Where in Washington, D.C. is Reverend Moon?: The chutzpah of the White House's Jim Towey

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8/18/2004

The chutzpah of the White House's Jim Towey

Above: Towey

Here's Jim Towey, White House faith-based coordinator, talking to the San Francisco Chronicle about opposition to Bush's Faith-Based Initiative:

"President Bush does not want to proselytize or fund religion,'' he said. "We're talking about things like job training and substance abuse prevention, and opening up to small groups that have been shut [out] by the ACLU and a radical fringe that wants an extreme separation of church and state.''

Huh, that's funny. Because Towey, promoting the Faith-Based Initiative in 2002, shared a stage with Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Is Moon part of a radical fringe? Don't ask me, but Moon has said that "the separation of religion and politics is what Satan likes most" and that the "church and state must become one, as Cain and Abel."

Oh, and the White House has also given Moon's religious missionaries $450,000 for sex education in New Jersey schools (drawing on Moon's doctrine of "absolute sex." It's a technical term by which he and I refer to sex that isn't "centered on Satan.")

Here's an Alan Keyes supporter who feels Moon is on the radical fringe, and is upset about Jerry Falwell's support for him. When Keyes supporters are uncomfortable with your allies' far-out positions, you'd better put your press secretary on hazard pay.

(This post has been edited.)

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"John Gorenfeld: The first man on the Moon"
-- Ana Marie Cox ("Wonkette," Time.com Washington editor)

"Thanks to the superb reporting of John Gorenfeld on Salon.com and his indispensable Web page, Moon's shenanigans are routinely scrutinized. Maybe some of Gorenfeld's discernment will rub off on preachers and politicians."
-- Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist

"The scene summoned the moment in Robert Graves's "I, Claudius" when Emperor Caligula declares himself a god in the Roman Senate; a fawning solon instantly offers a prayer."
-- New York Times editorial on the Crown of Peace scandal

"I am happy that our work is being challenged and improved in consistency, openness and coordination, by the accountability your spotlight demands. I am not talking about simply removing stuff from websites..."
-- Moon spokesman the Rev. Phil Schanker

"Instead of welcoming Reverend Moon, this government put me into prison. History will reveal the truth in the future and the American government and people will realize what an evil thing they did. What will they do then? They will bow down. Again, that is the way of natural subjugation." -- Moon in 1987

"A political movement basing its appeal on old fashioned patriotism and family values simply cannot justify an alliance with a cult that preys on the disintegration of the American family and advocates allegiance to an international social order operating with cell-like secrecy."
-- Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA)