Before conservatives mount their high horses over Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, they ought to take stock of their own religious friends who could turn into unholy ghosts that return to haunt the likes of Orrin Hatch.

But many national Republicans, Hatch in particular, have lauded Unification Church founder and would-be world savior Sun Myung Moon, calling him their "friend." In return, Moon has spread his money around, including $3 billion into the right-leaning Washington Times — a publication that Ronald Reagan called his "favorite newspaper." Bush senior and others have accepted lucrative speaking fees from Moon.

Unfortunately, Moon has spouted his share of crazy sh**, including crowning himself “savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent." See him at his whackiest here.

Orrin, in particular, might want to take a closer look at his Korean friend's theology, which would upset many Christians even more than Mormonism. Moon says that Satan corrupted mankind by doing the horizontal hokey pokey with Eve in Eden and that only sexual purification can save mankind. Moon argues that Jesus blew his chance to save humanity because he did not father children.

According to The Consortium for Independent Journalism:

Moon sees himself as a second messiah who will not make the same mistake. He has engaged in sex with a variety of women over the decades. The total number of his offspring is a point of debate inside the Unification Church. Moon's rhetoric has turned stridently anti-American, another problem for the Religious Right and its strongly patriotic positions. On May 1, 1997, Moon told a group of followers that "the country that represents Satan's harvest is America." [ Unification News, June 1997] In other sermons, he has vowed that his victorious movement will "digest" any American who tries to maintain his or her individuality. He especially has criticized American women who must "negate yourself 100 percent" to be a receptacle for the male seed.

The Raw Story says that in 2003, Moon's priests held a funeral for the Christian cross near Jerusalem.

They buried the cross because it was Satan's icon, Moon said, cleaving Jew from gentile, Christian from Muslim. Moon demanded a new symbol that everyone could agree on: the Crown of Glory. In February and March, 2004, on Capitol Hill, U.S. politicians would attend two ceremonies celebrating this gospel, the last climaxing with the selfsame Crown Of Glory lowered onto the Times owner's head.

The Raw Story says that Moon's followers brag that Utah's Orrin, a recording artist, wrote a song for Moon and his cause. But Hatch's spokesman Mark Eddington* says, "No one I've talked to can recall such a song."

*Former Trib middle manager/editor.