Showing posts with label cult. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cult. Show all posts

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Is Rick Scarborough a Moonie?

So if Rev. Falwell is being financed by cult leader Sun Myung Moon and Falwell's people are funding Lufkin, Texas based Vision America run by [dr][rev]Rick Scarborough -- is Vision America being financed by a cult? Just wondering. Since Vision America doesnt seem to belong to any of the religious oriented non profit financial watchdog groups (none of them!) - you have to wonder where the HELL is all that money coming from? How much money is coming from Rev. Moon? Maybe Moon owns the Washington Times and Vision America? Yikes. Yikes Yikes.

Don't forget that foot in mouth syndrome poster fatcat Jerry Falwell was the guy pushing to have Moon's US Tax Evasion conviction pardoned in the 1990's.

And don't forget what a loony this moon(Y) man is! Great information from
http://www.rotten.com here:

It should be obvious to sensible persons that whatever fraction of Sun Myung Moon which isn't pure bullshit artist is necessarily raving lunatic. As the wacko billionaire who made his fortune off the backs of the Moonie cult (otherwise known as the Unification Church), Moon has established his niche in the world as the Korean version of L. Ron Hubbard.
Over the years, Moon's gargantuan wealth and legions of worshippers have evidently corroded away any sense of propriety or self-restraint he might have once possessed, leaving only a megalomaniac and his vast financial and human resources.

As evidence, consider the day in April 2002 when he received the latest in a long series of earthshattering religious visions. This one was especially noteworthy. In it, Moon learned that he had been selected as "the Savior, Messiah and King of Kings of all of humanity" by God. Also on the selection committee: Jesus Christ, Mohammed, and Buddha (in addition to several others, including the godless Communists Marx and Stalin for some mysterious reason).

Anyway, that's how Moon described it in his full-page newspaper ad, which ran in papers all across the U.S. (including the Los Angeles Times). It was a $720,000 print run, but it was worth every penny. Finally middle America would get the word and rally behind their messiah. Except it was a bit of a reach. Moon's captive congregation is accustomed to his indefatigable hubris, but the general public who have yet to send their mind through the laundry just find it repugnant.

But he can't help it. Moon has been claiming for decades (like The Beatles before him) that he is bigger than Christ. In a 1990 sermon, he reiterated this belief (note that Moon always addresses himself in the third person, usually as "Father"):


"Jesus never achieved a thousandth of what Father has done. In his two years and eight months of public ministry, [Jesus] didn't even establish the national foundation. Now, Father has established a foundation of worldwide power that is unprecedented in history."
Moon has a bad habit of comparing himself favorably to his predecessor, proclaiming that he will succeed where Jesus has failed, and so on. This kind of material kills with the home crowd, but it doesn't really do so great on the road. But apparently this is irrelevant, since Moon seems to have become utterly oblivious to the shocked reactions of his public audiences.
Case in point: an April 2001 appearance at a Methodist church in Las Vegas. It was just another typical sermon by Reverend Moon. There were about 600 people in the congregation when the sermon began. But for some reason, people kept walking out, well before he got on a roll about schlongs:


"The head of the love organ is shaped exactly like a poisonous rattlesnake. And just like a rattlesnake, it's always looking for a hole."
Oh yes, there was more. He went on to explain that 70% of all divorces result from the wife's inappropriate feelings of entitlement toward her husband's genitals. As Moon explained it, a man's "love organ" can only serve its master, and the spouse just needs to get used to it. He told the audience that these women, along with childless couples and homosexuals, are destroying the fabric of society. Offended churchgoers left in droves; some of them even heckled him on their way out. And this was by no means an isolated incident. He's been spouting that snake-genitalia lunacy for years and years. In April 1996, Moon preached:


"The Bible refers to the origin of free sex by using the image of a snake. Woman's sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with poison. Man's sexual organ is like the head of a snake. If you think of fallen love action in these terms you feel disgusted and so you should. It is poison to humanity."
In November of that same year, he was in Buenos Aires to celebrate the launch of his newest Spanish-language newspaper. At the ceremony (attended by guest speaker and former President George HW Bush for a reported fee of $100,000), Moon passed along this revolutionary insight:


"You use the bathroom each morning. When you defecate, do you wear a gas mask? This is not a laughing matter but a serious one. If you are near someone else defecating, you will quickly move a good distance away. But when you smell your own feces, you do not even notice it. This is because that fecal matter is one with your body. Therefore, you do not feel that it is dirty.

"When you were young, did you ever taste the dried mucus from your nose? Does it taste sweet or salty? It's salty, right? Since you can answer, you must have tasted it! Why did you not feel that it was dirty? It is because it was part of your body.

"Reverend Moon has figured out something that no one in the world knew."

Why would anybody (who isn't brainwashed or getting paid) sit through an entire speech by this screwball? Ever since 1954, Moon has made no secret of his nutball theology:

Eve bumped uglies with Satan and thereby consigned humanity to the Kingdom of Hell.
Jesus ruined his chance to purify mankind when he neglected to get married and father children.
Sun Myung Moon is succeeding where Jesus failed.
Worshipping Moon is now mankind's last chance for redemption.
Being the world's savior, Moon preaches that no one can enter Heaven without his explicit blessing. But he is only willing to bless married couples. Which is where those Guinness Book mass weddings come in.
In a Moonie marriage, the choice of a partner is handled for you. Church elders make the seemingly-random selections by pairing up photos of prospective brides and grooms. Maybe they shuffle Polaroids like a deck of cards. Sometimes the lucky couples wind up with a common spoken language. Sometimes not.

They meet for the first time during the week leading up to the wedding day, often on the day of the ceremony itself. The event is so big that it has to be held in a sports arena or stadium, complete with a closed-circuit video feed on the Jumbotron.

Because of these antics and his blasphemous theology, you might expect that Moon would be shunned by respected Christian leaders. Which he is. For instance, Jerry Falwell told Esquire magazine in 1978: "Reverend Sun Myung Moon is like the plague: he exploits boys and girls, and he should be exported. [sic]"

This negative general attitude poses a significant problem for the Unification Church. Its goal is the absorption of every national government and competing religious faith. Which is a tall order, considering the horrible reputation the church has earned over the years. But Moon is nothing if not determined.


"The democratic world has hated Reverend Moon until now, but from now on it will like the Reverend Moon. The time has already come when America will start to like Reverend Moon."
Moon's chosen tactic, which has been highly effective, is to purchase his legitimacy outright. In addition to United Press International (UPI), Moon is the owner of the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper devoted to right-wing causes. Every operating year, the Times loses tens of millions of dollars, but profitability has never been a priority. Its intended purpose was made clear when, during Watergate, the paper ran an endless stream of pro-Nixon editorials urging the American people to forgive and forget.

Ever since then, Moon has made substantial inroads to the Republican party by parlaying access to his media outlets and exorbitant cash contributions. For instance, it was $100,000 of Moon's money that initially kicked off the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, a nonprofit organization conceived by Oliver North and headed by a group of conservatives including Charlton Heston. The NFF's mission in life was to raise private donations for the Contras, in the eventuality that Congress cut off funding. Also recall that former President George HW Bush was paid six figures to attend a 1996 ceremony in Buenos Aires. At the podium, Bush gushed:


"I want to salute Reverend Moon, who is the founder of the Washington Times, and of the new paper here."
Not to mention mainstream church leaders, like our old friend Jerry Falwell. The man who called for Moon's "exportation" in 1978 was singing his praises years later. Falwell changed his tune after one of Moon's front organizations handed Liberty University $3.5 million and otherwise forgave tens of millions in debts so he could bail out his college in 1994. Later, Falwell reciprocated by appearing at various Unification Church events and called upon President Ronald Reagan to pardon Moon's felony conviction for tax evasion.

Oh, that. Well, it turns out that the messiah didn't want to pay his taxes. So he underreported his income by omitting $162,000 and hoped that either the Internal Revenue Service wouldn't notice, or his high-placed friends in the government would squelch any investigation. But the IRS did, and his friends didn't. Moon was convicted in 1982. He fought his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court and lost, after which he announced that God evidently wanted him to go to prison. In 1984 he finally submitted to God's will and spent the next 13 months in the clink.

It's all part of the divine plan. As Moon himself might say: You just gotta trust Father on this one.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Vision America $$$

Before Granny writes out a check to the Holy Rev. Rick Scarborough of Vision America or Stop Activist Judges , or one of the numerous websites soliciting money on the internet, ask a few questions. Ask for his Form 990s. We will post them here soon for all the World to view. If you have given money to this group you may get upset with what you see. Smart non profits post this type of disclosure on their websites, but not Vision America who obviously went to the Tom Delay school of non profit management. (unaccredited)

  • Vision America is not a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial accountability although it appears that every other group has joined. Why is that?
  • Vision America's Form 990's filed with the IRS will will shock you! In addition to paying himself a nice fat salary the guy spends a fortune on travel. Guess you just have to be on the go when you are a big shot religious mover and shaker! Not surprising that the suppliers for Vision America which are on the Form 990's are in many cases the same ones used by Mr. Tom Delay (former Texan!)crooks like Abramson and America's most dishonest Christian - - Ralph Reed.

Even more odd is the question of where all this money came from? Did Holy Rev. Rick's buddy Tom Delay come up with some scam to money launder some Indian tribe's cash in order to push their legislation through Congress? I guess the financing could be coming from the Holy Rev. Jerry Falwell as reported, but who knows. Other options which are possible might be

  • East Texas' most right wing chicken farmet businessperson Bo Pilgrim.
  • Cult leader the Holy Rev. Moon who attends many of the same functions as Rev. Scarborough and others involved with the Gospel of Hate agenda.
  • Or, It could be channeled via one of Tom Delay's cronies or a Reed type casino money laundering scams.

Big bucks, Christian public relations teams, and book releases at key times have certainly pushed the little backwoods messenger of the Army of God into the spotlight. His self promoting email blasts and websites show you that this Jerry, Jr. Is desperate to be in front of the big lights of network Television studios.

HERO OF THE DAY AWARD:

LAMBDA LEGAL

*print ad in this post is from http://www.faithinamerica.info campaign (another HERO)

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Hometown Memories

Growing up in East Texas I have fond memories of beautiful places like Sam Rayburn Lake, summers at Crystal Beach, and canoeing with my dad on Village Creek. I have been so blessed and lucky in my life to have wonderful supportive parents...parents who back in the early eighties did stuggle with the news of my homosexuality.

While home with my father in late 2005, (who had just discovered that he would probably not live another year due to a rare cancer) I was very touched the day my parents ran out to vote AGAINST the ridiculous Texas
anti-gay marriage amendment efforts to write discrimination into law. It was very obvious that we [gay peoples] would be clobbered due to the hateful agenda of the right wing Christians [disguised as family men] but I can't say that I have ever been more at home and felt so lucky to have two amazing and supportive parents.

You're always proud of where you came from despite some of the craziness you see around you when growing up. As conservative as my parents were on economic issues, I also found that they were progressive in regards to tolerance and inclusion of other races and religions. Im lucky in that because I know that hate breeds hate. Up until recently I had thought that my [GLBT] community might be only a generation/twenty years or so before most of the old bigoted people of the US were gone - as in D-E-A-D. [as in the Wizard of Oz song Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is DEAD!] Young kids just get it these days, they know gay people as their uncles and aunts and teachers and friends, and also from TV shows and networks like MTV who have done an amazing job to raise awareness about hate and intolerance in America.

I fell asleep early the night of the "stop the gays from marrying" election in Texas without even watching a return only to wake up in the bed in a cold sweat after a dream which included a cast of characters including Matthew Shepard, Paul Broussard, James Byrd, and a few other strangers from my childhood. Byrd was murdered about twenty miles from where I was sleeping, Matthew Shepard a thousand miles away in Wyoming, my sad bipolar Aunt Patsy who died years ago after being sucked into a
Christian cult in Pensacola [after the pastor told her that she didnt need her medicine] ; my post college friend Paul Broussard from Houston who was later murdered by teenagers carrying baseball bats in Houston's gay neighborhood Montrose; and a Pentecostal girl who was in my sisters Brownie troop whose name I couldnt recall. It was a random scary dream that got me thinking about all of this hate in the area of Texas where I grew up and in America in general. After a lot of reading I could confirm something I already knew - that Hate Speech often results in Violence and even murder against the targeted minority group.

It really doesn't take a genius to connect the dots of
hate in East Texas, or anywhere for that matter. I find it rather embarrassing that East Texas is known to be a bastion of intolerance and home to many white supremcist groups like the KKK of Vidor and Cleveland, Tx. As a kid I remember that big billboard as you drove into Jasper, Texas on the way to the Lake that read "Jasper, The Jewel of the Forest." Unfortunately little old Jasper, Texas (a city which was one of the least redneck of any of the little towns in East Texas in my opinion ) is now a city (and County) with a major image problem struggling to attract new industry and residents.

Is it any wonder that right wing terrorists shot a hole in the window of Planned Parenthood in Lufkin recently? Lufkin has a new organization named Vision America Mobilized, Inc which is run by a right wing preacher named Rev. Rick Scarborough. Scarborough selected Lufkin for his new headquarters, spreads his message to the local Rotary club, and organizes
public rallies to save America from activist judges and gay marriages. Do speakers like Alan Keyes and Scarborough incite violence and gun shot holes into places like Lufkin's Planned Parenthood? Considering the company that they keep, and those they allow to speak and exhibit at their "Christian rallies" - you have to know that the answer here is absoultely, Yes! You just dont allow nationalist right wing folks into you church or conferences Dr. Scarborough who publish and write books adovcating the death sentence for gays and lesbians, or announce that Katrina might be due to America's gays and lesbians and/or jews.

Have you ever noticed how these right wing Christian fundies seem to be so sensitive when labeled homophobic, and how they get so angry when added to a
Hate Watch List or being identified as a Hate Group? Have you been sick at your stomach lately when you see them in the news claiming that they are being persecuted in America (hell.... They've taken over and ruined the Republican Party, supposedly have weekly conference calls with President George Bush, have seen GB move literally Billions of dollars in social programs to their fundamentalist, often unlicensed Christian non profits, they control Congress, and on and on. I just don't get it.

Open minded People who consider themselves to be both Christian and Patriotic really should maybe dig a little deeper into these fundamentalist hate groups before they blow the window out of another Planned Parenthood Office, or before their mean spirited rhetoric ends the life of another Matthew Shepard, Paul Broussard, or James Byrd. Go out and buy a few of Rick Scarborough books at
Amazon (..and don't spend more than 0.36 cents on any of the used books if possible) Go out and read "Kingdom Coming" by Michelle Goldberg, which is an excellent read. Do it before these uber right wing nutbag Dominionist preachers disguised as Christian Family men brainwashes the rest of America, before their little army of home-schooled bigots are old enough to vote, before you find yourself living in an America which has declared Christianity as the official and only allowed religion, before you find every public building plastered with the ten commandments, and before they attempt (and it will only be an attempt I can assure you) to crimininalize every aspect of life for GLBT people, or throw us in jail, or attempt to kill or "exterminate" us did Hitler.

Do it before the children of this Country are brainwashed and taught to hate by these so called Christians, their global TV and radio networks, and their cash heavy non profit organizations. Say yes to Values which support all families and no to the hate campaigns of people and groups like Alan Keyes, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Vision America, Rick Scarborough, Tom Delay, Ralph Reed, the KKK, the Conservative Citizens of America, Rick Santaorum, Ann Coulter, Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schafely, James Kennedy, Exodus Ministries, Love Won Out, the AFA, and their friends.

We need a Better Vision for America without the tired Un-Christian message of these off the chart right wing fools.