Listen to Dr. Kelly Kohls, founder of the National School Boards Leadership Council, speaking at the Strengthening Families and Communities Forum:
#109-Dr. Kelly Kohls: How to Fix Boards of Education
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1950
England was able to create a world-wide empire because it was the successor to Roman civilization. Before England was occupied by Rome, her people did not bathe properly more than once a year. Isn’t that barbaric? They could not bathe because it was freezing cold. The English people are all descendants of pirates. Would they have had time to bathe? England inherited Roman civilization and expanded its global domain, centering on the ocean. God had them dominate the world. “You, island nation, conquer the world!” That was God’s will. (110-41, 1980.11.8)
Richard: Things just don’t happen. Although individual events are the reslult of human decisions (human responsibility), the overall flow of God’s Providence, as evidenced by the reading above, is overseen by God.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1246
Do you know Lee Gap-seong? Of the thirty-three people who participated in the March 1st independence movement, he is the only surviving member. When you consider him with regard to that movement, is he higher or lower in rank than the president of Korea? Without question, he is higher.
In the same way, the people who receive the Blessing through True Parents will be glorified by the world. Even if the last couple to be blessed is crippled, with one eye, crooked nose, one ear, and one arm, they will be glorified by the world. Their physical appearance and anything else that is lacking will not matter; only the fact that they received the Blessing through True Parents will be important. That is something you cannot buy even if you were to pay billions of dollars. Women in the Unification Church, do you understand that? How much do you understand? (35-71, 1970.10.3)
Richard: The March First Movement, or the Samil Movement (in Korean, samil means “three-one” or “March 1”) was one of the earliest manifestations of Korea’s independence movement during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The name refers to an event that occurred on March 1, 1919, also referred to as the Mansei Demonstrations (“ten thousand years,” in Korean).
The March First demonstrations established the high-water mark in Korea’s struggle for independence from the Japanese colonial government. Although the nationwide demonstrations failed to accomplish the goal of effecting independence, they unified the Korean people in spirit as they awaited their eventual liberation from Japan.
From: The New World Encyclopedia.
Special Reading: Cheong Seong Gyeong 1404-continued
Through this ceremony, the environmental conditions necessary for all humankind to be able to participate in the Blessing have been created, and all people connected to the mainstream ideal can now belong to You through attending it. This amazing and incredible miracle has been wrought, not just by the work of the Unification Church but also by the joint efforts of Yourself and the spirit world. Therefore, I hope and pray that You can forever hold the victorious dominion and sovereignty of eternal love and glory gained from this ceremony, and establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in the spirit world through the liberation achieved by this Blessing. All humankind connected to the 360 Million Couples can now unite in heart and strive to achieve the unity of mind and body, husband and wife, and within the tribe, race, nation, world, and cosmos. These couples have been established as the nucleus representing the True Parents on earth and the family in the garden of Your love. They have been blessed in order to complete the Kingdom of Heaven on earth with the sovereignty of the love central to the ideal of creation, which has been Your eternal dream.
I stand before them on this occasion which You have long desired, and bless them to become Your children who from this moment can inherit Your will to build Your kingdom on earth and in heaven as true individuals by uniting mind and body, husband and wife, parents and children, and with their siblings in the blessed world. Please be with them and bless them as they march forward to the place of victory and glory. I pronounce my benediction upon the 360 million Couples in the name of the True Parents! Amen! Amen! Amen! (299-109, 1999.2.7)
Ascetism, Monasticism, and Celibacy
4. The Problem with Asceticism—Lack of Love
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Can celibacy as taught by Catholicism and Buddhism be the basis of human happiness? No. Yet no religion on earth has demonstrated what the basis of happiness is. Religions did not uphold the family as the basis because no family had appeared that was worthy of that position. However, sensing that one day such a family would appear, they emphasized celibacy. It was the foundation for people to form a pure and correct family. (Blessing and Ideal Family 2.2.4)
God intended man and woman to live in perfect love and perfect eternity, without the slightest separation. God is perfect and eternal; the position of children is perfect and eternal, and therefore God wanted the positions of husband and wife to be perfect and eternal. Is passionate lovemaking divine or sinful? After the Fall, human love became dirty and stained. Has humankind ever seen perfect love under God, manifesting the purpose of God?
Who has really known the purpose of religion and salvation? Many religious people feel that the world is filled with filthiness; therefore they separate themselves from it and live a solitary life. It is often thought that a religious, divine life is a solitary life, but we must realize that the Kingdom of God in heaven and on earth has been ready for a long, long time, from the very beginning of creation, and it is just waiting to be occupied. The problem has been to find occupants fit for that kingdom. (99:225, April 17, 1977)
We enter the Kingdom of Heaven as married couples, as families, as clans extending out to third cousins, and as whole nations. Ultimately the entire world will be Heaven. This is the way of the Unification Church. Its goal is not individual salvation. Consistent with this principle, the church holds mass weddings. Today these mass weddings are objects of mockery and curiosity, but to anyone who knows their content, they are amazing phenomena.
Marriage was not recognized during the religious age of the archangel. But we are now entering the age of marriage, and marriage in the Kingdom of Heaven as well. The time has come when the married Buddhist priest will win over the Buddhist monk. In the Roman Catholic Church the priests and nuns are fast disappearing; if Catholic priests and nuns remain single, they will end up in hell. Now, when universal fortune seeks the bond of bride and bridegroom, Catholic priests and nuns must get married; otherwise, they will perish. (50:31, October 3, 1971)
If I, Reverend Moon, do not encourage celibate Buddhist monks and Catholic priests and nuns to marry now, monasteries will very soon become arenas of free sex. Flirtations and illicit affairs will cause many to fall away. When the Buddhist and Catholic religions bring millions of monks and nuns to receive the Marriage Blessing, then they will come alive. Otherwise, they will die out.
Some priests are having illicit affairs. Others are getting married despite their vows. Why is that? Since the time has come, their minds are pulled in that direction. When the high tide comes in, you have to move with the tide and walk back to the shore; otherwise you will drown. Now the tide is coming in, and those priests who were used to standing up at low tide are being forced to turn around and marry in order to keep from swallowing water. (246:24, March 23, 1993)
The internal reason why the higher religions have advocated celibacy is because the True Parents of humankind had not yet come and instituted marriage before God. But now the Unification Church has appeared as the first religion in history to promote marriages approved by God, and it began to hold mass weddings. Hence, from now on Buddhism will have more married monks. The same is happening in the Catholic Church. The reason why the Catholic Church faces problems today is because it still does not permit its priests to marry. If it continues this way, they will all leave the church.
These problems arose particularly after 1960, the year the True Parents were married. From that year, everything began to change. This change permeated the non-religious world as well, and it entered the era of free sex. In the non-religious world the family is being destroyed through free sex, while the sphere of religion is entering the age of marriage. (244:148, February 1, 1993)