Remembering what got us to today

This letter is from Ken Bates. You may remember me as Vice-President of World CARP in the early 2000’s and Hyun Jin Nim’s close associate. A few years ago I used to be actively trying to communicate about what many called the “schism” in the Unification Church. After a lot of effort, I realized that my voice, even if rational, held little sway with members against the voices of those they had built a habit to obey and follow. I decided that words would not win this battle, and that it was better to wait and see what actions each “side” exhibited over the subsequent years. I stopped talking so much, and kept doing what I felt was God’s will. I decided to wait and see what happened with all the main players, and what they did after Father’s ascension. And, yes, I continued to work closely with Hyun Jin Nim and his peace building activities, as I saw those to be very closely aligned with Father’s mission and message, and what I thought Father would expect us to do.

Since that time (early 2012), many things have happened, and many of the “players” have shown what they believe through their actions… my strategy worked! I’m not going to try to describe all that has transpired over the past three years here, but I do want to invite you to think about a few things in the context of today’s reality. I feel that just looking at what happened doesn’t provide correct answers, but understanding how they happened can provide a lot of insight.

There have been many recent declarations and proclamations made by the youngest brother on YouTube with unrestricted access to his presentations by Unification Church members, public media, and all those who have been working to undermine True Parents’ activities over the past decades. Many of those opponents are now citing the youngest brother’s public declarations and saying, “I told you so! I knew there was corruption!”

Even though there is truth to many of the things that the youngest brother is saying, does it make any sense to proclaim them in such a way? How can that possibly improve the reputation of Father’s family, or help to move God’s providence forward? It only provides abundant ammunition for those who want to cause trouble for True Parents. It’s clear that the one who gains most from this direct publication of sensitive, intimate details of True Parents’ life is the youngest brother himself, and the one who loses the most is True Mother.

Back in the years of 2009 – 2012, those of us working with Hyun Jin Nim had to search deeply in our souls to determine whether the Principle and God’s calling was for us to stay aligned with Hyun Jin Nim or not. There were so many memos and statements from Unification Church headquarters stating that God and True Parents were not with Hyun Jin Nim. I had already seen Hyun Jin Nim’s incredibly honorable and consistent lifestyle and message for 20 years (from age 22 to age 42), and had never seen him act in an unprincipled way. Still, I wanted to understand what the accusations from the Unification Church leadership were based on, so I asked every American Unification Church leader that I could get access to, “What specifically did Hyun Jin Nim do wrong?” Even though there had been reports to True

Father that Hyun Jin Nim was trying to usurp True Parents’ position and that he was teaching something different from Father through his peace building activities, none of them would validate or acknowledge that any of that ever really happened. The only thing they could consistently come up with (this was in 2009 when things were just heating up) was that he didn’t sit by Father’s side for a year. That’s it. Only that.

What I have seen is that Hyun Jin Nim had been doing “all the right things” before his ouster in 2009, and has continued to do all the right things after he was removed from all his positions. There was just this one moment, in the midst of a very successful peace building campaign, when Father had said to sign over all positions and responsibilities to his brothers, and stop all his work for a year. Some people think that Father was “just testing” Hyun Jin Nim, to see how he would respond, similar to how Christians think that God wanted to test Adam and Eve in the Garden. Divine Principle reveals that God doesn’t work that way, and neither does Father. Those who believe that Father could not be misled and always knew everything may want to skip the next sentence. Father, as he had many times before, was acting off the false reports of the leaders around him, including Hyun Jin Nim’s own siblings.

If you know a Korean leader who will tell you the truth, ask him about that meeting at Sokcho in Korea, when Father gave that directive. All of those present at that meeting knew that a booby trap had been set for Hyun Jin Nim. He had been called back from his world tour of 21 highly successful events, and a message from spirit world (later admitted to be falsely written) was read where supposedly Hyo Jin Nim from the spirit world had restructured the Unification Church leadership with the youngest brother as the leader. Many reports had been given to Father that Hyun Jin Nim was not endorsing Father in his peace building activities, and was promoting his own agenda. Rather than acquiescing to Father’s mistaken perception or accusing others, Hyun Jin Nim did what he had always done… stood his ground and refused to give in to the evil designs that tried to undermine him. For that he was essentially excommunicated and barraged with attacks. Those people leading the attacks, his younger brothers, had the most to gain if he was removed from all positions of power.

As is often the case with Heavenly Fortune, those painful attacks and vile accusations became the greatest blessing for Hyun Jin Nim. He gained a tremendous amount of respect in the eyes of successful world leaders and heads of religious organizations because they could see that he placed his own principles and integrity higher than the positions and power he could have maintained in the Unification Church, and gave up any personal benefit he would have gained by compromising. He is seen as someone who can be trusted and partnered with because he was willing to endure rejection and condemnation by his own parents, family, and church organization rather than compromise his own beliefs and principles.

When this effort to remove Hyun Jin Nim by edict failed, there were many more attempts to remove him legally or forcibly. That’s where the rumors of “stealing assets” became popular. Given the recent revelations from the youngest brother, he must now acknowledge that what Hyun Jin Nim did at that time was to effectively use his legal rights to protect those assets from the clutches of certain Korean leaders. What was really implied when his brothers accused Hyun Jin Nim of stealing assets was “he didn’t turn them over to me”. Instead of doing that, he continues to use them to promote the activities and projects that align with Father’s original intentions. At this point, let’s all thank God that Hyun Jin Nim didn’t just turn over all of his control to his brothers and certain Korean leaders.

My purpose in writing this is to remind my brothers and sisters that God’s providence is continuing as it has since the beginning of human history. True Parents made huge strides forward in that providence. As in other times when great success occurred in providence, the outcome after the life of that central figure depends on the alignment or lack thereof of the people in the following era or generation. We are those people responsible to correctly follow the messianic mission that Father established, and build upon that foundation in the same way that he would himself. We can only move forward by demonstrating intellectual honesty and spiritual maturity to take our own responsibility, admit our own mistakes, and regain our own moral authority through understanding and aligning with God’s Will in this current age. Can we do that?