Moon Released After Tax Evasion Term : Religious Leaders Allege Persecution, Call On Reagan for Pardon

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church leader who was released Tuesday after completing his prison sentence for tax evasion, was defended by religious and civil rights leaders as a victim of religious persecution.

At a group news conference, Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell, Southern Christian Leadership Conference President Joseph Lowery and a dozen others called on President Reagan to pardon Moon and, more broadly, to respond to what they called a growing threat to religious freedom in America.

“Because of the unpopularity of (Moon’s) religious faith, he received a one-year prison sentence . . .,” Falwell said. “While the Unification Church may be the unpopular one today, next year it may be one of the rest of us standing here.”

‘Railroad Job’

He declared: “I think the President should pardon Rev. Moon. I think he has been the victim of a railroad job.”

Moon, whose opponents criticize his church as a cult, claims a worldwide following of more than 2 million, including 45,000 Americans.

The Korean-born evangelist, 65, was convicted in 1982 of evading $162,000 in taxes, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal. In July, 1984, he entered a medium-security federal prison at Danbury, Conn., where his 18-month sentence was reduced for good behavior. Six weeks ago he was sent to a New York City halfway house, where he was allowed to leave and conduct church business during the day. He had to return each evening.

After his release Tuesday, Moon returned for several hours to his Westchester, N.Y., home and later appeared at a banquet in his honor in Washington. He and his supporters have maintained his innocence in the case.

$100,000 Banquet

At the $100,000 banquet, sponsored by the Moon-affiliated Committee for God and Freedom, the Unification Church leader was welcomed back by nearly 1,700 supporters, mostly religious figures from across the nation.

Addressing the cheering crowd, Moon said that his prison term “provided a moving experience with God. I was not there because of my personal actions or mistakes, yet I did not brood with resentment or hatred. . . . I dedicated my time to prayer and meditation, for understanding what America must do to fulfill God’s will for the world.”

Falwell, who said he has never met or communicated with Moon, and other speakers accused federal prosecutors of ignoring a longstanding policy of not pursuing tax evaders who owe less than $2,500 a year to charge Moon with tax evasion. The Moral Majority leader asserted that Moon owed $7,300 in back taxes over three years.

Falwell also signed a letter to Reagan last year in an attempt to prevent the Unification Church leader from going to jail.

Further Encroachment

A diverse group of speakers at Tuesday’s news conference said they were there not to support Moon’s theology, but to warn that further encroachment of government upon religion threatens their constitutional rights.

“We are fighting together on religious freedom so we can fight each other on all the other issues later,” Falwell said. Among the speakers were leaders of the California Committee for Religious Freedom, the National Black Republican Council and the Church of Scientology.

Lowery, who said the number of state intrusions on religious freedom has been “swelling” under the Reagan Administration, urged the President to form a task force “to investigate the erosion of religious liberty.”

Discrimination Alleged

“The Moon case is particularly frightening because, not only is the issue of religious liberty involved, but perhaps the issue of racial discrimination,” Lowery said.

A church-affiliated group, the Committee to Defend the U.S. Constitution, has sought to capture the public’s sympathy in the case through a nationwide series of newspaper advertisements.

The ads, which carry the endorsement of the American Civil Liberties Union, argue that the allegations against Moon are no more serious than those previously lodged against Vice President George Bush and former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro, both of whom made substantial refunds to the Internal Revenue Service after questions were raised about back taxes and interest they owed.