By Theresa Kiely
Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer

More than 700 people listened Saturday evening to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, in Jackson as part of his 50-state tour dubbed "We Will Stand!"

Moon, 81, a Korean evangelist and the married father of 13 children, spoke through a translator.

He told the audience gathered from 4:30-7:30 p.m. in the Jackson Hilton Grand Ballroom he wants America to get back to family values, and he promoted racial reconciliation.

"Grandparents are the universe of the family," said Moon, as he asked for a show of hands of those older than him. Two hands went up.

"Then, I believe I am in the position of the grandfather in this room," Moon said. "And when people get old, they sometimes say harsh words, others do not want to hear."

Moon, a farmer's son, was born in what is now North Korea in 1920. He founded the Unification Church in 1954.

Moon's ideal is to unify all races and nationalities by mixed marriages. In 1982, Moon married 2,075 couples at a mass wedding in New York's Madison Square Garden.

Some in the audience Saturday appeared visibly uncomfortable when Moon spoke repeatedly about the "love organs" of men and women as he praised fidelity and rejected illicit sex and divorce.

"I have been the object of scrutiny for years," said Moon, whose followers are often referred to derisively as "Moonies." "I carry no animosity. Jesus Christ forgave his tormentors."

Jorge Padilla, the pastor of the Church of God, a five-year-old bilingual but predominantly Hispanic congregation in Pearl, heard about Moon's tour through visiting missionaries. "I think we need to encourage family values," Padilla said.

John Hancock, pastor of Calvary Apostolic Church in McComb, brought friends and family to hear Moon. "I love much of what the Rev. Moon says about dismantling the forces of bigotry and hate," Hancock said. "But that does not convince me of the validity of his religious beliefs.

"For whatever theologic faults he has, the man has a tremendous persona," Hancock said.

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