Sun Myung Moon
July 16, 1975
Barrytown, New York
Translated by Won Pok Choi
My topic this afternoon is "A Needed Man." Here we have men and women seated separately. For men, women are necessary; for women, men are necessary. But in a world where men and women live together, who is needed most is the question we must ask.
In your family, too, there's someone who is the most needed one of all. In your village there must be someone most needed, and in your nation, too, there must be someone most needed by the people. What kind of people are the most needed?
In any society, the most needed person is the person who is sacrificial and who lives for the sake of other people. Isn't that true? (Yes.) This has been true throughout history. A good man is the person most needed by all people. Where do you find these most-needed people? When you look around, if you find a person who is living for the sake of the public, for the sake of the whole, or for the sake of other people, you can define him as good or as a needed person.
History shows that in the past saints and sacred men have without exception been those who lived for the sake of other people: Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha -- all these people lived their lives for the sake of others. Do you yourselves want to be persons like them? (Yes.)
You want to be educated in colleges and universities. But why do you want to be educated? You want to live a life where you are needed everywhere. You want to be good persons, and who are good persons? Good persons are those who are needed by all other people. When you think you are good people or needed people, you are proud of yourself, because you find examples in sacred and respected men like Jesus or Buddha or Mohammed, and that's the way you want to be.
But have you been educated for that purpose? (No.) Then there must be something wrong. Perhaps the educational system was wrong or you yourselves were wrong. Up to the present, what you were dreaming of was that after graduation you would be successful in a worldly career and you would make more money than others. Everything was centered on you, and it was entirely the wrong idea.
Seen from this standpoint, we must reevaluate our educational system. Once we understand that we've had a misguided education, then on the individual, family, national and worldwide levels we want to right the wrongs and remake the educational system so that it will apply to our system. We want to produce persons needed by everyone else. However hard you may struggle in educating yourselves, if you don't practice living for other people, you will have been educated in vain.
We have many good-looking young ladies here. Don't you want to have good mates in the future? (Yes.) When you say you want a good husband, you don't mean that he must be a doctor or he must have a masters degree or something like that, but immediately you think of a person who is going to live entirely for you, don't you? (Yes.) Even though he may be only a graduate of primary school, if he is going to live entirely for you, you would rather take him than the one with the doctorate degree who would not live for you.
Pure love comes from the person who lives for his or her own spouse. Here, too, we have many members who are not quite college graduates, and compared to the standard of people in the world, they may look like nothing to you. But what they have different from other people is that they have the lofty ideal of living for the sake of their family, their nation, the whole world, and finally for God. Only after seeing them putting the ideal into practice can we say that they are good.
You must not only have an ideal, but you must put whatever you are taught into practice. Then you are going to be good persons and needed persons. Do you want to be needed by your village, needed by your nation, or needed by the whole world? (World.) If you really mean what you say, then you are needed everywhere. Your parents need you, your brothers and sisters need you, your relatives, your friends, your nation and the whole world needs you.
If the Unification Church can produce many of this kind of people, other people will say our movement is good. Otherwise we are going to be called bad. The key to your future and the future of our movement is your becoming this kind of person. Then, is the Unification Church a good movement or a bad one? (Good!) Why? Because here we teach an ideal and teach people how to put the ideal into practice: to live for the sake of other people.
When you are trained here, you don't dream of a flowery future, but rather of a life of sacrifice for the sake of other people. You want to be the fertilizer for mankind to grow wholesomely. If I teach you to be loyal and pious sons and daughters to your parents, your parents will be overjoyed to have you back, I know.
But despite that I'm driving you out into the world to live a sacrificial life for the whole country, for the whole of mankind, because I know corruption is prevailing in the American society. So after saving America, which naturally includes your families, you are going to be devoted sons and daughters to your own parents. Among American youth you cannot find anyone who is ready to live for the sake of other people or for the sake of the country. So we are needed that much more in this nation.
There have been many religions and many nations. Those religions have not taught people to live for others, but only for the benefit of that particular denomination or religious sect. Nations have been educating their young people to live for the sake of the nation at best, and not for the sake of the world.
When I'm away Mr. Salonen will educate you. But if I' m here I push you harshly. If I give you a very heavy responsibility and you almost collapse, I will put on your shoulders a heavier responsibility. That's the way I do things. Would you collapse helplessly, or struggle to lift up and carry out your mission? (Struggle.)
You must be sympathetic with me, and realize how difficult it is for me to push you so hard. I know some of you are complaining, some of you are frowning, some of you are ready to escape from me. I know -- and everyone else knows -- that I'm doing this not for the sake of myself but for the sake of America and the world, and finally, for God.
Many people say that I'm a rich man. But when I bought Barrytown, did I buy it for myself? (No.) I just plan and put it into practice. Many people say I'm brainwashing you and I'm utilizing you for my own purpose. Far from it! Barrytown is needed by the Unification Church and by America. I bought it for the sake of this nation.
People say I'm living in a luxurious house, East Garden, but I did not buy it with money earned in America. I brought the money here, but when I go back to Korea I cannot take the house with me. So I'm not conscience-stricken whatever things may be said. I am confident I am a most conscientious man, and that I'm needed here more than anyone else, including the top-level policy makers of the USA or governors and other officials.
"Wait and see who's the most successful," I always say. American people are intelligent and before long they will support me. They will know that they can't lose by supporting me. Just the other day I spent hours with you, until 2:30 in the morning. I do this not for my own sake but for the sake of you people and for America.
During the hot summer months everyone goes on vacation and I'd like to do that, too, but I remain here with you because I want to educate you. Some of you may think, "Oh, we are in the vacation season; why doesn't Master let us relax once in a while?" Compared to what other people in the outside world do -- going on vacation and things like that -- which is better: to be here and get trained or to go on vacation? (Barrytown!) My plan is to make out of you persons whom I can use for the sake of the whole of mankind.
If the leader of any religion or nation teaches the people to live for the sake of other people, that religion or nation is going to be the foremost one in the world. Let us take an example. Suppose there are two people of equal intelligence and with the same capabilities. One lives and works for the sake of other people. The other does things for the sake of himself. In the long run which of the two will be needed most by other people?
Even though they have equal capabilities, if one of the two lives for the sake of other people, then he will attain subjectivity over others. In your family life, too, if anyone in your family lives for the sake of the rest of the family, then he will be the center of the family. In any country, a loyal subject can be defined as that person who lives for the sake of the leader and country.
In the Unification Family, too, those who are most needed are those who live for the sake of the church and not for the sake of themselves. There may be some people in our family who dream of utilizing this movement for their own good. We need the first kind of people. In society, too, those who live for the sake of other people are always those who are needed.
Then, what kind of people are needed by God? The same thing applies. Would you want to be persons needed by the United States of America, by the world, or by God? (By God!) You must cling to just one of the three and let the others go, at first. More than anything else you want to be a person needed by God, don't you?
If you want to live for the sake of America and God calls you to work for the sake of the whole world, you must abandon America. If you are ready to work for the sake of the world and God calls you and tells you to follow Him alone, what would you do? (Follow.) You want to be a person needed by America, but when you want to be a person needed by the world you can even abandon America. And if you find yourself most needed by God, you can even abandon the world and follow Him.
Through religion God is teaching you how to follow Him first, without minding the world and your nation. Only after becoming entirely one with God can you live your life for the sake of the nation and the world. Without your being united with God, what you have done on the level of the nation and the world will have no meaning in God's sight.
First of all, you must return to God and be united with Him. Before being a citizen of America, you must become a son of God. Before being able to dominate mankind, you must know how to be dominated by God, to be the sons and daughters of God. Due to the human fall you lost this relationship to God, so what you must restore first of all is being sons and daughters to Him.
You must construct a family with God as your father, and then you will recover your world and nation and family. That is what the order should be. You are living or fighting for your country and for the whole of mankind, but if you lack unity with God, in the end what you have done will have no connection with God's providence.
You are here to go through training. Out on the frontline everyone is busy witnessing to the people, and there is a certain harm to our movement in my calling you here. Why am I training you? For you to find God. Where can you find God? You can find God by knowing His work, how He has proceeded with His providence in the world.
We must know how God has been successful or sometimes unsuccessful, and we must be joyful or sorrowful because of the successes or failures of our forefathers. We are here to be sympathetic with God, to console His heart and to pledge before Him that we are going to be devoted sons and daughters to carry out the mission left unaccomplished by our predecessors.
Then alone can we really find God and know Him and live with Him. Do you really realize that there is God? (Yes.) How does He exist? Do you feel the presence of God in the physical sense as you would miss your food and things like that in your everyday life? It's only a vague concept in your brain.
You must feel the presence of God as you would feel your own brother or sister by your side. To really understand your parents you must know Him and feel Him. Suppose someone explains to you that your parents are not your own parents, and let's suppose he explains it to you for hours, days, months and years. But you are not convinced that these are not your parents, because you have deep attachment for them.
The nation may be mobilized -- the whole of mankind may be mobilized to explain to you that your parents are not your own. Would that do anything? But suppose you are sons and daughters of God? Then you must really feel the presence of God as you would your own parents. If you don't have that feeling, you cannot really say that you have found Him. Are you qualified to be His sons without knowing His presence, without knowing who He is and what He is? You must know Him through experience.
Where do you find God -- in your living room or on the frontline? Even though you may only have a vague concept of God in your mind, if you go out witnessing to the people, testifying to God and teaching the truth to them in the face of difficulties and persecution, that is the best place for you to see Him and feel Him.
God is the Being most needed in the whole world because He lives for the sake of other people. If you want to be recognized and needed by God, you must live for the sake of God and for the sake of humanity. Otherwise, you cannot recognize Him or have Him or find Him. It is natural for sons and daughters to resemble their parents. If you are sons and daughters to God, you must resemble God. Don't trust men, but only God.
I'm here in the United States to stir up the whole nation. Can I do that all by myself? (No.) Before commencing any of my work, I must think over what God would do for the world and put myself in the position of God. God is grieved by the corruption prevailing in the Christian world, and if I were in God's position I would want to restore it.
There's no distinction in God's sight between all the denominations in the Christian world. There have been fights among the denominations and religious sects. That's why all the churches are empty and all the young people are leaving. If the established churches are corrupt, God would want us to restore them. I intend to do that.
We have members from many religious backgrounds and those from hippie backgrounds. All those people are mixed here. But are we being united into one? (Yes.) Are you confident that we are going to give birth to a new church of higher value than the established churches? (Yes.) That is God's will. That is what God needs most and we are going to do it, for the sake of God and for the sake of mankind.
In that case we are most needed by God. Once I'm resolved to do that, it will surely be realized because God is on our side, working for us. Before Madison Square Garden did you think that it would be such a success? But now before Yankee Stadium you are full of confidence, aren't you? (Yes.) It is because you followed my instructions and what I said came true. Now you can trust me and be confident.
Since I made the 1.2 million rally successful, compared to that just 200,000 will be too small a number. But people outside, can they believe it? (No.) Then what makes it possible for me to do that? I, as the leader, will always stand in the vanguard of others. I will open the way, always causing problems and questions.
I will instruct you to put up posters and have the newspapers carry articles about us. All I have done has been for the sake of America, and history will be the witness. I never dream of becoming famous myself. I'm doing this for the sake of God, so God will work with me and so it is natural for me to become famous in America or anywhere else. I'm confident I'm a person most needed by God.
What does God need most in America? We said a church such as ours. What would God need second most in America? He wants to have someone prevent the Communist threat. America is the final target of Communist invasion. Both Soviet Russia and Red China -- and not only those two but North Korea and all the satellite countries -- have their sights set on America as the final target.
Who can defend America from the Communist invasion? (We can.) If America collapses before Communism, there's no free world left. I came to America because I wanted to be responsible for preventing that. If America cannot remain a democratic and free nation, if it cannot carry out its mission as the leading nation of the world, then I must revive America to come back to its original position. Otherwise the world of peace and freedom cannot be realized.
That's what America needs most, that's what the whole world needs. So I was confident that God would be on my side, working with me. Wherever I am, even though I may stand in the frontline, God will be there with me. You don't really feel the threat of Communism so much as I do?
I'm under the threat of Communist attack at almost any moment. After my success in the rally in Korea, the broadcast coming from North Korea said Reverend Moon was the formidable enemy, fiercer and more abhorrent than the Park regime.
I named two things God would have us do. First, to revive the Christian churches to their original position, and secondly to prevent a Communist invasion. I must add one more thing: the corruption of youth must also be corrected. You know how corrupted the American youth are. You have been enjoying material wealth. You have been nourished with rich food. But that's not good -- that's just the animal life.
Unless you eradicate the corruption among youth, you cannot be revived. The young people here are of a different breed. You left your own homes, you left your old society, and you are at least trying to live for the sake of other people, your nation and the world. You want to date sometimes and you want to be fed with rich foods, but you discard and abandon the old ways of life.
Is there anyone among the Unification Church members who wants to marry at his own will? (No.) Who has made you like that? Don't say that I have made you into this kind of person, but that God has. Based on biblical teaching and on what God would have us do, I have taught you and molded you into this kind of person.
In America, married couples even exchange their wives and husbands, and in that way they think that they are living for the sake of other people. We must revolutionize that kind of thinking in this nation. In the Unification Church we are strict in teaching our young people; we know that's not the way we should behave. Those who have been raised under either a stepmother or stepfather, will you please raise your hands? Quite a number. Would you really want to live under stepparents?
Your parents did not fulfill their portion of responsibility for you, and out of the disharmony and rupture you had to leave your families and become hippies and things like that. We must reform American families because they are not the way they should be. In this way, too, the Unification Church is most needed in this nation. You must have full confidence that but for our group America cannot be saved, and but for our movement the world cannot be saved.
Do you really believe that? That should not be a vague belief but a strong conviction. From this point of view, are we the enemies of the established churches? (No.) Are we doing something wrong to them? But those people look on us as their enemies. There's a contradiction there, which we must eradicate.
After the NBC-TV program, what do Americans think of me? I'm here in the United States working for this nation, but I'm reviled. It's your responsibility; you must feel that. You must be braver to fight for righteousness. We must break through and explode the enemy stronghold.
Up to the present, what I have been most agonized over is that I did not have a foothold. Even without God's help I have a good brain, I'm confident of that. I'm versatile, good at everything, but without a foundation to work on I have been helpless. We need a large amount of money to save America, other nations and the whole world. In order to earn money we need manpower. What we need is more manpower.
We must be able to educate and mobilize people in the most organized way. We must be able to mobilize manpower in the right way. We are going to do what the nation of America and American teachers have not been able to do. We are going to unite the young people of the world, transcendent of nationalities, and then mobilize them to the frontline to save the whole world.
That kind of group is needed by God, needed by the world, and needed by America, too. That's the way we are most needed by God, and that's what we are aiming at: to make ourselves into such a group. I want to make out of each one of you a person who will lead tens and hundreds and thousands of people. I want you to be persons who can make money, if needed.
I want to make out of you persons who can lead other people. In the near future I will make congressmen and senators out of you. We will pour out our efforts in that line. And in the future if you are going to be the policymakers, the whole power of the nation can be used to our direction. Through political power we can educate the people.
I have many plans to educate you according to your aptitude. I've gone through a bit of everything in my life. I have experienced being a beggar. I have been a good laborer. I have been a farmer. Though I say I have been a farmer, you cannot imagine what the life of a farmer is like in Korea. When I go out to sea I'm a good fisherman. Even though I am penniless, wherever I go I can sustain myself. For training, I brought some Unification Church young people on board the boat; most of them threw up or just got exhausted.
In the future we are going to dominate the ocean. In America now people don't like life on a ship's crew because they are away for several months at a time and their wives and friends don't like that. If you go on disliking being at sea who can dominate the ocean? If this continues, several years from now other nations will have hegemony over the oceans.
If I am to make the Unification young people crews on the boat, their wives must not miss them even if they don't come back for a year. We cannot bring the whole world to God without dominating the ocean. When I bought the boat I did not buy it as an indulgence. Those who cannot swim, beginning right at this moment you must learn how to swim.
You have to go through a lot of training and discipline here in the Unification Church. I want you to go through a bit of everything I myself have gone through. Suppose I order you to sit up the whole night studying, what would you do? (Study.) I will train you up until the age of 30. In 20 years' time, I will make out of you those persons most needed by America.
By that time I will have seen many people fall away or become exhausted. If some of you say, "Well, though all the rest will fall away, I will never leave you," hold up your hands. I'm a man of iron will, in a way very stubborn, but would the female members marry a person like me as their mate? (Yes!) I am going to train these men like myself so that you will love them.
In a way I am a man of the hardness of iron and the strength of a giant. Do I look like a man who has gone through such hardships and difficulties? I've never frowned at my own destiny. Born as a man, I thought I was going to be a banner-holder or torch-bearer for the rest of the world, leading the world in the vanguard of others. Would you like to be one like me? (Yes!) Then let's go ahead and do that.
America is in need of this kind of person. The whole world is in need of this kind of person. If we are determined to be this kind of person, as time goes by the whole world will find that they need us. What is the biggest building in America? If it is the Empire State building, we are going to buy that. Which is the biggest bank in America? (Bank of America.) Then we are going to make it ours.
Don't laugh at me. I already have the plan to do this. Several years ago had you ever dreamed of our buying this Barrytown site? In Tarrytown, too, I've bought many parcels of land almost occupying one-third of Tarrytown. So, whenever you pass by the Empire State building, why don't you pray to God, "We are determined to buy this building. Sooner or later it will be ours." We are going to elect the mayor of New York City out of our own family.
Some of you laugh at me, but just wait and see. What I say will be carried out. Some of the young girls here who now look miserable selling peanuts, flowers and things like that on the streets, who knows, in later years they are going to be the wives of congressmen, senators and lawyers. You can even become the president's wife, first lady of the country. You must have a great ambition. With this kind of hope, let us go on.
My topic this afternoon was, "A Needed Man." Maybe you are going to be the President of the United States, but not the President who is not needed but the President who is most needed by the people. Perhaps you are going to be a congressman or senator, but not one not needed by the people, but rather one most needed. Almost without exception all the congressmen and senators know me.
All those who were in New York for the United Nations General Assembly came to know me, because they know that behind the PR teams Reverend Moon is working. The other day eight ambassadors wanted to invite me out. I'm going to become more and more famous.
If I could afford to spend more time with you, I could talk on and on, describing what the ideal world in the future will be like. You would be amazed. So I will reserve it for the future. You would be a dreamer, not a man of action. I want you to be practical people. If there are any daydreamers, I'm the foremost one, I think.
More than anything else, I want you to become men who are needed by everyone else -- by your family, by your nation and the whole world. On the horizontal level and on the vertical level, reaching God, you must be the ones needed most by God. If you are most needed by the whole world, you will be welcomed by all people of the world. And that's the happiest thing you can imagine.
Would you want me to be here with you every day or once a week, once a month, once a year, or what? (Every day!) But suppose I leave you to visit my people all over the world and come back in three years, what would you do? Will you complain? (No.) Would you still want me to come back to you? (Yes.) You're bad people, thinking of things centered on yourselves.
Suppose each one of the missionaries to 127 nations makes 10,000 members -- then wouldn't they like me to visit them? Then would you want me to visit them? (Yes.) Can I spend only one day with them at each place, one week, one month, or three months? What would you like? By that time you will complain saying, "Well, if you spent three months with them, you must spend at least three or more years with us American members."
One-tenth of the period of time must be allocated to other people. If you want me to be with you three years at a time, you must want me to visit those nations for three months. If you would allow me to visit those people for three months at a time in one place, hold up your hands. Then I will come back to you after 30 years. Would that be okay"? (Yes. No.)
Maybe I'll be able to meet you in the spirit world. Maybe an old man about 80 years of age will come back to you, leaning on his cane. Then how can you be blessed by me? If I come back after 30 years will you still wait for me? (Yes.) I cannot believe you. Even if I spend only one month in each nation, it will take me ten years. Where would you want me to live most of my life? Suppose in each nation they want to build the most gorgeous villas and mansions for me?
The reason I am saying this is that I want to say I cannot live in America all the time in the future. In order to avoid complaints from so many members, I may have to go back to Korea and live there. It is possible that we will have tens and thousands of people lined up to see me after visiting Korea. It sounds like a dream, but it will come true. Your having met me in person will be the source of your pride in the future.
You don't know the blessedness of your being directly with me like this. You sing songs, preparing the atmosphere to receive me, and I'm compelled to come to talk to you. But just think, in the other countries, however hard they may sing for me and prepare for me, can I visit them? So I want you to know the blessing of being with me in person. Just imagine, can I keep on doing this kind of thing with the members everywhere in the future? No. Do you think that I am qualified enough to do what I have told you that I am going to do? (Yes.)
If you feel that what I have said is true, then be confident to be the persons who are most needed by America. In three years' time I want you to carry out your responsibility for America, and in three years if I find you have not carried out your mission, I have to go back to Korea. In those three years, I want you to become the persons most needed by God, by the world, by America, by me, and by each other, and take responsibility for the whole world in this way.
Are you sure that I am loved by God? (Yes.) I sometimes feel God doesn't love me as much as I love you. Even I myself don't feel God's love on the practical level like you feel my love. Unless you move about doing things, you cannot feel the air. Air is all around you but its invisible; only when you run along the road do you feel the wind coming against you.
That's how I feel God. If you really want to know God, go out to the frontlines fighting, moving about. That is why, whenever I feel in need of something, I move about; I visit the members; I travel from place to place. Do you understand what I feel? By way of analogy I can say that God is like a diamond mine or gold mine. The deeper I dig into the hole, the more I find, and purer. I must put my whole energy into digging the hole to find gold or diamonds.
More than anything else we are in the position of sons and daughters to God, and just as children need their parents, so we need God. And just as parents need the children, so God also needs us. Sometimes you are discouraged and say, "Oh, I think I am not for the Unification Church." In that case I want you to feel more challenge and step over the obstacles to win the victory.
If you feel the obstacle is too much for you, you must talk to yourself, saying that you have not gone through many difficult experiences in your past life, so you must be prepared for more. If you get used to overcoming obstacles, you will find that God is there helping you out. In the frontline when you go through difficulties and find God working with you, then you will be so grateful and you will almost weep in gratitude. If you are in that mood then you will be told whom to meet the following day.
Your dream will be realized the following day and everything will be done while God is teaching you. If you really taste that kind of thing, you will be more zealous and enthusiastic to face difficulties. If there is an angry wave beating against you, if you steer through and see new light, you feel more happiness than when you have gone through lesser difficulties. Spirit world will be mobilized to make people come to you, instead of your going to meet them.
If you go through the heart of God, then you can reach out to the end of the world, covering all mankind, but if you remain what you are now you are helpless, without being able to do anything great. When you are united with God, nothing is impossible. That's true. God is as big as the whole universe.
In the face of difficulties, why can't you embrace all those people? Suppose someone -- the governor or the mayor -- comes against you. If you can embrace and encompass him, then he cannot beat on you but will be beaten or absorbed or embraced by you. Would God want a person who is just thinking and thinking, without putting anything into action? No. What He wants is a man of action. Would you want to be persons of action or just meditation? (Action.) What God wants in you is the successful accumulation of right deeds and deep experiences.
In the course of restoration I have immeasurable qualifications, being united with God, and I have merits and deeds accumulated in my past. With such experiences, when you go out to the frontline witnessing to people, whatever difficulty may come you can swallow it, digest it, and make it a part of you. You will have digestive power with the help of God.
I want you to be a small Reverend Moon. What I have gone through in America is what you are going to do. You can have your own banquets, your own Day of Hope speech tour, etc. If you are in need of money you can persuade the richest man in your area to donate the money or you can earn your own money. You are going to fight for righteousness, and in that battle I want you to be bullets.
With determination like that you must take the offensive against evil. Are you ready to fight? (Yes.) Would you rather fight all by yourself or with others? (Others.) The bullets and cannonballs are the words, the truth. When we say we fight it does not mean we destroy America. As it now stands, when the FBI and CIA people look at me they see danger signs everywhere. I am the person most needed by the American people. But most of them think of me as dangerous.
You must be able to change their image of me. The evil world uses every possible means -- money, politics, power and everything -- to propagandize against us. We must prove we are on God's side by being faithful to what we are doing with confidence, merit and deeds. From that point of view I need you. Even though I have been the target of bad rumors, you need me. If we remain still, there would be no noise, but instead we are moving about, always doing tremendous things. That's why we are making noise. They think we are notorious people.
If you are really confident and know that you are needed by God in the providence of restoration under the will of God, and if you are really grateful that you are endowed with life at this moment, I want you to go ahead until the time you obtain the goals, win the victory and return it to God.
Scanned by Hans-Juergen Hutzfeld, 02.01.2008-Duesseldorf.
Hello, World!