Daily Inspiration

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) Continue reading “Only Godism Can Unify Materialism, Atheism and Secular Humanism”

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2484

Who unifies the spirit world and physical world? People. So we strive to advance the unification. We must progress daily and cannot retreat. Strive to advance. When you live in this world, instead of living only in one region, you should create many relationships and move in such a way that you can influence the whole. As the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter change and as north, south, east and west rotate, you also should not stay just in one country. Once national borders are gone and the world is unified in this way, you should live going around the world as you please. When you go to a place you should not inflict loss on the people there. You should strive to advance. You should not live playing around. (266-150, 1994.12.22)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1158

    How much must you love me? We are returning to the fundamental question. You should not love while having traces of love of the satanic world on you, while being stained by that love. You must be above that love. What does that mean? You must love me more than you love your mother, father, wife and children who were born in the satanic world, more than you love anybody else.
    That is why it is written in the Bible, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matt.10:37) Jesus made such a conclusion. He said later, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24) He went on to say that we must take up the cross and follow him. He told us to take the cross. Since we have to overcome the power that pulls us in the opposite direction, it is called a cross. We must shed bitter tears. (178-97, 1988.6.1)

Society

Law and Punishments

2. The Administration of Justice

Teachings of True Father Sun Myung Moon

A nation’s laws impose punishment on criminals for the purpose of setting the indemnity conditions necessary for maintaining order in society. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Restoration 1.1)

I cannot bend the law even for True Mother. The law rules her, as it rules me. (180:115, August 7, 1988)

You cannot have freedom without principle or law; you cannot have freedom without order… When there is no law and order, freedom brings only destruction. When you violate the law of a nation, you have to go to prison.
    Yet if America is really a free country, why does it need prisons? Shouldn’t we just close them down and let everyone do whatever they want? Shouldn’t people be free to do whatever they want, even run down the street stark naked? Today in America people do that, even practice prostitution and homosexuality, and they regard it as their right to be free. Can we dispense with prison? Well then, should John Hinckley be able to get away with shooting President Reagan and insist that he not be arrested?
    Certainly we need to incarcerate those who do not abide by the nation’s laws. Even in the spirit world there are prisons for those who do not abide by the laws of the spirit world. Schools need a room for detention, and families need a punishing spot. (112:73-74, April 1, 1981)

If a prosecutor or malicious person obtains the execution of an innocent man for personal motives, then according to the heavenly law he himself shall be sentenced to death. The person who was killed unfairly shall receive a reward, while the person who caused his death shall be punished. (93:111, May 21, 1977)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2392

The reason God cannot live together with people on earth is that a unified view has not been established in the families. Once a unified view is established, God can come back and live together with them. When you say “true love,” there should be one integrated concept of the oneness of minds and bodies, of husbands and wives, and of sons and daughters. If these three can create unity, the family of true love will become the starting point of God’s Kingdom on earth and in heaven. When you unite into one centering on God and True Parents, you can build God’s Kingdom on earth and in heaven. Where does God’s Kingdom on earth start? It starts from you and your family, and from your children. (260-185, 1994.5.8)

Cheon Seong Gyeon 1549

It would have been fine to have five races, all of different complexions, living together in that world. Skin color is merely a reflection of one’s environment, and so having numerous peoples with different skin colors is a natural and fine thing. Then how did these peoples come to have different languages? Due to the Fall of the first ancestors, God separated them. (156-202, 1966.5.25)

Society

Law and Punishments

1. The Law’s Noble Purpose

Teachings of True Father Sun Myung Moon

What are laws? Laws exist to prevent the destruction of things that are worthy of protection. There is a natural law that protects the universe from destruction. Likewise, nations have laws to protect society from destruction. Once we understand the purpose of laws, we can appreciate the importance of obeying them. (118:198, June 1, 1982)

Every country has its laws, whose purpose is to maintain goodness. After all, a nation’s constitution and the laws enacted by its legislature function to protect the general welfare, not destroy it. What about people who violate the law? All countries have prisons to punish them. Yet the standards of what is allowed and what is prohibited differ from one country to another according to the system of government and the views of its leaders. (216:306, April 15, 1991) Continue reading “Social Order Should be in Agreement with the Untainted Conscience”

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2219

Your loyalty will be immortalized by your descendants, and when you go to the spirit world, you will be commended for your merits of your efforts. The age of indemnity has now passed, and from now, you will be able to establish a bright tradition commensurate with the level and extent of your activities. This will become your estate. Let us devote ourselves to our task with utmost sincerity, knowing that we are placed in such a point in time. (38-126, 1971.1.3)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1655

Don’t you all claim to like love? Aren’t you looking for it? The question is: what path would you take as the most direct way, the shortcut to love consistent with the fundamental formula of the universe? (184-58, 1988.11.13)

What is the origin of the universe? God is an absolute being who has power. Yet power is not the origin, any more than knowledge is. Then would it be money? As viewed from the next world, people who try to make money for themselves look like they are collecting garbage and useless things. In other words, saving money is the same as collecting waste material. People like me may have money, but I am not going to use money that has been collected like this. (191-18, 1989.6.24)

Society

Law and Punishments

GOVERNMENTS ENACT AND ENFORCE LAWS to protect their citizens, restrain evildoers, and promote the general welfare. God is the origin of law; He created this universe to function according to the laws of science and implanted a conscience within each human heart to know right from wrong. The constitutions and statutes that constitute a nation’s laws approximate the heavenly law; that is why we they usually are in agreement with the dictates of conscience.
Laws are needed to restrain wickedness. People who do not follow the dictates of conscience, by which they ought to govern themselves to do right and avoid wickedness, are restrained by the law’s sharp distinctions between right and wrong, what is permitted and what is prohibited. In this sense, people who cultivate their character to become people of conscience do not need the law and are unlikely to run afoul of the law.
Laws prescribe punishment as a deterrent to crime and to establish justice. The government in meting out punishments is a co-worker with God, who is the final dispenser of justice. Indeed, one can regard hell as a vast prison in the spirit world to restrain evildoers from trampling on heaven’s domains. Punishment can serve as ‘indemnity,’ an opportunity for the criminal to pay the debt of sin.
On the other hand, there should always be an element of mercy in the criminal justice system, should the criminal repent with sincerity and turn his life around. Father Moon teaches that the chief purpose of prison should be education and rehabilitation. This was, in fact, the core idea of the twentieth century movement to convert prisons where inmates languished in cells into ‘penitentiaries’ where they could be rehabilitated through work and education. The two poles of justice and mercy form the perspective from which to view ethical issues such as the death penalty

1. The Law’s Noble Purpose

When Marduk commissioned me to guide the people aright and to direct the land, I established law and justice in the language of the land in order to promote the welfare of the people.
    The Code of Hammurabi

The Creator… projected that excellent form, Law. This law is the controller of the ruler; therefore, there is nothing higher. So even a weak man hopes to defeat a stronger man through the law, as one does with the help of a king.
    Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.14 (Hinduism) Continue reading “Laws Are Needed to Restrain Wickedness”