| February 01 2011

A new webcast called Rev. Moon Radio [http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rev-moon-radio]can be heard and watched worldwide at 8 p.m. every Thursday night EST (USA) and is creating a buzz among Unificationists.  Launched in 2006 by Unificationist Gregory Davis, Rev. Moon Radio is a live broadcast that aims to discuss news and views about the ministry of Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the notable events in the movement he created.

The following report is from Greg Davis:

“I got the idea for the show based upon my experience of producing experimental radio programs in 1997 and 2002, and after realizing that mainstream news outlets were never going to report the positive and amazing things that the Rev. Moon was doing -- including historic, peace-making events around the world.  With the advent of 21st century technology — a website, a web cam, and a microphone — Rev. Moon Radio was born.

I called it radio because I came from a ‘radio’ background and experience—and I liked the ring of it—Reverend Moon Radio. This program was going to be about Reverend Moon, plain and simple.  No hidden agendas or ‘reporting’ on events. I was a member of the Unification Church, a 36-year-follower of Reverend Moon and was proud of it!  However, I was not going to preach. I was not going to try to convince or convert — I was going to set the record straight.  I was going to broadcast the ‘Breaking News.’  The Messiah is on the earth doing amazing things all over the world for more than 70 years, and the general public deserved to know about it.  The mainstream media is falling down on the job.  Folks are looking for hope, inspiration, and the path to True World Peace—it’s all around them but they don’t know it.

Early years of Rev. Moon Radio

During the first year, we had only a few views per show. A few shows were also broadcast and recorded as videos for our website. For one reason or another, I just couldn’t “grasp” the right format and method of how to manifest my vision.  What I envisioned was a conversation with a co-host and some background music perhaps, with reporting and discussion of the many projects and providential activities that Rev. Moon was doing right now.   

However, earlier incarnations with different co-hosts and myself as a single host just didn’t flow. Therefore I discontinued the broadcast, but kept the website.

After attending Lovin’ Life  Ministry services, held weekly in New York City, I heard the senior pastor, Rev. In Jin Moon remind us of the Breaking News and of the fact that we were so fortunate to be living at this time when the True Parents are on the earth. That reminded me of what I had wanted to do.  I wanted to share the This News with the world — confidently and unabashedly on the air!  So, I decided, then and there, that I would find a way to re-launch Rev. Moon Radio.

I had very little resources, no fancy equipment, but I had a computer and I had a website. I was determined to find a way to do it.  Then God gave me a sign (He does that sometimes).  One morning, in early spring, I showed up early for LLM service and God somehow “arranged” for a friend from the Long Island community, Tony Gioia, to sit next to me. We had a few minutes before the service started, so we had a short conversation, which has led to Mr. Gioia sitting in every week as my co-host.

Tony had joined the church in the early 70’s but for various reasons became inactive for decades. After having a very powerful spiritual experience while on vacation in Mexico at the Mayan Ruins, he realized that Rev. Moon was the returning Messiah and that he had to return to the Church—34 years later.  

Tony is like a little kid with his exuberance and enthusiasm, but has life experience and wisdom, as well as a substantial understanding of Divine Principle. Needless to say, he is on fire in a spiritual sense.  He loves to talk about all the amazing things that we are witnessing not only in our movement but in the secular world as well.   He has since been to Korea, Las Vegas twice, every Lovin’ Life service, and every Hoon Dok Hwe study session with True Father at East Garden.  It was there at East Garden that he had another very profound spiritual experience that not only reinforced what he had come to know but also gave him insight on the work that he must do.

The Origins of “Davo”

My love for radio goes back to my middle-school days. I was born in the Midwest and grew up in Mahomet, Illinois, a small town outside of Champaign-Urbana - literally in the middle of cornfields. I got my first taste of “radio” when, for a junior-high school history project, a friend and I took an old tape recorder and recorded a mock radio program. I took on the radio moniker of “Davo” and imitated the voice of the iconic broadcaster Walter Cronkite in his portrayal—some said I was quite convincing. In any case, “Davo” continues today as the voice of Rev. Moon Radio. I joined the Unification Church in Rochester, New York in 1974. At the time, I was profoundly struck by the simplicity and logic of the Divine Principle and the overwhelming experience of feeling loved, forgiven, and at my spiritual home.   In my naïveté, I imagined that “everyone” was having this experience and felt like a little kid at Christmas. I joined a happy band of traveling Unificationist missionaries in July, 1974 and off I went.

After witnessing for few months in Philadelphia, I worked for the historic campaign of bringing folks to Rev. Moon’s speech at Madison Square Garden in New York City in September, 1974 and later learned to sharpen my spiritual skills and my sales persona as a member of a Mobile Fundraising Team for seven years.  During those seven years, I was fortunate to be able to participate in the other touchstone events of the latter part of the 20th Century — rallies at Yankee Stadium and The Washington Monument in 1976.  In 1982, I participated in another event which was to change my life forever and launch me into my current state of bliss. I was blessed in marriage by Rev. Moon and Mrs. Moon to my lovely wife, Sumiko, in Madison Square Garden.  Today, we have two beautiful daughters, Miyo and Misook.

Over the years, I have worked in a variety of church businesses and in 1987 went to study at the Unification Theological Seminary and graduated with a Masters in Religious Education in 1989. However, I did not really feel called as a minister in the traditional sense.  I have nonetheless felt a strong attraction to the power of the media as a way to get the message out about True Parents and I have spent years investigating various ways to get involved as a means of communicating to the world about the life of Rev. Moon and the teachings of Divine Principle. 

After 37 weekly shows of Rev. Moon Radio, Tony and I are having a ball. Since our fellow church member, Shahram Sehdi, posted the show on his website iUnificationist.org, we started to get 20 or 30 views weekly, and now we have been getting 200 to 300 views, and it’s only getting better.

We seem to work well together and we like the freedom to use our creativity to develop a relevant fun program with lively discussion and comments on the nuances of the Providence—and most importantly--to proclaim the Breaking News.  We are reminded of how blessed we are to be alive at this time, when the True Parents are on the earth and we can work alongside of them and witness the ongoing developments of what they started and what is being continued through the second and third generations of our movement.  To me, it is exciting!  We are the only ones, of those living right now, to have been given such a gift to be with True Parents.

We are honored and privileged to have the opportunity to do this show and, hopefully, be a source of information and inspiration for brothers and sisters everywhere, because we are One Family Under God.  I would like to thank all the many brothers and sisters around the world who supported me in the early years and, now, Tony and I presently, with countless emails, technical assistance, and by watching our show.  We appreciate you.  Let’s spread the word together.

When I started this program initially, I envisioned it to be a source of information about True Father’s activities and accomplishments, and to give hope and inspiration to those outside of our movement.  I sincerely believe that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who are longing to hear just such a message. So, dear God, let our broadcasts fall upon the ears of whom it will and maybe it will do some good wherever it lands.” 

Contributed by Mr. Gregory Davis, founder of Rev. Moon Radio