Sun Myung Moon
May 15, 1987
Founder's Address
Little Angels Performing Arts Center
My fellow citizens! We are gathered here today to mark the founding of the Citizens' Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland. The unification of our divided country has been our long-cherished hope and desire.
As Koreans, we are proud of our rich cultural heritage, exemplified by a unique language system and elaborate arts, and our long history that has extended over 5,000 years. Korea is noted for its exceptional historical continuity and ethnic homogeneity.
Koreans have long inhabited this beautiful land, forming a peace-loving community. Thus from the beginning, we were destined to live in unity, not in separation.
Contrary to our destiny, we have now experienced 42 years of separation of our people and our land. Our deep emotion and gratitude at the time of liberation in 1945 did not last long, and we fell into the tragic separation between the South and North.
Is this national tragedy to be further continued? Do we have to give up our hope for national reunification because the prospects still look dim and improbable?
The Time Is At Hand
My fellow citizens, I declare with my full conviction that the time for the unification of our fatherland is at hand. We are gathered here today to facilitate its coming through the founding of the Citizens' Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland.
We should think for a moment how we were able to obtain our liberation in 1945. There were two cardinal factors: One was the sacrifice and dedication of those who gave their lives for the restoration of our independence; the other was the global situation at the time of the Japanese defeat at the end of World War II.
The unification of the fatherland must come in the same way. The movement of international communism of the past 70 years is now coming to its final phase. The decline of the Soviet Union and the countries under its domination is apparent. They are no longer able to conceal their history of failure and deception. The fall of communism is, without a doubt, linked to the fall of Kim Il Sung. This will serve as a factor for facilitating the reunification of our fatherland.
Under the circumstances, it is most appropriate for us to make a move at this time to ignite the flame of the movement for unification, elevating this movement to the level of faith in heaven.
The 38th parallel not only marks a physical division of blood ties but is also a boundary of conflicting thoughts and value perspectives. Because of these conflicting value perspectives, and despite the fact that we are all brethren descended from the same stock, we fought against each other during the Korean War, ignoring this blood relationship.
What is the basic difference between these conflicting value perspectives? We find the difference in the confrontation between theism and atheism. The fundamental aspect of communism is its denial of God. There is no absolute value in communism because it rejects the idea of God and does not hold any criterion for good and evil. From this notion, one can easily derive the principle of communist revolution that "the end justifies the means."
The communist theoreticians claim that communism is a science, thereby justifying their denial of God and all religions and denouncing mythology as superstition. However, did science, in reality, wipe out all religions, mythology, and God from the world in the 20th century?
Father delivers the Citizens' Federation Founder's Address.
Communism Destined to Perish
The answer is no. Rather, communism itself was branded by science as a 19th-century superstition. Science in the 20th century is serving as a witness to God by overthrowing the 19th-century view of the cosmos. The cosmos was seen at that time as being composed of absolutely solid particles that could not be divided into smaller units. Based on this concept, the communists expounded their fundamental philosophy of materialism, saying that the cosmos is essentially composed of material.
However, atomic physics in the 20th century has revealed clearly that material is in actuality intangible energy and that the two are compatible and interchangeable. Scientists today are of the opinion that the emergence of the universe was not an accident that merely resulted from the law of causality. The implication is that there was an action of primary will. This primary cause in science is called "God" in religion.
The creator of this universe is a God of intellect, emotion, and will. We were created in His image, and He finds delight in the flow of love to and from man. A true and just value perspective emerges from the affirmation of this notion of our creation by God. It thus follows that denying God is like denying the existence of our parents. It is clear that science itself verifies that communism, as a value perspective, is not only worthless but is destined to perish.
In the communist view, man is treated simply as a mechanical system or as matter in motion. Labor is the communist's god, and man is merely an animal evolved from the apes to a higher stage. When man lives in a system based on this view, he is deprived of his inherent freedom and creativity.
In communist society, man is simply a tool used in the revolutionary struggle. Man is of value only when used toward this end; otherwise he is worthless. This is why man is treated like a subhuman in communist society. The records show that over 150 million innocent people have been massacred in the name of communism in the past 70 years since the Russian Revolution.
We see the confrontation of the two conflicting value systems not only on the Korean peninsula but in many other regions of the world. Unless this confrontation is resolved on a worldwide basis, our hope for Korean unification remains only an illusion. It is therefore essential to resolve world problems if we are to resolve the issue of Korean unification, and vice versa.
Dr. Sang Hun Lee, director of the Citizens' Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland.
The Necessity of Godism
Godism is the proposition I have been expounding for resolving the conflicting value systems in the world today. Godism aims to clarify the existence of God and basic God- given human rights. Godism is instrumental and indispensable if we are to free the communist world from its distorted vision and free the Euro-American world from its secular humanism and decadent materialism. Our movement for unification must be grounded on this system of Unification Thought, which provides us with a reformulation of values.
In the confrontation between conflicting value perspectives, our primary goal must be to pursue unification based on the principles of freedom and democracy. No other forms of unification comply with these principles, because freedom is valued as a sacred and inalienable right endowed by God. We share this right with our brethren in North Korea even though they have been deprived of this right for over 40 years.
We must learn from the experience of Vietnam. It is entirely wrong to consider that Vietnam is now unified. On the contrary, I tell you that Vietnam has been placed in servitude under the Soviet Union. Millions of Vietnamese have been purged, and boat people are still floating on the high seas at the risk of their lives. Vietnam now ranks as one of the poorest nations in the world, with its per-capita income at less than $100. Truthfully speaking, no one could say that Vietnam has been unified.
Our brethren in North Korea thirst for liberation and this can only be accomplished by means of our movement's work on a global scale. We must strive diligently on behalf of our brethren in North Korea who are longing for freedom and happiness under the darkness of communist rule.
The North Korean regime has been propagating its own unification tactics and strategy, declaring that South Korea must be liberated from the rule of American imperialists and that the people of the South must eventually be united with the juche (self-reliance) ideology of Kim Il Sung. The obvious result of such a strategy is that the people of the South will be subjugated by the rule of Kim II Sung and his son under their banner of unification.
For 40 years, the North Korean regime has been pushing desperately for unification under the guise of various "peace offensives:" Despite this constant pressure and the threat of armed invasion from the North, South Korea has in the meantime achieved remarkable economic growth and a prominent status in the international community.
South Korea now outranks the North by a ratio of 5.5 to 1 in terms of its gross national product. At the end of 1985, it ranked 20th in the world in terms of the GNP and 12th in trade volume. It appears that South Korea will be placed in a far superior position to the North in economic and military strength by the time of the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Kim Il Sung might then in desperation seek to achieve unification by armed aggression before he dies. No one can deny that Kim Il Sung might take that risk or even try to harass the Olympic Games. In this light, the next one or two years are crucial for our achievement of unification. Thus our gathering today for the founding of the Citizens' Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland is of great significance in the history of our nation.
Thought Armament
What is to be done? The task of the Citizens' Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland is not simple or easy. In the first place, we must formulate a new value system appropriate for the reconciliation and unity of our people. Our thought must be armed with this value system.
The free world is now exposing its main weakness -- its lack of any guiding ideology. This vacuum was created by material affluence and a confused sense of values, and has resulted in the spread of secular humanism. Aiming at this weak point, the communist world continues to expand its hegemony.
The third world war will be a war of ideas. The defeat of communism is not possible by military means alone. Thought armament is mandatory in order to win over communism, and only Godism can accomplish this task. There is no alternative.
The Citizens' Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland must be the advance guard in this movement to fortify the thought of our people. Godism is strong and resourceful enough to liberate not only our brethren in the North but all people suffering under the yoke of communist rule. The movement of Godism is warning the world of the dangers it faces, and it is motivating people toward a spiritual awakening from the indulgence, immorality, and corruption rampant in the affluent free world.
I sponsored the first mass meeting for Godism in 1976. This historic event was held in Washington DC, the capital of the United States. I openly declared then that the next site of our Godism meeting would be Moscow. I am convinced that Godism can free the Soviet Union from communism. So I ask, what is causing the delay in the decline of communism? Communism's end is delayed because we cannot show an alternative; we have failed to arm ourselves with a strong system of thought.
I strongly urge that we quickly initiate this new movement in Korea and expand it to an international level. We need to be armed with Godism or we cannot overcome communism or Kim II Sung's so- called juche ideology.
I call our Godism movement the "head-wing" movement, in contrast to the left-and right-wing movements. True world peace can only be preserved by the thought system of the head wing, because the conventional left-and-right-wing thoughts are all ego-centered or power -oriented. Ego-centeredness breeds conflicts of interest, making the preservation of peace and unification less and less feasible.
Altruism emanates only from God's providence of love, because God is the essence of love. Just as the head controls the whole human body and its functions, so Godism, the head-wing thought, is superior to right- or left-wing thought. The right and left arms are parts of the whole body, but without the head in the center, the whole configuration becomes void of function and thus meaningless. With Godism as the head-wing thought, we shall move toward the goal of achieving the unification of our fatherland. Our aim is not to invade the North nor to indoctrinate the South but to bring a symbiosis grounded on the true value system, armed with the ideology of the head wing.
Building Up Our Vigor
We need to develop passion for unification because only passion can make us practice what we believe. This passion for unification must be elevated to the level of a faith movement. I believe God will help us when we are all united in this movement and when we pledge our full dedication and sacrifice.
Without sacrifice on our part, our passion is a mere illusion. As one project of the Citizens' Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland, I am currently planning to build a House of Prayer for Unification as well as a center for unification training near the 38th parallel. We can then project our heated desire for unification north of the 38th parallel.
We should be increasingly vigorous in our movement for unification. Vigor and resourcefulness are mandatory in order for us to destroy the blockade built by Kim Il Sung, which keeps North Korea under Kim's juche thought one of the most primitive and closed societies. Only when Kim is overwhelmed by the reality of our thought system will he be induced to surrender to our proposal.
As we have seen, reformulating a new value system and arming ourselves with Godism are prerequisites for our movement for unification. In addition, Korea must make known the importance of its strength and its status in the international community as an advanced democratic nation.
True democracy is the way to win over dictatorship and personality cults. We find in Abraham Lincoln's speech the eternal truth: "...a government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." The democratization of our nation is, therefore, the topmost priority.
Finally, we should take initiative in promoting and facilitating international support for this movement for unification. We have to win support from our allies such as the United States and the neighboring superpowers of China and Japan.
We should even seek a way to convince the Soviet Union to render its support for unification by persuading the North that it can no longer remain closed.
Hopefully, we will be able to cause the regime in the North to denounce communism under the pressure of democratic development in the South so that it may become a willing partner in the unification of our fatherland. Kim II Sung might quickly crumble once this process begins.
International Support
As you well know, Korea's geopolitical situation is delicate. The interests of the four superpowers -- the United States, Japan, China, and the Soviet Union -- all converge on the Korean peninsula. We must consider these four superpowers in relation to our movement for unification.
I have already achieved substantial success in this endeavor. On the basis of this success, we are now opening a new chapter in this movement. Such a movement cannot and should not be carried out single-handedly. Needless to repeat, international cooperation and support are mandatory. The Citizens' Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland, therefore, should develop into an Asian Federation and eventually into a World Federation for Its ultimate success. This is the long cherished hope of all mankind as well as of God.
My fellow citizens! It is now our obligation to take on this task of unification, because of its extreme national as well as international significance. Men and women of devotion and dedication are called for this historic duty. You are gathered here today, called to this task, to take part in the founding of the Citizen's Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland.
The founding father of our nation, Tangun, under the golden adage of "Worship of heaven and love of man',' built the foundation for the first community in this land, establishing a standard for human value. The essence of Godism evolved from this spirit. Thus Godism originated from our land.
I have already pointed out that Korea's problems are a reflection of the world's problems, and the solution to the world's problems is essentially linked to the solution of Korea's problems. In a sense, the implication is that Korea can provide a solution for the world. This is very true, for Godism is not only the solution for the unification of Korea, but it also serves as a means for freeing all people from communism and from secular humanism.
My patriotic fellow citizens, let us march forward, armed with Godism, the new value system, and the new head- wing ideology.
With vigorous faith, we should now solemnly declare that we accept this calling to become the advance guard of the movement for unification.
In closing my founding address, I pray that God may abundantly bless you and your families!
Thank you.