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8/29/2006
Running and gunning
Early in his Washington adventures, the Reverend encouraged his members to run for office if they couldn't convince those men already in office to enact his platform, the Divine Principle. They've been most successful running at the state level. Witness the church's Mark Anderson, a state senator in Arizona, and Mark Boitano, who is serving in New Mexico's senate despite having fired a rifle at a car full of cult deprogrammers, as reported in the Washington Post, August 22, 1979.
Scott Powell, 28, Virginia director, and Mark Boitano, 26, Norfolk director, were charged with shooting into an occupied auto and unauthorized use of an auto.
The incident began when two former members of the sect, Robert Straw, 19, and Brett B----, 20, both of Pasadena, Calif., returned to their former Unification Church homes to retrieve belongings left behind. They were accompanied by four members of the West Virginia chapter of the International Foundation for Individual Freedom, an educational and counseling group that aids persons who want to leave religious cults.
[...] The two groups exchanged words over the custody of B----'s van. Powell ordered Boitano to shoot at the car occupied by the ex-Moonies, according to police, who said six rifle shots were fired and three hit the vehicle. One bullet pierced a front tire[...] Another bullet pierced a passenger side door.
[...]Betty Lancaster, of the Richmond Unification Church group home, called the entire incident "outrageous." She said the six men were "criminals" who took items from the homes other than their own, including a film on anti-communism featuring Ronald Reagan. "The church does not condone" the incident, she said, but added that Powell was trying to flatten the tires so the "criminals could not get away."
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