Bo Hi Pak, the Man That True Father Thought of Every Single Minute of the Day

True Parents praying at 401 Fifth Avenue, the Tiffany Building, in New York City at the dedication of CAUSA, an anti-communist organization that would have a profound influence and galvanize the Unification Church. Across from True Parents is Dr. Pak and Mrs. Pak. At far-left is Dr. Thomas Ward.

In the years of the CAUSA providence, True Father frequently gathered and spoke to the leaders he had asked to work with Dr. Bo Pak in the United States. One day Father shared with us about the importance of Dr. Pak’s role. He explained to those of us then in leadership positions that he thought of Dr. Pak “every single minute of the day.” Yes, that is correct: “Every single minute of the day.”

On his part, Dr. Pak had long understood that True Parents relied on him. Following a speech he delivered in Belvedere in July 1977, Dr. Pak prayed, “with the word ‘Aboji’ on our lips every minute. Father, we want to speak Aboji as the final word…” With loyal devotion, Dr. Pak lived an exemplary life as an extension of True Parents and as a bridge between them and everyone he met.

Having been an early missionary to the United States, having raised his children here, Dr. Pak’s relationship with America was special. He loved and understood what made America special and he so much wanted to connect America to God’s providence and to True Parents’ work. America was the first mission country that Dr. Pak embraced and he and his wife Ki-sook Yoon Pak worked desperately to allow Americans and eventually the citizens of many countries to discover the same liberating experience with True Parents that he had discovered when he first met them in 1957.

Building a Base with Conservative Christians

Dr. Pak had a special love for evangelical Christians; he had been a strong Christian prior to joining our church. He loved and admired the American evangelist Billy Graham. He knew the importance that Christianity had for the providence; he wanted to provide Christians every chance to recognize the “day or hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36), and join the returning Lord and his bride.

Before meeting Dr. Pak, I had considered efforts to reach such people hopeless and unwarranted. These Christians were the very people who had condemned us, who had stood up, pounded their Bibles and disrupted True Father’s speeches on the twenty-one-city tour, the thirty-two-city tour and even at Madison Square Garden. Dr. Pak fellowshiping with Christian leaders CAUSA began its work in Latin America but I

discovered that long before traveling to Latin America in 1980, Dr. Pak had already established a foundation for future work in Washington, DC. This base began with his work with the US military during and after the Korean War and it grew when he came to the United States in 1961 as Assistant Military Attaché at the Korean Embassy in Washington.

Dr. Pak retired from the Korean military in 1964 and was soon after appointed as a Unificationist missionary to the United States. In addition to his church work, Dr. Pak developed a broader network of conservative friends and allies through the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation that he founded in 1965 in Washington, DC, with True Parents’ support. This foundation sponsored the Little Angels, Radio Free Asia, and the Children’s Relief Fund. Dr. Pak built friendships and strong relations with a number of American leaders beginning in those early years of the American providence. He also served as Father’s interpreter during Father’s many speaking tours beginning in the early 1970s.

Dr. Pak also worked with the Freedom Leadership Foundation. He rose to national prominence in the late 1970s during the Korea hearings overseen by Donald Fraser, a US congressman. Dr. Pak took advantage of what was clearly a “witch hunt,” to catch the attention and win the support of top American conservative leaders. Beginning then and later through the American Freedom Coalition, Dr. Pak maintained close ties with Gary Jarmin, Bob Grant and Christian Voice, an advocacy group. He engaged and built genuine friendships with political leaders such as Richard Ichord, a Missouri congressman, and Robert Wilson, a California congressman, and with public intellectuals such as National Review editor William Rusher, Colombian scholar-diplomat José María Chaves and Newsweek senior editor and later Washington Times editor- in-chief, Arnaud de Borchgrave.

As the Reagan presidency took root, Dr. Pak arranged the first CAUSA USA seminar. It took place in Jamaica in February 1983. Once CAUSA USA began, a tidal wave of support came from conservative Americans. People like General David Woellner, Lynn Bouchey, Terry Dolan, Warren Richardson, Don Sills, Cleon Skousen, Jerry Falwell and others grew to trust and find ways to work with Dr. Pak and Reverend and Mrs. Moon.

Conservative Christians appreciated America’s founding values and her mission as a defender of freedom. Yet, these same Christians were at worst inclined to condemn and at best to keep their distance from Reverend Moon. They had been led astray by the mainstream media’s fanning the flames of panic and disdain toward him.

In the case of other religions and causes, the media did not report on a religion by highlighting one unfortunate incident, or by pointing to the wrongdoings of a subset within the group. Even when the press did so, they usually took pains to make it clear that such wrongdoings were an exception and not the rule for the religion in question.

In reporting on Reverend Moon and the Unification Church, the press engaged in caustic charades and mischaracterizations. Horror stories of brainwashing and deception became the defining identity of the church. Instead of exploring whether or not the lives of the American followers of Reverend Moon had taken a turn toward the better because of his teachings, the press, time and again, relied on the testimonies of disaffected members who had spent a year or two or even a few months in our church. The media made such people the virtual “spokespersons” for the church and portrayed them as “experts.”

I was born and raised in a Roman Catholic family. I was an altar boy and, as a Boy Scout, was awarded the Ad Altare Dei medal, reserved for boy scouts who are members of the Roman Catholic faith. I had an uncle on my mother’s side who was a Catholic priest. I had an aunt on my father’s side who was a Catholic nun. My younger brother spent nine years in a Capuchin seminary. I did nine years of elementary and junior high school study in Catholic schools. I attended and graduated with high honors from the University of Notre Dame, the most famous American Catholic University. I did doctoral studies at the Catholic University of Paris and at De La Salle University, a respected Catholic University in the Philippines. Yet I have never presented myself as an “expert” on Roman Catholicism nor would the American press view me as such. In the case of the Unification Church, however, the American press and the major American television networks shamefully set a low bar in defining what they meant by “expert.”

Because of the American mainstream media’s handling of the Unification Church, Reverend Moon–a man who could actually invigorate Christians’ convictions in the ideological struggle against communism and the ideological battle to defend the family and America’s founding values– came to be viewed even by many conservative Christians as a pariah. Instead of appreciating the many common truths that they, as Christians, and Reverend Moon shared, the media had led them to focus on what our differences were.

Through Dr. Bo Hi Pak’s efforts, that changed. His testimony after showing the film “The Truth is my Sword” at CAUSA seminars allowed many Christians to empathize with him and with Reverend and Mrs. Moon. I don’t know how many times, I saw proud Christians, black and white, humble themselves after attending a CAUSA seminar and hearing Dr. Pak’s testimony on True Parents. I don’t know how many

times I saw conservative white Christians weep after they heard Dr. Pak share and express how sorry they felt that Reverend Moon had gone to prison and that they had preached against him without knowing who he was.

Conditioned by my own negative, leftist life experience mindset prior to the church to see conservative Christians as our “enemies,” I would never have believed that Christians could navigate the gap between themselves and True Parents. I did not believe but Dr. Pak did. Dr. Pak not only believed that it was possible to reach Christian conservatives. He KNEW it and he bonded with them, so through him, we could learn to do so as well. Because of Dr. Pak, I came to respect Christians, to see the qualities that they had that I did not and recognize how much and why God and True Parents loved and cared for them so much.

Dr. Pak, True Parents and US members

I met and joined the Unification while I was a student at the University of Paris. I remember witnessing one day in early 1972 with another church member in Lyons, France. The member said that he doubted that even if we followed True Parents faithfully, we could ever hope to receive True Parents’ blessing. We were just too far away from what God needed. We feared God and True Parents more than we loved them.

Sometime in 1980, for the first time, I found myself riding in Dr. Pak’s car with him. The CAUSA providence was just beginning and I literally felt that I was in heaven. Dr. Pak had an amazing ability to radiate optimism and hope. He also served as a bridge to True Father and True Mother in a way that Americans could understand and appreciate. Through Dr. Pak, my fear of True Parents could be elevated to love.

Dr. Pak brought us close to True Parents, brought many Americans in front of True Parents, time and time again, and assured us of True Parents’ love for us. Dr. Pak shared testimonies about America, about the American people and about American church members so that Father and Mother could also find reasons to love us more. True Parents became real people for Americans and that bond continues to this day.

I don’t know if Saint Peter still guards the pearly gates. He will surely be inspired and learn from Dr. Bo Hi Pak. Thank you, Dr. Pak and Mrs. Ki Sook Yoon Pak, America owes you forever.