Sun Myung Moon
August 24, 1992
Congratulatory Banquet for the First World Culture and Sports Festival (WCSF)
Little Angels Performing Arts Center in Seoul, South Korea
Distinguished chairpersons of the first World Culture and Sports Festival, guests and participants from Korea and elsewhere around the world:
As founder of the World Culture and Sports Festival, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to you for gathering here in such large numbers to pray for the success of this festival. I would like to speak to you this evening on the topic, "Becoming Leaders in Building a World of Peace." The history of conflict originated from the fall of Adam and Eve. During the mid-1930s, when I was sixteen years old, I received a special mission from Heaven through Jesus. I am seventy-two years old now, and in the intervening years there has not been a single second when I did not think of God's will and his commands.
I lived my boyhood and youth under imperial Japan's colonial rule. I know only too well the painful and tragic circumstances suffered by the world's weaker and smaller nations. Being sensitive to God's heart, I felt unspeakable pain and sorrow as I witnessed, first, the cruelty of a more powerful nation as it plundered a weaker nation, Korea and later, the terrible carnage of the Second World War.
Immediately after World War II, in a development that compounded our already difficult situation, the Korean peninsula was divided between north and south. In 1950, the Korean War broke out and Koreans found themselves in a fraternal conflict. Various of the world's countries on the left and right chose to support one side or the other. I witnessed this tragic history directly, and I know in my heart of hearts how the lack of peace in the world has brought much pain and sorrow to God and humanity.
How do you imagine God has felt since the time of the Creation? God had to watch while repeatedly brothers set themselves against one another, beginning with Cain, the older brother, taking the life of Abel, the younger. In their essence, all wars in human history have been struggles among brothers. The Bible teaches us this through its record of Cain's murder of Abel in Adam's family. Why do such conflicts among brothers occur repeatedly on the levels of family, tribe, society, nation and world?
The reason lies in the sin Adam and Eve, the parents of Cain and Abel, committed. Adam and Eve were humankind's original ancestors, placed in a position to represent all the men and women who would come after them. They were to have brought God's ideal of creation into reality. By breaking God's commandment, however, they forfeited their position as the good True Parents for all of humanity who would be born after them. Instead, they became fallen, evil parents. This evil is the original sin and the fundamental root of all crime and unhappiness in human society.
The original sin by the first ancestors God's commandment and engaged in an illicit sexual relationship. In this way, they formed a blood relationship with the devil and became fallen false parents, passing on false love, false life and a false lineage to the entire human race. There is only one way for humanity to escape this world of evil and struggle, and that is to be reunited with their True Parents and be reborn through them. It has been revealed to me that accomplishing this is the true way to cast off original sin.
The WCSF is dedicated to God
After I received my calling at the age of sixteen, I spent years searching for the answer to precisely the problem of how to bring salvation to humankind. The result of that lonely search for truth is the new expression of God's truth that you refer to today as the Unification Principle, Godism or head-wing thought. On August 15, 1945, the day Korea was liberated from imperial Japan, I began proclaiming this truth on earth. For proclaiming these teachings, I faced tremendous persecution and attack. Think for a moment about the fact that in my life I was imprisoned six times. This alone is enough to tell you how harsh the attacks against me have been.
The first World Culture and Sports Festival, which is being held during the 47th year since I began proclaiming the Unification Principle, is a holy celebration. It is an occasion to let the entire world see, and to offer to God, the harvest reaped from the seeds I have sown and nurtured for the liberation of God and humanity and for the realization of world peace. Everything I have striven to achieve during my life has been to confirm the fact that all people in the world are brothers and sisters before God, our common parent. When we center on God, our common ties as members of the global family transcend our differences based on race, nationality and international boundaries.
In conjunction with the World Culture and Sports Festival the 19th ICUS, the 5th PWPA Congress, the Assembly of World Religions, the WFWP Convention, the Han Madang Sports Festival and the 30,000- Couple Blessing Ceremony took place as True Parents endeavored to save people from all spheres of the satanic world
Activities for world peace
The primary institution in which my teachings are practiced is the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity; that is, the Unification Church. The Unification Church exists in every country in the world. The Unification Church has sunk roots in all races, nationalities and countries. The international wedding of thirty thousand couples we will hold tomorrow in Seoul's main Olympic Stadium is certain to testify to the fact that humanity is one great family centered on God. With the Unification Church as the root organization, I have founded many other organizations for projects in a wide variety of fields. These organizations are for building a world of peace in which we, the human family centered on God, can rejoice in our freedom, ideals and happiness. For the World Culture and Sports Festival, I have gathered the most prominent of these organizations here in Seoul. During the festival, a new unified structure will be founded to facilitate stronger mutual ties and closer cooperation among these organizations.
The International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, the Professors World Peace Academy, the World Media Conference, the Summit Council for World Peace, the Assembly of the World's Religions, the Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace, the Women's Federation for World Peace, international performing arts groups, and the World Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles will meet during this time of the international marriage blessing. They will provide forums to enlighten us and reaffirm our devotion to the cause of world peace.
The international marriage blessing of the Unification Church, which I will be conferring during this time, is the blessing of resurrection. Through this ceremony, human beings are able to cut clear from original sin and recover God's true love, true life and true lineage. Within the context of this ceremony, we can give birth to peace, by realizing the ideal of the great family of humanity that transcends race, nationality and international boundaries.
As the founder of these organizations and groups, I wish to reaffirm here this evening that their purpose is to bring about world peace, according to the ideal of God and humanity. They are not created for the benefit of any particular group or political faction. They do not serve the narrow interests of any particular nation or state. Rather, they exist to bring happiness, peace and freedom to God, the Creator of the universe, and to all humanity. Our movement, therefore, brings salvation to all families, all nations, all continents -- ultimately to the entire world. It is a movement to save the family, save the nation and save the world.
The true love movement and role of women
The illicit relationships and decadent lifestyles that have accompanied the disappearance of sexual morality are destroying our families. Every nation is suffering the agony of the destruction of its moral standards and the accompanying increase in crime. There is no solution in sight to the conflicts between political factions. Poverty and ignorance continue to plague us. No sign indicates that we may be nearing solutions to the world's international border disputes, to the prejudice between religious groups, or to the conflicts between the various races and ethnic groups. World peace is under constant threat from the selfish actions of the world's countries and peoples.
Environmental pollution also is destroying our planet, and we are approaching a crisis effecting humankind's future. We may all find ourselves on a common path of destruction, unless we are able to resolve the crisis we face through a love that transcends all national boundaries and ethnic differences and encompasses all the world's peoples. Let me emphasize again that any successful resolution of this crisis will be based on an effort to build a unified world through a movement of true love such as that rooted in the Unification Principle, or Godism.
In early July this year, I spoke in five cities around Korea at rallies held by the Women's Federation for World Peace. There, I declared that my wife, WFWP President Hak Ja Han Moon, and I are the True Parents of all humankind who are together the Savior, the Lord in his Second Advent, and the Messiah.
Why would I stand in front of woman leaders of Korea and make such an astonishing and fearful announcement? The reason is that God has been carrying out the providence to send the returning Messiah, the second perfected Adam. He subjugates Satan in order to establish a perfected Eve who will represent all women. God has to do this, because it was when Satan caused Eve to fall that sin permeated the origin of human history.
Women are the central point of the love, peace and spirit of service that protects our families. The healthy family is the starting point in our work to build world peace. The establishment of God-centered family ethics and the education of our children are at the innermost core of my teachings. The family is the holy sanctuary that cleanses this defiled world.
That is why I, as the Messiah, had to make my declaration to woman leaders gathered around President Hak Ja Han Moon, my wife, who is in the position of perfected Eve. This declaration is an exhortation and notice to all who follow my teachings to join Mrs. Moon and I in our attendance of God on the path of sacrifice and service for the world's salvation. A proposal to establish the House of Unification for World Peace This evening, I would like to propose that we establish "The House of Unification for World Peace." I see it as an organization dedicated to the peaceful unity of the world that will enable us to carry out all of our activities for world salvation more effectively.
To avoid any possible misunderstanding, particularly regarding the title of this organization as given in the Korean language, let me state clearly that I am not proposing to create a political party. The House of Unification for World Peace that I propose is not a political party. It will not have the function of political parties to seek executive or legislative governing power in a given country. It is, rather, a "house," a structure to reinforce the concerted actions of the world's countries, foster a unified foundation and support a common effort for world peace.
If we say that heaven symbolizes man, earth symbolizes woman. A house is the stage on which a woman conducts her life. It is filled with love for all the family members, centered on the mother. The family, with the mother at its center, is the basic unit of the nation and the world. I use the word "house" in the title of the organization I am proposing, because this word contains the meaning of "exalting the earth, centering on the mother." It also signifies "to teach." The word "house" in this title, therefore, signifies a center for women's education.
Through this organization, we can provide new impetus to our work, giving opportunities to people of all countries and all walks of life for meaningful exchanges and education on a God-centered vision for world peace. Political leaders, scholars, religious leaders, journalists and educators, as well as leaders of women and youth are needed to make this work successful. This vision of world peace centers on those families whose mothers accomplish mind-body unity through love. They are representatives of all women of the world.
Let us become central figures for peace in the twenty-first century. If you embrace my proposal and join me in this task, within the remaining eight years of the twentieth century our efforts are certain to bring the world of peace, the object of God's desire, to all of humanity. We who have gathered here this evening will be the leaders in opening the gates to a peaceful world for the coming twenty-first century. I pray you have a pleasant visit during the time of the festival and that God will bestow boundless blessings and protection upon your work. Thank you.