Summersgill to Mayor: honoring Rev. Moon was ill-considered
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DC Human Rights Law

GLAA on Human Rights

Summersgill to Mayor:
honoring Rev. Moon was ill-considered

Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC
PO Box 75265
Washington, DC 20013

April 27, 2001


Mayor Anthony Williams
One Judiciary Square
Washington, DC 20001

Dear Mayor Williams:

I was sincere at your town meeting in thanking you for your efforts to expand and promote human rights in DC when I accepted your Proclamation. I was also happy to correct the Washington Blade on your support for same-sex civil marriage during the campaign.

However, we were deeply disappointed to learn that your special assistant for religious affairs, Rev. Donald Robinson also honored Rev. Sun Myung Moon's "We Will Stand Tour" with a Mayoral Proclamation. At that event, Rev. Moon called homosexuals "less than animals."

Rev. Robinson is quoted in the Washington Post article as saying "Many of the goals of the 'We Will Stand' tour are consistent with the goals the mayor espouses for the city." It maybe that Rev. Robinson views renewal and restoration of families, racial harmony, and breaking down barriers between faiths as positive. Unfortunately, these are not the Rev. Moon's goals.

The Rev. Moon sincerely believes himself to be the Messiah. So when he speaks of bringing people together under God, he is not taking an ecumenical approach that recognizes the value of different religions and faiths, but rather a unification of all people into his religion, worshiping him as the savior.

Rev. Moon spells this out in his speeches, many of which are collected on the internet by the Unification Church [See www.unification.net]. Attached are selections from his speeches.

Rev. Phillip Schanker of the Unification Church has disputed the Washington Post's quote of Rev. Moon on homosexuality. Unfortunately it is entirely consistent with his other speeches.

In addition to his open hostility to gay and lesbian people, Rev. Moon also viscously attacks the United States and our core values of individual liberty. He sees individualism as the work of the Satan that must be stamped out. The Rev. Moon even goes as far as praising communism for being totalitarian.

Rev. Moon also does nothing to promote racial unity. His words reflect the ugliest sentiments that we hear from Louis Farrakhan and other promoters of racial hatred.

While we doubt that Rev. Moon's goals are consistent with your own, Rev. Robinson's statements and your Proclamation undermine your other efforts to promote human rights in DC.

This lapse of judgment is further undermined by your recent appearance at a Boy Scout fundraiser. It seems unlikely that you and your staff could not have known that the Boy Scouts discriminate against gay men, declaring us morally unfit to be near children.

Your religious liaison ought to be someone whose own leanings are toward respect and tolerance rather than toward the intolerant religious right. It was only last month that Rev. Robinson insulted a group of gay religious leaders by comparing homosexuality to a withered hand.

The Mayor's representative should not be telling someone who calls us "less than animals" that his goals are consistent with the Mayor's goals for the city. It seems that greater care needs to be given to the issuance of Proclamations to make sure that the groups being honored are in fact things that the Mayor finds honorable.

Sincerely,

Bob Summersgill
President

Attachment

cc: Rev. Donald Robinson, Special Assistant to the Mayor for Religious Affairs
Philip Pannell, Special Assistant to the Mayor for GLBT Affairs
Charles Holman
Rev. Phillip Schanker


Rev. Sun Myung Moon in his own words

All quotes are from speeches by Rev. Sun Myung Moon transcribed, translated and posted on the web by the Unification Church. Moon refers to himself as "Father" and he and his wife as "True Parents" the parenthetical comment are the audience response.

Moon on race

"The white race are the descendants of polar bears. Their ancestors were Viking pirates. Wherever the white race goes there is always bloodshed." - Rev. Moon, Belvedere International Training Center, June 9, 1996, http://www.unification.net/1996/960609.html

Moon on homosexuality

"Homosexuals and fornicators are like dirty dung eating dogs

"Is the world around us a peaceful world centered upon God, or is it all confused? (Confused.) That is what is called free sex. What is the meaning of lesbians and homosexuals? That is the place where all different kinds of dung collect. We have to end that behavior. When this kind of dirty relationship is taking place between human beings, God cannot be happy. That is what the secular world is like. As the lord of all creation, are we seeking that kind of world? (No.)

"As human beings, we should mobilize our forty billion cells and clean up these dirty places. Would you women want this dirty dung filled water to be poured over you? (No.) What about men, do you want to be soaked in that kind of dirty water? (No.) Only Satan and dirty dung eating dogs go after that. God created human beings and they should stay away from it. Isn't it true? [YES!] There are certain kinds of dogs that go after dung and eat it. Therefore the name of dog (or sometimes "son of a bitch") is used to speak badly of human beings. Those people who love dung eating dogs must have some problem. Especially American people, and American leaders. If they truly love such dogs, they also become like dung eating dogs and produce that quality of life. If such dogs are around can't you smell them? Do you want to be close to them or far away? (Far away.) American people, their mind wants to get away, but their bodies are still being pulled by these dung eating dogs. That's true! Free sex activity is equivalent to this. Father gave you a figure of speech." - Rev. Moon, Belvedere International Training Center, May 4, 1997, http://www.unification.net/1997/970504.html

Moon on America

"Where are all the American people heading? Who can liberate them from the treacherous path they are following? It is a painful situation. You Americans might feel uncomfortable because of Father's words, but this is the truth. Do you feel good? (No) Americans in general are very proud of their extreme individualism and privacy. However, this is the very thing that will reduce you to tears. Individualism and privacy are the very things which will ruin America. If men and women both hold strong individualistic concepts, how can they create harmony and unification? Satan is very happy with this situation of extreme individualism. The free world is ignorant of this. If America is truly rotten and headed for Hell, we need to be medical doctors and have the medicine to inject in them to cure their disease. (Yes) What does 'yes' mean? (We follow True Parents.) True Parents are not American citizens. When you proclaim to be followers of True Parents, the dignitaries and opinion makers of America persecute you. They call you crazy. We don't need Moonies, they say, just the opposite of God. - Rev. Moon, Belvedere International Training Center, February 16, 1997, http://www.unification.net/1997/970216.html

"Do you prefer individualism or living for the sake of the whole? (Wholeness) What about people in the secular world? (Individualism) How about America, does it enjoy individualism or wholeism? (Individualism) Therefore America is doomed to perish. There should be no practice of free sex, nor concept of homosexuality, lesbianism, and drug addiction. But in reality this nation of America is full of these evil things. It has become Hell. In order to walk through the stages of restoration we have to reverse the order. If America is enjoying such evil things, then in order to follow God's direction we have to turn around 180 degrees, which is exactly the opposite way in which America is heading now. Who is practicing this 180 degree opposite way to America? The Unification Church." - Rev. Moon, World Mission Center, January 1, 1996, http://www.unification.net/1996/960101md.html

"Individuals who cannot attain the same level as animals can hardly be referred to as human beings. No matter how proud they may be of themselves, they will fall below the animals. That is Hell. Why do you suppose that Reverend Moon makes such a strong statement against American people rather than giving comforting words? Because it is Father's responsibility to use even his force to push them to follow in the right direction. A surgeon will cut open an infectious wound in order to heal the patient, even if it might be painful." - Rev. Moon, Belvedere--International Training Center, June 23, 1996, http://www.unification.net/1996/960623.html

Moon on Communism

"America, for example, is taken by Satan. Therefore, God has to grab hold of the communist world because it is all that is left and turn it in the reverse way. Satan took hold of the head position. Once you turn 180 degrees the position is reversed.

"The second generation of the free world who follow the practice of free sex, homosexuality, drug use and so forth will have to be educated by the second generation from former communist countries. They will also have to stand behind them. These young former communists were trained under totalitarianism. They were trained to follow once an order came from above. Whereas the free world is filled with individualism. If there are 1,000 people there are 1,000 different directions. In this kind of situation do you imagine that this free world can win over the former communist world who have been trained under hardship and discipline? If Reverend Moon had not helped America, it surely would have diminished." - Rev. Moon, World Mission Center, January 1, 1996, http://www.unification.net/1996/960101md.html

"Youth in the former Soviet Union, living in an ideological vacuum, are equipping themselves intellectually with a unification perspective through comprehensive ethics texts in middle schools, high schools, universities and even in prisons. Three thousand six hundred schools in the former Soviet Union are using such texts. They believe that my teachings provide the only way to overcome the corrupting influence of the decadent Western culture of homosexuality and free sex. They are proclaiming, "We must surpass America, which opposes Reverend Moon!" They want to move ahead of America in attending Reverend Moon." - Rev. Moon, Washington DC, August 1, 1996, http://www.unification.net/1996/960801.html


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