Tribe's arguments before the high court followed several tacks, but focused on the point that has brought religious leaders with widely different beliefs rallying to Moon's cause--the traditionally sacrosanct character of a religious institution's financial organization. It has always been legally acceptable for a religious leader to hold funds for a church in his name, and the practice is widespread among small churches, as well as in the Catholic Church. The late Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York, for example, held millions in his name for the Church.

This unprecedented challenge to corporation sole raises the spectre of "Big Brother" IRS agents examining the odometer on the church station wagon to see if it registers more trave than necessary to make the parish rounds (Though even Moon partisans admit that the church converts to a group accomidation as the Unification Church did in 1975--it will avoid the potential threat.)

But, says Charles E. Price, a professor of Law at Notre Dame who wrote an amicus brief on the Moon case for the Center for Judicial Studies, it would be "unfair to many small Southern Baptist ministeries to make them pay for the legal counsel necessary for such a complex change." John T. Biermans, a New York attorney who assisted with Moon's defense, says flatly that "stopping corporation sole would revolutionize religion in this country," and notes that ministers are considerably more accountable for their trust than political candidates who bank contributions in their name.

The government contends that all the evangelical furor is unnecessary, even irresponsible. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Devita, one of three government lawyers who prosecuted the Moon case, says that "the public statements of religious persecution are false. It was a tax case." Devita points out that when Judge Goettel denied Moon's motion to reduce his sentence on July 18, two days before Moon surrendered to Federal officials, Goettel said that "Moon totally misstated what was involved in the prosecution." (For instance, someone in the Moon organization manufactured documents purporting to show where the money in question came from--which lead to Moon's conviction for fraud as well as conspiracy). Goettel also used the occasion to put an end to the jury trial controversy by saying that he would have come to the same verdict the jury did.

Unification Church officials claim that they were delighted to let Moon use the controversial account (known within the church as "Father's money") for his personal expenses, but his $600,000 estate and lavish life style have naturally raised questions about the dividing line between pension and pillage. One of the defense's frustrated arguments, characterized by Judge Goettel as the "Messiah defense", was that Moon embodied the Church and its theological stance, and was therefore perfectly entitled to disburse its assets as he saw fit.

Religious leaders who support Moon are forced to agree with this argument if they want any moral and constitutional high ground to stand on, but many find its bald expression distasteful, as the National Council of Churches disapproves of religions which exalt documents or individuals whose genesis occured after Christ's. On this point Nicholas M. Buscovich, Director of the Unification Church of Massachusetts, says simply, "There was a three-year period when, in essence, Reverend Moon was the church."

The defense's argument that it is a violation of religious freedom to tax religions therefore meets head-on the government's taxation philosophy. As a prosecution figure who asked not to be identified noted, "Whether or not the congregants are willing to have it happen, for someone to take church money and use it for their creature comforts is not a legitimate use of religious exemption. It suggests that someone can impose their beliefs on the system of taxation."

Though Moon has a compelling argument that the scope of his work makes the $25,000 the government was pursuing seem trivial, he was proved guilty; and the list of his expenditures does seem rather secular. Nonetheless, the issue of selective prosecution remains-why research the Unification Church for five years? Prosecutor Devita contends that the seemingly extraordinary measures clothe a very simple tax case, and stresses that there is no reason for concern that legitimate church activity will be prosecuted because of this case, whether the religions are orthodox, unorthodox, or whatever."

DESPITE SUCH governmental assurances, however, religious leaders continue to view the Moon ruling with deep suspicion. They are disturbed by phrases such as "legitimate church activity," especially in light of the recent Bob Jones University case. In that case, the government wanted to withdraw Bob Jones' tax exemption unless they changed their practice--which stemmed from religious beliefs--of forbidding interracial dating. Last year the Supreme Court ruled that the IRS had the power to rescind the tax exemption, on the basis that the school's stance defied "public policy."

The subsequent outcry about totalitarian executive-judicial cabals was repeated and intensified when Reverend Moon protested his treatment before the Hatch subcommittee on June 26--this time charges of racism were working for, not against, the religious community.

The subcommittee hearing gave Moon a well-publicized venue for airing his concerns, but it was even more significant for bringing together scores of religious leaders who felt their faith was under seige: it was an ecumenical watershed. As Dr. Tim Lahaye of the Moral Majority said, "I don't believe in the history of America we have ever had such a religiously diverse group as we have in this room today. It's miraculous."

In his opening remarks, Senator Hatch raised the central question to come out of the hearing. "And what are we to think," he asked rhetorically, "when the leader of an unpopular church who is definitely hated and despised by large groups of people, may be thrown in prison after the court refuses to recognize what some believe to be his and his church's constitutional rights?"

There are several views about the cause of the perceived crisis. Unification Church officials agree that there is a government conspiracy to "get Reverend Moon." Dr. Lahaye in his testimony expressed concern that "secularist forces within the government [are] moving steadily and in an intruding way upon these [religious] freedoms." Professor Rice says he sees no active conspiracy, and believes the cause of the government's extended pursuit of Moon may have been "government stupidity."

Professor Cox also downplays fundamentalist fears of a Federal cadre of secular humanists setting out to destroy religions. He muses that the Moon case may be an example of the risks of a strong central government:

I do think people who hold power in the public realm tend to want to subvert other forms of discourse. This seems to be built into the power structure. And religious organizations are notoriously hard to control--they're decentralized, and they suffuse the society. It's not incidental that totalitarianistic societies try to control the churches, the press, and the universities.

Meanwhile, though the Ad Hoe Committee's plan to join Reverend Moon in jail has proved unfeasible for reasons having to do with common sense, they have held demonstrations supporting Moon in New York and New Jersey, and they are reportedly considering, demonstrating outside the prison walls.

Inside the walls, Reverend Moon is running his church from his cell. Ironically, Warden Dennis Luther has forbidden Moon from Proselytizing to his fellow prisoners, citing a regulation which bars prisoners from operating their "businesses" within the prison. The Federal government has elearly decided that the religion of Reverend Sun Myung Moon is business.

Assuming good behavior-and so far he has been a model prisoner-Moon could be out on parole by February. But the sentiment of Dr. Lahaye, that Moon's confinement, "indicates that the religious community will remain on the alert for further transgressions against religious liberty: real-or imagined.