by Justin Ignizio
Editor's Note: Mr. Ignizio is an inmate at the Danbury prison. He wrote the above letter in response to an article on Father and the Unification Church in Hustler magazine, which is a pornographic publication. This letter is published With Mr. Ignizio's permission.
I am both an avid reader of Hustler and an inmate at Danbury prison. I was rather amused by the article in your magazine on my fellow inmate Reverend Moon. It seems to me and also to a lot of my fellow inmates (I asked them) that if the article was meant to portray the Reverend in a bad light, it missed the mark by a mile.
Other than the rather thin claims of Miss Turner and the obvious effort at hysterical sleaze reporting by Jim Forrest, you show that Moon stands for everything that we in this country say we hope to convey to our children, namely, no premarital sex, no drugs, anti-communism, love of wife, and devotion to family. As for the millions of people in his church walking around hypnotized, I wonder why you could only come up with one who appears to be in that condition'?
I also wonder why Moon is the only religious ''bad guy,'' when I see nuns in the streets and subways begging (before I came in here), and I can't go to mass without seeing them passing a collection plate. I also see Reverend Falwell, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggert, Robert Schuller, and all the other religious ''hustlers" raking in millions, driving in limos, flying in their private jets, and living high on the hog.
And unless I am sadly mistaken or have forgotten my history, I thought that was what this country was all about: freedom of speech, religious freedom, freedom to worship any God in any way we chose. Larry Flynt, of all people, should certainly know at this point about oppression and the infliction of certain men's wills and laws on other "free'' people.
Lastly, let me say this. I work side by side with the "Rev'' in the kitchen and have seen him do all that has been asked of him, smiling and without complaint (I wish I could say the same of all the other inmates here), including washing toilets and mopping floors. He never puts on any airs and is just one of the guys. I have my visits on the same days as the Reverend and see him to be a devoted husband, and a loved and loving father. Maybe this country wouldn't be in the sad shape it is in if we had more men like Reverend Moon around.
This is reprinted from "Today's World", February, 1985