Mother of Peace: Episode 31
Mother of Peace: And God Shall Wipe Away All Tears from Their Eyes
A Memoir by Hak Ja Han Moon
Chapter 4: God’s Light Shines Upon a Path of Thorns, pg 143-147
Despite Father Moon’s incarceration, our global work for peace continued. The 13th International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) was scheduled to convene within a month of his imprisonment. For more than a decade, this annual meeting had brought scientists from around the world to discuss the unity of the sciences centered on absolute values. Staff and the attendees needed to know whether the conference would be held. Critics of the conference scoffed, saying, “It’s all about Rev. Moon. Without him, they won’t do it.” Ignoring this, I simply said, “We will certainly hold the conference,” and the preparations continued.
On September 2, 1984, our International Cultural Foundation conducted the 13th ICUS in Washington, DC. More than 250 scientists attended from 42 countries. I met and greeted them one by one, and took the podium to read the Founder’s Address with confident resolution. Even though its founder was absent, the conference was a success. Scientists expressed gratitude and the staff members were happy. Everyone could see that this movement is of God and does not depend upon one individual.
The progress of our international conferences did not end there. In the summer of 1985, the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) was scheduled to convene a global congress in Europe. Once again, I heard about the worries of the planners and participants and I guided them as before, “We will hold it as planned.”
Geneva, Switzerland was the conference venue. Dr. Morton Kaplan, a renowned political scientist at the University of Chicago, was the president of PWPA. He sought my husband’s advice about the conference and met us at Danbury to receive it. Those days, my husband, even from prison, was acting on Heaven’s guidance to halt the advance of communism at America’s doorstep, in Nicaragua. His inspiration sparked the American president, Ronald Reagan, to take action. As this was unfolding, my husband and I saw that communism’s global expansion camouflaged a serious crisis within its own borders and that its entire house of cards was soon to collapse. In 1970, Father Moon had prophesied that global communism would fall in the late 1980s, 70 years after its founding.
And so, to this University of Chicago political scientist, my husband announced our theme for the conference: “The Fall of the Soviet Union.” Dr. Kaplan, looking at the global reality externally, objected. “Sociologists don’t discuss something that has not happened.” But Father Moon spoke with calmness and strength, “Communism will perish and the Soviet Union will collapse. You need to proclaim this fact at the gathering of scholars and professors from around the world.” Dr. Kaplan again hesitated and asked: “How about if we say ‘the possible fall?’ ” Father Moon replied, “No. It’s not just a possibility. Believe me and do as I say.”
As he departed with me from the meeting, I could see that Dr. Kaplan’s head was spinning. He was a world-renowned scholar, and he could not speak what he considered empty words, much less convene a conference based upon them. He said three times that he wanted to tone down the conference theme. I told Dr. Kaplan not to worry about anything and to follow my husband’s advice. He still was looking for a way out. With winsome eyes, he came up with, “Wouldn’t it be possible to use a word softer than ‘fall’?” I didn’t budge. My husband and I knew communism would collapse in the Soviet Union within a few years.
From August 13-17, 1985, the second Professors World Peace Academy international congress took place in Geneva with its title, “The Fall of the Soviet Empire: Prospects for Transition to a Post-Soviet World.” Hundreds of university professors discussed the fall of communism from all angles. They heard Father Moon’s prophecy that “Communism will collapse within a few years.” They pricked up their ears, having never dreamed of such an idea. They were amazed that we had the conviction to go against conventional wisdom and political correctness. Their nerves were a bit on edge for another reason as well. They were aware that the Soviet Embassy stood directly across the street from the conference venue.
Some renowned sociologists and professors criticized our proclamation, even quite harshly. But, as we had predicted, the Soviet Union was dissolved just six years later. Interestingly, when the Soviet Union actually dissolved, some of these same scholars explained it as if they had seen it coming, with very few noting that it was Father and Mother Moon who had first predicted what would happen and even convened a conference with that as the specific title. My husband and I just continued on, working for the sake of the future.
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Even during his undeserved prison sentence, my husband greatly impressed other inmates with his exemplary demeanor and diligence. At first, the prisoners mocked him for being the founder of a strange new religion from the East and tried to pick quarrels with him. He handled it all with forbearance, warmth and dignity. As he had told me, he was looking forward to seeing whom God had prepared for him to meet there. Prisoners naturally are struggling with anger, resentment and selfishness, and he committed to make Danbury a place where love could flow.
Prisoners soon learned that Father Moon would spend his weekly stipend in the prison dispensary, and through the week, give everything away to lonely inmates. He held an early morning prayer service, and other prisoners gradually joined him. Some of the inmates came to consider my husband a true teacher; some called him the “saint of the prison.” Guards and prison officials were also impressed. The New York Post published a cartoon at the time of Father Moon’s release, August 20, 1985. It depicted all the prisoners bowing to Father Moon, and one prison official saying to another, “Get him out of here before he calls a mass wedding!” My husband and I chuckled over that.
As his wife and the mother of our children, my husband’s imprisonment was my imprisonment. The Danbury course parallels Jesus’ trial in front of the Roman Procurator, Pilate, and the punishment of his crucifixion. The forces that wanted Father Moon to disappear were always looking for an opportunity. The American FBI apprehended Red Army operatives in the United States who had been sent by the Soviet KGB and North Korea’s Kim Il Sung to assassinate my husband. Among the prison inmates were men who harbored the same irrational hatred as those who had kidnapped Dr. Pak. My husband was living with such men, and no one could guarantee his safety. It was a modern version of Golgotha, as if he were on a cross with thieves to the left and right.
Despite such circumstances, we threw our lives into the salvation of America. As a result, although we were harassed, accused and imprisoned, my husband and I never gave up and we never will, whether on earth or in heaven. One with his bones and flesh, with his thoughts mine and my thoughts his, I give my entire mind and body to practice love for the sake of God’s dream. I have walked this exhausting life course silently as the one called to bring the human family together as the Mother of peace, to heal our suffering planet as the Mother of the universe, and to bring joy to our Heavenly Parent as His only begotten Daughter.
My husband once called me a High Priest. He said that in God’s dispensation until this era, men were the high priests, but we are entering the age of the wife, and women need to carry out the priestly ministry. It is women whom our Heavenly Parent is calling to serve as the mediators of forgiving, purifying and regenerating grace to all humanity.
I will not leave you as orphans
As the Last Supper approached, Jesus comforted his disciples, saying, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” This passage condenses into a few words the path I have walked. Even though all human beings have parents, as we have wandered through history without knowing God or the true way of life, we have felt like orphans. I have striven throughout my life to lead humanity to the welcoming, forgiving, rebirthing love of God, who is our Heavenly Parent.
As recently as the 1990s, if a woman headlined an event or speaking tour in a rural area of Korea, people would look in askance and dismiss the whole idea. They could not comprehend the idea that a woman could address audiences of women and for women. At that time, women had no public voice. Society officially declared that men and women have equal value, but in practice, such a declaration was hardly worth the paper it was printed on. No one, man or woman, could as much as find a starting point for an intelligent discussion of the matter. I had long pondered if and when women would fulfill their role as perfected human beings, as fully co-creative and significant members of society, and especially as daughters of God. My husband and I had deep experiences in prayer during the Danbury imprisonment, and we together concluded that it was time for the liberation of all women, and for me to take a public role to teach and exemplify it. Thus arose a careful creation of the spiritual and physical foundations for what came to be called the Women’s Federation for World Peace.
FFWPU, USA