307. International Cooperation to Realize a Lasting World of Peace

Book 3: Cheon Il Guk and Our Mission
Part 1: The Road to a World of Peace
Chapter 8 & 9: International Cooperation to Realize a Lasting World of Peace + Let Us Expand a Global Movement of People Who Attend God


Chapter 8: International Cooperation to Realize a Lasting World of Peace 

This speech was delivered by Dr. Sun Jin Moon, representing Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, at a rally to support the formation of the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace held on February 15, 2016, at the Korean National Assembly. 

Distinguished heads of state, members of parliament, participants in the International Leadership Conference of the Universal Peace Federation, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to address you today at the historic National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. I believe it is very significant that we have gathered here for this special session of UPF's International Leadership Conference. I am encouraged that more than 150 parliamentarians have come together from not only Korea but also from more than 50 nations around the world.

My late husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and I have always believed and taught that Korea has a unique role and responsibility in God's Providence. Just as God is our Heavenly Parent, Korea must strive to be in a parental role among nations and among people of every race, religion, nationality and culture. Korea should lead the way in establishing one universal family under God.

Respected parliamentarians! This National Assembly is the house of the people, a place where the voice of the people may be heard and the public good advanced by democratically elected representatives, parliamentarians. Representative democracy is a noble tradition, with roots that date back many centuries, and is now the most widely practiced form of democratic governance.

Although you have gathered here from nations around the world, you share a common appreciation and respect for serving as a representative of those who elected you. You are each a servant of the people, expected to serve the public good, guided by basic principles of good governance: accountability, transparency, ethical conduct, fair representation, responsiveness, and respect for human rights and the rule of law.

It is imperative that, within modern democratic systems, we do not lose sight of God, our Creator and Heavenly Parent. My husband and I have dedicated our lives exclusively to building a world of lasting peace. This has been our lifelong, God-centered mission. We have always taught that peace is not merely an absence of violent conflict. Peace comes into being whenever relationships are characterized by harmony, balance and mutual respect. Such relationships are created when we practice unselfishness by living for the sake of others. This is the essence of true love.

True love is the essence of God, who created all things as our Heavenly Parent. We all have a common nature that derives from our common origin. That is, we are beings capable of practicing true love toward one another, and toward all things in the world around us. Our purpose and responsibility as the sons and daughters of God, our Heavenly Parent, is to become individuals of true love with mind and body united. On this foundation we can build marriages and families of true love as the foundation for the society and the nation; and, in turn, we should care for the planet and all the forms of life that make up our environment. If we fulfill this responsibility, we can establish a world of peace.

My husband and I have applied this ideal and the principle of living for the sake of others in every sector of society, including the spheres of government, religion, civil society, the private sector, academia, the arts, and even at the level of global governance. We have always honored individuals who applied these principles in their spheres of professional life, appointing them as Ambassadors for Peace. Many parliamentarians around the world have been appointed as Ambassadors for Peace, and they work closely with UPF and other affiliated organizations of our movement.

In the year 2000, my husband and I spoke at the United Nations in New York, calling on the United Nations and the member states to consider an innovative proposal, namely, that the United Nations build within its system an interfaith council consisting of religious, spiritual and moral leaders who could advise, collaborate and deliberate with the representatives of the member states. Such a council could serve as the voice of universal values and principles.

More importantly, we always wanted the United Nations to be centered on God, our Heavenly Parent. I gave this same message recently when I spoke at the United Nations in Vienna in May 2015. In other words, no matter what our field of endeavor—priest, parliamentarian, or professor—we should be committed to and guided by universal moral and spiritual principles. Whether we are the mayor of a small town, the pastor of a small church, the president of a nation, or the secretary-general of the UN, this is our eternal responsibility. This is the responsibility of each parliamentarian gathered here.

My husband and I have a special appreciation for the United Nations. UN forces intervened in 1950 to prevent this nation from being overrun by North Korean aggression. My husband was liberated from a North Korean death camp by the UN forces. Without the UN's intervention and protection, it is possible that neither of us would have lived to fulfill our missions. We both believe that the United Nations, at that time, was acting in accordance with Heaven's Will.

The UN emerged in the World War II era and is now celebrating its 70th year. At the same time, whereas there are UN Headquarters offices in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi, there is no such office in Asia, even though we are living increasingly in the Asia-Pacific era. In many ways, the geopolitical, economic and social center of gravity of our world is shifting toward Asia. With this in mind, UPF and other affiliated organizations of our movement are advocating for consideration of a fifth United Nations office to be established in the land where, 66 years ago, the UN intervened, shedding blood, sweat and tears for peace.

Later today many of you will go to the DMZ. When you visit there, I hope you will reflect on this proposal. President Park herself has proposed the building of a peace park in the DMZ, as a step toward the normalization and development of peaceful relations between the two Koreas. I believe a fifth UN Office on the Korean Peninsula, perhaps in the DMZ, with the support of both Koreas, would go a long way toward establishing peace on this peninsula and toward peace in Northeast Asia.

In closing, I want to emphasize the importance of the role of parliamentarians. You represent the people. You are entrusted by the people with a great responsibility. At the same time, your responsibility is to God, our Heavenly Parent. If parliamentarians of the world join together in harmony and cooperation for the sake of peace, we can transform the current reality of our world, creating a world of joy, harmony and lasting peace.

With this in mind, I encourage you on this day to form an international association of parliamentarians dedicated to peace, centered on the principle of living for the sake of others and centered on God, our Heavenly Parent. You are the representatives of the seven billion people of the world. If you join together in this way, there is nothing you cannot accomplish. Let us work together to build a world of lasting peace. Thank you for allowing me to share these words with you today.

May God bless you, your families and nations.


Chapter 9: Let Us Expand a Global Movement of People Who Attend God

This speech was given at the founding assembly for the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace in North America, on November 30, 2016, at the U.S. Congress Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. 

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, since the proposal of the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace at the beginning of this year in Seoul, Korea, we have succeeded in inaugurating IAPP, beginning in Asia, continuing to West Africa, Europe, Central America, South America and back to East Africa before we came to meet here today in Washington, D.C.

Before our meeting here, we have seen many distressing incidents in the world, incidents that are indescribably painful to think about. The world has come to a point at which human beings do not have the power to solve the problems they are facing. Then what must we do? We must begin a movement in which our families, our nations and the world attend God, the original Owner of the universe. However, in the reality of today's world, even though our hearts want to do that, putting it into practice is difficult.

The original Creator, God, created all things in the cosmos; He created the world of plants and the animal world, and after everything else He created Adam and Eve, who would become the ancestors of all humankind. He especially gave Adam and Eve responsibility. That responsibility was the responsibility to achieve God's dream.

During the growth stage, in the position of absolute unity with God, they should have reached the position to receive the marriage Blessing. They should have gone through that process of growth. Nevertheless, during the growth stage they became greedy. They began to look inward. That means they grew further apart in their relationship with God. In the end, the first human ancestors, who should have become the true parents, fell and became false parents who began to multiply, and their descendants became all of humankind.

However, the omniscient and omnipotent God had to achieve His purpose of creation. The beginning and the end must be the same, which is why God had no choice but to go through the very lonely and difficult course of providential history. As it says in the Bible, God selected the chosen people of Israel, and, after the long period of 4,000 years—not 400, not 40, but 4,000 years—God sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. How difficult it must have been for it to take 4,000 years before he could be sent!

Fallen human beings could not immediately come into Heaven's presence. They had to set indemnity conditions in order to go forward, which is why Heaven's providential course for restoration through indemnity, briefly put, meant suffering through blood and tears. God's wish was for the lost true parent of humankind to be regained. That person was the Messiah, the Savior.

However, what happened? The situation of the people of Israel was that they were under a great empire, the Roman Empire. People used to say, "All roads lead to Rome.” God placed the people of Israel in that environment, and He sent the Messiah through those people. If the people of Israel—especially Mary, Zachariah's family, and Joseph's family—and Judaism had united with Jesus and led the way along Heaven's providence, with the strength of the Roman Empire to help them expand, one family of humankind centered on God, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, would have come to fruition at that time.

However, what happened instead? The people around Jesus failed to fulfill their responsibilities. This left no place for Jesus to stand. As a result, Jesus had to follow the way of the cross, yet saying he would return. He said he would return to hold the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Those words meant that Jesus had not been able to marry and stand in the position of a true parent. Therefore, the returning Messiah must absolutely complete a family and go forward as the True Parents of humankind.

God's providence in America

We can look at the 2,000 years of the providential history under Christianity as the providential period to establish the position of the only begotten daughter of God. As part of Heaven's historical providence to send the returning Lord, Heaven especially chose this nation.

Through the Puritans, who wanted the freedom to worship God, our Heavenly Parent, as they wished, and through the many other immigrants who came to the American continent, God gave birth to this nation, the United States of America. There were native people already living on this continent. However, Heaven raised America through the people who could create the foundation and environment for the returning Messiah. He blessed them.

Responsibility follows the people that Heaven blesses. However, 200 years after its founding, what was the situation like in the United States? America was suffering from a malaise that led to a period of extreme individualism and the breakdown of the family, problems with youth and problems with drugs. That is when Reverend Moon came to America from Korea, a small nation in Asia. Reverend Moon, who was aware of Heaven's providence, knew he had to protect America and knew Heaven's providential plans for America. He said, “America is suffering, and I have come as a doctor. I came as a firefighter, responding to a call.” He woke up righteous people and American intellectuals. Hearing of this, many well-known pastors responded.

In 1976, here at the Washington Monument, on the National Mall, where 300,000 people gathered, Reverend Moon spoke urgently to the people of America, saying that they had to wake up and become a nation responsive to God. Through that, the nation that God originally blessed could fulfill its responsibilities. Continuing to hold rallies under the banner "God Bless America,” Reverend Moon was able to pull the heartstrings of good American families. Because of that, young people in America were reborn. In that era, many of the people who joined the Unification Church had been hippies. They came to understand what responsibility they had to fulfill in response to Heaven's summons.

God had raised and cultivated America to become a democratic nation that had the same great power as the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago. My husband and I spent more than 40 years here in America. This was so that America could build the foundation for the True Parents, the returning Lord, who came for the sake of the world, for the sake of the world's people, and so that America as a nation would embrace the world as one, so that it might become one family under God and achieve God's great dream.

During that time, within the Christian culture communism—which proclaimed that God was dead—emerged. Communism spread until it occupied more than two-thirds of the world, coming right up to America's doorstep. However, the people of the United States America were complacent and did not recognize how serious the situation had become.

Washington, D.C., which often was referred to as the capital of the free world, had only one major newspaper, The Washington Post, and, just based on the common sense of democracy, this was something that should not have been. We could say that some people in this nation are among the wealthiest people in the world. People consider the United States a rich nation, but most people were not fully alert to the danger that communism posed to democracy. If America had stayed in that defenseless state, the America of today could not have come to exist.

At that time, to create The Washington Times, Reverend Moon used all of the money from our world mission budget. You can imagine the amount of expense required to establish a full-fledged daily newspaper. Reverend Moon nurtured The Washington Times, and through it, America and especially those in the national government were informed. Through it, the conservative world was enlightened. Reverend Moon invested in this because, knowing the course of God's providence, he hoped that America would survive and become a nation that would achieve God's dream.

True Parents are essential

In order for Heaven to save fallen humankind, people absolutely need True Parents, the Savior and Messiah. That is why God had to pass through the long period of 6,000 years. God gave humankind responsibilities, and from among humankind, a person who can be the True Parent must emerge. Somebody is needed who can guide humankind to achieve God's providence and God's dream.

This is why fallen humankind absolutely needs True Parents, who are the Savior and Messiah. Because they are the True Parents, they worked to save this great nation of America. However, human power alone cannot possibly solve all the bleak problems that are occurring all around the world.

I want to say this to all of you gathered here today: God originally had a dream to become the True Parent of humankind. You are all among the 7.3 billion children whom God wishes to embrace. However, according to the Principle of Creation, the descendants of the first human ancestors who have not fulfilled their responsibilities cannot directly come into God's presence. The Bible has a metaphor about wild olive trees and true olive trees. Fallen human beings in the world, wild olive trees, can only become true olive trees through True Parents. Therefore, what humankind absolutely needs today is the True Parents.

Legislators and other leaders in the United States and from around the world who have gathered here, you have an important responsibility. You are important. In this new providential age, more than just individuals, God needs you, intermediaries who represent the people, so each of you must develop a movement that attends God in your family, society, nation and the world. This is the way for all of you who live in the world today to become filial children and loyal citizens in front of our Heavenly Parent. I am saying we must all become God's true children.

I pray that all of you can unite and become the people who will realize God's dream, which is also what all people desire to see.