The Cult of Bush

Still recovering from last night's amazing concert. Chris ripped it. Check out his site at http://homepages.nyu.edu/~ctb210.

Jeanette Walls, Gossip columnist for MSNBC, writes this today:

Florida Governor Jeb Bush raised eyebrows among the critics of the sometimes controversial religion recently when he honored Scientology volunteers who helped victims of hurricanes in his state.

Members of the group, which was put in the spotlight this week by the New York Daily News for its alleged anti-homosexual philosophy, were given a Points of Light Award as Hurricane Heroes. Scientology volunteers have been high profile at disaster scenes recently, distributing food and water, as well as delivering controversial touch assist healings that supposedly help victims through the laying on of hands.

"The Bush brothers have both been good to some groups that have been called cults," says Rick Ross of CultNews.com. "Governor Bush has recognized Scientology while his brother in the White House has actually appointed a follower of Reverend Moon [David Caprara] to dole out tax payer money through the so-called faith-based initiative. Seems to me like the fox guarding the henhouse."

For those not familiar with the religion of John Travolta and Tom Cruise, you might want to check out their profile on the University of Virgina's Cult Website. Here are some highlights:

As Scientologists progress up the Bridge, they learn the details of Hubbard's cosmology, which articulates a many-trillion-year history similar to the "galactic space opera" of Hubbard's prolific science-fiction efforts.

Few other groups have been investigated and accused of wrongdoing at various times by so many government agencies (including the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

"The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 5,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet, 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the principal volcanoes (Incident II) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged".

His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants. (etc...)

But ok, Jeb praising a bunch of loonies isn't huge. George W. Bush appointing moonies to his "faith based initiatives" task force is.

Rev. Moon, of course, as all Unification Church people know, is the messiah. The fact that one of his followers oversees "faith based initiatives" is a little bit, well, unsettling. So is this info, from the UVA site:

The Unification Church has control of a vast financial empire. It owns many businesses, some of which appear to be in business to make money, while others appear to be in business to promote other objectives of the Church. For example, David Bromley cites several Korean businesses which have fared well. However, he also discusses the case of the Washington Times, the largest conservative newspaper in the nation's capital, which has consistently lost a large amount of money. The profitable Korean and Japanese businesses certainly provide some of the money to cover the losses of many American businesses, but it is uncertain just how successful these businesses are on the whole. It appears that the Unification Church operates the Washington Times not in order to make money, but instead to establish connections with people in power in Washington (Bromley:258-262). In this regard, the endeavor has been quite successful. This is part of a larger movement by the Church to spread its dollars to various organizations and causes in order to gain influence and obtain legitimacy. Those who have received money from the Unification Church include evangelicals and political conservatives (Bromley:265-267).

The Unification Church has been viewed as a cult in both Korea and the United States, and it is pursuing legitimacy vigorously. Reverend Moon hopes to gain friends in high places so that his movement might be recognized more broadly as a legitimate religious organization. His spending of money to back right wing politics has paid dividends in making many friends among those groups. George Bush has even spoken at Unification Church events (Responses to Questions on Unificationism on the Internet - Volume 31, Last Visited: May 4, 1999).

Some organizations sponsored by conservative evangelicals which have received money from Moon face a dilemma in that many of them desire Moon's money but have no qualms rejecting his doctrines as heretical and labeling his group as a dangerous and destructive cult. The Unification Church even promotes the books of some of these evangelicals like Dr. James Dobson and Tim and Beverly LaHaye (HSA Books. Books of Interest, Last Visited: May 4, 1999).

The Washington Times, of course, endorsed Bush. Little did I know, it was not only a conservative newspaper, but a Moonie one.

Is Bush a Moonie? Perhaps not. But he is a President that clearly embraces religious fanatics-- even if they're from cults.

The Branch Dividians just showed up a few years too early. Nowadays they'd be invited to White House dinners.

What's next? David Koresh for attorney general?

Oh Xenu, help us!