Unificationist Family Hosts Interfaith Dialogue on Campus

Landon Doroski, the Vice President of the Honors College at SUNY Old Westbury in Long Island, New York, recently put on two programs in connection with the Honors College. The first program was an Interfaith Panel, and the second was a talk by his parents, John and Nanette Doroski, about their missionary experiences. The purpose of these events were to inspire young Unificationists and college students with an interfaith mindset and the rich experiences missionaries have, and to encourage them to inherit the call to make this world a better place.

The interfaith panel was held on Friday, April 8, 2016 at the Duane Jones Recital Hall at the Campus Center. It was represented by Harom Meghol, a television commentator and author of many books including the upcoming, “How to be Muslim” (2017). Christianity was represented by Jaime Weise, a pastor of World Changers Christian Fellowship. Judaism was represented by Dr. Caroline Sayer, the department head of the History and Philosophy Department at Suny Old Westbury; her expertise is Jewish studies.

John and Nanette Doroski represented and spoke for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Each speaker was able to address the student audience which was followed by a panel discussion and questions and answers. Nanette decided, because of the limited time, to concentrate on speaking about the Unificationist concept of a God of law, explaining that because humankind fell away from God, we need to follow God’s Law to restore our selves. Nanette then explained that God is also a God of unconditional love, still working to restore His lost children, and finally that God is a suffering God ever since the Fall and the beginning of evil in the world. She explained that our prayers are not for God to “give me something”, but to comfort God’s heart and take responsibility to make this world better. John spoke on what led him to join the Unification movement after considering other faiths. After the event, two young men came up to the Doroskis and asked if they could come to a local Divine Principle workshop.

In total, 59 participants came to this first event. The event was co-sponsored by Muslim Student Association and the World Changers Christian Fellowship and the Honor College. A wonderful buffet dinner followed.

“I believe this kind of event can grow, and be conducted on other college campuses and bring a deeper understanding between the faiths,” said Landon. “There was such a short time to organize this event; no posters or advertizing was done; everyone came by word of mouth. Next year, I plan to include Buddhism

and Hindism and have one Interfaith Panel in the Fall and one in the Spring with lots of advertizing.”

Landon’s second event was on Monday, April 11 from 2:30 to 3:50pm. The title of this program was “Nanette and John Doroski Spreading a Global Vision”. John and Nanette were asked to speak on their missionary experiences in 17 nations over 12 years, focusing on the four main nations of the Bahamas, Kuwait, Philippines and Australia. On two large screens behind the podium was a slideshow of photos of their missionary activities.

Nanette covered such things as bringing in TB medicine to the Philippines and traveling with doctors distributing it, adopting a Filipino baby, climbing the 8,000-foot Mayan Volcano a day before it erupted to pray that the history of 1,000 being killed would not reoccur; she made national news, and no one was hurt this time. She also covered her work to save the Bahamas from becoming a communist nation like Cuba, and shared some of her spiritual experiences and miracle healings.

John spoke about his book on the common elements between Islam and Christianity in Kuwait, and his experience being imprisoned and tortured for starting a potential women’s movement through the implication that men and woman are equal with over one hundred women studying the Divine Principle on the local university campus; of how, in the Philippines, 12 mission houses were opened and 225 missionaries were taught and trained; and of how, in Australia, he used his business administration education to open a massage sandal factory, national health product distribution company, plant nursery, a fund to support the Australian Unification movement and Oceania outreach, and the Professor World Peace Academy to hold conferences and publish books.

Nanette then summarized how they have sent their children from the age of 14 onward every summer to do mission work in Korea, Japan, Honduras, Guatemala, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Trinidad, Belarus, Dominican Republic and Beijing China. After their presentation, two girls approached them asking how they could become missionaries.

These two programs illustrate how the second generation college students can work at their college to connect with students and find like-minded individuals with whom they can network, share and grow.