Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 231
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 5: Absolute Values and New World Order
Speech 24: The Mission of the Media in the Twenty-first Century, pg 836-839
The Mission of the Media in the Twenty-first Century
August 22, 1992 Hilton Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Twelfth World Media Conference
Respected Chairman MacArthur, honored guests, distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the media:
I would like to express my deep gratitude to each of you for coming to my homeland, the Republic of Korea, to attend the twelfth World Media Conference.
Activities for substantiating world peace
This conference is a part of the World Culture and Sports Festival, which has been established to gather together all the projects and accomplishments of my lifetime and offer them as one to God.
Coinciding with this media conference, several other meetings are taking place. Scholars and scientists have come to attend the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, a gathering with a nineteen-year history; major religious leaders representing the world’s many expressions of faith have gathered at the Interreligious Assembly of the World’s Religions; and statesmen, including former heads of state and government, are here to attend the Summit Council for World Peace.
At the same time, woman leaders from around the world are here to attend a symposium of the Women’s Federation for World Peace, an organization headed by Mrs. Moon. In addition, young athletes from many nations are competing in a Sportsfest connected with the Convention of World Students, sponsored by the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP) to discuss the qualities required of future leaders in the twenty-first century.
The realization of world peace is the ultimate purpose of all I have tried to accomplish during my life. For the same reason, last year I founded the Federation for World Peace and the Interreligious Federation for World Peace. I have found that the center of world peace is in the family, and have consistently promoted world peace through ideal families.
Three days from now, on August 25, the largest international wedding ceremony in history will be held as a concrete expression of my philosophy of peace. Good men and women from 130 countries, transcending their different nationalities and races, are to be united in holy matrimony in the name of God’s true love. They are determined to build ideal families and become advocates for world peace. This solemn ceremony, therefore, signifies their dedication and commitment to a peaceful world.
I cordially invite you to observe this ceremony as special guests because I think that as journalists, you are eager to witness and report about this unique event. Since I am granting you an exclusive, a front-row seat for this most historic event, you may be thinking I might expect something from you in return. All I request of you, however, is that you not look upon this as a spectacle, the greatest show on earth, but that you seriously examine it as the creation of a force for peace, and that you extend your sincere congratulations to these couples.
The time has come for the media and journalists to completely understand and appreciate the comprehensive vision of peace I am outlining here, and become completely one with this vision, so that you may participate in fulfilling the ideal of world peace that is our common hope.
Last May, I traveled to Washington and spoke at a dinner commemorating the tenth anniversary of The Washington Times, which I founded. I was reminded that when I first announced the founding of The Washington Times in 1982, there were many people in America who ridiculed me. Some experts predicted, even if I founded a newspaper of acceptable quality, that I would run out of funds in six months. And even if that did not happen, the paper would degenerate into nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Unification Church and would end up as a marginal weekly, read by almost no one.
Now ten years later, among the 1,750 newspapers published in the United States, The Washington Times ranks among the top three papers in terms of influence. It is the first newspaper read by the president of the United States when he rises each day. On August 13, 1992, President George H.W. Bush gave an exclusive interview to Wesley Pruden, editor in chief of The Washington Times. It was President Bush’s first such interview with a daily newspaper during the presidential election campaign season.
Year after year, The Washington Times earns awards for its excellence in editorial design. In 1989, in the American Newspaper Society’s annual design competition in the United States, it received Best of Show honors, the award of highest excellence granted only by the unanimous vote of a jury of twelve judges. Furthermore, in the category of editorial writing, The Washington Times received the jury’s highest award for two consecutive years, something that had never before been achieved by any newspaper in the United States.
A decisive role in the demise of communism
During the past ten years, I have invested a billion dollars in this newspaper. If I were pursuing political influence or personal wealth, or if I were trying to promote my religious beliefs, I would not have invested such a sum in a newspaper. Simply put, I founded The Washington Times in order to fulfill the Will of God.
I know that God loves the United States of America. The United States is a center of traditional Judaism and Christianity. It is the cradle of the spirit of modern Christianity. God’s desire is that the United States maintain its traditional values, which have fallen into confusion in recent years, and play a central role in rescuing the entire world.
During the Cold War, God placed the United States in a position to block communism’s attempt to gain global dominance. In the context of God’s Will, it was most important that there be a newspaper that had the intellectual and philosophical capacity needed to strengthen the American people and political leaders. I certainly could not leave Washington, the capital of the United States, under the sole influence of the leftist Washington Post.
So where are we now, after ten years? The bells heralding the collapse of communism rang out loud on November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall was torn down. And on Christmas Day 1991, the Soviet empire founded on atheism vanished from the earth after having held the world in fear for seventy-four years.
I am not saying that The Washington Times takes exclusive credit for these developments. They were the result of God’s providence. God, however, works His Will on earth through human beings. I do not have the slightest doubt that the Times played a decisive role in bringing about the demise of communism. God used the newspaper as His tool to help bring an end to the most pernicious worldwide dictatorship in history and give freedom to tens of millions of people. Even if I had spent $10 billion instead of $1 billion, I could not have made a better investment.
The mission of The Washington Times, however, is not yet finished. The demise of communism does not automatically lead to the coming of world peace. Nor does it mean that the ideal society of God’s desire will establish itself without any further effort on our part. It is still too early for the free world to be toasting its victory, because the world is still faced with too many urgent problems that strike terror in the hearts of those who love humanity.
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