Our Homeland for the Sake of the World

Sun Myung Moon
December 11, 1985
Welcoming Banquet for True Parents' Victorious Homecoming
Hilton Hotel, Seoul, Korea

Photo date and location unknown

Photo date and location unknown

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for assembling here from all parts of the world, behind your various situations in order to welcome and encourage me on my return home. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you for that. To see the beautiful mountains and skies of my homeland again, and to stand in front of you tonight, evokes emotions in my heart that are hard to describe.

You have come here tonight not to welcome an individual named Rev. Moon, but to welcome a man who has dedicated himself for the Will of God and the ideal of living for others. It is this fact that makes today's meeting a truly historical event.

Living for the sake of others is the starting point of the ideal

Living for the sake of the other is the basis for the order of the universe. It is the basis for a world of true ideals, true love, and true peace that is God's ideal of creation and also the desire of men and women. The starting-point of our ideal, and the starting-point of happiness and love, is found in living for one's counterpart. If we look at the universe, there is not one single thing that exists only for itself.

The mineral world exists for the sake of the plant and animal worlds, the mineral and plant worlds exist for the sake of the animal world, and the whole of creation exists for the sake of human beings. Then for whom do human beings exist? We exist for the sake of God.

God created all things and enables them to grow and develop for the sake of others. It is a basic law of the universe that a man is not born into the world as an end unto himself. Rather, he is born for a woman. The same is true for a woman. From the moment a husband and wife are married, each spouse should live with the thought: "I was born for you, I live for you, and I will die for you." The couple that does this can be called an ideal husband and wife.

Living for others is a fundamental law of the universe. It is from this point that true love begins. All beings exist for other beings. A truly dutiful son or daughter lives for his or her parents. The love of true parents, the filial piety of true children, and the love between a true husband and wife all begin with living for the other.

If we extend this principle, we can conclude that true people live for the sake of the nation, and a true ruler lives for the sake of his or her people. We can all find true happiness if we live according to this principle. Since this is the law governing all beings in the universe, when true human beings that have lived for others enter the kingdom of heaven, or paradise, the world where God lives, they will find that same rule of living for others applies there.

This is the reason all religions teach service and self-sacrifice, and that genuine love is to live for the sake of others. A person who lives for others naturally arrives at the central position and commands respect. For example, if the youngest son in a family generously gives of himself to the other family members, he naturally becomes the focus of their love and captures their affection and admiration.

Living for others does not stop with the individual. If the family lives for others, it can establish the family heaven. If we extend this principle to the nation, we can realize the national level heaven. On the world level, when the whole of humankind lives for others, then we can realize the ideal world of harmony and happiness. In this way we can bring about heaven on earth.

America has forsaken God's Will

The ideal world is an eternally unchanging world where God is the Parent and we as His children are brothers and sisters living for each other in a harmonious family of humankind. In order to realize this world, a man was sent as to lead God's providence. He is called the Messiah or Savior. In this world where true love does not yet exist, he comes to show the way to build the highway of love.

Jesus came as the Messiah on the foundation of Judaism and the nation of Israel in order to save the world. While he was trying to awaken them to live for the sake of the world, they rejected him and nailed him to the cross. Jesus' hope was that his religion of Judaism and his nation of Israel would live for the world. However, they desired a God and a Messiah who existed only for their sake.

The resurrected Jesus spiritually guided Christianity as it expanded throughout all nations. The United States is the nation God has chosen to represent world Christianity. It should center on God and take the leading role for the salvation of the world. The United States has the mission to spread the Christian spirit and Christian ideals. The blessings God gave the United States are not for the sake of the United States alone. They are for the sake of the whole world. The United States does not exist for itself, but for all people.

Knowing that this view reflects God's innermost heart and providence, I felt compelled to go to America. For the last thirteen years I have been working without ceasing to awaken that nation. While attempting to deal with the circumstances resulting from the Second World War, America often forgot its mission to work for the whole world. When America failed to live up to God's expectation, the foundations of the free world were shaken. Numerous problems arose within the nation, including racial problems, drug abuse, immorality among young people, the destruction of the family, violence, crime, and communist infiltration.

There might be numerous causes for these problems, but ultimately it comes down to America’s spiritual and moral weakness. 'God had hoped for the appearance of an American man, who with his family could together totally dedicate themselves for the sake of the world, and raise America to become a country exemplifying the principle of living for the sake of others. In reality no such individual or family could be found, and hence the foundation of the nation's faith is shaky. God called me from Korea to America to fulfill this goal.

The uncharted path of submission to Heaven's Will

The mission that God has given me is not something that I may relinquish as I wish or abandon when things do not work out. My mission in America was to continually search for a prepared foundation and to awaken those people to reality. However, instead of repenting, America rejected me.

Nevertheless, despite the severe persecution and derision I experienced during my thirteen years in the United States, I worked to create loving individuals, families and communities. I made it my task to build up new people who would be able to live for the sake of the world.

God does not want people to just believe in God. God wants us to fulfill our responsibility. Because I know God's Will so clearly, I have dedicated my entire life to the accomplishment of this heavenly mission.

In the first place, during the last thirty years I have gathered scholars from all over the world in order to teach them this God-centered thought and make it universally known. As a result, I was able to establish a secure foundation in one hundred nations. Second, since the kingdom of heaven is not composed of spiritual elements only, our movement invested a great deal of money and effort into technological and scientific development. We have since offered the fruit of these investments to the world. Third, I am building a global economic foundation for the realization of God's Will. I have been researching developments in different areas, including how I could encourage international cooperation in monetary policy for human betterment.

Fourth, our members have established the World Media Association in order to provide society with honest and ethical journalism. In addition, we are promoting activities in numerous other fields, all of them directly related to the task of realizing God's Will on earth.

As you know, in August I was released from prison in America. The case against me had been fabricated, yet throughout the thirteen months of my imprisonment I never stopped praying for the future of America and the world. I prayed for God to forgive America and help me fulfill my mission.

Even in prison, I initiated and directed countless events to rekindle the spiritual and moral foundations of the United States. Out of the Christian spirit of service, our church bought 250 trucks and donated them to churches for community service work. From prison I also inspired the inception of other new projects, including international professors' conferences to discuss how to overcome communism, a movement for religious unity, a weekly news magazine, and a monthly magazine.

Even while receiving unprecedented persecution and facing unjustified imprisonment, centered on God, I loved America, and I did more for America than any individual, group, or religious denomination. While carrying out that heavenly mission, I walked a more unimaginable path, stained with blood and tears. Because it was a path to save the world as well as to save America, I went down this suffering path gratefully, and overcame it.

Since I received my calling from God, my life has been full of hardships. During the Japanese occupation of Korea I took part in an underground student organization and was imprisoned for my activities. When I was evangelizing in communist North Korea I was accused of being a spy and almost died in a labor camp in Hungnam. In the early days of my mission in South Korea I was held in Seodaemun Prison here in Seoul, accused of being a heretic. And, most recently, I was the object of racial and religious discrimination in America. In this way, my life has been a continuous string of hardships.

Despite the storms of opposition and persecution, I never wavered from the heavenly way of living for others. Now I have returned, having fulfilled the conditions of the providence. This victory is not my victory alone; it is also a victory for God and for righteousness. Do you think it was easy for me to gain such a victory while the whole world was coming against me? I am not trying to praise myself. If it hadn't been for God I would not have survived. I only glorify God.

Korea is the central nation of the providence

An unimaginable miracle is unfolding in front of us at this moment, and all of you have become partakers in this miracle. I hope you will treasure the memory of having been present at this occasion, commemorating this historically unique victory. I also hope that you will not be content to just be amazed by these accomplishments, but that you will try to find out the exact providential meaning of this event and connect yourselves to it, and take this opportunity to make a great leap forward in your own spiritual life.

I recommend this to you for your personal benefit, and also for your nation and your country. If Korea intends to become the leading nation in the world in a short time, it should not turn its back on the foundation I have laid. When we look from the standpoint of God's Will, we see that the Korean people are a God-chosen people and that Korea is a central nation in God's providence. You should provide the world with a model of living for others. Many historical and unknown events in God's providence are intertwined and centered in Korea. This nation has the mission to take responsibility for the world, and for that it has set numerous spiritual conditions in providential history.

Although the Korean people are endowed with an excellent character and a fine culture, they have walked a path of incomparable suffering. Their suffering should be understood in view of God's providence. The challenges and tribulations Korea has been experiencing are part of God's providence, and God is waiting anxiously for the nation to overcome them.

East and West, North and South, converge in Korea. Idealism and materialism, theism and atheism, are all concentrated here. It seems that the whirlwind of ideas sweeping this country is the labor pain before the birth of a new era. Korea cannot solve its national problems apart from the Will and providence of God. Furthermore, Korea cannot overcome its difficulties on its own, but only in cooperation with the world.

In order for Korea to provide spiritual leadership for the world, Korea will have to overcome its difficulties by awakening to the Will of God and by following the person whom God has sent. My foundation and that of the Unification Church has been established by strictly following the Will of God and by completely living my life for others. Now the Unification Church and I have gained the victory and overcome all persecution. If the Korean people, on the foundation of my worldwide victory, live for the world, then Korea can overcome its own suffering and can also become a center of love, truth, and peace in the world. It will receive an even greater blessing than America received.

I am not a weak person. I will not rest on my past merits or yield before an unrighteous world. Even though the road may be long and the task of accomplishing the heavenly kingdom enormous, I will continue on my way.

Ladies and gentlemen, on this occasion, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for your support and your faith in my innocence during my court battle in America. I pray for God's eternal blessing upon your families and upon our homeland.

Thank you.

Leaping Forward and Gaining Momentum

Sun Myung Moon
November 29, 1985
Fourteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences
InterContinental Hotel, Houston, USA

Photo date and location unknown

Photo date and location unknown

Honorable chairmen, eminent professors and scientists, ladies and gentlemen:

As we begin this fourteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) meeting here in Houston, I would like to express my appreciation to each of you for your commitment to and support for this conference and its theme, "Absolute Values and the New Cultural Revolution." Since I was unable to be with you at last year's ICUS in Washington, I am particularly moved to stand before you this morning.

The need for a great awakening and breakthrough for humankind

As you know, I was recently released from prison, on August 20, 1985, having spent thirteen months in confinement in the United States. I thank you again for being concerned with my situation caused by unfair treatment, for visiting me in prison, for writing letters to comfort me, and for your tremendous efforts in advocating justice and fairness on my behalf.

Those who were so eager to fabricate a crime and have me imprisoned invested a great deal of money, time and effort in the attempt to block the work God has called me to perform. However, despite opposition, the Unification movement prospers worldwide. Contrary to the expectation that my imprisonment would break up the work of our church, people from all walks of life, including Christian clergy, have expressed their understanding and supported us in an unprecedented way. Through such an experience I have learned once again, as I always maintained, that victory comes through persecution countered with God-centered righteousness.

My experience in prison has sharpened my awareness of the critically dangerous state of the world. It let me feel the urgent necessity of a worldwide great awakening and of a new breakthrough. As a result, I have come out of prison with a renewed sense of urgency and determination to commit myself and the Unification movement to give everything for the cause of world peace and global prosperity.

In today's world, millions of people live in miserable circumstances in spite of tremendous scientific progress, efficient technologies and economic abundance in many places. Many nations live in constant strain and even in a state of war. In most of the world such problems as poverty, illiteracy, disease, violence and crime, drug addiction and mental disorders, social discrimination and inequity, broken families and teenage immorality threaten the future of our planet. Why do anxiety and agony increase constantly, even though many leaders -- especially conscientious, distinguished scholars -- have been devoting themselves toward realizing a pleasant and peaceful world? The reason is an ethical, moral and spiritual crisis that brings with it mental exhaustion. Traditional value systems are now inadequate for societies that are changing with unprecedented speed. Time-honored ethics and morals are no longer persuasive. Criteria for goodness have been disappearing. At a time when these problems are causing selfcontradictions, conflicts and disunity both in individual lives and on the societal level, it is difficult to speak of moral standards or of eternal life.

Leaping forward through persecution

If in such a reality there is no room for God, then we cannot expect to fulfill our ideals or to substantiate happiness. We could conclude that to continue in such a fashion would bring about our eventual demise. Nevertheless, if the absolute God exists, we can be confident that He will conduct a providence for changing this destructive reality. He will advance toward a universal standard of ethics that establishes a reality of mutual joy and prosperity. God is our Parent with only true love for all humankind. The purpose of any calamitous events in God's providence in the past was never to destroy humankind. Such effects were part of a process for dramatic leaps ahead; the unfortunate effects were to be followed by new and hopeful things to come.

Throughout history there have been numerous moments of leaping forward; there have been numerous people contacting the transcendent God at moments of severe oppression by the contemporary society and then leaping toward a better future. Ordinary moments are not likely to be a springboard for such transformations. Pioneers, through positively digesting paradoxical moments, have been able to surge forward and create new ways of living.

Loving your enemy, as Jesus practiced on the cross, may not be easy to understand. But Jesus showed us God's providence by dramatically changing that moment of being completely denied by the world into a leap of complete positivity. As a result, a new page of resurrection providence was opened.

I think the Unification Church has set a new record in the history of persecution. However, such persecution has never been detrimental for the Unification Church. When the Unification Church is not overwhelmed by suffering but overcomes it and lives God's Will through advancing with this momentum, the suffering itself becomes a preparation for eternal life centered on the Absolute. By practicing such faith, we recognize that the reality of today's world is not a cause for despair, but can provide momentum that permits God to advance us toward a new world.

The initial motive for humans to develop science was the desire to realize world peace and prosperity. However, the methods employed in the specialized fields of science have not brought results that meet that original expectation. Though our expectation of science was focused on the well being of humankind, science has mostly been concerned with developing the material environment, which is the object partner of human beings, who are its subject partners. The scientific pursuit of higher living standards and the application of theories of politico-economic equality have not produced true happiness for humankind. Therefore, scientists should become newly aware of their mission.

Contemporary men and women ought to look inside the depth of their being and establish a universal ethic built on the natural order of existence. This new ethic requires us to love nature, to reconsider the dignity of human beings, to seek love among all humankind, and to search for God as the origin of love. Scholars need to take on the mission of accomplishing a cultural-spiritual revolution, which ought to realize ideals such as human perfection and world peace, along with the external, technological revolution.

Creating a new culture centered on God's truth and love

Long before the first ICUS, I became convinced that scientists should play a decisive role in building a good and hopeful future society. My support and enthusiasm for ICUS for the past fourteen years has come from my respect and my expectation for scholars' potential to solve the world's problems. I hope that such a potential can be developed and mobilized through ICUS and that responsible scholars will actively contribute to the realization of the new cultural revolution.

This is the fourteenth ICUS. The number fourteen is twice the number seven. According to Unification theology, the importance of the number seven, like the number three, is that it signifies perfection. Up until now, ICUS has been committing itself to relating scientific studies to the discovery and realization of absolute values. In addition, it has been concerned with the integration of knowledge, that is, with an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to the understanding of reality. Yet an integrated approach is not possible without establishing absolute values, and the criteria for absolute values come from God, the origin of absolute love. Many people have now come to recognize the necessity of absolute values. I am grateful that the chairmen and the members of the planning committee have resolved misunderstandings and become pioneers on this new path.

From now on, where is ICUS supposed to head? Should we be satisfied with annual conferences carried out just as before? My answer is based on my recent emphasis on the new cultural revolution. I think that the potential and foundation for realizing the original ideals and happiness of humankind are greatly endangered, because evil is now challenging humankind most seriously and essentially. We, as the ICUS family, should stand up and take on the great mission of creating a new culture in this world. We need to invest everything for its establishment. The exploration of absolute values for its own sake is meaningless. Truth has eternal direction, and the ideal world founded on absolute values must be concretely realized. This realization requires that we act determinedly and rise above the difficulties we encounter in the present reality.

Today, the world should change. Now is the time for scholars to responsibly come to the forefront, advancing a new cultural revolution based on God's truth and love. We orient this new cultural revolution with God's ideal for humanity and all creation. In order for this ideal to be accomplished, each of us needs to fulfill our responsibility in realizing true love, not only knowledge, as an absolute value.

Humankind should now leap forward. The creation of a culture of new dimension, enabling us to overcome the limits of our present reality, is necessary. We should wake up from the illusion wrought by arrogant beliefs that the power of human reason alone can bring about the perfection of individuals and the world, and the laxity it engenders. Our effort will remain in vain if we fail to relate to God's expectations for the original human character and to God's providence behind the turmoil of human history. Humbly recognizing our limitations as human beings, we are called to fulfill the ideal of unity with God through leaping forward, in sync with the historical momentum introduced by God's providence. God's ideal for the creation was meant wholly for human beings. We naturally conclude, therefore, that the ideal has to be fulfilled through our human response to God's comprehensive concern.

Let us become pioneers who practice absolute values

Respected scholars! I have been committing my whole life to fulfilling God's Will by fulfilling human responsibility. As a pioneer, I never tried to avoid even the most rugged path. For instance, I determined to offer an alternative to the existing biases of the news media. I have closely watched the process of how the news media offer information, the good points and bad. I know through my experience, as many of you know, that the misuse of the news media's power can undermine and destroy the foundation of goodness. Therefore, for years we have been sponsoring at great cost The Washington Times. Recently, I inspired the publication of the weekly news magazine, Insight. Further, in this coming month, we are going to release a monthly magazine called The World and I. These projects will offer alternative media for education and mass communication that will contribute to the promotion of truth and the common good.

I ask you to become pioneers in a new cultural revolution through participating in the continuous pursuit of truth, and by contributing articles about your findings to The World and I. Furthermore, I envision the publication of dictionaries for the different specialized fields of science, with the help of our worldwide Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) and Paragon House Publishers. All this is in preparation for the publishing of an encyclopedia of human events, which will, under the guidance of absolute values, contribute constructive educational material based on keen insights into original human character.

Respected scholars! We would not fulfill our leadership and social responsibility by remaining indifferent to the existing world of contradictions and presenting no alternatives. We have to show a new standard, not missing this precious historical and global momentum. It has come not by chance; God has granted it to us. We should set an example by leaping ahead and firmly awakening all people to fight against injustice. Leaping ahead involves risks and adventure. A full-fledged adventure on a false foundation would result in greater difficulties. However, where there is truth, practice is always bound to follow in its wake. We need to become champions in the practice of absolute values and actively lead the world.

I hope this conference will not only become a forum for free and open discussions, in which useful conclusions are reached, but also a historic event through which we determine to energize this suffering world, that it may give birth to the world of a new culture.

I deeply thank the members of the planning committee for their very hard work for this conference. May God bless all of you and your families!