Such views may be related to the latest scandal to envelop Moon's church, involving damaging revelations about his family. He is not the only member of Moon's family to have trouble. Another son died in a high-speed car crash, and one of Moon's daughters has turned against him. The church is being revamped, shedding much if its spiritual identity in favor of universal issues of family values and world peace. In Brazil, Moon's organization recently changed its name to the Association of Families for Unification and World Peace.
Followers insist New Hope is open to all faiths.
Over a spicy Korean lunch of fish and vegetables on the veranda of his wooden office, Kim handed over presentation of the project's goals to the Rev. Hideo Oyamada, Moon's continental director of operations. Oyamada began with a rough map, drawing a circle 250 miles across, around Jardim, the nearest small town to New Hope. Moon's plan, he said, was to buy up all the land in this area, a sizeable chunk of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Development of the region had been held back by Brazil's medieval land-owning system controlled by a handful of wealthy ranchers, he explained. Brazil very difficult.