Sun Myung Moon
August 21, 1995
Hilton Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Third International Congress of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace
Photo date and location unknown
Respected heads of different religious denominations from around the world, distinguished guests from home and abroad, and religious scholars and leaders:
My wife Hak Ja Han and I welcome you all with a warm heart, and we hope that your stay here in Seoul will be worthwhile.
The central theme of all religions is the ideal world
This third International Congress of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace (IRFWP) addresses the responsibility of the world’s religions in realizing the ideal. This topic, the ideal world, is at the very heart of each of the world’s religious traditions. Although each religion recognizes the reality of evil, all religions teach of an alternative to the world of evil and ignorance. This alternative world is the ideal world.
The pursuit of the ideal is not unique to religion, for all people, religious or not, aspire to the ideal. However, determined efforts and good intentions that are out of step with Heaven’s way will bear no fruit and will cause more harm than good. Therefore, to achieve the ideal we need to clearly understand about God, and we have to know about God’s ideal of creation and God’s Will.
During this century, due to the disaster spawned by atheistic communism, we have clearly observed the tragic results of the pursuit of false ideals. Communism is a failed social movement that denies God and tries to create an ideal human society without God. Democratic society is better than communism, although it will also continue to degenerate and ultimately destroy itself if it ignores the providence of God. The way of goodness and the way of God are one. Human goodness and ideals can neither be achieved nor sustained without a direct connection to the divine reality. For this reason, we can say that anyone who seeks the ideal must understand God’s Will and the importance of religion.
Since my childhood I have tried desperately to discover answers to the fundamental questions of life and the universe. I was certain that God would never create a world in which the ideal could not be realized, and where evil, suffering and disharmony would always prevail. I could not understand why the world I experienced was so full of evil. I do not have time to speak in detail about the experiences of my youth.
It suffices it to say that my youth was filled with a longing for the truth. It was not easy for me to acquire the teaching known as the Principle, which I have revealed. The essence of the Principle was received through deep, fervent and prayerful communion with God and the saints in the spirit world. It is a victory that was gained through a desperate fight with Satan. I devote every moment of my life to the teaching and practice of this Principle. The Principle is being disseminated throughout the world and is transforming people’s lives by bringing them into a new relationship with the living God.
God’s ideal and the family of true love
As human beings created by God, we were born with the hope of attaining the ideal world. When we say “ideal world,” we need to know that the concept of the ideal originates from God. God did not create the world for the sake of power, glory or wealth. God has no desire for these. However, it would be wrong to say that God has no desires at all. God exists as the embodiment of true love.
God’s motivation for creation is true love, and God desires a true person as His object partner. Even God has to have a relationship in order to experience love. True love can be experienced only through a relationship between a subject partner and an object partner. No isolated being can experience love. Only beings capable of freely giving and receiving are able to engage in loving relationships. God created human beings to become the perfect object partners of love, beings who would freely give and receive love in relationship with God.
Human beings are God’s sons and daughters, created with a natural inclination toward true love. God is the True Parent of humankind. God created us as beings that could participate in and inherit true love. In addition, God created the natural world as a protective environment for humankind. Through the relationship of true love, both God and human beings can experience the highest form of joy.
God wanted Adam and Eve to grow in purity centered on true love and become true people. God carefully provided the environment for their biological development and their nourishment. God’s central concern, however, was with their internal character. Human beings realize the ideal by coming to reflect God’s true love. God created the power of love to be the most powerful of all internal forces. When on the heavenly path human beings experience the power of God’s love, they come to resemble God, becoming one with God and perfecting themselves. For this reason, we may say God’s love is the essence of human happiness, life and ideals.
Adam and Eve were supposed to grow in God’s love to become true human beings, then true husband and wife, and true parents. Men and women become true parents when they become beings of perfected character, inheriting God’s unselfish, unconditional parental love.
People experience God’s true love in stages through life’s periods of growth. Through their life course, each individual is meant to come to know the love of children, the love of brothers and sisters, the love of husband and wife, and the love of parents. The foundation upon which these four realms of love and heart can stand is the family. The family is the basis for human love, happiness, life and lineage. Thus, the family of true love is the hope of humankind and the essence of God’s purpose of creation. The true completion of the individual, family, society or environment has its root in the realization of true love within a family. People who have become the embodiment of God’s true love cannot disobey God’s Will, violate other people, or abuse the creation.
The Fall and restoration
What is the reality of our world today? Disorder and sickness of every kind, including war, violence and drug abuse, have infected humankind. More important, the rapid collapse of sexual morality among the young, the increasing divorce rate, the problem of young unmarried mothers and the breakdown of the family are all destroying the foundation of human society. All these things originate from the Fall. This is because Adam and Eve defiled the ideal of true love during their growing period. Eve’s eating of the fruit offered by Satan symbolized Eve’s engaging in love outside the Principle.
Adam and Eve’s lack of faith in God, their loving Parent, and their ultimate submission to Satan, whereby they became a false couple and false parents, was the beginning of human history. Humankind’s inheritance from Adam’s family includes criminality, lying, illicit love and violence. During this time of the Last Days, we can see that the fruit of the seed planted by Adam and Eve has filled the world. How sad God’s heart must be!
God’s providence of salvation is the providence of restoration. For the sake of the providence of restoration, God established religions and expanded the sphere of goodness. The Messiah sent by God is the person who comes with the overall responsibility to complete the providence of restoration. Accordingly, the Messiah will come as the True Parents. The mission of the True Parents is to restore true human beings through true love, and to raise them up as true husbands and wives and true parents.
The responsibility of religion
Who is able to solve the problems of the world that contradict the Will of God? Religious leaders must assume the responsibility to change the reality of wrongdoing, sin and suffering. Since the day I received my mission from God, I have devoted myself to this responsibility. While absolutely keeping to the path of the Principle and the providence, I have fought against the evil that, transcendent of time and space, has penetrated deeply into the very lives of human beings. With all my heart and utilizing all my foundation, I have always done my best to seek the cooperation of the world’s religions and religious leaders. In going this way, I have never deserted the responsibility that I vowed to accomplish before God.
At the Assembly of the World’s Religions in San Francisco in 1990, when I announced the establishment of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, I explained God’s purpose of creation, the essence of true love, and the role of True Parents. I strongly exhorted the participants to work to establish an ethical human society, to eradicate decadent culture, and to practice true love and the philosophy of “True Parentism.” The work to regain ideal families through true love and to establish an ethical human society is a precious responsibility given to the religious leaders of this era.
Moreover, religious leaders must take the lead in ending the world’s corruption and wrongdoing. As long as religions remain indifferent to widespread lawlessness, inequality and injustice, they will neither find their way out of the swamp of the present reality nor move the world toward the ideal. It is clear that religious practices that have turned into mere formalities need to give way to a living faith. Religious leaders must set an example that leads others out of spiritual desolation to regain their original nature of goodness.
Religious leaders have the responsibility to lead unconditional and sacrificial lives for the sake of others, and to teach this way of life to everyone. Still today, there is a great deal of poverty and widespread starvation. Inequality has deeply pervaded this world. The culpability of religious leaders for these problems is very great.
During the past twenty years, I have made a considerable investment in marine ventures, staying at the forefront of the developments by going out to sea myself. I am channeling my determination to rid the world of the misery of starvation into these plans. I think that through the development of agriculture and ocean-related enterprises, religious organizations can use all their resources and work together to produce food and support developing nations.
If it were not for the investment of God’s true love, the universe would never have been born. According to the laws of the existence of the universe, the subject partner takes care of its object partner as parents care for their children, or as teachers for their students. However, instead of subject partners taking care of their object partners, people in the fallen world try to use others in self-centered ways. That is why they perish. I believe that religion has to educate others in the heavenly principle of seeking the happiness of others before our own happiness.
Respected religious leaders, I believe that IRFWP must work constructively for the sake of interreligious harmony and world peace. IRFWP must function as the conscience of the world. It needs to advise and guide leaders at every level in the world, including those in politics, economics and education. It also needs to be an example. Since the great religions were nurtured in the soil of persecution and martyrdom, and stand on the foundation of each founder’s great tradition, none of us may avoid sacrifice. We must reestablish the original integrity of religion,