Reflection on Hyung Jin Nim’s lecture on July 20, 2012 (Part 2)

At the end of the previous instalment I referred to the centrality of love among siblings in order to build God’s Kingdom. This is the profound truth of Divine Principle which our movement has not understood enough otherwise we would have already established the environmental Kingdom of Heaven by loving one another dearly as beloved members of one worldwide family in response to Father’s request on Children’s Day 1981 where he proclaimed the end of the leader — centered movement and requested that from that time forward we should live by love and no longer by commands – which represents the secret of going to Heaven.

What happens when we are leader and parent centered only engaging the vertical axis, we miss out on the substance of God’s Kingdom which is based on the Four Great Realms of Heart, not just the vertical but also the horizontal axis. This is the core of Father’s teaching and we all, including every one of the True Children need to understand this deeply, lest we look for solutions externally to fundamental questions that must be addressed on the level of heart and resolved based on establishing heart — to — heart relationships which allow God’s presence to be in our midst.

Hyung Jin Nim shared on July 20, 2012: “And you know, in our condition, at least that is how I felt, if we had a nation, how would that look like? I heard many leaders talk about something like a theocracy, kind of interpreting Father’s words, implying, we would make a theocracy. Well, the Taliban is a theocracy, right? Look at some of the examples of theocracies in history. Is that something that is inspiring? Not to me. Do I want to be part of building that? No, I don’t think so. That’s not inspiring. Theocracies have always been oppressive and dominating their citizens.

What if we, the Unification Church, did have political power? What if we did have the power to run a nation, how would we run it? Would we mandate everybody to become a Unification Church member? How would we do that? You definitely have thought of these things. You have to have done that because you live in the world. Now these are huge issues and the world is interested in these issues. And so do we. But honestly, we didn’t have an answer to it. So in our community, some people lean super left, some of our young people lean a lot left — not all – and we have also the very strong conservative side. We just basically adapted, ‘Oh, I agree with that…

But what about the Unification perspective? What is the Unification perspective on that? What is our perspective on the socio — policies, what is our perspective on education, on health — care and the war on drugs, and abortion and this kind of things? Do you see what I mean? Did you guys feel a little frustrated about this? Come on, be honest with me.”

Yes, I am happy to be honest with our beloved elder Brother Hyung Jin Nim and I would like to let him know that I am very grateful that he has been addressing the theme of the realization of God’s Kingdom in front of brothers and sisters who had come from many countries to Korea, but at the same time I am disappointed that he did not speak about what would be really important to emphasize in front of our worldwide membership.

There is always God’s portion of responsibility and our own. I have not the slightest doubt that it was our Heavenly Father who responded to Hyung Jin Nim’s sincere prayers and revealed to him the theme which is most important to talk about at this time, but that does not mean that the speech our international president gave was fully in line with the desire of Heaven.

It was Hyung Jin Nin’s portion of responsibility to find out the core points that need to be addressed when dealing with the question of what Cheon Il Guk looks like. He spoke about some points which are true but he did not come to the right conclusions but addressed various aspects which are not relevant in respect to the realization of Cheon Il Guk – which should be for all of us, our very first priority.

Concerning our lacking perspective the international president inquired: “You have never been frustrated that we can’t provide an answer for this? We can’t provide a vision – we can provide a theology, we can show that it is here, the Lord of the Second Advent is here, the world will change. How is it going to change? That we could not show. That’s a huge part missing of our picture of the future, a huge part, you see what I mean?”

Yes, he is right, a huge part has been missing, but it is not some insights into socio — political and economic questions, but the actual practice of the answers as to how the Kingdom of Heaven is to be built which we received from True Parents. Cheon Il Guk could have long ago become a substantial reality had

we been living the content which Father shared with us in the Historical Children’s Day address, where he clearly explained the core points which need to be practiced in order to create the environmental Kingdom of Heaven as the basis for a world of True Love being manifested in our midst.

Hyung Jin Nim shared: “So we could fight communism, we could beat communism, but we can’t help the nations, what will you do after? How do you set up your nation after, that’s what really creates the Kingdom of Heaven, how will you do that? That was the thing for me, ‘Why don’t we have this?’ So I found myself as a minister not even talking about those things, but to focus on the religious stuff. Did you guys find yourself doing this too, if you taught Principle?

Our international president asked, “Why don’t we have this?” while our movement in Austria published already 35 years ago books like “Wahrheit und Lüge des Kommunismus” (Truth and Falsehood of Communism) about which I am writing in detail in the reflection “Common elements of Christianity, Communism, Unificationism” which I will send you this autumn. And “Was kommt nach dem Kommunismus?” (What comes After Communism?)

I understand that it is difficult for Hyung Jin Nim to know about such a valuable investment to prepare the foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as he was not even born at that time, when in our Austrian movement, we had a group of several qualified brothers and sisters who concentrated on the task of dealing with ideological, socio — political questions and who even published a magazine addressing such issues.

At that time I had been travelling with a small team of brothers and sisters from university to university through Germany, sleeping in a tent if there was no church center where we could stay overnight after we had been out all day on the campus, discussing with students about issues of the ideological confrontation between the western and the communist world, trying to convince them to make a subscription to our journal called Integral.

As many of you will know, Austria is also the country which has sent the biggest number of underground missionaries to communist countries. Their testimonies are recorded in the book Mission Butterfly, the code name of this mission which was done at the risk of one’s life as being discovered would have meant prison and possibly execution by the communist authorities.

33 years ago I was one of those who were chosen for this mission by Peter Koch who pioneered Europe for our movement and today, three decades later, I find myself fighting against the spirit of communism in our own movement!

Concerning Hyung Jin Nim not being aware of the precious foundation which was laid by the Austrian Unification Movement in respect to dealing with the question of how the future world should look like, I also want to add that this is one of many examples of what has been accomplished by dedicated members of our church for the sake of building God’s Kingdom concretely. However the Korean leadership hardly knows about this and which once again calls for more openness on the side of our international president to connect substantially with what is going on around the world to know more about the concrete foundations which have been established, and to be more aware also of the serious problems which are hindering progress based on leaders obstructing valuable initiatives because they do not fit into their agendas!

In response to Hyung Jin Nim’s note, “You see, it is so amazing, how we interpret Father’s words can radically change our view of the social future for example.” I would like to affirm: Yes, our international president is right, how we interpret Father’s words changes our world — view and our vision of the future. The reality we have been faced with in our church so far is that we have had leaders like Rev. Kwak, formerly the right hand person to Father who explained to us the meaning of what our True Parents have been teaching and doing according to his understanding which did not necessarily reflect True Parents’ heart and viewpoint. Due to his wrong understanding and most significantly, not actually practicing what True Parents taught he finally ended up going separate ways from our True Parents even though he had been externally close to them for so many years.

Similarly, the view which Hyung Jin Nim is presenting may also not be fully in line with Father’s teaching even though he has been spending the last one and a half years at the side of his Father day by day. It remains our responsibility to see clearly in which points True Children are erring in their understanding and to help them to become absolutely united with God’s point of view.

Our international president asked brothers and sisters: “In Father’s biography, what is the title of the first chapter?” After receiving the answer, “Food is Love” he explained that he had heared many people conclude that Father is into sharing and that even the government should be into redistribution while the alternative understanding would be Philanthropy, the voluntary giving to others as an individual or as a family.

Etymologically Philanthropy means “the love of humanity” — love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of “what it is to be human” or “human potential.” In modern practical terms, it is “private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life” — balancing the social — scientific aspect emphasized in the 20th century, with the long — traditional and original humanist core of the word’s ancient coinage. This formulation distinguishes it from business (private initiatives focusing on material prosperity) and government (public initiatives for public good, focusing on law and order).

What I would like to have seen is our international president speaking more about God — centered Philanthropy, which our True Parents have been teaching us throughout their lives in words and example but which we have failed to emulate ourselves from the simple member to the top leadership in the way Heaven has been hoping for.

Yes, Father’s biography starts with the theme, “Food is Love” and accordingly we should realize that sharing love is our most important task. The leaders of our movement should excel in this ability to share unconditional love but in reality it has been more or less self — centered leaders which have led our church in most nations – to ruin, to a standstill or even decline of growth because it was not the spirit of total investment for others but the attitude, “I want to bring good results, I want to make True Parents happy with a good report.”

Such a mind — set has been dominating the atmosphere in our church whereby egoism has been practiced on all levels instead of living for the sake of others which would mean that I worry more about others than my own wellbeing, my family serves other families more than caring about our own family,… regional directors invest more into supporting other continents than wanting the best situation for their own members – what has not been practiced by any one of them. These are the real issues which should have been addressed by our international president in front of the brothers and sisters who came from around the world to Korea in order to receive special education for one week.

Actually in terms of priorities, what is really needed for our movement, this is definitely not at the top of the list, save providing an opportunity to critique his lecture and provide alternative understandings and emphasise what is important once again. Our movement is going around in circles, something like what the Hebrews did in the wilderness.

Father has clearly outlined the most important contents of Cheon Il Guk, which is to live for the sake of others. When all of us, particularly leaders start practising this way of life everything will fall into place. The reason we can’t see clearly now is because we haven’t practised the second great commandment which in fact is our first great commandment according to Father:

“If you are one with God you must love Cain. If you stand in a position of receiving God’s love, just as you love God with all your heart, soul and mind you must love your tribe, people and nation. This is the first commandment on earth. It is a commandment not of Heaven but of God’s Kingdom on earth. The commandment of God’s Kingdom in Heaven is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

However the first commandment of His Kingdom on Earth is to love our nation and race with all our soul, heart and mind…” (Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 717, August 29,1970)

About the importance of this quotation and our actual church reality one member commented: “Herein is the reason our movement has been a failure, firstly we have not understood this, and secondly, we have not practised this, especially leaders, elders and the True Children. Hyung Jin Nim’s words testify to his own ignorance of this matter through the lecture he presented. Had he understood this, he would have given a very different talk. How can we even begin to talk of building Cheon Il Guk or what it should look like when these basic points are not understood and practised by the leadership of our church.

Again Jesus said, ‘The Messiah came to serve not to be served.’ When we all practise that, the answers to all these questions will be self-evident. Only as you practise this way of life can God reveal his secrets and plans to you. You will know intuitively what is to be done and how they are to be done. However until we grow spiritually, we will remain in ignorance as the people of the Dark Ages were.”

Concerning the ‘Strong Korea’ lectures which Hyung Jin Nim emphasized being for the purpose of preserving the freedom of the people of South Korea, based on the current world reality, he said that we don’t live in an ideal world where evil people don’t exist but tyrants do exist, and bullies do exist. Similarly, this realistic understanding needs to be also applied to our church where we still have leaders who act like tyrants and a centralized system much like communism or as it was manifested in monarchism, a system which did not contribute to the building of God’s Kingdom and therefore had to be removed in the course of God’s providence through the rise of democracy.

At the beginning of his ministry Hyung Jin Nim said clearly that we don’t want to have tyrannical leaders – and still we have them today because the actual spirit of the archangel which stands behind them has not been overcome in our own ranks but is strongly present, instead of Cheon Il Guk being manifested in our midst. Unless we are ready to address these very serious issues and expel the spirit of the archangel from our church we will never see the actual realization of God’s ideal.