International Coalition for Religious Freedom Update for December 7, 2011

UPDATE FROM THE DESK OF ICRF PRESIDENT DAN FEFFERMAN December 7, 2011 Tour de Cause. Seijin Tranberg, a second-generation Unificationist, is planning a Tour de Cause Bicycle Challenge this winter to help bring attention to the issue of faith-breaking in Japan. The tour will begin from his hometown in Atlanta on December 10 and will end in Los Angeles before the end of the year. Seijin, a 22-year-old college student in political science, is the student body president at Georgia Gwinnett College. “I like to consistently challenge myself to become a better person as a way to inspire others to do the same,” says Seijin. “I love dreaming big. When I grow up, I’d like to think that I’m going to help save the world.” Our team is helping Seijin plan his tour. We are bringing him to DC this week to meet several Congressmen and will work to provide media coverage along the route. Everyone please promote Seijin’s blog at http://tourdecause.blogspot.com. NJIT Event. CARP held its first-ever event at the New Jersey Institute of Technology last month on November 18. It attracted more than 60 participants, mostly students. Featured speakers were Ichiko Sudo, faith-breaking survivors Luke Higuchi and Gail Veith and myself. Ichiko gave an overview of the faith-breaking issue and presented a short video; Luke and Gail shared their testimonies; and I discussed the problem from the standpoint of Japanese law and International Human Rights standards. Local CARP president Nolan Ching led a call-to-action by asking the students to take out their “smart phones” and sign the online petition at www.religiousfreedom.com. The event was video-recorded and featured during the nationally-broadcast activities report of Lovin’ Life Ministries on Sunday November 26. All supporters of ICRF are welcome to sign the online petition. Thanks so much!

Dan Speaks at UTS. I presented a lecture on “Religious Freedom and Ecumenism” at the Unification Theological Seminary in New York City on Monday November 28. It was great to be back at my alma mater (even though at the NY City campus, not Barrytown). A brief summary of my talk: The world is generally united around Article 18 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. However, Muslim countries have taken exception to the idea that everyone has the right “to change his religion,” which for Muslims is against Shari’a law. Also, Communist countries like North Korea and China flagrantly ignore international human rights standards, while nations such as Japan turn a blind eye to faith-breaking. In the West, various faiths have sometimes united on an ecumenical level to protect the religious freedom of others. I concluded with a case-study of the current situation in Japan as an example of the failure of Christian churches to stand up for religious freedom. This contrasts with the success of Christian churches in the U.S. to unite in opposition to the “deprogramming” of minority religionists during the 1970s and 80s.

Please Read Rev. In Jin Moon’s Recent Remarks About “Fighting for Religious Freedom”

…from In Jin Nim’s sermon on November 6th. (Due to popular demand, we would like to include in our Update a more internal perspective on this issue from the True Children’s own words):

“Our movement has come a long way. I love especially having the new generation coming to the forefront, stepping up to the plate and getting involved in their faith, getting involved in their communities. It’s beautiful to see young faces working with me at Headquarters each day.

“Working with my two younger brothers in Korea – the international president Rev. Hyung Jin Moon and also Kook Jin Moon, who runs the Korean foundation – we’ve been engaged in a fight revolving around the faith-breaking issue that is taking place in Japan. Through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s the American movement had to deal with the various misconceptions concerning the Unification Church. We were branded as a monstrous parasite infecting society, accused of turning young minds into brainwashed zombies. We’ve had to fight that.

“By the due process of law and with the Constitution, we could bring cases to court to seek justice, and we were able to win many legal matters concerning our members being kidnapped and held against their will. Now the same thing has been taking place in Japan, but Japan still refuses to recognize our

movement as a church. Many of our Japanese brothers and sisters – especially the sisters who have been kidnapped – have suffered unspeakable atrocities during their time of captivity. At least here in the United States, when we were fighting for religious freedom, we had good friends, pastors all around the country who came to our True Parents’ defense and fought together with us for our liberties as citizens.

“The story of Mr. Goto came to our attention a year ago. He was held in captivity for 12 years and five months. His family forked over $1.5 million to the organization that deprograms people, just to hold him captive. But because of his unbreakable faith, even though they starved him almost to death, he refused to give up his faith. His captors finally had to surrender, seeing there was nothing more they could do, and threw him out. Thank goodness that when he attempted to crawl to safety, the second person that he met on the street happened to be a sister of our faith. She was able to take him to our hospital, where he was able to recuperate.”

“When he did recuperate, he came to America to tell us his story. And he came here to ask the American brothers and sisters to help Japan so that the Japanese government can finally recognize our faith as a legitimate church and allow the citizens of Japan, our brothers and sisters, to exercise their right, guaranteed under the Japanese constitution that was implemented after World War II by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Although it guarantees religious freedom, it has not being adhered to. It is being neglected and ignored.”

“In the process of the last 30 years, many of our brothers and sisters have been abused. Some of our sisters have not just been physically and emotionally abused but sexually abused as well. A couple of other sisters who were also victimized wanted to meet me only in secret because they didn’t want their identities to be shared even with their own community. They suffer in silence. There is one sister over 60 years old who was abducted by her family because they thought she was brainwashed.”

“This is the kind of thing taking place in Japan. Even this year, there are brothers and sisters continually being abducted and abused. But what they want to see most is to see our faith recognized as a legitimate faith, and for them as Japanese citizens to be allowed to exercise their freedom of worship. All of these people are over the age of 21. They should be allowed to decide for themselves how to worship.”

*** YOU CAN SUPPORT ICRF! To support ICRF’s work to bring religious freedom to Japan, let me remind you that you can give online in TWO WAYS: 1) To those of you who received our year-end fundraising appeal by snail mail, please give as generously as you can! If you didn’t get the mailing, it will also be coming by email, or you can simply go to our web site and donate through PayPal. 2) Also, if you do your Holiday Shopping with AMAZON online, remember to check in at www.religiousfreedom.com and click through to Amazon.com and you will be donating a 4-5 percent finder’s fee when you do this, at no extra cost to you!

CONTACT: 7245-A Hanover Parkway, Greenbelt, MD 20770 Email: icrfusa@gmail.com Website: www.religiousfreedom.com