"Where is this money coming from?" he asks. "One of their fisheries in Alabama is going broke and suddenly they get $2 million to resuscitate it. If you follow these individual fisheries to their parent companies, you'll find that the same individuals own the businesses."

And there are contradictions. When Salonen and Barry first informed Alper of their presence in Gloucester, they assured the fire-and-brimstone mayor that Tong Il--the former corporate name of International Seafoods--did not plan to buy property within Gloucester. But Moon purchased waterfront land, and gradually, Tong Il set up shop in Gloucester. ("Tong Il" was changed to "International Seafoods" in 1976, because of "terrible PR," the church's director for marketing services says "Tong Il" is also the name of Moon's Korean corporation which manufactures arms and weapons at an estimated annual profit of $2 million).

And while Barry, Runyan and Bill Sanders--the manager of International Seafoods--readily insist that their laborers are paid, church member Joy Irving said in 1977 that church members working for International Seafoods were "volunteering their services" for the good of the whole in a system which she described as "theocratic socialism."

And while Barry described International Seafoods as a "non-profit venture" which is "coincidentally owned by church members," Moon workers at International Seafoods were "donating" bluefin tuna to the Japanese branch of the church, which in turn sold the tuna in Tokyo at prices up to $3.50 per pound (prime price in the Boston area is $2 per pound). One church spokesman, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sullivan in 1977 that as an example the Unification Church could make $1650 for each 500-pound tuna it sold in Tokyo by eliminating the normal overhead costs of shipping and selling tuna to foreign retailers. The "donation" of the fish to another branch of the church and the utilization of church labor and facilities abrogates the normal overhead, the source explained. But he denied that this was a church practice saying that Moon's laborers are paid.

Barry says all the business ventures of Tong Il and International Seafoods during the last four years have been part of an effort to establish a financial base for the church's aim of feeding the world.

"The goal of the church is to unite all people," Barry told Gloucester in 1977. A main target of the church would be youths who "are involved with sexual promiscuity and drugs," he said.

"We really believe there has to be a viable alternative to Marxism today," Barry told the crowd.

And it's all perfectly legal--as legal as the Mormons investing money in Marriott Hotels, as legal as the Catholic Church investing in Pepsi-Cola. The Unification Church-linked enterprises manage to evade any complications in dealing with their foreign contingents, and the money they receive from their international corporations--after passing through a myriad of businesses and church connections--is laundered clean.

The real issues here--the issues that are raising hackles from Gloucester's Kiwanis Club all the way to the House Sub-Committee on International Organizations--are the real objectives of Moon's business enterprises in America, and the extent to which the First Amendment and its tax-exempt priority are being abused.

Phillip Greek, a former church member, told the House Sub-Committee, "In the future, it is the hope of Rev. Moon that the church will become one vast conglomerate of mutually supporting businesses."

Moon encourages this international "unification" of church-linked enterprises as the final method for the Unification Church to gain worldwide influence.

"We are trying to establish a financial base for this church through various methods of fund-raising," Barry told The Crimson last September at the church-sponsored International Conference for the Unity of Sciences in Boston.

Barry concurs that the theme of unification is central to both the religious doctrines of the church, and the church's various business enterprises. The concept of unity is reflected in the names of almost all Moon-linked businesses: Uniworld, Newsworld, International Seafoods, and International Oceanic Enterprises.

When asked if Moon's mission--as interpreted through The Divine Principle (Moon's own addendum to the Bible)--is to unite the world under Christ through Rev. Moon and his teachings, Barry said flatly, "Yes."

"Who knows?" Alper said from his desk in city hall last July. "Is it legal? Is it true? Are they paying wages? Do they want to take over the world? There have been investigations. Who Knows?