Cheon Seong Gyeong 2133
I declared the fundamental principle for unification more than forty years ago, initiated an ideological movement centered on Godism both domestically and overseas, and laid the international groundwork for unification in the four great powers surrounding the Korean peninsula. Millions of members in Korea, Japan, and the United States have worked through the International Federation for Victory over Communism (IFVOC) and CAUSA to lay nongovernmental foundations in each of these countries. Over the years, leaders of many countries and the philosophical world have recognized Godism as the only philosophy capable not only of unifying materialism and atheism, its diametrical opposites, but also of liberating secular humanism.
My patriotic compatriots burning with hope for the reunification of our country!
Let us together establish our view of value on the basis of the Godism of true love and totally rally together in arming our citizens with this ideology. Let us make Korean reunification a matter of faith for ourselves, the Korean people, and world peace. Let us stand and answer the calling of this age, history, and of Heaven to become leaders and people of righteousness standing at the forefront of the movement for the unification of North and South Korea. In particular, as history went awry at the beginning due to Eve’s error, so in the Last Days women with their motherly love need to take the lead in overcoming conflict and strife in the age of division and create a new history of reconciliation and unity.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1494
Even though the ideal and love are more precious than life to human beings, the people of today believe that such things come from themselves. This misunderstanding must be cleared up. Where do love and the ideal come from? They come from one’s reciprocal partner. That being the case, a law of living for the sake of others needed to be established. Since God, who is the King of wisdom, anticipated the present consequences, He could not help but establish such a law. (73-326, 1974.8.10)
Society
Law and Punishments
3. Just and Merciful Punishments
Human punishment is execrable even when just.
Pope Sixtus (Christianity)
A sovereign should not inflict excessive punishment.
Matsya Purana 220.10 (Hinduism)
The superior man gives careful thought to his judgments and is tardy in sentencing people to death.
I Ching 61 (Confucianism)
Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him treacherously, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
Exodus 21.12-14
O you who believe! Equal recompense is prescribed for you in cases of murder: a freeman for a freeman, a slave for a slave, a woman for a woman. But if any remission is made by the brother of the slain, then grant any reasonable demand and compensate him with handsome gratitude. This is a concession and a mercy from your Lord.
Qur’an 1.178
Should I [Imam Ali] be killed, see that there is no widespread retaliation. Do not roam about with a drawn sword… and do not start a massacre of my opponents and enemies. See that only one man, that is my murderer, is killed in punishment for the crime of murder, and that nobody else is molested or harmed or harassed. The punishment to the man who attempted the murder shall take place only when I die of the wound delivered by him, and this punishment shall be only one stroke of the sword to end his life. He should not be tortured before his death; his hands and feet should not be cut off, because I have heard the Holy Prophet saying, “Do not cut off the hands and feet of anybody, even a biting dog.”
Nahjul Balagha, Letter 47 (Shiite Islam)
O king, through compassion you should always
Generate an attitude of help
Even for those embodied beings
Who have committed appalling sins.
Especially generate compassion
For those murderers, whose sins are horrible;
Those of fallen nature are receptacles
Of compassion from those whose nature is great.
Free the weaker prisoners
After a day or five days;
Do not think the others
Are never to be freed…
As long as the prisoners are not freed,
They should be made comfortable
With barbers, baths, food, drink,
Medicine and clothing.
Just as unworthy sons are punished
Out of a wish to make them worthy,
So punishment should be enforced with compassion
And not through hatred or desire for wealth.
Once you have analyzed the angry
Murderers and recognized them well,
You should banish them without
Killing or tormenting them.
Nagarjuna, Precious Garland 331-37 (Buddhism)