Court supports counseling to help Moonies to quit

The Tokyo District Court has ruled that counseling aimed at relieving
members of the "Unification Church," a South Korean-born cult led by Sun
Myung Moon, is legal.

The judgment was on six articles of the monthly "Tsukuru" carried last
year. The articles condemned those who engaged in anti-cult counseling for
trying to "compulsorily restrain" and "confine" 'Unification Church'
followers.

Asami Sadao, professor emeritus of Tohoku Gakuin University, filed the
suit. He has conducted relief activities for some followers of the
"Unification Church" (known as the Moonies) as well as for followers of the
Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian sect.

The court in its December 17 decision stated that family members whose
close relatives belong to the "Unification Church" experience great
distress. Appreciating Asami's efforts for their relief, the court ordered
the monthly's editor-in-chief and the article's writer to pay 900 thousand
yen in compensation for damages.

Moonies and other cult members have come to believe in inculcating
teachings through illegal manipulation of minds. Most of the members'
properties are donated to the cult group, and members are urged to engage in
anti-social activities on a day-to-day basis.

The Moonies' door-to-door "inspirational sales" of overpriced pots and
other expensive items as well as their missionary activities have been ruled
as illegal by the Supreme Court in February 2001 and the Sapporo District
Court in June.

The Moonies launched counter attacks against scholars and clergymen who
are involved in counseling, and urged some followers to lodge a file against
the court charging "counselors with kidnapping."

Last April, a Liberal Democratic Party Dietmember in a House of
Representatives committee meeting called counselors restrainers and insisted
that they must be regulated.

Commenting on the ruling, Asami said, "The ruling encourages those
working to relieve cult followers, and will help eliminate anti-social cult
activities." (end)