Word: moone
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Religious figures base their argument on the first amendment--which is unfortunately so broadly phrased that interpretive battles over it are endemic to the American judicial system. The amendment begins: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." However, the Moon case attests to the ambiguity of the Constitutional guarantee--for all the government's determination to prosecute Moon, the controversy has sparked a firestorm of articles, rallies, charges and countercharges that is only gradually diminishing...
...religious community sees the Moon case as a strong indication that the government plans to interpret those 16 words as narrowly as possible, allowing churches free exercise only if they meet government standards. Harvey G. Cox Jr., Harvard's Thomas Professor of Divinity, voices a common concern when he notes the implications of the IRS having a say in how religions disburse their funds: "One can imagine in a future generation a politicized IRS deciding that the Catholic Church shouldn't speak out against nuclear war. Or anything else--there's no limit...
...FASCISM is not the least of the charges religious leaders have made against the government. Moon himself sounded the call to rhetoric when he stood on the steps of the United States Court House after his indictment in 1981 and declared "I would not be standing here today if' my skin were white and my religion were Presbyterian. I am here today only because my skin is yellow and my religion is Unification Church...
...first, the issue of selective prosecution appeared paramount. Earlier this year, when Idaho Congressman George Hansen updated his book about the IRS' abuse of power. To Harass Our People, he included a chapter summing up the Moon case. Hansen wrote that "From the beginning, it was evident that the government was relying for its case on the most damning facts possible-the unpopularity of the Moon church and the fact that Reverend Moon is an Oriental...
...government began investigating Moon in 1975, shortly after Senator Robert Dole (R-Kansas) wrote his "Many Kansans" letter to Donald Alexander, then Commissioner of the IRS, Dole requested an audit of the Unification Church's finances, and questioned whether the Church was "based on a bona fide religion or mind-control techniques." Dole offered as evidence the claborately phrased hearsay, "Many Kansans have advised me that a major purpose of the organization is the accumulation of wealth and power and not the practice or furtherance of a religion...