Religion and Politics
Someone recently made a comment that for some religion and politics are the same thing. I am not sure if it was directed to me. And while the Unification Church has been a bastion for anti-communist activities in the past, this image of a single minded political world view looking to rule the world in a political sense is laughable to those who are actually members of the Unification Church. It is the bigots and hate mongers who want to promote that image. They want to create fear, to keep any knowledge of the true nature of the Church hidden. They don't want any inroads in the minds of others that our members are anything other than mind numb robots lacking any human characteristics, any individuality. Just objects... that can be disregarded,... disposed of.
I myself had been part of the anti-communist work of our Church. I worked on campaigns in Rhodes Island to promote speakers such as Sir John Noble. The evening of his public speech a Hurricane was coming in near directly on Providence. We held the gathering successfully but his accommodations were along the shore and evacuated and the airport was closed. He spent the night at our Church building, a large home. The power went out and we gathered lanterns and met in the great room. We spent most of the night into the early morning hours with the winds howling through the trees and around the house listening to his testimony. The son of an industrialist with business interests in Germany he had been held first by the Nazis during the Second World War and then for nearly a decade by the Soviet Union in prison/labor camps.
With these kinds of experiences shared with our members you would think our political views would be clearly defined and focused as a group. I recently became part of a social network our Church has on the Internet. I made a small post on my passion for blogging. One member commented, not on the topic, but having gone to my political blog (under the pen name 'Leonid480'), and ripped into my views expressed there; saying that I spent too much time reading "The Washington Times" and the lies of the right. I suggested to him that if he wanted to enter into a debate on politics he comment on the blog he was questioning, which he never did.
"The Washington Times" was founded and built up by Reverend Moon during the Cold War era. A fortress of conservative views, it is a collection of top professionals capable of expressing those views. In fact I read little of "The Washington Times". I hear more about their articles on the radio than I read myself. Though owned by our Church the Church asserts little to no control over the content, but the views are clearly recognized as aligned closer to God's direction than those on the left. In fact I recall hearing that someone resigned over the printing of a news story, not commentary, about something Reverend Moon had accomplished in Korea. I don't recall the details off the top of my head.
Stories on Reverend Moon are never reported on in the mainstream press. Of course the story of Reverend Moon's helicopter cash into a wooded mountainside was on the major news web sites. Then it was discovered that Reverend Moon, his family members and the entire crew survived, and the story was dropped.
This member, the commenter on the social network, was much more the senior than myself. He's been around much longer and my wife cautioned me not to argue with him. She often suggests that I not get into political discussions with other members.
In fact the work of our Church in the political realm, like all our work, is to bring people together. To reach out to both sides. One prominent leader and member of Reverend Moon' s family has been meeting politicians on a regular basis and from what I've seen has met many more democrats than republicans. In the sense of bringing people together, my political blog is a different approach to the political debate than the type our Church would regularly engage in.
Having gone to President Obama's web site long before the election and with a sound education in what communism is, its nature and goals, I recognized right away that he was a socialist in the vein of dialectical materialism. I knew that Reverend Wright was an adherent to liberation theology. So I was surprised to see so many members of our Church all gaga over Obama.
Yes, reverend Moon had predicted that the first black President would have a black father and white mother and come from Chicago decades earlier. And we work a lot with the black Churches in the Chicago area, but Obama's views are contrary to God's according to our teachings. Because someone may be the person God wants to be President, if you would believe Reverend Moon's prediction, it doesn't mean they have made themselves the person God wants them to be, needs them to be. This is clear in the teachings of the Unification Church on predestination. Man has a responsibility to conform to God's expectations by his own free will. Our Church elders conveyed to many of our congregations that John McCain was the candidate that was better for America.
I also know some members who work for the State. They are part of the public workers unions. In the Church the misuse of public funds is one of the three greatest sins. And our nation is wrought with the misuse. I often question such members if they ever oppose or speak out against union policies that make up for much of this abuse. They have little to no comment. They defend the lavish benefits they receive saying 'they' work hard. Again my wife cautions me not to talk politics.
Through my life experience I have determined I could never take such a job under the current political conditions. Maybe under a different administration looking to purge the state of the abuse I would consider such a position.
According to the Unification teachings Satan looks to accomplish ahead of God what God has planned. Trying to stay one step ahead, keep the upper hand, as his inevitable destruction nears. So socialism in its atheistic expression is a perverted version of the world God desires; of how God created us to live together. In the Unification Church God's ideal world is one of 'interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values.' A world where all God's children help each other hoping for the others greatest success, not despising accomplishments beyond what they themselves have achieved.
"God wants to see a free, peaceful and happy place where giving has no accusers and receiving has no conditions attached."
Reverend Sun Myung Moon; April 12, 1964
When I was living in Korea, a member I worked with had a traffic accident. A man carpooling to work turned in front of him causing him to crash his motorbike, sending his body flying over the car. The man had no reason to make that turn. It was what we would call here a hate crime. Our member was in the hospital. The driver was pressured by the police with the prospect of ending up in prison. As I understand that the situation was worked out through the family/tribal structure of the Korean society. That the larger extended family, the tribe of the man at fault, stepped in and things were worked out; compensation was made. The driver was spared a criminal record and the courts spared being over burdened.
Such an outcome is the byproduct of Korea's Confucius past where lineage is important and the whole nation is categorized into tribes with their own backgrounds of honor (or dishonor) to be protected or restored. The selected head of all the tribes being the King. A position bestowed by the Confucious hierarchy upon Reverend Moon, as the traditional Royal family had rejected the position having become Christian.
Many detractors accuse the Unification Church of being a mixture of Christianity and Eastern religions, most notably Buddhism. Not true. The theology is soundly Christian, though Confucian traditions may have an influence on the traditions of the Church. Some claim that Korea would have been the only nation where Christianity would have been established without martyrdom had some Christians not condemned and attacked Confucianism as ancestor worship, and been put to death for it. Some Christian theologians understood that it was not ancestor worship but that they were disregarded.
This type of family structure and unity may be difficult to accomplish in the west. In my own financial struggles I have been asked by members of my family and even members of my church; "Isn't there some government program that can help you?" The former and many of the latter both claiming to be conservatives.
But this is the ideal the Unification Church believes in. The family structure taking care of the essential workings of society. The way I see it as a member, government would exist only to foster the smooth cooperation of resource management, provide for transportation, and to some degree scientific development. Governemtn would protect against the unexpected such as natural disasters. In the ideal world all aspects of law and justice would be integral with the family.
Yes, there is talk of grooming members for political office, even a Presidential candidate. I am sure all our members would feel a great vindication if a clear follower of Reverend Moon could actually be elected to Congress. But the teachings of the Unification Church are that we as a whole return to God's ideals by making Satan naturally surrender. It is through the thought and practice of true love that wins the day. That sacrifice and dedication, living for the sake of world peace, will open the eyes and enlighten those in power to accomplish world peace, that hands on control is not necessary. In that way it is in God's hands. Look at North Korea. Natural surrender is the only way it could possibly open up and unite with the South. It is through a superior thought and the ability to embody that thought, that ideal, through which the world will change, not political prowess.
It is this teaching of 'interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values' that leaves me open to ideas of the redistribution of wealth. No, not 'the redistribution of wealth' from the current socialist view. That isn't redistribution at all. That is punishing the successful and enslaving those in need. I wrote a piece on health care showing that you could take care of those without and not increase government at all. In fact you could replace medicare, decrease government, its waste and abuse, and lower costs under the rough guidelines I set up.
The free flow of ideas is not lacking among those in the Unification Church. And the political views cover the entire spectrum, but always with God as an absolute reality.
I myself had been part of the anti-communist work of our Church. I worked on campaigns in Rhodes Island to promote speakers such as Sir John Noble. The evening of his public speech a Hurricane was coming in near directly on Providence. We held the gathering successfully but his accommodations were along the shore and evacuated and the airport was closed. He spent the night at our Church building, a large home. The power went out and we gathered lanterns and met in the great room. We spent most of the night into the early morning hours with the winds howling through the trees and around the house listening to his testimony. The son of an industrialist with business interests in Germany he had been held first by the Nazis during the Second World War and then for nearly a decade by the Soviet Union in prison/labor camps.
With these kinds of experiences shared with our members you would think our political views would be clearly defined and focused as a group. I recently became part of a social network our Church has on the Internet. I made a small post on my passion for blogging. One member commented, not on the topic, but having gone to my political blog (under the pen name 'Leonid480'), and ripped into my views expressed there; saying that I spent too much time reading "The Washington Times" and the lies of the right. I suggested to him that if he wanted to enter into a debate on politics he comment on the blog he was questioning, which he never did.
"The Washington Times" was founded and built up by Reverend Moon during the Cold War era. A fortress of conservative views, it is a collection of top professionals capable of expressing those views. In fact I read little of "The Washington Times". I hear more about their articles on the radio than I read myself. Though owned by our Church the Church asserts little to no control over the content, but the views are clearly recognized as aligned closer to God's direction than those on the left. In fact I recall hearing that someone resigned over the printing of a news story, not commentary, about something Reverend Moon had accomplished in Korea. I don't recall the details off the top of my head.
Stories on Reverend Moon are never reported on in the mainstream press. Of course the story of Reverend Moon's helicopter cash into a wooded mountainside was on the major news web sites. Then it was discovered that Reverend Moon, his family members and the entire crew survived, and the story was dropped.
This member, the commenter on the social network, was much more the senior than myself. He's been around much longer and my wife cautioned me not to argue with him. She often suggests that I not get into political discussions with other members.
In fact the work of our Church in the political realm, like all our work, is to bring people together. To reach out to both sides. One prominent leader and member of Reverend Moon' s family has been meeting politicians on a regular basis and from what I've seen has met many more democrats than republicans. In the sense of bringing people together, my political blog is a different approach to the political debate than the type our Church would regularly engage in.
Having gone to President Obama's web site long before the election and with a sound education in what communism is, its nature and goals, I recognized right away that he was a socialist in the vein of dialectical materialism. I knew that Reverend Wright was an adherent to liberation theology. So I was surprised to see so many members of our Church all gaga over Obama.
Yes, reverend Moon had predicted that the first black President would have a black father and white mother and come from Chicago decades earlier. And we work a lot with the black Churches in the Chicago area, but Obama's views are contrary to God's according to our teachings. Because someone may be the person God wants to be President, if you would believe Reverend Moon's prediction, it doesn't mean they have made themselves the person God wants them to be, needs them to be. This is clear in the teachings of the Unification Church on predestination. Man has a responsibility to conform to God's expectations by his own free will. Our Church elders conveyed to many of our congregations that John McCain was the candidate that was better for America.
I also know some members who work for the State. They are part of the public workers unions. In the Church the misuse of public funds is one of the three greatest sins. And our nation is wrought with the misuse. I often question such members if they ever oppose or speak out against union policies that make up for much of this abuse. They have little to no comment. They defend the lavish benefits they receive saying 'they' work hard. Again my wife cautions me not to talk politics.
Through my life experience I have determined I could never take such a job under the current political conditions. Maybe under a different administration looking to purge the state of the abuse I would consider such a position.
According to the Unification teachings Satan looks to accomplish ahead of God what God has planned. Trying to stay one step ahead, keep the upper hand, as his inevitable destruction nears. So socialism in its atheistic expression is a perverted version of the world God desires; of how God created us to live together. In the Unification Church God's ideal world is one of 'interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values.' A world where all God's children help each other hoping for the others greatest success, not despising accomplishments beyond what they themselves have achieved.
"God wants to see a free, peaceful and happy place where giving has no accusers and receiving has no conditions attached."
Reverend Sun Myung Moon; April 12, 1964
When I was living in Korea, a member I worked with had a traffic accident. A man carpooling to work turned in front of him causing him to crash his motorbike, sending his body flying over the car. The man had no reason to make that turn. It was what we would call here a hate crime. Our member was in the hospital. The driver was pressured by the police with the prospect of ending up in prison. As I understand that the situation was worked out through the family/tribal structure of the Korean society. That the larger extended family, the tribe of the man at fault, stepped in and things were worked out; compensation was made. The driver was spared a criminal record and the courts spared being over burdened.
Such an outcome is the byproduct of Korea's Confucius past where lineage is important and the whole nation is categorized into tribes with their own backgrounds of honor (or dishonor) to be protected or restored. The selected head of all the tribes being the King. A position bestowed by the Confucious hierarchy upon Reverend Moon, as the traditional Royal family had rejected the position having become Christian.
Many detractors accuse the Unification Church of being a mixture of Christianity and Eastern religions, most notably Buddhism. Not true. The theology is soundly Christian, though Confucian traditions may have an influence on the traditions of the Church. Some claim that Korea would have been the only nation where Christianity would have been established without martyrdom had some Christians not condemned and attacked Confucianism as ancestor worship, and been put to death for it. Some Christian theologians understood that it was not ancestor worship but that they were disregarded.
This type of family structure and unity may be difficult to accomplish in the west. In my own financial struggles I have been asked by members of my family and even members of my church; "Isn't there some government program that can help you?" The former and many of the latter both claiming to be conservatives.
But this is the ideal the Unification Church believes in. The family structure taking care of the essential workings of society. The way I see it as a member, government would exist only to foster the smooth cooperation of resource management, provide for transportation, and to some degree scientific development. Governemtn would protect against the unexpected such as natural disasters. In the ideal world all aspects of law and justice would be integral with the family.
Yes, there is talk of grooming members for political office, even a Presidential candidate. I am sure all our members would feel a great vindication if a clear follower of Reverend Moon could actually be elected to Congress. But the teachings of the Unification Church are that we as a whole return to God's ideals by making Satan naturally surrender. It is through the thought and practice of true love that wins the day. That sacrifice and dedication, living for the sake of world peace, will open the eyes and enlighten those in power to accomplish world peace, that hands on control is not necessary. In that way it is in God's hands. Look at North Korea. Natural surrender is the only way it could possibly open up and unite with the South. It is through a superior thought and the ability to embody that thought, that ideal, through which the world will change, not political prowess.
It is this teaching of 'interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values' that leaves me open to ideas of the redistribution of wealth. No, not 'the redistribution of wealth' from the current socialist view. That isn't redistribution at all. That is punishing the successful and enslaving those in need. I wrote a piece on health care showing that you could take care of those without and not increase government at all. In fact you could replace medicare, decrease government, its waste and abuse, and lower costs under the rough guidelines I set up.
The free flow of ideas is not lacking among those in the Unification Church. And the political views cover the entire spectrum, but always with God as an absolute reality.
Comments
A Christian religion? Seriously, who you trying to fool? So your definition of a "Christian" religion is one in which the leader claims to be "the" Messiah needed due to Jesus' failed attempt. Jesus Christ, the UC claims, though He knew the mission He was sent to fulfill, failed and now serves Moon's dead son in heaven. Oh and as Hyung Jin stated, Jesus, Muhammad and all previous religious leaders the world has seen, all bow before Moon. They all bow to a man who has funded his "church" by swindling widows in Japan. Nice "messiah" ya got there.
Hey, you also have no clue what the WT was about.
I know it will make you cringe but if you want out of la la land watch this and pay close attention to Michael Warder's talk and answers during the Q&A.
http://tinyurl.com/lq7vqg
You might start to chip away on the hooey you are full of.
Good luck, you have a long way to go.
And no one was told to vote for McCain and I would be surprised if most did.
Too bad you see a pursuit of reality, the truth, as something to be mocked, clinging to narrow minded misrepresentations driven by fear and yes 'hate'.
And my post most certainly adds valuable perspective on 'The Washington Times' for those who may question its associations.
The teachings of the UC are firmly planted in the Judeo-Christian texts and history as well as in the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Bigotry is bigotry no matter how you package it.