Eric,

You are right about Kwanzaa but wrong about Moon. See this link:
http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Anderson/Anderson-BlackHJN.htm

Moon allowed numerous followers to be severely beaten with baseball bats when I was a member of his church. Bo Hi Pak, the former Washington Times publisher, was beaten so badly that he needed what his son described as "open brain surgery." He almost died.

If the allegations are true, then I stand corrected. Not that I'd be terribly surprised (although I'd be more convinced by a criminal conviction).

Thanks!

For a more balanced discussion of Kwanzaa, see the Wikipedia entry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa.

I pointed out that the guy who invented Kwanzaa is a torturer. If the platform here isn't "balanced" enough, please bear in mind that I'm not running a politically correct website. I no more have to provide balance in support of the ideas of convicted torturers than I do for the Unification Church, or Mickey Mouse.

And I think the "balance" argument would have been a bit more persuasive had it provided a similar link to "both sides" of Sun Myung Moon.

Nice retort, Eric. Very well done. I Googled the Wikipedia entry after seeing your post. Balanced, meh. It's apparently balanced to reference George Washington as a slave owner, but Karenga's birth name and criminal past is not mentioned?

And a huge thanks for mentioning Swanky Conservative so prominently!

Actually, the wikipedia entry does mention Karenga's arrest, and also links to another entry on Karenga that also discusses his arrest.

Wikipedia is quite good, and if you are familiar with the process, you are welcome to make changes to the entries as you see fit.

I assume what the poster meant by "balanced," is that the discussion of Kwanzaa's controversial side is balanced by a description of what the event means to believers.

Finally, your readers would be served to read the entire context of the reference to Washington. As one rebuttal to the kind of criticism you have leveled at Kwanzaa, the entry suggests:

"They also note that Kwanzaa does not honor Karenga; he merely originated the holiday. There are holidays honoring far worse, they argue, pointing to the existence of Presidents' Day, a federal holiday set aside to honor, among others, President George Washington, a plantation owner who owned, bought and sold African slaves."

I'm against Kwanzaa. At best, it's a third-rate, made-up, ersatz, "separate and inferior" day to celebrate socialism and further segregate American Negroes, who, even during the Jim Crow era, were already celebrating Christmas equally with the white folks. I don't see what Sung Myung Moon has anything to do with it one way or another. How'd he get in here? And George Washington freed his slaves. I have had it with Political Correctness. I'm against it.

Anyway, Joe Gandelman, Dean Esmay, the Queen of All Evil, Arnold Harris, Paul Burgess, Brannon, Catch 22, Dani, Dave D., Kevin D., and all the rest of us wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Now, don't get "shook", as H. L. "Bill" Richardson would say, but take a look at this post that a comment of mine inspired. Yes, this symbol was used and held sacred in every culture, on every continent, in every age, since prehistory, and can be found in medieval Jewish synagogues.

Steven, I just read that post earlier. You must be getting psychic there.....

Merry Christmas!