Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 214

Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 5: Absolute Values and New World Order
Speech 12: Leaping Forward and Gaining Momentum, pg 764-767 

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Leaping Forward and Gaining Momentum

November 29, 1985 InterContinental Hotel, Houston, USA
Fourteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences

Honorable chairmen, eminent professors and scientists, ladies and gentlemen:

As we begin this fourteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) meeting here in Houston, I would like to express my appreciation to each of you for your commitment to and support for this conference and its theme, “Absolute Values and the New Cultural Revolution.” Since I was unable to be with you at last year’s ICUS in Washington, I am particularly moved to stand before you this morning.

The need for a great awakening and breakthrough for humankind 

As you know, I was recently released from prison, on August 20, 1985, having spent thirteen months in confinement in the United States. I thank you again for being concerned with my situation caused by unfair treatment, for visiting me in prison, for writing letters to comfort me, and for your tremendous efforts in advocating justice and fairness on my behalf.

Those who were so eager to fabricate a crime and have me imprisoned invested a great deal of money, time and effort in the attempt to block the work God has called me to perform. However, despite opposition, the Unification movement prospers worldwide. Contrary to the expectation that my imprisonment would break up the work of our church, people from all walks of life, including Christian clergy, have expressed their understanding and supported us in an unprecedented way. Through such an experience I have learned once again, as I always maintained, that victory comes through persecution countered with God-centered righteousness.

My experience in prison has sharpened my awareness of the critically dangerous state of the world. It let me feel the urgent necessity of a worldwide great awakening and of a new breakthrough. As a result, I have come out of prison with a renewed sense of urgency and determination to commit myself and the Unification movement to give everything for the cause of world peace and global prosperity.

In today’s world, millions of people live in miserable circumstances in spite of tremendous scientific progress, efficient technologies and economic abundance in many places. Many nations live in constant strain and even in a state of war. In most of the world such problems as poverty, illiteracy, disease, violence and crime, drug addiction and mental disorders, social discrimination and inequity, broken families and teenage immorality threaten the future of our planet. Why do anxiety and agony increase constantly, even though many leaders—especially conscientious, distinguished scholars—have been devoting themselves toward realizing a pleasant and peaceful world? The reason is an ethical, moral and spiritual crisis that brings with it mental exhaustion. Traditional value systems are now inadequate for societies that are changing with unprecedented speed. Time-honored ethics and morals are no longer persuasive. Criteria for goodness have been disappearing. At a time when these problems are causing self-contradictions, conflicts and disunity both in individual lives and on the societal level, it is difficult to speak of moral standards or of eternal life.

Leaping forward through persecution

If in such a reality there is no room for God, then we cannot expect to fulfill our ideals or to substantiate happiness. We could conclude that to continue in such a fashion would bring about our eventual demise. Nevertheless, if the absolute God exists, we can be confident that He will conduct a providence for changing this destructive reality. He will advance toward a universal standard of ethics that establishes a reality of mutual joy and prosperity. God is our Parent with only true love for all humankind. The purpose of any calamitous events in God’s providence in the past was never to destroy humankind. Such effects were part of a process for dramatic leaps ahead; the unfortunate effects were to be followed by new and hopeful things to come.

Throughout history there have been numerous moments of leaping forward; there have been numerous people contacting the transcendent God at moments of severe oppression by the contemporary society and then leaping toward a better future. Ordinary moments are not likely to be a springboard for such transformations. Pioneers, through positively digesting paradoxical moments, have been able to surge forward and create new ways of living.

Loving your enemy, as Jesus practiced on the cross, may not be easy to understand. But Jesus showed us God’s providence by dramatically changing that moment of being completely denied by the world into a leap of complete positivity. As a result, a new page of resurrection providence was opened.

I think the Unification Church has set a new record in the history of persecution. However, such persecution has never been detrimental for the Unification Church. When the Unification Church is not overwhelmed by suffering but overcomes it and lives God’s Will through advancing with this momentum, the suffering itself becomes a preparation for eternal life centered on the Absolute. By practicing such faith, we recognize that the reality of today’s world is not a cause for despair, but can provide momentum that permits God to advance us toward a new world.

The initial motive for humans to develop science was the desire to realize world peace and prosperity. However, the methods employed in the specialized fields of science have not brought results that meet that original expectation. Though our expectation of science was focused on the well being of humankind, science has mostly been concerned with developing the material environment, which is the object partner of human beings, who are its subject partners. The scientific pursuit of higher living standards and the application of theories of politico-economic equality have not produced true happiness for humankind. Therefore, scientists should become newly aware of their mission.

Contemporary men and women ought to look inside the depth of their being and establish a universal ethic built on the natural order of existence. This new ethic requires us to love nature, to reconsider the dignity of human beings, to seek love among all humankind, and to search for God as the origin of love. Scholars need to take on the mission of accomplishing a cultural-spiritual revolution, which ought to realize ideals such as human perfection and world peace, along with the external, technological revolution.

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