The Proud Boys Were Selling Merch at Festival Hosted by Fringe AR-15 Church

In what can only be described as a meeting of minds, the Proud Boys appear to have aligned themselves with an ultra-fringe religious sect in Pennsylvania that worships with AR-15s. 

The Sanctuary Church, also known as Rod of Iron Ministries, is run by Pastor Hyung-Jin “Sean” Moon. Moon’s late father founded the international “Unification Church,” an allegedcult whose adoring followers were known as “Moonies.” 

The younger Moon, with the help of his brother Justin Moon (owner of a gun company, Kahr Arms) founded his own church in 2017, putting a militant, AR-15 centric spin on his father’s teachings. 

This weekend, the church hosted its fourth annual “Rod of Iron Freedom Festival” at the Kahr Arms warehouse in Greeley, Pennsylvania, about 45 miles from Scranton. The event included a performance by Pastor Moon, aka “King Bullethead,” who rapped about putting pedophiles in “the wood chipper.” It also featured a ceremonial burning of a pansexual Pride flag, speeches by failed local political candidates, as well as hard-right pundit and former Trump official Seb Gorka — and, of course, the Proud Boys. Some members of the church had traveled from as far as Korea and Japan to attend. 

For the second year in a row, according to footage posted by videographer Ford Fischer, the Proud Boys had a booth at the festival. This year they sold t-shirts saying “POW J6; You Are Not Forgotten,” and “I [heart] PBS” as several uniformed members milled around. 

The Proud Boys’ involvement in the festival is the latest example of the far-right street-fighting gang’s opportunism and their willingness to forge alliances with other fringe far-right groups in their local communities. 

And for the Rod of Iron Ministries, it shows that Moon’s efforts to ingratiate himself in MAGA-world—despite the church’s unusual rituals, such as mass weddings featuring AR-15s—continue to pay off. The ritualistic aspect of the church is necessary to retain the loyalty of OG Moonies, hundreds of whom defected to Rod of Iron Ministries following the elder Moon’s death. But the church has also cultivated local political influence that has helped draw the likes of the Proud Boys and “parents’ rights” groups Moms for Liberty into their orbit. 

If you have any information about the Proud Boys or Rod of Iron Ministries, feel free to reach out by email tess.owen@vice.com, wire @tesstess or contact for Signal details.

The Moon family has always been involved in conservative politics, and branded themselves as staunchly anti-Communist. But the younger Moon has sought to embed his church not only in right-wing politics but in MAGA culture. Moon and other church officials were tear-gassed outside the Capitol on Jan 6, and Moon’s sermons can be labeled, broadly, as Christian Nationalist. Thanks in part to funds from Kahr Arms, the church even bought a 40-acre compound near Waco, Texas, with the goal of turning it into a haven for “patriots.” 

The Proud Boys may also be looking to benefit from the alliance between Rod of Iron Ministries, and the local chapter of “Moms for Liberty.” A VICE News investigation found that a chapter of Moms for Liberty in Pennsylvania’s Pike County, formed in late 2022, had close ties to Rod of Iron Ministries—and both have spent the last year attempting to expand their local political influence. One of the leading members of the Pike County Moms for Liberty chapter is Kerri Wilson, who is closely involved with the Rod of Iron Ministries, has spoken at their services—and is often referred to by church officials as “Queen Kerri,” according to VICE News. 

Similarly, the director of events at the Rod of Iron Ministries, Lourdes Swarts, is the Facebook administrator for a local group called the Freedom, Faith & Family Coalition (which shares a PO Box for another group called the Coalition for Election Integrity). Those organizations, in conjunction with Moms for Liberty and other local groups in and around Pike County, held events for their slate of political candidates for a range of positions, including school board, county commissioner and others. Only one of their candidates made it beyond the primary. 

Disclosure: Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, was a co-founder of VICE in 1994. He left the company in 2008 and has had no involvement since then.