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X-MEMBERS ~ONLINE
STEVE HASSAN
~Steve Hassan must come first on any list of X-Moonies! Steve is the prototypical X! He was a member for over 2 years, though his nemesis in the UC like to claim 6 weeks, or something equally as ridiculous. As Steve tells it, he was a very faithful and devout member of Moon's movement. He worked so hard and expended so much effort toward accomplishing Moon's goals that he quickly moved up the ranks until he was a leader in the movement and held up personally by Moon as "The Ideal Moonie". Having become friends with Steve after leaving the UC myself, I hereby re-annoint him: "The Ideal X-Moonie" !
~Steve really is a hero figure, a superman with glasses. It was a near fatal van-accident as a moonie that ultimately led to his freedom from the cult. His parents who were caring for him with casts and broken bones, found someone to help councel him out of the cult. Steve would have none of it, and reports that if he could have walked, he would have jumped out of the second story window to prevent any possibility of disloyalty to his "True Father", Sun Myung Moon (Moon tells his followers that he is their father). After several days of lectures from his councelors about how the Unification Church employed Mind Control techniques to get him to make decisions he ordinarily would not have if left to his own free will, and other information he had not previously known about Sun Myung Moon, still Steve was unwilling to accept what he was hearing. Finally one night, in an emotional encounter with his parents, he screamed out "Look, I don't care if Sun Myung Moon is HITLER! I've chosen to follow him!!". Hearing those stark words from his own lips, startled him, and gave him something to reflect on over the next days. Slowly, as many of us have, he came to the realization that Moon was a fraud. That his church practiced deception to recruit people into it's ranks and that he himself had been deceived and nearly robbed of his entire life!
~Steve could have simply walked away right then and there and never looked back at Sun Myung Moon's cult. Instead, he found a passionate desire to help others see through Moon's deception. He worked hard to rescue friends and others who were ensnared in Moon's evil grip, but found that the techniques of forceful deprogramming were not always successful and was concerned that they could in fact drive the member further into Moon's clutches in those few cases. Returning to college, Steve achieved a masters degree in Psychology. He used that education combined with his own personal experiences in Moon's cult to pioneer an entirely new approach to reaching people under the influence of Mind Control. He calls it "Exit Counseling" and it has been the joy of countless families that he has employed these techniques in reuniting loved ones, brothers and sisters, parents and children, in effect restoring whole families again. God has blessed Steve financially with his efforts enough that Steve has been able to help hundreds of victims of destructive cults without monetary renumeration. That is the kind of guy he is. Wanting to help everyone to return to personal freedom as he was able to do so many years ago.
~Steve is the Best Selling author of Combatting Cult Mind Control. I have found his book to be enormously helpful and interesting. I recommend it to anyone, whether you have been touched by the menace of destructive cults or not. His webpage is located here: http://www.freedomofmind.com/. Plan on spending some time there, the information is helpful, provocative and important for increasing our awareness of what destructive cults are, and how they operate. Thanks Steve, for giving of yourself in such a vital way. May God always protect you in your fight for human rights.
ALLEN TATE WOOD
~Allen is an extremely cheerful individual. His story is similar to Steve Hassan's in working hard and excelling into leadership positions rapidly within the Moon Organization. He was a trusted soldier in Moon's army and gave his "Blood, Sweat and Tears" as Moon likes to say, for Moon's benefit. I came to know both Steve Hassan and Allen Tate Wood through their webpages on the Internet. What a vital tool the net can be! Once I had gotten online, like many X-members, I was curious to know what information was to be found on the net concerning Moon and the Unification Church. Happily, in spite of the few deluded Pro-Moon sites available, I was able to find these pages as well. Thank God for balanced and critical information to protect us from those who would rob us of our personal liberties. In the Unification Church newsgroup, I had been debating Sun Myung Moon's theology with the Die-Hard Moon followers there. I came across Allen's page and found his Brief Critical Examination of The Divine Principle Theory of History, I was very happy to read his conclusions and refutations of Moon's philosophy of history. It has inspired me to offer Critiques that I have developed through my own study and re-examination of Moon's Theology and offer them for the public good. Wanting to use Allen's conclusions on the newsgroup discussion, I emailed Allen to ask him about using his work (It has a Copyright). My heart literally sunk, when the reply came back from Allen that I could use it, but would have to pay a small fee. Reading a little further, I was thrilled to discover that the fee would be signing his Guestbook on his homepage! I gladly paid the fee in full and went on to do battle with the information gleaned from Allen's site.
~Allen's site is extremely valuable for it's articles detailing his personal encounters with Moon. There is also alot of information on Cult Psychology and he has posted the Fraser Congressional Report detailing the illegal activities of Sun Myung Moon's church. Allen is an author as well with his book Moonstruck, he has also been quoted extensively in other books on Moon's empire for his knowledge and experiences. Allen is a great guy as well.
Stop by for a visit!
INGO MICHEL
~Ingo Michel has a great website from the perspective of Moon's secret goals and ambitions as well as his attempted subversion of the American Political Process as Moonism / A Threat To Democracy & Families. You will find alot of Ingo's personal experiences as a young CARP member (Moon's Student Group). How he was worked for years with almost no sleep to enrich Moon and further propel his empire, as so many well-meaning, but naieve young people have done. Ingo has been a help to me personally as well. He has entered arguments against other moonies on the net and offered great intellectual as well as Biblical refutations of Moon's teachings and activities. He is the editor of a newsletter on The Unification Church and will gladly sign you up, by asking. His website is important and is a valuable resource in the fight against destructive cults. No study of Moon on the web would be complete without visiting his homepage and reading all the articles and letters he has posted! I value his opinion greatly and you will too. Pay him a visit, at the link above!
BRENDA HENRY
~Brenda Henry has an amazing testimony of her experiences as a Moonie and how she escaped! Her website: From MOON and STARS to the SON is a fascinating journey (Hers) of how she got mixed up with Moon and his followers and then met Elton John through a member of Elton's band that had invited Brenda to sit in on rehearsals at the time she was being induced into moonie life. Amazingly, the band member knew the Bible and showed her how the moonies had deceived her by twisting the obvious meaning of scripture to suit their needs. Not long after this, she was introduced to a co-author and friend of Hal Lindsey, who wrote the best-seller Late Great Planet Earth on biblical prophecy. Dr. Lindsey took time with her and showed her through the Bible how Moon was not the Christ, but an antichrist. You will want to read her story and to order her book when it is published.
Moon~LINKS Exhaustive Resource
~Moon~LINKS Exhaustive Resource Moon-LINKS Exhaustive Resource is The ultimate resource for finding information on Sun Myung Moon and The Unification Church, Pro or Critical, News Articles on Moon, Members and X-members on the web. Basically anything Moon-Related can be found there. Currently there are 200 Links there and it is added to monthly! If you haven't found what you're looking for. You weren't looking there. :-)
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