One World Crusade Wins Victory in Utah

The following is from David Kim’s report concerning activities of Bus Team #2 from September 11 through September 17 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

From early morning on September 11 the public relations staff were working hard contacting TV stations, radio stations and newspapers- two in Salt Lake City and one in Ogden, providing information on our activities, specifically our “Rally for God” for tomorrow. The YMCA youth center room was rented for our public lecture series on the Unification Principle for 3 days.

We had our “Rally for God” on the front steps of the State Capitol, attracting two TV stations and newspaper reporters in the Capitol building. Perry was interviewed by a Channel 4 reporter.

In the evening the two TV stations gave excellent scenes and narrations on One World Crusade and the activities in Utah. Thus, all the citizens of Salt Lake City and the state of Utah recognized our visit on the statewide level. Also a very good article was put in the “Deseret News”, which is a Mormon newspaper widely circulated not only in the United States, but also in overseas missions, covering readers of more than one million Mormons throughout the world.

TV channel 4 gave us a separate interview at the TV studio, which would be run on Sept. 14. We contacted the “Ogden Examiner” to have them write some article in the weekend religious column.

On September 13 we had our Rally for God downtown to attract people and newspaper reporters. We specifically planned to get our article in the “Salt Lake Tribune,” which is the most widely circulated paper throughout the State of Utah. Even though two newspaper reporters had interviewed us and wrote a good article, somewhere something was hindering our purpose and goal. The City Editor of the “Salt Lake Tribune” seemed to be opposing our group, having misinformation or misunderstanding about us. The Public Relations Staff became very active and aggressive, trying to put our article and a picture in the paper. Our Rally downtown went very well. Several reporters from both newspapers were on the scene, even taking several pictures. They promised to put articles with pictures in the newspapers.

Perry, Izilda, and Denise went to KSXX radio station for a 15 minute interview. Many people heard us on the air. In the evening meeting 3 new contacts came to hear the conclusion lecture at the YMCA.

The next day we found out the reason why the Salt Lake Tribune did not put an article on us even though the reporters wrote it and our interview went well. The City editor had received many complaints from the

County to the newspaper that we are collecting money all over the states by selling candles. Izilda and Denise went to the “Tribune” to clarify the City Editor’s misunderstanding and clear up the misconception about us. After the rally, 3 representatives made a courtesy call to the Governor’s office and the Secretary of State, where we met the Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce, and he introduced us to the Chief Managing Editor-the big boss of the City Editor of the “Tribune!” Thus, our representatives could finally straighten it out and get the newspaper to put in an article about us.

Political pressure was given, but unfortunately there was no space left for the picture by the time we cleared up all the hindrances. The “Tribune” officially apologized for this mistake. If we had not visited and had not met the Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce we could not have had our article in the paper at all. The Assistant Secretary of State came out of his office and cheered us up in our Rally for God in front of the Capitol Building.

KSOP-Radio had an interview with Perry, Izilda, and Denise in the afternoon and it went very well. It is a country music radio station and has lots of listeners throughout the state. Our evening meeting was held at the Church Center after the 3-day lecture presentation at the YMCA and 3 new contacts came and heard the conclusion. No arguments and no serious questions from the audience were asked.

On September 15 we finally had our article in the “Salt Lake Tribune.” The article was very concise, friendly, and very well written. But following our Unit 2 tradition, we were not satisfied with it. In the afternoon Perry Cordell with the other staff visited the City Mayor’s office and the Chief of Police Department.

We received an excellent comment from the Assistant Police Chief that no other youth group who had been through in the past performed as well or behaved as well as One World Crusaders; thus we obtained the highest respect and warm welcome from the law enforcement agency in Salt Lake City.

In the evening meeting 11 new contacts came to listen to the lecture. Two of them are Mormon missionaries who just came back from two years’ missionary work in New Zealand. A few of the audience were responding very well, giving us some hope for our new members. On September 16, 4 contacts came to listen to Perry’s entire lecture, from 1 to 5:00 PM. In the evening one contact came and heard conclusion. We decided that 8 people will remain in Salt Lake City for candle selling and the rest of the unit members leave for Boise, Idaho as scheduled.

On September 17 two Mormon missionaries who heard our lectures presented their version of the Mormon teaching for one hour and a half. A friendly atmosphere was created between the missionaries and the 4 lecturers and unit members. Lots of questions were raised to them in a mutually respectable way. The first dialogue between the conservative Mormons and our group had taken place.

As far as the future work in Salt Lake City goes, there will be big doors opening for the new souls. Through the news media-TV, newspapers, radio, and our public lectures-foundation work for the future will be advanced centering on Kathy Goldman [Novalis], State Representative, and Gaynell Frizzell, Assistant State Representative, who are very dedicated and work hard to expand our Master’s work. It may not be the time to expect too much at this critical period of fund raising, but definitely new faces will be coming, even after our Mobile Unit 2 leaves the state. Several telephone calls already have inquired about the Unification Church. More than 36 good contacts were made during our 7 day campaign. Nearly 10 people heard the conclusion and are thinking seriously, and nearly 100 candle buyers’ names are recorded by Kathy, so that the future follow-ups may bring some results for the future work in Utah.

As a good symbol, an 18 year old young man named David O’Reilly became a member on September 14, when he heard the conclusion. Thus, the future spiritual good luck is open to make Kathy Goldman and Gaynell Frizzell succeed in this mission in the State of Utah.