Naturally I'm predisposed to wanting to do something like this, but I'm not going to go through my entire life history of being born into Rev. Moon's Unification movement (HSA-UWC, FFWPU, New Hope Academy, Camp Aurora, SFP, UPF, WFWP, CARP, etc). Instead I'll just say that, and start right off with the Global Peace Festival.
The Global Peace Festival is essentially a celebration of the common values all peoples of the world have and how we can highlight them to create world peace. It brings together people from every race, religion, nationality, and culture to show that we can not only tolerate one another, or even simply work together for a common goal. We can truly love each other as one family under God.
Speaking from a nation at war, yet a nation which is so mixed and has been so for so long that it is easy for us to see the similarities between people, this whole concept One Family Under God really resonated with me well. It touched my heart to think that the whole of humanity could live in a world where it doesn't matter what label you've been assigned, but what kind of character you have inside.
Abraham Lincoln lead the United States of America to the decision that our nation would do it's best to live that dream, the dream of all people being judged by their individual character, not their creed. He lead this national movement with arms during a the American Civil War. I believe strongly that with his father's guidance, Dr. Hyun Jin Moon (International President of the FFWPU, Co-Chairman of the UPF, and founder of the GPF) will lead the whole world to the same place, but rather than through arms, he'll do it with heart. In fact, he'll take us even farther than where the United States has gone. I believe he'll take us to Cheon-Il-Guk, or the Kingdom of Heaven, where all people truly live as one family under God.
Slightly before I had heard about the Global Peace Festival I picked up a book, Owning The Culture of Heart - Selected Speeches of World CARP President Hyun Jin Moon, published by World CARP. I want to share with you two short segments of it.
"Transformation has to happen first on the individual level. This transformation can come about through owning the Culture of Heart and embodying the Core Values. The most important component of the Core Values is living for the greater good, living for the sake of others. Why is this cultural battleground so important? Because this cultural battleground will allow us to fight directly with the satanic culture that exists today, that is rooted in the original sin of Adam and Eve. Remember, the impulse behind the Fall was false love, i.e., self-centered love. If the world truly wants to find peace on the individual, national, and worldwide levels, it first has to address this issue. Instead of planting the seed of false love or self-centered love, you have to plant the seed of true love. Then, and only then shall the world be able to reap true goodness and joy. The only way to establish peace is through living for the sake of others."
From President Hyun Jin Moon's Speech
July 12, 2003 at Sunmoon University, Asan, Korea
Back book flap.
That paragraph is basically the gist of the most important part of the Moon family's ideology, and and I believe it is how they plan to create world peace. Through living for the sake of others and the individual, family, municipal, national, and international levels. This idea has already worked in substantial ways. It is this ideology that has made a relationship between the Moon family and the North Korean government - the one which imporisoned Sun. Myung Moon for speaking out about his religious convictions - possible. It is why they were able to create a special economic zone in North Korea where South Koreans could do business freely, providing some jobs for North Koreans. It is also why the Universal peace Federation is able to get Christians, Muslums, and Jews together at the same table in Isreal and Palestine to talk things over, and why in Washington D.C. the mother of the victim of a gang killing was able to embrace the mother of the person who killed her son. This basic ideoligy of living for the sake of others, is practiced unconditionally, will save this world.
"We are fighting a life-threatening battle, a most severe, desperate battle at this time. Because what is at stake is not just some nation or some ideology; what is at stake is that which is most precious to God, that which becomes the cornerstone for the building of the Kingdom of Heaven. This cornerstone is the ideal family."This little peice inspired great curage in me. I've almost alwasy been a very shy person, when I was preparing to go to Washington D.C. for the Global Peace Festival I was a bit nervous. I knew part of what they would need would be outreach, going out to toal strangers in the big city, giving them a flyer, and trying to convince them to come to the GPF on August 9th. For me this ordinarily would be a big thing, but this sort of talk from Hyung Jin Moon really inspired me. What we are doing now with the Global Peace Festival is way too important for me to be afraid. This is war. We may not be using violence, but war it is anyway, and I can't let my petty worries get in the way of doing my part to win it.
Heavenly Soldiers Fighting for the Ideal Family
Closing Speach at the Third Special 21 Day Workshop
June 17, 2001, Druskininkai, Lithuania
Page 127
Finally, I'll tell a story of one young girl who did much more for the GPF than she realised. I won't name her because first I haven't any idea of her name, and second, even if I did, I'd want to get her permission first. So instead I'll call her "Anna".
I think it was the night before the GPF, but I can't be sure. We were working hard and long hours, and I never was one for keeping track of time, so the dates around that time are a bit fuzzy for me. Anyway, Junior STF, an educational organization for teenagers in the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church), were having a reflection night and I thought I'd sit in to hear what the younger boys and girls of our movement thought of all we were doing.
When Anna went up to the mic. I could tell she had a lot on her mind and was nervous about it. She started with talking about how she'd felt rather selfish a lot of the time she'd been in D.C. She said she kept on thinking about herself, how she was too hot or tired, how she'd rather go home and she never thoguht of the other people on her team. More improtant, she said, she hadn't been thinking of God. God suffers all the time seeing His children suffer, fighting eachother, killing eachother, or even just waching while our brothers and sisters - weather across the ocean or right next door, starve to death. Meanwhile, as our Heavenly Father suffers every single time any of His children suffers, she had been complaining about being too hot, too boared, or tired, and it made her sick about herself.
She further touched on how whenever she comes to a church event she becomes very inspired to work for furthering God's providence, and even after she get's home for a couple weeks or so she'll feel more inspired to study God's word, pray more often, and participate in church or related things more. However, after a couple weeks or so this feeling wears off, and "real life" starts to get in the way. Homework, school, friends, work, sports, and other things make us think we just don't have the time. Yet, does our Heavenley Father, who worries about every single one of His children on the earth and in the spirit world, ever say He hasn't the time for us? She had been crying intermitently during her whole testimony, and especially here.
That last point she made really resonated with me, for I feel the exact same way. Whevenewvr I come back from visiting the church in Oslo or Boston, or back from a workshop and big event our church is behind, the same exact thing has happened to me, and I'm sure it happens with others too. We always get so inspired, but in the end get cought up in our own lives so much that we feel we don't have the time to live for the sake of others, to live for the sake of God.
I really wish I new that girls name, because she really did a lot there, at least for me. She inspired within me the conviction that I would not leave D.C. and go back to my normal self centered life. I would go home from D.C., and I would pay attantion to family, work, and other things. However, I would also, pay attention to what I most important, which to me is everyone other than myself. I will live for the sake of others, I will live for God.
Thanks Anna, you saved me.
