Related
Translate
Get RNB via RSS
|
|
RNB's RSS feed What is this? |
Get RNB via Email
![]() |
![]() Subscribe by Email What is this? |
Follow: Twitter
Most Popular
This Week:
- Guyana’s Jonestown suicide site gets plaque
- Scientology practices ‘putting people at risk’
- Recession: Muslim schools in UK under threat of closure
- Australian senator tells Parliament of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology
- When a child dies, faith is no defense
- World’s oldest ocean-going passenger ship, ministry ship Doulos, to stop sailing
- Israel Charges Extremist With Attempted Murder Of Messianic Family
- Scientology’s feet held to the fire in Australia: Struggle between a church and the state
- 1-year prison term for man who participated in cyber attack on Church of Scientology Web sites
- Australian police take up complaints about Scientology
Royal pastor worried about door-to-door ‘fraud’
Member of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s church misrepresented self when selling jewelry, pastor alleges
When a man came selling jewelry for a popular abstinence-advocacy group at a board meeting last week for the Royal City Church of the Nazarene, Pastor Tim Snyder saw no problem at first.
The man, who called himself Louie, told the board members that the proceeds for the items would go to True Love Waits, a pro-abstinence known well to churches throughout the country. So three board members bought an item, which cost $20 a piece.
The man told Snyder he was with the Holy Spiritual Association, the pastor said, which made him suspicious.
So Snyder called Royal City Police Chief Darin Smith, who told him he was selling the items not for True Love Waits but for the Unification Church, a world-wide faith that subscribes to the teachings of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and, according to many of its critics, believes that man is the true savior.
“If he would have said, ‘I’m selling this for the Unification Church,’ nobody would have bought it,” Snyder said.
Smith told the Herald he only heard of one other complaint of a door-to-door salesman selling the merchandise. When Royal police spoke with that man, he identified himself as being with the Unification Church, Smith said.
Because the men (about four were riding in a van) were selling items door-to-door for a nonprofit group, Smith said they broke no laws within the city. But if they misrepresented themselves, the scenario changes, he said.
“If they were representing themselves as this (True Love Waits) organization, I would consider this as a fraud,” Smith said.
Snyder said he thinks the man named Louie did not tell Nazarene church leaders that he was with the Unification Church because that group is known within Christian circles as a “cult.”
According to its Web site, Unification.org, followers of the Unification Church (sometimes called Moonies) believe in the eventual unification of all world religions into one belief system.
The church has been criticized for operating under more 1,000 front organizations, including the conservative newspaper the Washington Times, and that Moon’s true belief is that he is the new messiah.
A phone call to the Holy Spirit Association in New York, and umbrella organization of the Unification Church, was not immediately returned.
A posting on Unification.org states that Moon believes Jesus Christ is the savior, and Moon is the fulfillment of Jesus’ appearance on Earth.
True Love Waits is an abstinence-advocacy group for teenagers, according to its Web site truelovewaits.com. No mention of the Unification Church is made on the site.
Snyder said the Unification Church member selling the items should have been more upfront about who he represented.
“It’s a fraud. They’re committing a fraud,” Snyder said.
What You Can Do From Here
|
Read More Articles On These Topics
Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article
Subscribe
Read Another Article
Find Related Information
Find Related Books
|
Share This Article
To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:





