Gorenfeld has a post up at Talk2Action which has a video clip of Orrin Hatch introducing Sun Myung Moon's wife and co-Messiah, Hak Ja Han Moon, in 1993 at the Dirksen Building before a gathering said include 100 congressman and Senators. Sun Myung Moon was seated in front. This was a stop on her journey around the world declaring that she and Moon were officially stating what anyone with half a brain already knew, that she and Moon claimed to be the Second Coming, the "True Parents" of mankind. This eventually led to the U.S creating a holiday, "Parents' Day" - something Moon brags was passed without congress knowing what they were doing. Makes you wonder what else...
Gorenfeld also has information about Hatch penning a song which debuted during the dry run for Moon's crowning ceremony in 2004. The song was written to honor the Moon organization's efforts.
More on the flop...
In the video, after Hatch's warm introduction, Mrs. Messiah gets up and declares she and Moon have ushered in the completed testament age as the "True Parents" - meaning they are the Messiah, the Lord of the Second Advent. She also talks about how Moon has suffered and is misunderstood. I imagine it is tough having members bowing to you all day and catering to your every need while you are spending the
hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars the Unification Church has been found responsible for swindling from the Japanese.
Hatch introduced the "Messiah" the night after Trent Lott took to the floor of the Senate in support of "True Parents' Day" which morphed a year later into "Parents' Day" - our nation's holiday promoted by Moon's operatives and celebrated on the fourth Sunday in July.
Quoting Lott - notice the terms "true love" and `sacrificial love" which is very commonly used terms in the Moon organization.
TRUE PARENTS DAY (Senate - July 27, 1993)
Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I rise today to offer remarks on `True Parents Day,' which will be celebrated officially on July 28, 1993....
All parents, including single parents, have the responsibility to create an environment where true love can be expressed and imparted to our children; Parents, by their example of sacrificial love and the transmission of moral and cultural values play a crucial and determinant role in the development of youth;....
The Women's Federation for World Peace will be sponsoring an event in Congress on July 28, calling for a renewal of our social commitment to sustain and strengthen families.
Therefore, I wish to join the Women's Federation for World Peace in celebrating July 28, 1993, as True Parents Day. I also urge my colleagues in the U.S. Senate, and all citizens of our Nation to recognize and support True parents Day and the restoration of God-centered families in our society. [U.S. Senate - July 27, 1993 Page: S9489]
Lisa Grey wrote an excellent review of what went down regarding Parents' Day for the Washington City Paper in 1995.
But [Lott] didn't mention that the holiday had been long celebrated by Unificationists, or that Hak Ja Han Moon had founded the Women's Federation and still serves as its international president. The following evening, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced Mrs. Moon to an audience of approximately 200 gathered in a Senate meeting room at the Dirksen Office Building. The Rev. Moon himself sat in the front row.
The Washington Times reported the palest possible version of Mrs. Moon's speech. It quoted her briefly decrying the increase in divorces and neglected children and mentioned the conservative luminaries in the audience, suggesting that Unification Church's views on family matters had made the Church some important friends on Capitol Hill. The Times didn't quote Mrs. Moon's declaration that she and her husband are the True Parents of mankind, destined to finish what Jesus couldn't.
The Unification News offered a much richer account of the event. Hatch "extolled the long suffering and personal sacrifice of Mrs. Moon and her husband," the News reported, "and he particularly commended the couple for their investment in the Washington Times, a vehicle that he said has been a benefit to the nation's capital. Senator Hatch, in his warm introductory remarks, referred more than once to Mrs. Moon as 'my friend'." The News then detailed Mrs. Moon's speech in its full theological glory -- and vividly described listeners' reactions. "As Mrs. Moon began speaking, the audience became hushed and respectful as they settled into their plush leather chairs. Many congressmen were visibly moved, and some even wiped away a tear as she described the suffering she and her husband had endured in their lives for the sake of accomplishing the will of God."
Important to note that Moon sort of keeps score by how many nation's he may be able to have pass the holiday.
When True Parents Day is adopted by 185 United Nations member nations, then the world will be truly united. The national messiahs who have been sent out to 185 nations are working hard to have True Parents Day resolutions passed in their mission nations which eventually will be culminated in the United Nations and then world unification will come. Amen. (Amen). [Sun Myung Moon - Feb. 16, 1997 - Belvedere International Training Center]
City Paper continued with the tale of the holiday passed the year following Lott's statement, when the day was put on our nation's calendar.
Burton and Flake were asking official recognition by the House rather than simple good wishes from the Senate, but the language of their resolution differed only a little from Lott's salute to the Unification Church's True Parents' Day a year earlier. Lott and Burton listed the same litany of problems caused by the breakdown of the American family, and both referred to "sacrificial love."
But Burton's speech made one striking change. Nothing in the resolution connected the holiday to Moon. The odd word "True" had disappeared from "Parents' Day," and the resolution did not mention the Moons at all. The House passed the harmless-looking resolution on a voice vote. Did the lawmakers know that they were institutionalizing a Unification religious holiday? Anti-cult activists believe that Rep. Burton must have understood the resolution's significance to the Unification Church. In 1987, the congressman had been criticized for attending a Moon-sponsored conference in Seoul. And only a few months before Burton read his bill to the House, the Religious News Service had questioned Burton's office about proposal, and his aides referred the reporter to Gary Jarmin. A former Unification Church officer, Jarmin now heads the Christian Voice, a conservative lobbying group based in Northern Virginia. Jarmin told the Religious News Service that while there might be a "semantic overlap" between Parents' Day and Unification beliefs, people are free to interpret the day however they wish.
And only weeks after Burton spoke about Parents' Day on the House floor, Fauntroy attended the Second World Peace Conference, held in Seoul to coincide with the Unification Church's 40th anniversary. At the conference, Fauntroy presented the Rev. and Mrs. Moon with a framed copy of the Parents' Day resolution. The Unification News ran a photo of the couple proudly displaying their trophy and exulted: "With the authority of the U.S. Congress, it was a crowning moment to the Peace Conference." ...
The stars' appearances served to promote the foundation's ultimate goal: to have Parents' Day not just saluted, not merely recognized by the House as a one-day celebration, but declared as a national holiday in perpetuity. Burton and Flake promptly cosponsored a new resolution that Parent's Day be celebrated every year on the fourth Sunday of July. Again the effort breezed through the House. This time, it cruised through the Senate as well. Cosponsored there by Hatch and Joe Biden (D-Del.), it coasted past lawmakers preoccupied with health care reform -- not to mention a host of other ceremonial resolutions, including "National Children's Day," "National Penny Charity Week," "Irish-American Heritage Month," and "National Good Teen Day."
Moon's wife is now traveling the world promoting Moon's personal United Nations the Universal Peace Federation. Here is what he said about his wife's important role in his plan, she is to be the face.
Through True Mother we reached the American Congress and the United Nations through True Mother's speaking tour. We also declared True Parents Day to the world. Men and women in the American Congress didn't know what they were doing, but as you know Congress passed the resolution of Parents Day. [Sun Myung Moon Feb. 16, 1997 - Belvedere International Training Center]
Centering on True Mother, mind and body must be completely united, and on that foundation True Mother goes to unite with True Father; then all children, young and old, will all be completely unified, resulting in the unification of the whole world. That is the mission of the Blessed family. ...
Until today the United Nations has only represented the body; it does not represent the mind, the mothers, the students, or the youth. Centering on Mother is equivalent to WFWP. Cain and Abel on all eight levels need to connect to Mother. Centering on True Mother, all mothers should connect to high school and college students. They are Abel, and other youth are Cain. Through mothers they connect to True Mother and then to True Father and Heavenly Father. In this way, we can unite the world. [Leaders' Conference - Sun Myung Moon Feb. 7, 1995 Washington, DC ]
To be fair, it is unlikely most of the people in congress, as Moon suggested, knew what was behind "Parents' Day" when it is was stuck in another bill and passed, but one would be hard pressed to give Lott, Burton and Flake that pass.
Robert Parry discovered Moon's funding of Jerry Falwell by accident while looking into Moon's funding of George H.W. Bush. We have a holiday Moon's operatives pushed that most in congress had no idea what they were doing when they passed it. The crowning of Moon in a federal building would never have been reported had it not been for Gorenfeld pushing and posting video of it. Given the secrecy of Moon's organization, really makes one wonder what else...
But the biggest question I have is, "what part of this statement do these elected officials not understand?"
By the mid-1980s, Moon's Unification Church had carved out a niche as an acceptable part of the American right. In one speech to his followers, Moon boasted that "without knowing it, even President Reagan is being guided by Father (Moon)." Yet, Moon also made clear that his longer-range goal was the destruction of the U.S. Constitution and America's democratic form of government. "History will make the position of Reverend Moon clear, and his enemies, the American population and government will bow down to him," Moon said, speaking of himself in the third person. "That is Father's tactic, the natural subjugation of the American government and population." [Robert Parry - Dark Side of Rev. Moon: Buying the Right ]
More at Gorenfeld's Talk2Action post.