An Open Letter to Martin Luther King III

Dear Mr. King,

I greatly respect the efforts and sacrifices that your father, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other members of your family have made to further the causes of freedom and civil rights.

That is why I am befuddled about your association with the family of Sun Myung Moon. Most recently, I learned of your intention to participate with Hyun Jin "Preston" Moon in the Moon-sponsored Global Peace Festival 2007 slated for December 12 in Manila.

The Moon family uses words like "peace," "family," and "freedom" but are diametrically opposed to the principles that are conveyed in these words. Sun Myung Moon and his progeny are theocratic authoritarians who envision a world in which Unification theology rules and in which dissenters will be "digested" (speaking about himself in the third person, Sun Myung Moon told followers, "Those that oppose [Reverend] Moon will perish"). Sun Myung Moon represents the antithesis of civil rights and human dignity.

In addition, Moon has staffed the editorial board of his quasi-newspaper, The Washington Times, with unreconstructed racists and neo-Confederates. Journalist Max Blumenthal has a thoughtful article on this and I have written about it also.

During the 1960's, many idealistic Americans stood with your father to help to break the back of the Jim Crow system. Soon thereafter, Sun Myung Moon came to America and sought out idealistic young people and exploited them for his own aggrandizement. One of the Unification movement's goals is to associate itself with prominent poltical and cultural leaders in order to gain legitimacy and to snare more victims. I am asking you to rescind your decision to accept the invitation and to repudiate the Unification movement.

Sincerely,

Scoobie