A History Of The Unification Church In America, |
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Chapter Six The Third World Tour During the years 1972-74, the Unification Church emerged as a national movement in America. Not only had the rival missionary groups merged by the end of this period, but national membership multiplied ten times, evangelistic crusades were held in all fifty states, substantial properties were purchased, international conferences held, and a controversial "Answer to Watergate" statement circulated in full page advertisements bought from most of the nation's major newspapers. Yet by the end of this period, a good portion of this visibility had turned to notoriety as the movement's rapid growth provoked negative reactions. Questions about the person of Rev. Moon and the teachings of the church surfaced in fundamentalist Christian literature. Questions about the church's aggressive proselytizing, financial backing, organizational objectives, and political ambitions surfaced in secular media accounts. Increasingly, these queries led to organized efforts to stop the movement. The church in the San Francisco Bay Area was intimately involved in all these developments. Not only were Mr. Choi's Re-Education Foundation, Miss Kim's Berkeley Center, and Mr. Kim's Oakland chapel non-extant by the end of the period, but virtually all of their members had been moved from the Bay Area to other missions within the movement's national structure. Thus, the impasse among the three missionary groups was no longer an issue, and the way was opened for fresh developments. At the same time, local developments now unfolded within the context of a national movement. Basically, this meant increased public scrutiny. Questions about the movement's religious and organizational legitimacy would become a continuing legacy. Prior to questions of legitimacy, it is important to understand, as one long time observer later put it, "how a small, faltering and obscure movement of the 1960s was able to achieve rapid growth, stability and prominence in the 1970s." 272 Basically, this development was the result of the movement's organizational initiatives, the conditions of American national life, and the presence of Rev. Moon. In terms of organizational initiatives, the three-year period 1972-74 divides into two eighteen month phases. The first phase, beginning January 1972, focused on the attainment of internal solidarity. Consisting of a series of 'pioneer' training programs, this phase culminated in the achievement of a viable national structure in all fifty states by July, 1973. The second phase, building on this national network of support, focused on the attainment of public visibility. A succession of evangelistic crusades, this phase culminated in a full house at New York's Madison Square Garden and a triumphant eight city tour concluding in San Francisco and Los Angeles in December, 1974. Besides organizational initiatives, conditions of American national life fostered the emergence of the Unification Church as a national movement in the 1970s. On the one hand, alienated youth disillusioned both with American society and with the counter-cultural alternatives of the 1960s enhanced membership and solidarity. On the other hand, live issues, particularly the Watergate crisis, afforded the movement opportunities for national exposure. While organizational initiatives and the conditions of American national life were significant, of far more importance for the emergence of the Unification Church as a national movement was the unifying and energizing presence of Rev. Moon. If Miss Kim, Mr. Choi, and Mr. Kim all shaped the character of their groups, Rev. Moon gave substance to the national movement. In this sense, it is appropriate to date the birth of the Unification Church of America from his arrival. The Third World Tour During Rev. Moon's 1969 world tour, he met with Miss Kim, Mr. Choi, and David Kim, reportedly, "to straighten out the problems of existing conflicts and to set up new missionary jurisdiction until unity of 3 groups takes place in the future when he comes back the third time to the United States." 273 In late 1971, Rev. Moon returned to the United States as part of his third world tour. Accompanied by Mrs. Moon, Mrs. Won Pak Choi, Mr. Young Whi Kim (President, HSA-UWC, Korea since Mr. Eu's death in 1970), and Mr. Ishii (Director, HSA-UWC Business Enterprises, Japan), the party arrived in Los Angeles, December 11, 1971. Denied United States visas, ironically because of alleged Communist affiliations, the group flew to Toronto, Canada, the following day. As a result of efforts of the three missionary groups and their contacts, the situation was clarified, and Rev. Moon was granted visa clearance extending until March 14, 1972. On December 18, 1971, he arrived in Washington, D.C. Speaking to members almost every night from December 21st through the 30th, Rev. Moon requested that Mr. Choi and David Kim attend the movement's God's Day (New Year's) celebration in Washington, D.C., on January 1, 1972. Prior to that, members from Washington, D.C., New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Denver, Berkeley, and St. Louis had assembled for a four-day training program extending from Friday, December 31 until Monday, January 3. Conducted by Mr. Young Whi Kim, who "taught the Principle as it is taught in Korea," it was out of that weekend that what later became known as "The Plan" emerged. The Plan The Plan, as reported in Miss Kim's New Age Frontiers, was "to hold revival meetings in seven major cities -- New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Berkeley." 274 While Rev. Moon indicated his desire to hold public meetings on his arrival in Los Angeles, it was not until the four-day training program that The Plan was activated, and on January 4, 1972, a joint meeting was held with East and West Coast leaders to launch the movement's first national campaign. As Rev. Moon had never spoken publicly either in Korea or Japan, the birth of the American movement coincided with the beginning of a new phase in his public ministry. Following the joint meeting, further details were announced. Both East and West Coast centers were to select members, seventy-two in all, who were to come to New York for a two-week training session. From there, they would travel from city to city to hold the revival meetings. After the campaign, fifty state representatives were to be produced from that group with the remainder traveling on mobile evangelical bus teams. Two buses were to make continual evangelical trips to all fifty states for twelve months, so that each state would have two revival meetings by two mobile team buses. In addition, five itinerary workers were to assist the new field centers for one year. The goal was for 150 new members in each state by the end of 1972. While membership goals were important, the primary objective of the revival meeting period was the attainment of solidarity within the ranks. The Plan required not only individual commitment but also cooperation among missionaries, existing centers, bus teams, newly appointed state representatives, and itinerary workers. As David Kim put it, "This time, all groups will work together to expand our Principle Movement centering in existing chapels, centers, churches, and their members." 275 Leaving little to chance, Rev. Moon announced that personnel from all three groups would be transferred to other places and a rotation system enforced. In any case, the seven-city tour was the first project ever carried out by the national movement. Implementing The Plan If The Plan was clear enough, it awaited implementation. Not only did pioneers have to be selected and trained, but a revival meeting itinerary had to be arranged, halls rented, a program set up, posters made, tickets printed and buses purchased. Later state representatives had to be selected and assigned, bus teams formed and itinerary workers appointed. Centering on the seven-city tour, implementation of The Plan included preparations, the tour itself, and the tour's aftermath. The first step of preparation for the tour was the selection of pioneers for the two-week training session scheduled to begin in New York City on January 14, 1972. On January 9, Rev. Moon, Mrs. Moon, Mrs. Won Pak Choi, and David Kim flew to the San Francisco Bay Area for consultation with Mr. Choi who, in David Kim's words, "returned from the Korean Missionary Conference at D.C. on God's Day, but still had many things to readjust to the new development of our Principle Movement in the U.S." While in the Bay Area, Rev. Moon also visited the Berkeley Center. Although Mr. Choi's Re-Education Foundation contributed fifteen pioneers and the Berkeley Center thirteen, of more significance was the coming together of the two groups on January 11, 1972. As reported in Miss Kim's New Age Frontiers, "That night, history was made as the San Francisco and Berkeley Families came together at the Re-Education Center to share a meal and to hear our Leader speak." 276 Prior to traveling to the Bay Area, Rev. Moon journeyed from Washington, D.C. to New York City. There, he rented the Lincoln Center for three nights (February 3-5, 1972) for $3,500 and charged the local center with making plans for the first of seven revival meetings. By January 8th, the New York center had chosen its theme, "The Day of Hope: The Day of the True Family," designed what would be the tour's official poster, and set about finding a church to rent for the pioneer training program. On January 14, 1972, the pioneers arrived. Housed in the three-story, stone and stucco Bronx center (where previously twenty to thirty New York members had lived in the legally zoned one-family dwelling), seventy-two pioneers and staff traveled daily to St. Steven's Methodist Episcopal Church, where they were accommodated more comfortably for meals and lectures in the basement social hall. The training session focused on building solidarity, a difficult task, given the factions which had developed in the American church. One pioneer wrote: There are about eighty of us. We come from different centers throughout the United States. We didn't know each other when we first started. Each of us had different songs, different ways of praying, and different ways of applying the Principle. It was hard to unify at first. But we knew it was necessary. 277 Unity became increasingly necessary as the opening revival date drew nearer. With less than three weeks to go, training moved from St. Steven's Church to the streets of New York City. One pioneer described the sequence: Things started out leisurely enough -- breakfast at 8:30, lectures till noon, ticket sales in the afternoon, and more lectures in the evening. Breakfast was soon changed to 6:30 to allow an earlier start. A week later, Master changed the schedule to emphasize ticket sales. We went out to spend eight to ten hours on the streets of New York. We returned to St. Steven's at 7:30 or 10:00 PM, depending on whether or not we had sold a ticket before 6:30. We progressed from four to ten hours a day, going out even in the worst conditions. 278 It became increasingly clear that Rev. Moon's training program and style of unification was decidedly experiential. Under his direction, the attainment of solidarity within the ranks would come not as a result of organizational hierarchies, executive committees, drawn-out stratagems, political coalitioning, or even a uniform lecture presentation of the Principle. It would come rather as a result of shared experience. In January, 1972, that meant hitting the streets of New York City in mid-winter to sell revival tickets at $6.00 each ($18.00 for three nights) to hear an unknown evangelist. That training was emphasized as much as visible results was evident both in that pioneers were not allowed to sell in pairs and in the rule that tickets be sold only for all three nights. One pioneer well expressed the existential burden borne by the ticket sellers: New York City! Your streets are filled with emptiness. How much of our blood is going to be claimed by Satan? Were we really equal to the task? Then we began to try. And it didn't work. And we would pray for strength and courage . . . Then we would be faced with ourselves again. Sell a ticket . . . We had to sell a ticket . . . We had to go out on the streets by ourselves . . . we couldn't go in pairs. People were in a hurry or would stop and tell us it was great, but they never come in the city at night. Or that we were good salesmen but they had another commitment. And nothing worked. Weren't we giving everything? Something deep inside reminded us that there was something we were holding back, something that we were yet embarrassed about or afraid to do. Then we did this thing, honestly, totally -- it still didn't work. We couldn't even pray then. It was as if we were entirely deserted . . . We were struggling our absolute best and losing before we had even started. It was agony . . . hell. We weren't "we" any longer, but lost and rejected individuals, each person in his private desperation. 279 While pioneers hit the streets, local center members in each of the seven cities set up speaking dates, rented halls, did mailings, printed programs, bought ads, "schlepped" posters and sold tickets wherever possible. In this sense, the tour required movement-wide coordination as well as increased individual commitment. Each revival stop featured opening remarks by local directors, music by the "Unification Chorale," introductions by W. Farley Jones (President, Unification Church, U.S.A.) and three nights of talks by Rev. Moon. Translated from the Korean first by Young Whi Kim and later in the tour by Bo Hi Pak, Rev. Moon's topics were "One God, One World Religion," "Ideal World for God and Man," and "The New Messiah, and the Formula of God in History." Despite the efforts of pioneers and existing centers, the tour was a constant battle against anonymity and, in the Eastern cities, against the elements. In New York City bitter weather limited attendance to between 350-450 people for the three nights even though many more tickets had been sold. 280 In Washington, a blizzard not only hindered the turnout but stranded pioneers in Frederick, Maryland, when the bus carrying them to California broke down in heavy snow. On the West Coast, the weather was not a problem. Still, it was not until Berkeley that the tour had its first full house. Farley Jones noted: Through the sixth city it was a struggle. Attendance was not as great as we had hoped . . . but in Berkeley . . . there were not enough seats; the program had to be postponed because the people were still pouring in. Each night was a full house. 281 There were a number of reasons for the Berkeley success. Perhaps most important, it was the last stop on the tour, and the center there had the longest amount of time to prepare. Following Rev. Moon's early January, 1972, visit to the Bay Area, the Berkeley Center rented a large room (capacity: 700) at the Claremont Hotel and mobilized five committees -- Tickets, Literature, Publicity, Physical Arrangements, and Follow-up, to prepare for the March 9-11, 1972, revival. Apart from the center's initiatives, Berkeley traditionally was fertile ground for new movements of various types, and prior to the tour's arrival, neutral to positive articles appeared in both the Berkeley Gazette and Oakland Tribune. 282 In addition, the tour had become more polished, and ticket prices were reduced to $6.00 for the three nights. Finally, Rev. Moon, who had suffered with the flu during the first six cities, was in good health for Berkeley. For these reasons, the pioneers finished the seven-city tour with a "feeling of having triumphed." 283 Although the Berkeley stopover was gratifying, that particular success was less an end than a beginning of the movement's active evangelizing. Far more ambitious crusades were to follow. At the same time, the first priority of the movement continued to be the attainment of internal solidarity. This was especially clear at a meeting of Bay Area members and pioneers in San Francisco following the Berkeley revival. In response to a question on how the San Francisco group and the Berkeley group would relate in the future, one pioneer recounted Rev. Moon's "hurricane-like fury at Satan and the division of the American family": "They are one!" he thundered. "There is no Miss Kim's group and Mr. Kim's group and Mr. Choi's group. There are no groups. They are all Mr. Moon's group. Missionaries will be recalled to Korea. Members will be interchanged, and all members will go through my training, even your president Farley Jones." 284 What Rev. Moon's training called for was a three-year period (1972-74) of total mobilization. The first step in this training involved the selection and assignment of "State Representatives" (SRs), "Itinerary Workers" (IWs), and evangelical bus team members. To coordinate these groups, an entirely new organization was born. One World Crusade One World Crusade, Inc. (OWC) was the engine of the Unification Church's evangelistic activities from 1972 through 1974. Through this structure, pioneer state representatives, bus team members and leaders, itinerary workers and existing church centers coordinated activities. The organization, itself, was formed during the Day of Hope revival in Los Angeles, the fifth city of the seven-city tour. An entry from David Kim's missionary diary, dated February 28, 1972, recounts its origins: Our Master, in the morning, had a session with five key Family members at Courtney House, the Los Angeles church Center, to discuss the official name of mobile units composed of the 72 first trainees in New York. He said that a new organization should be formed to evangelize the United States and, further, the whole world. The new organization should be incorporated as a non-profit, legal recipient of funds and be self supportive and financially independent. Our Master will be the chairman of the Board of Directors. Two probable names were suggested -- "World Unification Crusade" and "One World Crusade." After heated discussion, finally "One World Crusade" was born by our Master's decision. 285 Although the OWC structure included state representatives, itinerary workers, and existing centers, it was especially identified with "mobile unit" bus teams. Originally, The Plan called for single evangelical bus teams on the East and West coasts. Later it was decided that buses would reinforce activities in all fifty states, holding revival meetings and lecturing the Principle message. The goal was for "fifty buses in fifty states carrying 2000 members." 286 After the conclusion of the seven-city tour in March, 1972, newly appointed OWC "commanders" Young Oon Kim and David Kim, along with approximately twenty-five members each, set out from the Bay Area on separate northern and southern bus team routes to meet in Washington, D.C. the following August. At that time, a third bus team was formed and in December, 1972, seven more teams were organized, making a total of ten evangelical bus teams, each assigned to a specific region of the country. By July 1, 1973, forty more OWC mobile units were organized so that there was a unit for every state. On that foundation, the movement launched more ambitious speaking tours in late 1973 and 1974. The genius of the OWC was the way in which it integrated a variety of different functions. First and foremost, the OWC fostered evangelistic outreach. At each of their stops, evangelizing bus teams reinforced activities of newly sent out and often solitary state representatives. Witnessing actively, especially on college campuses, bus team members brought guests to evening programs, conducted workshops and left long lists of contacts for local state representatives to follow up. Seven day crusades in each state frequently resulted in the recruitment of permanent members. Equally important, the OWC enhanced the movement's internal solidarity. The mobile units combined membership from various parts of the movement and continued the process of unification begun at the original pioneer training session. At the same time, the establishment of state representatives and itinerary workers as well as such publications as Pioneer's Progress (which supplanted Miss Kim's New Age Frontiers from July to October, 1972) opened channels of movement-wide communication. The OWC effectively linked up disparate centers throughout the country. In addition to evangelistic outreach and organizational integration, the OWC helped lay the groundwork for the movement's future speaking tours. Members cultivated important contacts and gained public relations experience. Actively contacting news media, local churches, and civic officials, public relations teams stressed theistic principles and ethical values. These themes were reflected in "Rallies for God" on college campuses and at state capitol buildings. This campaigning was confrontational in the early 1970s as rallies for God, and as often for America, paired off against anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. In Austin, Texas, twenty-seven "heavenly troops" challenged 360 radicals at the State Capitol building. 287 Martial imagery and discipline, however, was valuable training for the movement's later speaking tours. So, too, was the crusade's mobility. From March 16, 1972, when the two evangelical bus teams left San Francisco, until August 1, 1972, when they arrived in Washington, D.C., Mobile Unit #l (the northern bus) campaigned in twenty-two cities and twenty-two states, traveling a total of 8,400 miles. Mobile Unit #2 (the southern bus) campaigned in twenty-one cities and twenty states, traveling a total of 7,780 miles. 288 The ecumenical thrust, political campaigning, martial discipline, and mobility of the OWC not only helped prepare the movement for future campaigns but also signaled the rise of David S. C. Kim. Of the three missionary groups, "United Faith, Inc." had most emphasized the ecumenical dimension stressed in the crusade. His own political background was helpful in the crusade's public relations work. Similarly, the martial discipline and confrontational aspects of the crusade were consistent with his self-image as "a fighter." 289 Finally, the long distances he was forced to travel as missionary to the Northwest had prepared him for the mobility of evangelical team buses. For these reasons, it was Mr. Kim rather than Miss Kim who emerged as the OWC's leading "field general." In over forty separate reports under such titles as "Marching Across This Great Land to Make It Free," "One World Crusade Is Marching On," and "Mobile Unit II Moves West Coast States," David Kim chronicled bus team activities in 1972. 290 In December of that year, he was named "Executive Director" of the One World Crusade. Although the evangelical bus teams originally set out from the San Francisco Bay Area in mid-March, 1972, it was not until mid-October that any of the OWC mobile units returned. A homecoming for David Kim's Mobile Unit II featured an October 17th 'Rally for God' on Sproul Plaza at the University of California at Berkeley, interviews with the Berkeley Gazette and Oakland Tribune, and complete lecture presentations to seven new contacts. Proceeding across the Bay to Mr. Choi's International Pioneer Academy, bus team members held a "Rally for God" at Civic Center Park across from the San Francisco Public Library on October 20, 1972. While over one hundred San Francisco members handed out pamphlets, One World Crusade staged what David Kim called "one of our most enthusiastic rallies." 291 Having arrived in the Bay Area from Portland and Eugene, Oregon where crusades were held from October 7-14, Mr. Kim's bus team continued on to Las Vegas, Nevada; Tempe, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Austin, Texas, by December, 1972. With other bus teams equally mobile, the movement was under considerable pressure to fuel the crusade. To help do so, another new organization was born. Mobile Fundraising Teams If the One World Crusade was the foundation of the movement's evangelistic activities from 1972-74, door-to-door and street-corner solicitation, or "fundraising" (generally with candles) was its means of economic support. Because of the urgent need for existing centers to help support OWC mobile units and pioneer centers in the field, as well as their own activities, aggressive fundraising campaigns came to be favored over either businesses or outside employment. Existing centers, pioneers, and OWC evangelical bus units all undertook fundraising campaigns, but they became especially identified with a new institution, the mobile fundraising team (MFT). Consisting of eight or nine full-time sellers, MFTs first formed in late August, 1972. The original two teams on each coast merged into one permanent team of fourteen members in October, 1972, and expanded to three teams and thirty-six sellers by the following September. In October, 1973, a fourth team was added and by the following May, there were eight teams and eighty members. 292 Their selling efforts not only supported evangelistic activities of the OWC but also helped the movement to purchase properties and conduct its later speaking tours. As organizational developments, there were several important parallels between the OWC and MFT. Both were aggressive and mobile. Both consolidated otherwise scattered local efforts. And both were born of necessity in response to the demands of a specific campaign. For the OWC, this was the seven-city tour. For the MFT, it was the "Belvedere Project," a movement-wide, late summer and early autumn 1972 campaign to raise the funds necessary to purchase Belvedere, a Tarrytown, New York estate as the movement's international training center. To understand the origins of MFTs and their impact it is necessary to highlight, in somewhat greater detail, the movement's fundraising efforts both prior to and following the Belvedere Project. A three-stage development is clearly evident: those activities predating the campaign, the campaign itself, and the establishment of permanent MFTs following the campaign. Economic support had been a continuous and frequently divisive problem for the movement prior to the Belvedere Project. Outside employment hindered full-time evangelism, and businesses were no less time consuming and often distracting. As early as 1961, Miss Kim's Bay Area group experimented with door-to-door sales as a means of economic support and witnessing. In 1967, the Washington Center tried to do the same with "Holiday Magic" cosmetics. That same center was more successful selling wholesale notions in a 1970 Christmas drive for new songbooks. Still, with other centers dabbling in a variety of economic ventures, members were forced to admit during the 1971 reconsolidation conference that they "have yet to come up with something that all the centers can do." 293 Following Rev. Moon's arrival and seven-city tour, the need for funds became acute. Farley Jones spoke of "facing great financial struggles in the coming months and years." 294 Ironically, one breakthrough came as a result of the breakdown of the seven-city tour's missionary bus in Frederick, Maryland, when members found that they could garner donations. This realization, combined with the increased financial demands of national mobilization, led to more sustained fundraising efforts. In April, 1972, the Washington, D.C., center surpassed a goal of $4,000 profit through door-to-door sales of candles produced in the basement of the College Park, Maryland, center. Also supplied with College Park candles, the New York Center netted $1,600 in nine days toward a three-month goal of $21,000. In Philadelphia, the center set aside one night a week for regular candle selling. Candle selling proliferated rapidly among the existing centers. They had, finally, "come up with something that all the centers could do." Still, there was a lack of coordination. In his OWC reports, David Kim spoke of financial burdens and the lack of funds from headquarters. As a consequence, OWC mobile units and pioneer centers began fundraising for expenses. Thus, although fundraising became the movement's predominant economic means, there was no center or focus. Rev. Moon solved the problem of coordinating fundraising activity in 1972, when he directed the American movement "to find a large property in New York suitable for use as . . . (an) international training center." 295 The assignment was given to New York center director Philip Burley, who found Belvedere three days after it had been put on the market. Situated on the Hudson River thirty miles north of New York City in Tarrytown, the twenty-two acre, $850,000 estate was described in a brochure sent to Rev. Moon in Korea, and he said to buy it. At that point, Miss Kim left her bus team to negotiate for the property. Succeeding both in committing the seller to her and in extending the stipulated thirty days payment allowance to ninety days, she faced the major problem of raising a $294,000 down payment. From mid-July through mid-August, 1972, Miss Kim traveled throughout the country securing personal loans. By late August, her efforts needed to be supplemented by efforts of the American movement. Because the Maryland center had had success selling its own manufactured candles, it was decided to try that "as a national effort to raise money for the large down payment." 296 With forty-seven days to go until the payment was due, the Belvedere Project was launched in earnest. While obtaining the necessary funds was primary, the project was also significant in that it promoted solidarity. Miss Kim noted, "For seven weeks nearly every member in our Family, in every state, abandoned all other activities to sell candles." There was total mobilization. State representatives, pioneer centers, OWC teams, and existing centers all pledged themselves to specific goals in order to meet the overall goal of $36,000 profit per week. Pioneer's Progress, initially instituted as an evangelistic bulletin, became instead a report of the latest developments on Belvedere. The feeling was exhilaration. One project coordinator exclaimed, "Never has there been a project like this in the whole American movement!" Farley Jones enthused "This is the greatest thing we've ever done because it is our first national project for a unitary goal." Similar sentiments were voiced by a candle-seller who asserted, "When it's over, we'll know that every American has paid for Belvedere. . . and we'll know that we've paid for it with everything we've got." 297 Aside from promoting internal solidarity, the Belvedere Project prompted several innovations. One of these was the development of candle "factories." With Anchor Hocking six-ounce Brandy Snifters and Amoco paraffin "piled floor to ceiling," the College Park, Maryland factory relocated to the six room basement of a recently purchased farm in Upper Marlboro. By the second week of the project, production had gone "from eight hundred to twelve hundred dozen a week," and was expected to reach "peak production of 1,700 dozen a week, or about 250 dozen (3,000 candles) a day." 298 A similar factory with a rotating crew was set up in the Denver center garage, and a third factory was operated by the Berkeley Center out of a warehouse in Concord, twenty miles away. "Still-warm" candles were delivered by another Belvedere innovation, "express candle vans." In the East, vans were dispatched to Chicago, New York, and Atlanta among other cities. The most important innovation of the Belvedere Project, however, was the formation, for the first time, of mobile fundraising teams. As reported in Pioneers' Progress, Since the end of August, 29 members from across the nation have been traveling on two mobile teams - one on each coast-and selling candles full time. 299 The sixteen-member West Coast team included two members from Los Angeles, three from Denver, two from Kansas City, and nine from the Berkeley Center. As a result of total mobilization and these innovations, the Belvedere Project ended in victory. Miss Kim wrote, "By the deadline, through loans I had secured, through efforts of our international Family, but primarily through candle sales in America, we made the down payment." 300 At 1:00 p.m., October 10, 1972, the caretaker of Belvedere received a call from the seller saying that, from that moment, "Belvedere is in new hands." Later that day, members arrived to explore the house and grounds. The feeling was best summarized in Miss Kim's questions to the 'new owners': How can you describe a miracle? ... Now you have seen Belvedere. Is it better than your dreams? 301 Given the results of the Belvedere Project, the movement took steps to institute fundraising on a permanent basis. Belvedere Project Assistant Keith Cooperrider noted, "We found that people, cut off from normal center activities and given the sole responsibility of selling, could do phenomenally well." Thus, on October 19, 1972, after a week of "rest and recuperation," fourteen members of the newly formed permanent MFT arrived in Philadelphia to begin four months of candle selling. This team, composed largely of members of the former Belvedere Project mobile teams (including five from the Berkeley Center), was to sell candles for eight hours a day, five days a week, to achieve its goal of earning $18,500 each month. 302 Although monetary goals were important, the MFT "spirit" also took hold. As one member noted, "Every conversation was laced with candle selling stories, for everyone had a special experience." It was this dynamic between material needs and the meaning fundraising had for members -- not the movement's material needs alone -- that led to MFT expansion. Farley Jones summarized the development well in his "send-off" speech to the new MFT members: At this moment, we are building a new structure in the dispensation. . . . I know it will evolve and become a greater part of our movement. In a new way you are pioneering. 303 First ICUS Conference If the MFT was a pioneer effort in finances, the first International Conference on Unified Science (later renamed the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, or ICUS), was a parallel undertaking in education and the sciences. Held November 23-26, 1972, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, the conference brought together twenty scientists from seven nations to discuss "Moral Orientation of the Sciences." The previous January, Rev. Moon, in the midst of preparations for the seven-city tour suggested the idea to Edward Haskell, a lecturer at Southern Connecticut State College and chairman of the Council for Unified Research and Education (CURE). 304 Haskell, who had been contacted by the New Haven center in the fall of 1970, was enthusiastic about the proposal and helped draw up plans for the coming autumn. As with the One World Crusade and mobile fundraising teams, the Unified Science Conference fulfilled several objectives at once. First, it was intended to be a contribution to society. In his closing address, "The Role of Unified Science in the Moral Orientation of the World," Rev. Moon emphasized human happiness, cultural advancement, the "reformation of spiritual life . . . by establishing a new standard of value," the unity of science and religion, and the establishment on earth of the ideal unified world. 305 In pursuit of these ends, conference organizers gathered scientists from private industry, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and Oxford. The conference further enhanced the movement's internal solidarity by integrating diverse educational and cultural activities, be they Koinonia projects, student groups, or the events of Mr. Choi's Re-Education Foundation. At the same time, the conference showcased the movement and its versatility. As noted in New Age Frontiers, "The whole conference staff -- administrators, typists, hostesses, messengers, security guards, PR men, and photographers -- were family members." 306 No less than OWC or MFT, ICUS further developed movement sophistication. The conference itself included an opening banquet and three working days of lectures, responses, panels and open discussions on a number of themes, such as "Tools for Solution of Scientific Problems: Metatheory," chaired by Dr. Nicholas Kurti of Oxford University and Fellow of the Royal Society; "Application of Unisci Tools: Solutions of Key Problems," chaired by Dr. William V. Quine of Harvard University; and "Concrete Applications of Unified Science Solutions," chaired by Dr. Ervin Laszo of the Genesco College of the State University of New York. The conference was successful both in the quality of presentations and as a building block for future conferences. The movement published the proceedings in a volume entitled Moral Orientation of the Sciences and held the Second International Conference on Unified Science the following November in Tokyo. Expanded guest lists and formats would characterize the annual ICUS. Meeting the Politicos Meeting political leaders was equally important. The movement was, in Rev. Moon's words, "preparing on two fronts." As he described them, "one was to work to unify Christianity, i.e. the evangelical movement, the Divine Principle movement. The other was "to prepare for the fight against Communism, i.e., the Anti-Communist movement." 307 In America, the Freedom Leadership Foundation (FLF) spearheaded the movement's Victory Over Communism (VOC) effort since 1969. It was through this organization that Rev. Moon met a number of United States senators and congressmen in the early months of 1973. As with its previous organizational initiatives, these meetings accomplished several purposes simultaneously. First and foremost, they were a chance to clearly outline the movement's opposition to Marxism. One member present during these meetings noted, "Rev. Moon discussed national and international problems, stressing the danger of Communism. He often mentioned that the United States was still the Communists' main target. While these concerns were primary, the meetings also enhanced the movement's twin organizational objectives of internal solidarity and versatility. Rev. Moon, in meeting with Congressional leaders, legitimated the movement's political involvement, still a sore point for some members. Furthermore, as members were responsible for public relations arrangements, coverage, and follow up, the meetings once again enhanced the movement's versatility and sophistication. The meetings, themselves, culminated FLF's activities in Washington, D.C. Having made numerous contacts through public demonstrations, forums and, most importantly, through bi-weekly publication of The Rising Tide, billed as "America's Fastest Growing Freedom Newspaper", FLF arranged for Rev. Moon in February, 1973, to meet Admiral Bender, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Senators Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Jesse Helms (R), North Carolina; Hubert Humphrey (D), Minnesota; Strom Thurmond (R), South Carolina; William Brock (R) Tennessee; and James Buckley (Conservative), New York; and representatives Richard Ichord (D), Missouri; William Mailliard (R) California; Earl Landgrebe (R) Indiana; Guy Vander Jagt (R) California; Floyd Spencer (R) South Carolina; Philip Crane (R) Illinois; and Trent Lott, (R) Mississippi. On April 5, 1973, Rev. Moon met with visiting President of South Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu. According to FLF Special Assistant, Mike Leone, "The meetings were very, very successful. . . . All ran over their allotted half hour, many lasted for an hour." 308 A National Movement Emerges By July 1, 1973, midway through its three year period (1972-74) of "total mobilization," the Unification Church was emerging as a national movement. It had attained organizational solidarity through the One World Crusade which as of July, 1973, had mobile units in all fifty states, and its versatility had been demonstrated through initiatives in evangelization, finances, the sciences, and politics. Still, the Unification Church was largely invisible to the public. The seven-city tour attracted only marginal notice in the press. Mobile Fundraising Teams, although growing, attracted virtually no notice. The Science Conference was reviewed only in isolated scientific journals, and Rev. Moon's meetings with Congressmen were private. However, during the second eighteen months of its revival period, the Unification Church attracted nationwide coverage. Four internal developments were foundational in this development. The first of these was the expansion of the OWC and a re-shuffling of local leadership. Although center members had been called to pioneer missions as state representatives or as OWC mobile unit members, the leadership of existing centers had remained intact. However in December 1972, center directors were assigned as new bus team leaders." 309 Included among the new bus team leaders were Farley Jones, President of HSA-UWC, America, and Edwin Ang, director of the Berkeley center, who became a bus team leader in New England. With the dispersion of local directors, leadership in the existing centers was re-shuffled. Neil Salonen was named acting director of the Washington, D.C., center and acting president of HSA-UWC while Farley Jones was in the field. Two members from Edwin Ang's Berkeley Center were named directors of centers in Philadelphia and St. Louis. David Hose, from Mr. Choi's Re-Education Foundation, moved across the Bay to take charge of the Berkeley center. Joe Tully, also from the Re-Education Foundation, was called to New York City to assume responsibilities there. The effect of these changes was to maximize the movement's national thrust while avoiding local distractions. Equally important as the expansion of OWC mobile units and the re-shuffling of center directors was the arrival of 109 European members on January 15, 1973. This "new pilgrim movement", as Rev. Moon termed it, was the result of pledges extracted from European church leaders. After a two-week period of lectures and orientation at the Belvedere estate, ten European International One World Crusade (IOWC) teams joined forces with the ten American OWC units. In addition to the boost given to evangelizing, the Europeans were effective in PR roles. More importantly, the European presence further solidified the American movement. A sense of national identity emerged over against the Europeans. Rather than as part of Miss Kim's, Mr. Choi's or Mr. Kim's groups, members saw themselves as part of the American movement. With the purchase of Belvedere estate, the focus of Unification Church activities shifted to New York City. There, with seventy Dutch and Japanese members who arrived later than the bulk of the Europeans, the New York church center became a model for the rest of the movement. The basic innovation was the "three-lectures-a-day" approach. With seven teams of Japanese and Dutch members witnessing actively downtown, vans were waiting to transport guests to the church center for daily 12:30, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. lectures. The strategy was successful. During one three-day campaign, fifty people came on the first day, eighty on the second, and forty six (with rain) on the third day. Techniques developed in New York City were incorporated by OWC units in the field. 310 On March 1, 1973, the movement began its first International Training Session, at Belvedere Estate. Initiated as a 100-day program for future church leaders, the schedule included forty days intensive study of the Divine Principle, thirty days of the movement's Victory Over Communism (VOC) ideology and thirty days of Unification Thought, a recently published application of the Principle to philosophy. The six hours of daily lectures were interspersed with talks from Rev. Moon, fellowship, discussion, examinations, lecture practice, and participation in the ongoing New York City witnessing campaign. Belvedere Training further solidified the American movement. As one of the original forty-eight trainees wrote, Europeans are not the only ones wearing smiles of eagerness and anticipation. Some American brothers were intoxicated in those early days, because we were so many fine people together and Belvedere is the most holy place in America. 311 David Kim's pre-lecture pep talks also heightened spirits. If his missionary travels through the Pacific Northwest had prepared him for the OWC, his five-year stint at the Clearfield, Utah, Job Corps Training Center site had prepared him for Belvedere. Stationed there since his appointment as coordinator of the OWC, Mr. Kim's pre-lecture inspirations ran, according to one member's account, "one half hour, one hour, two hours . . . for as long as President [Young Whi] Kim will let him have us." In addition to the training session, Belvedere was the site for national conferences. The first of these was held on March 5, 1973. Headquarters staff, mobile-unit commanders, itinerary workers, state representatives, and center directors all gave reports and discussed approaches found to be successful. A second national conference was held on April 1, 1973, at which time Rev. Moon announced that future national conferences would be held every forty five days, at Belvedere. As a result of these initiatives, the movement not only attained cohesiveness but also began to obtain results. A July, 1973, Director's Newsletter reported "the number of new members who joined to date this year is four times that for the same period last year." Financially, the movement had "greatly expanded the limits of what was once thought possible." In a recently completed candle-selling competition with Japanese members, "Many individuals averaged sales of between $900 and $1,000 per week." 312 A boon to the movement's solidarity and cohesiveness was the July, 1973, distribution of the new English Divine Principle. 313 FLF's legitimacy was enhanced by its entry into the United States Youth Council. The movement reached a turning point by the time of the July 1, 1973 Director's Conference. With the formation of forty more OWC mobile units at that conference (making fifty total), there was a nation-wide network of support. David Kim summarized Rev. Moon's role in the overall development: By July 1, 1973, only 18 months after His arrival in the U.S., He had brought phenomenal results. He had completed already one seven-city public speaking tour in major cities on both coasts of the U.S. He had raised the infant Unification Church to nationwide cooperation through the One World Crusade. He had strengthened and enlarged each group to serve all 50 states. Further, He had set up an International Leadership Training Program at the Belvedere Estate. During this same period of time, He initiated and spoke at the First International Conference on Unified Science to begin His efforts to develop a God-centered science and technology which can truly satisfy every man's desire for material happiness. 314 Symbolic of the "turning point" the movement had reached half-way through its three-year revival period was the proclamation of July 1, 1973, as the "Day of Resolution for Victory." In effect, the task of attaining internal solidarity was finished. What followed during the second eighteen-month period of evangelism was an all-out campaign by the movement to attain public visibility. Day of Hope and Celebration of Life Tours While the drive for increased membership continued unabated from 1972-74, the emphasis of the movement for the eighteen months following its July 1, 1973 Resolution for Victory was on intensely publicized public speaking tours. During this period, the movement conducted four separate tours: a twenty-one city Day of Hope tour, a thirty-two city Day of Hope tour, a ten-city "Celebration of Life" tour and a culminating eight-city Day of Hope tour. These tours were much larger than the original seven-city tour of 1972 and far more sophisticated. More important, the motivation behind the tours was not the building of internal solidarity but the attainment of public visibility. Following completion of the twenty-one city and thirty-two city tours, Rev. Moon had spoken publicly in all fifty states. Well before the Celebration of Life and the culminating eight-city tour, the movement had attained national exposure. Twenty-One City tour. The twenty-one city tour, which began on October 1, 1973, was both similar and different from the earlier seven-city tour. Like the previous tour, the this one included three nights of talks by Rev. Moon. However, unlike the previous one, the twenty-one city tour was more provocative. Taking as its theme, "Christianity in Crisis: New Hope," each three-night stop featured speeches by Rev. Moon on "God's Hope for Man," "God's Hope for America," and "The Future of Christianity." Although the twenty-one city tour was far more ambitious than the earlier seven-city tour, the movement had more time to mobilize. In mid-July, as a result of a further influx of missionaries from Japan and Europe, two forty-member IOWC teams were formed to travel the twenty-one city itinerary, preparing the way for Rev. Moon's lecture series the following fall and winter. By the end of August, more than four hundred members gathered to publicize the Day of Hope talks scheduled to begin at Carnegie Hall on October 1st. Besides mobilizing members, the movement sought to generate media coverage. For this purpose it organized a five-member Day of Hope planning staff. Consisting of a campaign coordinator, PR director, media director, technical director, and logistics coordinator, the accent was on public visibility. Newspaper and magazine ads, bus and commuter train posters, and mass leafleting introduced the series to the people of each city. The staff sent professionally made tapes to 540 radio stations for public service announcements. According to campaign coordinator Mike Leone, the purpose of the staff's work was two-fold: first, "to bring to the public eye Rev. Moon of South Korea, a dynamic and inspiring spiritual leader of thousands of people," and second, "to fill every hall, every night." 315 In addition to personnel mobilization and saturation advertising, two other innovations of the twenty-one city tour greatly enhanced the movement's public visibility. The obtaining of civic proclamations was the first of these. The previous February 14, 1973, as a result of the intercessory efforts of Benjamin Swig, a prominent San Francisco hotel owner and friend of Mr. Choi, Rev. Moon was awarded the key to the city of San Francisco. 316 During the twenty-one city tour, campaign workers secured a multitude of proclamations of honorary citizenship, and days, or weeks, of "Hope and Unification." 317 Many of these proclamations were read at a second major innovation of the tour, "Day of Hope" banquets. Held prior to opening night talks during the tour, the kick-off dinners featured entertainment, introductions and greetings from Rev. Moon. With guest lists including civic and religious leaders, educators and businessmen, these were another important means of attaining public visibility. The results of the twenty-one city tour were remarkable. In New York, where four hundred members worked a month prior to the Carnegie Hall opening, the movement attracted widespread media coverage. The September 22, 1973, New York Daily News carried a large photo and article on a Day of Hope rally on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street. Time, Newsweek and Christianity Today all carried somewhat quizzical stories on the campaign. Associated Press religion writer George W. Cornell's generally positive feature story on the Day of Hope and the Unification Church appeared in seventy-nine newspapers throughout the U.S. However, whether skeptical or positive, the movement was achieving the goal of public visibility. Two hundred and fifty prominent New Yorkers attended the inaugural "Day of Hope" banquet at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Telegrams of congratulations were read from New York mayor, John V. Lindsay and columnist William F. Buckley, Jr., as well as from several U.S. congressmen. In Baltimore, Cardinal Sheehan sent his blessing to the banquet. In Washington, D.C., where the movement again concentrated its efforts, almost four hundred citizens turned out for the banquet, and more than three thousand people for the three nights of talks at Lisner Auditorium. In Atlanta, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, proclaimed November 7, 1973, a "Day of Hope and Unification." Though similar proclamations were issued throughout the Midwest, the movement concentrated efforts in the media and policy making centers of New York and Washington, D.C. The twenty-one city tour came to the Bay Area in January, 1974. With months to plan and a substantial number of local contacts, the January 17, 1974, San Francisco Day of Hope banquet attracted more than 500 guests to Benjamin Swig's Fairmont Hotel. In Berkeley, where Rev. Moon spoke at Zellerbach Auditorium on the University of California campus, The Daily Californian reported, "Rev. Moon's followers have waged one of the neatest and best run publicity campaigns seen here in years." 318 In San Jose, January 17-24, 1974, was proclaimed "Hope and Unification Week" while, in Oakland, Mayor John H. Reading proclaimed the period from January 21-24, 1974, as "Day of Hope Days." Single days of "Hope and Unification" were proclaimed in Berkeley and Hayward, and on January 21, 1974, Rev. Moon was awarded the key to the city of Berkeley by Mayor Warren Widener. Thirty-two city tour. Following the completion of the twenty-one city tour in Los Angeles on January 29, 1974, the movement immediately launched another Day of Hope tour with the theme "The New Future of Christianity." This tour, which carried the Day of Hope to thirty-two American cities in sixty-four days, included an opening night banquet and a second night speech by Rev. Moon at each stop. With the completion of the thirty-two city tour, Rev. Moon had proclaimed his message publicly in all fifty states. To conduct campaigns in this drive from Maine to Hawaii, three IOWC advance teams from the twenty-one city tour were increased to seven teams of seventy members. Each of these teams were given itineraries for four or five two-week campaigns in preparation for the Day of Hope programs. According to Rev. Moon, the tour had "created in two weeks a foundation in every state which would have taken two or three years otherwise." 319 Celebration of Life. The movement hoped to reap a harvest of new members as a result of the Day of Hope tours. To facilitate these goals, the Sun Myung Moon Christian Crusade (SMCC) sponsored a ten-city "Celebration of Life" tour that evangelized a selected city in each of the ten regions of the country. Beginning in the Bay Area, the itinerary included stops in Seattle, St Paul, Minnesota; Austin, Texas; New Orleans; Miami, Florida; Columbus, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Boston; and Rochester, New York. Billed as "A 21st Century Experience," programs included an hour and fifteen minutes of entertainment: songs, solos, skits, dances, and testimonials, followed by forty-five minutes of inspiration from "God's Colonel" Bo Hi Pak, on key points of the Unification Principle. Week-long stops in each city featured Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday performances and a weekend Celebration of Life workshop. Rather than preaching crisis, the concern was to find a successful formula of mass evangelization. As a result of tour innovations, advance preparation, and media coverage, the Celebration of Life drew substantial crowds. SMCC's "World Premiere" May 15-17, 1974, at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland drew 2,600 guests and thirty-four participants for a weekend workshop in the Santa Cruz Mountains. By Boston, the three-day total was up to 7,562. 320 Equally important was the emergence of New Hope Singers International and the Korean Folk Ballet. Both would make signal contributions to the movement's culminating eight-city tour, scheduled to begin in September, 1974 at Madison Square Garden. Finances Although the financial burden of conducting its Day of Hope speaking tours was considerable, the movement found that tour costs could be turned to advantage. Large expenditures were, in themselves, a means of attaining public visibility. Thus movement spokespersons were not hesitant to release budget allotments for the twenty-one city tour ($400,000), thirty-two city tour ($200,000) and the coming eight-city tour ($1,000,000). 321 The same dynamic was at work in the movement's real estate acquisitions. In addition to Belvedere, the nearby Exquisite Acres (renamed East Garden) was purchased on October 10, 1973, for $625,000. The former St. Joseph's Seminary, located on 250 acres, some sixty miles to the north in Barrytown, New York, was purchased on January 21, 1974, at a cost of $1.5 million. Also, by 1974, the movement had purchased nearly 300 acres of greenbelt land in Tarrytown, New York, putting the total value of its Hudson Valley acquisitions at approximately $3 million. Sources of church income generated additional publicity. American HSA-UWC President Neil Salonen estimated 1974 church income in the United States to be $8 million, up from $100,000 in 1971. Contributions, according to Salonen, came almost entirely from street sales of peanuts, candles, flowers, and dry-flower arrangements. Fundraising, though undertaken in all centers, was spearheaded by the expanding mobile fundraising teams, which by the spring of 1974 split into a "National Headquarters' MFT" for general church expenses and "Father's MFT" for special projects. Additional monies came in from overseas. More important than American resources was fundraising in Japan. There, since 1972, the Japanese family fielded 120 seven-day-a-week flower-selling teams. Funding from Japan, however, was not public knowledge. What was public knowledge was the church's industrial holdings in Korea. There, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the church initiated a number of economic ventures. Again, these holdings, no less than tour expenditures, were, in themselves, a means of attaining public visibility. That they were freely acknowledged was evident in that Rev. Moon's calling card listed him as chairman of the board of five companies: Tongil Industrial Company, Ltd., a manufacturer of machine parts; Il Hwa Pharmaceutical Company, which produced ginseng tea; the Ilshin Handicraft Company which produced stone vases (marketed in Japan); and two titanium companies, producers of paints and coating materials. 322 Cultural Affiliates If the movement's evangelistic crusades and finances generated a degree of public visibility, the same was also true of its cultural affiliates. The International Cultural Foundation (ICF) founded in Japan by Rev. Moon in 1968, moved its headquarters to 18 East 71st Street, New York City, in December, 1973. Incorporated there as "a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting academic, scientific and cultural exchange among the countries of the world," 323 it assumed sponsorship of the International Conference on the Unity of Sciences. A second educational and cultural affiliate, the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation (KCFF) was organized in Washington, D.C., by Bo Hi Pak in 1964. The foundation promoted the Children's Relief Fund, Radio of Free Asia, and, most notably, the Little Angels. Conceived of as a Korean answer to the Vienna Boys' Choir, the Little Angels conducted their first KCFF sponsored world tour from September 27 through December 16, 1965. A performance in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the home of former President Dwight Eisenhower (a KCFF board member), an appearance on the nationally televised Ed Sullivan Show, and seventy-five performances throughout the United States highlighted the inaugural tour. By 1974, the Little Angels had completed seven world tours, traveled over 200,000 miles, and given 1,100 performances, including command performances at the White House and London Palladium. 324 Although performances were kept free of church advocacy, one exception was the Little Angels' Holiday Benefit Performance for UNICEF at the U.N. General Assembly Hall. Rev. Moon was listed in a brochure as Founder and honored at the performance with a standing ovation. Earlier that fall, the church had sponsored three benefit performances of the Little Angels in Tarrytown, New York. The Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), founded by church members at Waseda University, Japan, in 1964. began in the United States in November, 1973. Once organized, it ran annual International Leadership Seminars (ILS). The first of these brought eighty-seven graduate students from Tokyo University, Japan, and 120 students from several universities in England. The second, held July 15 through August 23, 1974, at the Unification Church's International Training Center in Barrytown, New York, attracted 219 students from England, France, Germany, Japan and from Korean residents in Japan. 325 Watergate A key factor which attracting national attention to the emergent movement was its involvement in the Watergate crisis. Previously, the movement had separated evangelistic and religious-political activities through the separate incorporation of the Freedom Leadership Foundation. This separation broke down during the Watergate crisis. In asserting that "the crisis for America is a crisis for God," the movement's well-orchestrated demonstrations in support of President Richard Nixon, more than any other single factor, catapulted it into the national spotlight. It also alienated the church from significant sections of the populace. 326 The movement launched a forty-day National Prayer and Fast for the Watergate Crisis (NPFWC) on December 1, 1973. This action took place following a two week break in the twenty-one city "Day of Hope" tour during which time Rev. Moon traveled to Japan and Korea. The decision to launch the campaign was finalized in Omaha, Nebraska, and conducted simultaneously with the remainder of the twenty-one city tour. Asserting, "God's command at this crossroads in American History is to Forgive, Love, and Unite," Rev. Moon's "Answer to Watergate" statement appeared in full page advertisements purchased in newspapers in each of the twenty-one cities of the Day of Hope itinerary, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, beginning November 30, 1973. Over the next two months, it was published in one newspaper in every state except Hawaii. In addition, The National Prayer and Fast for the Watergate Crisis Committee (NPFWC) organized vigils, rallies, letter-writing, and leafleting in all fifty states to publicize its theme and to obtain signatures of people promising to pray and fast for the Watergate crisis. At least eight senators and fifty-three congressmen either signed the statement or responded with messages of support. 327 Congressman Guy Vander Jagt (R-Michigan) read Rev. Moon's Watergate statement into the Congressional Record of December 21, 1973. Two annual events on the Washington, D.C., calendar were also occasions for calling national attention to the Unification Church. The first was the December 14, 1973, Christmas Tree Lighting, where the movement mobilized 1,200 pennant-waving, banner-carrying members. Not only was this rally aired on nationwide television, but later in the evening, President Nixon emerged from the White House to thank NPFWC President Neil Salonen and still-assembled members for their support. 328 The other annual event of note was the January 31, 1974, Presidential Prayer Breakfast to which Rev. Moon was invited. Although plans to ring the Washington Hilton Hotel, site of the prayer breakfast, were canceled, a post-breakfast rally at Lafayette Park brought out Edward and Tricia Nixon Cox, who greeted well-wishers. On February 1, 1974, Rev. Moon had a twenty minute audience with President Nixon, reportedly telling him, "Don't knuckle under to pressure. Stand up for your convictions." 329 A second phase of the church's Watergate involvement came at the height of the crisis in 1974. With court-ruled limitations on executive privilege, articles of impeachment, and exposure of damaging transcripts of presidential conversations all imminent, the NPFWC mobilized 610 members for a three-day fast and vigil on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., July 22-24, 1974. Participants wore placards with a quotation from Rev. Moon's Watergate statement on the back and a picture of the elected or appointed official for whom they were praying on the front. With public attention riveted on Watergate, the three-day vigil received national exposure. Seventy-six congressmen and five senators came out to meet the person praying for them. Newspapers across the nation carried pictures and interviews in over 350 stories. Local television stations and all three broadcasting networks showed film of the event and described it in their newscasts. Among the news magazines sending their own reporters to cover the vigil were Time, Newsweek, New Republic, U.S. News and World Report, New Yorker, and the Washingtonian. Rabbi Baruch Korff, organizer of the Citizens' Committee for Fairness to the President, came to the vigil and declared "personal solidarity with these young people." 330 Nationally syndicated columnist Art Buchwald later wrote a column featuring an imaginary conversation between one "Senator Throggsmutton" and the young man fasting for him. 331 Madison Square Garden The culmination of the movement's drive for public visibility was its concluding eight-city Day of Hope tour, which opened at New York's Madison Square Garden, September 18, 1974. Building on all that had gone before, the tour was, in certain respects, a triumphant march through many of the same cities in the movement's original, anonymous, seven-city tour of 1972. Taking as its theme, "The New Future of Christianity," the itinerary included New York City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. However, the key to the eight-city tour was success at Madison Square Garden. Although Madison Square Garden was its most ambitious undertaking to date, the movement had several months to prepare. In addition, previous efforts had led to, in American HSA-UWC President Neil Salonen's words, "a tremendous influx of members." 332 In New York City, members of the seven local churches had been assigned, since July, one hundred and twenty houses each for door-to-door contact. Ten thousand pocket sized editions of Divine Principle and an equal number of Rev. Moon's "Christianity in Crisis" talks were made ready for distribution. The arrival of seven hundred IOWC members in mid-August greatly augmented campaign preparations in New York City. Lodged at the Paris Hotel on Manhattan's West Side, ten seventy-member IOWC teams followed rigorous street canvassing schedules in assigned sections of Manhattan and Queens. Representatives from each of the forty nations where the Unification Church maintained missions and the remaining American church members (in all, about two thousand), who converged on New York City for a final week-long blitz prior to September 18th, swelled the ranks still further. Tickets for the event were free (according to media accounts, over 380,000 had been distributed) 333 and five hundred buses were chartered to transport outlying residents to the Garden. The movement generated further publicity through numerous TV and radio "shorts," through full-page ads in the New York Times, and through its massive poster campaign. Advertising that "September 18 Could Be Your Re-Birthday," eighty thousand two-by-three-foot posters with a portrait of Rev. Moon as well as insets of the New Hope Singers International and the Korean Folk Ballet "wallpapered" Manhattan. Maintaining 150-200 locations, a twenty-one member postering team put up two thousand posters in forays from midnight until 10:00 a.m., beginning forty days before the rally. As reported in the New York Times, "His face is everywhere, it seems." 334 Given that the movement was able to bring only 350-450 people to Alice Tully Hall in the Lincoln Center for its initial "Day of Hope" tour just thirty-two months earlier the turnout at Madison Square Garden was astounding. The movement feted 1,600 prominent New Yorkers at a kick-off banquet in the Waldorf Astoria on September 17, 1974. The following night, an estimated ten to thirty-five thousand ticket holders were turned away from an already filled-to-capacity Madison Square Garden. 335 With nearly two hundred press people in attendance, widespread publicity helped insure success in other cities. 336 The pattern of overflow crowds and widespread publicity was repeated throughout the tour. 337 The time bomb is ticking The Unification Church attained its goal of public visibility by the end of 1974. As in its previous objective of internal solidarity, the movement's genius was the way in which its initiatives were mutually reinforcing. The crowds for its concluding eight-city Day of Hope tour were not only the result of campaign preparations but also the result of interest generated through the movement's diverse involvements. At the same time, these involvements were increasingly questioned. Now that the movement had emerged, it was a visible target. As Rev. Moon put it during an otherwise exuberant celebration at Belvedere following his Madison Square Garden speech, "The time bomb is ticking. We must do our job before the time bomb explodes." 338 Opposition toward the movement was evident on all fronts but most apparent in controversies over evangelizing. The Bay Area was an early locale of controversy. There, during Rev. Moon's twenty-one city "Day of Hope" tour stop in Berkeley, the Christian Student Coalition of the University of California formally disavowed "any spiritual kinship with the Unification Church and its founder, Sun Myung Moon," purchased a full-page advertisement in the Daily Californian to that effect, and distributed leaflets outside Zellerbach Auditorium. 339 Although there had been sporadic protests and picketing previously, this was the first joint effort. As a result of increased visibility following his meeting with Richard Nixon, Rev. Moon faced mounting opposition during his thirty-two city Day of Hope tour. "Nix-on Moon" placards denounced Rev. Moon as a fascist backed by U.S. money. More common were disruptions during speeches by fundamentalist Christians exhorting audiences and calling Rev. Moon a false prophet. A widely reprinted February 15, 1974, Laurence Stern and William R. MacKaye article in the Washington Post quoted the General Secretary of the Korean National Council of Churches, who labeled the movement "a cult . . . a new sect which has been undermining the established church." 340 Equally significant was a widely circulated document originating in Louisville, Kentucky, entitled, "The Satanic Beliefs of Rev. Moon." Purporting to be from a group of inter-denominational ministers and laymen known as the "Concerned Christians," the return address was the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. However, the public relations director for the seminary stated publicly that the Concerned Christians' post office box had been obtained "under false pretenses." 341 Opposition, often more militant, continued during the eight- city tour. At the New York "Day of Hope" banquet in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, five members of the International Workers Party (two of whom leaped onto chairs) attempted to disrupt the affair. 342 The following night, at Madison Square Garden, Rev. Moon invited those who opposed him to stand up and speak. Outside, more than a dozen groups ranging from Trotskyite and Marxist militants to "God's Umbrella" of Baptist, Methodist, and Nazarene groups demonstrated and passed out leaflets to the thousands who couldn't get in. 343 Opposition tactics were rougher in Philadelphia. Phone lines were cut and the telephone company cut off service for the phone number listed on campaign posters after receiving an order to cancel the number; gas service to the Philadelphia center was cut off after the gas company received a phone call alerting them to a bogus gas leak in the building; and an unordered termite exterminator arrived at the center all equipped to fumigate. 344 In Washington, D.C., bricks were tossed through plate glass windows at campaign headquarters and van tires were slashed. 345 However, more serious than specific incidents were mounting forms of institutional resistance. Problems with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service surfaced during the thirty-two city tour. Initially having obtained six-month tourist visas for missionaries, the church's petition to have these visas altered was denied. In Salt Lake City, forty German IOWC members were apprehended by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, charged with over-extension of their visas and given thirty days to leave the United States. By late 1974, 583 foreign members of the Unification Church were subject to deportation proceedings. 346 A second source of institutional resistance was the secular media. Here a combination of Rev. Moon's inaccessibility (no personal interviews were granted during tours) and complaints against the movement created a bad press. Nevertheless, the most potentially serious source of organized resistance to the movement were families of converts. In Omaha, Nebraska, a sixteen-year-old member was subject to "deprogramming" and committed (without official record) by her mother to a local hospital for three weeks in late 1973. 347 In Des Moines, Iowa, a college student, after attending a weekend workshop, was committed by his parents to the psychiatric ward of a local hospital in early 1974. The church responded to opposition in several ways. In Tarrytown, New York, the church sponsored public Fourth of July fireworks at Belvedere in both 1973 and 1974, attracting as many as 10,000 people. 348 During the Day of Hope Tours, movement spokesmen, PR teams, advertisements (including one full-page ad run in several cities entitled, "Have Christians Forsaken the Words of Jesus?") and letters were utilized to counter opposition. By May, 1974, these initiatives coalesced into a church public relations department. The movement's "War on Pornography" was a decidedly different approach to public relations adopted during the eight-city tour. More of a counteroffensive, 300-member marches on pornography districts in cities on the tour's itinerary generated publicity for speaking engagements while distracting attention from themselves. For the most part, however, the movement was not overly concerned with criticism. Not only was there a lack of coordination among its critics but there was a lack of any underlying consensus that could unify a broad base of opposition. Left alone, fundamentalist Christians or Marxist protesters outside rallies generally ended up arguing against each other or among themselves. Thus, despite the severity of isolated attacks, opposition actually enhanced the movement's goal of public visibility. Another reason for the movement's lack of concern for outside criticism was its own success, the most substantial of which after Madison Square Garden was its eight-city Day of Hope stop in the Bay Area. Success in San Francisco Prospects for the eight-city Day of Hope tour stop in San Francisco, scheduled for December 9, 1974, were not initially promising. In Seattle, there were vocal pickets and a bomb threat. In San Francisco, the church's contract for use of the San Francisco Opera House was canceled in October by the Board of Trustees who were fearful of crowd turmoil. Threatened with a civil suit, the board relented but set down a stringent set of conditions. Among them were a $1 million insurance policy against personal injury or property damage; an agreement by the church to reserve the Civic Auditorium for the same night and to provide a closed circuit TV hookup, so the overflow crowd, if any, could hear the lecture; the provision of a security force; and the designation of a church staff of 350 persons for ushering and crowd control. 349 Despite foreboding events and regulations, the San Francisco Day of Hope stop, according to Regional Director Paul Werner, was "the greatest success since Madison Square Garden." The December 7th kick-off banquet, again held at Benjamin Swig's Fairmont Hotel, brought out 1,160 San Franciscans. A letter of welcome from California Governor Ronald Reagan was read. Proclamations were announced from San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, Concord, Burlingame, San Mateo, Stockton, Menlo Park, and Hayward. The city of Oakland proclaimed December 9th as Sun Myung Moon Day and presented him with a tie tack and cuff links in the shape of an oak tree. 350 Rev. Moon noted, "I never expected such a heart-warming welcome in this golden state." 351 The December 9, 1974, talk brought 5,000 people to the 3,200 seat San Francisco Opera House with the overflow directed to the Municipal Auditorium a block away. Although a full contingent of protestors including "street Christians," Amnesty International (which produced a flyer urging readers to ask South Korea's President Park about jailed religious leaders), the Christian World Liberation Front, and the International Workers' Party gathered outside, they were either drowned out by Paul Werner's marching band or at odds among themselves. According to one report, "The Christians were arguing against each other, calling each other Satan." 352 Inside, there were no disturbances during Rev. Moon's speech. Far from worrying about external threats in the United States, the movement was planning to take its crusade overseas. Late 1974 was a harvest of sorts for the newly-emergent national movement. Summarizing advances made during its three-year period of total evangelism, American HSA-UWC President Neil Salonen, in a December, 1974 speech to members, noted, Three years ago, when Father [Rev. Moon] called us together into a Director's Conference, we had only a handful of members -- less than 300! Since that time, we have seen what mighty things can be accomplished. Our movement has multiplied ten times, reaching almost three thousand by the end of this month. We have been catapulted from relative obscurity to national prominence, putting on projects worthy of groups many times our size. Now at last we can think in realistic terms of expanding to an international level. 353 Based on the tour's success in America, Rev. Moon, on Thanksgiving day, announced plans for an international Day of Hope tour to begin in Japan, January 11, 1975. Earlier he had announced his intention of sending missionaries to 120 nations in the spring of 1975. Plans were made for expanded training programs at Barrytown and a future university. Consistent with the international thrust was the formation of a thirty-member United Nations PR team. These initiatives, as well as membership goals and projected rallies at Yankee Stadium and the Washington Monument, were discussed at a director's conference in Los Angeles on December 21, 1974. Equally important was an event the previous day, when Rev. Moon presided over the blessing in marriage of Miss Onni Soo Lim, then director of the Oakland center, and Dr. Mose Durst, later to become the national president of the Unification Church in America. This ceremony inaugurated a new era in the Bay Area and national movement. The Oakland Family The new era launched in the Bay Area with the marriage of Soo Lim (Onni) and Dr. Mose Durst was that of 'The Oakland Family'. Initially a mission outpost of Mr. Choi's San Francisco-based Re-Education Foundation, the Oakland Family's membership totals skyrocketed from a handful of members to several hundred from 1972 to 1974. While existing Bay Area centers were depleted by the demands of national mobilization, the Oakland Family thrived and inherited both the Berkeley Center and what remained of Mr. Choi's Re-Education Foundation by the end of 1974. In one sense, the Oakland Family emerged alongside of the national movement. However, it also was part of the national movement. At the December 21, 1974 directors' conference in Los Angeles which followed the Dursts' wedding and which effectively closed Reverend Moon's three year "Day of Hope" campaign in America, Onni (Soo Lim) Durst was appointed coordinator for California, excluding Los Angeles. Its emergence alongside of yet part of the national movement would be the ruling dynamic of the Oakland Family's development after 1974. By combining techniques suited to the Bay Area with the level of intensity characteristic of the national movement, the Oakland Family achieved exceptional results. At the same time, by initiating its own programs, often with a less than clear articulation of their connection to the national movement, the Oakland Family sparked tensions within. In addition, the "time bomb" to which Reverend Moon had referred, exploded after 1975 in the form of media attacks, kidnappings, deprogrammings, court cases, and government investigations. To fully explore these dimensions in the emergence of the Unification Church is beyond the scope of this account. Notes 272. John Lofland, "Moonies in America: From Rag-tag Band to Streamlined Movement." Lecture given at the University of California at Davis, June 5, 1979. 273. David S.C. Kim, "Report on the Korean Missionary Conference," United Temple Bulletin, March 15, 1969. 274. Betsy Drapcho, "Word from Washington," New Age Frontiers, January 1972. 275. David S.C. Kim, "News Report: Washington, D.C.," United Temple Bulletin, January 1, 1972. 276. "Berkeley," New Age Frontiers, February 1972. 277. The Pioneers, "Pioneer Training Session, New York," New Age Frontiers, April 1972. 278. Ibid. 279. Rick Hunter, "Our Relationship to the True Parents," New Age Frontiers, April 1972. 280. Barbara Mikesell, "Three Weeks Pioneer Training in New York," The Way of the World , May 1972. 281. Farley Jones, "Notes on Family Meeting, March 16, 1972." Unpublished transcript of meeting in Washington, D.C. 282. Articles in the Berkeley Gazette included "Lectures by Moon Set," February 19, 1972; "Unification Berkeleyans Attend Meet," February 12, 1972; and "Unification Movement's Founder Here," March 8, 1972; the Oakland Tribune ran an article, "Ecumenist Speaks," March 5, 1972. 283. Farley Jones, "Notes on Family Meeting," March 16, 1972. 284. Rick Hunter, "Our Relationship to the True Parents," New Age Frontiers, April 1972. 285. David S.C. Kim, ed., "Origins and Growth of the One World Crusade in the USA," Day of Hope in Review, part 1, 1972-1974, (Tarrytown, New York: HSA-UWC, 1974), 2. 286. Farley Jones, "Notes on Family Meeting.", March 16, 1972 287. David S.C. Kim, "Marching Across this Great Land to Make it Free," The Way of the World, May 1972. 288. "One World Crusade Campaigns Throughout the United States of America," The Way of the World, July 1972. 289. David S.C. Kim, "The Establishment of HSA and My Role as One of the Participants,." United Temple Bulletin, May, 1970 290. See The Way of the World, May, July, and November 1972. 291. David S.C. Kim, "Mobile Unit II Moves West Coast States," The Way of the World, November 1972. 292. "New Strategy for the MFT: Divide and Conquer!" New Hope News, May 10, 1974 293. Regis Hanna, "Report on the National Director's Conference," New Age Frontiers, January 1971. 294. Farley Jones, "Notes on Family Meeting," March 16, 1972. 295. Young Oon Kim, Memoirs, 1972. 296. Ibid. 297. Louise Berry, "Latest Developments on Belvedere," Pioneer's Progress, September 10, 1972. 298. Interview with William and Leslie Cook at Berkeley, California, November 1978. 299. Louise Berry, "Latest Developments on Belvedere," Pioneer's Progress, September 10 1972. 300. Young Oon Kim, Memoirs, 1972. 301. "Belvedere Is Ours," and "At Belvedere," Pioneer's Progress, October 10, 1972. 302. "Permanent Mobile Fund-raising Team Begins Four Month Mission," New Age Frontiers, November 10, 1972. 303. Ibid. 304. John Hessel, "Report from New York," New Age Frontiers, February 1972. 305. Sun Myung Moon, "The Role of Unified Science in the Moral Orientation of the World," New Age Frontiers, December 8, 1972. 306. "Unified Science Conference," New Age Frontiers, December 8, 1972 307. Sun Myung Moon, "Safeguard the Unified Front," Master Speaks, December 31, 1971. 308. "Our Leader Meets President Thieu, U.S. Senators, Congressmen," The Way of the World, May 1973. 309. "Summary of the Third Pioneer Training Program," New Age Frontiers, December 30, 1972. 310. David S.C. Kim, "One World Crusade Progressing Rapidly in America," The Way of the World, April 1973. 311. Jonathan Slevin, "Report on the 100 Day International Training Session," The Way of the World, May 1973. 312. "American Family," The Way of the World, July 1973. 313. Ibid. 314. David S.C. Kim, Day of Hope in Review, part 1, vii. 315. "New Hope Comes to America," The Way of the World, September 1973. 316. David S.C. Kim, "One World Crusade Progressing Rapidly in America," The Way of the World, April 1973. 317. See David S.C. Kim, Day of Hope in Review, part 1, 62-160. 318. "Moon People Offer Hope," The Daily Californian, January 22, 1974. 319. "32-city Tour," New Hope News, May 10, 1974. 320. "Boston SMMCC Attendance Breaks All Records," New Hope News, July 25, 1974. 321. John M. Lovell, "Moon Terms Maine Handle to America," Portland Press Herald, February 16, 1974. 322. John Price, David Carlson, Leon Pine, "Titanium Factory Serves Modern Korea," The Way of the World, October 1973. 323. Michael Y. Warder, "Prospectus for the International Cultural Foundation," The Way of the World, January 1974. 324. "The Little Angels," The Way of the World, April 1973. 325. "Becoming International Leaders," The Way of the World, July/August 1974. 326. "Statement by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon: America in Crisis, Answer to Watergate, Forgive, Love, Unite," Official Statement, HSA-UWC, November 30, 1973. 327. "In Time of Crisis, Pray," The Way of the World, January 1974. 328. Sue Cronkite, "Cheering, Chanting Youths Prove Spirit of America Still Alive; Support Nixon," Birmingham News, December 24, 1973. 329. Laurence Stern and William R. MacKaye, "Rev. Moon: Nixon Backer," Washington Post, February 15, 1974. 330. Joy Schmidt, "Three Days at the Capitol," The Way of the World, July/August 1974. 331. Art Buchwald, "God Doesn't Want Nixon Impeached," Daily News, July 27, 1974. 332. Neil Salonen, "Providential Perspective," New Hope News, July 25, 1974. 333. "A Garden Attraction," New York Times, September 22, 1974. 334. "Sun Myung Moon, Prophet to Thousands, Stirs Waves of Controversy as He Prepares for Big Rally Here," New York Times, September 16, 1974. 335. "Thousands Crowd Garden to Hear Speech by Moon," New York Times, September 19, 1974. 336. "The Messiah-The Last Hope for Mankind," The Way of the World, September/October 1974. 337. David S.C. Kim, "Eight City Tour," Day of Hope in Review, part 2, 320-517; see also "Capsule: Day of Hope 1974," The Way of the World, January 1975. 338. Sun Myung Moon, "The Significance of MSG," Master Speaks, September 19, 1974; also "The Messiah--The Last Hope of Mankind," The Way of the World, September/October 1974. 339. "Students Oppose Moon," Oakland Tribune, January 20, 1974. The coalition included the Chinese Christian Fellowship, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, Resurrection City, Baptist Student Ministries, Christian World Liberation Front, Campus Crusade for Christ and Forever Family Ministries. 340. Laurence Stern and William R. MacKaye, "Enigmatic Rev. Moon Works Economic Miracles," Washington Post, February 15, 1974. 341. The church exposed the document in a letter by Neil Albert Salonen mailed to 2,000 ministers in the last 19 cities of the 32-city tour. See New Hope News, May 10, 1974. 342. "Church Hosts Swank Bash," The Daily News, Tarrytown, New York, September 18, 1974. 343. "Rev. Moon and His Adherents Facing Wrath of Evangelists," The Daily News, September 14, 1974; "Sun Myung Moon, Prophet to Thousands, Stirs Waves of Controversy as he Prepares for Big Rally Here," New York Times, September 16, 1974. 344. "Philadelphia Day of Hope: Victory Despite Persecution," New Hope News, October 7, 1974. 345. "The Campaign," New Hope News, October 21, 1974. 346. "A U.S. Agency's Act May Eclipse Crusade of Sun Myung Moon," The Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1974. 347. Jill Criesing, "NCLU Probes `Programmed' Girl's Plight," Dundee Sun, [Omaha, Nebraska] November 15, 1973; "Girl, 16, Happy to Resume Living at Church," Dundee Sun, November 22, 1974; "Family Major Point of Unification Leader," Omaha World Herald, November 26, 1974. 348. "Unification Church to Celebrate on 4th," The Daily News, [Tarrytown, New York] July 3, 1974; "Belvedere Hosts 10,000 on July 4th," The Way of the World, July/August 1974; "Father Speaks to 10,000 Guests on 4th of July," New Hope News, July 20, 1974. 349. "Evangelist Back at Opera House," San Francisco Chronicle, November 9, 1974. 350. David S.C. Kim, Day of Hope in Review, part 2, 447. 351. Joy Schmidt, "Crowd Overflows in San Francisco," New Hope News , December 23, 1974. 352. Ibid.
353. Neil Salonen, "Looking Ahead . . ." New Hope News, December 23, 1974. ?? |
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