This week in history: June 22-28
- True Father is installed as the chairman of the Korean Root-Finding Association
- The Korean War breaks out with the invasion of North Korea into South Korea
- True Father speaks to President Dwight D. Eisenhower on morals and religion
- A hearing on religious freedom takes place, followed by a rally in Washington, D.C.
- Dr. Theodore Shimmyo is inaugurated as the second president of the Unification Theological Seminary
June 23, 1989
True Father Installed as Chairman of the Korean Root-Finding Association
True Father was installed as the chairman of the Korean Root-Finding Association (KRFA), a national organization made up of the leaders of the 275 Korean traditional families, or clans. Also referred to as the Korean Family-Clan Chairmen’s Association, the KRFA was organized to promote traditional Korean values, culture and the unity of the Korean people. At the installation ceremony True Parents each were presented with an ornate Korean traditional crown. In his inaugural address True Father acknowledged Korea’s “matchless respect for Heaven, loyalty, filial piety and etiquette,” but stated, “Clan-level root consciousness should be sublimated for a higher root consciousness … of all humanity.” He called upon the association to “extend our love relationships to overcome the conflicts of this age, demolish barriers of age-long disharmony and realize a harmonious world.” He emphasized that “the unification of South and North Korea should be accomplished on the foundation of homogeneity as one people through activating the root-finding movement of true love.”
June 25, 1950
The Korean War Begins
The Korean War broke out when the army of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The conflict pulled in China and the United States. Eventually, sixteen UN member nations provided troops to the South. The war continued for more than three years until the Korean Armistice Agreement (not treaty) was signed on July 27, 1953. The hostilities resulted in a death toll of over 1.2 million. True Father was in Heungnam prison camp at the war’s outbreak. Following their landing at Incheon led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, UN and South Korean forces fought their way north, subjected Heungnam prison and factory complex to a massive aerial bombardment and liberated True Father after two years and eight months of confinement. According to Unification teaching, the division of the peninsula and the Korean War were deeply intertwined with providential history and True Father’s mission.
June 25, 1965
True Father Meets Dwight D. Eisenhower
True Father met for 45 minutes with former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower at his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, office as part of his first world tour. He was accompanied by Mrs. Won Bok Choi, Col. Bo Hi Pak, Kenji “Daikon” Ohnuki and Gordon Ross. True Father noted that the day marked the 15th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. In their discussion True Father focused attention on three points: the need for a strong anticommunist ideology and movement; the need to bring a halt to moral decay; the need for an active, dynamic religion. President Eisenhower agreed, saying: “Man is a spiritual being. We must bring to bear a greater moral strength based on moral law to stand against the communists. It will take the vigor of youth to do this.” True Father presented the former U.S. president with several gifts, and President Eisenhower wished him the “greatest success.”
True Father and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
June 25, 1985
Rally for Religious Freedom
More than eleven hundred ministers from a broad range of denominations gathered from around the country in Washington, D.C., to affirm religious freedom and protest the unjust imprisonment of True Father at Danbury Federal Penitentiary. The rally was sponsored by the Coalition for Religious Freedom and the University Alliance for God and Freedom. Across from the White House, several ministers held handcuffed arms high in the air and a mock jail cell held a gagged woman dressed in white with an inscription that read, “Lady Justice Imprisoned by Blind Government Officials.” This was one of a series of rallies and conferences that led up to True Father’s release on August 20, 1985.
The Rally for Justice and Religious Freedom took place on June 25, 1985.
The Rally for Justice and Religious Freedom took place on June 25, 1985.
June 26, 1984
Hearing on Religious Freedom
After the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution hearing, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch and True Father shake hands.
After the Court of Appeals denied True Father’s appeal and upheld his eighteen-month sentence for tax evasion, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution convened a hearing on religious freedom. Chaired by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the hearing looked into whether the verdict in True Father’s case had been a violation of religious freedom. More than three hundred invited persons and observers as well as media crews were present. In his prepared remarks, True Father stated, “In 1971, God called me to come to America and … for the last 12 years I have given my heart and soul and every drop of sweat and tears for the sake of this nation.” He listed a number of the vast array of projects undertaken by the movement at the cost of “several hundred million dollars,” denied that he had defrauded the U.S. government of a few thousand dollars, and expressed gratitude that God was “using me as an instrument to lead the fight for religious freedom and to ignite the spiritual awakening of America.”
June 26, 1994
Dr. Theodore Shimmyo Inaugurated as Second UTS President
Dr. Theodore Shimmyo was inaugurated as the second president of the Unification Theological Seminary at the seminary’s 18th commencement exercises. He succeeded the seminary’s first president, Dr. David S.C. Kim, who had served for nineteen years since the seminary’s founding in 1975. Dr. Shimmyo, a graduate of the seminary’s first class, had been a professor of systematic theology and assistant academic dean. In his acceptance speech, “A Place Where Leaders Are Educated,” he pledged to “make sure that this seminary serves the rest of the Unification community, this nation and the world, with a desire to shoulder their burdens.”
This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of June 22 to 28.