The following is an adapted excerpt from John Gorenfeld's "Bad Moon Rising: How Reverend Moon Created the Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom" (Polipoint Press, 2008). The video at the right is from a 1997 Washington Times party where Moon said he founded the newspaper to save the world. In it, he also demands that his employees rid the world of "free sex," meaning sexual intercourse beyond the purifying influence of his mass weddings.

"There are moments that best play straight," CNN anchor Aaron Brown said after I discovered the pageant. "So here goes. Lawmakers welcome a guy to Congress -- and the messiah shows up."