Vol. 7, No. 8, 1990

Articles on Cults and New Religions

A house on a secluded six-acre lot in Grafton, New Hampshire will become the site of a New England regional training center for Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church (Grafton Valley News, 8/2/90, p. 1).

The property will be used for retreats, seminars, worship services, 120-day training programs and will serve as the home of Unification members, Peter and Harumi Cavanagh, who act as caretakers.

Grafton residents have mixed emotions about the new center wanting to withhold judgement but citing the church's reputation for "brainwashing" and Rev. Moon's federal prison term in Danbury, Connecticut for income tax fraud.

Gunnard Johnston, director of the Unification Church in Manchester, New Hampshire announced hopes to step up recruiting efforts on the campus of Dartmouth college where the group already has an "informal association with 20 or 30 members," (Ibid).

Johnston, who is himself a 1969 graduate of Dartmouth, said that he personally, "would like to be involved in some capacity" with a stepped-up campus recruitment program.

He also tried to shake off the Church's bad image in relation to college recruitment procedures saying, "Things have changed from the days when they [new recruits] had to drop everything to go through the [Unification] educational movement," (Ibid).

Now new members are expected not to drop-out of college but to remain at school as part of the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles [CARP], an international organization founded by the Unification Church which boasts 5,000 students in the U.S. alone.

The Unification Church, which has a membership in the U.S. of about 40,000, is also seeking a better public image through a recent campaign which includes a press booklet entitled, Don't Call Us Moonies.

In the booklet, Dr. James Baughman, president of the Unification Church in America, says "We can no longer allow our founder, members and allies to be dehumanized and discriminated against."

Critics have suggested that members face long hours of fund raising on street corners offering flowers in exchange for donations in behalf of Moon and that often the followers live in substandard living conditions while Moon himself lives in luxury at a 25-room estate.

Christians have long been concerned over Unification theology which teaches that (among other heresies) Rev. Moon is the second coming of Christ.