Former President Donald Trump this weekend spoke at an online event sponsored by Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, widow of the “Moonie” cult leader, Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
The event, called “Rally of Hope,” focused on world peace and reunification of North and South Korea and drew an estimated audience of one-million people worldwide. It also drew the praise of President Trump, who expressed his admiration not just for Dr. Moon, but for her late husband and the publication he founded, The Washington Times.
“I want to thank the Universal Peace Federation, and in particular, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, a tremendous person, for her incredible work on behalf of peace all over the world,” Trump said in a videotaped address. “Her story of escaping from North Korea at five years old, at the outset of the Korean War, is an amazing example of the power of faith in Almighty God.
“I also want to thank her late husband, Reverend Moon, for founding The Washington Times, an organization for which I have tremendous respect and admiration.”
Cult expert Dr. Steven Hassan called Trump’s appearance at the rally “outrageous,” noting that “crimes of the Moonies are well-documented.”
Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Hurt and Healed by the Church” by Ryan George. To donate, click here.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon was convicted of tax fraud in 1982. He also lost a libel lawsuit against the Daily Mail in the 1980s, after the newspaper exposed the brainwashing, sleep-deprivation, and “love-bombing” techniques Moonies used.
Hassan said Trump’s appearance at the rally is also evidence that the Unification Church, commonly referred to as “Moonies,” are “in NO way fringe” but remain “actively interwoven into the power structure of the modern GOP.”
“When most people hear about the Moonies, they think, ‘what a crazy cult!’” Hassan tweeted. “What these people might not realize though is how INTERTWINED this cult is with the modern GOP.”
Hassan noted that a Moonie event in May likewise drew several GOP leaders, including former Vice president Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. pic.twitter.com/IKAsUWXfkR
— Steven Hassan, PhD (@CultExpert) August 10, 2021
Hassan, who’s a former Moonie, also writes on his blog that the cult uses the conservative newspaper, The Washington Times, not only to gain power and influence, but also to gather intelligence.
The Times is currently owned by Operations Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Unification Church or HAS-UWC (Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity).
Hassan also notes that Pastor Hung Jin “Sean” Moon, the son of Rev. Moon, and leader of a Moonie splinter group, Rod of Iron Ministries, helped build momentum for the January 6 rally at the U.S. Capitol.
According to an article in Raw Story, Rod of Iron deployed members to a string of rallies leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection. And a video that Sean Moon posted to his Instagram account shows Moon and his followers at the Jan. 6 rally, claiming to have been pepper-sprayed by police.
Steve Bannon, former White House senior counselor, has also appeared virtually at a Rod of Iron event. Pennsylvania state senator and “Stop the Steal” organizer, Doug Mastriano, was also billed as a special guest at a Rod of Iron event, according to Vice.
Hassan says this kind of political activism is typical of the Moonie “far right cult,” which claims to be Christian. (The Moonies do not believe Jesus was God, born of a virgin, or physically resurrected, Hassan says.)
When he was a Moonie, Hassan said he “prayed & fasted for 72 hours on the Capitol steps to show my loyalty to Nixon during Watergate.”
He added that he was told that if North Korea invaded South Korea, he and other American cult members would be sent to the front lines to die as martyrs. “Unification of North under South control was always agenda!” he added.
Though the group isn’t as well-known as it was in the 70s and 80s, and it’s divided into several offshoots, the Moonies are still a powerful force.
Sean Moon has purchased a 40-acre compound in central Texas, which he believes will offer a safe haven when the “deep state” provokes an imminent civil war.
The organization Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon runs, the Universal Peace Federation, has special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (UN). Like her late husband, Dr. Moon is pushing for a renewed UN backed by the UPF, which she believes will overcome religious divisions and usher in world peace.
According to the Ex-Moon Organization, the Moon organization and its followers also own, control, and influence dozens of companies, religious bodies, and political groups in the U.S. and around the world.
In his speech Saturday, Trump expressed support for Moon’s Universal Peace Federation (UPF) and Think Tank 2022—a UPF initiative bringing together world leaders to solve the conflict in the Korean Peninsula.
Trump promoted unifying Korea and promoting world peace. The former president said his meetings in 2018 and 2019 with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Un have paved the way for these goals to be realized.
“I knew that while any leader can wage war, it takes true courage to pursue a chance for peace,” he said. “I believe that leaders should never be afraid to talk if there is an opportunity to create a better world for their people.”
He added, “I truly believe that an extraordinary future awaits the people of North Korea, and I have faith that if they pursue the path of denuclearization, they will make that future a magnificent reality.”
Hassan, however, had a much bleaker view of UFP and the Rally of Hope.
“Like many cult events, this ‘Rally of Hope’ was conducted under the guise of doing good, but this is subterfuge,” he said.
English 
Spanish
31 Responses
I’ve been listening to and reading Hassan for years. I’ve found him to be very insightful, helpful, and surprisingly un-alarmist. When he speaks about cults, it’s worth listening.
Moon believed he was the Messiah. For Trump, Pence, and Pompeo to lend credence to his movement in any way is incredibly cynical on their parts and demonstrates a puzzling lack of discernment.
This has been building for decades.
During the Eighties, the Christian Culture Warriors started citing the Moonie-owned Washington Times as the Beacon of TRVTH amid the Librul Media LIES LIES LIES of the Secular Humanist Washington Post.
(Though these days they’re also into The Epoch Times, that Falun Gong End Times newspaper.)
Like Jim Jones of People’s Temple on the other side of the Red vs Blue divide, today’s heirs of Moon command a solid all-or-nothing voting bloc. Remember when GOP hopefuls had to make pilgrimage to Bob Jones U and kiss the ring of the current Bob Jones to get the Christian bloc? Can you say “Kingmaker”?
(And nobody does a “Second Amendment Sunday” (“Church of Zardoz”) service like the Moonies — with all the Moonies posing with Tac-geared AR-15s also wearing Disney Princess crowns.)
Discernment?
trump, pence, pompeo?
Same sentence?
I saw the words “tax fraud” in the article.
I’m not sure how interwoven the Moonies are with the GOP. I hadn’t heard anything about them in years and, while both major parties have their fringe adherents, cultists don’t speak for the rank and file. I’m surprised and disappointed at Pence’s appearance at one of their events, though.
They own and operate The Washington Times. You can find their feeds anytime you open up Bing. They are very active, and very partisan.
Scary, but perhaps not surprising, that these politicians idolized by so many conservative Evangelical Christians have so little discernment that they would allow themselves to be used for Moonie propaganda purposes.
This is pretty similar to the way many politicized Evangelicals have let themselves be influenced by the Epoch Times, which is an organ of the Falun Gong cult.
Where can I find evidence that Falun Gong is connected to Epoch Times ??
Here’s some evidence…
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/technology/epoch-times-influence-falun-gong.html
You can start with the Wikipedia article on The Epoch Times, and follow the various links. It was pretty widely reported on during the last election cycle.
That widely advertised Shen Yun dance troupe is also a Falun Gong thing.
The Epoch Times always has articles about Falun Gong and the Chinese governmental persecution they are (allegedly) enduring. I have no idea how to tell if it is true or not. I read it every couple of weeks and it is highly partisan to put it mildly.
“This is pretty similar to the way many politicized Evangelicals have let themselves be influenced by the Epoch Times, which is an organ of the Falun Gong cult.”
Al, obviously the Falun Gong are not followers of Jesus, but are a religious sect promoting a peaceful mindset and lifestyle, which is why the CCP has been imprisoning them for a couple decades specifically for their organs to be used in transplants all over the world.
I don’t read the Epoch times, but from what I’ve seen they constantly expose how the USA (“one nation under fraud”…since 1871) is being infiltrated by the CCP’s evil ideology.
Specifically, how is this a cult deceiving Americans via propaganda?
No doubt organ harvesting is being practiced to some extent in the USA, and probably will be to a greater extent once the covid injection control group becomes victims of the CDC’s green zones where there are no specific instructions on how people get out of the “minimum humanitarian standards” camps.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Gong_practitioners_in_China
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kfoj5WtKEf4
https://www.lifenews.com/2021/08/03/university-caught-harvesting-body-parts-from-babies-born-alive-left-to-die/
More info on the Falun Gung organ harvest. Documents exist proving the CCP pay off organizations like the WHO and the UN to cover for their crimes.
https://endtransplantabuse.org/bipartisan-stop-forced-organ-harvesting-bill-of-2021-introduced-in-the-united-states/
What is clear from the 2016 and 2020 elections is that character turned out to be totally irrelevant to evangelicals. To Republican evangelicals what is important is total loyalty, and Trump demanded it and got it from evangelicals.
So it is fitting that a cult like the Moonies would get support from Trump and in Trump will get total loyalty from the Moonies just like evangelicals are giving to Trump.
Moonies and evangelicals, like two peas in the Trump pod.
Also as was mentioned in a previous comment, evangelicals read the Epoch Times for their current news, even though it is run by yet another cult… Falun Gong.
common. wake up and see the reality. These rally of hope is for unification of suffering north Korean people to have a better future by breaking down the isolation of north. Nothing to do with cult. If Mooni’s are organizing that and they are cult I really love to join them and become one of them. Your point has no base.
I woke up……
The North Korean regime leaders are guilty of crimes against humanity.
Christians are persecuted to death in North Korea.
The Unification church is a cult and is responsible for the Washington Times.
Falun Gong is a cult and produces the Epoch Times.
Yes Trump sent “love letters” to ” Dear Leader” of North Korea and it was appalling.
Succinct and to the point.
I was truly inspiring that the former president speak about unification and reconciliation of whole Korea. not Just Trump but many high level political leaders were so united in such a peaceful way to bring joy and peace to the world.Thanks God who spoke though each of speakers.
The right wing Militant Christian Nationalists are so easily deceived. A brood of vipers.
I’m a lifelong, politically active Republican since Reagan , and I have never heard any reference to the Moonies within the GOP, ever.
If that was the case then why were so many Republicans proud to be “Never Trumpers” and why would Trump speak at a rally where he was praised?
“how INTERTWINED this cult is with the modern GOP”
————–
why??
This appearance is yet another example on how morally, ethically, and spiritually bankrupt American Evangelicalism is. WINNING AT THE POLITICAL GAME IS ALL THAT MATTERS. Who gives a rip about Biblical truth. But then people have warned about this for years. Back when Glen Beck was the latest darling of the Evangelicals and held a rally about “taking American back for God” and way from all the liberals and godless lefties, Russell Moore provided this editorial:
https://www.russellmoore.com/2010/08/29/god-the-gospel-and-glenn-beck/
The wholehearted embrace of Trump as Lord and Savior by many Evangelicals is disgusting.
Amen!
Amazingly prescient of Russell Moore. Wow.
If the news organisations reporting on conservative news are cults (drudge and gatewaypundit are run by reprobates too), then how is what they report on what “evangelicals really believe” at all accurate?
Wow. Just wow. This whole article.
Will there be any noise from the evangelicals on this? Any criticism? Nope. Maybe in some small corners, but mostly what we will hear is crickets. Even the people who usually hammer on doctrine, etc. will likely stay quiet (I’m thinking of folks like John MacArthur here).
Proof that most of white evangelicalism is more interested in power and politics than in theology. It’s been heading that way for a long time, and with Trump and these kinds of things happening, I think they’ve finally arrived.
“Sean Moon has purchased a 40-acre compound in central Texas, which he believes will offer a safe haven when the “deep state” provokes an imminent civil war.”
Sounds like the 2nd coming of David Koresh
Trump has no discernment in religious issues, he only cares about gaining support. The “expert” is also out of his mind.
The left has many aberrant organisations. But it’s those posing as conservatives conservatives should be concerned about. Will not get moderate positions while drama queens with questionable backgrounds keep getting promoted as trustworthy news.
Washington Times – cult
Epoch Times – another cult
Drudge – practising homosxual
Gatewaypundit – owner married a young boy overseas.
WND – Hebrew roots cult