Luigi Corvaglia
Pre-trial acquittals
On 8 July 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a long-time right-wing politician, was assassinated during a rally in the city of Nara. The assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, claimed to have killed him because he blamed him for the spread of the Unification Church in Japan, an organisation to which his mother had allegedly donated so much that it ruined the family. As the Financial Times reports, the link between the Unification Church and members of Abe's political party is an old one. Nobusuke Kishi, Abe's grandfather, who was prime minister of Japan in the second half of the 20th century, supported the church as an instrument in the anti-communist struggle. Over time, the Unification Church served as a safe reservoir of votes for the Liberal Democratic Party, Abe's nationalist party.
Founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the church is a business empire that includes a car factory and a huge manufacturing company, several hospitals and major property investments around the world. Among other things, it owns one of the largest seafood export companies in the world and has helped to popularise sushi in the USA and from there to the rest of the West. He also owns the conservative newspaper Washington Times. Naturally, he plays a major political role. In 2003, Moon caused a stir with a sermon in which he claimed that the Holocaust was the just punishment inflicted on the Jews for the murder of Jesus.
Figure 48 - Shinzo AbeSun Myung Moon and Hyung Jin 'Sean' Moon
The founder's son, Hyung Jin 'Sean' Moon, is no less right-wing. He founded The Rod of Iron Ministries in the USA. The 'rod of iron' is the AR-15 submachine gun; in fact, the church worships firearms, which it describes as 'religious equipment'. The leader wears a crown of bullets and the faithful participate in ceremonies armed with this equipment. The church has strong ties to American Identititarian and far-right movements.
Back in Japan, the links between the Liberal Democratic Party and the church became clear after the death of the former prime minister. Since then, dozens of party members, including those in top positions, have admitted their links to the church or other related organisations.
The government subsequently launched an investigation into Moon's church and on 12 October 2023 declared its intention to request the dissolution of the church.
However, the church has many friends. When the US Congress cut off funding to the Reagan administration in 1985 to support the Nicaraguan 'Contras' terrorists against the Sandinista regime, Reverend Moon's Unification Church became involved in providing food and money for the guerrillas (see further ahead). Ford Greene reports that CAUSA, a company of the Moonies, provided thousands of dollars and tonnes of food, medicine and clothing to the guerrilla forces. In 1985, the Moonies' newspaper, the Washington Times, set up a private fund for the Contras and announced that Bo Hi Pak, the paper's official publisher, had contributed $100,000 to raise $14 million. When asked how the paper could afford this, the publisher explained that the paper's owners (the Moon organisation) were willing to provide extraordinary help on important moral issues (i.e. the fight against communism).
The extensive ties between Paul Weyrich's Council for National Policy (CNP), closely connected with the Brazilian Family and Property Tradition, and the Unification Church were discussed at length in an AFN radio interview by Kelleigh Nelson with Chey Simonton. In 1978, the Fraser Commission, a subcommittee of the US Congress, investigated the South Korean government's political interference in US policy, known as Koreagate. The commission published a report in which Moon's involvement in activities with the US government was also listed.
It was recently revealed that former US President Donald Trump received around 2.5 million dollars from the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), the new denomination of the Unification Church, to make video appearances on three occasions between 2021 and 2022, while former Vice President Mike Pence received 550,000 dollars to speak at a UPF event. This was confirmed by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper by obtaining official US documents and comparing them with court documents in Japan. The event took place in 2022, and the director of CESNUR Massimo Introvigne, who gave a talk at the meeting, was also funded by the UPF (Fig. 50).
Obviously, CESNUR immediately came to the aid of the Unification Church after the murder of Abe. The prompt intervention of a group of Westerners in defence of a controversial religious movement reminded someone in Japan of what happened in 1995 after the Tokyo underground attack by the Aum Shinrikyo (The Supreme Truth) cult. The religious group's followers had punched plastic bags of sarin gas, a nerve agent, into underground cars in Tokyo, killing 13 people and poisoning over 6,200. Gordon Melton of CESNUR USA was paid by the group responsible for the terrorist attack even before he arrived in Japan with another pair of experts to defend the cult. A preemptive payment for the defence of prejudice. Melton has in fact written several books that were directly commissioned and paid for by various groups, including the Ramtha School of Enlightenment; the same groups then ensured the distribution of his books. This was also done years ago by the Unification Church of Moon in Italy with a book by Introvigne. In any case, this funding appears to be just the crumbs of a much larger loaf.
Returning to the Abe case, Introvigne writes in an article in the 'Journal of CESNUR' that “While the weak mind of the assassin had clearly been excited by anti-Unification-Church campaigns by militant lawyers and anti-cultists, the latter succeeded in persuading most media, both in Japan and internationally, that rather than being a victim the Unification Church was somewhat responsible for the homicide, in a spectacular reversal of both logic and fairness” (bold mine).
In other words, Shinzo Abe was killed by the 'anti-cult movement'. Regardless of the reader's assessment of where the 'spectacular reversal of logic' lies, this blanket defence exemplifies a tendency towards prejudiced absolution of the cults under criticism, which is hardly consistent with the claims of a rigorous study centre. Some examples of this same prejudiced absolution sometimes border on the ridiculous.
In March 2020, at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, a Korean religious movement called Shincheonji Church of Jesus was accused of contributing to the spread of the virus in the Asian country by preventing its believers from adhering to government regulations and organising crowded prayer meetings without social distancing or masks. More than 60% of those infected in the country were church members. The propaganda machine for new religious movements immediately rushed to the sect's aid and published a 'white paper' titled Shincheonji and the Coronavirus in South Korea: Separating Facts from Fantasies. A few days later, the head of the church, along with 12 other members of the sect, apologised on his knees in front of television cameras for causing the outbreak.
Timing does not seem to be CESNUR's strong point. The year before, CESNUR had already shown how difficult it is to deal with the absolving impulse - with disastrous results. In May 2019, the study centre presented the FIRMA awards (International Festival of Religions, Music and Arts) at the Turin book fair. This prize was created by the Introvigne think tank to honour those who have distinguished themselves in promoting peace through interreligious dialogue.
In this edition, Apostle Naasón Joaquín García, leader of the Luz del Mundo church, was among those honoured. A few weeks after being honoured as an advocate of human rights and author of charitable works, Naasón Joaquín García was arrested in Los Angeles on 26 charges, including human trafficking, production of child pornography and rape of minors. The trial ended with a plea by the apostle and his sentencing to 17 years in prison.
I admit that I have occasionally mocked the director of CESNUR for this unfortunate faux pas. I was answered verbatim: 'I would - and I do not rule this out - give Luz del Mundo in the person of its legal representative pro tempore an award for charitable activities, because I know them and they are admirable', and then concluded: 'The intention was to reward charitable activities, not the apostle's private life'.
I invite the reader to watch the documentary film about Garcia and the Luz del Mundo on the Netflix platform (The Darkness within la Luz del Mundo) and then read Introvigne's sentence again. However, it should be mentioned that Introvigne's wife claims that there is a conspiracy between the anti-cult movement and Netflix. This is not a joke (see here).
Although a character as colourful as the Mexican apostle can steal the show with such theatrical plot twists that are not devoid of irony, it is another award winner, Greg Mitchell, who deserves our attention. We have already met him. He is the chief lobbyist for Scientology and founder of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable. (see previous episode). The activities of this loyalist of the American religious holding company are not only regularly reported on institutional websites, but Mitchell himself explained in an interview with 'Business Insider' that the church's lobbying work with the US government is currently not focussed on promoting Scientology, but on 'religious freedom". This work 'often involves working with other religious organisations to encourage the United States to put pressure on foreign countries that persecute religious groups'. In other words, Scientology, along with 'other religious groups," encourages the U.S. government to 'exert pressure' on foreign countries.
Thus, exerting pressure on other countries for their actual or perceived interference or restraint in religious affairs is not a conclusion based on circumstantial evidence, but a stated intention pursued by a variety of actors who, even if they have different motivations, consider such action congruent. A convergence of interests, even if they pursue theoretically opposing goals. Here it is useful for Christian fundamentalists to defend movements that are far removed from Christianity.
This lobbying is already provided for by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, regardless of the spur of Scientology and other cults. Or not?
Attack on secularism
In 1995, a French government parliamentary committee of enquiry into cults produced a report, the so-called Guyard report, which expressed great concern about the phenomenon. Similar initiatives followed in Belgium (1996), Germany (1997) and Italy (1998).
in 1996, France adopted a series of laws to protect the victims of 'cults' and, above all, an inter-ministerial mission to combat cults (MILS, later MIVILUDES), whose first president was the socialist MP Alain Vivien. This made the country of laicité the spearhead of the resistance against the infiltration of totalitarian groups in Europe and triggered a process that led to the creation of the Fédération Européenne des Centres de Recherche et d'Information sur le Sectarisme (FECRIS), the 'umbrella organisation" bringing together dozens of anti-cult associations from various European countries, and the adoption of the About Picard law, which criminalised the 'abuse of weakness' in 2001.
On 6 June 1997, the interior ministers of the federal and state governments in Germany agreed to place the Scientology organisation under surveillance. This was just one of the measures taken by the German government to crack down on Scientology (a 1998 report emphasised the destructive aspects of this "commercial institution disguised as a religion" and a 2007 report by the Ministry of the Interior described the organisation as "incompatible with the constitution"). This was followed by the Scientology campaign against Germany (which is conceivable), but also a series of strong statements in defence of the cult by the US government (which is less conceivable). Other actions included a document by the Beareau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (BDHRL), an agency of the US State Department, in which Germany is listed alongside countries such as China among the countries that violate religious freedom.
In 1998, the International Religious Freedom Act was promulgated, making the defence of religious freedom in the world US foreign policy. This act established a new department of the US government, which emerged from the Department of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. Thus was born the Office of International Religious Freedom (OIRF). In practise, this was a specialised body designed to combat 'discriminatory' policies towards alternative spiritual groups. It was decided that the office would be headed by an authorised ambassador, flanked by no fewer than five officials from the State Secretariat. The Commission even had its own representative in all American embassies. Its first chairman was Robert A. Seiple. The curious thing is that this former marine was for more than 11 years the head of World Vision Inc., the world's most important evangelical association promoting ultra-conservative views (and rumoured to be controlled by the CIA). One would have expected a department concerned with religious freedom to bear the traits of secularism, or at least not to have dogmatic traits that clash with a mission that could be labelled 'ecumenical', i.e. giving equal dignity to all religions and allowing them to coexist.
The fact is that the Commission's first report in September 1998 accused France, Germany, Austria and Belgium of violating religious freedom. The OIRF was soon joined by a new organisation, the Commission on Religious Freedom. This commission was made up of American parliamentarians who made representations to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). During a meeting of the OSCE in 1999, these parliamentarians were the protagonists of a fierce attack on France, which was accused of the nefariousness of the 'Vichy regime', of witch-hunting and persecution. A diplomatic incident almost occurred. The delegation from the Religious Freedom Commission was led by Benjamin A. Gillman, whose election campaign was financed by Scientology (see previous episode). The session was moderated by Massimo Introvigne.
In September 1999, the OIRF published an even harsher report against the European countries, forcing French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine to write to his American counterpart Madeleine Albright to denounce the intolerable aggression that was calling into question the fruitfulness of the dialogue. This led to the termination of diplomatic dialogue on the issue.
To complete the picture of the forces on the ground, a third body of the US government was added, this time directly linked to the White House. It is the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Yes, the commission that wrote the report advising Trump to obstruct the work of the FECRIS spokesman at the OSCE (c'est moi!). It's worth taking a closer look.
An American commission
The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an advisory body to the US government that produces an annual report on religious freedom in the world. It consists of only 9 members, 5 from the President's party and 4 from the largest opposition party. It was established with the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which promotes religious freedom as part of US foreign policy.
The report produced by this commission in 2020 was very tough on the so-called "anti-cult movement', in particular the Federation of European Anti-Cult Associations, the Fédération européenne des centres de recherche et d'information sur le sectarisme (FECRIS).
According to the responsible USCIRF in 2020, scientists, activists and associations that campaign for the rights of cult victims would carry out 'hate campaigns' and restrict civil rights. The 2020 report also contains a recommendation to the US President to
[...] combat the propaganda against the new religious movements disseminated by the European Federation of Research and Information Centres on Sectarianism (FECRIS) at the OSCE's annual Human Dimensions conference by sharing information regarding the continued involvement of individuals and entities, operating as part of the anti-sectarian movement, in the suppression of religious freedom (sic).
In practise, it is proposed that individuals (!!) and organisations active in the fight against abusive cults should be monitored...
The most worrying thing for me is that I am one of these people! In fact, I was - and still am - the one who carries out the 'propaganda against new religious movements' at the OSCE.
At the time the 2020 report was written, the President was Donald Trump. If you know how the commission that drafted this document was composed, there are some surprises and curiosities.
The vice president was Tony Perkins. He is also chairman of the Family Research Council, a fundamentalist Protestant organisation. The Family Research Council is against pornography, embryonic stem cell research, abortion, divorce and LGBT rights. The FRC believes that "homosexual behaviour is harmful to the people who practise it and to society in general and can never be affirmed. It is therefore a vice and a sin. Paedophilia would be a problem related to homosexuality. Questionable but legitimate positions, of course, but not the ones one would expect from those who have to pass judgement on discrimination and 'hate speech'. In fact, the Southern Poverty Law Center classified the FRC as an anti-gay hate group in 2010 because the group "makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science" to block LGBT civil rights.
Now, the Family Research Council is among the organisations cited in a study by OpenDemocracy for sending money to Europe to fund the activities of associations that aim to prevent the affirmation of individual rights.
As if that was not enough, Opendecracy itself had previously found the Family Research Council among the religious right associations in the US that have funded campaigns against sex education, contraception, abortion and LGBT rights in Africa.
Another component of the USCIRF was Gary L. Bauer, the former president of the FRC. In November 2009, Bauer signed an ecumenical statement called the "Manhattan Declaration" in which he called on Evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox Christians to disregard government regulations and laws that they felt would force them to support or simply allow abortion, same-sex marriage and other issues that go against their religious conscience.
It seems odd, to say the least, that someone who calls for defiance of the law and is adamantly opposed to recognising the rights enshrined in the Constitution is a member of a commission that oversees respect for civil rights and liberty.
Another component was Johnnie Moore. The latter is Trump's 'evangelical advisor' and advocate of American hegemony. He is president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, a group monitored by Right-Wing Watch, an independent body that monitors all right-wing subversive groups.
Nadine Maenza, another member of the committee, is executive director of Rick Santorum's Patriot Voices PAC for the Defence of Conservative Values. He apparently opposes abortion and same-sex marriage and has adopted the image of the 'culture warrior' in the war on civil liberties during his tenure in the Senate. Santorum is a supporter of the group Regnum Christi, which is affiliated with the Legionaries of Christ, a highly controversial group at the centre of a major scandal. During his tenure as senator, Santorum authored the Santorum Amendment, which promoted the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in schools and opposed the teaching of evolutionary theory.
Another component is Nury Turkel , Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative-oriented US think tank.
Figure 57 - Tony Perkins, Gary L. Bauer, Johnnie Moore, Nadine Maenza
If we expand the search for the components that have alternated over the years in the USCRIF, we find that the relationships between them and the associations of the Atlas Network are very frequent. We said (in the previous chapter) that these Christian-pro-free market organizations are “a ‘silent extension of US foreign policy.’” In USCIRF we find representatives of the Federalist Society (such as Leonard Leo, Chairman of USCIRF in 2009), the American Enterprise Institute (such as John R. Bolton, former appointee) or organisations linked to them such as the Hudson Institute (such as Nury Turkel, appointee). In 2018, USCIRF endorsed international Senator Sam Brownback as a religious freedom ambassador, who was among the speakers at a Brussels conference along with Scientology and Eurosceptic politicians. His election campaign in Kansas was financed by Koch Industries, one of the founders of the anarcho-capitalist organisation Americans for Prosperity, which is linked to Amway.
However, the first president is enough to raise doubts about the USCIRF. He is Elliott Abrams, a leading representative of the neoconservatives, who was sentenced to a year in prison for his involvement in the Iran-Contras scandal. This involved the notorious financing of the war in Nicaragua against the democratically elected Sandinista government through the illegal sale of weapons to Iran. Among the crimes committed in connection with this sordid operation was the importation of cocaine by the CIA from the Contras, the anti-Sandinista guerrillas, and the subsequent obstruction of justice in the US Department of Justice. Abrams was one of the men involved in this affair and is also accused of being involved in the massacres in Guatemala and El Salvador when he was in charge of Latin America under Reagan. He has often accused the Israeli Likud of excessive tenderness towards the Palestinians. This champion of rights and ecumenism was chairman of the Commission on Religious Freedom International until 2000 and was still a member in 2022!
In 2023, the Parlament of the World's Religions was held in Chicago with representatives from USCRIF, Scientology and the director of the Centre for the Study of New Religions (CESNUR) Massimo Introvigne (fig. 59).
This is not about the ideas of the USCIRF majority commissioners who wrote the 2020 report, but about the paradox that those who advocate these ideas want to pose as defenders of civil liberties. So it seems clear that this commission, which was unsurprisingly created as an additional arm (there were already three US government bodies for religious freedom) at the promulgation of the International Religious Freedom Act, has the function of reacting to the contrary policy put into practice by France and which hinders the geopolitical vision underlying that policy document.
Appendix: Taiwan as Tortuga pro-cult
For years, numerous conferences and seminars on respect for religious freedom have been held in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. CESNUR, but also representatives of various cults, such as the Church of Providence, the Luz del Mundo, the yoga school from Buenos Aires and the Unification Church, always take part. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) plays a central role. Taiwan, an island off the coast of China that is disputed by China, is not legally recognised by most countries in the international community and is not represented in the UN in accordance with Resolution 2758 of 1971, which was also signed by the USA and European countries.
This makes it a useful free harbour for conducting political and media campaigns that would be embarrassing in the US. This avoids potential diplomatic misunderstandings with Tokyo, which now holds diametrically opposed positions on the issue of new religious movements but is an important ally of the US. In practise, Taiwan has become what the island of Tortuga was to the pirates of the 17th century: a filibuster port that is not subject to the same rules as most other countries.
Next chapter: Fascists, spies and gurus. 5. The libertarian network
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