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#106-Strengthening Families & Communities Forum: Stephanie Mann
Cheon Seong Gyeong 2107
I have established the highest tradition, one that no other parent has ever surpassed. I am trying to bequeath to you such a tradition. What are you doing? Now the seasons are changing. Spring is coming. True Father is not just spring; he is four seasons. We should proceed with such an attitude. (189-117, 1989.3.19)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1068
You should educate your children by teaching them to become like their parents. It is not shameful that you did not eat enough and that you wore terrible clothes while witnessing. That will become educational material for your descendants that cannot be exchanged for millions of dollars. (83-259, 1976.2.8)
War Against Evil
LIVING FAITH IS ROBUST AND UNCOMPROMISING in the fight against evil. Goodness requires striving in the ways of God—what Islam calls jihad. One level of striving is the inner struggle against demons and selfish desires—what Christians term “spiritual warfare” and Islam calls the “greater jihad.” Yet as long as society is filled with injustice and peace is threatened by aggressors, the world will need fighters who will stand up for a righteous cause. Indeed, in many traditions passivity in the face of injustice is regarded as sin, whereas love calls us to fight to defend the weak and stop the oppressor from doing wrong.
Some situations call for guns, notably for self-defense and to defeat an aggressor. However, there are better ways to fight for goodness than by taking up arms. A spiritual view of the warrior’s task sees the struggle for justice in the world as primarily a spiritual battle. Behind the hostility of earthly enemies lie the “powers and principalities” of the Devil. Defeating an opponent physically does not necessarily overcome his inner hostility; it can rather exacerbate it, particularly if the victors are vindictive or uncaring. On the other hand, once we win over our opponents’ hearts and minds, the Devil is defeated and flees away. Even if the enemy is hostile and must be defeated by force of arms, the real victory is not secure until we have educated them to realize God’s Will.
Therefore, the way of the spiritual warrior is to practice the maxim, “love your enemy.” This means we should sacrifice ourselves and live for our enemy’s sake, even though they reject, ridicule and persecute us. Our love for the enemy only becomes apparent in sacrifice. Death is no problem if in dying we can touch our enemy’s heart—as Jesus did on the cross. (See Chapter 13: Love Your Enemy) It takes a great deal of courage and fortitude to fight this kind of war, for it is as dangerous as any military engagement. Father Moon’s statements about the fighting spirit mainly describe fighting in the way of such a spiritual warrior.
- The Warrior for Righteousness
He is the true hero who fights to protect the helpless.
Adi Granth, Shalok, Kabir, p. 1412 (Sikhism)
For a warrior, nothing is higher than a war against evil. The warrior confronted with such a war should be pleased, Arjuna, for it comes as an open gate to heaven. But if you do not participate in this battle against evil, you will incur sin, violating your dharma and your honor… Death means the attainment of heaven; victory means the enjoyment of the earth. Therefore rise up, Arjuna, resolved to fight! Having made yourself alike in pain and pleasure, profit and loss, victory and defeat, engage in this great battle and you will be freed from sin.
Bhagavad-Gita 2.31-38 (Hinduism)O Prophet! Exhort the believers to fight. If there be of you twenty steadfast they shall overcome two hundred, and if there be a hundred steadfast they shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they [the disbelievers] are a people without intelligence.
Qur’an 8.65
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him.
2 Timothy 2.3-4
Those are the future saviors of the peoples
Who through Good Mind strive in their deeds
To carry out the judgment which Thou has
decreed, O Wise One, as righteousness.
For they were created the foes of Fury.
Avesta, Yasna 48.12 (Zoroastrianism)
The Lord said to Joshua… “Be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1.7-9
They that are desirous of victory do not conquer by might and energy so much as by truth, compassion, righteousness, and spiritual discipline. Discriminating then between righteousness and unrighteousness, and understanding what is meant by covetousness, when there is recourse to exertion fight without arrogance, for victory is there where righteousness is. Under these conditions know, O king, that to us victory is certain in this battle. Indeed, where Krishna is, there is victory.
Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva 21 (Hinduism)
O my Father, Great Elder,
I have no words to thank you,
But with your deep wisdom
I am sure that you can see
How I value your glorious gifts.
O my Father, when I look upon your greatness,
I am confounded with awe.
O Great Elder,
Ruler of all things earthly and heavenly,
I am your warrior,
Ready to act in accordance with your will.
Kikuya Prayer (African Traditional Religions)
There came out of the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had greaves of bronze upon his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid…
David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth; and if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him and killed him. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”…
When the Philistine looked, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, ruddy and comely in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.”
When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground… Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it.
1 Samuel 17.4-51