Douglas Burton
September 4, 2009
Approximately 600 Unificationists gathered on September 4 to a call for unity and pride from Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, International president of the Unification Church at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.
Rev. Hyung Jin Moon spoke to members along with Rev. In Jin Moon, National president of the Unification Church of America, who introduced him. The two were completing the third leg of a speaking tour, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The final stop will be their address to members at Lovin’ Life Ministries at the Manhattan Center on Sunday morning. “The reason why True Father asked us to visit different cities is to call us to prayer for our senior leadership so that they can unite with True Parents,” he explained.
“True Father has expressed his concern that he wants us to be united on True Parents, not on ourselves. There will not be another True Parents,” he said, noting that True Father will hold the same position as founder and center of a new religion as Jesus and Buddha. “We do not take over their role, but are simply the bridge to allow others to reach True Parents.”
“When we start remembering who we are, then God is going to start blessing us,” he declared, urging listeners to “open your spiritual eyes” in order to see the real True Father, just as most Christians have to open their spiritual eyes in order to see the real Jesus. Rev. Hyung Jin Moon explained that members in Korea were regaining confidence to witness and to assert to strangers their church membership.
Our Situation Parallel to the Plight of Hannah
He invoked the biblical account of the problem of Hannah, the mother of the prophet, Samuel. Hannah and Penninah were the two wives of the prophet Elkanah. Penninah, who gave her husband many children, scorned Hannah, who appeared to be barren. “After being verbally abused for years, she started to believe Penninah’s accusations and began to think that maybe she wasn’t valuable,” he said.
“Our church is like Hannah. We have an incredible destiny, an incredible blessing. But we have been told by Penninahs that we are “Moonies”, that we will die out,” he said. “We have encountered this persecution and like Hannah we have grown inward, fearing our own name. We had that problem in Korea. We couldn’t grow. We had to once again start believing in what we were and what was in our tradition that could change the world,” he said. “What we now see on the ground is that we can witness.” he said, noting that in one year the core membership in Korea grew from 14,000 to 18,000. “The negative cloud that has hung over the Unification Church has moved away,” he said.
He recounted the story of a Korean Buddhist lady who had reprimanded him because many church members hesitated to acknowledge their Unification Church identity. “What is wrong with you guys? “she said. She told of meeting a Korean member with a Japanese spouse who would not acknowledge that they were Unification Church members. “Why are you hiding your identity? Who cares if there are bad people in your community? There are bad people in every religious group. I want you to educate your members to be proud of who they are.”
“When I heard this, I was embarrassed but profoundly grateful to her, “he explained.
Standing Tall
“Now we are standing tall,” he said, explaining that the name of the church in Korea has reverted to “Unification Church.”
He explained that once he had gone through a long night of the soul himself, somewhat like the situation of Hannah. “Hannah is pushed to the point where she stops relying on man’s power; she is pushed to rely only on God. I also was in this position. I have many friends in other religious communities. Though I loved our church, I could not see how we could unite other religions, how our ‘true love’ could be greater than the love of other communities. I encountered the love of Jesus, the agape love of Christ, whereby he would lay down his life for his friends… Was our true love greater than that? I couldn’t see it. ”
“In my heart, I did not know why the true love we professed as a religion was going to elevate the whole world into a new level of love,” he continued. I “reached a state of desperation. I reached a point where I could not answer this question by myself. In my own spiritual life I began to weep in prayer,” he said.
Rev. Hyung Jin Moon received his answer in a dream in which he saw his father being tortured by demonic creatures in prison. But while he was being tortured, he was throwing his body into the arms of demons while telling them: “You will not touch my children.” He said that “I realized that I had not opened my spiritual eyes,” regarding the true love shown with a “parental heart” that True Father was revealing to the world.
He concluded by reminding the members that after her prayers of faith Hannah finally was blessed by God with a son, the prophet Samuel, who united the tribes of Israel and ushered in a golden age of kingship.
“I declare to you, we will see, just like Samuel, we will be able to unite the nations! When we start believing in who we are, God will grant us our destiny! Let us be proud of who we are,” he said.
Contributed by Douglas Burton