Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 312

Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 11: Ecumenical Initiatives
Chapter 1: Ecumenical and Interfaith Initiatives
Section 4. Religious Coalition and World Peace, Paragraph 13-22

13  Since we must advance for the sake of the Will, we are not able to halt or retreat. A temporary pause is possible for the sake of pushing ahead later, but we cannot halt permanently. The Unification Church has to advance. Christians are saying that we are impeding their work. But this is not to say we must back down before them. Because of the Unification Church, all Christians are being stimulated to advance. In this sense, I am confident that I am making a contribution to Christianity and to God's Will. Of course, some people are saying that because the Association of Religions in Korea allowed the Unification Church to join, social problems have developed. However, because I and the Unification Church provide a stimulus to Christianity, it is able to advance more as a new religion than as a traditional faith. In this sense, although there was a cost to us economically, I think we are doing good work.

14  The Unification Church is engaged in activities to bring the highest religious leaders into unity through the Association of Religions in Korea and the periodical, Weekly Religion. In creating a climate for this unity to develop, we must make an ideological foundation on which all the religious groups, from an ecumenical position, take responsibility to protect Korea from the threat of the communist powers, which are the enemy of religion. Therefore, there is nothing more urgent than establishing an anticommunist stance from an ecumenical position that transcends denomination. Of course, our individual missions are important, but we are taking responsibility for the whole. Thus, we have to solve the most difficult problems associated with this ecumenical work. Therefore, we are pulling even the Association of Religions in Korea along with us, and have created the Weekly Religion periodical.

15  Weekly Religion was not established as a weekly magazine only about the Unification Church. It was created as a periodical about religion in general. I have many plans for it. Religious groups today are being self-righteous, saying there is no way to heaven except through their own denomination. If they keep doing that, nothing can be accomplished.

When we look from our current position, standing face to face with communist North Korea across the Demilitarized Zone, we need interreligious unity more than ever. We see in the North the communism that both God and all people deplore. Religious people need to cooperate in harmony with each other and deal with this larger enemy, the giant enemy that remains. North Korean communism is an enemy much bigger than any other faced by our nation. Therefore, religious people must work in a focused, concerted manner, and someone must create the climate in which this can happen.

16  In Seoul, there are many places used for missionary work by groups belonging to the Association of Religions in Korea. I am thinking of creating a system to make practical use of those places. I made a proposal along these lines at the 22nd anniversary meeting of the founding of the Association of Religions in Korea. Because I asked for the organizations support, the chairman of the Association generously promoted it. They are going to develop exchange activities where Christians will assemble at Buddhist sites to do Buddhist missionary work. Also, Buddhist teachers will do Christian missionary work at Christian sites. After all religions coalesce, they must defend against communism and provide leadership and direction for atheists.

17  Down through history until recent times, there was no sense within any nation that its people are world citizens. However, after the Second World War, worldwide blocs of nations formed as the East and West squared off against each other in the Cold War. We entered the contemporary era through an intense worldwide contest. In past eras, it was sufficient to live with only a national or even local consciousness, but now is the age when one must go beyond the nation and live as a citizen of the world.

Nonetheless, tribalism has become a problem today, not only for political leaders, but also for religious leaders. The same problem plagued religions that were blessed to expand to the world level due to the pioneering work of the four great saints. The time has come when we must not advance while holding a regional, cultural consciousness or a narrow, denominational consciousness. Because I realized that we must bring about reconciliation between the religions, I have been conducting activities with the Association of Religions in Korea as an interfaith movement for many years. Now we must expand the Association globally.

18  Even as Jesus died on the cross, he said we must love our enemies. Rome was the great enemy of Israel in his day, but Jesus said you must love the Romans anyway. He knew that no one can enter the kingdom of heaven without loving their enemies. By doing so, he escaped Satan's trap. America has declared itself to be my enemy. However, instead of seeking vengeance, I love America. When God allows Himself to be struck, He is then in a position to take back what is His. The Unification Church lives according to this principle, absorbing persecution and then developing and progressing. I came to America to save the country from perishing. Therefore, Satan has no condition to slander me. I created the American Freedom Coalition (AFC), the Interdenominational Conferences for Clergy (ICC), and the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) in the United States. I created them because I love America.

19  We are carrying out a campaign in America that encourages Christian ministers to take down the cross in their churches. If we do that in the name of the American Clergy Leadership Conference, a path will open through which Jesus will be able to enter Israel as its Savior. We will be able to proceed as the ACLC. I am asking the Christian denominations to take down the cross. If we do that and hoist the banner of the American Clergy Leadership Conference, America will revive.

20  To work toward creating the American Clergy Leadership Conference, 120 high-ranking leaders from 44 religious groups in America went to Cheongpyeong Training Center. We are creating one united body of Christ. If we make one body, we will be able to revive America. If we let the churches stay divided, we are not loving the nation. Fighting does not lead to oneness. We must become one, and so we are establishing this church association. By doing this, we will form a Cain-type body in relation to the Unification Church. We have initiated a strategy to create this association of 144,000.

21  How will we redeem the 50 states of America? To do this, after the 120 religious leaders go to Korea, I must come and declare that I will create the American Clergy Leadership Conference of 144,000. If this is not done, denominational fighting will lead to the complete loss of the family, our sons and daughters, and all of society. Our sons and daughters will perish because religions are fighting. If America perishes, we will see that it did so because the Christian denominations were warring with each other. The conflict among Christian denominations and among religions has hindered the providence of God and repeated the Fall in front of Satan. We must end this disunity.

22  If we establish an association consisting of 12 Christian denominations centering on the pastors who visited Korea with the American Clergy Leadership Conference, and then create an ecumenical assembly of 144,000 around those pastors, the politicians will be able to stand up for God-centered values and save America. If America prepares such a foundation, it will take a position of leadership transcending denomination and religion. If it accomplishes that, America will be able to save the world.