Strengthening Families and Communities Forum:
#118-Jamal Johnson-He Who Controls the Narrative Controls Society
Cheong Seong Gyeong 2188
If your mother and father are disloyal to God’s will, then you should counsel them. “Mother, Father, why are you acting in this way? The way of God’s will is such and such, and God’s will is like this, so why are you acting the way you are? You should be going out like this – what are you up to? What are you doing fighting every day?” You have to try to persuade them. This is the right thing to do. It’s a big problem if your mother and father go the wrong way. (100-153, 1978.10.9)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1605
You need to achieve mind-body unity, husband-wife unity, and parent-child unity. Thus, you must create an absolute family. This is the second part of the Jardim Declaration, which connects with the third and fourth, and finally, the declaration of 4.4. Jeol. Adam’s family failed to perfect the four-position foundation and firmly establish itself. It naturally followed that their sons and daughters also failed to firmly settle. Therefore, after passing 4.4. Jeol, you need to come to Jardim and receive family training, and return to the path that leads to heaven
Society
Government for the People
3. Democracy
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
U.S. Declaration of Independence
I know no safe depository of the ultimate a powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.
Thomas Jefferson
The ruler who submits to democratic ideals, His rule is lasting.
Adi Granth, Maru, M.1 (Sikhism)
I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there, in her fertile fields and trackless forests—and it was not there, in her rich mines and vast world commerce—and it was not there, in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.
Booker T. Washington
The king’s country, Sire, is harassed and harried. There are dacoits abroad who pillage the villages and townships and who make the roads unsafe. Were the king, so long as that is so, to levy a fresh tax, verily his majesty would be acting wrongly. Perchance his majesty might think, “I’ll soon put a stop to these scoundrels’ game by punishments and banishment, fines and bonds and death!” But their license cannot be satisfactorily put a stop to by such a course. The remnant left unpunished would still go on harassing the realm.
Now there is one method to adopt to put a thorough end to this disorder. Whosoever there be in the king’s realm who devote themselves to keeping cattle and the farm, to them let his majesty give food and seed corn. Whosoever there be in the king’s realm who devote themselves to trade, to them let his majesty give capital. Whosoever there be in the king’s realm who devote themselves to government service, to them let his majesty give wages and food. Then those men, following each his own business, will no longer harass the realm; the king’s revenue will go up; the country will be quiet and at peace; and the populace, pleased with one another and happy, dancing their children in their arms, will dwell with open doors.
Digha Nikaya 1.135: Kutadanta Sutta (Buddhism)