Pence and Pompeo Headlined an Event Mounted by a Group That Says the "Christian Era Has Ended"

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/05/pence-pompeo-headlined-event-mounted-by-unification-church/

On May 8, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headlined a virtual rally organized by an offshoot of the Unification Church, a controversial religious movement known for holding mass weddings of its adherents and that has been accused of being a cult. Though American conservatives have long made common cause with the Unification Church, the head of the outfit that pulled together this event declared not too long ago that the “Christian era has ended”—which means Pence and Pompeo, whose self-professed religious devotion is a prominent part of their respective political profiles, were (knowingly or not) collaborating with and bolstering a group that says it is supplanting the Christianity they embrace.

The event—called the “Rally of Hope”—was hosted by Hak Ja Han Moon, the head of the Unification Church (whose members consider her and her late husband, Sun Myung Moon, the messiahs), and sponsored by the Universal Peace Federation, a group co-founded by the Moons in 2005 and affiliated with the Unification Church (which now refers to itself as the Unification movement). According to the UPF, the gathering, put on before a socially distanced audience and supposedly streamed to 1 million people in 194 nations, was held to launch a project called Think Tank 2022, which aims to reunify the Korean Peninsula.

The UPF says this new outfit is a “global multi-sector network of more than 2,000 experts” in business, academia, and other fields, though Think Tank 2022 does not yet have much (or any) online presence. Still, Hak Ja Han Moon was able to draw an impressive amount of star power for this kick-off, with the event featuring speeches from Pence, Pompeo, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, past UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, former Republic of Korea Prime Minister Chung Sye-Kyun, and Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi. Also among the speakers were Jonathan Falwell, a pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Virginia and a son of Jerry Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority. Another featured participant was Hun Sen, the dictatorial, longtime leader of Cambodia, who has amassed a horrific human rights record.

The three-hour-long event was a celebration of both Moons, with Hak Ja Han Moon referred to as the “mother of Peace” and “Heavenly Parent.” During his videotaped speech, Pence claimed that Think Tank 2022 is “bringing the wisdom of leaders in government, business, religion, civil society” and that thanks to this new endeavor, “the dream of peaceful cooperation and unity will be closer to reality than ever before.” (Pence spoke at a previous and similar Rally of Hope in March.) Pompeo, who was introduced as a “devout Christian,” hailed former President Donald Trump’s assorted engagements with Kim Jong Un, the tyrannical and murderous leader of North Korea. “We tried something different,” Pompeo said. (Foreign policy specialists have tended to note Trump’s overly palsy overtures to Kim yielded no true progress.) Gingrich praised the Moons, the Universal Peace Federation, Think Tank 2022, and the Washington Times, the conservative paper Sun Myung Moon founded. Esper noted that Hak Ja Han Moon has been “working to help strengthen America’s role in the world.” He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by that.

*snip*

[Solly Mack]

1. The GOP is wackadoodle central.

Top to bottom, just varying degrees of wackadoodle.

All dangerous though.

[PortTack]

2. The kind of chreestians they are...yes their era has ended. Only 47% of Americans now identify

With some religion. The end times...are more painful for us...those of us who actually care about their fellow country person or world citizens.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Maybe they're both cynically hoping to jump on whatever bandwagon is next.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

4. So now Pence, Gingrich and Pompeo are Moonies?

We already know they are loonies and shameless grifters.

[Progressive Jones]

5. I wonder how much cashish they were paid for their speeches. nt

[Captain Zero]

10. i see what you did there...

[7wo7rees]

6. Y'all chill.

Their paychecks were obscene. That's all there is here.

[yonder]

7. With luck, it's their interpretation of Christianity that is ending.

[DFW]

8. We should be so lucky! n/t

[hedda_foil]

9. Following in the footsteps of Poppy Bush in 1995. AP: Bush Addresses Group Tied to Rev. Moon.

https://apnews.com/article/33eb0acde60ea936600e904

PETER LANDERS
September 14, 1995
TOKYO (AP) _ Former President Bush addressed a gathering Thursday of a group tied to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, ignoring accusations he was lending his name to an unscrupulous cult.
...snip...
As Bush urged the crowd to ``devote ourselves to finding ways to strengthen the family,″ Japanese mothers were standing outside passing out leaflets and describing how their families were split apart by the church. `They are like manipulated puppets,″ Teruko Honma, leader of one opponents’ group, said of the young followers of Moon.
...snip...
Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush spoke before 50,000 people at the Tokyo Dome stadium in an assembly of the Women’s Federation for World Peace, which is headed by Moon’s wife. Bush’s topic was U.S.-Japan relations, but his most spirited remarks focused on how he had led the multinational force against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War.
Both Bushes were effusive in their praise for the women’s federation and its chairwoman, Motoko Sugiyama. Mrs. Bush said she was thrilled to be invited to Japan for the gathering and called Sugiyama ``my younger sister.″
...snip...
A spokesman for the Bushes, Jim McGrath, said their speeches should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the Unification Church.

https://apnews.com/article/33eb0acde60ea936600e904499ec3fd2

[Midnight Writer]

12. Right. The GOP has been bedding the Moonies for some time. Washington Times was a Moonie joint.

The Republican Party is always "Open For Business".

[roamer65]

11. The Romans had a good way of dealing with religious extremists.

Enuff said.

[Midnight Writer]

13. How did that work out?

You mean the Romans who later became
The Holy Roman Empire?

[roamer65]

15. Religion is poison.

Mao Zedong was right.

Unfortunately the poison continues to spread.

[Hekate]

14. I'd sort of like to hear their reasoning for allying themselves with this cult...

This is just weird on their part. Wouldn’t this make Baby Jesus cry? Or grown-up Jesus smite them?

Not that I really care who smites them, as long as they go away.

[Initech]

16. Good!

They've been fucking things up the last 40 years, and gave us the worst administration in 150 years. They got us absolutely nowhere in the process. It's time for them to step aside and let the adults run things again!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

17. Moon was crowned king at the Capitol.

I saw it on CNN.
Here is an article about it.


New York times
had a paywall.

https://www.au.org/church-state/may-2004-church-state/people-events/sun-myung-moon-crowned-king-of-america-at-us-senate