Word: cults
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...reason for Berlinguer's withdrawn and austere manner is that he is determined to avoid the growth of a personality cult around the man who could conceivably become Western Europe's first postwar Communist Premier. In fact, though, such a cult is growing as Berlinguer drives up and down Italy in a chauffeured Fiat, making major campaign appearances. Berlinguer himself is a shoo-in for the Chamber of Deputies; taking advantage of a curious election law, he is a candidate in three places: Rome, Venice and the mountain town of Avezzano in Abruzzi. Should he win all three...
...which exports ginseng tea, and Tong II Industries, which manufac tures air rifles. Moon exploits the talent and energy of his hard-core disciples, who go on the streets to sell flowers, candles, peanuts and ginseng tea. Their take is considerable-perhaps $10 million a year, and because his cult is legally a religion, all income is tax free. "They told us that our work bought the Hotel New Yorker," a Moonie street peddler said proudly last week. It is also Moonies who are remodeling the hotel to make it a Unification Church hostel and headquarters...
...days, say early members of the sect, ritual sex characterized the Moon communes. Since Moon was a pure man, sex with him ("blood cleansing") was supposed to purify both body and soul, and marriages of other cultists were in fact invalid until the wives slept with Moon. As the cult became bigger, the blood-cleansing rites were abandoned, but today Moon arranges his disciples' marriages, and after a mass wedding ceremony in Seoul in 1970 enjoined 1,500 newlyweds from sex for 40 days...
...notoriety and success are causing him trouble. In February, Kansas Senator Robert Dole held a meeting of 400 people from 30 states to discuss the Unification Church before representatives of various federal agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor. Other Washington hearings on the cult's activities are being scheduled. Since some government officials believe there are extremely close ties between the Moonies, the Korean CIA and the Park regime, such investigations plus Moon's often unsavory publicity may build up enough resistance in Congress to be reflected in votes against...
Although Sun Myung Moon sometimes appears to be a Christian evangelist, he is in actuality the megalomaniacal "messiah" of a new religion. Excerpts from speeches that "Master" Moon has given to disciples in the inner sanctum of his cult...