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Cynthia Lilley
Cynthia Lilley (B.A., American University) is a
welcome addition to AFF’s advisory board, not least because of her passionate
concern for families that have suffered as hers has done. A nationwide audience
of the "Today" show received a stunning lesson on November 8, 1993 when Ms.
Lilley was shown in company with family members and an NBC crew, laying
siege to Unification Church headquarters, demanding access to her daughter.
Eighteen-year-old Cathryn had completed a year at college and was beginning a
summer job in New York City. Within days, she sent her mother a chilling letter,
announcing that she would be traveling around the country with a wonderful
group, working with alcoholics and addicts, and unreachable by phone. The
address she gave, Ms. Lilley soon learned, was a Moonie post box. She spent the
night crying, and decided next day that from that moment, her life’s work was to
rescue her daughter.
Her satisfying career in
music education on hold, she was soon immersed in consultation with family,
friends, police, lawyers, private eyes, social workers, and counselors who were
ex-cultists. She spent days telephoning other Moonies’ parents, absorbing
everything they could tell. AFF president Herb Rosedale gave her invaluable
advice and encouragement, as did Dr. Jolly West ("he was terrific"), and AFF’s
Washington lawyer, David Bardin ("a great taskmaster"), who kept her busy
writing letters. Working "harder than at any time in [her] life," she left
herself little time to despair.
It took two months to find Cathryn’s address and, faced
with a camera crew and an adamant family on their doorstep, the Moonies relented
to permit a brief, sad, and inconclusive reunion between mother and daughter.
Sixteen-year-old brother Jonathan was not permitted inside, but he called his
messages of love and support through the open stairwell. A final shot showed the
distraught family walking away into the summer dusk. The November broadcast
succeeded where calls and letters had failed: within three days, the U.C.
allowed Cathryn to go home for a visit. She said later, "I was so broken down at
that point that I thought, I may be rejecting the truth, but I can’t go on." The
family’s relief was indescribable.
Ms. Lilley has seen at close range both the marvels and
the inadequacies of cult education and rehabilitation. She is committed to
improving both.
Conference 1997: PA Presenter
Lilley, Cynthia: "Mother Takes-on Moon"
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