#far-right groups

The Proud Boys’ presence at the festival is the latest example of the far-right street-fighting gang’s willingness to forge alliances with fringe groups.

By Tess Owen

October 10, 2023, 7:04pm

In what can only be described as a meeting of minds, the Proud Boys appear to have aligned themselves with an ultra-fringe religious sect in Pennsylvania that worships with AR-15s. 

The Sanctuary Church, also known as Rod of Iron Ministries, is run by Pastor Hyung-Jin “Sean” Moon. Moon’s late father founded the international “Unification Church,” an alleged cult whose adoring followers were known as “Moonies.” 

The younger Moon, with the help of his brother Justin Moon (owner of a gun company, Kahr Arms) founded his own church in 2017, putting a militant, AR-15 centric spin on his father’s teachings. 

This weekend, the church hosted its fourth annual “Rod of Iron Freedom Festival” at the Kahr Arms warehouse in Greeley, Pennsylvania, about 45 miles from Scranton. The event included a performance by Pastor Moon, aka “King Bullethead,” who rapped about putting pedophiles in “the wood chipper.” It also featured a ceremonial burning of a pansexual Pride flag, speeches by failed local political candidates, as well as hard-right pundit and former Trump official Seb Gorka — and, of course, the Proud Boys. Some members of the church had traveled from as far as Korea and Japan to attend. 

... the church has also cultivated local political influence that has helped draw the likes of the Proud Boys and “parents’ rights” groups Moms for Liberty into their orbit. 

... the younger Moon has sought to embed his church not only in right-wing politics but in MAGA culture. Moon and other church officials were tear-gassed outside the Capitol on Jan 6, and Moon’s sermons can be labeled, broadly, as Christian Nationalist.

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