NASHUA — The leader of the Unification Church, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, will appear in Nashua Saturday as part of a 50-state, 51-day speaking tour which organizers say is designed to “encourage all people of faiths to tear down the divisive walls of race and denomination.”

Moon, 81, founder of The Washington Times newspaper, established the Unification Church in his native Korea in the 1950s. He attracted attention for legal problems in the mid-1980s. He served 13 months in federal prison for income-tax evasion.

Clergy from a variety of Christian denominations, under the umbrella of the American Clergy Leadership Conference, are supporting Moon on the tour, on his pro-family values tour, which stops in Nashua at the Marriott Hotel Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Richard Buessing of Concord, one of about 60 members of the Unification Church in New Hampshire, said his group distributed informational videos about the event to churches statewide as a way of inviting ministers and their congregations to the event, likely the final speaking tour for Moon.

Buessing said that Moon’s message — delivered in two speeches — will encourage people to live pure lives, to love their neighbors and to encourage Christian leaders to work toward uniting in their mission. He also will speak on the importance of the family unit, Buessing said.

Moon’s second speech will focus on his role in America in the past 30 years and his idea that America was chosen by God to be a land of religious freedom.

The Rev. Dr. Albert Welch, 82, of Athol, Mass., a Congregational minister, has known Moon since 1982 and will be at the event in Nashua.

Welch met Moon while serving a Congregational church in Boston, has visited Korea with him and considers him a personal friend.

He says Moon’s message is one of trying to bring peace and harmony to the world’s families and one of bringing together denominations to work to those ends.

“I believe, as Jesus said, not only love your enemy, but love your neighbor,” Welch said. “What is a greater neighbor to me than another Christian church?”

Several Nashua churches said they received the videotape and the invitation but will not attend the event.

Charles Viens, pastor of Faith Baptist Church of Nashua, an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church, said that while he isn’t against Moon as a man, he rejects his teachings.

“We totally deny his doctrine, his teachings and his philosophy as anti-Biblical and would warn people of his teachings and his followers,” Viens said. “Anyone with any working knowledge of the Bible will reject him as a false prophet.”

Buessing says that while Moon does not outwardly claim to be the Messiah, he said he feels anointed by God and it has been indicated that he is serving in a messianic role.

He also said that critics who call the Unification Church a cult are threatened by something new.

“Today’s established religions were once considered cults,” Buessing said. “I think we’re beyond that.”

Welch said that he is confident that Moon’s tour will have a positive effect bringing denominations together.