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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, October 16, 2002

EDITORIAL
Rev. Moon's school warrants skepticism

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church is attempting to build a boarding high school in North Kona after failing to get a school built in the Marshall Islands.

Given the controversies that have dogged the 1954-founded movement, it's not surprising that Big Islanders have concerns.

The church's Pacific Rim Education Foundation has asked for a special-use permit to build on 30 acres zoned for agricultural use at Pu'ukala.

At this point, the matter is purely a zoning issue, and it would be improper for the permit to be denied on religious grounds. After all, faith-based organizations — certainly including the Rev. Moon's — have as much right to build private schools as anyone.

That said, Hawai'i should be careful not to embrace the Unification Church's expansion into the Pacific without gaining some understanding of Moon's agenda. Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah, has made no secret of wanting to gain a foothold in the Pacific.

When he says "Let's march to the Pacific Ocean," we're not exactly sure what he means, but it sounds as though there's more at play than building a school to "stress common values and support parents in their efforts to raise moral children."

In South America, Moon is being investigated for suspected money laundering, tax evasion and abetting illegal immigration. Moreover, the Brazilian military has raised concerns that Moon has ambitions to start his own self-styled "nation" on a million acres he owns that straddle the border of Brazil and Paraguay.

It may well turn out that Moon's ambition has less to do with education and religion than empire. If that's the case, we in Hawai'i ought to be aware of it.