Page "Moonie (nickname)" Paragraph 10

Unification Church official Michael Jenkins ( who later became president of the Unification Church of the United States ) commented in 1989 on his views of why the Unification Church was shifting its public stance regarding use of the word: " Why, after so many years, should we now be taking such a stand to eliminate the term ' Moonie?

' For me, it is a sign that the American Unification Church has come of age.

We can no longer allow our founder, our members, and allies to be dehumanized and unfairly discriminated against.

... We are now entering a period of our history where our Church development and family orientation are strong enough that we can turn our attention toward ending the widespread misunderstanding about our founder and the Unification movement.

" In 1990, a position paper sent from the Unification Church to The Fresno Bee said: " We will fight gratuitous use of the ' Moonie ' or ' cult ' pejoratives.

We will call journalists on every instance of unprofessional reporting.

We intend to stop distortions plagiarized from file clippings which propagate from story to story like a computer virus.

" In 1992 the Unification Church-affiliated organization Professors World Peace Academy asserted use of the word " Moonie " was akin to that of the word " nigger ".

Unification Church member Kristopher Esplin told Reuters what is normally done if the word is seen in media sources: " If it's printed in newspapers, we will respond, write to the editor, that sort of thing.

" On an October 6, 1994 broadcast of Nightline, host Ted Koppel stated: " On last night's program ... I used the term ' Moonies '.

This is a label which members of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church find demeaning and offensive, and I'd like to apologize for its use.