Sun Myung Moon
March 30, 1990
Manhattan Center, New York
Father and Mother receive flowers at the San Francisco public speech to the Korean community on March 18, 1990
In his March 1 speech, "Proclaiming True Parents", Father announced that True Parents had been proclaimed throughout Korea in his five-city public speaking tour held there during February, 1990. After his return to America, Father announced he would speak to Koreans in America during a similar five-city tour from March 18 through March 30, 1990.
This is a translation of the speech which Father gave to Korean residents in New York. He gave similar addresses to the Korean communities in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, DC.
If there should be a title for my talk this evening, it is "True Unification and One World." "Unification" is what every man wants and it will remain our desire for as long as humankind continues to exist. Not only man wants unification, but God as well.
What people accept as truth tends to change. Many prominent philosophers and thinkers have defined "truth", but they are constantly challenged by their students who strive to surpass their teachers.
Every man, whether he is from the East or West, has a desire so large as to want even God to follow him. Every being in the world wants to represent God, who is the center of the universe. There is no way of denying that this is true.
What is the truth that all people want, regardless of their differing and extensive desires? For man, it is woman and for woman, it is man. What is true for God is human beings and what is true for human beings is God. Only through true man and true woman can unified true love be found. Unification of God and man is achieved only with true love at the center. The absolute value of man and woman lies in true love. They want to follow love's dictates, even forsaking life itself. God, who is an absolute being, placed true love in the most precious position as the center of absolute value. Therefore, even God absolutely follows true love. Marriage is to achieve true love between man and woman, whose unity is the expression of absolute value horizontally in order to occupy God's absolute vertical love. Here lies the purpose of man's life. The solution to all problems lies in man, woman and God coming together in complete oneness centered on true love. When we search for the limit of human desire, we find that true love is the ultimate want. Men will seek no more after they possess it. My desire is to become, among all religious leaders, the religious leader who most notably conveys true love.
Heavenly Secrets
I know the spiritual world very well, so I view the whole world in perspective. Only with the coming of this age have the secrets of heaven come to be known. These are things which only God and Satan knew. I now brings these heavenly secrets to the attention of the whole world. The teaching of the Unification Church is the truth of salvation, the words of life and true love which humankind needs.
When the savior comes to save the world, he should not judge it with an iron rod for he will not be able to subjugate even one person. The most disloyal sons and daughters can be revived only by the long labor of calloused hands and tears of love of a suffering mother. Even God, the great king of judgment and Will, could not unify the cosmos without true love. For it is in true love that we find the power to go forward, even forsaking our lives.
Throughout history, many people have sought true unification and a unified world. Heaven also worked hard to find true love. Because of the human fall, there is no true unification, unified world or an individual who has true love. No one has known what should be the key for true unification. It must be revealed that the key for unification is within "myself".
God's strategy and Satan's strategy have always been completely opposite. God's strategy is to take a beating and later make a claim for damages. Satan's strategy is to strike first.
In both the First and Second World Wars, the side which initiated the offensive lost the war. The Third World War is the war of ideology and thought. God does not want to destroy His enemy and forcibly take back what was stolen, even though He is the legitimate owner and has the right to reclaim what is His. He let Himself be beaten so as the parent, He may bring His disloyal sons and daughters to repentance through His own suffering.
Father starts his 5-city public speaking tour in San Francisco.
Strategy of Being Beaten
To erect the universal way of the Heavenly Principle, God Himself goes to people with much perseverance and teaches them how to conduct themselves. When a great teacher arrived, Satan repeatedly rebelled. The master tried to help the peon le understand, but they beat him. Do you know what came after the beating? The teacher received a further claim
I am a public person and have received many beatings in this public position. But look back at history. All great teachers have terminated their lives in misery; but as the ages of history flowed on, their recognition gradually increased. The longer the lapse in time, the more perfectly their claim enveloped the world. If the claim perseveres for thousands of years, the interest over such an immense time period compounds to an enormous sum, enough to buy the bank itself. God is the person who uses the strategy of being beaten and then restoring. At the complete downfall of the evil world, goodness will suddenly inherit many things. Through many spiritual experiences, God has taught me the principle that to receive persecution is another way of inheriting what the enemy has owned. The person God really loves always receives the protection of the heavenly flow of fortune.
True love is something we cannot see, yet it is the most precious of jewels. People love jewels because of their unchangeable, eternal nature: gold for its unchanging color, diamonds for their unchanging hardness, pearls for their unchanging harmony of colors. Who are the jewels among men? If you think about it, they are the saints. The teaching of a saint should endure as an unchanging principle in the spiritual world. Even if a saint claims that his teaching is unchangeable on earth, if the teaching is not upheld by the spiritual world, he will be branded as an impostor. Then who is the saint of all saints? The one who wants to be God's own son to receive the greatest love from God would be the hero to win first place. True love is all that matters.
Among the major religious leaders, Jesus said he was the only begotten son. But Jesus also said that he would have to come again to consummate God's Will. He had proclaimed His love but could not substantiate that love. I also spent my entire life trying to substantiate that love. Even Jesus had to recognize me in this respect. Some Christians may feel strange to hear this, but it is because they do not know how the water flows, what is the origin and what is heavenly law.
I am from a patriot's household. I have a grandfather who was a friend of the late Dr. Syngman Rhee and of Nam Sun Choi. My grandfather was very well versed in Confucian studies, graduated from theological school, knew good English and was better looking than I am. He had such a dignified bearing that I thought he had the look of a President. It was when I was a child, perhaps seven or eight years old, that grandfather was imprisoned by the Japanese for three years or so. While grandfather was in prison, the underground independence army had great financial difficulties, and when they heard that my grandfather had been released, soldiers came to my home to see him in the middle of the night, in heavy snow. My parents pushed us children into bed and covered us with quilts so we could not see. They cooked noodles and boiled chickens to serve them. I remember this as if it were but a few days ago.
At that time, I thought to myself, "Such a great grandfather, but why did he have to go to prison when he was doing such good for the country? Had Korea only been stronger than Japan, such an injustice would not have been allowed." I thought further, "Since we cannot trust the powerful countries of this human world, we should trust God who is the great Lord of the Heaven and Earth." It was then that I began to explore the existence of God. "If only I could know the real existence of God, I could surely solve the basic problems of human existence," I thought.
That is how I became the leader of the Unification Church. How often has my clothing become drenched in sweat and tears and how greatly have my elbows and knees become calloused! I had to spend more than 12 hours a day praying. I never ate before I had finished, nor could I sleep before a problem was solved.
Why did I suffer so much? It was to discover true love. But then, I had to ask, which was first, love or life? To discover the root of the universe, I found that love was the first to exist. Where did your life come from? It came from your parents' love and finally it will one day return to God. The absolute God wants to live centering on true love which He can follow absolutely.
God Follows True Love
God is our Father. Can a father ever make his son practice something which he has not first practiced himself? It would be theoretically absurd. Therefore, before God orders me to follow something absolutely, God Himself first follows it absolutely. True love, which God can absolutely follow, is worthy of becoming a foundation to occupy even hell. The only way by which you can become happy is true love. When you have true love you can even digest sorrow. Because true love is man's original and ultimate desire, it is true love which bestows absolute authority rather than any individual power, knowledge or wealth.
True love comes from the true love of God which is its origin. The girl who is about to marry, hopes that her husband-to-be is better than herself. The same is true of a husband's desire for his wife and parents' desire for their children. Such a mind comes from God. Since the desire of the causal being comes directly from the origin (God) transcending the individual self, "I" who am a mere recipient, can never deny this reality. Because God is the origin, we conclude that God wants the objects of His true love to become greater than Himself. This is the very origin of the true nature of all beings.
A sculptor spends many sleepless nights, consumes his youth and invests everything he has in order to create a masterpiece. Where does that mind come from? Doesn't it come from the origin, God, who created His objects of love in order to experience happiness through them? The creation of man was as an object of God's true love, for even God needed a partner of love. Likewise all of creation was created after the pattern of man, to be harmonized and comprehended by man; all for the sake of ideal love.
If two beings cannot have give and take action, God cannot compel it. On the other hand, if they are made to be pairs, even God cannot stop it. Minerals, Plants and animals are designed to function as correlatives, according to the ideal model of creation. Centering on the true nature of true love, there is a consistent flow from God's heart to the original human heart to the heart of all things in the world of minerals, plants and animals. If you enter into that world you can even speak to the rocks. Humanity's problem is that they have never known that world. When I enter into that realm of mystic circumstances, every creation around me is a friend. When I enter into the realm of love I am filled with ecstasy; when I laugh all things and even God harmonize.
An intent Korean audience in Washington DC receives Father's speech.
Created In Pairs
In God's universe, He created the most precious being as His partner of love, placed him in the position of master among all other creations, all of which exist in pairs, male and female. Who do you think is the masterpiece? Man.
Man is to live with both the horizontal and vertical connection to true love. When a carpenter builds a house, does he check the horizontal line first or the vertical line? When he checks the horizontal line he necessarily already has recognized the vertical line. Likewise, the concept of woman presupposes the existence of man. By the same token, to think about a man presupposes the existence of a woman. When we say "up", we already have "down" in our mind, and when we say "right" we are already recognizing "left" before we say it. Horizontal can be expressed only after the vertical is correctly determined. Thus, to recognize the pre-existence of a correlative is evidence of the partnership in which the two correlatives exist for the sake of each other.
God's true love is to invest His love and keep no memory of having given. So long as He remembers having given to someone, He cannot give endlessly. Love is moving ahead endlessly, so it should not stop at the memory of what has already been given. God, in the father's position, has given man this priceless love of limitless value, but forgets that He has given. Even though His sons and daughters who have received this love do not recognize it and rebel against God, He still continues to give. Only through endless giving on God's part are you able to sit here.
You, too, have loving sons and daughters. When you buy clothing for your children, and have to settle for something less expensive, this hurts your heart. You wish that you could buy better clothes -- that is your heart as a parent. That parental heart in its depth has its root in heavenly Principle, for the path of true love is not the way of receiving but rather of service and giving. This is a matter of conclusive fact. Therefore God, in creating His own partner of love, wants to stand in the position to serve and give, to invest everything He has, and still desires to give more. This is God, who is the original center of existence and who created heaven and earth.
When a person with true love gives 100% or more, a vacuum is created. It is just as in the atmosphere: when there arises an area of low pressure another high pressure automatically fills its place and generates circulatory movement. Therefore, where there is a will to serve absolutely, you will be connected to the source of unlimited power. God wants to exist for the sake of a man who lives in such a manner. To start from that position and continue endlessly giving in accordance with the original nature means that it becomes possible to exist forever. Thus in the way of true love one can easily find the principle of eternal existence.
Since God is the origin of true love, had man, who was created as His partner of true love, matured and inherited absolutely unchanging true love from God, human history would have developed as a history of unification. There would have been no war or tragic bloodshed.
The Great Way of True Love
The reason why God does not punish even though He may see an enemy and have the urge to kill him in revenge, is that he is thinking of the enemy's parents, wife and children who all love him. Knowing their unparalleled love towards that person, God cannot strike him. When you really understand such a heart of God, could you take revenge on your enemy? Knowing these things, you would go and help that person. In this manner one comes closer to the Great Way of heavenly Principle, that Great Way which tries to embrace everything centering on love. When this happens earth will shake and induce even God to shed tears and exclaim, "You truly resemble me; how happy I am!" God always looks at things in that perspective. This is how we should understand the teaching to love one's enemy. The source of such a power to love your enemy lies not in knowledge, money or earthly power. It is only in true love. Consequently, you must look at the unification of North and South Korea in that true love perspective, for the sake of the loving sons and daughters and parents. Then you can go over the high hurdles of antagonism between the two sides.
The unification of Korea is the wish of parents, brothers, sisters and all 60 million Koreans. Each has a part of the responsibility for bringing it about. To deny this would be to deny the common wish and be a traitor to the whole. For what is our desire to live? It is not for the sake of money or even for country; it is for God's true love which is the absolute origin of unification.
I have loved every one of five different colors of skin, loved more than my own beloved sons and daughters, wife or parents; loved them more than any patriot loved his country, or more than any loyal citizen, more than a deeply dedicated wife. I have loved everyone with God's love; thus I represent God, the source of vertical love.
The fundamental nature of God's true love is to serve others, whereas love in our human society is fundamentally for the purpose of making others serve oneself. This is the result of the human fall. A doctrine which says that others must serve only me cannot lead to unification. A man who follows this unprincipled course will sacrifice others for his own sake and bring those around him to destruction. For this reason, a dictator is never supported by the universe.
Since the Unification Church was entrusted with the mission of salvation, its teaching has to conform to reason. The Unification Church teaches about true love; what is its ground? First God existed, and then Adam and Eve. Adam walked ahead of Eve and Eve followed him. It seemed that Adam was to find God first. However, there is no unification where there is self-assertion. When Adam would say, "The reason I want to catch God first is for your sake" then Eve would say "Go ahead." Likewise, when the woman would say, "The reason I want to catch God first is for your sake" then Adam would happily say, "You go ahead." God looking down at this scene would say "Where did you learn that?" They would answer, "Why do we have to learn? You have originally created us in such a manner that we already know that this is the way true love goes, according to the ideal of creation. So we are simply following it." God will jump to grasp their hands and exclaim, "Indeed you are my son and my daughter."
True Parents receive flowers at Los Angeles rally.
Our Conscience -- A Precious Guide
There is no country where I have not sent an emissary. I have sent them to major cities in the Soviet Union, and to the satellite countries which took the position of my enemies. How much blood and tears did our missionaries have to shed! When I heard that some of them were sentenced to death, how could I, who am the head of the Unification Church, spend the night without tears? I thought, "How pitiful. If he had not met me, he would not have had to go through such a course. He did not even have a chance to meet his teacher or to see the fulfillment of his mission, dying in the loneliness of a strange country. He would face the East, to Korea, and bid his farewell."
Here was I, unable to hold his hands or help him or save his life; can you imagine my heart? I simply had to continue to march forward day and night even though I knew how much pity heaven felt over him who became a prisoner and suffered in Satan's dungeon. I have waited and waited also because I knew according to the heavenly Principle that communism could not last more than 73 years.
It is important that our movement is of such large scale. But the more imminent task is to establish harmony within each individual self. To do this, we have first to realize we are the pitiful prisoners of sin, totally ignorant of the most precious and intimate being and master whom we could never trade for everything in heaven and earth. That master is one's own conscience. How often has this conscience given us advice, and while we were immersed in sinful thinking day and night it tirelessly helped us to cross the river to safety.
Thus, our mind presents itself as a true master and tries to protect ourself; but our body constantly rebels against this mind, which was sent to us from the universe as a precious teacher. This body time and time again has betrayed our conscience, which was acting in a parental role, and which is the only link to the original, parental mind of love.
Should I cherish and protect this body, which has repeatedly belittled and mistreated my conscience which is in the position of master, teacher and parent, and has always tried to correct me and bring me to unity with God who is the great Parent of heaven and earth, the greatest Teacher and the greatest Master of the whole universe? Should this body be protected as it is, or should it be tamed and occupied? The question of how to deal with this powerful body remains to be settled.
I am the one who has been most serious about this matter, and have shed much blood and sweat for the solution. "Before you dominate the world, first dominate yourself" is the appropriate maxim for the Great Way. Before you ever hope to dominate the world, or hope even to have any connection with any affairs of the world, you must first perfect dominion over yourself. Conscience and mind are great entities; they represent to you your master, teacher and parents whom you could serve for thousands of years and still not have served enough. When you rediscover your conscience in such terms, for the first time heavenly fortune will come closer to you.
The Mind-God's Ally
Our mind wants to serve our body but the body does not want to serve the mind. The problem lies in myself and not in society! When there is a problem in my household, it is not because the problem lies in my brother or sister or father, but it is due to me. First I must set myself straight, and then I may set up a standard for criticizing the second and third person. Only after I attain unity in myself do I become qualified to live in a unified world. Unless I do so, how could I live in a perfect society where everyone else had already be- corn e a unified self? I could only retreat from it. We must know that we should never become a permissive master of our body, allowing this body to constantly ignore, damage, fatigue, or worry our mind. When we conquer and tame our body so that our mind and body can live for the sake of each other, happiness will visit us. God will come down to us, too.
Though it is the mind who should be in the plus position representing God, the body has become another plus and opposed the mind. To correct this disorder is our life-long duty. God is very much aware of it, and for this, religion came into being as a repair shop. This is why Heaven is advising, centering on the mind, to subjugate the relatively evil body by disciplining it with a strong rod. From this comes fasting, sacrifice and humility. By so doing, you weaken your body so that it eventually follows as the mind dictates. It takes three to five years to condition that body so that it grows accustomed to the new way. This is the purpose of the religious life.
Then, we are also to live a life of prayer. The devil can wage his activities through our body 24 hours a day. To the contrary, God exists only in a vertical position, so he can work only through the mind. Satan is all around and is capable of working from every angle, anytime; so he tends to win every time. The mind can stand only in the vertical position and being vertical, cannot exert influence widely. Thus it is always susceptible to being pulled here and there as the body wills. By heartfelt prayer, three to four times more power can be drawn to the mind with which to balance the power of the body. Prayer gives power for the reconditioning during the three to five years required until new customs have been firmly established. There are absolutely no other ways to repair the self except through prayer and conditioning the body. Without going through the religious gate, there is no way to get onto the path originally intended for humans. The ways of philosophy, knowledge and conscience alone are never enough. Body and mind must become one.
Love has three great rights: the right to inherit, the right to live together and the right to participate. In love with God, we can close our eyes and still see God and be able to shed tears with Him. Those who have experienced God's grieving heart may suddenly stop walking in the street and burst into uncontrollable tears. That world of experience can now be with us.
Father delivers the speech "True Unification and One World" to the San Francisco Korean community.
A God-Centered True Love Root
When I will have equipped myself with the same qualities as God -- His original love which wants to live for the sake of others for tens of thousands of years and still wants to do more -- my mind will have grown a strong God-centered true love root. My mind will feel everything that God feels, automatically resonating. Therefore, we have the task of winning God's original love before we can prepare a unified sphere of our mind and body.
When we enter such a realm of resonance of true love, it is as if God's love becomes my love, God's life my life, God's lineage my lineage. We come to have the mind of a father and mother who embrace the universe.
I know very well that this is humanity's purpose. To bring this salvation to humankind, I go over every obstacle. I love all people of all different colors of skin more than I loved my own parents and brothers and sisters. This is the reason why members of the Unification church live like me. Knowing their teacher's incredible difficulty, and shedding tears in spite of themselves, they are taught directly by spirit world.
It is not easy to reach this spiritual level. Even if you have been a good Christian for over forty years, dedicating yourself with many fasts and all-night prayer vigils, you cannot attain it. Whereas, when you believe in the Unification Church, shed tears and feel deep empathy with me, you can jump to that level almost instantaneously. Do you know what change will take place then? You come to experience true happiness, and you feel as if you are walking on a cloud. Even if you work day and night without sleep, you do not feel drowsy. Even if you do not eat, you do not feel hungry. Spiritually you become very bright.
Look, ladies and gentlemen! Ten thousand educated young men and women from the advanced countries, people from Africa and the Americas, from East and West, of all five skin colors, gather together in one place and want to be matched and married by Reverend Moon. You know how serious a matter marriage is. One can never be sure that he or she has chosen correctly. But these people are all willing to entrust the choice to me.
Adam and Eve were growing to maturity and were about to become God's perfect objects of love and partners of love. The very next day would have been the day of marriage when the couple would promise 100 years of faithful life together. But on that night a thief invaded the house and raped and snatched the bride-to-be. If years later, she realized who was to originally have been her husband and visited him with her whole family, would he say, "Oh, I welcome you"? No, he would be furious. How would our ancestor God respond in a situation like this? God only suppresses an aching heart, since evil is already planted in us. He can only wait until all the evil has run its course and He can harvest as He planted.
Harvest of Immorality
That evil seed sown by the first couple has now reached the season of harvest, and we find youth's immorality prevailing in all cities of the world. The devil says to God, "Your lineage of love created for the absolute ideal of Your creation is now facing total destruction. Yet are You still trying to say that the ideal of the principle of the creation yet applies?" He is sneering now. How would God answer him? He really does not know where to begin. Originally mankind was to be a child of the Lord, but now is suffering as a child of the enemy. Whoever understood the misery of God?
Since it is a principle that before one can enter into heaven, one must love the archangel just as God and perfected Adam and Eve would have, Jesus too had to elevate himself to the position of a perfected Adam by establishing that condition. I too suffered half of my life from this same predicament. All standards of victory are established where oneness with God in the father-son relationship is achieved.
Grounded on this true love standard, Adam and Eve were to have lived and learned by observing love in nature, where everything is created in pairs. As they grew, Adam and Eve would realize that when they matured one would represent love in the plus side, as a prince, and one would become the princess representing the minus side of love.
The place of true love is the meeting point where vertical and horizontal intersect at a 90 degree angle. This is because love travels the shortest possible distance. Adam and Eve would be connected by a straight horizontal line, and connected to God by the shortest, straight vertical line. However, before Adam and Eve reached maturity, the angle became deviated because of the archangel. This is the Fall itself. Mankind received the devil's lineage through the Fall. The attitude of putting myself foremost and my egoistic awareness are handed down through this satanic action.
God is not an individualist: He lives for the whole. Those who take after God think for the sake of all, and those who take after Satan think only about themselves. This point divides heaven from hell, good person from bad, public person from private.
American ministers receive translation at Father's New York speech.
The Role of the Messiah
The satanic side people are like wild olive trees. People whom God separated and restored are the wild olive trees within God's orchard, so God should be able to do with them as He pleases. God prepared them so that when the Messiah comes, He will cut all of them at one time and graft them into the true olive tree so that they regain their original state. Therefore, even religious people must also find a Messiah, a True Father. This is because they failed to receive the true seed of life from their fathers. The Messiah will teach all men how to create the 90 degree angle crossing with God. When you enter into the resonance realm of true love, heaven and earth become clearly visible. It is no longer necessary to keep faith. There is no longer any need for a Savior. This is liberation. All has ended.
Then who are Adam and Eve? They are God's body. In I Cor. 3:16 it is written: "Do you not know you are the temple of God?" You too, when you pray in a deep, spiritual atmosphere and call upon God in your prayer, "God!", will hear His answer "Why did you call Me?" through a deep inner voice. Thus, the reason God undertook the dispensation of creation is first to find His object of love and second to obtain His own body. The form of God's body is the inner form of Adam and Eve's body.
God is the Parent of vertical true love, and Adam and Eve are the parents centering on horizontal true love. When I inherit the love, life and lineage of these two sets of parents, m) mind becomes a vertical self and my body becomes a horizontal self, and I become God's eternal partner in true love.
Then where exactly is the precise point where true love, true life and true lineage originate? It is the sexual organ. But the sexual organ has become a temple of evil. Through this organ false love, life and lineage have been planted. What was to have become a most sacred place now has become the primary evil in heaven and earth.
Why has such a precious thing become degraded, vulgar and despised? It is because it destroyed the heavenly principle This is the very reason why cities and nations which are immoral in the sight of God always perish. America is on its way to ruin because of sexual immorality.
You must know clearly. If you become sons and daughters of God who inherit God's love, life and lineage, and True Parents' love, life and lineage, you too, like God, can secure for yourself the original root of the unified world where body and mind will never fight.
But today, when we ask a young woman why she is getting married, she will answer that she does so in order that she be loved. This needs to be corrected. Rather, she should say that she gets married so that she can love the father and mother and brothers and sisters of her husband, his whole clan and even country. When she does that, she will be raised up to occupy the position of mother of that household, certainly more than a mere daughter-in-law.
God's True Family
Ladies and gentlemen, if you live such a life for the sake of others, you will go over the standard of all your ancestors in past history and will become an invincible victor who is worthy to be called God's son or daughter. When you finally become a man who can control yourself, a perfect man, then you can recreate your wife. By investing two or three years and serving her, loving her for her own sake, and praying that she come to resemble you, embracing her again and again as if you were rearing your own baby, your wife will never betray you. Only this way can you expect the unification of the family. In such a family, parents will render love to their children for their sake for ten, even one hundred years without even saying words.
Then what am I teaching to all members of the Unification Church around the world? I am teaching the principle to serve others and serve again, according to the principle of creation.
Let us all carry on in ourselves the heart of parents, the body of a servant, and let us shed sweat for the sake of earth, tears for the sake of mankind, and blood for the sake of heaven. Let us never forget that we carry on our shoulders the historical cross: the responsibility to remove the grief and heartache of our Parent, the Great Lord of all creation. Let us all move forward to the way of salvation of the world.
When people see the shininess of the minds of Unification Church members who are following the heavenly Principle, they cannot help but take an object's position. As naturally as the good fragrance of flowers makes us happy, to meet Unification Church members who labor on the way of original love, people simply cannot help but feel joy and delight.
Ladies and gentlemen, will such a group perish or flourish? When this group crosses the borders and spreads around the whole world, people of all five skin colors will work for the sake of the whole planet earth, and bequeath this tradition to many generations, increasing by the tens and hundreds their banners in every village, receiving cheers of joy. Then this world will certainly become heaven.
After becoming a member of Unification Church, you will naturally know what is right and wrong. Thus true unification begins from such a movement, and the true world is inevitably to be realized. With this knowledge, let us march forward toward the eternal, true way which both heavenly fortune and God will joyously protect. You are not alone. Those who pledge that you and your whole family and your clan are willing to go forward on this amazing way, along with me, raise both hands! Let us pledge again.
May God bless you. Wishing you to become true masters of true unification and one world, I conclude my talk.
Buses arrive bringing guests to the rally.
Welcoming True Parents Rally Testimonies
San Francisco
Tao Won Kim
Korean Evangelical Association leader of Northern California
On March 10, Father held a conference at East Garden and announced the five city Korean speaking tour, saying the five-cities represented the 50 states of America. The first holy ground was made in San Francisco at Twin Peaks in 1965. Father asked me if there would be enough response from Koreans in San Francisco. I told him that the first holy ground in America was there, and that we would like to be the first city to receive his speech. I wasn't completely confident, feeling perhaps it would be better to be last, but Father agreed to do San Francisco first, saying that our city is the closest in distance to Korea.
We had only six days to prepare for our March 18th rally. Although I have participated in many campaigns, this mobilization was the most difficult. I prayed to have absolute faith in Father's knowledge of God and the Principle. If God hadn't prepared people, Father wouldn't have given such a tight schedule. I trusted Father and set our goal of 500 guests.
On Tuesday, March 13 I had to go to Los Angeles to make the pamphlets and bring them back that evening to members waiting at Hearst Street Center in Berkeley. The next day, centering on Regional Leader Rev. Sung San Lee and State Leader James Stephens, everyone gave the pamphlets to the Korean community.
Heavenly Father prepared the environment. Usually hotels with big conference rooms are booked months in advance, and I tried six hotels before checking with Miyako Hotel. It too is usually booked with Japanese and Chinese events, but because of me cancellations, that day was totally empty. The hotel staff went out of their way to serve and support us, with the security being especially careful about Father's protect, n. Even the hotel's executive vice president came on the day of the speech to make sure everything was alright.
To prepare for the speech, we advertised on cable TV: "The Unification Church proudly invites you to Rev. Moon's direct speech to Korean people for the first time in San Francisco history." The KEA members were so inspired by these advertisements. My wife called Korean prayer halmonis to support the event. We wanted to invest whatever was needed to bring the victory, and Heavenly Father really helped us.
On the final night, 592 people attended. The banner read "True Parents Welcoming Rally". This was a difficult point to explain to guests. It was written very clearly, so everyone saw it right away. We needed to open their hearts to receive Father's speech, but there was only a half-hour for entertainment. We needed to give all our effort. Western members inspired the audience by singing Korean songs and wearing Korean clothes.
People didn't express any negativity. Three of the local Oriental papers and the Korean cable TV presented mostly positive news and printed the contents of Father's speech. One media person who attended was a bit negative when he saw the banner, but wrote a very positive article about the rally for his newspaper.
The president of the Korean community in San Francisco supported us and sent flowers to the event. Also, a former president of the Korean community attended the event and led the three mansei cheers at the end of Father's speech, which helped to encourage the audience. The mansei cheer was for God, True Parents and Great Victory. I felt tearful seeing this support for True Parents.
One guest said, "I met Rev. Moon for the first time tonight, and this is too short a time to understand clearly the True Love he spoke about, but I recognize him as one of the holy men of history." Another commented, "I want to know everything about the Unification Church and Unification Principle, and be informed about all of your activities and publications." One man told us, "I don't know the Unification Principle, but I can see that Unification Church members are strongly developed spiritually through their trials and persecution. The more pain we experience, the more we receive God's love. So I really respect Unification Church leaders and members, and am deeply thankful to Rev. Moon." As a result of the rally, many people wish to receive textbooks on the Unification Principle.
Father was so happy after the rally. He returned to West Garden and signed all the members' programs. He wanted KEA, American and Japanese church members to sing for him and finally closed the meeting by singing two songs himself.
Los Angeles
Quan-Tae Kim
KEA leader for Los Angeles
During discussions with Father at East Garden, it was decided that Los Angeles would be the second city of Father's five-city tour. The historical meeting entitled, "Welcoming True Parents Rally," held for the Koreans in America, was a great opportunity to bring honor and success to our True Parents.
Even though the decision was made suddenly, leaving us little time to prepare, we knew there was great providential meaning in the tour. This put us under tremendous pressure to bring a victory, but we had absolute confidence that with faith and obedience we could succeed.
Our basic strategy to bring a large audience in such a short time, was twofold: to utilize the mass media and use face to face contact with people, getting signatures from those who promised to attend. We made sure we were the focus of the news in three major daily newspapers, three TV stations, one radio station, and seven weekly newspapers up to the day of the event.
All members from the American Church, Japanese Evangelical Association and Korean Evangelical Association gathered every morning at 9 a.m. at the KEA Church to have a special prayer meeting. After the meeting, members went out to their areas in Korea town, giving out flyers and collecting signatures from the Korean people. As a result, we were able to acquire 2,500 signatures. During this special mobilization, many members received deep inspiration and grace which gave them continued strength to go forth in their missions.
For example, a guest who had dedicated her whole life to Buddha received a revelation just before Father came that the living Buddha would be appearing in Los Angeles.
For the convenience of the guests, we mobilized 10 tour buses and 12 vans. We placed them in areas where the most Koreans were located so that we could give as many people as possible the chance to participate.
Upon receiving a report from the police station three days before the event that there would be a demonstration by opponents outside the theater, we prepared a pro-demonstration. On the day of the event, many people persecuted the negative demonstrators.
The rally began on March 20, 1990, at 6:30 p.m. with the performance of the CARP New Vision Band. Many guests shed tears of inspiration as they observed the foreign performers in traditional Korean dresses, singing Korean songs, and giving short testimonies about Father.
Next, Dr. Bo Hi Pak reported about our movement's activities and introduced Father and Mother to the audience. KEA representatives presented them with flowers and a crystal lion couple.
Father spoke on the topic of "True Unity and One United World." He said, "People in the world without any exception want unity but today that unity has yet to be realized. The reason for this is because each individual is pursuing unity centered on himself. True unity is possible only with true love centered on God. When this is realized, the world will be able to unite into one."
During the speech the audience became very inspired and burst into applause many times. Since the rally was promoted publically under the name of "Welcoming True Parents' Rally", it familiarized the term "True Parents" to everyone in the Korean community here. This historical rally declared God's plan to all. I believe this victory will bear fruit in Moscow.
Washington DC
Marilyn K. Angelucci
Assistant pastor to Rev. Nicholas Buscovich in Washington DC
Little did we know when we started our regional 80-day condition of prayer, fasting and study in the beginning of 1990, that we were creating a foundation for the proclamation rally to welcome True Parents. With only two weeks to prepare, we were faced with the great joy of welcoming our True Parents at the same time the IOWC visited our city. This was definitely a challenge but, once we made the determination, the community galvanized together and moved into action.
We called an emergency meeting with Ambassador Han, Rev. Woo, Mr. Joo, Rev. Oh, Rev. Buscovich, Tom McDevitt and Charles Kim. Working committees were formed combining Koreans and Americans. We sent out 10,000 invitations and every evening we had 80 members calling the Korean community, encouraging them to attend the event. We contacted the media, visited house to house and held many meetings with the community and civic leaders. Rev. Woo, our Regional Director, saw to every detail and inspired the community to help financially and by supporting the preparations.
The great and terrible day of the Lord arrived. The people filled the 2,000 seats in Omni Shoreham Hotel's Regency Ballroom, with only standing room remaining. The crowded guests responded to Father's words with warm hearts, bringing tears to Mother's eyes. It was so inspiring to see the brothers and sisters of our international church community welcoming the guests in their limited Korean. We could feel Father's excitement as the guests entered the ballroom. The high-level audience representing the Korean community stayed until the very end and joined in the three mansei cheers for our True Parents.
Through this experience the Korean community's impression of our True Parents has definitely changed. The guests came away with a deep respect and understanding of our Father's heart and motivation. Throughout the town we are meeting people who attended the speech and are anxious to receive a Divine Principle book. The Pastor's wife met a taxi cab driver who had attended and was on fire with enthusiasm. "Can you get me a copy of the Divine Principle?" he asked. There is so much interest we had to make a special order for more Korean Divine Principle books. Now we have the "happy problem" of educating all the inspired guests.
According to our Father's words the rally was a "total victory" -- quantitatively, qualitatively, internally and externally. Our True Parents have worked toward this day for many years, and the Washington community responded with heartfelt hope that this five-city tour in America could be used as an indemnity condition for a foundation of victory in the march to Moscow.
New York
Ho Yul Lee
KEA leader for New York City
After the rally, we received many comments such as: "Rev. Moon is a patriot and a hero" and "How did he persevere and achieve such success?" People are really wondering and concluding God must be helping Rev. Moon to create so many projects, because most Koreans who come to America have to sacrifice their whole life just in order to build up a small business and support their family.
So many people have changed their views toward Father and the Unification Church. Father said that the 1980s and the 1990s are completely different. There was no negativity about Father being the messiah as there has been in the past. Even the "Welcome True Parents" banner was no problem.
After listening to Father's speech, many people felt there was much more they needed to understand, so they expressed desire to read the Principle -- 300 response cards were filled out and passed in after the speech. Basically people's attitudes have completely changed. Although there are still many established Christians who are negative about our church, most Korean people now like Rev. Moon and the Unification Church. But even some Christians came to the rally and afterwards said, "We want to change our religion to the Unification Church." They felt so inspired after this event -- it felt like a festival atmosphere as people were leaving. Some of the older men who came commented, "I am sixty five, but compared with me, Rev. Moon looks so young, like a 40- year old man, giving such a strong, powerful speech."
Father said that New York was the best rally. In some other places, people left in the middle of the speech, but here everybody stayed. It was a cold rainy evening but still many people came. If it wasn't raining, there would have been too many people to fit. Originally, Father gave us a date for Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., but suddenly changed it to Friday night. I was concerned, because that same night a famous Miss Korean beauty pageant was broadcast on Korean cable TV, but Father said Friday was the best time.
Father was very happy. This is a foundation for Moscow and for True Father to go to Korea again. Even some leaders from Korea attended the New York rally and got inspired to go back and bring many more people to Father's upcoming speaking tour in Korea.
Some grandmothers who were praying every day for the success of this rally received dreams of many, many people coming, even though it was pouring rain outside. So the victory was already won in the spiritual world.
Now we are recontacting those guests, sending them videotapes of Father's speech and Divine Principle. We will be having a seven day workshop next week and several one day workshops in upcoming weeks here in New York.
New York Queens
Christine Kung
Christine is the wife of Queens District Leader John Kung, and assisted the witnessing effort to Koreans in Flushing, Queens. Queens has the largest Korean population in New York.
The following two testimonies are by church members who assisted in the Queens witnessing effort.
We witnessed for 10 days to bring people, by setting up tables on the street with clipboards and signing up people who said they wanted to come. Flushing is both Korean and Chinese, so often we would say, "Annyong haseyo" and they would shake their heads. Witnessing to Koreans brought back so many memories to me. I had been in Korea as a New Hope Singer, worked with the IOWC in Korea for three months in 1975, and later participated in the 7 million VOC signature campaign in 1984. So I had some Korean witnessing vocabulary. It was so inspiring to me to have give and take with Korean people again.
I noticed a very clear pattern in response as the days progressed. The first day out, 50 percent of the people were not interested in the speech and negative, and 50 percent interested and positive. We focused on the positive ones. The second day, 45 percent were not interested and negative and 55 percent positive. The next day, there were even less negative and more positive people. On the last witnessing day, everyone was positive.
On Parents' Day, Pastor Wayne Miller and Rev. Joong Hyun Pak spoke to us, about mobilizing ourselves and taking responsibility to bring people to Father's speech. Rev. Pak explained that he had been thinking that Friday was a difficult time to bring people, and that Sunday would be better. So he asked Father if it were possible to change the date. Father replied that Friday was the best time. So Rev. Pak thought, yes, if we are not sure of our result, we will work much harder to bring people. He told us: just because a Korean person smiles and says he will come, don't think he will come. He encouraged us to make a heart connection by phoning, visiting, and picking people up to go to the speech. I took that very seriously, and wanted to recontact everyone. Rev. Pak had said to visit people's homes and businesses, because it would be better for recontacting them, so we did that too. Our district leader wanted to keep contacting new people until the last minute, and then do our recontacting. So I united and kept making new contacts.
On Thursday, there was debate among some brothers and sisters about the outcome of the rally. Some felt success was sure, others were more apprehensive. I thought, it is not a predetermined outcome. Man has responsibility to make a victory or defeat. I felt that our attitude and effort up until the last minute were the most important factors. If these weren't enough, we wouldn't bring victory. The internal attitude that gave me strength during this campaign was a strong desire to bring the chosen Korean people to meet True Parents, as a way to support True Parents before they went to Moscow and onto other world level providential activities. I wanted the Korean people to be able to respect and love True Parents more deeply.
In the beginning, we witnessed very simply, just inviting people to come hear Rev. Moon on March 30 in Manhattan. As the days went on, heaven helped us to loosen our tongues and it became more easy to speak deeply to the Korean people, about God, the Koreans being the chosen people, Rev. Moon's special mission, and the importance of attending this speech so that they could receive direction from God.
It was also on Thursday that the district leader made an offhand comment to me, "Witness to grandmothers." I took it seriously as an inspiration from God. On the last day, I had already tried recontacting people by phone, so I went out with a brother to visit several re- contacts that were concentrated in one area. We had about one hour, and I thought that would be enough. I had to take my nine month old baby with me, and as it turned out, it was good public relations; everybody warmly received us. But I was so unhappy by the response. Everyone said they were too busy and couldn't come. I tried to have nice give and take with them, asking them to close early, but they didn't take me seriously. Then, in one store, I noticed a halmoni in the corner, and asked her if she knew about the speech. She said, "Yes, and I am planning to come with some friends." I asked if she needed transportation, and she said no. I insisted a little bit more, and then she explained that she was the leader of a Korean Grandmother's organization, and many of them were coming with their own transportation. I asked how many people were in this group, and she said 400, and that 100 would be coming!
I continued to visit people and at one grocery store where three people promised to come, they all said they couldn't because they had to work. I pleaded with them, and one man said, "Well, if you ask my boss if I can take off from work, I will go." He perhaps didn't think I would take him seriously, but I went to the boss and got permission for him to take off from work.
It was time to go back home to get ready to go to Manhattan, but as we were driving back we passed a Buddhist temple and I remembered that I had wanted to recontact the three woman monks living there. The director of the Buddhist temple, a woman, had known our church for over 15 years. She and one monk had attended a speech by Father at National Headquarters in Manhattan in 1975. They had told me the week before they would come if they weren't too busy and had also announced the speech to their congregation and passed out flyers. I asked the brother to drop me off, although it was raining and I had the baby with me. As I walked up to the door, the three monks walked out. They invited me in. They were nice, but I could see they had forgotten about the speech. But they were so moved to see me there with the baby that they said they would come. I went to get our car to drive them to where the bus was leaving. The director had to stay because of a sick congregation member, but the other three went. At the bus, they met three people going from their congregation. After the speech, they were very happy, and I will invite them for upcoming Divine Principle workshops.
I feel so grateful for this opportunity to work again with Korean people, and I feel that our unity in witnessing for this event brought about its victory.
Phil McCracken
As our Regional Leader Rev. bong Hyun Pak told us, witnessing is not only easy, but it is also fun. I really enjoyed standing out on the street in the cool drizzles of New York spring and inviting Korean people to hear the True Parents. It was good for my spirit, and it was good for the spiritual world.
It takes time to warm up the spiritual world, so providentially important things begin slowly and gradually build. In the beginning there was a degree of apathy and some negativity. Recalling my experiences with Father's other campaigns, it was apparent that we would have to go a similar course. There was cause for concern as so few brothers
and sisters were able to participate full force in the witnessing effort. Fortunately, Rev. Pak had asked all of us in New York to fast breakfasts from Sunday, March 25th until Father's speech on Friday, March 30th. I feel that small condition of unity was very important because it was able to unify the hearts of us all in the New York region.
As we got closer and closer to the day of the speech, the spiritual world began to work in amazing ways. Personally I had been witnessing to the Korean Elijah Gospel Mission church and its minister. Their leader is a prophet of a rather large and growing following in Korea. They didn't have a very good opinion of Father and of the Unification Church, but on the foundation of my relationship with them interesting things happened. At first the minister said in no uncertain terms that she would not attend because the IW's of her church were visiting and her schedule was full. But then the day before the talk, she informed me that she, the IW and his wife would attend. I had been focused on trying to bring people off the street but God was working through those I had some foundation with.
God opened another door that really amazed me. Across the street from where I live is a Korean woman who married a Polish missionary she had met in Korea. Her husband passed away several years ago. She and her son have been good neighbors. I had invited her to several of our Day of Hope festivals, but she was always busy. When I invited her to Father's speech she was interested, but not committed. In the course of the two weeks before the speech I had given her several fliers. On the day before the speech, I met her late in the evening. She had invited a Korean family of ten to come. As it turns out this family, whose name was Moon, had been interested in Father for a long time because they share his last name. Without my knowledge, they were being prepared. After delivering my neighbor's tickets, I went to visit the Moon family. They were so interested in Father, that I stayed for almost an hour!
Again God worked on the foundation of my relationship with good people in ways that I did not expect. Reflecting on my results all I can do is repent that my foundation with other people was not stronger. It seems that the condition for God to work in the lives of those we know and pray for is our efforts to reach out to others. I was not so focused on either the ministers or my next door neighbor, but they came. Because God was working, witnessing was easy.
Now I need to continue reaching out to the Koreans in our area. Rev. Pak has promised that we will soon have Father's speech in both Korean and English and that I will be able to get a copy of the video. These things will give God more opportunities to work. We are a good team and we will get better as I learn how to work with my witnessing partner. I'm sure that as our unity grows our results will grow. Witnessing is easy and fun when we are working together with God.
Joseph Herremans
My experience in preparation for this rally was overwhelmingly positive. The Hushing church members and some UTS students went out from early morning to late at night helping a miracle to happen. Many Koreans still remembered True Parents from the days when they were severely persecuted by the established Christian churches in Korea. The majority were very positive and curious about what Father had to say. We could feel the religious nature of the Korean people. Many of them saw Father as a great man and patriot who has dedicated his entire life to God and mankind. It was obvious that they wanted to meet True Parents. When the final day arrived, we were all very excited and anxious for many people to stream into the Manhattan Center. The message of True Father was very deep in content and well received. After the rally, I talked to guests who felt the message was good and clear. They hoped to learn more about our True Parents. Because of this experience, I have real hope for the next speaking tour as this was just a warm-up for the next event.