Word: moone
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
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...
...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...
...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...
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...