Good morning brothers and sisters. It is so good to see you in Boston. I'm sorry I had to cancel our engagement once before; there was a conflict in schedule and I could not make it. And today I'm not at my best, a bit under the weather, but I am delighted to be here with all of you and with my family.

This is my hometown. Well, my family home is in Westchester, at East Garden as you know, but this is the place I raised my younger siblings and this is where I raised my family.

So this is a city that is near and dear to my heart and it's really an honor for me to spend this morning with brothers and sisters from the Massachusetts area.

You know, I live in the town of Lexington, and when I think about that town and why I settled there in the first place, the whole spirit of the American Revolution and how this country came to be, inspired me quite a bit. The first shots fired at the start at the American Revolution took place in the Lexington. And I've often wondered, if I could start here where the first shots were fired, if I could start in this tiny lovely town of Lexington, and maybe start something wonderful, which is to live the Principle that our True Parents have been preaching, to in a way start with something small, with one or two shots, those one or two shots that are building wonderful families, raising great kids, so that in a way our True Parents' message can be heard around the world when the children grow up and they can be in a position to contribute to their grandfather and grandmother, and really come to be in a position to contribute something from the community that they come from, a community that they're extremely proud to be a part of. And by their own example, or perhaps by their own lifestyle, maybe there can be a way to naturally witness to many, many people that they come across. And that has been my simple homework in my daily life if you will.

I've done my best to protect them, to raise them, and I hope they are well on their way. But you know, as I raise my own family and think about what our movement has come to be, and what we truly can be, there are a lot of things that come to mind. I spent a wonderful time with True Parents, in Hawaii, in the beautiful King and Queen Garden there, and Father and Mother send you their love. They love you very, very much, and they are so proud of the American movement, and every time they come to this country, they're in a much mellower mood than when I find them in Korea. This is truly a place where they can relax and take a breather. And Father, as you know, is advancing well into his 80's, but is a hot potato as much as ever (laughter), giving and nudging and advising and scolding his children and encouraging the leaders to do their best, yet at the same time giving a message that is incredibly inspiring to everyone that was there.

I was able to take a little piece of America, if you will, and invited not just the typical district leaders but also the young second generation now coming up in leadership. My feeling is this. When I grew up in the 70's I saw hundreds and hundreds of young American men and women joining the church, and I think at one point we had two or three hundred people coming to workshops every weekend to hear the Divine Principle, to hear and experience this one family, if you will.

You know, I've always wondered, where did that spirit go? What happened to those bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young American members? And as our movement grew and we had the opportunity to invite our Korean and Japanese leadership, who have really tried their best, tried their best to honor and, in a way, pull the church forward, I felt like, maybe the American members got lost a little bit along the shuffle during the years.

I am coming from a mother's position and always looking towards the future. We are always talking about, "How do we raise our children to be better?" Well, now all of you are my children, so I'm thinking about, "How do I make you better as people, how do I make you better as Unificationists?" Or, "How can I inspire the young people in the movement to want to be the best that they can be?" I think the best thing that I can do is to bring you closer to True Parents.

You know our True Father talks about the year 2013, kind of like a time limit deadline when he will retire, and he often talks about that date as if it's a physical retirement and he will retire up to Heaven. I'm hoping it's just a retirement into peaceful living for a long time. And hopefully my children, or my siblings and I can go forward with the works that he's been doing. But he has not such a long time with us in this physical world, so I want to give this new, young, and upcoming leadership time to be with him.

The interesting thing about the second generation is that the Americans are not just blond and blue eyed, or there are Japanese-Americans, there are Korean-Americans. Within our movement we have an incredible tapestry that represents different races of the world, and they were able to come and spend incredible intimate time with our True Parents, and intimate means, from 5:00 o'clock in the morning to 10:00 o'clock at night. In Hawaii I was meeting different leaders, talking about an alternative or a different style of witnessing or a different style of seminars or workshops, but we went right back to the formula course, straightforward Divine Principle lecture from the Principle of Creation onwards and it was quite intense.

But in those rare special moments when Father and Mother were able to come and greet the members, they gave all the members pearl necklaces and handed them out one by one, and the gifts of that special moment will become that person's family heirloom. They will remember that time for the rest of their lives. I'm hoping to bring more of you closer to True Parents, to in a way recreate the personal experiences that a lot of your parents had when they first joined the movement that the second generation has rarely had the opportunity to do.

As your brothers and sisters, we don't want to hog our parents to ourselves. We very much want to share them with you so that you can have kind of experience firsthand of how incredible they are, and how incredible your parents are for following them all these years, that allowed you guys to exist. So it was wonderful, wonderful time, and our True Parents were very happy to see them.

He is a rather big and burly type of a brother and on top of that he had a goatee and my Father, even though he looks like he is not really looking, he has very, very keen vision. In the background he said, "Who is that?" (Laughter) And I said, "Well, he is your son, Father. He is a second generation." And Father kind of just smiled at him. And that's the beauty of what we are as a community, you know. We are a family here.

Many of us are here in Boston because you are going to school, or maybe you are here because you are working for Saeilo out in Worcester, for my brother Kook Jin, or maybe you are just here because you are in charge of this ministry. But all of us, it really doesn't matter where we come from. The minute we enter this communion, if you will, this communion of worship, we become a family. And one of things that I would like to do, as a member of True Family, is to kind of extend our hands outward, to not just outreach towards the larger community but to kind of invite the community to come back as a family. To remind ourselves that we are a family. That means an appreciation of each other that means understanding of each other.

All of us had many different paths in our lives, right? Some of us had an easy course; some of us were blessed with a spouse that was just perfect for us, that was in a way easy, you know, you were both attracted to each other. Or, some of us were blessed to somebody who was just a nightmare, right? Married life took incredible internal battles; here is this one family just looking at each other, and the look on their faces just says it all. But they're here. And even in the True Family, every one of us has obstacles or has difficult things we need to work through.

There is this kind of an internal joke between my husband and me; you have to be careful what you ask for. If you say to God, I really want to build an ideal family that is exactly what he is going to give you. But what does an ideal family mean? In our minds, we are going to have these sinless, pure, angelic children that will cause us no strife, no worries, and they will just miraculously blossom into these angelic beings. Well, anybody that has had children knows that it is not a natural process. It is a working-out process, if you will. And I always like to say, "Ideal families means, I deal with my family." (Laughter) And if you want an ideal spouse, God will give that spouse to you, 'I deal with my spouse.' And if you want ideal children, well, God will give that to you; too, 'I deal with my children.'

When we ask for something we always want the easy way out, but the most meaningful and the most long-lasting things in life are things that need to be worked out, are things that you kind of have to break through and go through and come out victorious. Maybe you can do this with the help of your parents, maybe with the help of your colleagues, like the people on STF, or maybe with the help of small groups, like the ones that are turning into a major phenomenon in our church.

As a movement we are growing and dealing with many, many different things, but when we are hoping for the big pie in the sky, this incredible concept of one unified family, I often ask myself, "Well, what is it going to look like? What is that family going to look like?" I don't know how many times I've come across my friends in different faiths, my Jewish friends, my Christian friends or my Islamic friends, and they always ask me, "So here you are talking about One Family under God and everyone says that's wonderful and a peaceful world. But what does it really look like?" How has our faith transformed our lives, how has our faith manifested in the way we live our lives. How is our faith applied in our daily living?

Many times when I look at our movement and think about it as a model, here we are preaching incredible things. Basically my Father is saying he was anointed by Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday morning when he was 16 years old, to basically finish Jesus' mission. Well, what is that mission? To build an ideal family, right? And when you think about it, it's rather simple. But then many times, I've said to my husband, "Well, you know, Jesus took the easy way out because he was never married." I wish to God that he had not passed away but really he had it easy.

But in a way, when you look at True Father and True Mother and all the things that they have done in their life time, and all the things that they've gone through to try to build an ideal family, you realize that it's an incredibly difficult process.

When you're lucky enough to be able to drive, what do you do? You have to take a course on driving, right? And you have to get a certificate, you have to get a license before you are allowed behind the wheel and put out on the freeway, right? But I feel like many times as a movement we never had that process before the blessing. We had the most incredible gift that God could bestow upon us, but many of us we were not ready for the blessing -- truly understanding what an ideal family meant. Striving for something utopian or idealistic is great, but we didn't really think about the problems, the kind of obstacles that we would face.

So I often like to think that, well, here we are, all of us are blessed and many of us have had children without really thinking about, "How are we going to raise our kids?" We just naturally had kids because it was a natural process of coming together as husband and wife. But I feel like in our movement there was no cohesive or uniform educational track, if you will, for preparing the membership, the first generation, for the blessing, for helping them through their married life, and for helping them transition into parents and then, once the children come, for helping their children in age-appropriate workshops, if you will, or age-appropriate seminars, to kind of help our blessed children along the way.

So when I was meeting with different blessed children, several of them came to me and said, "In Jin Nim, I just wanted a moment of your time," and they told me their life story and they told me about their difficult suffering, and they said, "You know, In Jin Nim, I'm just so sorry because I wasn't able to keep my purity, I was not able to keep my faith. I was not able to keep pure in my heart when it came to feeling about True Parents, but I want to make a new start. I want to make a new start with you." And one of the first things that I said to them is, "You know, I as a member of the True Family need to apologize to you, that we couldn't, in a way, prepare for you. We didn't have an educational system in place that could take care of you."

And as a mother it is one of the first things that I feel we need to do as a movement is to strengthen within. I was shocked to hear from the district leaders that we have 17,000 blessed children but only maybe 5,000 are somehow associated or active with the church.

So if we could even simply invite all those blessed children back, we talk about a major witnessing effort, right?

Different programs have gone on because there was a demand in the church for care and nurturing, such as the witnessing summit that is taking place under Sheri Rueter. Somebody said to me, "Well, you know, they are spending a lot of money there, but it's really not witnessing," and I said, "Wait a minute. Yes, we used the 'W' word ("witnessing") so we could get the support of headquarters, but the witnessing summit is an incredible way to get the second generation re-inspired, if you will, to get the second generation understanding what our church is all about in a way that they can understand it." And I think that for a long time the first generation and second generation never really had that dialogue. But this is a platform in which what the second generation have to say has just as much weight as the first generation, and they are placed in a setting where everyone is treated equally, and everyone's opinions are heard and recorded and studied.

As the person who will be moving HSA forward, I very much want to support things like this, like the witnessing summits that are going on. There is always kind of a knee-jerk reaction whenever a new leadership comes, saying, "Well, you know, we haven't been growing for the last 24 years as a church so let's just install the typical witnessing program." And witnessing one by one is great and the way it was done is great, but you know, we don't have much time if Father wants the world to recognize who he is by 2013. And we kind of need to move a little bit faster. And even though our message was great, one thing we have to realize is that the generations are changing. The young people that were backpacking across the country in the 70's are no longer here. They are backpacking on the Internet. They want to choose their own religion in their own time, without being preached to.

Because I work with a lot of artists and a lot of musicians, many of them come to me and say, "Oh, I've just decided I'm going to be so and so and I'm going to be such and such, I just want to be a Buddhist for a day." And I said, "Where did you come to that?" "I was just searching on the Internet this morning and I've just decided I want to try it out." So for the last eight years I've been giving a lot of encouragement to the Japanese movement that in order to safeguard our children against future attacks and to also educate the children about what their church is all about, we have to revamp our presence on the Internet. And so here at HSA that is one of my main homework assignments that I've been working on.

So these are the different things that as a woman I bring to the table. Recently I spent an evening at a Democratic fundraising event for Barack Obama at the Manhattan Center. Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen and other artists performed. It was kind of interesting because here you take Bruce Springsteen on one hand and Billy Joel on the other and then you just stick them on stage to see what magic happens or what magic doesn't happen. And it was one of those rare concerts where magic did happen and the kind of interaction or the musical dialogue, if you will -- and if you are a musician you know how incredible or exciting that is. The impromptu musical dialogue that happens on stage was absolutely electrifying and absolutely exciting. Then Barack Obama comes on stage and gives his usual 16 to 17 minute speech to try to get everybody fired up and hitting the polls on Election Day.

I was there with one of my best friends, the actress Lyn Whitfield. I was also there with my new best friend, the president of Live Nation and also the executive producer BH1 and MTV. The four of us were just talking about the significance of a black man running for president. In the back of my mind I was thinking and later I told my husband, "You know, Lyn told me that it was unthinkable that she would see a black man running for the presidency of the United States in her lifetime. It was just unthinkable."

When Rosa Parks' arrest ignited the Montgomery bus boycott, she never dreamed that she would see such a day. When Martin Luther King was preaching, he had a dream of a time when a white and black couple can just walk down the streets safely, something difficult to imagine that the American society would come to accept. And yet it is happening every day of our lives. These impossibilities that these people dreamed about and these people fought for are becoming a reality.

Just as it seems impossible that one of our Unificationist children might be running for president of the United States in the future, it could happen as long as we do our part. So when I see Barak Obama, I see the future of our kids. He comes from a single-parent home with few prospects, and yet he finished Harvard law school, he was the editor-in-chief of the Law Review there, became a senator, and now he is running for president.

We need to be a movement that raises incredible children like these so that our children can bring benefit to the world. When Father thinks about America, he says that America is an incredibly important country. Why? Because America has the power. It's considered a superpower. But power in what sense? America has the power to influence the whole world. You know, in Political Science 101 they define power as the ability to influence. So when I look at a phenomenon like Barack Obama, I'm thinking, he is powerful because he has the ability to influence. He has the ability to ignite the imagination of young people who would not otherwise have gone into politics to say, "If that black man can do it, so can I."

Isn't that what True Parents are doing when they teach us about the importance of true love and building ideal families? They are saying, 'America is the most powerful nation and has an incredible mission to manifest the kind of families that God had wanted all along so that it can exercise its ability to influence the world and to say, 'These are the ways we need to educate, we need to nurture and we need to build our families and build One Family under God.'

So when I was watching Barack Obama, he was telling a story about how he went to South Carolina, and there was a little congregation there at the church and he met a 60-plus-year-old grandma, very short woman, about 5'2", with a wonderful Sunday church hat, and she started chanting, "Get fired up, get fired up." Barack Obama is quite tall, and he was the main guest of honor, but this tiny little hurricane of a lady kept chanting, "Get fired up, and get fired up."

She wasn't paying attention to anybody, she had her eyes closed and kept on. After a while Obama and everyone else became quiet, just listening to her chant, "Get fired up, and get fired up." Somebody whispered into Barack Obama's ear, "That granny is upstaging you, Senator, do something about it." But then he started getting into it, and he started chanting along, "Get fired up, and get fired up." And when the Senator did that, then in a way, everyone in the room started to do that.

When the granny realized she had the attention of the whole room, she said, "Get fired up, get fired up" and then interjected, "Are you ready to go! Are you ready to go?" And then it just turned into this incredible, almost like a pep rally if you will. Barack Obama came away from that, realizing the power of one person. You don't have to be handsome, you don't have to be beautiful, you don't have to be tall, and you don't have to be a man. All you need to do is just believe and chant and it doesn't matter if the Senator is in town to talk to your congregation. If need be, just close your eyes. Maybe we should start chanting, 'Ideal Families, ideal families.' You know, just something to get you going. That one grandmother changed the spirit in that whole room.

Even when he came to Manhattan Center he ended his speech with, "Get fired up, get fired up, are you ready to go, are you ready to go?!" And in a way that is becoming his mantra, his whole campaign. One beautiful, quiet, black woman ignited the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on the bus that one day. And Senator Obama will never forget the spirit of this one granny. Every time I hear, 'Get fired up,' I'll think about this person, about how this one person transformed that meeting into something that's the beginning of like a locomotive. She is the one who helped Barack Obama come up with the phrase, you know, "The train's leaving, we're on a train, train's going, the train's leaving, get fired up, get ready to go, get on the bandwagon."

These simple things, one person can make such an incredible change, not just in our own area of worship, but has the ability to affect Washington, and who knows, maybe the White House. So when I see things like that, or hear stories like that I often kind of look into a room and say, "How many of us are here, how many Rosa Parks, how many Martin Luther Kings, how many get-fired-up grannies do we have?" And if we could really reignite the spark that many first generation had when they initially walked into the center, just think about how powerful a movement we could be.

I have this incredible opportunity to be working in Manhattan Center and I'm coming to realize the incredible foundation that's been already laid by our True Parents. When I got to Manhattan Center all the departments were fighting with one another and not communicating with one another. Nobody knew what they were doing and there was a CEO who would meet with different department heads in secret.

Later I found out that he was running his own business while running Manhattan Center, so you can kind of imagine what was going on over there. But when I got there, what I saw was a diamond in the rough. Part of the reason why I prepared the DVD promo was not just for marketing Manhattan Center, but to help show the second generation how incredible a foundation our True Parents and your older brother had created for all of you. In a way, the only thing I did was dust off, reorganizes, and gives it a common theme or a common vision so that different departments can come together and work together as a family or as a corporation. And when you do that, you realize what an incredible thing has been going on that nobody really knew about.

Especially the blessed children might think that our church is a bunch of losers or their parents are losers. Maybe they're financial failures, but they had the courage to believe in something, they had the courage to follow a dream, if you will; they had the courage to get fired up. And this is something that I would like the second generation to realize. Our first generation and our parents are not losers. They just didn't have all the different media at their fingertips that maybe we can bring to the table. I happen to know that my Father and Mother are the coolest people around. I've met a lot of cool people, but I haven't met anyone as cool as my parents.

So my job is, how do I let the blessed children know how cool their grandfather and grandmother are? My children know how cool they are, and I'm hoping that by using media and entertainment not only can I help express to the world how incredible True Parents are but also to re-ignite the second generation to realize what kind of gift your parents have given you. Many of your parents would not have come together on their own, right? They came together because our True Parents introduced them and that's why you exist. So all the blessed children were literally hand-crafted by God. No matter where I go in the world, every time I meet a blessed child I realize that they are uniquely gifted, uniquely talented, because they are uniquely blessed.

As a movement, as mothers, we must raise these children to become the future Barack Obamas, we must raise them to be not just spiritually excellent, but externally excellent. You know, in the church we many times deemphasize the external and emphasize the internal. But my modus operandi is to stress both. We need children who are excellent internally, who are spiritually connected, who are spiritually motivated and inspired, but are going to do something about it by manifesting the beauty within to the outside. By the kind of life that they lead, by how they represent themselves as ambassadors of True Parents, as ambassadors of your parents, people will know your parents through you. People will say, "Wow, Mrs. so and so must be a really awesome parent because her kids are so great." And I'm just so honored because I hear it all the time. You know, many people say to me, "Your kids are such great kids, so you must be a great parent." And that's my thanks to my children.

If we can have more of a movement where we can appreciate each other, maybe a little less finger-pointing, maybe a little more caring, maybe instead of saying, "You're not blessed, I am; you're Jacob, I'm not; you're fallen, I'm not; your parents are separated, mine aren't," maybe a little bit more of, "How do we come together as one family?"... Because you know what? I always tell my kids that, no matter how much work I do for the movement, I will be a failure in life if I don't have my team behind me. Every family is like a team. It's like a sports team, if you will. You have your goalie, right? You have your runners, you have your defense players, but you all have to work together for the common goal or you will lose. So in a way each family is like a sports team. And I always like to ask my husband and my children, "What kind of team are we going to be? How are we going to best represent True Parents? How are we best going to represent the movement?"

When I look at the political arena at the things that are taking place, you just cannot help but think that Father is truly incredible. He proclaimed the beginning of the Pacific Era. Our True Mother has been an incredible fighter for sisters and for women. Her endless and consistent dedication and loyalty to our True Father have allowed her to restore the position of Eve. She has restored the position as a woman and a mother, allowing us as sisters in the movement and as mothers in the movement to give us a chance to play an active role in our life of faith.

How many of you American sisters in the 70's sat through speeches where my Father literally berated American women? I remember cringing every time. My sisters and I, Ye Jin onni and Un Jin, we would be listening together and going, "Oh no, here we go again. That sister is getting it real bad." And many times when you are growing up in a big family, the brothers would kind of take that as a cue to say, "See! See! American sisters! Women, Women!" And to see the brothers that accused us of being women, for them to become the biggest promoters of their sister now, is just a miracle in and of it itself.

I'm thinking all these American women that Father was berating over the years, it wasn't because he was saying you were horrible people, it's because he knew you were beautiful, he knew you were capable, he knew you were educated. And in a way he was challenging you to basically say, "You beautiful, educated young thing, what are you going to do with your life? Are you going to live your life for God, or are you going to live your life for yourself?"

Just the fact that you sisters have struggled and hung on; you are now seeing the fruits of your suffering, of your sacrifice. We have True Mother coming forward. We have a true daughter playing an active role; we have a true family coming together. And you guys are just incredible because whatever I can do, starting from here and taking the movement forward, is really because you guys were there first. It's because of your foundation that I can stand in the position I'm at now. And it's because of our Mother's victory that the true daughters can play an active role in our life of faith.

People who have not studied the history of religion do not realize the significance of that. But it is incredibly significant. Women have been much maligned and much abused, always accused of different things. And once I said to Father, "Every time I listen to Chapter Two, I as a woman just cannot help but ask the question, 'Eve seduced Adam but where was his responsibility?" I think, in a way, whenever there is a problem it was the women's fault.

Maybe this is a new age where we need to rethink what is the real, the ideal way of dealing with one another. We can kind of come to a new consciousness, or come to a new level of understanding, where we as a family realize that either we work together or we end up killing ourselves. We are at that point where we can be an incredible force that can change the world, or we can be a faction that just divides amongst themselves and literally dies.

The True Family is stepping forward and coming together and working together, Hyun Jin is doing an incredible job with UPF and reaching out to different clergy and reaching out to different politicians. Kook Jin is doing an incredible job of reorganizing the foundation and for the first time its cash positive in Korea and our movement is just poised for a huge growth. And we have Hyung Jin, the youngest one in the family that we like to call "Lovey" because he was so adorable and so cute. No matter how old he gets, to us he is always Lovey. And we have Lovey, in a way at the spiritual head of our movement in the World Mission Department and really giving his heart, and really reaching out to the members. The kind of work that he and his wife are doing is incredible. Then we have Sun Jin's couple in Japan overseeing True World.

I think most people don't realize how close we are in the True Family. We talk amongst ourselves and we discuss a lot of things. And I know that in the membership and amongst the leaders there might be a great deal of talk, "So much confusion." I recently spent some time with one leader who said, "Hyun Jin Nim says UPF, Hyung Jin Nim says the spiritual life and church, and Kook Jin Nim says 10 percent tithing. What's the most important, In Jin Nim?" And I just looked at this person and I said, "Isn't it obvious? It's all of those things." It's like basically saying, "What is more important, the thumb, index finger, third, fourth or fifth?" I said, "You need it all. I said, we need it all for God."

"So instead of thinking of our own positions, or our own entitlement..." I said to these people, "Look, if you are a leader it doesn't mean you are entitled to some benefit. It means you are there to serve the people. So it really doesn't matter what kind of position you hold. You can serve the people from the pavement, you can serve the people in a playground, you can serve the people in the bathroom even, if need be. You don't need titles, and you don't need positions. And if you're doing the will of God, and if you're doing the work that needs to be done, then the work would show for itself. "

So if America is thinking of itself as a country that's entitled to be great, a country that has a responsibility or a special position to be great, if we are thinking of just serving ourselves, we will never be great. America, because of its incredible providential position, needs to think about serving the people, serving other countries if you will. America as a super power with this ability to influence, ability to change peoples lives, change countries' destinies, has an incredible responsibility to exert influence in the right way, to remind the world of the importance of moral values, of the importance of having strong families, the importance of good education, the importance of taking care of our children, and of the importance of having a spiritual compass, and at the same time do our work by becoming humble, by not going to other countries and acting like we are the greatest thing that ever walked the earth, but really go to different countries and serve the other countries, serve different cultures.

In my mind we are a movement that really espouses three things. What we represent is interracial harmony, and there is nothing more beautiful than that. There are no children better looking than interracial children. Then, inter-religious dialogue. Especially coming after 9/11 we saw the atrocities that the world of religions, if you will, did to this country, in New York. How are you going to stop terrorism? How are you going to stop the hatred? The only way you are going to stop hatred is through love, right?

I mean, here I see bumper stickers saying, 'co-exist' with different symbols of religion, and all the liberals are like, "Wow! This is so profound" And I'm looking at that in horror! Co-existence does not really love your brothers and sisters. If I put a co-exist on top of my bedroom, I don't think my marriage would be a good one. If my husband were to turn to me and say, "You know, In Jin, darling, I just love co-existing with you!" it's just not going to inspire me as much as if he were to turn to me and say, "You know, I really love you," right? It's just that kind of thing. Or, "In Jin, in all my years of being married to you, I just really enjoyed tolerating you." If he were to say that to me, I don't know what would happen.

You see, the liberal media and this whole atmosphere of tolerance and co-existence may sound beautiful, but if you really look beyond it, it's basically saying, "Put up with each other but don't really love." But the incredible thing is that True Parents are saying, "No, no, no. You cannot just put up with each other. You have to really love each other. You really have to kind of learn to see each other as a family, learn to love each other as brothers and sisters."

My friend Lynn has an interracial marriage and her child actually started a blog on the Internet that grew to 160,000 people wanting to be a part of her conversation because she was saying, "Why do people always make me choose? I don't want to be black. I don't want to be white. I want to be love. That's what I am." That's what True Parents are saying. We all are children of love, right? And it doesn't matter what race you come from, it doesn't matter what religion you come from.

We are not here to co-exist. We are not here to tolerate each other. We are here to really learn how to love each other. And loving each other requires understanding. We can not truly love somebody without understanding them. We cannot truly love our Jewish brothers and sisters without understanding the beauty of their faith. You cannot truly love Islamic brothers and sisters without understanding the beauty of their faith. So by coming to appreciate what their religion stands for and their history then you comes to understand and then love and see the beauty in each different religion. And that's how we become harmonious.

And that's how we come to our third point which is intercultural appreciation. We have so many different cultures. We should not simply co-exist, we should not just tolerate each other, and we should not just put up with each other. But we really should appreciate each other's cultures. So at different centers I very much encourage them, "For your Sunday worship, what about an international food fair, where you celebrate the different heritages and invite the neighbors to come? Most people would say no when you invite them to come and listen to a workshop, but very few people will say no when you say, come and have some food. Or if you happen to be smack in the middle of the Bronx, where you have an incredible gospel contingent or a Hispanic community, what about putting up a Salsa ballroom dancing program together and get everyone coming? Celebrate each other's cultures, get people excited and allow them to experience our appreciation of their culture in a setting that's familiar and friendly to everybody."

As we move forward there is a lot of work to be done, and I said to my Father, "Why did you give me a double-edged sword here? Here you are asking me to be the pastor and a minister, and yet you want me to run the organizations, too. And at the same time I have to raise my family." I said, "Father, that's a really tough order." But he said, "As a woman you should be used to multi-tasking, so I don't want to hear about it."

I am really hoping that our Boston family will come together and start thinking about what are the shots that are going to be fired here that will be heard around the world? What are we going to be bringing out to the world about who we are? And maybe take into consideration some of my concerns, which are that we really need to be a church known for raising great kids. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what you do in life or who you are. I've met with presidents, I've met with congressmen, I've met with movie stars, I've met with artists. And at the end of the day if you have a family, it always comes down to kids. What are our kids doing? How are they doing?

Many times, just because of who I am and just because how wonderful the kids are -- and I'm not here to brag about my kids, it's still a work in progress here -- but it's a natural witnessing. When you get people in a position where they're asking questions, the witnessing is natural and it's long-lasting and it's quite immediate. They are asking questions, "How can I have a better relationship with my spouse? How can I have a better relationship with my children?" In the process of all these dialogues, the subject of our church comes up, True Parents come up, and what they are doing. People exclaim to me, "I never knew you guys believed in Jesus!" So I was very happy to hear a bit of the Bible here this morning.

Somebody asked me, "In Jin Nim, you know at Sunday Service should we be teaching Jesus' teachings?" And I said, "Of course you should. It's Jesus that asked True Parents to complete the mission." So if our children can understand how incredible Jesus is, it just makes True Parents even greater. And if our children are raised in an awareness of different religions and how the history of religion has not been a beautiful one, it's been quite bloody -- and we've experienced 9/11 here -- then we can kind of give our children a reason to want to be men and women of true love, to want to learn the different cultures, want to learn about different faiths so that they can better love their brothers and sisters.

Many times my politician friends turn to me and say, "You know, a peace movement is all great but it's just going to take so long." And I said, "Not really. There is a lot of good foundation that has been laid in place by many good people. Not just Unificationists, but by good Catholics and good Christians, good Mormons, good Jewish people." It's as though the different faiths have been throwing pebbles into a lake and all the kids are thinking their parents have gone bonkers, throwing pebbles into a lake. But after a while the pebbles build up, right? And then you realize, you see the first pebble sticking out from the water and, before you know it, you can build bridges and then you can build huge buildings and huge monuments.

I feel like right now we are at that point, and Manhattan Center is just an example of the foundation that is there. The kind of work that I am able to do is just going to be that much greater because of the foundation. The foundation that many of you don't see is already there. We are approaching this tipping point, if you will. When you are slowly pouring water into a cup, you don't realize that sooner or later it's going to overflow until it happens, right? And then it literally tips things over.

Well, I feel like we are approaching that tipping point, where people in different areas or different parts of the world have heard about True Parents. Most of them heard about the negative things -- which will be remedied by cleaning up the Internet and hearing about other things that our church has been doing -- but many, many people don't even know that Father spent over two billion dollars on the Washington Times alone to prevent the free world from succumbing to Communism. Just simple facts like that.

So I would love to circulate these little sound bites, if you will, "Did you know that Rev. Moon spent this much money for this?" "Did you know that Rev. Moon spent so and so much money building hospitals?" "Did you know that Rev Moon inspired volunteers to give a huge amount of time doing service projects?" These are all like liberal concepts, but people think that Father had no hand in it and he is just sitting up on the cloud in that wonderful palace up there in Chung Pyung. But Father has a history of not just preaching but living what he preached and he has done many, many good works that our blessed children sometimes don't know.

So using the media and entertainment, I want to create these sound bites for the second generation so that you realize how incredible our True Parents are and how incredible your parents are and can give each other the pride that needs to be lived, not just worn.

If you are going out into the society as a living monument to True Parents and you are that confident, that extremely educated, that extremely capable and yet incredibly humble, incredibly serving, the world has never seen such a combination. We have that combination in our blessed children. So if we can give them the hope and give them the encouragement to be the best that they can be, to really go out, "If you want to be a doctor, be the best doctor. If you want to be a musician, be the best musician"...

And I know that a lot of second generation kids of have formed their own groups and some are practicing really hard, but some are just using their bands as an excuse for social interaction. I always say to them, "Look, anybody can form bands but can you really truly practice like the way your older brother did? He practiced until his fingers bled because he wanted to change the world! Do it because you believe in something and because you want to share your music to inspire the younger generation to be part of a movement that you are going to be launching." And what kind of a movement is it that you are going to be launching?

We need to raise up a generation of peace. You have your generation Xers, generation Y, and right now we are up to the millennials, which MTV is calling the 'Show me the money generation." Do we really want our children to be part of that show me the money generation? I have friends in the entertainment industry who have everything that you could ask for and they are just so perplexed and so disturbed inside because the only thing that their kids think about is money, or the trust fund, or what are they going to get from their mom and dad. In a way mom and dad are just a means to get at the money. And the parents are saying, "What's gone wrong here?"

So we need to raise up an incredible generation of peacemakers who have incredible characters, who have incredible understanding of the need for moral values. I just came back from talking to some of the younger kids about a recent CNN video clip about a 22-year-old young woman who was basically selling her virginity on eBay, saying, I've finished college and I don't have enough money for graduate school so I want to pay for my graduate school by auctioning off my virginity. A non-Unificationist friend sent me the video clips and he said to me, "What is the world coming to?" He is a producer for the company that produced a couple of reality programs on MTV, where they follow around young people basically doing whatever they want.

I said to him, "Maybe this is a chance for you to kind of rethink what kind of programming you are letting out to the young people because you are basically letting the young people think that 'show me the money' or the 'what's your crib,' the MTV show that takes pictures of people's mansions and all their Lamborghinis and sports cars... Young people grow up on that. They want the big mansions, they want the big cars. And at the end of the day you realize they are hollow human beings. And this young attractive college graduate is a perfect example.

When the CNN interviewer was asking her questions like, "How did you arrive at this decision?" She said, "Yeah, I grew up on Cinderella fairy tales and I believed in my Prince Charming, and yeah, you kind of believe that but then you enter Junior High School and you still want true love but you come to college and realize that basically everybody is doing whatever they want then nobody cares about that anymore, and it's the only thing I have left to sell."

Is this what America has come to, the country that has an incredible responsibility with the power to influence the world in the correct way? This is a kind of litmus test. If young people are selling what is most precious to them by putting it on the Internet and auctioning it off for money, isn't this why our True Parents are so necessary? Many of you joined the church because you were lost in the 60's and 70's, right? Many of you gave up on love. Well, this child gave up on love and this child gave up on the possibility of having an incredible relationship, but imagine how wonderful if she could have known that she deserves to be loved, she deserves to be honored by a man who loves her as his wife forever. How much more beautiful!

The message that our Parents gave to your parents is an incredible one. The message that they are trying to share with the second generation is an incredible one, too. I say to my children, "You guys have it all. Your parents had to make that magic happen in their relationship and some are still struggling, but you guys can actually be introduced, fall in love. WOW!" My brothers and sisters were complaining, and Father and Mother were like, "What! What? What about us?" But because of what the first generation went through, the second generation can have it all. You can have love. You can have incredible romance, knowing that you will love each other for the rest of your life. And there is nothing greater than that.

You may envy the most beautiful woman and the most handsome man in the world, but at the end of the day if they don't have love, they are absolutely miserable. There is this incredibly handsome entertainer that I know who calls me every couple days. "Tatiana, my girlfriend left me." It's the same thing over again. He is just everything that you would think is awesome, tall, and handsome, extremely articulate, great with the ladies, but can never be faithful.

Can you imagine if we can raise our incredibly beautiful and talented and smart and capable blessed children to be all that they are and internally excellent? I tell my kids, "Anybody could do drugs, anybody can have sex. Not just anybody can live a life of fidelity, not just anybody can live a life dedicated to God and the community and for the sake of the world." I said, "If you want to be a rebel, don’t be rebels without a cause. Don’t be rebels for the sheer pleasure of being a rebel; do it with a reason. Be a rebel with a cause. In a way Jesus Christ at his time was a rebel. Father even now at 88 going on 89 is a rebel. He is reacting against society and saying we have to make it better."

Now if you are tempted by your friends to feel like you have to be a rebel without a cause, to just do whatever you want with your life just for the sheer sake of doing it, why not take it a step further? If you are going to be a rebel, be a real rebel, be a rebel with a cause. Be a rebel by saying, "My society is telling me to sell my virginity on the Internet but I'm not going to do that. My society is telling me to get drunk every night and basically have lots of sexual relationships, but I'm not going to do that. My society is telling me not to worry about my children, just care about my happiness, but I'm not going to do that." Be a rebel with a cause and instead of rebelling against your parents, if you want to rebel, rebel against the world. It's a bigger meat loaf to deal with. And then think about how you are going to live your life so that you leave something better at the end.

I'm hoping that if I do my job correctly, my contribution to the American movement will not die when I die. This is not about the cult of In Jin, and I want to make this very, very clear. This is not about one charismatic woman, not at all. This is about what kind of contributions I can make to your lives and to the lives of your children, and if I do my part you can all forget me but I will be happy knowing that my work is being continued. This opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me is an incredible opportunity for me to serve all of you. As an American sister -- I'm finally naturalized now. Actually my Father did not know I was an American citizen but in Hawaii I reminded him. I said, "I don't know if I shared with you, Father, but I'm actually an American sister." And he laughed so much.

The wonderful thing about my brothers and sisters is, and really an honor for me as an American woman to be serving you is, because I feel in your language and in my language, and my brothers and sisters feel that, too. So we have a lot of work to do but if we can kind of come together as a family we can use this as an opportunity to invite different people back.

People who have gone their own way are always so hesitant to come. They might say something like, "My child fell and they are no longer in the church and now they are in a relationship and it's just so horrible." I always say, "Look at it from another perspective. Yes, your child is in another relationship with somebody else, but can you make it so that both of them can come to the blessing? Then in a way this is your opportunity not just to witness to that child but also that child's parents and their in-laws and their families."

So instead of highlighting the negatives, or how we came up short, we should always look at it more as, "I'm in a really difficult situation but how do I look at this in a positive way?" It's an invitation for us to reach out to somebody new. Instead of kind of concentrating on what we're not, I would like all of us to look at what we are. And you as Americans are incredibly blessed to be able to say you are part of the allied forces that saved my Father that literally saved my Father's life. That's the reason why I am here and that is why we are all here. So in a way the True Family's lives are indebted to all of you. So if we can really kind of come together and work together and realize what an incredible foundation we have, I think we can do many, many great things.

Without wasting any more time, I would like to encourage all of you to be the person you want to be. Do it with pride and always think about internal excellence and external excellence and always think about how you are going to be the ambassadors for True Parents. Even in the way you present yourself, maybe a little bit more care about how you dress before you go and meet your neighbor. Little things like that, what I call packaging, that I feel is extremely important, then I think we can do many, many great things. So thank you for welcoming me to Boston and my family and I wish you a great week and I hope to see you soon. Thank you.

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

34. True Parents' Heart (September 28, 2008)

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

In Jin Moon
September 28, 2008
Camp Sunrise, NY
Transcribed by: Margaret Herbers
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Good morning, brothers and sisters. Thank you so much for giving me such a warm welcome in this beautiful Camp Sunrise. You know, when I saw Dr. and Ms. Kim walking in together with Rev. and Ms. Jenkins in that little cabin there, waiting, and when I saw how happy they were, coming back from spending an intimate, wonderful time with True Parents, I said, "My father really lives what he preaches. He really loves the first generation more than his children."

I called my parents several times, letting them know my schedule and wanting to come and greet them after each main event. They said, "No, go on to the next one. Go on to Washington. Washington is historically and providentially an incredibly important city." Then I called my parents again, "I would love to come and see you but I have New York scheduled, and many series of meetings with different organizations, different departments in our movement, the second generation, Blessed Family Department. Yesterday I had a wonderful meeting with the Witnessing Summit, and the evening a meeting with CARP." And Parents said, "You need to go. Stay in New York. You can come and see us later."

So when I see True Parents' heart of wanting their children to really invest and not spend time with them, but to really invest in the membership, I realize how much True Parents really love all of you. And Rev. Jenkins had a wonderful time, a wonderful opportunity with True Parents. And I know that True Parents love Rev. Jenkins for the ACLC work that you've done, and the MEPI work.

As an American brother, it's not always easy representing this country in the worldwide providence. But in his own way he has tried his best, and Parents recognize that. So they give him a lot of love. And I was so happy, as a son and daughter of our True Parents, that Dr. and Ms. Kim and Rev. and Ms. Jenkins were able to spend such wonderful, wonderful, quality time with True Parents and have the opportunity to really hear from them first hand how important this country is.

When I look out into the audience and I see many, many different cultures, and many, many new faces, as well as a lot of old faces that I've known over the years, I feel an immediate connection. This is my community, my family. In a way our True Parents have given so much to America, but I think they've given so much to all of you over the years. They've loved you more than their children. They've literally invested blood, sweat and tears, but also invested in terms of financial resources.

For just the Washington Times alone, more than $2 billion was spent to save the world from communism. Who can claim that they've done such a thing for America? By saving America from falling into the hands of communism, in a way True Parents saved the world, didn't they? And in a way they helped prepare the world for the incredible breaking down of the Berlin Wall. My older brother, Hyo Jin oppa, he preached and he walked past the Berlin Wall and he said, "One day the wall must come down." As the leader of CARP he invested so much into the young people.

As an older brother who in a way gave his life in overcoming the difficulty to play the role of an elder son, to try to represent America in a wonderful way, so that True Parents can love America -- he has really invested his heart and soul into the young people. I can never forget him preaching, or claiming that the wall will come down. And it did a couple of years later, to the amazement of the world, right? (Applause) And in a way by our True Parents' investing those precious $2 billion and more that our Japanese brothers and sisters struggled so hard to prepare, in a way Father paved the way for Gorbachev to appear and to, in a way, bring in perestroika and glasnost, and the opening up of the communist countries such as Russia and China. How incredible this is!

So when I think about America and when I think of America as the elder son nation, and as Father says, the second Israel, in a way we have the incredible responsibility to play a providential role in history. I'm sure you have many children attending college now. I was a student of political science, and in Political Science 101 they teach what the meaning of power is. What does power mean? How do you define power? In Political Science 101 they define power as the ability to influence. In a way America, as the superpower of the world, has a responsibility and an ability to influence the world.

Now the big question of the day is: How are we going to influence the world, in what way are we going to influence the world? You have stars like Bruce Springsteen in America, huge celebrities, who are in a way having their own ministry of faith through music. His music influences and touches everybody all around the world. In the '50s we had the birth of blue jeans, Levis, in America, and the Japanese young people went crazy over jeans and Levis.

I often say to the second generation who are sitting here, it's kind of interesting. As the eldest son Hyo Jin oppa had incredible power to influence the second generation, and he tried his best. To his last breath he tried his best. And despite all the difficulties that life might have brought, he was victorious in the end, in that to his last breath he was absolutely dedicated and obedient to True Parents. (Applause) And because of the passion that he had, because of this incredible desire to somehow move the young people of America through multi-media -- and many times when you're passionate, that passion can be misunderstood. I know that many people might have misunderstood his passion. But at the core of what he was all about, he was really about trying to give young people a way to exercise their ability to influence, to allow a way for American young people, especially the American young blessed children, to exercise their ability to influence their peers, their country, their schools, their societies. That's what he wanted.

I was joking with CARP yesterday, saying, "You know, all of you are wearing blue jeans. You've really got to thank your older brother because before he came along we couldn't wear blue jeans. It just simply was not allowed." I said, "Perhaps I love wearing pants all the time because simply we could not wear pants. The girls in the family had to wear skirts all the time." I said, "The incredibly powerful thing such as rock and roll was just not allowed."

We had a family dinner shortly before he passed away. Actually two years before he passed away he kind of called the family one by one and he said, "You know what? We're getting older and we kind of need to come together and have annual or maybe biannual dinners together." So actually it was my brother who initiated and invited all the members of my family to come to a lovely Chinese dinner. We kept that up a couple of times before he passed away. I said, "You know, hyung, it really takes an older brother to kind of call this kind of a dinner and a meeting. I thank you from the bottom of my heart because before you came along rock and roll was a sin. But now all the second generation, and even the Christian churches, are realizing the importance of music in worship, the importance of music, because music is a universal language, that not just speaks to the head but to the heart."

When you study Johann Bach's music, you realize the mathematical perfection of his composition, and yet when you hear it and you experience it in the heart it's just something so profound and so moving, and you forget about the analytical aspect of it.

That's what's so beautiful about our True Parents. You can throw the Divine Principle book at our upcoming blessed children as many times as you want, but at the core of who we are is this: We have come together as a community and as a society and as this representation of America because we love True Parents, and because they have touched our hearts and they have given us hope. They have given us hope where we had no hope. They gave us hope that we can love, that we are worthy individuals to be loved eternally by somebody that understands our value, and vice versa, by somebody that believes in the sanctity and the beauty of ideal families.

You know, we all want ideal families in our daily lives. But many Christian ministers said, you have to be careful what you want. Because we joined wanting ideal families. And over the years many of us had to deal with our ideal families, right? I deal with my family. I deal with my spouse, I deal with my children, and I deal with my in-laws. These are things that I never really thought I fully understood until I experienced it. But whenever I dealt with each obstacle or difficulty that God put in my path, I realized this: If we decide to just stop fighting with the suffering aspect of life and embrace it, if we can embrace suffering as a process in which we can grow and we can develop, then in a way all our sacrifices, especially those of the first generation, the sacrifices you've made, giving up your home, giving up your schooling, giving up everything to come and follow this message of true love and win incredible victories along the way -- Washington Monument, Yankee Stadium.

Every time I'm scheduled to speak and I see a rainy day, I always remember how so many young brothers and sisters were cheering on and trying to get the audience motivated even though it was raining and it was so windy, and really quite depressing. But it's just really the human spirit that, despite whatever, we're going to stick together and we're going to make this a wonderful day. That was really your spirit!

True Family was growing up in America. And I firmly believe that True Parents, deciding to raise their family in America, wanted to love you this way, because our mother tongue is your tongue. We feel in this language. We understand America. We're one of you. (Applause) In a way, by allowing us to grow up in this country, we have naturally come to love this country. We realized that our True Parents are really, really awesome people. All of you are literally hand-picked by God to come and be a part of this community, are really quite awesome people.

Whenever I spend time with the second generation, I try to encourage them. I say, "You know, your parents may not be the most handsome, they may not be the most successful. They may not be the most financially well-off people, but they're rich in spirit. They had the courage to dedicate their lives for something greater than themselves. That's how you define a hero."

In a way the first generation of this movement, the ones that are sitting here with us today, you are American heroes. And as a member of the second generation, I want our second generation and the third generation and the oncoming generations to live our lives in a way that we can honor your sacrifice, and therefore validate everything that you have done until now.

I'm hoping that the young people of this movement, realizing how much self-sacrifice and dedication had been laid down, can in a way step on the shoulders of giants, on the shoulders of the first generation, like Dr. and Ms. Kim, like Rev. and Ms. Jenkins, take what they have done, take what they have planted, and in a way harvest it for God.

I've been working at the Manhattan Center for the last couple of years. Because I'm an Asian and a woman, I'm somewhat of an anomaly in the media and entertainment world. So everybody is kind of coming around and wanting to meet with me, spend time with me, just check out what Rev. Moon's daughter is all about. But you know, as I get to know them, and as I get to know and interact with different second generation, I say the same thing to the second generation that I say to them. I say, look, my father is a visionary, he's a prophet, he's a teacher, and he’s a believer. He's not some kind of a cult leader that is brainwashing the young people of America today. He's really all about love. He wants to teach and give people the hope to love.

A friend of mine recently sent me a video clip of a 22-year-old young student, having graduated from college, looking toward applying for a graduate program, and realizing her financial situation, that she had no money to pay for graduate school. Somehow she made the decision to basically say, "You know what? I'm a virgin, and maybe I can turn my virginity into a valuable asset to pay for my graduate education." So she came on CNN, on national TV, basically seeking highest bidders to the right to have her purity.

I had a sad conversation with the friend who sent me the video. That friend said, "Is this what my country has come to?" In the course of the interview, one of the CNN journalists was asking this young lady, "Where's the notion of love? What happened in your life that made you choose to do this?" She said, "You know, when I was a young girl I was totally inspired by the stories of Cinderella, and all the happy endings, and when I became 16 and 17 I still believed in the possibility of romantic love. I still believed that maybe I might find that special someone that I can share the rest of my life with." But she said going through college she realized that what she thought was valuable didn't have market value. She realized that maybe it's just too ideal or too visionary, and, "Maybe this precious thing that I'm holding for somebody is not worth that much. But if it can be made into a marketable commodity then I want to use it for me. I want to use it to pay for my education."

So she had to go through this whole process where she was a Cinderella -- knight in shining armor, awestruck girl, believing in happiness forever after -- going through adolescence when you start being interested in the opposite sex. And she started asking, how possibly she might be able to find that special someone, while seeing the brutal reality that she faced in her life, basically saying, "I'm not going to find that special someone." And she made that decision to give up the most precious thing that she has to offer to somebody.

I was talking to my friend about it, but also sharing with my three college-age kids. I said, "This is the reason why your grandfather and grandmother came to America. This is why they were just so misunderstood and so abused by the media in this country." I said, "What they really wanted to do was to basically say, 'You can still dream of having a wonderful relationship, a wonderful family. These are the steps to how you can achieve what you want to believe and what you want to be, and therefore have the happiness and fulfillment that an ideal family would provide.' "

The only thing that your grandfather and grandmother are saying is, "We're doing this because Jesus Christ appeared before your grandfather when he was 16, on Easter Sunday morning, and basically asked him to fulfill what Jesus could not fulfill. What is that? Creating ideal families, right? That is finding a loving wife and having loving children."

I said, "If you really take a moment to think about the level of morality in this country and what your grandparents are all about, it's really about giving hope to America, about saying that by being strong individuals, with the unity of mind and body, by creating wonderful ideal families, by having the common denominator of a singular goal, you believe in the same things, you believe in wanting to be the true parents for your family and for your country. Then in a way, step by step, my father, your grandfather, my mother, your grandmother, wanted to see America fulfill its true destiny. That is, for it to be an incredible country that can exercise its rightful ability to influence the world in a powerful, powerful way."

Many of the second generation growing up are kind of confronted, "How do you make sense of the inner and the outer, how do you make sense of the external and the internal? Do I need to choose?" And I've always encouraged them, "You need to be both. We need to be internally excellent. We need to have a strong moral fiber. We need to have a strong character education. And we need to have a strong belief in who we are. And yet at the same time we have to manifest what we're all about by striving for external excellence."

So in a way what the first generation gave up in terms of a great career, great schooling, is what the second generation must fulfill. We must be the ones getting straight A's at school. We must be the class presidents, we must be the ones urging our community, the importance of giving back, the importance of finding a way to help the other countries of the world. It's the young people that can make a difference. (Applause)

So in this stage of specialization, I often ask my kids, "What do you want to be known for?" I think that we as a movement need to ask ourselves, "What do we want to be known for?" Do we want to be known for putting on incredible events in a matter of hours? We're really good at that. We're excellent at that. Do we want to be known as people who are basically businessmen and who use this religious teaching as a front for Rev. Moon being a multi-billionaire? Is that how we want to be known? Do we want to be known as pathetically miserable people, who live a life of self-flagellation, Calvinistic tradition, and who feel so bad for our past sins that we cannot move forward? Or do we want to be known as financially struggling people who are forever struggling? I don't think so.

I think, in a way, the most precious gift that we have, right here, is living and breathing. I feel that the most precious gift that we have in our movement is our second generation, is our children. And if we invest in our children, they will become your greatest ambassadors. They will become True Parents' greatest ambassadors. I don't know how many countless stories I've heard.

I just spent some time with STF members at Unification Theological Seminary, and I heard one story of a boy named Matthew who is on STF now. A resident of Barrytown heard about True Father's trail and she was trying to find it. She approached Matthew with a group of his friends, "Where is Father's trail?" Not only did Matthew show her where Father's trail was, but he went out of his way to love this total stranger in a way she had never been loved by the young people of America. So much so that she had to ask, "What kind of people are you? Where do you come from?" So Matthew naturally witnessed about who he is.

All those mass weddings that you saw in the '70s and '80s, well, we're the product of those mass weddings. If we're different, or if we know how to honor our elders, it's because we were raised not in a homogeneous culture, but in a beautiful tapestry of cultures, where East and West can be appreciated. The finer qualities of Eastern tradition and Western tradition can be appreciated. A community where there's interracial harmony, a community where there's inter-religious dialogue. And most importantly, a community where there's intercultural appreciation. It's in the context of this community that the second generation were born into. That's why they're different from other young people.

You know that despite whatever all of you go through, you know you're different. You know you're special. So as somebody who has been given this opportunity to serve the first and second generations of this country, it's in a way my job to make sure that there is an investment, not just a heartistic investment, but also financial investment in the different projects for second generation, as well as for the youth of America.

I feel like this is just the beginning. As I'm touring and going through my own fact-finding and learning about different things that have been going on over the years, I'm realizing that we really have great young adult ministers who are just ready to step up to the plate. Maybe a lot of second generation felt disillusioned because there was no place for them to go within the church organization. But I am here representing my family and representing my parents to tell you, your time has come. (Applause) And the True Family cannot do this by ourselves. We need your input. We need your leadership. We as a community really have to come together and in a way invite back the ones that are lost, the ones that are struggling, and the ones that have given up hope in this community. (Applause)

It's our job to remind our fellow youngsters that there is still hope, and that hope starts with them, with their decision to decide what they're going to do today. What am I going to do today that's going to make my first generation parents' lives better? Is what I'm going to do today a way to honor their sacrifice, or is what I'm going to do today a way to throw away their sacrifice? We have this incredible responsibility within our hands, and each of us independently must make this decision for ourselves.

I know that coming to that decision is a process. Some come to it earlier, some will take time, but I firmly believe that all of us will come to that decision because what we have is not something that can be found elsewhere. What we have is something really incredible. Every child born into this movement is uniquely gifted, uniquely talented, and uniquely blessed. I always emphasize the third part, uniquely blessed, because most of us would not be here without True Parents asking you to come together as a couple, right?

Those of us who are uniquely blessed in a way have this moral obligation, if you will, to be responsible with the blessing that we've been given, to be responsible with the talents that we've been given. I spent a great deal of time doing a lot of work with the second gen. department in Japan. Whenever I meet the second generation I realize not only are they better looking than their parents, they're better equipped, and they're so talented. These individuals are so sensitive, so creative, so musical, and so artistic. I think that comes from the purity of heart.

I encouraged eight years ago the blessing department, you know, that the cultural aspect of worship in a religious life is so important for young people. "So why don't we create an opportunity for the young people to come together once a year and perform?" So we kicked off this thing called Youth Concert for World Peace and Ideal Families eight years ago, when my son and daughter had to be in Tokyo anyway because they were invited to perform with one of the best philharmonic orchestras there. I said, "Since you're going to be in Tokyo anyway, why not do something for the blessed children?"

We had a wonderful experience of heart coming together. It was great for the blessed children and it was great for my children, too. Over the course of eight years I've seen these children grow up, these children who could not even sing in a choir. After eight years they became an incredible choir worthy to be invited to the different embassies in Tokyo. Can you imagine? (Applause)

Japan is a country where True Father still cannot go, and our movement is so maligned and feared. But even the embassy row in Tokyo has to acknowledge there's something beautiful in these children. Not only are they beautiful, but they're doing incredible outreach programs, visiting the old folks homes, honoring the people, honoring the elders, honoring their country's ancestors, who don't have much to live for, who are literally waiting to die. Can you imagine the awe and the love that they feel in these beautiful Japanese children who come and perform for them, to honor them, saying, "You've lived your life well and we're here to remember our ancestry, not just Unification ancestry, but Japanese ancestry, and celebrate it."

We have hundreds of choirs now in Japan and every year we get together. We compete with each other and after the first seven-year course of the foundation building -- and this is something my family started as our way of tithing to the movement. I know that tithing has kind of like a bad stigma attached because many times when we give to our church we don't have the transparency to know where our funds are going. So many of us might feel "Why are we tithing?" But in a way I wanted to encourage the Japanese movement. This fund is something that I never touch. This is run by the education department, your department, and all I do is help facilitate and make sure that the event is a good one.

So in the course of seven years we've built up quite a nest egg, and because a member of True Family is involved, even though there's always a constant need for donations, it's something that the church organization has to respect, that they cannot use for something else because I've specifically asked them, "This is for the second generation."

In a way, the second generation is realizing that all that we do in the course of one year is for them, to support their education, is to support their talent, is to support their expression of love. It has grown into an incredible thing, almost like a movement. And I just started out with a handful of mothers. One in particular I need to name and honor, Midori-san. She together with just two or three other people of the education department, that is how we started.

But when we built up this foundation, we invited headquarters to be a part of it. Kicking off the eighth year, the second seven-year course, we started giving out scholarships to the second generation. We announced at the end of the seventh Youth Concert for World Peace exactly what we're going to do. And then I heard that throughout the course of the whole year there was a great deal of debate, "Are you kidding? Usually money gets taken out of Japan. Money is never given to Japan."

Actually I heard there were bets between different departments -- is there really going to be a gift of a scholarship? The eighth year came, which was this last April. We went and I invited all my family to come. Everyone wanted to be there. I called Hyun Jin and said, please come. He really wanted to be there and be a part of it, but he had a prior engagement. I invited Kook Jin and Hyung Jin to come, and they really wanted to be there but they also had a prior engagement. But Sun Jin's couple, and Kwon Jin and Jeong Jin and Yeon Jin were able to attend. So it was really like a True Family celebration of second generation's effort for the last eight years. It was really a time when the True Family could give something back to the second generation, to say, look, we really appreciate you and we really want to work with you, and we really want to help you to become great.

It was a heartfelt moment, but at the same time, the second generation of Japan was incredibly excited about next year's event. One of the things that I would love to do in the American movement is to invite music to be a part of our worship, to be a part of our culture. (Applause) We have wonderful talented singers like ___ and different choirs, but I would love to see a second generation choir, which not only sings holy songs but maybe gospel, maybe songs of their own, songs of worship, of suffering, of inspiration, of heartache, all these things that make us human. (Applause)

Whenever I'm spending time in different districts and regions, I'm encouraging the young people to form bands, if that's what you want to do. If you play the guitar, play in a band with your fellow members. If you love art, study art. I can point you to the best teachers in New York, in New Jersey. If you love history, study history, be the best historian. Study the history of your community in the context of providential history and understand how special this is.

So in a way instead of young people wasting their time, or using music or bands as an excuse just to socialize, why can't we produce the next Eric Clapton? Why can't we produce the future Jeff Beck, or Santana, or the next U-2, if music is your thing? And if journalism is your thing, I invite one of you to run the Washington Times. Why not be the editor-in-chief of your campus newspaper in preparation to be the editor-in-chief of the Washington Times? And if broadcasting is your thing, why not go and work at NBC and ABC so that you can come back and work for Atlantic Video or Manhattan Center? Go out and be the best that you can. In a way, young people, we don't have time to be confused. Life is long, but in a way life is short and we only have one opportunity.

Instead of living a life of being lost and just wasting time not knowing where or who or what you are all about, it doesn't matter what kind of a family you come from. Some of the greatest men and women of this country have come from more dire straits than us second generation. Many of the great men and women of history have been abandoned by their parents; have had no food on their table. I don't think when Martin Luther King was giving that incredible speech, "I Have a Dream".... I know that Dr. Abernathy and Rev. Lowery, who are good friends of mine, I don't think they thought the day would come this soon when an African American is running for the presidency of the United States!

I don't think Rosa Parks, who ignited the Montgomery bus boycott and inspired the civil rights movement, ever thought that something like Obama's candidacy would happen this soon. I don't think that a lot of women who have struggled throughout centuries, throughout 6,000 biblical years, being misunderstood and treated like second-class citizens, ever thought we'd see a day when because of True Mother's victory of absolute unity and devotion and dedication to the True Father that she can restore the position of Eve to that of a True Eve and usher in the Pacific Rim era, where women have this chance or opportunity to play an active role in our life of faith.

I know for a fact that my friend, who I went to divinity school with, when they heard that my father asked me to step into this role, as a woman and as an American woman now, they said, "Your dad is making history again." In a way, you know something is right, you know something is providential in the air when you know that the external follows what happens internally. Father gave the women of America this blessing. Who would have ever thought that the GOP, of all parties, would nominate Sarah Palin to run as the vice presidential candidate?

You see, my fellow Americans, things are moving, things are changing. My brother Dr. Kim talked about confusion. There is no time for confusion. It's not a matter of what is what, what is higher, what is lower. It's like the right hand fighting with the left hand. It doesn't matter because sooner or later we have to come together to honor God. That's what it's all about. (Applause)

It's truly my honor to be standing here. As a mother, not just as a sister but as a mother, I encourage all the mothers in the audience to look within. Just as the founding American mothers were the ones behind the scenes, supporting the Yankee soldiers to win their victory, we have to, in a way, support and invest in our children so that they can accomplish great things for God, great things for America. The Martin Luther Kings, and the Rosa Parks, and the Gandhis that the world has enjoyed, I believe are sitting within our midst, sitting next to you. It is our children.

In a way what I would like our movement to be known for is just like what this woman experienced coming face to face with Matthew. It's the natural witnessing. It's not what's spoken, it's what is done. It's not what is preached, it's what is lived. It's how we live our day to day, it is the action points that we decide for ourselves today, that is going to determine what our children's lives are going to be in the future.

We've been a church which has done many incredible external things, external events. But what I would like is to invite the mothers to kind of concentrate on the internal aspect. We have to strengthen from within before we can kind of reach out. I'm hoping that we can use this as an opportunity to strengthen our communities within, to in a way remember what drove us, or what invited us, or what attracted us to come and follow this message of true love, and reinforce that spark of life that each of us has felt, and transfer it in a loving way to our children.

I think if we can live our lives in a way that's attractive, meaning that if we live a life that people want to know and be a part of, where people are asking, "Why are your children different, why are they so special? They're so different from teenagers who are shooting each other on the street. They're so different from kids who are just wasting their lives on drugs. What is it that makes them different?" then in a way the foundation for sharing has already been laid.

I feel that in a way the floodgates can be opened, and the laying down of sacrifice and the tears and sweat and blood that was shed in this country from my Father and Mother on down can be harvested. A couple of years ago there was a book called "The Tipping Point." It talks about many great things that happened at history at a crucial juncture, or what is called the tipping point. Many people think it's the flavor of the month or flavor of that moment. But no, it's the preparation that has been laid up to a point where we reach this tipping point, where a whole new way of understanding, or a whole new way of living can be ushered in.

It is my firm belief that the suffering that was laid by the first generation was in a way the preparation of taking the second and third generation to that tipping point. It's just a matter of time. And I know firsthand when I talk to the different CEOs in the entertainment industry, they have children, too. At the end of the day, what do they want more than anything? They want their children to have great lives, at the end of the day. It's no different from you and me. When they start asking me questions because my kids are wonderful people, then in a way it's an invitation for them to understand how incredible True Parents are. When I can testify to them that our religion is not that different, we are not that different, we all want the same things, and it's really my father's desire to want to give this gift of love and gift of life to the young people, then they really have nothing to say.

Really this is a time for the second generation to proudly say, "We've got nothing to hide, and what we are is incredible." We're awesome, and you're awesome, and my kids are awesome. And we have a right to be proud of who we are. Because what our True Parents have done is lay the groundwork to really be known as the parents of peace, right? That's what they're all about.

So our second generation and third generation need to be that generation of peace. Young people are so lost. They named and branded themselves Generation X, Generation Y, Z, and now we're up to the millennials, where the young people are saying, it's basically the show-me generation, give me the money generation. But basically our True Parents are saying, "No, we must be a generation of peace. We must be a generation where we acknowledge our religious, racial differences, but we celebrate it in a way that makes God beautiful. We need to live our lives in a way where violence is not a part, violence to an individual, violence to the family or to the society. We need to be a generation where we're going to put our foot down and say, 'You know what, my Muslim parents might have fought with my Jewish or Christian parents, but I am no longer going to be that person because I belong to a generation of peace, where I am going to look at my young brothers and sisters, inside and out, as my family. That's the only hope for world peace.'" (Applause)

So instead of just thinking of ourselves inside the box as second generation, we have an incredible responsibility to exercise this ability to influence, and not just be a second gen but be a peacemaker generation. We have to do that not just for ourselves but for our friends and for our colleagues. We have a lot of work to do, but really I am here to say that True Parents invested and really gave their lives for this country. So as Dr. Pyung Hwa Kim said, basically it's from Alaska that Father is ringing in a new time. From the small state of Alaska we're enjoying an incredible time when somebody like Sarah Palin could be running as a vice presidential candidate.

This is an incredibly progressive time, when things will be happening very, very quickly. If you think that the Dalai Lama is hip or cool because he is constantly surrounded by Hollywood celebrities, you just wait and watch. There are many, many good people who realize what True Parents are all about. So don't lose the opportunity to say, my parents, my True Parents were hip and cool first, before the floodgates opened, before the tipping point happens, so that you can be the ones ushering in a new generation to the land of Canaan.

So brothers and sisters, thank you for this beautiful Sunday. I'm going to kind of take this day to meet with you personally, but also my parting remarks will be: Those of you who are interested in music and those of you who are interested in becoming musicians, please practice hard. Don't just socialize and hang around and do other things that you should not be doing.

If you want to be dedicated to music, be a virtuoso. And when you think you have a great demo, come and see me at Manhattan Center and I will promote you to the best in the recording industry, as well as the entertainment industry. But you have to do your part, and that is you have to work at it, just like the way Hyo Jin oppa did. He used to practice guitar until his fingers bled. That's how passionate he was. And I know that his children sitting here in the front, they're just as passionate, too. Speaking as an auntie, you need to know your dad was awesome. (Applause)

So thank you, brothers and sisters. Please have a great week, please have a great month, and hopefully I can catch up with you again. Let's create a generation of peace. Let's be known as the people who gave birth to a new generation of men and women of God, who will unite this world into one family under God. Thank you.

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

33. What does America mean to us Americans? (September 21, 2008)

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

In Jin Moon
September 21, 2008
Sunday Service
New Hope Family Church
New Hope Academy, Washington DC
Transcribed by: Margaret Herbers
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Good morning. Good morning. It's truly my honor to be here with everybody this morning at the New Hope Academy. I remember this school when it was first purchased, seeing it grow and develop over the years, and having had many memorable meetings here -- I think the last one being that I was here for the Dr. Park tour. I'm once again touched by Washington's embrace and Washington's love, welcoming my family here.

I spent a beautiful Hoon Dok Hae with a group of young people, your children. I got a chance to meet every one of them, and I got a chance to hear about what they're doing in their lives. As I got to know every one of these beautiful ladies and gentlemen, I realized that we really do have something special here. Our second generation are really so precious, and their hearts and their smiles, and the sparkle in their eyes is almost like a fountain of youth for me. It makes me feel young again.

This morning we got to enjoy the oldies but goodies along with a newcomer, Larry Moffitt's son. Even after all these years Dan still has that sparkle in his eyes. Frank Grow is a bit grayer, but still exciting as ever. You know, I realized that this is what makes our community beautiful. We have the old, we have the young. We have the Asian, we have the Western. We have the big, we have the skinny. We have maybe a lot of, here in Washington, financially well-off couples, and some couples that are just starting out and struggling. But this is in a way what makes us who we are. We are all children of God, and we were all hand touched by True Parents in one way or another.

And when I see the second generation... I was telling them this morning, "You guys are so special because you are literally hand-picked by our True Parents." I know that for one thing my children would not be here had my parents not introduced or shoved me down the aisle to meet my husband. They would not be here. All of your children would not be here otherwise. But then I saw something exciting happen. I've met all these young couples who are just recently blessed. Even Rev. Jenkins' son went off to STF in Europe and came back with a wife. They seemed very much in love.

I said to my husband, "Wow. You know. I thought the first generation was missing out on something profoundly wonderful, which is the notion of romantic love. Right? We got blessed because we believed in creating a worldwide family, and we have never met our spouses before. Or maybe some of them knew their spouses and maybe were not attracted to them at all, but because we believed in the higher values of life, we walked down the aisle with our spouses.

But in this day and age, because of the sacrifices and the foundation that the first generation have laid, the second and the third generation have this incredible opportunity not only to receive the most precious thing in life, which is the blessing, but also to experience and enjoy romantic love. My husband and I were terribly excited because we would love to see that with our own children. We would love to see the world coming together in our individual family.

At this time Father asked me to spend some time with the members. Actually I was thinking about cancelling this Washington event because True Parents are in Alaska right now, so I asked True Parents, "I just finished meeting with the members in New Jersey and I'm scheduled to meet with the members in Washington, D.C., but you're in Alaska. Should I come and greet you?" Father said, "Washington is very important. Washington has always been a very, very important city, so you must go and you must comfort and take care of the members, and remind them how important Washington is to God's providence." So that's why I'm here. (Applause)

When I think about Washington, and when I think about America -- I often talk to my children and to my friends, "What does America mean to us Americans?" Maybe those of you who were raised and grew up here don't really realize what America means to the rest of the world, but America is the land of dreams. It's a land where anybody can come and, based upon their hard work, based upon their desire to move up in society or to get an education, you can accomplish anything that your heart desires.

You can be poor, you can arrive with nothing in your pocket, which a lot of Korean missionaries have done who came to this country, but because of their dedication and their persistence and their devotion became the richest people on earth, became the movers and shakers of Capitol Hill, became future presidents. Obama came from a single-parent home. But who would have ever thought when Martin Luther King was giving his "I Have a Dream" speech that now we'd be seeing a presidential candidate who's African American? It's just absolutely incredible what can be accomplished in this country.

For the rest of the world you are this country of dreams, you are this country of opportunity. We are so blessed to actually live our lives here, and we are so blessed to have enjoyed our True Parents here for the last couple of decades. (Applause) They've spent many years of their lives loving you and taking care of you and inspiring you and encouraging you to become great men and women of God, and they brought all of us, my brothers and sisters, to learn your language, to become Americans, if you will, to learn to love America more than my own country.

When I saw this love that my parents had for America while I was growing up... and I still have this vivid memory of a vibrant community of young American men and women. For a child who just arrived in America, coming from a country where everyone's hair is black and everyone's eyes are black, to a whole new culture where you have all these different varieties of people, blonde hair, brunettes, red-heads -- for the first time I saw -- and all these people just coming and listening and being drunk with the message of true love and with the vision of wanting to create ideal families, and with a dream that they're going to raise great kids. That's the memory of the American membership that I have from when I was growing up.

Yes, over the years we've become a little grayer, and maybe some of us have become a little bit tired, too. I know that many of you suffered quite a bit. But I am hoping that at this incredibly important providential time when True Parents are asking the elder son nation of America to really rise up and fulfill its providential destiny, which is to, in a way, exercise power for God... America is a superpower. America has incredible power over many, many other countries of the world. When you study political science 101, one of the first things that the teacher tells you is, "Power? How do you define power? You define power by saying it's the ability to influence." When America is a superpower, it has an incredible responsibility to have that great good influence for the rest of the world by, in a way, becoming that great country that God wanted to see.

Here in this hall we have a community of Unificationists, and I would like to ask you to maybe take this moment to think about, "What kind of a community are we all about?" When I meet different members and different second generations, one of the things they are always asking me is, "I'm always thinking about an "elevator pitch". How do you define what our movement is in that short time span when you take the elevator up to the first, to the seventh, or to the fourth or whatever floor you're headed towards?"

A lot of my outside friends or acquaintances or colleagues have asked me that very question, "What do you believe in? What are you all about? What is Rev. Moon all about? What is the Unification Church all about?" One of the things that I always say to them is:

"Well, we believe that Jesus Christ appeared before my Father on Easter Sunday morning and asked him to fulfill his mission. And what is that mission? That mission is to carry on what Jesus could not do because of the crucifixion -- that is to find a beautiful wife, to create an ideal family, and to share that message with the rest of the world."

When I say something like that, people usually kind of step back and say, "Wow! I thought you guys were all about brainwashing. Where is the brainwashing in what you guys believe in? I never knew your faith is based upon the Christian teachings, or that you are thinking that you're actually fulfilling Jesus' mission, that he was not able to fulfill because his life was cut short."

Then when they're interested, they will ask me more questions, "What's with the Adolf Hitler manseis that I see on TV all the time?" I always love to tell them, "Mansei in Korean means hip-hip hooray, or literally it means 10,000 years of luck." Then they say, "Wow! I never knew that." Then when they've come to our most recent gathering, they ask me, "What's this thing about Aju? Why don't you say amen?"

My response is much easier in the United States than anywhere else in the world. Because I reply that my parents say that America is the elder son country, and have proclaimed America as the second Israel. So in a way, it's "a Jew." (Laughter, applause) And because historically the Jewish people have given us such a hard time, it's a way for us to remind ourselves to love the Jewish community and to invite our Jewish brothers and sisters in. And for those of us who are already Jewish and a member, well, it's a reminder to say, "Wow! Heavenly Father really loves us!'" (Applause)

So when you take somebody who's never known our movement, or somebody who was naturally negatively disposed towards our movement, to an elevator ride, and you open the elevator to their floor, many times they don't want to leave. Then when they find out that I'm a mother with five kids, they really don't want to leave. They want to take me to coffee and ask about my life.

One of the things I feel in our own lives of faith is that, whenever you have a new continental leader or a new shift in leadership, there's always an emphasis on what's the new push, new push. The wonderful Dr. and Mrs. Pyung Hwa Kim, who have done incredible work for True Parents in the Philippines and in Taiwan, have done an incredible work welcoming many, many thousands and thousands of members into our fold.

When I first met them, they said, In Jin nim, our huge push must be witnessing. I said, "Yes, that's really wonderful. And witnessing is incredibly important. But you know, this is not the Philippines, this is not Taiwan. American young people are quite well versed in their own knowledge when it comes to Eastern religions. So to think that we're going to take the example of how many of you joined the church, being met while backpacking across the United States and being invited for a weekend seminar, some of you to Camp K and some of you to 43rd street, and then coming to know the movement that way and being awestruck at realizing that the Messiah is really here and all of that, is wonderful." But at the same time I told Dr. and Mrs. Kim, "The world has changed quite a bit since then. There have been many, many efforts to, in a way, re-start or re-energize the witnessing campaigns over the years. No matter how honest or how genuine these peoples' heartistic attitudes were, the results were not forthcoming. It's because our generation has changed."

They were talking about a target audience of between 18 and 35 years old, the young professionals, or college age kids. I said, "Dr. and Mrs. Kim, most of these kids have something that we never had when we were their age. That is, they have the Web, they have the Internet. I don't know how many young people I've met through my children, and because I'm a musician I've met so many young musicians who in a way came to find their own religion on the Web. Many have told me, I don't like being preached to. I don't like being told what is right or wrong. I like to find what I'm feeling in the quiet of my own office or my own room."

I asked Dr. and Ms. Kim, "Shouldn't our first focus in terms of witnessing be in a way an overhauling of what our movement is all about? (Applause) And especially in a way overhauling the image of the Unification Church, or the presence of Unification Church on the Web? (Applause) Because I know for a fact, I can have great meetings with people, and then the next day they'll call me back and say, 'You know, I Googled some things about your dad, and -- wow.' I say, 'Okay, you got the negative lowdown, so come back and let me give you the other side.' I realized how incredibly powerful the Web is and how much negativity is out there."

So one of the first things I said to Dr. and Mrs. Kim was, "I want to focus my energy on cleaning up the Web, so that when people type in Unification Church or Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the good stuff comes up, as well as what they have already." (Applause)

And then I said, "The next thing that I would like to emphasize to our brothers and sisters is the importance of natural witnessing. What do I mean by that? When you're out on the pavement and you want to teach people about the word of God, or the fact that the Messiah is here on earth, that's great. And I've done that, too. I've gone the course of fundraising and witnessing for many, many years. But I realized that as a mother of five the most effective and the most long-lasting way to witness is what I call natural witnessing. And that is if we truly have something special here, if what our True Parents have taught us is the word of God. And here they've talked for so many years about building ideal families, about one family under God."

But I've often asked different people, "What does One Family under God look like to you?"

To me it's many, many things, but the most important thing is that if we're going to be one family under God, then that means that each and every one of our families needs to be ideal, needs to be beautiful, needs to be shining, and needs to be an inspiration. So I know that for so many years. And Rev. Jenkins honestly said to me, "You know, for the last 24 years we really haven't been focusing on our communities because we've been so event-driven and we always had a deadline that we needed to meet."

But I, coming from the perspective of a woman and as a mother, I would like to take this opportunity to, in a way, encourage all the mothers in the audience to basically say, "My most important mission is taking care of my kids. My most important mission is raising up these future leaders that are going to change the world. I am raising world-changers, and I am raising my children to be an agent of change, to be something greater."

And being a mother, I must say to you that actually touring with True Parents and attending speeches is a whole lot more exciting than thinking about your grocery list, and about what detergent you want to buy because you want to save some money here and there, or making sure your checkbook is balanced, and thinking about what program I'm going to provide for my child. It's an all-consuming lifestyle. You're literally there at the mercy of your children. Thank God I have such wonderful kids, but it's really, really tough work. And it's a thankless job. You don't really see the reward of what you're putting in until many, many years later, sometimes many decades later. And some children go the easy path and some children go the difficult path. But the "thank you, mom and dad" comes much, much later.

So I can see how so many of the mothers, especially Korean mothers, they're so excited to just dovetail into what our True Parents are doing, "I am following True Parents! Husband, you take care of the children. I'm doing this important thing, so, mum, take care of my kids!" That's the way a lot of us were raised. When I think about my family, I had eight different nannies before I came to America. Can you imagine? Just when you're getting comfortable with a nanny, you get a new one. And I think a lot of blessed children grew up that way, too. Their parents were never there, and many of them had to fend for themselves.

And growing up in the '80s and '90s was not that easy. We received a lot of persecution. The branding of our movement was haywire; it was very, very negative. People's image of what we're all about was just awful -- they said we're deceptive people, we brainwash people, we break families apart, we enslave people. But the real gist of the message, the message of true love, of wanting to build ideal families, of having this concept of a universal family, One Family under God, is something that to this day I get excited about.

And when I have a chance to share it with my outside friends and now my colleagues in the media and entertainment world, you know, they said to me, "Wow! What you are saying is really up to the millennials." And the millenials, what are they about? Everything is about "show me!" It's a "show me" generation. "Show me the money, what can you do for me?" But if you really understand what True Parents are asking us to be, what they're asking us to be is to raise up a generation of peace, peace-loving individuals, that recognize the importance of interracial harmony, of inter-religious dialogue, of intercultural appreciation. Here we have the West and the East. We have the best of both worlds. Here we have a parent or a family where within a family setting the children can bow to their parents in gratitude. Where the parents, out of their love and desire to love and understand their children, invite them to come and talk to them.

In the Eastern tradition you can not talk to your parents. They do all the talking and you do all the listening. But in our community we have the horizontal and we have the vertical. Many times when I experience the families of my outside friends, I realize that they spend a great deal of time trying to be their children's best friends, thereby giving up the parental role. And then they ask me, "Why do my children not listen to me?"

And so many times I explain to them, "One of the wonderful things about this movement is, we have an element of both, an appreciation of the Eastern culture, an appreciation of the Western culture. And in a way this is God's way of allowing us to glean the best, take from the best and learn and become a tapestry. What we are doing is weaving a tapestry of life, and at this time a tapestry of peace."

In New York City where I work at the Manhattan Center, we just had an anniversary of 9/11 for the New York Police Department. They had a huge parade coming down 34th Street and they all came into the Manhattan Center. When I saw the young men and women that make up the New York Police Department, I was reminded of the firemen who rushed in, even though the buildings were coming down on them.

I said to my husband, "These people are Americans at their best. The thousands of men and women who gave their lives to allow my country of Korea to have our True Father here... When the allied forces landed and saved my father from execution..." I said, "These men and women who haven given their lives because they believed in a higher purpose, the men and women who are fighting overseas, believe in the importance of freedom, believe in the importance of democratic institutions, they're giving up their lives for something greater. And these policemen and firemen who literally gave their lives on 9/11 were doing the same thing because they were patriots who believed in America. When I see people exercising their belief system in their daily lives, there is nothing more inspiring to me."

I said to my husband, “These are the best of New York City, and on this anniversary I cannot help but feel that what we went through on 9/11 was because of religious fanatics in the name of religion wanting to harm and kill Americans." I said to my husband, "How can it be that the world has come to this situation where people are literally killing each other in the name of religion and want to hurt America in the name of God and religion? How are we going to settle this problem? It seems like the more powerful America gets, the richer America gets, and the more it becomes an envy of the world; it just becomes more of a target. Because we have so much, America has been so blessed.

How can we, as Americans, young and old, come to a place in our lives where we have to basically say to ourselves, "What kind of world are we leaving for our children?" I ask that question every day. I said, "What difference is my life going to make for the future of my children?" I always say to myself, "If there's one thing I can do, I want to be a great mother. And if there's another thing I can do, I want to raise a generation of peace, where in the knowledge of God's love and in the knowledge of the great vision of One Family under God we can remind ourselves with true understanding and a true appreciation of each other's culture, of each other's strength and weakness, and how, by coming together, we can create an incredible, incredible gift for God, which is the tapestry of our lives."

So in my daily life and in the daily lives of my children there are a couple of things that we do every day. I always ask them, "Think about three different action points that you would like to accomplish today. One wonderful way to start off your day is with a sense of gratitude, and what better way to start the day than to thank God and your parents. And what are you thanking them for? For your life, for this opportunity to celebrate life, to practice true love, and to experience living for the sake of others."

When I've heard these words said to me during many, many workshops that I've endured, "Living for the sake of others," I said, "For a child of 15 or 16 it's not too inspiring. Does living for the sake of others mean I totally deny myself, totally kill myself or totally reject what I'm all about? If I am a vessel of God, then shouldn't it matter what I might want to do with my life?" Then once it came to me in my moment of silence, and I said to my husband, "I was really having a tough time with this concept of living for the sake of others because it somehow it felt like a denial. It somehow felt like I was denied a certain kind of lifestyle because I wanted to think about others. But actually I realized that living for the sake of others means fulfilling your life. You have to live first before you can serve others. We have to be breathing before we can reach out and touch somebody. We have to be walking, eating, happy, and we have to be financially independent. We have to live a successful life before we can live our lives for others properly."

I said to my husband, "You know, I realize that many of the first generation were struggling with this concept of living for the sake of others because many of us were literally dying for the sake of others. We were dying for the sake of our spouse. We were dying for the sake of our children. We were dying, many of us, for the sake of our Korean leaders. We felt enervated, we felt our inspiration dissipating. We were wondering, what kind of a life is this? What kind of a life is living for the sake of others?"

But if you really, truly understand what Father has been trying to teach us, and has been trying to encourage us all these years, he was trying to tell us, we have to live for the sake of others. We have to live, live, first. And then you can take care of other members in your community.

Everybody knows... Those of the first generation who have gone through emotional therapy, psychological therapy, marriage counseling, know that if you are empty as a human being, there is very little you can do in terms of giving, right? So if you're dying for the sake of others, there's not that much to give. But if you are living for the sake of others and you are truly filled with the Holy Spirit and you are truly filled with the joy that you see in your children's eyes because you know they're the best students in their schools, you know they're going to be the future Rhodes scholars, the most brilliant musicians, and you know that because you enrolled your child in a film class when they were in elementary school you see the making of a future Steven Spielberg, then you realize that you're living for the sake of others. At the same time, you're breathing and you're dreaming again.

I mean, if we truly are going to live, we cannot forget our dreams. And it doesn't matter how old we get. I tell my kids, "No matter how old your mommy gets, I'm still going to be an 80-year old firecracker with a lot of dreams in her eyes." (Applause) And I'm going to encourage my children and my grandchildren to dream big, to dream, again, of changing the world. For those of you who are tired, I don't know if you realize, but quite a few changes have been taking place in our movement, right? All you beautiful, capable, talented American sisters in the audience, who were berated by our True Father -- do you remember the "American woman" speeches? I remember them very, very well. Every time you guys got it, my brothers would turn to me and my sisters, and say, "Yeah, yeah, it's true. American sisters. Did you hear that? Did you hear that?" (Laughter) We would literally die, Ye Jin onni and Un Jin and me. We would write notes to each other like, "Oh my goodness, that person's getting it pretty bad."

But see, God works in mysterious ways. One thing I didn't tell my father until recently is the fact that I became a naturalized citizen of this country. So when my father asked me to become the chairperson of Family Federation for World Peace and HSA, I'm you. I'm an American woman. I'm an American sister. (Applause) So I feel like I'm standing on top of all the love that you invested in True Parents and into the mission. And by being berated by Father, I feel like now this is your opportunity to play an active role in our lives of faith. So not just as sisters now. Many of you are mothers with kids in tow, and many of them well into their 20s and looking toward their 30s. So, American sisters, what are we going to do for this great country of America? If this country is truly a country of dreams, is truly a great country that wields this incredible power as a superpower of the world and has the ability to influence the world, shouldn't we as mothers have a voice in how we want to raise our children? Or how we want to help the young people of this country to wield that power properly for the rest of the world? I ask that question every day.

I never forget that America is the elder son country. When I came to work at Manhattan Center, I was filling, in a way, the role left vacant because my elder brother passed away. I feel like everything that I'm doing now is something that he would have done as the eldest son. And truly as the passionate and incredibly powerful person that my brother was, he had a character that could incite inspiration, but also incite fear. I feel many times like my brother was misunderstood because he was so passionate. What was he passionate about? He realized firsthand the effect that media and entertainment had on his life, and he realized that it has an enormous effect on his friends. And he realized that America is literally suffering under the cult of celebrity.

I was telling the young adults at Hoon Dok Hae this morning, "Why is it that Nelson Mandela is being given the Nobel Peace Prize? Yes, he has suffered in prison, but our True Father has gone to prison six times, and twice thrown out of concentration camps and left for dead. My father has invested billions and billions into this country. Just $2 billion alone with the Washington Times itself. Also numerous hospitals around the world. But more than that, my father and mother have given a spiritual vision to re-inspire the young Americans, and Americans as a whole, to understand America's providential destiny, to understand the responsibility it has towards the world, because it is so powerful."

So when I think about my brother and about how passionate he was about media and entertainment, part of the thing that I wanted to do with Family Federation and HSA is to think about how we want to re-package ourselves as a movement. And I think re-packaging starts by taking everything apart and taking a fresh perspective at what we have and what we are. Yes, outreach witnessing is wonderful. But I feel that the best witnessing starts when we as individual people and as individual couples and as ideal families can practice this natural witnessing, by living our lives for the sake of others, really living and not dying, and in a way giving our children this opportunity to basically see life really as a gift. It's a gift or an opportunity to find your passion, to be as passionate about something as my brother was, to be passionate and be the best. So if you make the best chocolate chip cookies, like Debbie Fields -- and I'm a frequent customer, so I should know -- then be the best. And at the same time make sure it makes economic sense.

So you take your passions and specialize in something that is uniquely you. Every one of us sitting here in the audience is uniquely talented, is uniquely gifted. Our lives are an opportunity to kind of express who we're all about, who you are all about. As a mother, I feel like my job is almost like a casting director. I have a movie with roles to fill. I look at my son Paxton, he's a really great reader and writer. Maybe he can be the next Shakespeare. And Truxton here, he's a fantastic chef. I plead that it's because of these two young munchies that I can never seem to get in shape because they keep on baking me wonderful desserts and all these baked goods. I can never say no. I said, "You guys might be on Iron Chef one day. You might compete with Mario Battoli there and beat him. That would be fascinating."

Or encourage those who are talented in music, not to just goof off and jam and use music as an excuse to socialize. Don't get in trouble and start drinking, doing things behind your parents' backs. If you really love music, be a virtuoso. If you really love the guitar, be the next Jeff Beck, the next Santana, and at the same time do it for God. And if you are great in singing, it doesn't matter what you want to sing about. Find a voice that's uniquely you and get an education and be the best at what you want to be.

The young people of today, because of your parents' sacrifice, you have an incredible future ahead of you. You have romantic love waiting for you. You have the ability to fall in love and be introduced to somebody that you're attracted to. Now that's something profound, isn't it? Or somebody that you might have chemistry with or somebody that you might enjoy doing something with. You guys have that opportunity because your parents laid a wonderful, wonderful foundation of living for the sake of others, and hopefully not dying for the sake of others.

Then if we can empower our youth to be the best in their classrooms, so they become Ambassadors for Peace, they become ambassadors of True Parents, they become your ambassadors in their classrooms, in their internships, in their jobs, in their careers, wherever they are, then there is no reason why we should be always in a position of inviting prominent people to come. We can raise these future prominent men and women of God. (Applause) We can raise the next president; we can raise the future Martin Luther Kings. We can raise the future Gandhis. We can raise the future Mother Theresas. All these people are incredible, incredible examples of the human persistence, if you will, and the human devotion to something greater than themselves, which is a vision and which is a dream.

If we ourselves, the first generation, can be re-inspired and realize what we are holding in our hands... we have precious vessels that are going to be incredible representatives of True Parents to the world. And if we can really encourage them to seek excellence, not just in our spiritual lives, but external excellence as well, then it's just a matter of time before the world comes to realize, "Wow! True Parents are really hip people. They are really quite awesome. Now they are inviting all of us to be True Parents, to have a crack at building ideal families." Then one step at a time, through our natural witnessing, people coming to ask questions like, "Why are your kids so incredible? How is it that they're so respectful toward their grandparents?"

I recently met an STF-er named Matthew who told me about taking a walk with some of his friends near Father's trail at Unification Theological Seminary. A woman approached him, asking about the trail. Matthew not only took her to the trail, but took such good care of her that the woman asked, "How are you guys so different from other teenagers? What organization do you belong to? Where did you learn these things?"

And I said to my husband, "That's the power of natural witnessing. You've already won them over, made them experience what's truly remarkable about our community." So this is really not a time to be lost, not a time to wonder where our future is going to go. Because you guys sitting here in the context of providential history are going to be the St. Marks, St. Pauls, Mother Theresas for the future. What you do today will determine what the future will be. How we raise our children today will determine what kind of a world we're going to leave for our children when we naturally pass on.

I have made a wristband for the second generation, and also for the first generation, and for some third generation, as a constant reminder that we need to be a generation of peace, a generation where we are breathing God, and where we are celebrating life, fighting against anything that is violent -- violence to oneself, to one's home, to one's community, and toward one's country. Please feel free on your way out to take a wristband for yourself. I hope it can be a reminder. It's really up to you to say to yourselves, "What do I want to do?"

I told my children, "You can start off a global petition together with a group of friends. Ask them, 'Do you want to wear this bracelet? It means you love God and you're celebrating life, you're going to live your life for the sake of others, exercising true love, and you're against violence. It's like a reminder of where we must not go, which is the re-enactment of 9/11 on American soil.'“ I told Paxton, "You're just 11 years old, but you yourself could start this global petition, and it could be a worldwide petition. Or maybe in high school you could start a mural project -- what does peace look like to a 7th grader? What does peace mean to a 9th grader? Or write an essay and send it to your congressman, visit your representatives on Capitol Hill."

There's so much you can do. Don't ever think that somehow you're limited by your age, or limited by your situation. Whatever you do will be yours alone and it will be that much more meaningful if you can start something that will change your life and that will change the lives of your friends and the lives of your community.

I really pray that you will have a wonderful week. I encourage you to participate in your children's lives.

One of the things I would like to do is break down the barriers or the walls you might have felt in regard to True Family. We're people just like you, and we do need a hug every now and then, so bring it on. It will be wonderful to hear from you as to how I can do a better job at where I am in New York. I look forward to many, many years of happiness and living for the sake of others, starting with ourselves. Thank you very much. (Applause)

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

32. In Jin Moon Gets To Know the Washington Family (Douglas Burton - September 21, 2008)

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

Douglas Burton
September 21, 2008

“Everything that you need is right there inside you, when you live -- when you live your dream.”
Live Your Dream, by Dan Fefferman

The Washington Family was honored to host Dr. In Jin Moon, the Family Federation’s new national chairperson, and husband, James Park, for two days (September 20 - 21) including a town hall meeting and a combined Sunday service that left quite a few members inspired and intrigued about things to come.

In Jin Nim listened to and commented upon a score of reports from ministers and department leaders at the Saturday’s “Town Hall” meeting at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, but she also took time to unfold her core convictions and priorities. Church members were encouraged to hear that she is thoroughly proud of the “American dream,” proud of motherhood, proud of the pursuit of excellence, and determined to take a new approach to witnessing and public relations.

And, as all public relations, like politics, is local, In Jin Nim and James spent considerable time on both days shaking hands and chatting with members on a one-on-one basis. For some, it was like a dream come true to have such face-to face access to our Family Federation leaders.

In Jin Nim began her Sunday sermon at the New Hope Academy by telling how she almost canceled her visit to Washington after she heard that her father had gone to Alaska to fish and pray for the members. “Shouldn’t I come to Alaska and greet you?” she asked True Father. But True Father’s reply, she said, was: “No. Washington is very important. Go to Washington. You must care for, you must comfort the members. Remind them how important Washington is for God’s Providence.”

And for that matter, not only Washington, but America is key in God’s Providence. “America is the land of dreams, where all can come and accomplish anything their heart desires. And by dint of hard work they can become the richest people in America, the movers and shakers on Capitol Hill,” she said. “We are so blessed to live our lives here, so blessed to have True Parents living here among us for three decades. They brought my brothers and sisters and me here to learn your language and become part of your country and culture. I remember hearing stories from the early [American] members, who were almost drunk with the idea of becoming ideal families.”

Since those days, some of us have become grayer and a little tired, too, she observed. Nonetheless, she pointed out a moment later, “I still see the same twinkle in your eyes that was there years ago. The message of true love and of building a universal family is something I still get excited about.”

In Jin Nim is also a proud American, as husband James pointed out at the Town Hall meeting. “In Jin Nim is an American, and she really, really loves America. Her formative experiences were with leaders who loved America. HSA [Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity] now is being headed by someone who sees herself as an American,” he told the Washington Family.

“Did you experience the ‘American women’ speeches my Father gave years ago?” she asked the members at the New Hope service. “I remember some of my brothers pointing their fingers at me, saying, ‘Yeah, hey, American woman,’” she joked, and added: “I became a naturalized citizen,” as the congregation applauded. “So I became an American.

“As a woman and a mother, I take the point of view that I am raising my children to be agents of change,” she said. “We can raise the next Mother Teresa, the next Gandhi,” she said. Of course, the humdrum of housework and child care often is a thankless job, but it is one that In Jin Nim is glad she accepted. She is proud of the fact that she has home-schooled five children, two of whom gained early admission to Harvard. All of her children have demonstrated merit as musicians and artists. “How can we -- as Americans -- make a difference with our lives?” She asked. Her answer: “I can be a great mother to my children. I can raise up a generation of peace.”

The term generation of peace was a recurring phrase in her sermon, and she defined it this way: it is a generation that is “breathing God, celebrating life, and fighting against violence whether that be violence against home or country.” The aqua-blue “Generation of Peace” bracelets she distributed after the service were ciphers of her credo, which she summed up as meaning simply that the wearer “loves God, believes in true love, and stands against violence.”

Such a big-tent approach to affiliation is a mark of her leadership style and is evident in her approach to public outreach. Job One will be to overhaul the distorted image of Unificationism on the Worldwide Web. “The web is incredibly powerful, so my first focus is cleaning up our image on the web,” she said.

Job Two is promoting the concept of “natural witnessing,” which means that Unificationist families will naturally attract admirers, allies, and, eventually, disciples by virtue of the intellectual and moral excellence of their children. People will then start to ask, “’Why are your kids so incredible?’ ‘Why are your children so respectful to their grandparents?’ … ‘Why are you so different from other teenagers?’ ‘What organization do you belong to?’” she said.

The fact is, however, that in order to give joy to others, we need to be living well as far as the essentials are concerned. “Actually, living for the sake of others means we have to be ‘living’ ourselves, that is, living happily and financially independent,” she said. “Let’s seek excellence not only in our internal life but in our external life as well,” she added.

Do I hear an “Amen?”

Douglas Burton is the Director of Public Affairs of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

31. Reflections On In Jin Moon’s Sermon At Sunday Service (September 21, 2008)

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

September 21, 2008
New Hope School
Landover Hills, Maryland

From Annie:

In Jin Nim gave Sunday service today at the New Hope School in Maryland for the whole DC district. It was quite inspiring!

She touched on a few topics, one of them would make John happy. John had mentioned a couple of times we need to work with the search engines when people look for our movement or True Parents on the internet. She said that all the negative things come up first. She said she will be changing that so that good articles come up first.

She spoke about the "American women" that True Father used to talk about. She remembers it well because when True Father got on that subject, her brothers would point at her and make comments. She also said she got naturalized as a US citizen and does consider herself an American woman.

She commented that we are all chosen by God and to not forget it. She said that mothers need to raise our kids to help them find out what they can excel at, to do something that they can be happy with. If it's making cookies, then make the best cookies. She said one of her sons loves to bake. He could perhaps be the next Iron Chef.

I heard that at Hoon Dok Hae at the Sheraton Hotel, she asked all the 2nd gen there to stand up individually and introduce themselves. She is so serious in getting to know us, especially our 2nd gen. She took so much time talking to the young adolescents and praising those who had sung or danced for entertainment.

I feel her sincerity and deeply appreciate it. I was able to show a photo of my little family and told her my husband died 7 years ago after 9/11 and 6 years later, He gave me my granddaughter, a 3rd gen born on 9/11, to ease my pain and loneliness. I felt that I was reporting this to TF through her.

God bless! Annie

From Paul:

Just to give some of my own feedback to In Jin Nim's service today...

Hearing her speak was really like a breath of fresh air. I can easily see a major paradigm shift in our old style church mentality taking place with her at the helm.

The main points that stood out for me were, first, the attitude of taking care of your children. She used the example of mothers that were constantly chasing after Father, doing a public mission, and telling their husbands "I'm too busy doing God's will, so you have to take care of the children in my absence" She bluntly said this is a wrong attitude.

This has been a sore point for my wife because the local Kodan had been giving her a hard time over the years, making her feel like she was self-centered for not abandoning her family and running off for all of the Kodan projects. She was so excited to hear this coming from In Jin Nim and felt vindicated at last. She also strongly emphasized that your children should be the best they can be. Whatever they're really good at, let them really go for it 100% and become the best they possibly can. Education is also important; give them the best education you possibly can.

She spoke about the new leader that just came from the Philippines. Rev Kim described to her the plans he had to start a new witnessing campaign based on the formulas he used in the Philippines to get a lot of members, essentially a re-hash of what used to work well in the 70's and 80's in the US. She told him to throw his ideas out the window, and emphasized "natural witnessing" instead. Become such an embodiment of Principle that people naturally gravitate to you based on having great families (because of point number 1 above!).

She emphasized "living for the sake of others" and not "dying for the sake of others". If we're burned out and tired, miserable and depressed from having given so much for the sake of others but neglecting ourselves and dying inside in the process, we eventually have no power or energy to do anything for anybody. So take care of yourselves, find your joys and happiness inside, and then you'll have a lot more to give for the sake of others.

I think she knows exactly what is on the minds of 2nd gens and the apprehensions they have about our movement, and she is trying hard to address those concerns. My older daughter came back so excited from her speech because it alleviated a lot of concerns she had about our movement. In Jin Nim said it's a time where our 2nd gens can experience romantic love, and they can even get matched to someone they are already attracted to. (A couple of us 1st gens were making wry comments afterwards - "romantic love, what a concept!"). I think many 1st gen matchings were rather difficult, and I'm sure our kids could see that, and they were apprehensive about the matching because they could see it as something that was more like "enduring difficulties" than something happy and joyful.

Paul

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

30. In Jin Moon Visits UTS (September 17, 2008)

January 28, 2020

Michael Mickler

September 17, 2008
Sermon Transcript
Chapel Service at UTS, Barrytown, NY

Transcribed from the video tape by Kevin Thompson; edited by Tyler Hendricks

First of all, good morning to everyone. I am delighted that you have invited me to come and spend time with you this morning. Driving up here brought back many memories, memories of True Parents and those early years growing up in America. Here I am now the mother of five children and as my brothers and sisters move into positions of responsibility on behalf of True Parents and there is a tremendous sense of hope and yet at the same time a great sense of responsibility.

When I think of UTS I realize that this is a special place in God’s Providence. As you know, my Father received from Jesus Christ the command to fulfill Jesus’ responsibility when he was 16 on that beautiful Easter Sunday morning. From that moment until now, and he is 88 years old, Father has never wavered or second guessed what he needs to do.

As a child watching my father, giving speeches and guidance, and all those beautiful summer months fishing in Gloucester, and all those times when Father was joking and poking fun at leaders over hamburgers at McDonald's or Burger King while doing speaking tours, I always saw something that was uniquely interesting from a child’s point of view. That is: here is a man of God; here is a man who has been asked by Jesus Christ to fulfill this mission. And yet, I always noticed this almost childlike sparkle in his eyes.

He was so in love with life and so in love with the people with whom he was spending time. It didn’t matter where you put him; that spark was always there. Also, when I came to meet the early followers of my father here in America, I could see that they also had that spark of life, spark of hope, spark of excitement. I have watched many brothers and sisters over the year and sometimes that spark wanes, sometimes that spark is ignited by something that inspires them. Sometimes it gets lost and sometimes buried, but then with a cleansing experience they have with True Parents it gets revived. I have seen that there is an up and down, almost like a sine curve, such is the nature of human life and human spirituality. I myself have also experienced that.

Whenever I think of my life in relationship to True Parents, and as life gets complicated and we get older life has a way of getting complicated, right? So many responsibilities as wife, mother, teacher, many things. The one thing that I realize is that I must never lose that spark which I see always in Father’s eyes and Mother’s eyes. Whenever I feel that I am waning in my spirituality or in my life, I catch this image of my father. I have a small sketch of my father that I sketched as a little girl. I am not a fantastic artist and couldn’t do my father justice, but I drew a circle looking like a moon with two crescent eyes with that sparkle coming from the eyes.

This is a message to myself to never forget who you are and once you decide to go a certain lifestyle, to live a certain lifestyle, then be true to your self, true to your spark. I think that is what allows our True Father and True Mother to truly be the True Parents for all of us. It is because they are giving us the spark of life and encouraging all of us to see something greater.

Here at UTS all of you have an incredible opportunity, not only to enjoy the beauty of nature, but also to seek a better understanding of each other, learning to appreciate different faiths and different cultures, and learning to love one another.

When I drive around in New York City I often see a bumper sticker that says, “CO-EXIST,” with a symbol of a Jewish star and a Christian cross. When I see that I say to myself “Is that the best we can do?” Why only co-exist? That should be the bare minimum of what religious people should be about. To live a life of faith, a life of sacrifice doesn’t mean that our end goal is to co-exist. Our end goal is not just to tolerate one another.

Certainly I am sure that those men among you who are married, if you were to turn to your wife and say, “Honey, I love you very much and I really want to co-exist with you for the rest of my life.” I don’t know about you but that is not too inspiring for me. If my husband were to turn to me and say, “Honey, you are such a wonderful mother and a wonderful wife and I want to tolerate you for the rest of my life.” I’m not sure that I would be so inspired. If he turned to me and said “Honey, I respect you very much, I honor you very much and I love you as the mother of my children, I want to love you for the rest of my life.” That does wonders for me and makes me want to be that wonderful mother and that wonderful wife.

In an institution like this you have the opportunity to come to a better understanding of each other’s faith and at the same time to celebrate each other’s differences and to celebrate the unique aspects of the differences of our various cultures. Here at UTS we have so many people here, people from the East, people from Africa, people from Europe. This, in a way, is like a tapestry of life you are weaving. So at the beginning of this fall semester please keep in mind why we are here. We are here to learn to love each other.

How do you profoundly learn to love each other? That comes from understanding. When you feel understood by someone, then you feel loved. When you feel understood by your parents, you feel loved. That is what every child wants in their relationship with their parents. What do you seek from your spouse? It begins with understanding. You say to yourself, “Gosh, I wish my spouse could understand me.”

If you and your spouse come from different cultures, a Korean married to an American, or an African married to a European, then you hope that your God-given spouse can understand who you are, could understand your culture and what you are all about. With that understanding you feel validated, you feel loved. So here at UTS you have an incredible opportunity to understand different religions and different ways of looking at God. I am hoping that the end result we can all strive for is love, because love is the only thing that makes our lives worthwhile and it is only love that can give hope for the kind of world that we are living in now.

I have three children in college. One is finishing up in Edinburgh, Scotland and two are in Harvard. When I visit them in their dorms and spend time with their friends I realize the kind of value system they are working off. One of the things I realized most profoundly was that the word which most comes out of a college age student is “me” and “this is what I want.” I hear “I” and “me” quite a bit and it is no wonder that we had Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Z, and now we have the Millenniums, the “show me the money” generation. “I want to be rich, I want to be powerful” and with this whole influx of the cult of celebrity which the United States is entrenched in. Everything is about me, everything is about what I can get from society, what I can get from my education, what I can get from my community.

I am sure some of you saw on CNN this lovely young lady who is wanting to get a graduate degree and, having no means to do so, she went on CNN live and talked about how she wants to have bids for her virginity. She says, “My virginity will go to the highest bidder, so that I can pay for my graduate education.” When she was interviewed and asked why she was doing this she said, “When I was younger I believed in romantic love, I believed in an ideal relationship but as I got older I realized that those things don’t matter. What matters is what I can get out of society, what I can get out of my education.”

She has been taught along the way somehow that the most important thing is money or power or whatever that she can sell so that she can achieve her goal. My family and I saw that together. My children said, “You know mom, America is a God-chosen country and yet that lady on TV could be anybody that I meet on a college campus.” To think that somebody so young has already given up on life, already given up on the possibility of a loving relationship, already given up on the possibility of creating a beautiful family, together with a man who values her as a human being, who values her life and worth, is an incredibly sad reality. But that is the reality of children now.

Many of us here have known True Parents for many decades and have seen their spark all along the way, but maybe at some point we have asked ourselves, “What are we doing here? Have we really accomplished what we set out to do? When I joined in the 70s, what was it that inspired me? And how is my life now? Maybe I am not in the ideal financial situation and maybe my ideal spouse turned into a pumpkin. Maybe my children didn’t turn out as I thought they would.” I am sure some of you just like me have often questioned and wondered, “Are we really making a difference?” When I look at my own children and the blessed children and see the special quality that each one possesses then I can say, “Yes we did make a difference.” We have something different, something that is unique.

Our True Parents talk to us about making true families that last forever. This is not something that should be pushed by the wayside; it is very much a reality. Our movement has been so focused on meeting deadlines and doing events. Rev. Jenkins honestly said to me that we really haven’t given enough attention to our families for the past 24 years because we were always working to fulfill a providential timeline.

Many of us have forgotten our duties as a spouse and as a parent and in a way our children had to grow up on their own. What we are working with, in terms of raw material, is incredible. There is something different about our children, about my children. So when I meet with Blessed members, I am encouraging everyone to look within and see what we have and to nurture what we have. For those of you who are thinking to go into ministry, your mission will be to nurture your congregation. In a way, that kind of starts within our own families and with our own children.

I am hoping that as you move forward with your life of faith and your life of ministry, you won’t forget how valuable your children are and realize that they are hand-picked by True Parents to do many, many great things. I like to use the words hand-picked because many of you wouldn’t be together if our True Father didn’t introduce you to your spouse. Many of you couples are total opposites, like day and night or black and white. I see a certain wisdom in that. Father takes two extremes and when they come together what is produced is something quite beautiful and quite profound.

I am hoping that as we move forward as a movement and as you move forward in your studies, you can think about all the things that make us unique and all the things that make UTS unique. Remember that we have our True Parents who are the living embodiment of True Love. My father, at 88 years old, always steals a moment to give my mother a kiss or two. It is such a wonderful thing to see. But we do not just have a father figure whom we can enjoy, whom the foundation of 6,000 biblical years can enjoy.

Also on the foundation of my mother’s total obedience, total unity and total love, we have an incredible mother figure whom we can enjoy. So here we have a living image of a man and a woman, truly committed to God and truly committed to each other and committed to their children and to all of us. If that is not inspiring I don’t know what is. In a way I feel that I am standing here before you on the foundation of my parents’ greatness and, more importantly, on the foundation of my mother’s greatness.

We cannot overlook the historical context of such a thing. If you study the history of religion, it has not always been kind to women. Many time women have been vilified, women have been abused, women have been oppressed, and women have been silenced. But, on the foundation of True Mother’s victory now we have a voice, we have an opportunity to seek an active role in our life of faith.

This is something that is absolutely profound, historical and necessary for humankind. Just as we have seen the incredible powerful leadership in the history of religion, now I look forward to seeing many women who will be the next True Mothers, who will be the next great leaders to emphasize the importance of kindness, to emphasize the importance of nurturing and to emphasize the importance of inspiring the congregation and in that way guiding the congregation to achieve greatness.

Brothers and sisters, I truly hope that all of you can help me to weave this tapestry of life and this tapestry of love that is so necessary in this day and age. I drove here from New York City, and every time I wake up in that city I am reminded that 9/11 happened in the name of religion. Thousands and thousands of lives were wasted in the name of religion. If we cannot overcome our religious differences and if we cannot learn to love and respect each other in a way that every religion of the world feels understood and on that basis, loved, then I feel we are leaving our world to our children in a very bad way.

If we can focus on our common denominator of our desire to love to learn from each other and understand each other then we can move forward and we can raise a generation of peace, not a generation of “show me the money,” not a generation of “what can you do for me?” If we can raise up this consciousness in young people, who can brand themselves as “Generation Peace,” then I think the world of peace is not far away.

I encourage all of you to continue in your own journey as you come to understand who you are and what you would like to do with your life. I hope that you can keep True Parents in your mind and with a grateful heart thank them for this opportunity to come and explore your faith and different faiths and come to a better understanding of who we are as humanity, as we go forward into this new century.

Brothers and sisters thank you very much and I am truly delighted that I can be a part of your day. I wish you a wonderful year and I wish you peace, love and understanding.

In Jin MoonOctober 19, 2008Boston, MANotes: Yukari Takashima

In Jin MoonSeptember 28, 2008Camp Sunrise, NYTranscribed by: Margaret HerbersEdited by: Bruno Klotz

In Jin MoonSeptember 21, 2008Sunday ServiceNew Hope Family ChurchNew Hope Academy, Washington DCTranscribed by: Margaret HerbersEdited by: Bruno Klotz

Douglas BurtonSeptember 21, 2008

September 21, 2008New Hope SchoolLandover Hills, Maryland

From Paul:

September 17, 2008Sermon TranscriptChapel Service at UTS, Barrytown, NY

In Jin Moon
October 19, 2008
Boston, MA
Notes: Yukari Takashima

In Jin Moon
September 28, 2008
Camp Sunrise, NY
Transcribed by: Margaret Herbers
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

In Jin Moon
September 21, 2008
Sunday Service
New Hope Family Church
New Hope Academy, Washington DC
Transcribed by: Margaret Herbers
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Douglas Burton
September 21, 2008

September 21, 2008
New Hope School
Landover Hills, Maryland

September 17, 2008
Sermon Transcript
Chapel Service at UTS, Barrytown, NY