Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 18, 2024
Following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of ‘What I Saw at the Second Coming: Bloodline of Christ; The Big Story, Part II.‘
But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” — Matthew 16:15-16
A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.
The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. — Luke 22:56-62

One of the most stalwart among the disciples of Jesus Christ, Peter had appealing qualities. Many could relate.
To his face, Peter testified to Jesus and his divinity. Shortly thereafter, following the betrayal by Judas and arrest, Peter denied even knowing the son of God, the man for whom he would later give his life.
Two thousand years later, the outspoken Sun Myung Moon had been so thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the public that even his own family and media company distanced themselves from him.
As noted in Part I of these volumes:
It is a testimony to the power of the mass media that during the time Sun Myung Moon walked the Earth, its secular, consensus-based definition of reality ultimately prevailed over that taught by Sun Myung Moon in the minds and lives of even his followers ….
Sun Myung Moon’s marginalization is not limited to his family and former followers. Prominent conservatives have shied away from the Founder of The Washington Times and while privately loving The Times, have avoided publicly endorsing its value or crediting the controversial man who established it.[1]
Such is human nature, as described by the Apostle Paul: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? …. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.[2]
The Nature of Shame
What happens when a person becomes an enthusiastic supporter of a polarizing figure like … a messianic spiritual leader?
He or she soon confronts that fact that not all friends and family members approve of their passion for a figure not in alignment with polite society.
Shame is defined by Wikipedia in the context of a book on self-consciousness:
Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness.[3]
In everyday life in 21st century America, the priority is often social acceptability, the never-satisfied desire of the awkward high school student longing to fit in and be popular.
The first Great Commandment given by Jesus Christ[4] is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, which would imply likewise loving and honoring His son.
How well did humanity receive Jesus?
Jesus did not order his followers to love him with all their heart, soul and mind. But by loving his Father, as he taught, surely they would also love him. Betrayal would be out of the question, and they would be fiercely proud of him.
Twenty centuries later in New York City, senior Unification Church members told me that during the time of my reporting on the IRS store front office at the Church’s national headquarters on West 43rd street[5], Sun Myung Moon’s early Sunday morning sermons in Westchester County addressed the responsibility of Jesus’ disciples.
They should have been praying with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane rather than sleeping, he taught. Because of the catastrophic failure of human responsibility in the Garden of Eden, he said, their portion of responsibility included helping bring about the victory of the Messiah’s mission to the point of even sacrificing their lives on his behalf without being told to do so.
Instead, they slept.
Similarly, amid Congressional and Department of Justice investigations, the disciples and followers of Sun Myung Moon could be regarded as directly responsible for his critically important reputation in the United States of America which would directly impact his status in his native Korea regarded as the chosen nation for the Lord of the Second Advent. The consequences for his public life and mission were enormous.
As discussed in Chapter 11, “20th Century Character Crucifixion,” an intense internal debate raged over legal strategy before and after Sun Myung Moon’s indictment by a federal grand jury on Oct. 15, 1981.
From my observation, Sun Myung Moon never lifted a finger in his own defense. When indicted by a federal grand jury, he willingly returned to the United States to face charges and eventual imprisonment.
Kenneth Briggs, former religion editor of the New York Times, wrote:
Later, the group’s founder, the Rev. Sun-Myung Moon, was jailed on questionable allegations, and he took his punishment in a Connecticut prison with exemplary forbearance.[6]
Nothing in his character or background, however, suggested passivity.
‘Alpha male’ Messiah and Everyone Else
Those who saw him in daily life would testify that Sun Myung was no shrinking violet. In his autobiography, he wrote about a boyhood experience before his life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ:
I also couldn’t sleep if I had been treated unfairly during the day. In such a case, I would get out of bed at night, go to the culprit’s home, and challenge him to come out and fight me. …. Whenever there was a fight among the children in the village, I would involve myself as though I were responsible to see that justice was served in every situation. I would decide which child in the fight was in the wrong and I would scold that child in a loud voice. Once I went to see the grandfather of a boy who was a bully in the neighborhood. I said to him, “Your grandson has done this and that wrong. Please take care of it.”[7]
. ….
[1] “Messiah as Investigative Journalist,” Chapter 1, “What I Saw at the Second Coming: The Big Story, Part I,” by R.J. Morton, Origin 2021 Publishing, 2023, P 37.
[2] Romans 7:24-5.
[3] Tracy, Jessica; Robins, Richard (2007). “Self-conscious emotions: Where self and emotion meet”. In Sedikides, C. (ed.). Frontiers of social psychology. The self. Psychology Press. pp. 187–209.
[4] Matthew 22:37-38: Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
[5] “The IRS Office at Unification Church Headquarters,” Chapter 7, “What I Saw at the Second Coming: The Big Story, Part I,” by R.J. Morton, Origin 2021 Publishing, 2023.
[6] https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/2000/02/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-like-shrinks.aspx
[7] “Food is Love,” Chapter 1, “As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen,” by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, [The Washington Times Foundation, 2009], P 12.
‘What I Saw at the Second Coming: Bloodline of Christ; The Big Story, Part II,‘ was published in October, 2024. Part I was published in 2023. [See Part II excerpts 1, 2, 3. Part I excerpts 3, 2, 1]
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