Journalist and researcher John Gorenfeld has studied the political influence of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church for years. In his new book, Bad Moon Rising: How Reverend Moon Created The Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom (PoliPoint Press, 2008), Gorenfeld explains how Moon used his fortune to ingratiate himself with the Religious Right and influence the course of conservative politics in America.

Gorenfeld discussed the book recently with Church & State.

Q. What led you to begin studying the influence of Rev. Moon on American politics?

A. I couldn't believe the absurd relationship between conservatives and the Rev. Moon wasn't famous. Washington's guardians of moral virtue had found a way to team up with an iconic '70s megalomaniac.

If Moon didn't exist, a James Bond movie would invent him. It's not that his theology is odd, but that he gives these mad speeches about installing himself as world leader. In Washington it's treated as a campy joke. Only it's not, because he publishes a major newspaper.

I was drawn to the contradictions that ensue when Moon appears at fancy Beltway dinner parties and embarrasses the audience. Right-wing Republicans, keen on keeping the money flowing, will listen uncomfortably for 45 minutes to Moon as he chops the air with his hands and shouts things like, "Free sex is centered on Satan!" and, "No one can oppose me!"

Little did I know that it wasn't just a story of wretched Washington amorality, but a haunting, 40-year epic of corruption. What hooked me was Robert Boettcher's 1980 book Gifts of Deceit. Boettcher was a frustrated young congressional investigator, trying to warn America of Moon's growing influence in Washington as part of a 1978 influence-peddling probe. Boettcher died a few years later, falling from his apartment, his book ignored.

There's no one else in U.S. history like Moon. First he was accused of tricking tens of thousands of young Americans into joining a cult; in the Carter years, congressmen from both parties issued dire warnings about his apocalyptic agenda, involving a "Unification Crusade Army" that would topple democracy; and now he's publishing The Washington Times, as if nothing ever happened.

Q. How pivotal have Moon and his money been to the rise of the Religious Right in America? Would the Religious Right be as powerful as it is today had Moon never come along?

A. The rise of the Religious Right is a complex historical backlash, owing to a whole lot of factors. That said, Rev. Moon is an important member of the coalition that brought the movement to where it is today, though no one will admit it.

To secure power in Washington in 1980, the idea was to build a rival world of think tanks, media and experts to topple the liberal establishment. The Washington Times was a big part of this. Has any one figure ever spent $3 billion in Washington, as Moon has on The Times? Moon also rescued crucial fund-raisers on the right during the lean years of the mid-1980s.

But that's not to say that if Moon hadn't come along, some other shady, right-wing foreign character would not have, offering tainted cash from afar. The early conservatives saw themselves as underdogs desperately in need of allies to save America in the Cold War. And so they gave Moon, who had an anti-Communist track record, a seat at the table, even inviting him to the Reagan inauguration party.

Q. Many Religious Right leaders have taken Moon's money over the years. Can you touch on some of the more interesting connections?

A. In 1978, the late Jerry Falwell told an Esquire reporter that Moon was "like the plague: he exploits boys and girls." Years later, when Falwell was spending big to push "The Clinton Chronicles" - the videos accusing Bill and Hillary of leaving a trail of bodies - his Liberty University went into debt. He was bailed out to the tune of $3.5 million by Moon.

Richard Viguerie is known as the "founding funder" of the right. He built a direct-mail empire, a money geyser that helped push Reagan into office. The legend is that in 1964, after the failure of the Goldwater campaign, Viguerie had the foresight to build his company from the grass roots. But it turns out he was working with Moon as long ago as 1965, that he got in trouble in the '70s for deceptive marketing on behalf of a Moon fundraising campaign and was bailed out in the 1980s by a $10 million purchase of a Virginia office building by Col. Bo Hi Pak, Moon's aide.

Almost every conservative pioneer seems to show up in this story, including Ed Feulner, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation - but not his partner, Paul Weyrich, who found Moon horrifying. He said every American should be alarmed, because Moon opposes our entire system of government.

More.

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