SNA (Tokyo) — Concerns about the Unification Church’s fundraising activities in Japan have spiraled in the weeks following the assassination of Shinzo Abe; the momentum of public outrage now threatens to carry matters too far.

The issue of the Unification Church and its “spiritual sales” and its other efforts to collect money from its mostly female following was thrust into public consciousness, of course, by the pitiful story of Abe assassin Tetsuya Yamagami; specifically how his mother had sunk the family into poverty through her excessive donations to the Church.

Many ordinary Japanese were moved by Yamagami’s life story, and as more information leaked out about the long history of the Church and its efforts to wring money out of its credulous and often vulnerable followers, public outrage grew.

In the latest round of news stories, the Mainichi Shinbun interviewed a former senior official of the Church who claimed that the religious organization had an annual “donations target” in Japan of around ¥30 billion (US$210 million) during the time he was in authority, giving additional credibility to accounts of a massive amount of wealth being harvested from Japanese citizens by the South Korea-based Church.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, taking a massive hit to his public approval ratings, has responded by pledging to sever all links between his ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Church. For its part, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has upped the ante a big step further, calling on the government to entirely disband the Unification Church, withdrawing its legal status in Japan, and putting it on par with a terrorist cult like Aum Shinrikyo.

Clearly the time has come to tap on the brakes–public outrage now threatens to reach the level of inviting discrimination and hate crimes directed at Church members.

The fundamental problem with the Unification Church in Japan is not that it has been allowed to exist, but rather that it maintained a cozy relationship with the ruling party that protected it from proper scrutiny and regulation.

In other words, the Church was able to become a quiet monster within Japanese society only because it was used as a source of financing and election-time manpower by rightwing politicians. The police and the mainstream media compounded the problem by failing to fulfill their roles as guardians of public welfare. This remained the case for decades, until Tetsuya Yamagami and his little homemade shotgun blew the lid off of the long-suppressed story.

Now that many of the facts have finally come to public light, the proper policy approach is not to crush the Church and to drive its followers underground, hotly pursued by an outraged mob carrying clubs and torches. Rather, what is needed is to investigate and regulate the Church’s activities in the manner which should happened decades ago.

Even if the majority regards the Unification Church as an undesirable cult, an open society demands policies of freedom of religion. This includes the freedom to believe in things which most people regard as being strange or even abhorrent.

For the political left, in particular, it is always vital not to hand precedents and powers to the ruling majority which may one day be turned against it–when it is the left which becomes unpopular with the public majority. The basic civil freedoms of even antagonistic groups must be respected.

In defending their rights to be different, we also defend our rights to depart from the mainstream.

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