Nightline to Air Final Segment on Blessing 2014
One more episode of Nightline, premieres tonight at its usual time slot of 12:35am, will present a news feature on love and marriage Unification style with some new material. Since Saturday night, millions of ABC viewers of Nightline, World News Tonight and Good Morning America have gotten a close look at the exotic wedding tradition of the Unification Movement, and the reaction of church members is generally favorable. Two videos, one about the preparation and one on the big day itself, are available online for viewing.
Dr. Michael Balcomb told the New Hope Family Church in Maryland on Sunday morning (April 13th) that he thought the film overall was fair and factual. “No program is perfect,” Dr. Balcomb comments, “and this one certainly has its faults. Yet it also shows something of the honesty and idealism of our outstanding young people, and the international appeal of the Blessing. It would be great to check back in a couple of years to see how these couples are doing.”
Dr. Balcomb had invited ABC reporters into his office just two days before the broadcast to give them a chance to interview him about the most controversial allegations in the feature, and his brief statement in the final product was appreciated by many. “I’m pleased to see that some lively discussion has been stimulated by this show, and hope to engage ABC and other media outlets in follow up for deeper and broader exploration of the life work of Rev. & Mrs. Moon, including the all-important underlying spiritual principles.”
ABC correspondent Ju Ju Chang correctly observed in her narration that the crew got rare access to the church’s private educational meetings and to the families of the Blessing candidates. ABC producer Victoria Thompson expressed regret afterwards that the reporting team couldn’t get a larger time slot to air more of the dozen interviews collected from November to April. However, according to Victoria, ABC executives and her colleagues loved the final product, which was adapted for three other ABC news platforms.
Kaye Allen, the senior attorney for the church, commented: “Despite the general attempt to air negative points, the overall impression of the high points of the Blessing, the international nature of the couples, and the faith and conviction of the participants still managed to come through. On balance viewers could come away with a somewhat favorable sense of the Blessing.”
Claire Haider, who was interviewed in the segment, gave ABC a positive grade:
“On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best, I would give the program a 7. Because ABC doesn’t understand the Divine Principle, they could not convey it perfectly. I think they did the best they could. Considering the days in which we live, with heterosexual marriages and the family structure being challenged, those who understand God’s plan likely would agree that seeing male/female marriages validated on such a large scale was a beautiful sight.”
Glenn Haider, Claire’s son, texted this reaction: “I thought it was very objective, and overall I’m very grateful to the ABC team for a good outcome.”
Other participants were not happy campers. Jerry Parks and Emiko Parks, parents of Naomi Parks, one of the first candidates interviewed, told Familyfed.org,
“My initial reaction was one of surprise and disgust due to the short time given to the piece, the omission of key points concerning the meaning of the Blessing process and the fact that ABC squeezed this in between two meaningless stories. My wife and I were directly interviewed two separate times, once in Philadelphia in November at the engagement ceremony and once in Orlando a couple of months later. Both times, we were asked on camera to explain the meaning and value of the blessing from our point of view. Sadly, not even one statement was made as to the value and meaning of the Blessing of Marriage in the FFWPU.”
The Parks nonetheless could see the silver lining. “After reading about the upcoming Nightline broadcast, a couple who were previously connected to the Unification movement and who live here in Orlando, called our District Director Friday night after viewing the ABC ad promos and requested to connect with the Orlando Family Church and to go to the blessing next year. So, I feel good about that result and hope more positive results will come from the airing of the broadcast,” they reported in an email.
Contributed by Douglas Burton, Public Affairs Coordinator for FFWPU.