True Parents and Our Responsibility (Part 4)

What about you American women? Will you be able to compete successfully with these hard-working Oriental sisters? You will have to work even harder in order to win back the best American brothers who currently want Oriental fiancées. American women should pay indemnity to restore this country. Unless the women of the United States become a new breed, this country has no hope. Two thirds of the homes that break up do so because of the woman. Some women marry a man only in order to get his fortune; once they have been married for a while, they divorce so they can get half of the husband's wealth. This is the strategy of some women.

If the American men are wary of marrying an American woman, you should simply work hard, pay lots of indemnity, and I will bring many Oriental men over here as your husbands. By marrying an Oriental man, you bridge the gap between East and West. Like the Oriental women who came to America and worked hard and suffered to pioneer the heavenly tradition, perhaps you will go to the Orient and duplicate their work. Since you understand the necessity of the indemnity course, you cannot run away from it. Where could you go? The indemnity course is good and necessary.

At this very moment, someone somewhere is killing himself. The suicide rate has skyrocketed in recent years. Tens of thousands of people kill themselves each year in the United States. But if they understood the meaning of indemnity, they could never kill themselves. We can save all those lives by explaining the Principle and the reality of indemnity. Then they could have hope and new vision, knowing their lives could be invested for a great purpose.

When I selected the foreign missionaries, I sent an impossible combination to each country: one American, one German and one Japanese. My direction to them was to unite; that was their indemnity course. If they were able to unite in their mission, they were able to bring great accomplishments; but if they could not unite, nothing good could happen in their country.

It is ridiculous for someone who is walking the course of indemnity to state, "I have been in the Unification Church for a long time, so others should serve me." How can you say such a thing? I am still walking the course of indemnity, and I have been in the Unification Church longer than anybody! Don't you think this church is a dramatic and exciting place? What makes it so? Actually, indemnity itself is what makes it dramatic.

Even though you say you agree with me, in your heart you don't want indemnity. But from now on, the most clever and bright people in the Unification Church will be the ones who seek out indemnity. Before now, the clever people have usually discovered ways to avoid indemnity, and only the not-so-clever ones willingly entered into indemnity. But from 1982 on, we must turn that around and see the opposite thing happen. The smartest and most capable members of the Unification Church must become the first to go the way of indemnity, on their own initiative.

Of all the different aspects of our movement -- the newspaper companies, the fishing businesses, etc. -- which do you think will bring you the most indemnity? During the past five years, The News World has been persecuted and the people who worked there have suffered immensely.

Do you think those who travel the indemnity course should expect a nice, large monthly salary? If you really want to pay indemnity, you will turn your good salary over to some greater purpose. You must receive your salary from God. You can't take it from your mission work. Once God is able to receive the entire world as an offering to Him, each person in the world will be entitled to receive a salary from God.

When you have restored a nation, transforming it into a God-centered country, that nation will reward you with a salary you can receive. However, whenever you receive a salary now, you should use only the bare minimum you need and give the rest for the purpose of world restoration. This is the will of God. Then God will want to give you a huge salary. Your attitude as children should be to say, "I will receive a salary only after the True Parents receive one." Do you think I receive a salary?

The most important, primary purpose of our life is to bring this world back to God's side. Even when you are married and have many children, if you are unable to dwell in a nation that is owned by God and under His domain, you are just like the Jewish community in the wilderness; you cannot truly settle down. In order to achieve our settlement, we must tighten our belts and overcome the obstacles.

Whenever the movement obtains some money, we invest it for the sake of world restoration, beginning with the restoration of the nation. Between the world and the family, which has the highest priority? Can we sacrifice the world for the sake of our family? Certainly the family must walk the indemnity course for the sake of the world. This is how I have lived my life. God Himself has lived this way. You must realize this truth.

You must take the initiative to be a positive element, which adds to the benefit of the Unification Church, and never become a burden to it. Without such determination, you cannot fulfill the course of indemnity. I feel responsible to educate each of you while you are still young about how to support yourselves and contribute to the Church. You experience terrible persecution from the outside world, but go ahead and take it; accept all the curses and abuses. These are the experiences that will make you strong for the future.

Some Korean women came here and started asking their hardworking American fiancés for financial help; they complained about their situations. This is totally against my desire. I wanted those Korean fiancées to come here and give comfort and encouragement to their future husbands who have been working so hard in their public missions. Instead, they became burdens to their husbands! This is terrible.

Some Korean girls have even been telling their fiancés that they are wasting their time in their public missions and that they should return to school and get a degree so they can support them in their marriage. There is absolutely no way I will accept this attitude. If you Korean women feel so strongly about your husband going to school, then you should go out and work to make enough money to send him to school once he has fulfilled his public mission. Do some of you Korean women now regret having chosen a Western husband? I would like to see you use whatever money you have been spending for makeup to buy things for your future in-laws. You should give, not expect to receive. The standard of the fallen world is for the new bride to receive all kinds of benefits from her in-laws and to spend all her money on herself. We should be just the opposite: spending our money on our in-laws and others. All of you, who aspire to be universal women, tell me: did you come to the United States in order to enjoy the good life? In choosing Korean brides for Americans, my standard was to look for women who are healthy, both spiritually and physically. I want you to become exemplary.

You international couples are like test cases for the future; what you do will set the standard for the future. The most important task of these international marriages is to give birth to great sons and daughters. In order to do so, you must be spiritually pure. If you are corrupted, you can never have wonderful children. I would like you to become the true ancestors of the new America.

Those of you who worry about getting older and becoming incapable of having children, my advice to you is to go out, work harder and let God Himself hasten the day of your marriage. Your self-centered desire for a family will never shorten the wait. To reach the greatest level of accomplishment and pay the greatest amount of indemnity and have only one child is far better than having ten children but achieving only a mediocre standard.

God Himself is a God of indemnity. Whatever I have achieved today is the result of going the way of indemnity my entire life. My ears want to hear nice sounds; my mouth wants to taste good food; my eyes want to see beautiful things -- the same as you. Why then do I constantly push you and myself into experiences contrary to the desires of our five senses? Because we must go that way in order to reach God.

There is no easy short cut to Heaven. Even if your hair falls out from working so hard and paying so much indemnity, your bald head will become your badge and your source of pride. If there were some other way to go, I would have already found it. If complaint were permissible, I would have more reason to protest than anyone. But complaint has no place in this life, so we must silently go this path. The meaning of the indemnity course is to take the road of pain voluntarily, willingly, and without complaint. The act of taking responsibility requires the absence of complaint.

I know that there is much complaint in the Unification Church. Yet the indemnity course has value only when it is taken willingly. You cannot be forced. As an example, suppose I had returned reluctantly to face this court trial, only at the urging of other people. Then I could never count it as a victory. In fact, everybody else tried to stop me from coming back but I determined to return without the slightest delay. This is the victory: willing, voluntary participation in the difficult course.

Lately I have had to stay at East Garden a lot. It has been quite tedious at times. I have been learning how to play Ping-Pong and pool. In order to test myself, I have been playing these games even though I continue to lose over and over. Many people believe I have a custom-made, ironclad body, but your body and mine have the same composition. The only way I have been able to achieve so much in overcoming my physical body is because I have the spirit of indemnity.

I am sure the people on the East Garden security staff are taking note of this explanation. They probably never understood why I spent so much time at the pool table. Now they know it was my way of paying indemnity. Whether I won or lost, I could savor the experience; by persevering through dozens of lost games, I could taste losing over and over!

Some of you have had a poor understanding of the word indemnity. Do you want an easy life or a life of indemnity? By choosing the life of indemnity, you can gain the ultimate reward: achieving the level and standard of a true parent and a total relationship with God. Since indemnity is the only means of accomplishing that, indemnity is a blessing. If you spend 10 years fundraising on MFT, God Himself will bow down to you.

Take whatever may happen to you and give it meaning by accepting it as indemnity. Even common head cold or aching legs can have great significance. When you realize you are paying indemnity, you can sense a new burst of energy and determine to overcome all the obstacles such as colds, aches and pains.

If indemnity were a commodity to be sold on the market, how much would it cost? It is so precious it can never be sold; it is priceless. Now you can understand why you must willingly take on indemnity, why you cannot merely jump forward to your ideals. No matter what you are doing, apply the law of indemnity to it. Then whether you are studying, climbing mountains, or whatever, your life will be highly productive, Whatever you touch, you will be putting the law of indemnity into action. You must be successful in reaching up to God.

Let's recap today's sermon. First, I spoke about freedom and then about indemnity. One of the greatest problems in American life today is a misunderstanding of the meaning of freedom. Also, no one understands what parental love is supposed to be. The American standard is to take things as easy as possible; people seek ways to work less and enjoy life more. When you join the Unification Church, however, you learn a totally new concept: indemnity. The American way of life really hates such a concept. Do you think you need this Unification Church "medicine"? What about the future of the United States? All Americans need this same medicine.

Many people think their purpose is to live day by day in the pursuit of more and more fun; this is what freedom means to them. This has given rise to promiscuity, drug abuse, and all those evils. Now you should have the complete understanding that will enable you to help these people and lead them toward God.

Another prevalent attitude among Americans today is a lack of regard for the needs and feelings of their in-laws and even their parents. The younger generation considers all older people virtually worthless. That is why there are so many senior citizens' homes. After listening to this sermon, each of you should resolve never to send your parents away to an institution, but to welcome them into your own home and care for them. You must also be willing to sacrifice your own desires for the sake of your elderly parents when they need you. This is what true love means.

Parents may sometimes visit their child unannounced. This should be fine with the child. They should not have to make an appointment to visit their children. Younger people should consider older people closer to God. Each of you wants to create an ideal home and an ideal family. Certainly you don't want to continue the tradition of mistreating old people. Once you commit yourself to that standard of serving older people, you will find that those who opposed your membership in Reverend Moon's church will change their attitude.

Why do you think such a strong anti-American sentiment prevails in the world today? It is because the American people have sought to avoid anything related with the indemnity course. They have tried to avoid suffering themselves, caring nothing about the suffering of others. Even when the U.S. government sends money as foreign aid, many people cannot appreciate it because there is no heart in it, only selfishness. The salvation of America can only come from the course of indemnity and America must accept it.

This is why I have been training you young Americans and teaching you to be models of indemnity. While the current standard among young people is to touch and embrace in public, you Unification Church members do not even hold your fiancé's hand! Why? Only because of indemnity. We do not want mediocre indemnity; we must fulfill the greatest amount of indemnity.

I have instructed you not to call your fiancé very much, so perhaps you try to get around that by writing to each other every day. After you are married, suppose you could meet only once a year. Such a reunion could have more value than seeing each other every day if you had the right attitude. You could long for each other for a whole year, and then when you finally meet in intense, passionate love, you could produce a beautiful child. That would certainly be a great accomplishment.

When we live according to the indemnity way, we have already won the victory in life. Sometimes when outside men look at women in the Unification Church, they get ideas such as, "That girl is so cute and naive; I'm sure I could seduce her very easily." Such a man might think that with just a little conversation he could win her over. But even after five hours, he sees that she is unmoved! If he tried to talk with her for five days, or even five years, still she would never be seduced by his words. This is the quality of our women: they are tough.

Recently one Korean girl who is matched with a brother in Washington, D.C. gave a testimony of how she barely escaped being raped while fundraising. She had been constantly warned not to go out after 9:00 p.m. because the United States is much more dangerous than Korea. But she was so eager to get a better result that one night she went by herself to a certain area and was grabbed by three strong men who forced her into a car. They tried to rape her there, but she made a desperate effort to get free. She had no weapon at all, but she fought back fiercely and almost tore their faces off!

Those three men were overpowered and beaten off by that feeble-looking little Korean girl. They became so upset and angry that they almost tried to kill her. Still she never gave up; she kept fighting them. She managed to get out of the car and run away desperately. The men ran after her. She ran to the door of one home and they wouldn't even open it. She went to another door and then another. Still nobody would open their door to her, so she hid in some bushes. Although the people in the third home wouldn't open their door-this is the American mentality -- at least they called the police. This was how she narrowly escaped.

When I heard her testimony, I felt very proud of this little Korean girl who fought so bravely. Would you American women fight like that? Perhaps you would give in, thinking, "Why should I endanger my life to fight off these men?" That would be a pragmatic approach, but it would not be the right one. You are different from all other American women.

People in the outside world have no understanding of the Unification Church way of life, particularly our method of being matched and married. You are engaged for three years and keep yourselves absolutely pure. Such things are impossible for the world to understand. They assume you must be brainwashed by Rev. Moon, otherwise why would you live such a way? But you know the value of purity and that Satan would make you his victim if you let him.

When you study the Principle, you learn about such terms as "foundation of faith . . . foundation of substance," and "foundation to receive the Messiah." Advancing to these various levels can never be easy. Unless you completely understand what I have said today, you cannot attain those levels. You must understand the true meaning of freedom, why you need parents, and why you need indemnity.

What is the foundation of faith and why do we need it? We need to make some offering and condition on the material level. You are the central figure in that offering. The requirements are a material offering, a central figure in the role of Adam, and a conditional time period, which you must pass through. You may have learned the Principle, but you have not yet laid the foundation of faith. This, then, is your task.

When can you lay that foundation? By fundraising you can set the foundation of faith. Three and a half years is the time period and each of you, in the position of central figure, offers to God the material wealth of the world. As a consequence of the fall, the material things of creation were separated from God's dominion. We lay the foundation of faith in order to restore creation.

We are speaking here about the authentic way of life which Unification Church members walk. The number seven represents perfection. All numbers have a principled meaning.

You are a historic individual. Your lineage goes all the way back to the beginning point of history. In order to restore the history of this sinful world, you must jump outside it, in a way, and go in a direction opposite from it -- even if all the powers of Satan try to pull you back. It is inevitable that you will be persecuted. The fact that the Unification Church has received unprecedented rejection by the world is, in a way, proof of its truth and value. This is the first and last time that the entire world can oppose you for having rejected its ways.

When the entire world comes against a religion it becomes anointed as a world-level religion. Without receiving persecution by the world, a religion cannot elevate itself to a world-level. In my course, the original goal should have been reached in seven years, but it had to be extended to 21 years. When you become a member of the Unification Church, you leave the secular world and join an entirely new process: the march toward the establishment of a new world. Two thousand years ago, the Jewish people marched out of Egypt toward Canaan. Now we are marching into Canaan on the worldwide level.

The Israelites wandered through a literal wilderness and desert; today we must walk through a different kind of wilderness, a symbolic wilderness of the heart and mind. This is the world we are traveling through right now. Your families have criticized your way of life. This is similar to the Egyptians trying to hold back Moses and the Israelites, refusing to let them go.

Only those Jewish people who truly loved their traditions and society had the courage to follow such a difficult course. Likewise, we must go this way for the sake of the Heavenly Kingdom, the establishment of the sovereignty of God. We march with true patriotism toward the heavenly nation. A wilderness is a rugged place. I have been traveling through that wilderness for the past 21 years, pioneering a path. I can now lead you along the way and keep you from getting lost.

While Moses was on the top of Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God, he was gone from the community for 40 days and nights. During that time, the faith of the Israelites was shaken to such an extent that they created a golden calf to worship. The 40 years from 1945 to 1985 is the equivalent to the 40 days Moses spent on Mount Sinai, with the established Christian churches in the position of the chosen people. A similar confusion has seized worldwide Christianity: they are embracing all kinds of secular practices the way the Israelites turned toward idol worship.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, the people defied him, and he was overcome with anger and shattered the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written. Similarly, when I came bringing the Principle and the understanding that can save the world, people laughed and rejected me.

Young people are being corrupted by such satanic influences as drugs and sexual promiscuity. Satan is using such things to lead them to their death. This is exactly the kind of thing that occurred when the Israelites disobeyed Moses. In the midst of all the degradation of the world, the Unification Church is emerging with a message and banner of hope. We are carrying the standard of God's truth and we are practicing His principles.

God's plan is for the Korean people to lead this crusade followed by the Japanese; these two nationalities together can lead the American people. There has been enmity among these three nations in the past, but now they are coming together under God's direction. Because this unity is occurring, there is hope for unity throughout the world.

We are living here in the United States but we are a new breed of people; our goal and purpose are different. Once we reach Canaan, we must restore the nation, tribe, clan and family.

Now we are doing economic activities; this is a time to make a 100% offering to God. You should tell God, "Everything that belongs to me is Yours." When you go fundraising with such an attitude, you are making a condition to restore the entire world and all things of creation.

To make a perfect offering, you go out and raise funds, add something of your own, and then offer it to God. Instead of taking a percentage of the results for yourself, you can add a percentage from your own possessions. Perhaps you can take off your coat and offer it, or offer a schoolbook or a piece of jewelry. You need to set the condition of offering something from your personal resources.

The Bible tells the story of Ananias and Sapphira, a rich couple who sold their resources and told Peter they had given everything to the community of Christians, although they actually kept part of it for themselves. The moment they lied to Peter, they were punished by God and fell down dead. This is a dramatic expression of how God expects people to make an offering.

I am teaching you how to make an offering by giving you fundraising experiences. When you are given pocket money for personal expenses, you can return it and ask that it be spent for God's purpose.

Recently, one of the MFT commanders came to me asking for some awards for the most successful members on the MFT. I asked him what they would like and he told me that all they wanted was a signed picture of Mother and me. They weren't interested in material things, even though they dedicate their daily lives to raising funds. They only wanted some memento of True Parents.

This world is a vicious place, a "dog-eat-dog" society. How different is the Unification Church society! The United States is the frontline of our campaign for world salvation. We have brought to this country large sums of money over the past four years, but no newspapers have reported these facts. On the contrary, they promote the idea that I am draining this country's resources, using young people like slaves, and piling up money somewhere else. This kind of treatment I simply accept as good indemnity. Eventually, the American people and the world will know the truth. Never before has someone invested so much effort and resources for the sake of America, trying to revive the American spirit.

U.S. politicians themselves are often not very dedicated to the welfare of this country. When representatives of other governments come here, they usually ask for something for their country. I came here, however, under all kinds of persecution, and have been investing everything to aid this country. Once the American people realize this, they will support my activities.

Now we are in the process of creating The Washington Times, which can disseminate the truthful viewpoint. Lies can be very believable; truth, on the other hand, may sometimes be hard to accept. But ultimately, truth will stand up after all the lies have fallen away. Then people will understand what Reverend Moon is all about. Every penny our movement spends is carefully evaluated in terms of achieving God's will.

In order to erect a foundation of faith, each person must make some material offering. After setting a foundation of faith, a foundation of substance must follow. This means physical restoration on the human level-Cain and Abel must be restored. Abel must reach out to Cain and together they must come to God as united, loving brothers. Why is this necessary?

The Old Testament era was the era of offerings, of laying the foundation of faith. The New Testament era was the era of the foundation of substance; Jesus came in the position of Abel in relation to the world, which was Cain. Once the foundations of faith and substance have been successfully laid, we can make the foundation to receive the Messiah. What is the Messiah? True Parents.