APnd 12/21 2247 Lawmaker-Moonies SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A Republican state lawmaker def

APnd 12/21 2247 Lawmaker-Moonies


   SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A Republican state lawmaker defended
her  participation  in  conferences  sponsored  by  a  group that
recieives funding  from  the  Unification  Church,  but  a  state
Democratic Party official continued his charges.

   Rep.   Marion  Wofford  of  Sioux Falls held a news conference
Monday  to  defend  her  involvement  in   CAUSA   International,
associated with  the  Rev.   Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.
Wofford  has  attended  five  expense-paid   CAUSA   conferences,
including one in South Korea.

   "They're doing something that no one else is doing and I think
their conferences are great," she said.

   But  the  state  Democratic  Party's  executive  director, who
criticized Wofford earlier this month,  held  a  news  conference
Monday afternoon to respond.

   "I'm here to tell you that it's not great," Jim Robinson said.
"She and the others, who are victims of Moon's hidden agenda, are
manipulated and are allowing themselves to be used."

   Robinson accused  Wofford of being naive.  Moon is using CAUSA
to replace communist and democratic governments with a  theocracy
led by himself, Robinson said.

   But  Wofford  said  she  does  not  follow  Unification Church
teachings and attended  the  conferences  because  CAUSA  opposes
communism.

   If  other churches had sponsored them she would have attended,
"as long as there's nothing unseemly in  the  organization,"  she
said.

   "I  met  all the Moonies, too, and they were delightful people
and they weren't brainwashed," Wofford said.    Moon's  followers
are known as Moonies.

	Moon's name was mentioned at the conferences, she said.