In the past, I saw right through those people who came to the Unification Church with the motivation to use it for their own purposes; those people did all sorts of things. I knew who they were, yet I let them deceive me. Why did I do so? It is because God has been doing so to this day. When people betrayed me and turned their backs, I could have exploded in indignation and resentment saying, “Those reprobates should be struck by lightning.” Yet when I thought about the heart of God who longs for their return, I could not do that. Each time I grasped that suffering heart of God, and had the heart to forgive, a new segment, like that of a bamboo shoot, was created. Do you understand? A segment of the Unification Church was made. That is how we are making family segments, tribal segments and national segments. (197-312, 1990.1.20)
Do you know how important the 430 Couples are? Originally, their Blessing should have taken place last year in 1967. Instead, it was held this year on February 22, which was the twentieth anniversary of my entry into Heungnam prison. Accordingly, there is great significance in completing twenty years of my course of restoration both spiritually and physically; you therefore stand in such a significant position in commemorating that important day with me. You should realize what an honor it is to have such a right of participation. That day is not a sad one. It is also George Washington’s birthday. Knowing this, all of you should work hard to form wonderful families of your own. (159-43, 1968.3.1)
What is idolatry? It is to abandon God and worship something else, to revere it more than God. Today numerous people are worshipping the idol called “civilization” without being aware of it… They take as their idols material things; they become slaves of civilization. Hence, they do not know where to find the center of their life. Without seeking Heaven they make frantic efforts, yet they do not know what direction to go or what goal to aim for. They are no different than the benighted Israelites in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. (6:31, March 15, 1959)
The world should center on the mind, but instead it is devoted to matter… Look at the reality of education, focused as it is on the needs and values of material civilization. The precious and invisible mind is being neglected for the sake of money that is visible to the eyes. (19:287, March 10, 1968)
First theism appeared; it emerged as a spin-off of history. Next, humanism emerged as a spin-off of history, and then materialism. They each appeared as separate and incompatible ways of thinking. Thus separated, each in turn perished.
Human beings consist of body, mind and spirit. Our body consists of matter, our mind consists of character, and with our spirit we are to unite with God. When we try to become one with God without considering the material world and human beings we do not succeed, because that way does not fit our nature. We need God, but we also need human beings and the material world. For this reason, theism, humanism and materialism should not be separate. We need them all. Therefore, religion in the future should be equipped in all three areas, guiding us to fulfill the whole of human life in all its aspects.
Human beings, having a complex culture, are higher than matter. God is higher than human beings. Therefore, God should govern human beings and all things; that is in keeping with the Principle.
In earlier times, when people placed religion at the center of their life, they tended to deny the value of human beings. As a result, humanism emerged, putting human beings at the center and denying the importance of God. More recently, humanism has declined as people value material above all else. For materialists, money is everything. Nothing is as valuable as money, not even human beings. They see everything in terms of money.
Yet after living materialistic lives, people find that material things are not everything. They begin to reexamine the human being to discover their original nature. They are faced with the limitations of materialism and realize that they need to recover human beings… They begin asking questions, “What is a human being? Is there something about human beings that needs to be restored? Do we need to once again consider the question of God?” We are living in a transitional period when these trends are evident. American young people, hippies and yippies, do all sorts of things, and many are in search of religion. (103:226, March 1, 1979)
