Ki-Hong Han - Monthly JoongAng
May 2014
Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon Proclaims the Cheon Il Guk Scriptures and Actively Carries on Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Work
The following appeared in the May 2014 issue of the Monthly JoongAng, a news publication associated with the JoongAng Daily, an influential newspapers in Korea.
Dreaming of a Nation without Borders and a World without Conflict
Heading Toward the Completion of the Ideal True Family Based on the Pure Love of Couples
Rev. Sun Myung Moon always taught his followers that they should not “speak without following through with actions.” Just as his life demonstrated, he devoted all of his strength to changing the world through the power of actualization. The accomplishments he achieved on earth were beyond those of an ordinary man. Many still wonder how he was able to continue exerting so much strength to accomplish such extensive missions, even in the midst of the extreme persecution and misunderstanding he faced throughout his life. The answer is that he possessed determination to establish the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity (Cheon Il Guk) on earth. On February 12, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification held commemorative events on the first anniversary of Foundation Day at the Cheong Shim Peace World Center in Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, in order to announce the substantial launch of Cheon Il Guk. This was just one of the many endeavors left behind by Rev. Moon.
Rev. Moon’s vision of one community of humankind, Cheon Il Guk, refers to the actualized ideal world of one family under God, in which all humankind can serve God as their parent. Cheon Il Guk is not to be simply an abstract idea or philosophy. It is meant to be the ideal world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, managed through true love, and a world centered on God. Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon advocates that this ideal world would be governed under a constitution of heavenly law based on true love and God’s word. Hence, she proclaimed the Cheon Il Guk scriptures, which are meant to serve as guidelines for the citizens of Cheon Il Guk in leading their lives.
Rev. Moon revealed that Cheon Il Guk would be completed in adherence to laws and standards and stressed that God’s word (logos) was to be the basis and the root philosophy of the Cheon Il Guk Constitution. Three principles in particular were listed as the foundation for the Cheon Il Guk Constitution, protection of the pure bloodline, respect for human rights and thorough protection and management of public funds. Rev. Moon stated that anyone that commits adultery destroys the family, that anyone that misuses public funds or violates human rights destroys the structure of society and that anyone that abuses these laws has no right to be a citizen of Cheon Il Guk. The Cheon Il Guk Constitution contains a preamble, general provisions, eleven chapters, ten sections, ninety-two articles and a hundred and ninety clauses, including six chapters on the establishment of each organization. Chapter three in particular reveals the members of the Cheon Il Guk Supreme Council, who are to be the ultimate deciding authority in all important matters pertaining to Cheon Il Guk.
(The August 23, 2013 Commemorative Ceremony of the First Anniversary of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Universal Seonghwa at the Cheong Shim Peace World Center. Rev. Sun Myung Moon always boldly promoted efforts toward the actualization of a conflict-free world.)
The Cheon Il Guk Constitution was enacted last year on Foundation Day. For the past year, efforts were made in preparing laws regarding the operation of the Cheon Il Guk Supreme Council. This year, on the first anniversary of Foundation Day, the Cheon Il Guk Constitution was officially proclaimed as Dr. Han conveyed the Constitution to the regional presidents representing the world. Over the next sixty days, the Constitution was publicly promoted; and the Constitution assumed its role in stating the customs, standards and guidelines by which the substantial Cheon Il Guk will be settled and completed.
In addition, Dr. Han laid the groundwork for a new beginning by publishing three holy scriptures, which are to become the basis for the lives of Cheon Il Guk citizens. Cheon Seong Gyeong and the Pyeong Hwa Gyeong were revised and released last year on Foundation Day. With the release of the final volume, the Cham Bumo Gyeong, the three holy scriptures are now complete. The Cheon Il Guk scriptures were composed from material extracted from the 650 volumes of The Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, as well as from given lectures in Korea and abroad, systemized and reorganized in book form. Cheon Seong Gyeong contains guidelines of faith that Rev. Moon gave to his disciples throughout his life. Cham Bumo Gyeong describes in detail the accomplishments of a life lived for the salvation of humankind and for God’s liberation. Pyeong Hwa Gyeong is a compilation of Rev. Moon’s public speeches. Each volume is 1,648 pages long.
In his autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, Rev. Moon says, “I have always promoted a world in which all religions, all peoples and all nations are united. All of human history has been filled with endless division.” This passage clearly demonstrates his wish for the fulfillment of one family under God.
“A Country Divided by National Borders Cannot Last Forever.”
Rev. Moon stressed that national borders must first be eliminated before world peace can be realized. He believed that “a country divided by national borders cannot last forever. Religion is the only thing that is able to overcome national borders.” As seen through the establishment of the European Union, the collapse of national borders has now become an unstoppable trend that is catching on so that regions, too, will no longer be separated from one another. Rev. Moon’s proposal for the construction of an International Peace Highway in 1981 also reflects his sentiment and wish for “a world without borders.”
The International Peace Highway is to connect Japan and Korea through a tunnel running along the ocean floor, as well as North America and Russia, through a tunnel or bridge across the Bering Strait. When this highway is completed, it will be possible to drive by car from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa to Santiago, Chile, or from London to New York. The entire world will be connected without any obstacles, as veins are when running through a healthy body. Naturally, depending on the conditions, tracks may take the place of roads, creating high-speed railways.
The International Peace Highway project is to be constructed with four lanes on either side of a median strip. The kilometer-wide strips of land flanking the highway are to become international neutral zones. Hotels and various leisure facilities are to be constructed in these areas as well. A pneumatic tube system will be implemented to accommodate freight. Immigration offices will be made redundant by a no-visa international immigration system; and major cities and suburbs will be connected to the highway, together with airports. Shipments of war goods and supplies will, of course, be banned from the International Peace Highway, as proposed by Rev. Moon.
In order to carry out his plans, Rev. Moon immediately formed a preparation committee in Japan for the construction of the International Peace Highway. In April 1982, a construction company for the International Peace Highway (HCC) was established. In May 1983, the Committee for the Research of the Korea–Japan Tunnel was formed; and in July of that same year, inquiries into the land and sea quality began in Karatsu (in Saga Prefecture on the Island of Kyushu, Japan), as well as on Iki and Tsushima. Then, in October 1986, pilot construction began for research purposes in Chinzei (also in Saga Prefecture) and Nagoya (on Honshu, Japan’s main island). Currently, excavation work is underway in Karatsu on the Higashimatsuyama Peninsula (on Honshu). By July 2005, they had dug down four hundred meters, ending beneath the ocean floor.
The International Peace Highway is a project that aims to connect Japan and Korea through a tunnel beneath the ocean floor, as well as Russia and the North American continent through a bridge or tunnel across the Bering Strait. The project’s goal is to connect the world as one global village.
At the end of June 2005, Rev. Moon went on tour, speaking in Washington, D.C. and three other major United States’ cities, where he again discussed the importance of an ocean floor tunnel across the Bering Strait. On September 12 that year, he officially announced the Bering Strait Project in New York. And in January of 2008, he registered the World Peace Tunnel Foundation as an official nonprofit organization with the Korean government’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. The Foundation has held a Korea–Japan Tunnel Forum and a Bering Strait Peace Forum and is carrying out work in which people from the countries involved—namely, Japan, Russia, and America—are able to cooperate with one another.
The UN Must Live Up to its Name as a Peacemaker
Rev. Moon talked about how the world can be changed in just a day—how anyone would be able to cross national borders and get along with other nations like neighbors—how peace could come naturally in this way. He felt that this phenomenon would break down the walls between religions and promote communication between races, thereby completing a united cultural revolution.
Rev. Moon was optimistic even about the tremendous financial resources needed to complete the two projects. He said that the amount of money that America invested in the Iraq War would be more than enough to complete the tunnel projects. He emphasized that the money would not be wasted as it was on war and that guns and knives could be melted down to make plowshares and ploughs.
He also argued that in order to bring about harmony between the countries involved, the UN’s role as a world government needed to change. The UN should not seek to serve the needs of one country, but rather the needs of the whole world. To carry out this role, Rev. Moon proposed that the UN should be restructured as a bicameral institution consisting of an upper house and a lower house that lives up to its name as a mediator of conflicts. He believed that when diplomats from the countries fulfilled their roles as upper house members that discussed solutions to the world’s problems, peace could eternally come to dwell on earth. Thus, Rev. Moon proposed the creation of the “Abel UN” as a substitute to the current UN. These and Rev. Moon’s other plans for world peace are unexpected and yet concrete.
Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, who inherited Rev. Moon’s work, is investing her energies in comforting those in need in neighboring countries. Through the events on the first anniversary of Foundation Day, she especially encouraged the married migrant women of the Philippines after the typhoon that ravaged their nation. Dr. Han donated one million dollars in relief funds to the victims of the typhoon. And on February 8, she hosted the “Peace Sharing Event for Migrant Married Philippine Women–Love you, Philippines! Thank you, Korea!” event at the Seoul Citizen’s Hall.
Rev. Moon’s model for a Cheon Il Guk community begins with the family. He stated that when a complete man and woman become a couple, form a true family, and then expand that true family to a tribe, race, nation and world, the ideal community can be formed. Rev. Moon’s method for fulfilling a concrete vision for an ideal human community can be found within the Marriage Blessing. The utopia and heaven on earth longed for by all of humankind can now be established on earth through the Marriage Blessing.
The “Unification Principle” records in detail God’s purpose for creating human beings, the cause and result of the Fall, the goal of the providence of salvation, the principle of indemnity needed to return to God’s embrace and all processes of restoration. According to these teachings, the Marriage Blessing is the concrete program of salvation that allows humankind to return to God’s embrace.
On February 12, at the Commemorative Ceremony of the First Anniversary of Foundation Day, the Cosmic Blessing Ceremony by the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind (International Mass Marriage Blessing Ceremony) was held at the Cheong Shim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province. The ceremony was attended by two thousand five hundred couples on site and twenty thousand couples in about fifty other countries via satellite.
The transnational, interreligious international Blessing Ceremony held by Rev. Moon contains the grand, lofty will of God’s providence of salvation. Starting in May 1961, with the marriage of thirty-six couples, Rev. Moon has been performing International Marriage Blessing Ceremonies on a larger scale than anyone else throughout all of history.
View of the inclined shaft of the Korea-Japan Ocean Floor Tunnel located in Saga, Japan. These lofty plans represent Rev. Moon’s wish to tie the world together as one. (Photo provided by the Family Federation)
On August 24, 1992, Rev. Moon defined the mass marriage ceremonies as “eliminating the original sin of humankind, recovering the true love, true life and true lineage of God, and a ceremony of rebirth for all of humankind. It is the cradle of peace that manifests the ideal of truly becoming one global family that transcends race and national borders.” The Marriage Blessing is significant as a rite of passage for human beings to return to their original state at the time of the Creation.
During his lifetime, Rev. Moon established many movements for true families and the propagation of high moral standards throughout the world, in order to solidify the foundation for the Blessed Families. Rev. Moon’s “Restoration of a Completed Family” can be seen as a philosophy that is universally shared by all humankind.
The Unfolding of a Movement for Purity through New Values
The True Family Movement is to become the foundation for the establishment of the order of love, centered on God. A man and a woman are to become a true couple based on God’s love, forming a family together. The goal is to give birth to good children and expanding the family to create a true race, a true nation and a true world, creating God’s nation on earth. When this happens, all humankind will become brothers and sisters with God as their parent. This is the meaning of the Marriage Blessing, which serves as guiding principles for the True Family Movement. The movement was carried out to have human beings be reborn into true parents, true couples and true sons and daughters amid the blessings of God, who is the origin of true love. There are currently hundreds of thousands of second- and third-generation blessed children around the world today. The International Marriage Blessing is the key factor in the True Family Movement, which is receiving praise as a practical alternative for saving humankind, which is groaning in the quagmire of immorality.
At the 14th World Media Conference, held in Washington, D.C., Rev. Moon said that “expanding and solidifying the True Family Movement so that it becomes a worldwide phenomenon is surely the most important spiritual and cultural revolution for humankind in the twenty-first century.” At that time, America as a whole was pondering the issue of the nation’s youth, who had become ensnared in a culture of decadence and pleasure. Rev. Moon argued that the Fall came about through the misuse of love, and emphasized the importance of pure love. In the Creation as God originally envisaged it, humans were to receive their true parents’ love and grow up mentally and physically protected in true love. The men and women that resulted were to enter into holy marriages with God’s blessings, become true parents and complete the ideal of a true family. It is with this knowledge that Rev. Moon has dedicated his life to purity movements centered on youth, as well as true family movements for those in older generations.
Rev. Moon was so invested in the purity movement that he established a Pure Love Department at Sun Moon University and provided full scholarships for its students. He stressed that men in particular were very important to the purity movement and that both men and women needed to become examples of a pure lifestyle. He developed a new set of values for the purity movement and presented the Marriage Blessing as the most important virtue of a couple’s purity.
When purity movements were first introduced to the world, they received a lot of criticism from Korean women’s groups, which said that they originated from the ideology of male domination. However, recently, people are coming to understand the truth regarding purity movements and the need to redefine the sexual culture, which has traditionally revolved around men. In today’s society, where sexual crimes are becoming increasingly serious by the day, Rev. Moon’s arguments appear quite solid.
Arranged by Senior Reporter Ki-Hong Han