Several U.S. congressman were attendance.

Despite Rev. Moon's bizarre claims of divinity the Washington Times retains its editorial independence, says former Times staffer K.E. Grubbs Jr.

Writing in Friday's Wall Street Journal, Grubbs, now the director of the National Journalism Center in Herndon, Va. says the Times has never been "a mere lapdog" to Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon's Unification church.

"Today -- as in the 1980s, when I worked there -- the newspaper's editors produce an indispensable second newspaper in the nation's capital," he wrote.

The newspaper's journalists, he added "have operated since the paper's 1982 founding under assurances that the church would not interfere with editorial policy. Only occasionally have such breaches occurred, allegedly. (They are always disputed.)"

Noting the Rev. Moon's claim that he is was "sent to Earth ...to save the world's six billion people," while adding that he is "none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent," Grubbs adds playfully:

"Most people who work for a living will have had, at one point or another, a boss who ruled as if by divine right. Those of us who once worked at the Washington Times had a boss who actually believed he was the messiah."

But Grubbs indicates that the Rev. Moon and his church exercise a hands-off policy when it comes to the Times' editorial product. The Times is edited by Wesley Pruden, a respected journalist.