Sun Myung Moon
November 27, 1997
Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington, DC, USA
Fourth World Peace Conference
Photo date and location unknown
I welcome you and extend my heartfelt thanks for your participation in this Fourth World Peace Conference of the Federation for World Peace to address the theme “A World Vision for the Twenty-first Century.”
I would like to personally invite you to a very special event at RFK Stadium on Saturday morning. Along with representative leaders of the world’s religions, my wife and I will officiate the Blessing of 39.6 million couples in one hundred eighty-five countries around the world. The goal for this ceremony was 3.6 million couples, yet we went far beyond that, by more than thirty-six million couples. Many couples from your countries will be participating. More than thirty thousand couples will be at the stadium and ceremonies worldwide will be connected by video via satellite. These couples are dedicating their marriages to God, promising to remain eternally faithful to their spouse and to raise their children with commitment, fidelity and strong moral values. They are of different religious backgrounds, languages, races and national origins. What draws all of them together is their love of God and a belief that world peace begins with stable, healthy, God-centered families.
I would like all of you to observe this history-making ceremony, and more than that, I strongly encourage all of you gathered here to participate and renew your own wedding vows before God.
A common vision for humankind
Today I would like to share with you regarding the course I have traveled over the past fifty years in search of a common vision for humankind. After the devastating experience of World War II, all nations were searching for peace. God directed me to build a global movement and help establish His Kingdom on the foundation of two thousand years of Christianity. The central message of this revelation was to find the formula course for “True Parents” and “True Family,” those who live for the sake of others.
It was a great disappointment to God when the Korean Christians did not receive this message. As a result, I had to go through a suffering course of rejection and humiliation, which led to my being imprisoned unjustly many times. This providential mistake by the established religions provided the spiritual foundation for evil to run rampant in Korea, beginning with the division of that nation and for the other calamities that have plagued the world this past half-century.
To understand why all this happened, we must understand the mission to bring a message to Christian leaders that God gave me fifty years ago. That message is essentially the same today, although today the message is also for Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and all religions and denominations. The message is that the ideal of the God-centered, true family is the basis for true relationships and peace among individuals, societies and nations.
As a young man, I desperately searched for the answers to the mysteries of human sin and suffering. I shed many tears and spent many years in lonely prayer fighting spiritual battles that most will never comprehend. After many years of searching through the Bible and the vast spirit world, God revealed the true purpose of human life and the root cause of human suffering that originated in the Garden of Eden with the first human ancestors.
The ideals of true love and true family
Esteemed leaders! You have to know that God created all things for the sake of true love and true people. All creation is structured in pairs. Animals, plants and minerals are arranged in subject-object partner relationships and the harmonious giving and receiving between them forms the foundation for all existence, for all energy for productivity, and for love and goodness. Human beings were also created with this polarity between the mind and body within the individual and between man and woman. God’s ideal was for an individual’s mind and body to be united with His love at the center and then for a mature man and woman to unite in the family unit.
In this way, Adam and Eve could have become a true reflection of God’s divine nature and an object partner of His love. Then they could have bequeathed to their descendants true love, true life and true lineage emanating from God. Adam’s family was to have been a family of true love, in accordance with God’s ideal. The first two human beings, Adam and Eve, were created with the expectation that they would transfer God’s Will and love to the world and all creation. They and their children were to establish a pattern that would have been the fundamental principle for all humanity to follow. Adam and Eve’s descendants were to have become one with God, accomplishing the unity of mind and body and man and woman, creating a stable foundation for peace, freedom, happiness and hope to fill the world.
It is God’s ideal that this model be expanded to the levels of the nation and the world, and to the entire cosmos. Thus, it is possible for a country to become patterned after the family unit. That unit would expand God’s family-level ideal to the national-level ideal and the national-level ideal to the world-level, all with God at the center.
The fundamental character and personality of an individual is formed in the family. The family is the starting point and foundation of love, character and life. The Principle of Creation teaches us that we are born in the cradle of our family through the love of our parents. We come to perfect ourselves as beings of love beginning as children who gradually grow to positions of spouse, parent and grandparent. Ultimately, we pass to the spirit world in the loving embrace of our descendants.
The family, therefore, is the most precious hearth of human love and life. It is more important than all value systems and ideologies as well as all policies and social systems. Through the family, history and nations come into being and the ideal world begins. If there is no family, then there is no meaning in individual existence and there will be no passing on of love through the generations. Therefore, the family takes precedence over all values, philosophies, systems and structures. The family is the most precious and fundamental base for the love and life of men and women.
The origin of humankind’s sin and restoration of the ideal of true family
Tragically, God’s ideal of the true family was never realized. The serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, and then Eve tempted Adam. Instead of God’s true love, selfish false love was planted in the human race. Human history became a history of sin and misery because our ancestors, Adam and Eve, entered into an illicit relationship with Satan. Because of the Fall, the progenitors of the human race did not become good ancestors, rather, evil ancestors corrupted by the root of evil life and evil blood lineage. The first family started with false love and did not establish the perfected true love character of true individuals, a true couple and true parents. The fruit of false love, fallen human selfishness, destroys the true order, beginning with the discord of mind and body and expanding into division and struggle in the family, nation and world.
The solution and cure for humankind’s affliction therefore, is to return to God through the principle of restoration by indemnity. Through true love for others, you can stop the struggle between your mind and body and be restored into your original character of true love. Human beings need to receive the marriage Blessing and create ideal families from true parents who are the model of true love. We need to restore the individual and the true family and expand true love and goodness to the world level.
Fifty years ago, I tried to bring this revelation to my fellow Christians, believing that this truth would unite the conflicting denominations and bring about the kingdom of heaven on earth. I never intended to form a separate church. However, God’s message was met with denial and persecution by the established churches and I was left with no choice except to make a new foundation that has taken me forty-three years to build.
Starting in Korea with the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in 1954, I sent missionaries to Japan, the United States, Europe and throughout the world. On that foundation, we have built many organizations to expand the principles of the true family in the media, arts, academia, economy and industry and to create examples and models through which sin can be indemnified and the world can be restored.
God’s three headaches
The strategy of Satan, who originated sin, is always to destroy the ideal of the true family and to prevent it from taking root and becoming substantialized. This led to God’s three headaches of the past fifty years. The first headache was communism, which denies God’s existence; the second is corruption and immorality; the third is the division and disunity among denominations and world religions.
Think about it. How many innocent people died because of communism? More than one hundred million were killed and millions more were enslaved, starved, abused and wounded, spending their whole life in suffering. In addition to causing death and physical suffering, there is an even greater crime of communism. Communism spreads a false doctrine that denies God and prevents men and women from realizing their ultimate value.
Immorality, the second headache of God, is destroying families and countries and taking lives just as surely as an invading army. Moral corruption is one of the main causes of divorce, fatherless children, crimes and drug addiction. The decline of morality is not limited to any single nation; it is becoming the world’s common problem. The worldwide AIDS epidemic is a direct consequence of sexual promiscuity and moral decay. If AIDS continues to spread, tens of millions of people will die and humankind’s very existence will be threatened.
How about God’s third headache; the division and disunity within Christianity and among the world religions? For God, religious people are the conscience of the world. They need to have traditions and values, and the practical power to overcome evil. Instead they are divided. They antagonize and fight with each other. They have become incompetent and have lost the power to overcome evil and educate the world about the true way of life. These three fundamental headaches are the direct result of the failure fifty years ago of those chosen to receive God’s message.
The importance of humankind’s portion of responsibility
Distinguished world leaders! From God’s point of view, all of that suffering was totally unnecessary. All the misery, death and destruction could have been avoided. If in the late 1940s the religious world centering on Christianity had followed God’s revelation and become one with the true family ideal, then communism would have naturally declined. Also, through the influential leadership and example of each religion, the degeneration of youth, broken families and AIDS would never have grown into a worldwide plague.
Confronting God’s three headaches, particularly communism, made me unpopular and controversial. I was labeled a fascist and a religious charlatan. I was even jailed in the United States on inflated charges of tax evasion. Nevertheless, for twenty-five years I have been pouring out my soul, heart and energy to make the United States understand its global, providential responsibilities.
Through my work in the Western Hemisphere and around the world, I was able to help the United States overcome communism. Now communism has almost disappeared. However immorality and social decay are systematically attacking the family. Modern thinking holds that the traditional family is only one kind of family and that even homosexuals can form a family and have children through adoption or artificial insemination. This is being done without any thought to the dire consequences of undermining and destroying a fundamental biological, social and spiritual unit that has been vital to human survival for tens of thousands of years. It is ironic that scientists warn of the threat to endangered species of plants and animals, yet do not study the far more serious consequences of family destruction.
Today, God is asking us these questions: Will it be necessary to lose one-third of the world’s population before humanity is saved? Will we deplete all the earth’s natural resources and destroy the environment before we learn to live in harmony with the creation as God originally intended?
God will never give up! He will save this world, no matter what, and He will save it through the ideal and structure of the true family. The question is at what price, not only in terms of human lives, but financially and environmentally as well. Social problems, brought on by corruption and immorality, are leaving a toll of economic collapse and environmental degradation. The leaders of the world need to reflect on these points. God’s desire is to end human suffering and build a world of true, peaceful families. God needs for us to fulfill our portion of responsibility. If humankind receives and acts decisively upon God’s message, the achievement of God’s kingdom will be relatively swift and joyful. If not, God’s and humanity’s suffering will be prolonged, and misery and needless deaths will continue.
Blessing of marriage by true love
Then how can God’s headache be resolved? How can families become fundamentally healthy? How can divided religions reconcile and cooperate under God? The answer is in the international marriage Blessing ceremony. My wife and I began officiating marriage Blessing ceremonies starting with three couples in 1960. If I had said at that time that many millions of people will receive God’s Blessing, who would have believed it? Yet today, with God’s help and going beyond nation, race and religion, the Blessing ceremony of 39.6 million couples, promising purity and fidelity, is being carried out right in front of you.
Respected leaders! I only want to stress once again that through the marriage Blessing, the world’s families can stabilize and finally fulfill their original role. For the true family to be restored, we have to establish true love character, we have to attend God and we have to seriously pledge to become true couples and true parents. Those harmonious families that are restored to the ideal through the marriage Blessing ceremony can create a peaceful society, nation and world. This marriage Blessing that encompasses all nations, races and religions and goes beyond all boundaries is itself the foundation for world peace. Is this not God’s desire? That this miraculous number of families, almost forty million, can participate in this Blessing of marriage is because of the active support of the world’s religious leaders. It was also made possible because many national leaders agreed that this true family movement can cure the fundamental problems young people face and the breakdown of families, and have actively supported it. I would like, once again, to thank all those who have volunteered in this advocacy.
The marriage Blessing ceremony can awaken people, especially young people, to the value of true love and it can become the motive and catalyst for them to realize the necessity of absolute purity. All the world’s good young men and women who are awakened through this movement need to gather together to stand up for a true love revolution, establishing themselves as eternal couples under God’s Blessing. All these new families can receive support from already married couples who have renewed their vows before God and practice principled ethics, and they can all become moral citizens setting good examples and build an ideal family, society, nation and world -- the fruit of true love.
The marriage Blessing ceremony eradicates the connection to false love and brings to life the holy content and value of marriage centered on absoluteness. This ceremony recovers true couples’ love, true parents’ love and true children’s love. Therefore, those who participate in the marriage Blessing ceremony value purity and trust as highly as they do their lives, and promise unchanging couple’s love. On the foundation of that true love, they can establish a true family, raise true children and pledge to sacrifice themselves to build a true nation and peaceful world.
In the world of the future, God, humankind and creation will be in harmony, living in a new culture of heart, a culture of love centered on true family. In the world of the future, true love means living for the sake of others in a world of interdependence, mutual prosperity, universally shared values and cooperation. In the future, the natural desire of young people to live in a world of true brothers and sisters, a one-world family, will be realized by centering on true love, true parents and true family.
Esteemed world leaders, the marriage Blessing is the most precious gift that God is giving to humankind. My wife and I fervently hope that you will participate in this historic ceremony to receive God’s Blessing of marriage. From now on, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification will expand the true family movement. By the year 2001 we will carry out the 360 million couples Blessing in three different events.
Because of immorality and the loss of values, our young people are falling into moral decadence and the family is being utterly destroyed. Is there anything more important than saving humanity from plunging into ruin? My effort to globalize and universalize the true family movement and the marriage Blessing ceremony, which are the fundamental solutions to save humanity, needs the active support of respected leaders like you. Those who understand the fundamental problem and the solution God is offering need to band together within their country and form a true family marriage Blessing support group and create a movement to save your nation. I ask that you put yourselves at the center of this great work to restore humankind to its original ideal. We have to quickly educate all men and women so they can establish true families and enter into the age of God-centered kingship on earth and in heaven, founded on true love, and live in the victorious world of freedom, peace and unity.
May God’s love fill you, your family and your country.
Thank you very much.