Our family was Catholic, and my mother, who had converted from Protestantism to marry my father, was fervent in faith. I remember saying the rosary on my knees at night and reading about the lives of the saints and martyrs. I enjoyed the sacredness of Mass and the Stations of the Cross. My sister, brother and I went to Catholic school. My sister would become a nun.
In my teen years, during the sixties in San Francisco, I became dissatisfied with Catholicism. I delved into Buddhism, astrology, Yoga, and drugs. When my friends and I discovered drugs were a dead end, we began studying the Bible. Soon after, we met the Unification Church. I remember attending a weekend workshop. At the time, I was taking a college class on Religious Philosophy, which I thought was pretty deep. But when I listened to the lectures on the Divine Principle, I was completely bowled over. Here, during one weekend, I had found a teaching that included all the religious and philosophical knowledge I had come to know, had wrapped it up in a unified, systematic package, and had then gone on to answer some of my as-of-yet unanswered questions about life, God, and the universe. Not only did I find the truth profound, but also the people were refreshingly sincere and caring.
I was twenty-two, and my life had come to a crossroads. I realized the world was polluted with selfishness, and it repulsed me. I felt I didn’t belong. Yet to join the church, I knew I would have to change. I’ll never forget the moment I decided to join. One instant I was torn in two; the next I was feeling a sense of deep inner joy that comes after you have made the “right” decision.
From I Am in This Place, p. 71.