Bad Moon Rising: How Reverend Moon Created the Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: family federation, can smash the whole world, love organ, Reverend Moon, Unification Church, Washington Times (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"No American reporter knows more than John Gorenfeld about Sun Myung Moon's hidden influence and megalomaniacal ambitions. His investigations have explored Moon's deep penetration of the religious right, the conservative media, and elite political circles from the Bush family to Capitol Hill. This fascinating book brings the story up to date - and explains why you should still worry." -- Joe Conason

"a well-documented piece of reportage but also an engaging and skillful piece of writing..." -- Firedoglake.com, March 22, 2008

BAD MOON RISING is a riveting investigation into how a cult leader has guilefully infiltrated and exploited the very heart of our democracy. John Gorenfeld lays bare the real story no one else has dared to tell. -- Sarah Posner, God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters "???"

Review

BAD MOON RISING is a riveting investigation into how a cult leader has guilefully infiltrated and exploited the very heart of our democracy. John Gorenfeld lays bare the real story no one else has dared to tell. -- Sarah Posner, God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters "???"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 329 pages
• Publisher: PoliPointPress; 1st edition (March 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979482232
• ISBN-13: 978-0979482236
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #697,812 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Pied Piper of Pusan, March 31, 2008

By	Gordon Neufeld (Calgary, Alberta) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When looking to explain the ascendancy of the paleo-conservatives in U.S. politics, few commentators have remarked upon the sinister and seminal influence of the enigmatic and unfathomably wealthy Sun Myung Moon. Who else has the resources to unflinchingly lose billions on a newspaper, The Washington Times, merely to champion conservative causes, in the teeth of all evidence and in defiance of all flagrant hypocrisy? John Gorenfeld in Bad Moon Rising chronicles the rise of a pseudo-Messiah to the point of fooling a brace of senators and congressmen into crowning him "King of Peace" at the Senate Dirksen Building in 2004, in a wide-ranging account that moves back and forth from Moon's early years in Korea in the 1950s to his dotage claiming imaginary converts from among the ranks of dead U.S. presidents.

This is the story of a man who would not be deterred, even by his failure to live up to his own teachings, from aspiring to the title of "King of Kings" and leader of all the world. The fact that he must make this claim by subterfuge, by staging events that appear to mean one thing to the general public but another to his own disciples, means little to him. Appearances are all to this would-be Messiah.

If I was to fault this important book in any way, it would be for minor errors of fact. I was a member of Moon's Unification Church from 1976 to 1986, so I know what I'm talking about. In particular, Gorenfeld's claim on page 13, which he repeats on page 75, that the American branch of the Unification Church reached a "one-time peak of thirty thousand members" is simply untrue. The 30,000 figure was a goal that I often heard the members being urged to attain in the late 1970s, when achieving that level of membership was considered crucial to Moon's success in America. When this goal could not be reached, members took to claiming that it had anyway by including people who had merely attended a Moon-inspired lecture or shown mild interest in the ideas of the "True Father". In truth, even at its peak, the Moon movement likely never exceeded 5,000 full-time, committed members in America.

Another reviewer has complained of the confusing structure of this account, which moves associatively from personality to personaltiy, instead of providing a meticulously chronological record of Moon's rise, fall and (seeming) resurrection. This structure, which works well enough in a magazine article, is indeed confusing in the context of a book. On the other hand, there are 53 pages of notes, which more than answers the claim that the text is insufficiently annotated.

These are quibbles. This book deserves 5 stars because it exposes the heinous influence of a rarely acknowledged foreign influence upon American politics -- one which has provided bottomles cash contributions to conservative causes, and which has in consequence helped to puff up the hubris of the Bush presidency to the point where it may fairly be likened to the Roman imperium.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Important But Disorganized, August 22, 2008

By	Stephen Tashiro "sometimes reliable" (Las Cruces, NM United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Important But Disorganized

The interest and importance of the information in John Gorenfeld's book "Bad Moon Rising" rates five stars out of five. The way this information is organized rates about one star. Gorenfeld is a skilled writer of sentences and paragraphs but there is little detectable structure to the book. It jumps from topic to topic and back and forth in time. The same incidents are re-described here and there in various chapters. The punctuation " * * * " appears every few pages to separate various sections, but how one section relates to another is usually not clear.

I speculate that a reader with certain skills and proclivities would enjoy the book. Such a reader would have on the tip of his tongue the names many politicians, religious leaders, and journalists. He would also enjoy (or at least have objectivity about) criticism of prominent conservative personalities. To a reader with those prerequisites, the book would be like hearing juicy gossip about people that he already knows. The jumping around from victim to victim and year to year would not be so distracting.

The information in the book is fascinating. A summary is this: Reverend Moon and his Unification Church espouse beliefs and practices that are repulsive, amusing and bizarre to any person who holds traditional conservative religious or political beliefs. Organizations controlled by Moon have been convicted of tax evasion (for which Moon himself served prison time in the USA) and fraud (e.g. in Japan, certain spiritual mediums convince eldery widows that their dead husbands wish them to make contributions to Rev. Moon's organizations). Yet many conservative political figures and journalists accept money from organizations controlled by Rev. Moon and associate themselves with the activities of those organizations. The Unification Church seeks to influence the US media. It controls the UPI wire service (not to be confused with the API wire service). Moon also controls the Washington Times newspaper ( not to be confused with the Washington Post or New York Times newspapers). Fox News commentators sometimes cite articles from the Washington Times.

A reader who does not have the patience to put up with Gorenfeld's chaotic presentation can nevertheless enjoy browsing the book and marveling at the claims of Rev. Moon and his followers.
A brief sampling of these is:

1. Jesus failed in his mission to save mankind and Rev. Moon is the Messiah who will accomplish this mission. Hence it is not correct for Christians to use the cross a symbol of their faith since this symbolizes failure. Instead, they should use a crown, which symbolizes Rev. Moon.

2. Children should look to Rev. Moon as their "True Parent" instead of being loyal to their birth parents.

3. The secular governments of the nations of the world should be replaced with governments run by followers of Rev. Moon.

4. It right to lie for a good cause and God tells lies.

5. Through a human medium, thirtysix dead US presidents have issued statements from beyond the grave that support Rev. Moon.

6. Rev. Moon interceded to get Hitler out of hell.

7. Men should punish their penises every day by using pliers to cut the skin a little bit.

Gorenfeld does not attribute Moon's influence on certain conservatives to any sort of vast conspiracy on the part of conservatives. The Unification Church and its front organizations select prominent conservative figures as allies in preference to selecting liberals. One historical reason for this trend is that Rev. Moon is nominally a staunch anti-communist. The number of conservative politicians, journalists and religious leaders who have some association with the Unification Church is not proof that liberals are morally superior. It merely shows that liberals are less often targets.

The relationships that public figures have with the Unification Church can take many forms. Some possiblities are:

1. The person may tricked into giving a boilerplate endorsement of Moon via a front organization. (e.g. After Dwight Eisenhour left Office, he was wiling to hear a group of child singers called "The Little Angels". When the group wished him to meet with a "special guest", the guest turned out to be Rev. Moon.)

2. Front organizations of Rev. Moon may give unsolicited help to the person (e.g. pro-Nixon demonstrations) and then expect a return favor.

3. The person my give a boilerplate endorsement of Moon in order to obtain money from his organizations. Such a person may understand what he is doing but rationalize it by thinking that he is tricking the Unification Church. The person may feel that the Unification Church is too wacky to be a political threat to government and may ignore the harm done by its cult activities.

4. The person may give substantial endorsements and assistance to Moon in an actual quid pro quo arrangement.

Gorenfeld presents the observable facts about particular public figures (e.g. George H. W. Bush, Jerry Falwell). It is left to the reader to infer how each public figure manages his relationship with Rev. Moon. Although the book is disorganized, it does have an index. It also has "notes by pages" in an appendix (rather than numbered footnotes within the text).

There is some truth to a cliche such as "Every US citizen should read this book from cover to cover". However, as civic duties go, this would be an onerous one.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Things you didn't want to know, March 25, 2008

By	Katrs (Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent and well written book. The facts and details are well researched. It's the kind of book that makes you wish you could bury your head in the sand. There are couple of slow parts but that's to be expected in a book that has to layout some detail and background information. It's well worth the time and money spent just to have an understanding of the inner workings and failings of our political system and how greed can create a whole flock of silent sheep.