Challenging "Mind Control" in Illinois

by Andrew P. Bacus

The following is the transcript of a statement delivered to the Illinois Senate Committee on Education, December 7, 1993.

The issue that is before this committee today, as framed in Senate Resolution 448, is whether certain groups which have been identified as "destructive cults", should be allowed to freely express their beliefs on college campuses. Another way of looking at the issue, however, is whether young adults on college campuses should be allowed free access to all religious/political ideas, or just those to which it is permitted to by the state.

It has been suggested by some of those who have appeared before this committee that, beyond just presenting "ideas" on campus, certain groups have resorted to the use of unethical techniques of persuasion called "mind control". In fact this allegation is nothing but a negative value judgment made by persons who wish to deny members of non-traditional religious organizations the opportunity to share their faith with others.

The chief proponent of the "destructive cult" label and "mind control" theory is an organization by the name of the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) which is based here in Illinois. The executive director of the national CAN organization is Ms. Cynthia Kisser. I understand that Ms. Kisser has made a presentation to the committee. Though I have not heard her presentation I will assume that it substantially the same as those she has given on numerous prior occasions. I will address the substance of Ms. Kissers position in a moment. First, however, I would like to say a few words about CAN.

CAN was founded several years ago under the name, the Citizens Freedom Foundation (CFF) by Ted Patrick. Ted Patrick is generally considered to be the "father" of a controversial technique known as "deprogramming". Essentially deprogramming involves the involuntary abduction of a member of a new religious movement (NRM) to a remote location where they are subjected to a lengthy and intense "faith breaking" program. According to social scientists who have interviewed persons who have been subjected to this experience, the process often involves violence, physical bondage, and lengthy sessions of verbal abuse. According to Dean Kelly, executive director for religious liberties for the National Counsel of Churches, deprogramming is best described as: "spiritual gang rape".

Since 1974 it is estimated that over 10,000 persons of all different faiths have been subjected to involuntary deprogramming. Persons who have been subjected to deprogramming include not just members of unpopular NRM's but also members of the Catholic faith, Episcopalians, and even lesbians. Deprogramming is big business. A professional deprogrammer can charge parents as much as $50,000 to conduct a "snatch" and "deprogramming".

Since its inception, CAN has been actively involved in referring parents of members of religious groups (which CAN has arbitrarily designated as "destructive cults") to deprogrammers (now called "exit counselors" by CAN). For example, former deprogrammer Mark Blocksum, who acknowledges having participated in hundreds of deprogrammings, states in an affidavit dated July 18, 1992 that he received 100-200 referrals of deprogramming customers from CAN officers and directors, including Cynthia Kisser. Cynthia Kisser herself, has conceded under oath that she has personally referred persons to deprogrammers. In exchange for referrals, deprogrammers have made cash payments to CAN as referral fees. Recently, Galen Kelly, the former security director of CAN, was arrested and convicted for kidnapping a forty year old member of a fundamentalist Christian group in northern Virginia. According to FBI records, at the time Mr. Kelly was arrested by the FBI he was under $1,500 per month retainer to CAN.

Besides Ms. Kisser, several current and former directors and officers of CAN have been involved in facilitating deprogramming activities. For example, Ann Olander, who I understand submitted a letter to the committee, is a current officer of the local CAN chapter in Chicago. She kidnapped and subjected her daughter to involuntary deprogramming by obtaining an illegal conservatorship order issued by a judge in Texas on the basis of an affidavit signed by a doctor who had never even examined her daughter. Now, almost twenty years later, she is still intolerant of her forty-three year old daughter's religious convictions. Not withstanding Mrs. Olander's view as expressed in her letter, I think we can all agree that it would be difficult for any child to maintain a normal relationship with a parent who for twenty years has passionately believed that her daughter is "brainwashed". Mrs. Olander is not unlike other parents who have testified before this committee, who likewise hold intolerant attitudes concerning their adult child's religious affiliation based on dis-information supplied by CAN.

CAN officials say that there are 2,000 - 5,000 cults in the United States. Included among the groups that have been identified as destructive cults are: The Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews for Jesus, the World-Wide Church of God, and dozens of bible based evangelical groups. Steve Hassan, who is a deprogrammer and former national director of CAN's FOCUS group, stated in 1989 at a CAN sponsored educational meeting in New Brunswick, New Jersey that, "The biggest cult in America is the Catholic Church." Since the designation of a group by CAN as a destructive cult is essentially an arbitrary decision, virtually any group can be so designated. CAN's policy has been to designate any group which is actively recruiting members to be a destructive cult.

CAN makes no distinction between the groups it catalogues as "destructive cults". Thus "political cults" are said to be pretty much the same as destructive "diet group cults" . And small "weapons amassing end of the world cults" are said to be the same as large "self improvement cults". Devil worshipping groups are said to be just like strict fundamentalist Christian groups, etc. For CAN, if you've seen one cult you've seem them all. According to the CAN hype, any dangerous cult out there is a potential "mass suicide risk". Indeed, the specter of Jim Jones is CAN's biggest selling point to parents in the marketing of their "services".

Tragically, the ones who suffer the most from CAN's irresponsible fear mongering about "cults" are the parents of members of NRM's who naively rely on CAN for information about their adult child's religion. CAN provides no positive information about any of the groups it has designated as destructive cults. It is no wonder that parents who contact CAN for information about their adult child's involvement in a NRM have problems maintaining relationships with their adult children. How are parents and child supposed to relate when the parents are taught to believe that their adult child has been brainwashed while the child feels that he has just had a profound religious experience?

CAN's main spokesperson for the past several years has been Ms. Cynthia Kisser. Ms. Kisser holds no professional degrees or training which qualify her as an expert on cults. She is what you might call a "self-styled cult expert". Aside from her lack of credibility, however, Ms. Kisser is an eloquent speaker who has presented CAN's views on "destructive cults" literally hundreds of times on college campuses, on TV, on radio, and before investigative committees such as this one. Reduced to its essence, CAN's position on "dangerous cults" boils down to one controversial theory. That is the theory of "mind control" (sometimes called "coercive persuasion" or "brainwashing").

The "mind control" theory holds that certain unethical techniques of persuasion are utilized by "dangerous cults" to pre-empt the free will of unsuspecting recruits and cause them to be involuntarily recruited. It is said that the exercise of these mind control techniques can cause lasting psychological harm to recruits. The primary professional proponent of this theory is a psychologist by the name of Margaret Singer.

Over the years CAN has routinely brought forth persons who were previously members of NRM's and who have nothing but bad things to say about their former group. Some of these people have testified before this committee today. Invariably, these persons are ex-members who have had their faith broken, or "re-defined" by deprogrammers. During a deprogramming or exit counseling session, a person's experience as a member of a NRM is re-defined by their "exit counselor" in strictly negative terms. Thus the religious experience which was so real to the young convert when he first made a commitment to the NRM is re-defined as the "euphoric illusion of mind control". The loving fellowship of fellow members of the NRM is re-defined as sinister "love bombing". Participation in a bible study program or lecture series is re-defined as "systematic control of social influences". Religious experience of any kind is re-defined as a mind control induced "delusion".

Numerous empirical studies have shown that most persons who become members of NRM's leave the group they have joined within one year. Ex-members who leave NRM's voluntarily almost never harbor ill will toward their former group. They typically perceive their experience as a valuable learning experience and move on with their lives. However, ex-members who are "deprogrammed" almost always exhibit great animosity toward their former group. Many, actually become deprogrammers themselves. Steve Hassan, for example, is an ex-member of the Unification Church who was involuntarily deprogrammed. He has spent the last 15 years deprogramming other persons. Mr. Hassan has been most active recently in providing "exit counseling" to members of the Boston Church of Christ. In fact Hassan, who charges $1,000 per day for his services, has received tens of thousands of dollars from the parents of members of the Boston Church of Christ and other groups to provide "exit counseling" services. Like other "exit counselors", Hassan relies on the mind control theories of Margaret Singer to justify his actions.

Social scientists who have examined the research of Margaret Singer and other "mind control" theorists have found that their data is based almost solely on research involving ex-members who have undergone "deprogramming". To put it in perspective, this is like relying on Mia Farrow to provide objective information about Woody Allen. For this reason, the Singer research has been rejected by the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals as not reliable. In examining her research, the American Psychological Association went so far as to comment that her research was "unscientific". Her mind control theory was described as "a negative value judgment in scientific garb". Yet in spite of the complete repudiation of her theories by the scientific community, her theories continue to be promoted by CAN and other such groups as fact.

It is scandalous that the Senate has incorporated in its resolution the notion that mind control is an accepted fact. Even a cursory examination of the scholarly writings found in main stream psychological journals would reveal that this theory has been rejected by most mental health professionals.

Singer's theories have been so reviled by her peers that during the early part of 1993 she filed a RICO action against the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association in an effort to force those organizations to recognize her theories as legitimate. That action was recently thrown out of court, and Singer's theories continue to be viewed as sophomoric by her peers.

CAN's intellectual dishonesty with regard to its promotion of the mind control theory is very much like that of certain organizations who have determined that blacks are intellectually inferior to whites. These organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan, point to a small body of discredited scientific research which seems to support this ludicrous theory and rely on that (to the exclusion of all evidence to the contrary) to support their racist agendas. Likewise, CAN members have adopted as true the discredited theory of mind control, one rejected by the American Psychological Association and the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals, to justify their intolerant activities. Take away the mind control theory and what is left? Nothing but the negative value judgment of a group of intolerant people who disagree with the beliefs espoused by others.

It would do the citizens of the State of Illinois the greatest service for this committee to investigate the role that CAN has played in consciously providing false information about new religions to educators throughout the state.

There are numerous other issues relating to this topic which should be addressed but time does not allow. However, to aid in the committee's consideration of the issues I have provided materials which address most of the relevant issues. I draw your particular attention to two legal briefs filed in a case involving the legitimacy of the mind control theories of Margaret Singer. One was filed by the American Psychological Association (APA) and a number of psychologists and sociologists. It contains arguments and citations to scholarly works which dispute the acceptance by the scientific community of the "mind control" theories of Dr. Singer. The second brief is one that was submitted on behalf of the National Counsel of Churches and other religious organizations. It contains arguments and citations to scholarly works which challenge the Singer "mind control" thesis as being fundamentally opposed to religion. I have also included a copy of the U.S. v. Fishman federal court decision which summarizes the current law with regard to acceptance of the mind control theories. Section III of that decision is most instructive.

I am confident that upon this committee's consideration of all the evidence that is available, it will recognize that there is no danger posed to students at Universities by new religious movements, and it will continue to grant students the right to evaluate the views of others without state sanctioned impediments.

Andrew P. Bacus is an attorney who has represented HSA-UWC since 1986.

If it Looks like a Deprogrammer, Walks like a Deprogrammer, then . . .

by Andrew Bacus

This is an excerpt from a letter sent to Herbert Rosedale of the AFC. The names of certain people have been removed to protect their privacy.

You'll have to excuse me for growing tired of your cynical and uncalled for attacks on minority religious groups. In light of your long time involvement with the American Family Foundation (AFF) and Cult Awareness Network (CAN), organizations whose activities have been condemned by civil libertarians, established religious leaders, mental health professionals and law enforcement agencies, you have no standing to accuse anyone of illegal or unethical conduct.

Your challenge to produce the names of 100 persons who have been kidnapped by AFF/CAN cohorts is incomprehensible. Are you serious? Have you ever heard of Ted Patrick? (In case you haven't, I have enclosed a picture of you and he together at a 1989 CAN conference.) He's the founder of the Cult Awareness Network. In his book he admits to hundreds of kidnapping and deprogramming attempts.

In addition, Galen Kelly, the former security director of CAN, admitted on the stand during his recent criminal trial that he had participated in approximately 40 kidnappings. (Though, according to his sworn testimony way back in 1981, he admitted to having participated in over 150 deprogrammings.) It surprises me that you now deny he is a "good friend" of yours in light of the fact that through the years you have provided pro bono legal advice to him and have regularly interacted with him during the numerous conferences you both have participated in together. Perhaps it now behooves you to attempt to distance yourself from Mr. Kelly considering the fact that he faces a possible life term for kidnapping a woman in Virginia whose choice of lifestyle he disagreed with.

Mr. Denis Whelen, another kidnapper who has been arrested several times, has acknowledged having participated in numerous deprogrammings. That's just three kidnapper/deprogrammers affiliated with AFF/CAN and we are already up into the hundreds. If we factor in Steve Hassan, Mark Bloxson, Bob Brandyberry, Michael Lisman, Rick Ross, Joe Alexander, David Clark (Member of AFF Board of Advisors), Daphne Greene (Former AFF President), Ken Conner, etc. we may make four figures.

Believe me, your decision to no longer look to me as a contact at the Unification Church concerns me not. As I indicated in my prior letter, several of the parents who you have "advised", have attempted to kidnap their children. Let's take a look through my Herbert Rosedale file and examine the recent inquiries (or references) you have made:

L.G. - You sent me a letter apparently at the request of the parents of LG. In your letter you made a number of accusations indicating that the Unification Church was involved in interfering with the relationship between Ms. G and her parents. You indicated that the Unification Church was involved in some type of illegal conduct concerning Ms. G. Your letter was carbon copied to Mr. Anders Blichfeldt who, according to the Danish Consulate, is an official with a group in Denmark called "The Dialogue Center". The Dialogue Center has been known to urge parents to kidnap and "deprogram" their adult children. Since you carbon copied your letter to him I can only assume that you have been in communication with Mr. Blichfeldt and are aware that he and/or his organization have advocated actions which are illegal in the United States. You must also know that kidnapping their adult daughter has been suggested to the Gades.

N.N.- I was contacted by Mrs. V.N. who said she was referred to me by you. She asked if I could help her establish better communication with her son, a member of the Unification Church. I helped set up a meeting between N. and his mother, and between N. and the Philippines Consulate. I encouraged N. to trust his parents. Three months later, N. was kidnapped, and according to his mother, was chained to a chair at his home in the Philippines.

V.A. - V. was the victim of a kidnapping attempt by three Serbian thugs who brazenly attempted to kidnap him out the front door of the Unification Church Headquarters in Manhattan, a few blocks from your office. V's father had apparently paid an initial fee of $3,000 to Galen Kelly to assist in the kidnapping, however, prior to the kidnapping Kelly was arrested and charged in connection with the DuPont kidnapping attempt. Following the violent attempt to kidnap V., he was arrested by the Immigration Service. [V. was arrested by the INS for a technical violation of his immigration status due to the fact that he had been denied access to his passport by his assailants.] I have learned from the Department of Justice that a few days later you sent at least two letters to the Justice Department requesting information about V.'s case. Tell me, did you first become involved with this matter before or after the attempt to kidnap V?

P. M. - Mr. M. was the victim of a kidnapping attempt shamelessly glorified in the November 1989 edition of the Cult Observer, a publication of the American Family Foundation (see attached). Sometime after the ill-fated kidnapping attempt, you contacted the HSA-UWC legal affairs office seeking to restore communication between P. and his parents.

B.Z. - You requested my help in improving the relationship between Ms. Z. and her parents. The Zs were referred to you by an organization in Switzerland known as SADK. SADK is a radical organization which has openly advocated kidnapping.

Do you detect a pattern there, Herbert? While it may be that you have been just an unwitting participant in your clients' illegal activities, it is equally possible, given the high percentage of these clients who enlist the aid of kidnappers, that you are a co-conspirator. In any event, I think it is clear that you are not going out of your way to advise parents against the "deprogramming option". Your speech at a recent CAN conference, attended by an associate of mine, wherein you affirmed the moral legitimacy of kidnapping, confirms that.

It appalls me you have no qualms at all about offering your professional opinion as a "cult expert" accusing minority religions of employing the practice of "mind control" (when, as you know, that theory has been rejected by the federal courts and the established religious and scientific communities), yet you have no problem with people who, far from using mere "mind control", will "physically control" someone and keep them locked up until they have recanted their beliefs.

This practice, referred to by its highly paid practitioners as "deprogramming" (but known by criminal prosecutors as kidnapping), is a total denunciation of a person's most fundamental rights. Its hard to believe that such a thing can occur in America, but as you are well aware, it does. You not only know about the violent kidnapping of members of religious groups, you know the kidnappers and unashamedly participate together with them in conferences and "educational" programs. You belong to the same "country club" as the kidnappers and it apparently doesn't bother you. Do you publicly condemn the practice of kidnapping? No. Do you work with authorities to expose known kidnappers? No. Do you tell CAN organizers that you will not participate in any conference to which deprogammers are admitted? No. That's not part of your agenda.

From your prior correspondence I know that you object to my linking AFF/CAN together. But AFF and CAN have for years worked together, employing common tactics to reach common goals. AFF and CAN share literature and other publications. They sponsor conferences together. Mailing lists are shared. There are common funding sources. You, President of AFF, have participated, usually as a featured speaker, in a number of CAN conferences. In fact numerous directors and advisors of AFF have, over the years, been featured speakers at CAN conferences. AFF's own literature announcing your appointment as President of AFF states, "Mr. Rosedale has been, and will continue to be, an active advisor and resource for the Cult Awareness Network...He will also continue to be a bridge between [CAN] and AFF as we pursue our common purpose." (emphasis mine). There are, therefore, objective reasons for my alleging that AFF and CAN are birds of the same feather. Wouldn't you agree?

However, while you are objecting to my linking of AFF and CAN together, you, and other members of AFF/CAN, routinely link thousands of diverse religious groups, political groups, support groups, diet groups, etc. together under the common tag, "dangerous cults". You cite the actions of one group, Jim Jones' People's Temple, as prima facie evidence that all groups designated as "dangerous cults" are potential mass suicide victims. That is the hallmark of bigotry. It identifies a fault or undesirable trait of a small number of people and attributes that fault, through the application of irrational generalizations, to condemn whole segments of society. Thus Jews are said to greedy. Blacks are said to be lazy. And members of minority or unpopular religious groups are said to be "brainwashed".

You simply make no effort at all to be honest and fair in your "education" of the public concerning "dangerous cults". Education is not the same as propaganda. Education requires the providing of objective information, including the other side of the story. Thus you and your organization will tell inquiring parents all about how the group their child has joined employs deception and mind control. However, you never provide them with materials or information that run counter to that position. Furthermore, according to former kidnapper/deprogrammer Mark Bloxson, CAN routinely refers parents to kidnappers who, for the right price, will "liberate" their adult children from the clutches of the "dangerous cult".

The theory of mind control has been rejected by the overwhelming majority of practicing psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists. Courts have routinely rejected the testimony of so called "mind control experts" as not being credible. (The situation has gotten so bad for Dr.'s Singer and Ofshee, the two leading proponents of the mind control theory, that they have filed a RICO action against the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association in order to regain their credibility.) Do you tell parents that the "mind control theory" has been rejected by the courts and the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals? No, you do not. You identify each of those religious groups you destain as "cults", and accuse these groups of not providing their would be adherents with the full story so that they can make an informed decision about joining the group. But your organization is guilty of doing exactly what you accuse these groups of doing.

As for your assertion that my statement concerning AFF being linked to illegal kidnapping activities is false and libelous, I hereby reaffirm that statement and believe it to be true. Though I do appreciate the fact that your letter to me was prepared with the intent to carbon copy it to the Counsel General of Denmark and that you had to issue the obligatory general denials and blustery threats to save face.

I had the experience of having to pick up the trash thrown on the front lawn of the church's Mt. Kisco property on numerous occasions. I replaced stained glass windows that were broken by vandals. I picked up the beautiful statue of St. Regis that had adorned the property before vandals smashed it on the road. I scrubbed derogatory words (e.g. Moonie, Nazi, and others) off walls while passersby shouted hateful epithets from their cars. I wiped the tears from my children's faces after their 8 year old school friends ridiculed them for being "brainwashed". I have experienced first hand the result of your hateful rhetoric. I am tired of it.

I'm an idealist. It was idealism which caused me to join the Unification Church, not mind control, systematic control of social influences, or any other such nonsensical explanation you can cite. But idealism has always been opposed by those, such as yourself, so entrenched in the stagnancy and cynicism of the past, who can not see good, who can not stand change and who have lost all hope in a better world.

Galen Kelly Gets CANned

by Peter Ross

On Friday, September 26, 1993, Galen Kelly was sentenced to seven and a quarter years in jail by Judge Timothy S. Ellis III, in the Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. On May 27, Kelly had been found guilty by a jury of having kidnapped a woman, Debra Dobrowski, in Washington, D.C., bringing her to Leesburg, Virginia, where he learned that he had kidnapped the wrong woman. He then threw Ms. Dobrowski back into the van, drove her back to D.C. and then cast her out on the street.

The intended victim's mother, Donna Bruckert, had retained Kelly's services because of her opposition to Ms. Dobrowski's choice of religious affiliation and choice of sexual life-style.

In December of 1992, Kelly had narrowly escaped a similar fate when a jury, after deliberating for twelve hours finally acquitted him, and several other defendants, on charges of conspiring to kidnap Lewis du Pont Smith. Judge Ellis was the presiding judge in both cases.

In the du Pont case Judge Ellis had warned Kelly: "this trial ought to be a clear message to you that under no circumstances is it ever justified to snatch, lift, or pull anybody off the street against their will." Judge Ellis in referring to the fact that people join cults said that "society is tolerant of that. One man's cult is another man's community, however wacky you or I may think that is." Less than nine months later, Kelly would stand before Judge Ellis for sentencing in the Dobrowski case.

At the conclusion of the du Pont trial, Judge Ellis provided specific advice to Edgar Newbold Smith, father of Lewis du Pont Smith and a co-defendant with Kelly: "the principle for which the government was advocating is a principle that really doesn't need a trial to be vindicated; it's a principle that ought to be clear to anyone. Nothing in the jury's verdict justifies or excuses any parent from trying to kidnap a child they believe is involved in some kind of cult, political activity, criminal activity, or other kind of activity. It does not justify a kidnapping, and the government should act with dispatch and effectiveness in seeking to prosecute and halt such action."

Judge Ellis extended a personal parental insight to Newbold Smith: "You can't control [your son's] life. All you can do is tell him what any father would, give him advice, but it's his life. And as painful as that is for many of us who are parents to watch some of our children do things that we think demonstrates terribly poor judgment, that's one of the pains of being a parent. It's their lives, not ours."

After the jury had reached its verdict in the Dobrowski case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Leiser, was quoted: " Kelly thinks he has the right to go out because somebody pays him and kidnap someone. That's incredible, and he's been doing it for 10 - 15 years. He admitted on the stand that he has abducted 30 - 40 people."

Not the truth

Despite this admission before Judge T.S. Ellis III, Kelly in fact lied about the full extent of his career in the kidnapping business. For example in 1981, Kelly admitted under oath before the Town of Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals to having deprogrammed 150 people. Under cross-examination in 1982 in the Colombrito case, Kelly boasted of having conducted "maybe 130." Again under oath in 1982, Kelly found it difficult to remember exactly how many deprogrammings he had conducted and could only guess that the number was "more than 100, less than 1,000." Similarly, Kelly told the court in the Dobrowski case that he had not forcibly deprogrammed anyone for 10 years!

It is worthwhile noting the amount of support provided to Kelly throughout his trials, particularly from one of his chief patrons, Herbert Rosedale. Rosedale, a law partner in the well-heeled New York firm of Parker Chapin Flattau & Klimpl, wrote to the court in the du Pont case on behalf of Kelly: "I have known Galen Kelly for about 10 years. He has testified in matters in which I have been involved and his testimony has to my knowledge been accepted and relied upon by various administrative agencies in the State of New York. His credibility and trustworthiness have been evident and exemplary." Mr. Rosedale!!!

Herbert did forget to mention in this letter, and presumably in his later letter to the court in the Dobrowski case, that it was he, Rosedale, who had solicited Kelly's participation in a series of kangaroo proceedings before a number of zoning boards reviewing use applications submitted by the Unification Church. These circuses, conducted by Mr Rosedale as ring-master, will go down in the annals of zoning board folklore as the most deft, and yet most blatant, responses to "guess who's moving into the neighborhood?"

Of particular significance, is the clamor of opposition that arose in response to the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Leiser, in both the Dobrowski and the duPont cases by members of his own profession. Breckenridge Willcox, a partner at the Washington D.C. law firm of Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn was quoted in Legal Times as stating, "what Leiser's doing, and the way he's doing it, is unconscionable." Not surprisingly, Mr. Willcox was identified as having represented former members of religious sects. Indeed, the pro bono counsel for the local affiliate of the Cult Awareness Network, David Bardin, is also quoted in the Legal Times report and curiously enough he is also identified as a partner in the Arent Fox firm.

Legal Times described Kelly's final lawyer in the Dobrowski case, Frank Dunham Jr., as a "white-collar defense specialist." Mr. Durham was quoted as saying "As a taxpayer, this really burns me up. [Leiser] must have a rationale that justifies the amount of effort that the federal government has put in, but I don't know what it is."

Suffice to say, Kelly did not loose his case for a lack of ardent (Arent?) and passionate legal counsel.

In addition to the support offered by partners in the Arent Fox law firm, local representatives of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), particularly Ms. Mira Lansky Boland, were frequent visitors to the court proceedings. It is indeed a sad and ironic twist of history that the Cult Awareness Network, and other similar organizations like the American Family Foundation, and the International Cult Education Program, derive their only legitimacy and credibility in their printed literature through asserting an association with The Jewish Board of Family And Children's Services and the Jewish Community Relations Council.

Both of these latter organizations are well respected in American society for their exemplary social, educational, and humanitarian efforts. It is lamentable that they allow themselves to be exploited and compromised by hate groups.

Far-reaching implications

Because of the broader historical background, this case has far-reaching implications beyond the merits of this particular trial. For those who have promoted deprogramming through the years, Kelly's conviction tolls the bell. Organizations like the Cult Awareness Network which have routinely referred inquirers to kidnappers like Kelly are now prime candidates for further investigation.

Cynthia Kisser, Executive Director of CAN, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch in May of this year that Kelly was retained by the Cult Awareness Network (or to those in the kidnapping trade, the Cult Awareness Network), "as a paid consultant." What in particular was Kelly consulted on, Ms. Kisser, that warranted this retainer? Ms. Kisser was perhaps alluding to her statements, given under oath, in which she confirmed referring callers to the Cult Awareness Network to deprogrammers, like Galen Kelly.

The conviction of Galen Kelly marks a significant legal precedent in the fight against the practice of deprogramming. The Reverend Dean Kelley, Counselor on Religious Liberty for the National Council of Churches has described deprogramming as "the most serious stain on religious liberty facing this country in the latter half of the 20th. Century." Professor J. Gordon Melton, director of the Center for the Study of American Religion, has described the deprogramming activities of Kelly and his cohorts as "terrorism."

In the Dobrowski case, the government offered Kelly an opportunity to cooperate in several ongoing and related investigations. However, Kelly refused to cooperate. His wife, Liz, stated: "Galen would never do that, he believes he is right." Perhaps when prison life becomes a reality to him, he may think differently. At least throughout his brief stay in a minimum security jail, if Kelly really believes he is right, then he will be afforded an opportunity to empathize with those hundreds of others whose liberty he has denied for no lawful or legitimate reason except his own economic gain. Once, during a television interview, Kelly was asked by a member of the audience if what he did was illegal. Kelly purportedly responded "Yes, but it's a living."

If successive cases are brought against Kelly by the government for other kidnappings he may yet be induced to cooperate. In which case, perhaps for Mr. Kelly's own safety, a minimum security jail is inappropriate. One such case involves the kidnapping of a woman in New York in September of 1991. Apparently, Kelly and others were hired to deprogram the woman out of her relationship with a particular boyfriend. If CAN and its associates have their way, it would seem that homosexual relationships, and indeed heterosexual relationships will soon be added to their nefarious list of "2,500 destructive cults in America." (After all, cannot one's lover fit perfectly the definition of a cult leader that is promoted by CAN?).

Throughout America, jurists, civil libertarians, religious leaders, academics, journalists, law enforcement personnel, deprogramming survivors, and private citizens, will all be keenly watching to see how these cases proceed. At some point one would hope that a national consensus could be reached through the publicity attached to these cases, one which would echo the response to previous pogroms: Never Again.

Dr. Martin Luther King Commemorative Address

by Dr. James A. Baughman

The following is the address given August 28, 1993 at the event commemorating the thirty-year anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The address was limited to three minutes on the topic of peace, and was given to an audience of about 8,000 labor and union representatives gathered at the grounds near the Washington Monument.

Thank you. I would like to extend warm greetings to all my sisters and brothers gathered here from all nations, all races and all religions. Welcome to this historic site on this historic occasion.

All generations from the beginning of time have sought individual and world peace. However, all we keep getting is anything but peace. A wise man once told me that, "If you want to keep on gettin' what you're gettin', then keep on doin' what you're doin'!"

The question then is, what have we been doing to keep getting everything except peace?

The problem is that we live with the mistaken belief that peace will come only on the foundation of social justice, equality and human rights. Often our crusade for these noble causes has been a self- serving pursuit caring only for our own rights and little for the rights and concerns of others.

Our narrowly-conceived pursuits then often lead to law suits, reverse discrimination and vengeance. Furthermore, it is my experience that many who claim to be victimized by one segment of our society are themselves victimizers of another group.

None of us are immune from prejudice or above the curse of self- centered narrow-mindedness.

Let's be honest and look at the truth about ourselves, even though it may be uncomfortable. Let's put the responsibility upon ourselves to begin the process of peace instead of expecting someone else to do it.

For instance, I have seen whites come against blacks; but I have also seen blacks confront Asians. I have seen prejudice against gays, but also gays who ridicule those who prefer conventional marriage and family.

It is clear that peace and unity can never come about solely by making demands for justice and human rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this. So did all the true peace-makers of history, Solomon, Jesus, Gautama Buddha, Gandhi and Mother Teresa. They spoke of more than justice. They spoke of true love and compassion starting from repentance and forgiveness.

These are the qualities which will lead us to true, lasting peace and unity. Yet these are sorely lacking in our day-to-day dealings with each other. We would prefer to blame others, angrily demand our rights and make sure people "get what they deserve."

Repentance, forgiveness and compassion are aspects of a true parental model of love which is critically needed in our time. True parents take the responsibility upon themselves to make peace and unity among all members of their family.

So, to gain true peace, we must first seek justice, not only for ourselves but justice for all! Next, however, we must go beyond mere justice and adopt a true parental model of love to deal with issues of conflict, misunderstanding and prejudice.

And, we must all start by using the power of repentance and forgiveness. Since we are all victimizers, we must all repent to those whom we have abused. Since we are all victimized, we must all learn how to forgive as well. This is the strength of all true men and women of peace.

We have come here today to remember a man who had a dream. But that dream is ours! And that dream is now!

Practicing the virtues of repentance, forgiveness and compassion does not come easy. Yet this is our hope, and this is the price we must pay for peace. We must be willing to go beyond ourselves to pay this price if we are to live that dream dreamed three decades ago. Otherwise, we will continue "gettin' what we're gettin'", a vicious nightmare for ourselves and our children.

My sincere wish for everyone gathered here today is that God may grant each of us the courage and strength to repent before our brothers and sisters, to forgive and to unite based upon compassion.

Thank you very much!

Resurrecting an Achievement Ethic in the Quest for Authentic Empowerment.

by Curtis Walker

"We (Blacks) must demonstrate our capacity to cooperate among ourselves, before demanding any cooperation where the resources of others (Whites) are at stake. Business is the ultimate test of our ability to cooperate. Somehow we must learn this fundamental lesson. It will be costly; there will be some loss in the process, but we must keep it up until we have developed within the race a group of people of definite capacity and unquestioned integrity, who can lead the way to larger achievements for the benefit of the whole race. ", R.R. Moton/President, National Negro Business League, 1928

Truth is, in order to engage in a meaningful and intelligent dialogue on America's Black-White question, it is important to understand, first of all, that Black America, as a whole, comprises two distinct communities. On the one hand, there is the community of the underclass, which is riddled with disrupted households, single-parent families, so-called aberrant ghetto norms and behavior codes, and the blights of crack cocaine, poverty, and dependency on government programs.

On the other hand, there is the Black middle-class community, which possesses the values, norms, folkways, and the economic viability which make it potentially as strong as any other ethnic middle class in this country. Along with that, we have the fact that one of the largest increases over the past two decades has been the increase of the African-American middle class. Yet, and this is extremely important, this notable fact of Black success is, more often than not, played down and/or ignored, especially by the intellectual left, who dominate today's liberal media.

In cahoots with our left-wing press on this conspiratorial cover-up of Black success we have the old-guard Black leadership, whose members operate out of a civil-rights interpretation of all life and the universe. The views of this leadership stem from a civil-rights vision which is rooted in the central conception of Blacks as the U.S.A's preeminent victims, victims devastated by a history of discrimination, and unable to advance without the benign philanthropy of an allegedly guilt-ridden, presumably privileged, White male elite.

Not surprisingly, this conception remains intact to this day. This "sacred" system of beliefs and excuses must be overturned, if genuine restoration and true victory are to be attained with regard to American race relations.

What this means is that tribal messiahs need to have an accurate perspective on America's racial history. In particular, we need to clearly understand how the Cain-Abel dynamic has been operating specifically within Black history itself, during the course of Black America's ongoing quest for overall, first-class citizenship.

Black historian Elizabeth Wright, in the Winter 1993 edition of her quarterly journal, Issues & Views, offers what this writer feels is a refreshingly insightful perspective. Wright deals creatively with the motives of both the Black leadership elite and their White liberal co-conspirators, all of whom continue to hold a vested interest in keeping Blacks locked within the mindset of failure, powerlessness, and victimization.

By grasping Ms. Wright's alternative historical view, tribal messiahs can equip themselves to more adequately cope with racial matters, as God's providence of restoration continues to advance.

With that said, I now present: keeping the Spotlight on Failure: How to make sure the patient does not get well By Elizabeth Wright

It is normal for members of ethnic groups to celebrate the high points in their shared history. The victories over natural and manmade catastrophes are held up as proof of the specialness of their heritage. Black Americans, however, are encouraged to remain fixated on the dreariest aspects of our past. Observe the typical museum exhibition or photography display devoted to black history, and you are likely to find depictions of slaves in torment, or photos of gory lynchings or smoldering-ash aftermaths of Klan raids.

If, now and then, an uplifting image does slip through, it usually has been inserted only to highlight some ensuing tragedy or "injustice." When it comes to blacks, one usually gets to see only the ruination, not the rebuilding, the deterioration, not the renewal.

It is not that other groups have no sad stories to tell, it's that they lack an elite who might profit from the repeated telling of their tales of woe. Celebrating the positive has the invigorating effect of unifying the members of the group around a common set of victories, which usually become heroic myths. "If we conquered that hurdle together, we can all rise to even greater heights." In the case of the American black, it is imperative to those who lead that such a wholesome state of affairs never prevail. The images of disaster and doom must be played up, for black youth especially, not so they may appreciate the past "struggle" but to condition each generation to readily accept, without question, the wisdom and guidance of the leaders.

Black history as told by the black establishment goes something like this: Africans uprooted, chained enslaved; brutal plantation slavery; oppressive Jim Crow and lynchings; then nothing but misery until the 1964 Civil Rights Act. According to this official version of our history, the black man (apparently unable to figure his way around a corner) suffered his fate in humble dejection, without the uplifting benefit of integrated schools, integrated workplace, and integrated country clubs. Like Sleeping Beauty responding to the prince's kiss, he awakened from his deep slumber of passivity in 1964, when a government document gave him the power to intrude himself and his young into institutions already created by others. It is then that real life began.

The accomplishments of blacks prior to the modern civil rights period, which is the Heroic Era of The Leaders, must be depicted as minimal or without any real significance. Those blacks who did figure their way around corners, and often very skillfully, are to be downplayed as aberrations, or just lucky folk. For how could a black man, decades before, or even a century before the "sacrifices" of the great Freedom Riders hold up his head, much less be the stalwart of his community?

This tendency on the part of the black elite to use the tragedies of the race to ennoble themselves, while detracting black energy away from productive enterprise, was noted as early as the 1850's. Abolitionist Martin Delany denounced northern blacks, especially, for wasting energy on "examining, complaining, moralizing over" the black condition, instead of getting on with the business of economically competing with whites.

Certainly, nobody had a clearer insight into what these people were up to than did Booker T. Washington who, in 1911, accused self-interest blacks of purposely emphasizing race, in order to get an easy ride for themselves. "There is a class of colored people," declared Washington, "who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. . . .

Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.... There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well...." And, indeed, 82 years later, the patient has not gotten well, but the booming race business is healthier than ever, now buttressed by a flowering of other "victims" and oppressed groups.

Emphasis on Failure

One of the many negative consequences of the emphasis on failure and loss is that most blacks are cut off from a knowledge of the thousands of black men who viewed business enterprise and land ownership as critical to progress and actively pursued success in capitalist enterprise. For example, almost a century ago, Henry Allen Boyd, son of a slave, with little formal education, founded one business after another in Nashville, Tennessee, and assisted his fellow blacks to do the same. He was revered as the solid rock of Nashville's black community.

Just about 70 years ago, John Whitelaw Lewis countered Washington, DC's restrictive Jim Crow laws by building an elegant hotel for blacks. Designed by a black architect and built entirely by black tradesmen, it became the center of social life for black professionals and business people.

About a decade before Lewis, New York realtor Philip Payton and a partnership of black businessmen prevented the eviction of black tenants from two buildings in Harlem by buying the buildings outright. They met racism head-on with economic clout and were praised for their "novel method of resisting race prejudice."

It's hardly more than 60 years after Charles Spaulding and his cousin Asa presided over the country's largest black-owned business, Durham's North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, with Asa's intelligence and perseverance helping the company to survive even the Great Depression.

In the 1870's, Robert Reed Church, born a slave, used his brains and savvy to become a businessman prosperous enough to counter racist laws in Memphis by building a splendid park on Beale Street for the black community. Here, blacks enjoyed summer festivities, held graduation exercises and hosted an annual Thanksgiving dinner for the poor-all paid for with black dollars.

George Downing, an industrious entrepreneur in the 1840's, not only established catering business in several eastern resorts, but built the luxurious Sea Grit Hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. His was one of the most popular establishments in town.

There is also an impressive list of black men who, long before Emancipation, used their ingenuity to counter racism and to meet racial insult with economic initiatives. What did they all have in common? They were pragmatists, men who realistically assessed their options in the world around them, learned the economic principles that drove society, and set out to master them. They did not get sidetracked or bogged down in ideological swamp-lands, since such digression would not have created jobs for themselves or their children, or produce the capital with which to subvert bigotry

These men were not aberrations by any means, but were representative of a spirit that once seized blacks, where personal success was tied to a commitment to carry on the "progress of the race." They were part of a tide that had begun to roll long before slavery ended and which endured right into the 20th century.

Leaders With a Sense of Mission

It was this prevailing spirit among blacks that people like Booker T. Washington cultivated, to inspire them on to even greater achievements. The men and women who led the Tuskegee movement understood that just as important as the technical assistance they offered, was the moral support necessary to enhearten even the poorest to become successful craftsmen, farmers, and small business proprietors.

Many men who had been mechanics and blacksmiths during slavery worked to accumulate capital so they could open mechanical repair shops and blacksmith shops. In Cass County, Michigan, a community settled by former slaves, William Powell was one of many who opened their own companies. His was the Standard Repair Shop, where he invented several mechanical implements.

The present story of the black masses might be a very different one if the elite who usurped the mantle of leadership from the Tuskegee elders had possessed their same sense of mission. Instead, throughout the Tuskegee period, these arrogant ones scorned education in crafts and industrial skills, and especially derided black farmers. A 1909 poetic ditty by Kentucky educator Joseph Cotter reflects this disdain. Cotter mocked the tendency of black "intellectuals" to belittle the economic achievements of the black farmer in contrast to their college-bred attainments. He wrote: "What deeds have sprung from plow and pick!/What bankrolls from tomatoes!/No dainty crop of rhetoric/Can match one of potatoes./A little gold won't mar our grace/A little ease our glory/This world's a better biding place/When money clinks its story."

A great many affluent northern blacks scoffed at the small businesses that had sprung up throughout the South and other parts of the country. In fact, this disdain is still reflected today in the attitudes of most of the black leadership. For instance, in 1989, during the Miami riots, a television interviewer asked a local "leader" why American blacks failed to pool resources and open small businesses as do other groups. The response was that "piddling" little mom and pop stores are a thing of the past. After all, one could not expect blacks "after 400 years in this country" to engage in such lowly occupations.

What prominent members of any other group would downplay even the simplest accomplishments of their compatriots? These are the people who Marcus Garvey had in mind when he criticized Negroes who lacked the ability "to appreciate starting at a given point and climbing steadily, while other races have been willing to start from the lowest down to climb higher up."

The White Moral Crusaders

The harmful impact of this elite in denigrating the successes of the humblest blacks was matched only by the increasing intervention of outsiders into the affairs of the race, those crusading whites who, in the 19th century, Frederick Douglass commanded to cease their interference. Angered by an already well-developed white paternalism that was a byproduct of the abolition period, and concerned that such paternalism might prevent blacks from developing independently after emancipation, Douglass vehemently commanded whites to allow the black man to find his own place: "Everybody has asked the question, 'What shall we do with the Negro?' I have had but one answer from the beginning Do nothing with us!... Give (the Negro) a chance to stand on his own legs. Let him alone!" And if the black man were left to make his own way, Douglass said, "he will work as readily for himself as the white man."

Long before Douglass spoke those words, and long before Emancipation, black men had already begun to take their destiny in their hands. Experience had taught the freed-man the connection between the ownership of businesses and property and the greater ability to control his life. Just as Douglass predicted, liberated black men continued to map out their futures, as they founded towns like Mound Bayou, Mississippi and Nicodemus, Kansas, created thousands of small businesses in the North and South (hence the need for the National Negro Business League), founded and developed solid institutions like the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Mechanics and Farmers Bank, both of which stand today in Durham as a testament to black ingenuity and perseverance.

Historian Howard Brotz compares the words of Frederick Douglass demanding respect of the innate ability of blacks to words in a famous 1960's speech by President Lyndon Johnson, who refers to blacks as "hobbled by chains" and in need to "liberation." Describing American blacks as "pawns of moralistic crusaders," Brotz observes, "Common sense is precisely what has been blocked by an orthodoxy that homogenized all blacks as objects of public policy, as 'hobbled' victims." The true interests of blacks were seen as irrelevant to the great moral crusade.

Black Nationalism Based in Morality and Self-Help

Brotz points out that "black power" in its original cast, namely, the black nationalism of Martin Delany, Marcus Garvey and later, the Muslims, had always placed a strong emphasis on morality and self-help. But by the 1970's, in its revised version, black power was transformed into "black victim power" The leadership now had to reject the original accent on self-help, since such emphasis would place expectations on blacks themselves. This would not justify the middle class's claim on government for racial entitlements. The blacks masses, therefore, had to be depicted as helpless victims.

Yet, historian John Sibley Butler discovered an enterprising spirit in the earliest history of American blacks. He writes that the evidence of "Afro-American entrepreneurship, both slave and free, is systematic testimony to the spirit of enterprise even under troublesome conditions... Documents show that a very impressive business class evolved wherever there were free Afro-Americans." As entrepreneurs, blacks "formed an impressive and cohesive business class."

Many whites were apprehensive about such developments. The Southerner Thomas Dixon in the late 19th century minced no words in warning his countrymen about the prospect of economic competition from "hordes of negroes who outnumber the white population." He spoke of the "danger" of a man like Booker T. Washington, who was energizing the former slave populations, not only to do for themselves but to assertively compete in the marketplace.

None were dumb to the prospect to black-owned factories employing thousands of black workers turning out competitive goods and merchandise; of farmers growing produce for black-owned markets and food chains; of black architects and landscapers developing real estate and building hotels and other accommodations. A great many whites in the North and South understood the implications of an economically powerful black population and generations later were ready to accede to the lesser demands for "inclusion," as presented by the black elite. Ironically, years after this elite had derailed any possibility for the continuance of independent black institutions, a researcher quotes Martin Luther King, Jr. Explaining to a group of whites, almost apologetically, that it might be necessary to "temporarily" maintain some black businesses and schools "to prevent the loss of economic power that could result from complete integration."

The Ongoing Devaluing of Black Achievement

With the passing of the Tuskegee leadership, the stage was set for the forces that were to further atomize the black community. An alliance was now in place between a band of black sophisticates and eager white liberals who succeeded in linking all future progress for blacks to the quest for "equality." As time went on, any social or economic achievements that had occurred prior to the days of the glorious civil rights movement had to be downgraded as trivial, or even pathetic, since such achievement could not fit into the myth of liberation as a gift of a wise and benevolent 1960's leadership.

Progress must not be seen as the fruit of individual effort and enterprise, but only as the consequence of the noble deeds of a specific group of people initially headed by King. This is the real reason why King is hyped as Hero-to keep blacks beholden to the current leaders, who are to be viewed as direct "heirs" of the Hero. So, Benjamin Hooks, Jesse Jackson, and even the improbable Al Sharpton can speak of a debt due to those who, like themselves, made all progress possible. And, according to this civil rights vision, these worthies still make all progress possible.

As a controlling device, it works. Cut off from the knowledge of the steady progress made by blacks into the 1950's and the prudent measures taken by enlightened men and women who learned how to make the economic system work for them, the black masses continue to be manipulated by a cynical elite. The solutions to our social and economic problem have always been within our reach and with the black community. Our misfortune is that our race's custodians have chosen to ignore that part of our history that could have the most meaningful impact on our lives. It is not necessary for blacks to look to other groups to learn how to utilize free enterprise to improve our lives and restore our communities. We need only look to our own impressive and honorable past.

Beyond Civil Rights

From Elizabeth Wright's commentary, this writer sees one key point emerging: the traditional alliance between Unificationists and the Black civil rights leadership will no longer suffice, as we seek to bring about the genuine restoration of race relations in this country.

In times past, that alliance aided us in advancing the messianic agenda, particularly during the period of Reverend Moon's tax case, and during the brief span of "Minority Alliance International," which Reverend Moon created as a forum for dealing with racial bigotry and prejudice. That same alliance proved to be an especially fruitful one during the periods of CAUSA and ICC, when thousands of mostly black,, Christian clergy and laity united with us in our effort to revive American Christianity.

Today, however, the horizon has shifted. The vast majority of America's current racial matters and concerns are no longer "civil-rights" issues. Therefore, to continue viewing these matters through a civil-rights vision will only lead us to lose touch with reality.

Noted economist and author Dr. Thomas Sowell puts it thusly: "The battle for civil rights was fought and won, at great cost, many years ago. Like any fundamental human achievement, these rights cannot be taken for granted and must be safeguarded. But civil rights are not protected or enhanced by the growing practice of calling every issue raised by 'spokesmen' for minority, female, elderly, or other groups, 'civil-rights' issues. The right to vote is a civil right. The right to win is not. Equal treatment does not mean equal results. Everything desirable is not a civil right. Nor are the institutions or methods that produced civil rights likely to produce all the other things required to advance minorities, women, or others."

Dr. Sowell further states: "An attorney and former official of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund inadvertently revealed much of the evolution of that organization when he noted that by the mid 1960's the long, golden days the civil-rights movement had begun to wane," that the legal tools which it had developed `now threaten to collect dust.'

They needed new missions, and they found them, the crusade against the death penalty being just one. But they continued to call themselves `civil-rights' organizations, and the media have largely repeated that designation. In reality, the crusade for civil rights ended years ago. The scramble for special privilege, for turf, and for image is what continues on today, under that banner, and with that rhetoric."

Without a doubt, Blacks like Elizabeth Wright and Thomas Sowell are currently minority voices among African-Americans. For this Unificationist, however, Sowell and Wright offer cogent perspectives which can support all tribal messiahs in our quest to generate relevant approaches with regard to the monumental challenge of effectuating interracial amity and cooperation in this country.

Fellow Travelers on a Mission for God

by Reverend Chung Hwan Kwak

This is the address on behalf of the founder given to the participants of the Council for the World's Religions Spain Conference, March 19 - 21, 1993.

As time goes by, and daily reports of both national and international scope appear in our newspapers, it becomes increasingly clear that little is as crucial for the welfare of society than substantial progress in the world of inter religious relations. In no time in recent history has it been more the case that social and international events so pervasively implicate religion, bombings throughout India, the war in former Yugoslavia, even bombings in the heart of New York city. Global tensions cry for peace among religious believers.

With each arena of conflict, with each incident of terror, the whole family of believers suffer, the very cause of God himself is tarnished. Religious strife turns ever greater numbers of young people away from religion only to find themselves imprisoned in the clutches of evil and life-destroying addictions. For the time being, in certain lands such as Spain, the intensity of such tensions and their side effects may seem elsewhere, but all of us know that it is now the nature of the global village that the deep troubles inevitably arrive at our doorstep.

In each case it is just a matter of time, and with each passing day the time grows shorter. Elite religious leaders such as yourselves know this reality all too well, and it is exactly for this vision and integrity that I commend you, and I thank you for substantiating your commitments by coming to work hard at gatherings such as these.

I have portrayed briefly how drastically our world suffers from inter religious conflict and discord. But alleviating disease should not be our only vision for inter religious activity. In truth, the health of every society depends fully on the spiritual health of its leaders and its citizens. For better or worse the vitality and health required lies in the vast majority in the hands of the established religions. So we seek not only some minimal cold war type peace among religions.

We envision a family of religions in each nation sharing the mission of empowering and ennobling the nation's leaders and citizens, and especially our youth. In some areas we must work urgently to prevent full scale war, in others we may be seeking an example or model of religious harmony and the benefits which result in the welfare of a land. You know better than I where Spain is positioned on this spectrum. I know that Spain has long been governed by a strong Catholic majority, but this by no means needs to suggest that even with the ongoing presence of such a majority, that Spain may not emerge as a model nation for others to emulate in its example of inter religious relations.

In recent years Spain has shown itself to be one of the wonderful success stories of increasing prosperity and national order. Perhaps too, through the work of leaders such as yourselves, a similar position may be attained in the arena of inter religious relations. I pray that your work together this weekend may produce an honest assessment of the current spiritual vitality of the nation, and that all of you may commit yourself to ways that the religious world may serve the needs of the Spanish people.

Perhaps many of you may be learning of the Council for the World's Religions and the IRFWP for the first time. As far as the externals are concerned, the nature and scope of its activities, you may easily acquire this through your own study of the available literature. If I may, I would like to take a moment to present some words about the internal history and vision of these organizations, which are now sought after by many national governments and international groups to provide programs and guidelines by which inter religious peace may be encouraged in their respective societies.

First it should be known that this family of inter religious organizations, which includes The Council for the World's Religions, the New Ecumenical Research Association, the Religious Youth Service, the World Scripture Project, and the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace, has arisen from the decades old vision and lifelong commitment of Reverend Moon. Having said that, however, it immediately should be pointed out that the enormous fruits of these organizations grow out of the shared commitment and cooperation of visionary religious leaders from all the world's great religious traditions.

In 1967 Reverend Moon founded an ecumenical organization to work among the Christian denominations in Korea. In the early 1970's as his efforts expanded to the world-wide level, so too did his inter religious efforts. These then expanded to include, not only Christian denominations, but all major world religions. Now as this effort moves beyond its 25th year of extensive investment of both material and human resources, this world-wide, inter religious foundation is well positioned to respond to issues of inter religious relations just as they explode into our lives with seeming overwhelming proportions.

The world is literally crying for a program to guide us out of the age old entanglements and conflict-ridden history of inter religious relations. Fortunately this foundation of experience and commitment has worked quietly and effectively through the years so that it may now respond to the life or death needs of our conflict and terror ridden world.

One most important aspect of the effectiveness of the CWR and the IRFWP is its commitment to authentic dialogue and to cooperation with indigenous leadership. As experts in religion, you all know that each nation and each region have their own unique religious landscape, problems, and possibilities. While there may indeed be universal revealed principles which must be applied in all occasions of restoring peace and reconciliation, from another important perspective no single program is applicable to every situation.

It is precisely because these Unification based interfaith organization are so committed to national and regional integrity that our work has been so successful. Each nation or region provides the on-sight data, interpretations and plans, and works hand in hand with the international network to guide local inter religious relations toward the ideal of harmony. Our recent work in India, the Middle East and elsewhere is guided strongly by leaders and scholars from those regions.

More important perhaps is the fact that this work is and always has been guided by religionists and religious believers, rather than disinterested and non-spiritual "experts" speaking from posh offices in Washington, or Geneva or wherever. This element of authentic faith, of deep love for God, and of humbly seeking heavenly guidance for our course of action is the most distinguishing aspect of the Council for the World's Religions and the IRFWP. For those of you who are new this week, please ask your friends here who have participated in other CWR activities in Spain about this point.

Our world-wide network of over 7,000 believers and leaders from all religions and from all corners of the earth share at least one important thing in common, humility before the one true God of love (by whatever name), and confidence that God himself longs for all religious believers to rejoice together in shared love and prosperity. This effort to manifest in ourselves purity and sacrificial love, and to conform ourselves to the Will of the living God, is the thing above all which holds us fast to this urgent work for peace, and gives us joy to make your acquaintance as fellow travelers on this mission.