As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen
The Autobiography
CHAPTER FOUR
LAUNCHING OUR
GLOBAL MISSION
Following God's Path
with No Thought
for My Life
(Page 144)
As soon as I was released from Seodaemun Prison,
I went to the Gaba Buddhist temple
on Mount Gyeryoung in Choongcheong Province.
I needed to heal the wounds from my torture
in Seodaemun Prison.
Also, I needed a forest where I could pray
and think about the future of our church.
This was not long after the end
of the Korean War, and just finding enough food
to survive was often a difficult task.
Despite such short-term difficulties, however,
it was important that I make plans for the longer term.
We still did not have a church large enough to hold
all our members for service, but
I felt it was important to spend some time
looking out into the distant future.
Following the collapse of Japanese colonial rule
and the liberation of Korea in 1945, the two countries
had not established diplomatic relations.
Japan had not recognized the government in Seoul,
and Korea considered Japan an enemy country.
My belief was that, when the situation
of the world was considered, it was important
for the two countries to resume contacts.
A number of attempts were made to send a missionary
to Japan, but these were nsuccessful.
(Page 145)
In the end, it was Bong Choon Choi who accomplished
this task. In 1958, I called Bong Choon Choi
to meet me on the mountain behind the Gabsa temple.
"You need to go immediately to Japan." I said.
"You will not be able to return to Korea
until you have succeeded."
"Yes!" he replied, without hesitation.
We then sang the Korean Christian hymn
whose words begin:
Called of God, we honor the call;
Lord, we'll go wherever You say.
We came down the mountain together in high spirits.
He never asked how he was supposed to
support himself in Japan or how
he was supposed to begin his activities there.
Bon Cheon Choi was that kind of audacious man.
Travel to Japan was not allowed for most Koreans.
His only option
was to try to enter Japan even without a visa.
He would need to endure many things.
Bong Choon Choi
did not even know if he could enter Japan,
but he was prepared, if necessary, to lay down his life.
Until I could hear that he had safely crossed
the strait to Japan, I put aside all other work
and sat praying in a small room in the church.
I didn't eat or sleep. We even had to take out
a loan of 1.5 million won to send him.
We had many members who had nothing to eat,
but evangelizing Japan was so important that
everything else had to be put aside.
Unfortunately, Bong Choon Choi was arrested as soon as
he arrived in Japan. He was placed in prison,
first in Hiroshima and later in Yamaguchi,
until he could be deported back to Korea.
While in prison he decided he would rather die
than be sent back, and so he began to fast.
During his fast, he developed a fever.
The Japanese authorities decided to place him
in a hospital and delay his deportation
until his health could be restored. While in the hospital
he managed to escape from custody.
(Page 146)
After such efforts made at the risk of his life
over a year and a half,
Bong Choon Choi established a church in Japan
in October, 1959. Korea and Japan would not
establish diplomatic relations for another six years.
In fact Korea, because the painful memory
of suffering under Japanese colonial rule
was still quite fresh, was rebuffing
any suggestion that it open contacts with Japan.
I had our missionary smuggle himself
into this enemy country for the sake of Korea's future.
Instead of refusing all contact, Korea needed
to evangelize Japan so that it would be in a position
to be the senior partner in the bilateral relationship.
Korea was impoverished materially, so it needed
to open a channel to the Japanese leadership,
get Japan on its side, and then link itself
to the United States. That was how Korea could survive.
As a result of the successful effort
to send a missionary to Japan, owing to
Bong Choon Choi's sacrifice, an exceptional youth leader
named Osami Kuboki joined the church
together with a group of young people who followed him.
The Japanese church became securely established
as a result of their work.
We sent missionaries to America in the following year.
There was no visa trouble this time.
They were able to receive passports and visas
before leaving. In securing the passports,
we were aided by some cabinet members of the Liberal Party
who had played a part in having me imprisoned
in the Seodaemun Prison. Previously,
they had opposed us, but now they were helping us.
(Page 147)
The United States in those days seemed like
a very far-off country. Some of our church members
opposed the idea of sending missionaries there,
saying it was more important to grow our foundation
in Korea first. I convinced the members
of its importance, however, saying that
unless America's crisis could be resolved,
Korea would be destroyed, too.
In January 1959, we sent Young Oon Kim,
one of the professors who had been fired
by Ewha Womans University. Then in September
of that year, we sent David S.C. Kim.
The work they began in America
was aimed at the entire world.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
Money Earned Honorably,
Used Prayerfully
(Page 148)
Funds accumulated through business operations are sacred.
For business profits to be sacred, however,
it is important not to lie or to take excessive profit.
When conducting business we must always be honest,
and we should never take a profit of more than
thirty percent. Money earned in this honorable manner
must, of course, be spent prayerfully.
It must be spent with a clear purpose and intent.
This is the principle of business management
that I have promoted throughout my life.
I believe the purpose of business is not
simply to make money. It is also to support
the missionary work, which is the work of God.
One reason I worked
to create funds for missionary work through business
was that I did not want to take money
from our members for this purpose. No matter how lofty
the purpose might be, sending missionaries overseas
could not be accomplished just by wishing it.
It required funds. These funds should be earned
in the name of the church. Funds for missionary work
had to be earned in an honorable way.
Only then could we be proud of everything we did.
As I looked at various options for making money,
postage stamps caught my eye.
In those days, I was suggesting to members that
they write to each other at least three times a month.
(Page 149)
Mailing a letter cost forty won, but I suggested
that they not simply place one forty-won stamp
on their letters. Instead, I suggested they use
forty one-won stamps. We took the cancelled
postage stamps from these letters, sold them,
and managed to make 1 million won in the first year.
Seeing that used postage stamps, which seemed
insignificant, could bring in big money from collectors,
the members continued this work for seven years.
We also sold black and white photographs
of famous places or popular entertainment personalities
that we had hand-colored with paint.
This business also contributed significantly
to the operation of our church activities.
As the church grew, postage stamps
and painted photographs were no longer enough
to generate the funds we needed for our missionary work.
We needed to take our business to a higher level
if we were to send missionaries all over the world.
In 1962, before the Korean government re-denomated
the currency, a lathe that the Japanese had been
using but then abandoned in 1945 was purchased
for 720,000 won. Following re-denomination,
it was worth 72,000 won. Korean currency was pegged
to the U.S. dollar, then at 125 won per dollar, so the
official value of the investment was $576.
We placed this lathe in the coal briquette storage room
of the "enemy property" house we were using
as our church and called it Tongil Industries.
"To you, this lathe may seem insignificant," I explained.
"You may wonder what kind of business we are going to do
by installing one piece of old and used machinery.
This machine that you see here, however,
will be multiplied before long to become
seven thousand--- and even seventy thousand---lathes,
and the company will develop along with
Korea's defense and automobile industries.
(Page 150)
This machine that we installed today
will surely be a cornerstone for building
our country's automobile industry. Have faith.
Have the conviction that this will surely happen."
This was what I said to those then gathered in front of
the coal briquette storage room. It was
a humble beginning, but our purpose was lofty and great.
They responded to my call and worked with dedication.
As a result, in 1963 we were able to start
another business on a somewhat larger scale.
This involved building a fishing boat. The boat
was launched at a pier in the Manseok-Dong section
of Incheon and christened Cheon Seung Ho,
meaning "Victory of Heaven" boat. Some two hundred people
attended the ceremony where this fishing boat
was sent out onto the ocean.
Water is the source of life. We were all
born from our mothers' wombs. Inside those wombs
is water, so we were born from water.
I launched the boat with the belief that,
in a similar way to how we receive life from water,
we need to go out onto the ocean and pass through
a series of trials there in order to become
capable of surviving the trials we will face on land.
Cheon Seung Ho was an exceptional boat.
It sailed through the Yellow Sea and caught many fish.
The reaction of many, though,
was that we had enough to do on land and that
there was no need for us to be going out onto the ocean
and catching fish. I sensed, however, that the world
was about to enter an oceanic era.
The launching of Cheon Seung Ho was a small, but precious,
first step in opening that era. I was already
picturing in my mind the vast ocean with boats
larger and faster than Cheon Seung Ho.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
Power of Dance
Moves the World
(Page 151)
We were not a rich church. We were a poor church
started by people who couldn't afford enough food
to keep themselves well fed. We didn't have
the fancy church buildings that other churches had,
but we ate barley when others ate rice
and saved our money a little at a time. We then
shared that money with people who were poorer than we.
Our missionaries slept in unheated rooms by laying
their sleeping quilts on the bare cement floors.
When mealtime came, it was common for them
to stave off their hunger
by eating a few cooked potatoes. In every case,
we did our best not to spend money on ourselves.
In 1963, we used the money we had saved this way
to select seventeen children and form
a children's dance troupe called the Little Angels.
Korea in those days had very little in the way of
cultural performances. We had nothing that we ourselves
could watch and enjoy, let alone something
to show people in other countries.
Everyone was too busy trying to survive to remember
what Korean dance was like or even the fact that we had
a cultural heritage extending back five thousand years.
My plan was to have these seventeen children
learn how to dance
and then send them out into the world.
(Page 152)
Many foreigners knew about Korea only as a poor country
that had fought a terrible war. I wanted to show them
the beautiful dances of Korea so that they would realize
that the Korean people are a people of culture.
We could insist all we wanted that we were
a people of culture with a five-thousand year tradition,
but no one would believe us if we had nothing
to show them.
Our dances---with dancers dressed in beautiful,
full-length hanboks, gently twirling around---
are a wonderful cultural heritage that can give
a new experience to Westerners who are accustomed
to watching dancers jump around with bare legs.
(Hanboks are beautiful, Korean traditional dresses
for women.) Our dances are imbued with the
sorrowful history of the Korean people.
The movements of Korean dance---in which
dancers keep their heads slightly bowed
and move carefully so as not to draw undue attention
to themselves--- were created by the Korean people,
whose five-thousand-year history has been
filled with grief.
As the dancer raises one foot wrapped in white beoseon,
the traditional Korean leggings, and puts it forward
to take a single step, she turns her head gently
and raises her hand. As I watch, the gently subtlety
of her movements seem to melt away all the worries
and frustrations in my heart. There is no attempt
to move the audience with a lot of words
spoken in a booming voice. Instead, each dance move,
performed with great gentleness and subtley,
moves the heart of the audience.This is the power of art.
It allows people who
don't understand each other's language to communicate.
It lets people who don't know about each other's history
understand each other's heart.
In particular, the innocent facial expressions
and bright smiles of the children would be certain
to completely wipe away the dark image of a country
that had only recently been at war.
I created this dance troupe to introduce the dances
from our country's five-thousand-year history
to people of the United States, which was
the most advanced country in the world at that time.
(Page 153)
The society around us, however, heaped criticism on us.
Before even seeing the Little Angels dance, they bagan
to criticize. "The women of the Unification Church
dance day and night," went their outragious ciriticizm,
"and now it looks like
they've given birth to children who also dance."
No such rumors could shake my resolve, however.
I was confident of showing the world
what Korean dance was like. I wanted to let the people
who accused us of having danced naked see the beautiful,
gentle movements of dancers stepping lightly
in their beoseon leggings. These were not wild dances
with twisting and turning without rhythm.
They were gentle dances by innocent dancers
clothed in the traditional dress of our country.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
Angels Open a Path
through a Dark Forest
(Page 154)
There are two things
we must leave our descendants when we die.
One is tradition, and the other is education.
A people without tradition will fail.
Tradition is the soul that allows a people to continue;
a people without a soul cannot survive.
The second thing of importance is education.
A people will also fail if it does not
educate its descendents. Education gives us the power
to live with knowledge and objectives.
Through education people acquire wisdom for living.
Anyone who cannot read will be ignorant, but
once educated, a person will know how to use
his wisdom in the world to manage his own life.
Education helps us understand the principles
by which the world operates. To open up a new future,
we need, on the one hand, to pass on to our descendents
the tradition that has been handed down to us
over thousands of years and, on the other,
to also supply them with education concerning new things.
When tradition and new knowledge are appropriately
integrated in our lives, they give birth to
an original culture. Traditon and education are both
important, and it is impossible to say which
takes priority over the other. The wisdom to integrate
the two also comes to us through education.
(Page 155)
At the same time, that I founded the dance troup,
I also founded the Little Angels School of the Arts
(later renamed Sunhwa Arts School).
The purpose in founding this school was to spread
our ideals to the world through the arts.
The issue of whether we had the ability
to manage a school was of secondary importance. I first
put my plan into action. If the purpose is clear
and good, then it should be put into action quickly.
I wanted to educate children to love heaven,
love their country, and love humanity.
I wrote my motto for the school as
a piece of calligraphy that said in Chinese characters,
"Love Heaven, Love Humanity, Love Country."
Someone asked me then, "Why do you put 'Love Country'
at the end, when you say your purpose is to show
Korea's unique culture to the world?"
I answered him saying, "If a person loves heaven
and loves humanity, he already loved his country.
Loving the country has already been accomplished
in the process."
If a Korean can cause the world to respect him,
then he has already accomplished the purpose
of letting the world know about Korea."
The Little Angels went to many countries and
demonstrated the excellence of Korean culture,
but they never made any nationalistic claims
about their country. The image of Korea as a country
of great culture and tradition was planted deeply
in the minds of the people who saw their performances
and gave them their applause. In that sense,
the Little Angels did more than anyone
to publicize Korea to the world and practice
love for their country.
It gives me great satisfaction every time
I see the performances by Su Mi Jo and Young Ok Shin,
graduates of Sunhwa Arts School who have gone on
to become world-reknowned vocalists, and by
Julia Moon and Sue Jin Kang,
who are among the best ballerinas in the world.
(Page 156)
Since 1965, when they held their first overseas
performance in the United States,
the Little Angels have been introducing
Korea's beautiful tradition all over the world.
The were invited by British royal family
to perform in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II.
They were invited to take part in the
bicentennial celebration in the United States,
where they performed at the John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts. They gave
a special performance for U.S. President Richard Nixon,
and they took part in the cultural and performing arts
festival that was part of the Seoul Olympic Games.
The Little Angels are known around the world
as cultural ambassadors for peace.
The following is something that happened in 1990,
when I visited Moscow. The Little Angels
gave a performance on the night before
I was to leave the Soviet Union, after having met
President Mikhail Gorbachev. Korea's little girls
stood in the center of Moscow, the center of communism.
After performing Korean dances dressed in their hanbocks,
the Little Angels sang Russian folk songs
with their beautiful voices. Shouts of "Encore!"
from the audience made it impossible for them
to come offstage. In the end,
they completely exhausted their repertoire of songs.
First Lady Raisa Gorbachev was seated in the audience.
South Korea and the Soviet Union had not yet
established diplomatic relations, and
it was very unusual for the first lady to attend
a cultural performance from such a country. However,
Mrs. Gorbachev sat in the front row and applauded
enthusiastically throughout the program.
After the performance, she came backstage
and handed the troupe flowers. She repeatedly praised
the greatness of Korean culture, saying,
"The Little Angels are truly angels of peace.
I did not know that South Korea
had such beautiful traditional culture.
During the entire performance, it was as if
I were dreaming a dreamabout my own childhood."
Mrs. Gorbachev embraced each member of the troupe
and kissed them on the cheek, saying,
"My Little Angels!"
(Page 157)
In 1998, the Little Angels visited Pyongyang
as the first purely private, nongovernmental
cultural exchange program and gave three performances
there. They danced the cute "Little Groom Dance"
and the colorful "Fan Dance." The eyes
of the North Koreans watching the performance
were filled with tears. The image of a woman
sobbing uncontrollably was captured in the lens
of a newspaper photographer. Yong Soon Kim, chairman
of North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Commission,
praised the Little Angels after their performance,
saying, "They have opened a narrow path
through the dark forest."
This was exactly what the Little Angels had done.
They demonstrated for the first time
that Koreans from North and South, who had
turned their backs on each other for such a long time,
were capable of coming together in one place
and watching each other's performances.
People often think that politics moves the world,
but that is not the case.
It is culture and art that move the world.
It is emotion, not reason, that strikes people
in the innermost part of their hearts.
When hearts change and are able to receive new things,
ideologoies and social regimes change as a result.
The Little Angels did more than just advertise
our traditional culture to the world.
They created narrow paths between worlds completely
different from each other.
Each time I meet the Little Angels, I tell them,
"You must have beautiful hearts to perform
beautiful dances. You must have beautiful hearts
to have beautiful faces." True beauty is a beauty
that wells up from within us. The Little Angels
have been able to move the hearts of people
throughout the world, because the beauty
of Korea's tradition and spiritual culture
that are imbued in their dances are beautiful.
So the applause for the Little Angels
is actually applause for Korea's traditional culture.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
World Tour
(Page 158)
From childhood, my mind has always yearned
for faraway places. In my hometown, I would
climb a mountain and long for the sea.
When I arrived in Seoul, I wanted to go to Japan.
I have always dreamed
of going to places larger than where I was.
In 1965, I embarked on my first trip around the world.
My suitcase was filled with soil and stones from Korea.
My plan was that, as I traveled around the world,
I would plant Korea's soil and stones in each country
to signify Korea's linkage to the world.
For ten months, I toured forty countries, including
Japan, the United States, and the nations of Europe.
On the day I left Seoul, hundreds of our members
came in buses to see me off,
and they filled the departure lounge at Gimpo Airport.
In those days, going overseas was a significant event.
Our members thronged to the airport on that January day
with a cold strong wind blowing out of the northwest.
No one had told them to do this. They did
as their hearts told them. I received their hearts
with deep gratitude.
At that time, we were carrying out mission work
in ten countries, and it was my plan
to increase that to forty countries within two years.
It was to lay the foundation for this that I decided
to visit forty countries on my trip.
My first stop was Japan. I received
a tremendous welcome there, where Bong Choon Choi
had risked his life to start our mission.
(Page 159)
I put the following question to the Japanese members:
"Are you of Japan, or have you transcended the state
of being of Japan?" I continued: "God doesn't want
that which is of Japan. He doesn't need that which is
of Japan. He needs people who transcend Japan.
You need to go beyond the limitations of Japan
to become Japanese people who love the world,
if you are to be people who can be used by God."
It may not have been easy for them to hear this,
but I made myself very clear.
My second destination was the United States.
I entered the country through the airport
in San Francisco, where I was met by our missionaries.
From there, we toured the entire country.
During the time I was touring America, I felt strongly,
"This is the country that leads the whole world.
The new culture that will be created in the future
must rise up with America as its foundation."
I set a plan then to purchase a facility for workshops
in the United States that would hold five hundred people.
Of course, this would not be only for Koreans.
It would be an international facility that would receive
people from over one hundred countries.
Fortunately, this hope was soon realized.
Many countries sent people to this workshop facility,
where they would study and debate about world peace
for several months at a time.
Race, nationality, and religion made no difference.
I believe that the world will develop better societies
when people who have transcended race, nationality,
and religion and hold a wide variety of opinions
come together and candidly discuss world peace.
During my tour of the United States,
I visited every state except Alaska and Hawaii.
We rented a station wagon and drove day and night.
At times the driver would be so tired. "Listen here,"
I would say, "We didn't come here for sightseeing.
We're here to do important work.
We need to go carefully."
(Page 160)
We didn't waste time sitting down to eat.
If we had two slices of bread, a piece of sausage,
and some pickles, then that was plenty of food for a meal.
We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner like this.
We also slept in the car. The car was our lodging;
it was our bed and our restaurant. We ate, slept
and prayed in that small car. There was nothing
we couldn't do there. I had a particular purpose
to accomplish, so it was easy for me to endure
minor inconveniences to the physical body.
After the United States and Canada, I went
to Central and South America, and then to Europe.
To my eyes, Europe
was in the cultural sphere of the Vatican.
It seemed to me that we could not succeed in Europe
without understanding the Vatican. Even the Alps,
which were supposed to be so difficult to climb,
seemed of little significance to the Vatican.
I went to the Vatican, where European Catholics
gather to pray, and prayed with such fervor
that beads of sweat ran down my face.
I prayed that Christianity, which had become divided
among so many denominations and groups,
could be unified quickly. God created one world,
but people have divided it in ways convenient
to themselves. I became more convinced than ever
that these divisions must be erased
and the world unified as one. From Europe,
I went to Egypt and the Middle East
and completed my tour after ten months.
When I returned to Seoul, my suitcase was full
of soil and stones from on hundred and twenty locations
in forty countries. When I planted the soil and stones
I had taken from Korea, I took soil and stones
from each locaton and brought them back to Korea.
I connected Korea to these forty countries in this way
to prepare for the day in the future when
the world of peace would be realized centering on Korea.
I began preparations to send missionaries
to those forty countries.
(PHOTOS FROM MY LIFE)
(CHAPTER FOUR)
Last Plane to America
(Page 161)
Near the end of 1971, I went to the United States again.
I had certain tasks that absolutely needed
to be accomplished there, but getting there
was not so easy. It was not my first time
to go to the United States, yet I had to wait
an unusually long time to receive my visa.
Some members suggested that I delay my departure,
but I could not do that. It was difficult for me
to explain to the members, but it was important
that I leave Korea on the designated date.
So I decided to go first to Japan and apply
for a U.S. visa while in Japan.
I was in a hurry to leave Korea.
The day of my departure was quite cold,
but so many members came to see me off
that they could not all get into the terminal.
When it came time for me
to go through the passport control desk, however,
it was discovered that my passport
was missing the stamp of the section chief
of the Foreign Ministry passport section.
The stamp was required as proof
that the government had cleared me
to leave the country. Because of this,
I missed the flight I had been scheduled to board.
The members who had prepared for my departure
apologized profusely and suggested that I return home
and wait while they tracked down the section chief
and got him to place his stamp in my passport.
(Page 162)
"No," I told them, "I will wait here at the airport.
Go quickly and get the stamp."
My heart was filled with urgency. It happened to be
a Sunday, so the section chief would not be at his desk.
But I could not afford to let myself be concerned
by such matters. In the end, our members
went to the home of the section chief and had him
place his stamp on my passport. So I was able to board
the final flight of the day out of Korea.
That night, the government declared a national
state of emergency and imposed heavy restrictions
on foreign travel by private citizens.
I had boarded the last flight that would
allow me to go to America.
I applied for a U.S. visa in Japan, but again
it was refused. I discovered later what the problem was.
The Korean government still had a record of
my being detained by Japanese colonial police just prior
to liberation on charges of being a communist.
The early 1970's was a time
when communism was spreading with ferocity.
By 1975, we sent missionaries to 127 countries,
but those in four communist countries were expelled.
Evangelizing in communist countries in that era
could result in death. I never gave up, however,
and continued to send missionaries
to the Soviet Union and other communist countries.
Our first missionary to Czechoslovakia arrived in 1968.
Around 1980, we began to refer to our mission work
in the communist countries of Easter Europe as
"Mission Butterfly." A larva must go through
a long period of suffering before it can
grow wings and become a butterfly,
and we felt that this was similar to the
suffering of our underground missionaries
working in communist countries.
It is a difficult process for a butterfly
to come out of its cocoon, but once it has wings,
the butterfly can fly anywhere it wants.
In the same way, we knew that once communism
came to its demise, our missionaries
would grow wings and begin to fly.
(Page 163)
Missionary, Young Oon Kim, who had
gone to the United States in early 1959,
toured the major universities in that country
to convey God's word. In the process,
she met Peter Koch, a German student
at the University of California at Berkley,
and this young man decided to suspend his studies
and travel by ship to Rotterdam and then
start his missionary work in Germany.
Missionaries to the communist countries of Asia
were sent out from Japan.
These missionaries had to be sent to places
where their lives could be in danger
without so much as a special worship service
to mark their departure.
This pained me as much as having to push Bong Choon Choi
to try again to smuggle himself into Japan during our
final meeting in the pine forest behind the Gabsa temple.
A parent who has to watch a child being punished
would much rather be allowed to take the punishment
himself. I would have preferred to go out
as a missionary myself. My heart was full of tears
as I sent those members to places where
they would be watched and possibly executed
for their religious activities. Once the missionaries
had left, I spent most of my time in prayer.
Earnest prayers were the best thing
that I could do to help protect their lives.
Missionary work in communist countries
was dangerous work. A missionary never knew when
the Communist Party might take him.
People who went as missionaries to communist countries
could not even tell their parents where they were going.
The parents knew well the dangers of going
to such countries and would never give permission
for their children to go.
(Page 164)
Gunther Werzer was discoverd by the KGB and deported.
In Romania, where the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu
was at its height of power, the secret police
were constantly following and
intercepting the telephone calls of our missionaries.
It was as if the missionaries had gone
into the lion's den. The number of missionaries
going to communist countries, however, kept growing.
Then in 1973,
there was a terrible incident in Czechoslovakia
where thirty of our members were taken into custody.
One member, Marie Zivna, lost her life while in prison
at the young age of twenty-four. She was the first
martyr who died while conducting missionary work
in a communist country. In the following year,
another person lost his life in prison.
Each time I heard that one of our members
had died in jail, my entire body froze.
I could not speak or eat. I couldn't even pray.
I just sat motionless for a while, unable to do anything.
It was as if my body had turned to stone.
If those people had never met me, or never heard
what I taught, they never would have found themselves
in a cold and lonely jail cell, and they
never would have died the way they did.
When they died, they suffered in my place.
I asked myself, "Is my life worth so much
that it could be exchanged for theirs?
How am I going to take on the responsibility
for the evangelizaton of the communist bloc that
they were bearing in my place?" I could not speak.
I fell into a sorrow that seemed to have no end,
as if I had been thrown into deep water.
Then I saw Marie Zivna before me in the form
of a yellow butterfly. The yellow butterfly
that had escaped Czechoslovakia's prison
fluttered its wings as if to tell me to be strong
and to stand up. By carrying on
her missionary activities at the risk of her life,
Marie truly had been transformed from
being a caterpillar to being a beautiful butterfly.
Missionaries working in such extreme circumstances
often received revelations through dreams and visions.
(Page 165)
They were isolated and could not communicate freely
with others, so God gave them revelations
to let them know the path they must follow.
It would often happen that a missionary
who had lain down to sleep for a short while
would have a dream in which he was told,
"Get up quickly and go someplace else."
He did as he was told in the dream,
only to discover later that the secret police
had raided the place where he had been resting.
In another instance, a member had a dream
in which a person he had never seen before
came to him and told him how to carry out
his missionary work. Later,
when he met me for the first time, he exclaimed,
"You're the person I saw in my dream."
The was how I had risked my life and the lives
of our members to overthrow communism
and build God's Kingdom. Yet, the United States
would not give me a visa,
because it suspected me of being a communist.
Finally, in Canada, after submitting materials
illustrating my claim to be anticommunist,
I was able to receive a visa to the United States.
The reason I went to all this trouble to go
to America was to fight against the dark forces
that had caused America's moral degradation.
I left Korea to wage war on the forces of evil.
At the time, all the major problems of the world---
communism, drugs, moral decadence,
and immorality---were mixed together
as a hellish stew. I declared, "I have come
to America as a fireman and a doctor."
If a house catches fire, a fireman needs to come,
and if someone is sick, a doctor pays a visit."
I was like a fireman who had gone to America
to extinguish the fires of immorality,
and like a doctor who had gone to cure America
of the illness that made it lose sight of God
and go to the brink of decadence.
America in the early 1970's was embroiled
in the Vietnam War, and activists were protesting.
It was a country seriously divided.
(Page 166)
Young people searching for meaning experimented
with alcohol, drugs, and free sex and in the process
were neglecting their eternal souls.
Mainstream religion, which shoud have provided guidance
to such young people, was not performing its role.
It could not help them end their aimless wandering
and return to proper ways of living. The hedonistic,
materialistic culture dragged many young people down,
because they had no place to rest their hearts.
Soon after I arrived in the United States,
I toured the country, speaking on the topics,
"The Future of Christianity" and "God's Hope for America."
In front of large audiences,
I spoke out about the weaknesses of America
in a way that no one else would.
I proclaimed that America was founded
on the Puritan spirit and had grown to be
the strongest country in the world
in just two hundred years because it received
God's boundless love and blessing. I reminded
the audiences that America's freedom came from God,
but that America had cast God aside.
"America has a great tradition," I said.
"All you have to do is revive it." I went
to the United States to awaken America's spirit,
to save America from destruction, and to urge
the American people to repent and return to God.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
Our Future Lies
with the Ocean
(Page 167)
As I toured the world, no one knew that plans were
being made to develop economic foundations
on a worldwide scale. As the church grew and the number
of missions increased, the amount of funds we needed
to support these activities increased dramatically.
We needed income. As I toured
forty-eight states in the United States,
I gave much thought to the kinds of businesses
that could support the activities we had planned.
What came to my mind then
was that Americans eat meat every day.
I checked the price of a cow. I saw that a cow
that costs a small amount in Texas could cost
several hundred dollars in New York. But
when I checked the price of tuna, I discovered that
one blue fin tuna cost more than four thousand dollars.
Tuna lay more than a million eggs at a time, whereas
a cow will have only one calf at a time. It was clear
that catching tuna would be a much better business
endeavor than raising cattle.
One problem was that Americans did not eat much fish.
The Japanese, however, were extremely fond of tuna.
There were many Japanese living
in the United States then, and expensive estaurants
operated by Japanese sold raw tuna at a high price.
Gradually, some Americans were learning
to enjoy raw fish, and started to like eating tuna.
(Page 168)
The earth where we live
is covered by more ocean than land. The United States
has two oceans and therefore plenty of fish.
Also, beyond the three-hundred-twenty-two kilometer
(two-hundred mile) limit,
no country has territorial claims on the ocean.
Anyone can go out to catch fish.
In order to start a farm or raise cattle,
we would need to buy land, but there is no need
for that in the ocean. All we needed was one boat,
and we could go as far as necessary
in order to catch fish.
The ocean is filled with things to eat.
Also, on the ocean surface,
there is an active shipping industry.
Ships carry things made in countries
all over the world to be sold elsewhere.
The ocean is a treasure trove
that guarantees humankind a bright future.
That is why I teach that those who are concerned
with the future of humanity must be concerned
with the oceans. When we can love and inherit
the oceans, we inherit the future.
We purchased several boats in the United States.
These were not the large ships that might be seen
in a travel broshure but working boats
about thirty-four feet to thirty-eight feet in length.
They were fishing boats about the size of a yacht
that would not have major accidents. These boats
were placed in Washington, San Francisco, Tampa, and
Alaska. We also purchased a ship repair facility.
We did a lot of our own research. We placed one boat
in each region and measured the water temperature.
We checked to see how many tuna were caught each day
and placed the data on a chart. We didn't just
take data that experts had created previously;
our members went into the water themselves
to gather the information. The result of studies
done by university-based researchers in the area
were used as a reference. In addition, I went to
those areas, lived there myself, and checked them out.
No data was more accurate than what we gathered.
(Page 169)
We went to a lot of trouble to conduct this research;
but we did not keep it to ourselves. Instead,
we shared it with the fishing industry.
We also developed new fishing grounds.
If too many fish are caught in one area,
it depletes the fish population.
It is important to go to new areas.
Within a short time, we had made a major impact
on the U.S. fishing industry.
We entered the business of catching fish
on the open sea. Our idea was that one ship
would go out to sea and catch fish for at least
six months without returning to port.
When the ship had all the fish it could carry,
a transport ship went out to it, took its fish,
and resupplied it with food and fuel.
The ship had refrigeration facilities
where it could store fish for a long time.
The name of our ship was New Hope, and
it was well-known for being able to catch many fish.
I took that boat out myself and caught tuna.
People were often afraid of getting on boats. When I
suggested to young people that they get on a boat,
their first reaction was often one of fear.
"I get seasick," I often heard them say.
"All I have to do is get on a boat, and I start
getting whoozy and feel like I'm going to die."
So I got on the boat first myself.
From that day, I went out on a boat almost every day
for seven years. Even now, when I am ninety years old,
I like to go out on the ocean whenever I have the time.
Now, there are more and more young people
who say they want to go out on the boats. More woman
also say they want to do this. With any task, if
the leader does it first, the people follow. As a result,
I have become well-known as a tuna fisherman.
It would have been of little use, however, if
we had only caught the tuna. We also needed to be able
to sell it at the right price. We created a tuna
processing facility and even sold the tuna ourselves.
We put the tuna in refrigerated trucks and went out
and sold them. If selling was difficult,
we started our own seafood restaurants and
sold the tuna directly to consumers. Once we had
our own restaurants, people could not ignore us.
(Page 170)
The United States has three
of the world's four largest fishing grounds.
Three-quarters of the world's fish population
live in waters near the United States.
Yet, the United States has relatively few
people to catch fish, and its fishing industry
is extremely underdeveloped.
The government has taken many measures
designed to support the fishing industry,
but they have not had a major effect. The government
offered to sell boats at a big discount
on the condition that buyers use them for three years,
but few people took advantage of the opportunity.
How frustrating this is!
When we started to put money into the fishing industry,
it caused a stir in each port where we went.
This was not surprising, since communities prospered
wherever we invested. Our work ultimately
was to pioneer new worlds. We were not
simply catching fish. We were taking paths not taken
by others. How exciting it is to be a pioneer!
The ocean changes constantly. They say
people's minds change morning and night, but
the ocean changes moment to moment. That is why
the ocean is both mysterious and beautiful.
The ocean embraces everything in heaven and earth.
Water vapor can come together at a particular spot
and form clouds or become rain and fall back down.
I am very fond of nature, because it never deceives.
If it is high, it becomes lower; if it is low,
it becomes higher. In every instance,
it adjusts its height to become level.
If I am sitting holding a fishing pole, it seems
as though I have all the time in the world.
What is there on the ocean to stand in our way?
Who is there to make us hurry?
We have a lot of time for ourselves.
All we need to do is watch the ocean and talk with it.
The longer a person spends on the ocean, the greater
the spiritual aspect of his life will become.
(Page 171)
The ocean, however, can become calm one minute but then
quickly change its face and send us strong waves.
Waves several times the height of a person will rise up
above the boat, as if to devour it. A strong wind
will tear at the sail and make a fearful sound.
Think of this, though. Even when the waves have risen
and a fearful wind is blowing, the fish in the water
have no trouble sleeping. They give themselves over
to the waves and don't resist them.
This is what I learned from the fish. I decided
not to be afraid, no matter how strong the waves were.
I let the waves carry me. I made myself one
with the boat, and we rose with the waves.
Once I started doing that, my heart was never shaken
no matter what kind of waves I came up against.
The ocean has been such a wonderful teacher for me
in my life that I created the Ocean Challenge program to give
young people the leadership training the ocean provides.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
My Hope for a New
American Revolution
(Page 172)
The initial warm hospitality shown to me by Americans
began to grow cold, even hostile.
They questioned how a religious leaderfrom Korea,
an insignificant country that had barely
survived hunger and war, could dare call on Americans
to repent. It was not just Americans who opposed me.
The reaction from the Japanese Red Army,
a communist group in league with international communists,
was particularly strong. They were even
caught by the FBI trying to sneak into the workshop center
in Boston where I often stayed. There were so many
attempts to harm me that my children could not
attend school without the presence of bodyguards.
Because of the continued threats on my life,
I spoke from behind bulletproof glass for a period.
Despite such opposition, the lecture series
by the small-eyed man from the Orient
gathered more and more interest.
People began to listen to the teachings,
which were completely different
from what they had heard until then.
The content of the lectures dealing with
the fundamental principles of the universe
and seeking to reawaken
the founding spirit of America
was a breath of fresh air for Americans who
had fallen into hell of immorality and sloth.
(Page 173)
Americans experienced
a revolution of consciousness
through my lectures.
Young people began to follow me,
calling me, "Father Moon" or "Reverend Moon"
and cutting their shoulder-length hair
and scruffy beards.
When appearances change, minds also change. So
God began to enter into the minds of young people
who had been immersed in alcohol and drugs.
The lectures were attended by a variety
of young people, transcending denominations.
When I would interrupt my sermons to ask,
"Are there any Presbyterians here?"
many young people would wave their hands.
saying, "Here."
If I asked, "Are there any Catholics?"
hands would go up again.
When I asked "How about Southern Baptists?"
many people would again answer, "Me."
"Why do you come to hear me instead of going
to hear a sermon in your own religious group?
I asked. "Go home and go to your own church
to hear God's Word."
When I said this, the audience responded,
"We want to hear Reverend Moon!"
More and more people began gathering,
and even some ministers
of Presbyterian and Baptist churches came,
bringing with them
the young people of their churches.
As time went on, Reverend Moon became an icon
representing a revolution of consciousness
in American society.
I taught American young people
how to endure difficulty.
I thoroughly taught them the principle
that a person must be able to rule himself
before he can rule the universe.
My teachings provided a new inspiration
to American young people
living in an age of confusion.
They shouted in agreement with my message
of sexual purity and true families.
The reception was so enthusiastic
that it made me sweat with excitement as well.
(Page 174)
"Do you want to bear the cross of pain?"
I asked them.
"No one wants to go the way of the cross.
Your heart may want to go that way, but
your body says 'No!'
Just because something is pleasing to the eye
doesn't mean it is good for the heart.
There are many things that look good,
but an examination of their inner aspect
shows them to be evil.
"If you catch yourself seeking after only things
pleasing to the eye and try following that path,
you must immediately stop yourself and say,
'You rascal!' Also, if you feel the desire to eat
only things pleasing to the mouth,
you must scold your body, saying, 'You rascal,'
and block yourself.
You young people
are attracted to the opposite sex, aren't you?
In this case, too, you must make a strong stand
against such urges.
If a person cannot control himself,
he cannot do anything in this world.
Consider that if you break down,
the universe will break down."
I was teaching them the motto
that I had followed as a young man, which was
"Before seeking to rule the universe,
first perfect your ability to rule yourself."
America had great wealth and had become
obsessed with material goods.
I stood in the midst of this materialistic culture
and talked about matters of the mind and heart.
The mind cannot be seen with the eye
or held in the hand. Yet,
we clearly are ruled by our minds.
Without our minds, we are nothing.
Then I talked about true love, God-centered love,
which should guide the mind.
I said that true freedom can be enjoyed
only when we have a clear understanding
of ourselves
based on a foundation of true love
and are able to exercise self-control.
I taught them the value of hard work.
Hard work is not suffering but creation.
The reason a person can work all his life
and be happy
is that labor is connected to God's world.
The labor that people perform is nothing more
than taking things that God created
and shaping them in different ways.
If you think that you are making something
to give to God as a memento, then labor is not
something to think of in a negative way.
(Page 175)
Many American young people
were so steeped in the affluent life
provided to them by their materialistic culture
that they didn't know the joy of working.
So I taught them to work with joy.
I also awoke in them the joy of loving nature.
The young people were caught up
in the immoral culture of the cities
and enslaved in selfish lives,
so I talked to them about the preciousness
of nature. Nature is given to us by God.
God speaks to us through nature.
It is a sin to destroy nature
for the sake of a moment of enjoyment
or an insignificant amount of money.
The nature that we destroy
will eventually make its way back to us
in the form of pollutants
and make life difficult for our descendants.
We need to go back to nature
and listen to what nature tells us.
I told the young people of America
that when we open our hearts and listen
to what nature is saying,
we can hear the Word of God.
In September 1975,
we founded the Unification Theological Seminary
in Barrytown, New York,
which is located north of New York City.
The faculty was hired on an interreligious basis,
and we had professors representing
Judaism, Protestantism, Catholicism,
Eastern Orthodoxy, and Oriental Philosophy.
When they lectured about their own religions,
our students asked them very difficult questions.
The classes always became forums
for intense debate.
When all the religions were put together
and debated, they began
to break through the incorrect concepts
that they had about each other
and to better understand each other.
Gifted young people finished
their master's level education at our seminary
and entered the doctoral programs at Harvard,
Yale, and other leading U.S. universities.
Today they have become capable
of leading the religious world on a global scale.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
Washington Monument,
1976
(Page 176)
In 1974 and 1975,
I was invited to speak on Capitol Hill, I spoke
in front of members of the House of Representatives
on the topic "One Nation Under God."
I addressed the congressmen in the same manner
as I had the young people on the street, saying,
"America was born through God's blessing.
This blessing, however, was not for Americans alone.
This was God's blessing for the world,
given through America.
America must understand the principle
of this blessing and sacrifice itself
in order to save the world.
To do this, there needs to be a reawakening
that let's America return to its founding spirit.
Christianity, which has been divided
into dozens of denominations, must be united,
absorb all religion, and open a new future
for world civilizaton."
I was the first foreign religious leader to be
invited to speak by members of the U.S. Congress.
After I was invited for a second time,
many more people became interested in finding out
about this Reverend Moon from Korea.
The next year, on June 1, 1976, we held a celebration
at Yankee Stadium in New York City to commemorate
the bicentennial of the nation's independence.
(Page 177)
At the time, the United States
could not celebrate its anniversary peacefully.
It was feeling the threat of communism,
and its young people were living lives
far distant from the desire of God,
engaging in such things as drugs and free sex.
I felt that America was seriously ill.
I went to the celebration feeling as though
I were like a surgeon cutting open the heart
of a New York that lay sick.
On the day of the celebration,
torrential rains came down, and a strong wind
blew the decorations all around the field,
but no one tried to get out of the rain.
The band started playing
"You Are My Shunshine,"
and everyone in the stadium
began to sing together.
They were singing a song about sunshine,
even as they were being soaked by rain.
Ther mouths were singing about sunshine,
but their eyes were crying.
It was a moment when rain and tears
were mixed together.
Then, incredibly,
as I went to the stage to speak,
the sunshine broke through the rain clouds.
It was as if God had heard their singing.
I did some boxing when I was in school.
You can hit a good boxer with many jabs
and still find that he is not affected.
If you can land a solid upper cut, however,
even the strongest boxer will be shaken up.
I was counting on
landing a solid upper cut on America.
I felt that there needed to be
a much larger rally than what had been held
up to that point so that the name
"Sun Myung Moon"
would be indelibly carved into America's mind.
Washington Monument
stands on the National Mall in the very center
of the capitol of the United States.
The monument,
which looks like a tall sharp pencil,
stands over a hundred eighty-three meters
(five hundred and fifty feet) high.
A large grassy field extends
from the monument to the reflecting pond
in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
I set a plan to hold a large rally in this place,
the symbolic heart of America.
(Page 178)
To even hold a rally there, however, we needed
permission from both the U.S. government
and the U.S. National Park Police.
By this time,
many U.S. officials did not like me very much.
I had previously put ads in newspapers
calling on the people of America to fogive
former Presdient Richard Nixon,
who had been pushed into a crisis
because of the Watergate incident.
This position was very unpopular.
So now the U.S. government
kept turning us down, and it was not until
forty days prior to the event
that we were finally able to receive permission.
Our members, too, suggested to me
that this was too ambitious a plan
and that we should not go forward.
The National Mall
surrounding the Washington Monument was
an open park in the middle of an urban area.
There were not many trees---
just a wide expanse of grass.
If the crowd were small,
it would be obvious for everyone to see.
To fill such a large area, there would have to be
hundreds of thousands of people.
Our members
wanted to know how this could be possible.
Prior to this, only two people
had held large events on the National Mall.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
had held a rally for civil rights on the steps
of the Lincoln Memorial,
and Rev. Billy Graham
had held a large gathering there.
So it was a place with a lot of symbolism.
This was the place that I was challenging.
I prayed without ceasing for this rally.
Four times
I wrote the speech that I was to deliver.
A week before the event, I still had mixed feelings
about what I should say in my speech.
Finally, three days before the event,
I completed the text.
Generally, I don't speak from prepared texts.
I made an exception in this case,
because of my concern that the event go well.
I knew this was going to be
a particularly important event,
though, I wasn't quite certain in what way.
(Page 179)
I will never forget what happened on that day,
September 18, 1976.
People started coming
to the Washington Monument
from early in the morning.
Some three hundred thousand people gathered.
It was impossible to tell
where all these people had come from.
They had all different colors of hair and skin.
All the races that God sent to earth
gathered on that day.
It was a rally on a global scale
that does not require any additional description.
I stood in front of the gathering and declared,
"God prepared America for two hundred years.
This is the time for awakening.
America must accept her global responsibility.
Armed with Godism
she must free the communist world and
at last build the Kingdom of God here on earth."
The speech was interrupted many times
by shouts and applause.
Newsweek, in a year-end pictorial review
of the major events of 1976, carried my photo
and referrred to me
as part of the revivalism of the 1970's.
On the other hand,
an increasing number of people were
beginning to look at me with caution and fear.
To them, I was nothing more than a
strange magician who had come from the East.
I was not a white man
they could place their faith in and follow.
The fact that I was saying things that were
somewhat different from what they had heard
in their churches made them feel very insecure.
In particular, they could not allow a situation
in which young white people were
showing respect to and following an Asian
with slender eyes shaped like a fish.
They began spreading rumors that I had been
brainwashing innocent young white people.
This group that opposed me
gathered in the background, behind those
who were shouting their support.
I knew that
another crisis was about to befall me.
I was not afraid, however,
because I was clearly doing what was right.
(Page 180)
The United States is widely known as a country
of freedom and equality, where people of
all races come to realize the American dream.
In fact, however, there is
a great deal of struggle stemming from
racial and religious discrimination.
These are chronic illnesses that are embedded
deep within America's history, and they are
therefore much more difficult to cure than
the social diseases of immorality and materialism
that arose out of the affluence of the 1970's.
About this time,
I was visiting African-American churches
in an effort to foster ecumenical harmony.
Among black leaders there were some who,
in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
were working to do away with
racial discrimination
and bring about God's world of peace.
Some of these ministers had images
hanging in their basements of the slave markets
that had existed for hundreds of years
prior to being outlawed.
One frequent image was of a black man
being burned alive while hanging from a tree.
Another was of black men and women
stripped of their clothes
being looked over like merchandise
by potential slave buyers.
And yet another was of a black baby crying
as it was being taken away from its mother.
One could hardly believe that human beings
were capable of the barbaric acts
depicted so clearly in those images.
"Wait and see," I told a gathering in Chicago
on October 24, 1975,
"Within the next thirty years, there will be
a president of the United States who was
born into an interracial black and white family."
The prophecy I made that day
has now come true in America with
the inauguration of President Barack Obama,
who spent much of his adult life in Chicago.
This prophecy did not come true on its own.
Many people shed their blood and sweat
to do away with the struggles between the races,
and those efforts have now finally blossomed.
(Page 181)
Surprisingly, a number of ministers
of established churches in America came
and brought their congregations
to the Washington Monument rally.
They decided that my message
transcended denominations
and that I was inspiring young people.
I called on people to transcend
differences of denomination and religion,
and those words were realized at this rally.
The Washington Monument Rally was a mracle.
The hundreds of thousands of people
who attended made this among the largest
gatherings ever held on the National Mall.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
"Shed Tears for the World,
Not for Me"
(Page 182)
Good is often followed by the bad.
Some people drew mustaches on posters
and advertisements carrying my picture,
trying to associate me with Hitler.
They called me "anti-Semetic"
and claimed that I taught against Jews.
Trouble also happened with Christians.
As the number of young people following me
and the number of ministers
who wanted to learn the Principle increased,
American established churches
also began to persecute me.
Lastly, leftists in America reacted against
my position that it was America's responsiblity
to stop the spread of communism in the world.
They, too,
began to look for ways to stop my activities.
As our popularity grew,
all kinds of misgivings and doubts
began to be raised about me.
Young people, inspired to spread my teachings,
had left college or quit their jobs
to travel around the country and teach
and raise funds for our work.
Their parents understandably became
concerned about their well-being.
When the United States
became embroiled in the Watergate crisis,
I met with President Richard Nixon to urge him
to seek God's will in leading the nation.
I issued an appeal to the American people to
"forgive, love, and unite"
around the position of the president. This sparked
opposition from the leftist news media.
(Page 183)
Things that previously had not been an issue suddenly
came pressing down upon me. At the same time,
conservatives said I was too liberal and that
my teachings would break down traditional values.
Many Christians were also unhappy about the new
understanding of the cross that I was teaching:
Jesus came as the Messiah, and it was not
God's predestined will that he be crucified.
With the crucifixion of Jesus, God's plan for
the kingdom of peace went awry. If Israel
had received Jesus as the Messiah, He could have
brought about a world of peace, uniting
cultures and religions of the East and West.
Jesus, however, died on the cross, and God's work
of complete salvation was delayed until
the Second Coming.
This understanding of the cross brought
a great deal of opposition. As a result,
established churches and the Jewish community both
came to regard me as their enemy. They tried
any number of ways to have me removed from America,
each for their own different reasons.
Ultimately, I was imprisoned once again. All my work
had one purpose: to reestablish the morality
of America and restore it to be a country in line with
God's Will, but I was accused of not paying my taxes.
I was well passed my sixtieth birthday by this time.
During the first three years I was in America, donations
received from around the world were placed in
a bank account in New York in my name, held in trust
for the church, a practice common in some denominations.
The money in this account produced interest income,
and I was indicted on the central allegation
of failing to report that interest as income
on my personal tax returns fo the years 1973 to 1975.
The estimated tax on that income was about $7,500.
Normally, a fine would have been charged, but
I was put on trial and convicted in 1982, and
finally imprisoned in the federal
correctional institution in Danbury Connecticut,
on July 20, 1984.
(Page 184)
On the day before reporting to the Danbury prison,
I met with members gathered at the Belvedere training
center in Tarrytown, New York.
It was an emotional gathering. Thousands of people who
had followed me gathered at Belvedere that day,
shed tears as they prayed for me. I raised my voice
and told them not to lose heart.
"I am innocent," I said. "I have done nothing wrong."
"I can see the bright light of hope rising
from beyond Danbury." I told them.
"Don't cry for me, but cry for America.
Love America, and pray for America."
I stood before these young people immersed in sadness
and held up my hands as a sign of hope.
The statement I made prior to entering the prison
caused a great stir among religious people.
A "Common Suffering Fellowship" was intiated,
and there was a wave of prayers to support me.
The Common Suffering Fellowhip was a groundswell
of support of clergy from all denominations and
from other religions concerned about
the attack on religious freedom in America.
On the day that I went to prison, I knew
I had nothing to fear. I know life in jail.
This was not the case with the people around me,
however. They were concerned that some people
strongly opposed to me would do something to end my life.
I headed to prison with my head held high.
(CHAPTER FOUR)
"Why Does My Father
Have to Go to Jail?"
(Page 185)
Even in Danbury prison, I followed my principle
of living for the sake of others. I would wake up early
in the morning and clean places that were dirty.
In the cafeteria, others would lean over their food
and either take a nap or chat among themselves, but
I kept my back straight and sat with dignity.
When I was given work to do,
I worked harder at it than others did, and
kept an eye out to see how others were doing.
In my spare time, I read the Bible. One prisoner,
seeing how I read the Bible day and night said to me,
"Is that your Bible? Here's my Bible. Take a look!"
He threw a magazine to me. It was the pornographic
magazine Hustler. In prison, I was known
as a person who worked without talking. I read books
and meditated. After going three months this way,
oI became friends with a person who was on drugs and
with the prisoner who had said the pornographic magazine
was his Bible. After a month or two, the prisoners
began to share with me the items they received from
outside. Once we could share our hearts, it was as if
spring had come to the inside of the prison.
(Page 186)
Actually, the United States government did not
really want to send me to prison. They chose
to indict me while I was out of the country
on a trip to Germany, and they probably would have
been satisfied if I had chosen not to return.
They weren't trying to put me in jail.
They were trying to remove me from the country.
I was becoming well known in America, and the number
of people following me was increasing.
So they wanted to put a roadblock in my way.
Just as in Korea, I was a thorn in the side
of the established churches.
Because I knew this was their purpose,
I chose to return to America and go to jail.
I still had things that needed to be done in America.
I think that going to jail
is not a completely bad thing. If I am to get people
who are in the valley of tears to repent,
then I must first shed tears. Unless I first
experience such a wretched heart, I cannot get others
to submit themselves to God.
Heaven really works in mysterious ways. After
I was imprisoned, seven thousand ministers and
other religious leaders accused the U.S. government
of violating religious freedom and began
an effort to save me.
Among them were the conservative Rev. Jerry Falwell
of the Southern Baptist Convention and the liberal
Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, who gave the benediction
during the inauguration of President Obama.
They stood at the forefront of the effort to save me.
Also, my daughter I n J i n,
a young girl still in her teens, marched with them.
She stood before several thousand religious leaders
and read in tears a letter that she had written
in appeal to the judge who had handed down my sentence.
"My father's life has been dotted with tears
and suffering as he sought to carry out God's will.
He is now 64 years old. His only crime
was that he loved America. Yet, at this moment,
he is either washing dishes in the prison cafeteria
or mopping its floors.
(Page 187)
"Last week, I visited my father and saw him
for the first time in his prison uniform.
I cried and cried.
My father told me not to cry for him
but to pray for America. He told me to take up
my anger and sorrow and transform these
into a powerful force that will make this
a truly free country.
"He said that while he was in prison he would endure
any hardship, bear any injustice, and carry any cross.
Freedom of religion is the basis of all freedoms.
I am truly grateful to everyone who has stood up
to support religious freedom."
My sentence was reduced by six months
for good behaviour, and I was released after serving
thirteen months. The day I left prison, a banquet
to celebrate my release was held in Washinton D.C.
Seventeen hundred Christian ministers and Jewish rabbis
were gathered and waiting for me. In my remarks
to the gathering, I repeated my position in favor of
transcending religions and denominations. I spoke
in a loud voice to the world at large, feeling no need
for concern for the reaction from those opposed to me.
"God is not a denominationalist. He is not bound
by secondary arguments over doctrine. There are no
distinctions over nationality or race in God's great
parental heart. Neither are there any walls between
nations and cultures there. Even today, God continues
to do everything He can to embrace
all the world's people as His children.
America today suffers from racial issues, issues
resulting from the confusion of values and
moral degradation, issues of spiritual drought
and the decline of Christian faith, and issues
of aetheistic communism. These are the reasons
I answered the call of Godand came to this country.
Christianity today must have a great awakening
and come together as one. Clergy too, must reexamine
the roles that you have been playing until now and repent.
The situation that played out two thousand years ago
when Jesus came and called on people to repent,
is being repeated today.
(Page 188)
We must fulfill the important mission
that God has given in America.
The situation cannot continue as it is now.
There needs to be a new reformation."
Once I had been released from prison,
there was nothing to hold me back.
I spoke with an even louder voice than before
to give a message of warning to a fallen America.
I repeatedly spoke in strong words
that returning to God's love and morality
is the only way to revitalize America.
I was imprisoned
without my having done anything wrong,
but God's will was there as well.
After my release,
the people who worked for my release took turns
coming to Korea to learn more about my work.
They came to find out
what it was about Reverend Moon's spirit
that had attracted so many young people in America.
On their return to the United States,
one hundred twenty of these ministers organized
the American Clergy Leadership Conference.
(end of Chapter Four)