Fly Me to the Moon--For a Nostalgic Look

Elections come and go, but junkets are forever.

Image-wise, these have not been good times for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church.

Those pictures of mass weddings of Moonies in South Korea are a trifle spooky. That 13-month federal prison sentence Moon served for tax evasion was a nasty bit of business. And, late last year, bishops of the United Methodist Church in South Korea complained that Moon’s international conferences are nothing but Christian-bashing sessions.

One group, however, is dedicated to repairing Moon’s tattered persona in the United States: the Washington-based American Freedom Coalition.

The coalition’s president is the Rev. Robert Grant, founder of the Christian Voice political action committee. Its director is Richard Ichord, former Republican congressman (1960-81) from Missouri and the last chairman of the now-defunct House Un-American Activities Committee.

Grant wrote in the Washington Post that the coalition has received $5.2 million from “business interests of the Unification Church” since it was founded in 1987.

Grant took to the op-ed page to answer allegations by a former employee that the coalition is nothing but a front group to help Moon spread his cultish ministry. Nonsense, Grant said. The coalition is interested solely in “promoting traditional American values.”

Now, however, the coalition is organizing a junket to South Korea for a dozen or more former members of Congress and their spouses.

The highlight of the weeklong trip is to attend one of Moon’s international conferences. Departure is Jan. 30; expenses are being paid by the AFC and the Unification Church.

Among those in the traveling party: former San Diego County Congressmen Lionel Van Deerlin and Bob Wilson and their wives.

Wilson, a fellow Republican who served with Ichord on the Armed Services Committee, is also a board member of American Freedom Coalition, a paid position.

Wilson represented San Diego from 1952 to 1980 and is now a Washington lobbyist and director of Air/Space America in San Diego. He did not respond to repeated phone calls over three days.

Van Deerlin, a Democrat who represented the South Bay from 1962 to 1980, said he views the trip merely as a free way to visit places he hasn’t seen in decades, including Panmunjon, where American troops are stationed.

He said that, if Ichord and the coalition are looking for someone to influence public opinion in favor of Moon, “I’m not much of a catch.”

“I’ve been around the block a few times, you know,” Van Deerlin said. “You don’t grow up in politics in San Diego County without being able to defend yourself in all company. I don’t think I’m going to be wooed and won over by anything I see or hear.”

They’re Playing His Song

Something for everyone.

- The space shuttle Columbia retrieved 12.5 million tomato seeds that had been in an orbiting satellite for six years, to test the effects of weightlessness and cosmic radiation.

The seeds will be distributed to students around the country, who will report back to NASA on how the plants fare, as part of SEEDS (Space-Exposed Experiment Developed for Students).

While hauling in the satellite, the astronauts played the theme song from “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” the cult classic by Steve Peace, movie maker and assemblyman from Chula Vista.

- It could be hot today when a San Diego City Council committee considers the proposed Human Dignity Ordinance to ban discrimination against homosexuals.

Expect strong support from gay leaders and equally strong opposition from the religious right and Young Americans for Freedom. Roman Catholic Bishop Leo T. Maher also opposes the ordinance.

A majority of council members like the proposal: Bernhardt, Filner, Hartley, Pratt and Wolfsheimer.

Henderson and O’Connor oppose it as an unneeded duplication of existing civil rights laws; McCarty and Roberts are undecided.

If it passes, Christian groups are vowing a referendum to repeal it.