I met the Unification Church on September 1st, 1975, after a year or so of intense Christian search through the Bible and in prayer. I had motorcycled around the Western U.S. after college, in search of my future professional home and was mystically and strongly drawn to move to Minneapolis. I temporarily settled into a hotel caretaker position in downtown Minneapolis where I continued my spiritual quest. I had just completed a several-year-long effort to construct a near-perfect stereo system and, when I finally achieved the perfection of sound that I had long sought, I felt totally betrayed and let down by the fact that I realized the monster speakers in each corner of my living room had replaced people in my life.
I determined to get rid of them, after spending years obsessed with how to perfect them. I decided that since I had made them as icons to replace people, even though unconsciously, that they would likely take on the same distorted meaning in someone else’s life if I sold them. So, I carried them out to the hotel incinerator and burned them. At the same time, I looked at myself in the mirror and felt my bushy Afro hairstyle and mustache were just not an expression of the real me. I also had just finished my first complete reading of the Bible and my prayer life was intense. Also, my efforts to find a position as an industrial designer seemed to be blocked at every turn. I was a gifted and talented designer and inventor, but no one would consider me for a job. I prayed to God as all these things converged that He show me what He wanted me to do, and I promised Him that whatever it was He wanted me to do, I would be happy as long as He was happy.
A short time later, I met my spiritual parents on a bench downtown while I waited for a jewelry store to open so I could sell a gold ring I had found in a drainpipe. They walked up to me and said, "Do you believe in God?"
the Principle was so logical and clear to me. After hearing Chapter 2, I was amazed and knew I was where God wanted me to be. I was sitting in the group discussion after the conclusion lecture and the group leader left the group in disgust since no one had offered to join. I had to run after him to ask if there was any room for another new member. I heard later that most people thought I would never join. They thought I was far too "Christian." But, I was a self-thinker and critical of any idea, so I was not one to stumble on doctrine. The Principle was obvious truth to me.
I gave my car and money to the church center and moved in. My parents did not know what to think since I had cut my hair, burned my cherished stereo, abandoned my college career which my parents paid for, and moved in with this little-known group, the "Moonies."