Reverend Moon was born in 1920 in North Korea, where he was converted to Christianity by American missionaries. On Easter morning, 1936, Moon says that Christ appeared to him as he prayed on a mountainside and told him to complete the mission begun by the son of God. It is Moon's interpretation of that mission that has gained him both a great following and great notoriety.

Moon's Unification Church has become the first popular "echo" religion, or eastern reflection of western Christianity, according to Harvey Cox. It emphasizes filial piety, family values (Moon will suggest marriage partners to church members who seek his advice), and respect for the holy man. Moon preaches that contrary to traditional Christian theology, Christ was not meant to be crucified but to marry and father a race to supplant the fallen descendants of Adam and Eve.

The Unification Church believes the line of towering Judeo-Christian prophets begins with Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and is revived with Reverend Moon. According to this view, Christ redeemed man's spirit while Moon wants to redeem the whole man; to exalt his material side as well as his spiritual. This is why the Church encourages its members to found businesses and to give generously to the Church--actually just another version of the American Protestant work and tithe ethic.

Indeed, Moon is in some ways quintessentially American. He was tortured in several communist prison camps and was once left for dead on a bloody snowbank in Dac Dong, but he survived to become an immigrant millionaire. A devout anti-communist, Moon's speeches frequently echo not only of one of his heroes, Douglas MacArthur, but also of earlier American patriots. One of his recent statements: "I am even willing to give my life, if that will ensure that the nation and world survive and do God's will" echoes of Nathan Hale.

Unfortunately for his place in U.S. history books, however, Moon spent the decade after he came to America in 1971 earning a reputation as a kidnapper and brainwasher of freckle-faced Kansans. The vast majority of press accounts of the Unification Church during the 1970's were unfavorable," and Moon's national image is still tarnished.

Gordon Kauffman, Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity, points out that conversion to any religion involves a change of mind, but says that the Unification Church does "seem to have a much stronger control of their believers than most religions in America now." He is careful to add that "this is not to say that they are much stronger thean most religions in the world now, or in the past."

The man and the controversy aside, Moon's theology has yet to achieve widespread acceptance in the United States, where he numbers only 45,000 followers. An amicus curiae or "friend of the court" brief submitted on Moon's behalf by churches representing over 40 million parishioners noted that:

Cases such as this, while nominally related to taxes, bear a striking resemblance to the ordeals of Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Joseph Smith, and Mary Baker Eddy, all of whom appeared hardly less alien and threatening to many in the early days of their movements than Reverend Moon appears to many today.

Sixteen amicus briefs representing 43 organizations including the National Council of Churches and the American Civil Liberties Union were submitted on Moon's behalf during the trial and the subsequent appeals.

In one of the many ironies pervading the case, the government had to ensure that the trial itself dealt only with arcane questions of implied trust relationships, and entirely excluded the issue which was getting all the publicity: religion. Government prosecutors couldn't afford to raise the sorts of questions Bob Dole raised in 1976, because they knew what the answers would be.

In the 1982 tax case, New York City Tax Commission vs. Unification Church, the United States Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the Unification Church was a bona fide religion, based on such criteria as "a belief in ultimate concerns" and devotion to worship and evangelism.

Reverend Moon had requested a bench trial from Judge Gerard L. Goettel, well aware that a survey commissioned by his lawyers found that 76.4 percent of those questioned reacted unfavorably to his name. But the government, which usually prefers bench trials in tax cases, insisted on a jury trial, purportedly so that Moon could not "blame any adverse result in this case on religious or racial bigotry."

Moon's counsel charged that the government's refusal to accede to his request "in substance and effect punished [Moon] for exercising his right to freedom of expression" and "doomed him to a conviction based on religious prejudice."

The trial featured the bleak comedy of Moon's chief counsel, Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law Laurence H. Tribe '62, contending with a jury poorly suited to appreciate his subtle arguments. Tribe, a brilliant scholar and appellate hotshot with a poised, aggressive courtroom style--he is 6-2 in Supreme Court arguments--found himself talking to jurors who, as Judge Goettel admitted, "don't know much, because they are obviously the persons who start off with the least bias."

The jury found Moon guilty, and the appeals court upheld the conviction, despite Tribe's protests about the jury's quality and the misleading thrust of Judge Goettel's instructions to them. Tribe had to reshape his argument along constitutional lines for the next forum--the Supreme Court.