainwashing, that they're a different person, and not
for the good."
Cheryl's reasons for joining the cult "had nothing to do
with what went on at home," Warnke said. la fact, they
tell them that they are sacrificing and making a better
world for their family, she said.
"Cheryl tells us too, Tm doing it for you, "she said.
- "Most of these kids are idealistic and naive. They (the
cults) just catch them at a vulnerable point in life where
they want to do something for the world and say,this is
the way to do it," she said.
Whelan said the cults form a group and try to recruit
college students. He sail two Unification groups under
other names have operated at UNL. They use other
names, he said, because they sometimes cant get on cam
pus with the Unification name. He said some of those
names are One World Crusade, Project Unity, Collegian
Association for Research of Principles, and Freedom
Leadership Foundation.
Campus Police Sgt. Brod Stone said he has not known
ot any campus or off-campus religious groups connected
with the Unification Church.