ORDER NUMBER
92-08-24
REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON
SPEAKS ON
LEADERS BUILDING
A WORLD OF PEACE
August 24, 1992
Little Angels Performing Arts Center
Seoul, Korea
This address was given on August 24, 1992, at the Little Angels Performing
Arts Center, Seoul, Korea, to the assembled guests attending the World
Culture and Sports Festival.
Distinguished chairpersons of the First World Culture and Sports Festival,
distinguished guests and participants from Korea and around the world.
As founder of the World Culture and Sports Festival, I would like to
express my deepest gratitude to you for having gathered here in such a
large number to pray for the success of this festival.
I would like to speak to you this evening on the topic, "Becoming
the Leaders in Building a World of Peace." During the mid-1930s, when
I was sixteen years old and the Korean peninsula was under the forced occupation
of Japan, I received a special mission from Heaven through Jesus. I am
seventy-two now, and in the intervening years there has not been even a
single second when I did not think of God's will and His commands.
I lived my boyhood and youth under the colonial rule of imperial Japan.
So I know only too well the excruciating pain and tragic circumstances
suffered by the weaker and smaller nations of the world. Because I possess
a certain degree of discernment into God's heart, it was with unspeakable
pain and sorrow that I witnessed, first, the cruelty of the more powerful
nations as they plundered the weaker nation of Korea and, later, the terrible
carnage of the Second World War.
Then immediately following World War II, in a development that compounded
our already difficult situation, the Korean peninsula was divided between
north and south. In 1950, the Korean War broke out and Koreans found themselves
in a fratricidal conflict. Various countries of the world on the left and
right chose to support one or the other of the opposing sides. I witnessed
this tragic history directly, and I know from my heart of hearts how much
pain and sorrow has been brought to God and humanity by the loss of a world
of peace.
How do you imagine God has felt since the time of creation as He had
to watch while time and time again brothers set themselves against each
other, with Cain, the older brother, taking the life of Abel, the younger?
All wars since the beginning of human history have been, in their essence,
struggles among brothers. The Bible teaches us this through its record
of the murder of Abel by Cain in the family of Adam. Why do such conflicts
among brothers occur over and over on the levels of family, tribe, society,
nation and world?
The reason lies in the sin committed by Adam and Eve, the parents of
Cain and Abel. Adam and Eve were the original ancestors of humankind, placed
in a position to represent all the men and women who would come after them.
As such, they should have brought God's ideal of creation into reality.
By breaking God's commandment, however, they forfeited their position as
the true parents of goodness for all of humanity who would be born after
them. Instead, they became fallen parents of evil. It is this evil that
is the original sin, the fundamental root of all crime and unhappiness
in human society.
The original sin of the first human ancestors was that Adam and Eve
broke God's commandment and engaged in an illicit sexual relationship.
In this way, they formed a blood relationship with the devil, and became
fallen false parents, passing on false love, false life and a false lineage
to the entire human race. There is only one way for humanity to escape
this world of evil and struggle, and that is to be reunited with their
true parents and be reborn through them. Only when this is accomplished
can the true way to cast off original sin be revealed.
After I received my calling at the age of sixteen, I spent the years
searching for the answer to precisely this problem of how to bring salvation
to humankind. The result of that lonely search for truth is the new expression
of God's truth that you refer to today as the Unification Principle, Godism
and Headwing philosophy. On Aug. 15, 1945, the day Korea was liberated
from imperial Japan, I began proclaiming this truth on the earth. Because
I have proclaimed these teachings, I have had to undergo tremendous persecution
and attack.
Think for a moment about the fact that I have been imprisoned as many
as six times in my life. This alone is enough to tell you how harsh the
attacks against me have been. The First World Culture and
Sports Festival, being held during this forty-seventh year since I began
proclaiming the Unification Principle, is a holy celebration. It is an
occasion to let the entire world see, and to offer to God, the harvest
reaped from the seeds I have sown and nurtured for the liberation of God
and humanity and for the realization of a world of peace. Everything I
have strived to achieve during my life has been for the purpose of confirming
the fact that all people in the world are brothers and sisters before God,
our common Parent. Our common ties as members of the global family centered
on God transcend our differences based on race, nationality and international
boundaries.
The primary institution in which my teachings are being practiced is
the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity,
that is, the Unification Church. There is now no country in the world where
the Unification Church does not exist. The Unification Church has put its
roots down in all races, nationalities and countries. The International
Marriage Blessing of 30,000 couples that will be held tomorrow in Seoul's
Olympic Main Stadium is certain to be a testimony to the fact that humanity
is one great family centered on God.
With the Unification Church as the root organization, I have founded
many other organizations for projects in a wide variety of fields. These
organizations are for the purpose of building a world of peace in which
we, the human family, centered on God, can rejoice in our freedom, ideals
and happiness. For the World Culture and Sports Festival, I have gathered
the most prominent of these organizations here in Seoul. During the festival,
a new unified structure will be founded to facilitate stronger mutual ties
and closer cooperation among these organizations.
The International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, the Professors
World Peace Academy, the World Media Conference, the Summit Council for
World Peace, the Assembly of the World's Religions, the Inter-Religious
Federation for World Peace, the Women's Federation for World Peace, the
international performing arts groups and International CARP will meet during
this time of the International Marriage Blessing and provide forums for
us to enlighten our intellects and reaffirm our determination in devoting
ourselves to the cause of building a world of peace.
The International Marriage Blessing of the Unification Church, which
I will be conferring during this time, is the blessing of resurrection.
Through this ceremony, humanity is able to cut itself clear from original
sin and recover true love, true life and true lineage of God. It is within
the context of this ceremony that we can give birth to peace that enables
us to realize the ideal of the great brotherhood of humanity that transcends
race, nationality and international boundaries.
As the founder of these organizations and groups, I wish to reaffirm
here this evening that their purpose is to bring about world peace, according
to the ideal of God and humanity. They are not created for the benefit
of any particular group or political faction. They do not serve the narrow
interests of any particular nation or state. Rather, they exist to bring
happiness, peace and freedom to God, the Creator of the universe, and to
all humanity.
Our movement, thus, must bring salvation to all families, all nations,
all states and, finally, to the entire world. It must be a family-saving,
nation-saving, world-saving movement.
Our families are being destroyed by the debasement of sexual ethics
through illicit relationships and decadent lifestyles. Every nation is
suffering the agony of the destruction of its moral standards and the accompanying
increase in crime. There is no solution in sight to the conflicts between
political factions. Poverty and ignorance continue to plague us. There
is no sign that we may be nearing solutions to the world's international
border disputes, to the attitudes of prejudice between religious groups,
or to the conflicts between the various races and ethnic groups. World
peace is under constant threat from the selfish actions of the world's
countries and peoples.
Environmental pollution also is destroying our planet to the degree
that we are approaching a serious crisis for the future of humankind. We
may all find ourselves on a common path of destruction, unless we are able
to resolve the crisis we face through a love that transcends all national
boundaries and ethnic differences and encompasses all the world's people.
Let me emphasize again-any successful resolution of this crisis must be
based on an effort to build a unified world through a movement of true
love rooted in the Unification Principle, or Godism.
In early July, I spoke in five cities around Korea at rallies held by
the Women's Federation for World Peace. There, I declared that my wife,
WFWP President Hak Ja Han Moon, and I are the True Parents of all humanity.
I declared that we are the Savior, the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah.
Why would I stand before women leaders of Korea and make such an astonishing
and fearful announcement? The reason is that God has been carrying out
His providence to send the Messiah as the second perfected Adam who has
subjugated Satan, in order to establish a perfected Eve who will represent
all women. God has done this, because it was when Satan caused Eve to fall
that human history came to be permeated with sin.
Also, women are the central point for the love, peace and spirit of
service that protect our families, and it is the healthy family that must
be the starting point in our work to build world peace. The establishment
of God-centered family ethics and the education of our children lie at
the innermost core of my teachings as the person who has declared for himself
the responsibilities of the Messiah. The family is the holy sanctuary that
must cleanse this defiled world.
That is the reason it was necessary that I, as the Messiah, make my
declaration to women leaders gathered around President Hak Ja Han Moon,
my wife, who stands in the position of perfected Eve. This declaration
is an exhortation and notice to all who follow my teachings to join Mrs.
Moon and me in our attendance to God on the path of sacrifice and service
for the salvation of this world.
As I conclude my remarks this evening, I would like to propose, so that
all of our activities for world salvation can be carried out more effectively,
that we establish "The House of Unification for World Peace"
as a structure for the peaceful unification of the world.
To avoid any possible misunderstanding, particularly regarding the title
of this structure as rendered in the Korean language, let me state clearly
that I am not proposing to create a political party. The House of Unification
for World Peace that I propose is not a political party. It will not have
the function commonly associated with political parties, that is, to seek
to take over the executive powers of government in a given country. It
is, rather, a "house" to reinforce the concerted actions of the
world's countries, and foster a unified foundation and common effort for
world peace.
If we say that heaven is a symbol of man, then earth is a symbol of
woman. The house is the stage on which a woman's life is played out. The
mother is the center of a nest filled with love for all the members of
the family. The family, with the mother at its center, is the basic unit
making up the nation and the world. I use the word "House" in
the title of the structure I am proposing, because this word contains the
meaning of "exalting the earth, centering on the mother." It
also signifies "to teach." The word "House" in this
title, therefore, signifies a center for the education of women.
Through this structure, we can provide new impetus to the work of giving
opportunities for meaningful exchanges and education on a God-centered
vision for world peace to people of all countries and all walks of life,
including political leaders, scholars, religious leaders, journalists and
educators, as well as leaders of women and youth. This vision of world
peace will be centered on families in which mothers, representing all women
of the world, accomplish mind-body unity through love.
If you will embrace my proposal and join me in this task, then our efforts
are certain to bring the world of peace that is the object of God's desire
to all of humanity within the remaining eight years of the twentieth century.
We who are gathered here this evening will be the leaders in opening the
gates to a world of peace for the coming twenty-first century.
I pray you may have a pleasant visit during a the time of the festival
and that God will bestow His boundless blessings and protection upon your
work.