Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han
Where are we now? We are at Belvedere, which is located within the United States, part of the continent of North America. North America is within the world. Where does the world exist? It is within the universe and the universe is within the cosmos. How vast is the cosmos? It is so vast we cannot have a real concept of it. As Unification Church members, we believe in and advocate the largest and highest possible ideal. That high ideal is to be connected to human beings, both men and women.
How does the cosmos itself want to be connected to everything else? The cosmos does not want to be connected just to men or just to women alone, but to men and women who are together in complete unity. In true unity, there is no conflict, only harmony. We can conclude that the universe wants to be connected to the man and woman who are in complete unity and the family in which the members are in complete unity. Likewise, the cosmos wants to be connected to the nation that is in unity within the unified world. Don't you think that is a fair assumption?
Americans tend to think and boast, "America is my country" rather than "America is our country." What is the difference? When you say "our country," the individual is already included. "Our family" includes "my family."
Do you want the things you have to be the best, largest and most valuable, or just mediocre? All people would answer the same, regardless of the time in history-a thousand years ago, five hundred years ago or now. In that wish, man has never changed. When we think about "I," that means a member of a family and that family represents the universe. Each person wants to be an "I" who belongs to a good country in the world. Also, each "I" wants to belong to a family-like Smith or MacDonald-which is the best representative of all of America. In this way, we can conclude that whatever level we are discussing, none wants to connect to just a man or just a woman, but to a man and woman together in unity.
We see some important points being stressed by the advocates of women's liberation, but at the same time the family, nation, and universe do not want to connect to a woman alone, no matter how great she may be. The family really does not want a woman who stresses herself above all others to represent the family or the nation or the universe. They don't even want to get near her. If given a chance, the family would speak out: "We don't want a woman who focuses on only herself." Likewise, the nation will have no place for her. We should pay attention to the common denominator. Every level-the family, the nation, and the world-has something in common. What is it? That common point is man and woman in unity. The family really wishes to have within it a man and woman united, and the nation also wants to see not just individuals, but men and women united. If there is such unity in the nation, the nation will be very proud, and so will the world.
There are different ways of uniting. Maybe the man is standing right side up and the woman upside down. Are they in unity because they are together? No, it wouldn't be acceptable. Man and woman, if they want to be in unity, should be looking at each other straight, eye to eye, without even one degree of deviation. That is the unity the whole world wants to see.
Would anyone want to see a man who was united perfectly with a woman saying, "I have been happily married for ten years now, so maybe I will look around for someone else"? No. What about the country of America-will it say yes or no to this? America will also say, "Unity forever and ever, never changing." Everything in the universe will come out and say the same thing. If you ask them in the daytime or at night, the answer will be the same. What would be the element which would enable man and woman to come into unity? Maybe money'? When you have that, everyone is happy, right? American people like money. In Korean, the word that sounds like money means "much."
What about knowledge? Do you come into unity through knowledge? How about authority? In order to unite, two must have some common interest. What is that common interest? Maybe you grew up together. Is that the best way to make unity between two persons? The only element we can think of that can do that is love, true love. We have seen true love represented in literature throughout history as the deepest experience an individual can have. Everyone has advocated a love that is eternal and never changing-people have wanted that for all of history.
In order for all of us to occupy and possess that love eternally, should an individual be changing or unchanging? We should be unchanging. This holds true for American women also, doesn't it? Some women change their minds like the weather-in the morning it is different from the evening. Even weather never changes as abruptly as some women do! Can unchangeable love stay in a constantly changing woman? No, love just won't want to be in her. Love needs an unchanging base. A changeable, capricious woman will constantly seek after love because she knows it is good, but love will always elude her.
Why am I picking on American women this morning? I am speaking of the American family and the woman is an indispensable element of that family. Of course, this all applies to men, as well. I will come to the men later! But let's be fair and honest now: who tends to be more changeable, man or woman? You said it is woman. Nobody wants anything or anyone to be changeable. Even a dog or cat wants people to be constant, especially to have a constantly loving personality. Isn't that so? In this very basic point, something has gone wrong. How do we become constant and unchanging?
Let's compare two groups, Western people and Oriental people. Who do you think are more changeable? Look at China, for instance, which is a good example. The Chinese have a long history, the longest on the face of the earth. Are they a small entity? No, there are 1.2 billion of them. It is just as if one big family had been expanding for thousands of years. How can we become a perfect subject of love to them? How can we digest them, and with what? Of course, you cannot do it with perfect knowledge or authority. There are simply too many of them. With what can you unite them? It is only with the power of unchanging love.
When you are deeply involved in something, it is hard to see it objectively. Americans have thought that there was nothing wrong with the way they lived and the way they do things. They say, "We're the greatest, so whoever criticizes us is wrong." Paradoxically enough, America is a predominantly Christian nation, so how did this society become the way it is today? Christian doctrine doesn't teach people that they can divorce anytime they want and remarry as many times as they want. Has anyone in the Christian church taught them that? Never. The Christian churches have tried to teach the right thing. They have taught consistently that marriage is eternal and that only death should part a couple. This very basic teaching of being eternally united in love has been changed to an almost irreparable degree. Now this society has become a bad influence all over the world. You don't know how much of an influence America has on other countries.
We should examine carefully and seriously this morning whether American society is manifesting the right or the wrong pattern of love. This is not something to be lightly dismissed. Is the American family passing the test or not? This is what we have to examine because it is such a basic, important point.
If we were to give a grade, such as A, B, C, D, or F, what grade should the typical American family be awarded? If a very critical foreigner was given the chance of grading the American family on its attitude toward love, he would unhesitatingly give them an F on the individual and on the family levels. Of course, you don't want to hear this. You might say, "Oh, Father, why should you talk about this? You are missing some of the good points in the American family." But this is the most basic point which we should resolve once and for all. Some might say that the right kind of love doesn't even exist in this country-not in any individual or family anywhere. Distrust rather than trust is rampant because of the lack of love in society. Families as well as individuals are in that unfortunate state and we should never try to deny it.
Where can we learn about true love? Do we learn that in the highest academic institutions? No. Education is truly in a state of confusion and chaos, starting from grammar school through middle school and on to the college level. We cannot find the ideal environment or the ideal relationships among people. In school, there is virtually no respect between teachers and students. America today is completely separated from the ideal on every level. The nation with such families, such a society, and such a school system should be eradicated-from the viewpoint of the ideal.
Something is very wrong with America and we recognize it; we can't deny it. But then somebody should say, "I will be responsible for repairing and renewing the situation." Who will take that responsibility? Can any courageous individual speak out and say, "Father, what you said is true and we will mend America once and for all"? Is there anyone who can say that confidently? Some courageous individual must appear who will revolutionize America and change it from the bad extreme to the good extreme.
You know, habits are very fearful and formidable things. You do something once, then you do it twice and then you do it a hundred times. Eventually, you do it without even thinking. This is the condition that America has been in for some time. It is not easy to change. Bad conditioning has been happening over decades, for forty or fifty years.
On the world level, not just one generation, but tens of hundreds of generations of parents and grandparents and great-grandparents have lived selfishly. The self-centered ideal has been passed down for many millennia. How absolutely difficult it is to even try to change it. The person who says blithely, "Oh yes, Father, you're right, I will change," doesn't know what he is talking about.
I would like to mention Barbara Ten Wolde, who is an exemplary American member. Before she got married, she went as an IW on the IOWC to Japan. She really worked hard and after two years, she came back to America. When she landed at the airport, the first place she went into was a hamburger house. You might think that she would have become fond of Japanese food by then and would have looked for a Japanese restaurant. But no, she went straight into a hamburger house.
A hamburger may have only small appeal, but what about love? If we are habitually attracted to false love, what can we do about that? Love has such overwhelming power. How can we change that bad habit-what is the possibility? Think about how difficult it is for you to change. If we want to be cured or purified, then certainly we cannot do it by our own determination and will. We must be able to surrender ourselves to someone else and say, "I know I cannot do it alone, so please help me." We have to beg for them to change us and in that way maybe we will be able to change.
Of course, American members in the Church are chosen, but you are still extensions of this country. You cannot be changed totally into good overnight, so you need a very strong treatment. It is like tempering steel, which must be made red-hot and then struck. We have to do that for years and years and then, hopefully, we will change. We have come to the Church and have been exposed to this high ideal and we may be under the impression that it can be ours easily. That is not the case. Deciding to go this way is, of course, an important step but after that it gets even more difficult. It is wrong to think that we can change easily if we just decide to.
When America suffers, we suffer inevitably as a part of it. Even though we are within a different boundary in God's domain, still we are powerless in the face of our habitual ways of living. The best way for an individual to change is to be thrust into the most difficult situation so that he or she will not be able to think about anything else. If you are put into such a difficult and desperate position, you want to escape from it, of course, but you cannot because the Principle is firmly grasping you. It is as if you are in orbit, with the Principle holding you. We know that if we let go, we will just fly away and perish, leaving our church. So the indemnity condition is really hooking us; we cannot get away from it. To be a member of the Unification Church is never easy. We've already found that out. It is natural to want to get out of a difficult situation and go some place that's easy, but this idea of indemnity has us firmly hooked. Even if we want to go the other way, indemnity will pull us ever closer to God's side. This is how we are living. Are you not living that way? I know that well because I started it.
Should we stop here, or should we continue until we reach the final victory? Let's decide in a democratic way. That is the beauty of democracy: everybody has an equal opportunity to express his own idea. Shall we stop and forget about God's ideal and true love and have an easy life? Or shall we continue on this way until we come to the heavenly side? The indemnity net has already been cast and we're in it. If we keep on doing what we want to do, do you think it will get us anywhere meaningful? We are already in the indemnity net, so why try to get away from it? Go along with the net and come closer and closer to God's side. If you know that indemnity has a firm grip on you and still you don't like indemnity, I will give amnesty to you at this time. If you feel, "Father, I've been living with indemnity and I haven't liked it," you don't have to bother raising your hand - no one likes it.
For America to change in such a way that the world will embrace it as an ideal country, indemnity is the only remedy. So this suffering of indemnity is like a present Father has given to America and it is the best present one can ever think of. Not money, not knowledge, but indemnity is what America needs the most. This is the medicine, the only cure. Therefore, you should really welcome the indemnity which Father has recommended. Do you agree to that? Do you say, "Father, we welcome this little portion of indemnity, but this big portion is too much"? Or would you say, "Totally and unconditionally, Father. I thank you for that"?
This morning, you should make up your mind that this is the only hope for us as individuals as well as for the country. You should say, "I will be the champion who bears this indemnity. I will be the king of the indemnity bearers." The kind of person I wish you to be is the kind that only knows indemnity. It is indemnity here, indemnity there, indemnity everywhere. We interpret everything as indemnity. First, we must get into the habit of indemnity. How else can we create the kind of situation or environment where all American people can unite? There is no other cure for America.
Do you young people think that what I say is reasonable or unreasonable? This habit of indemnity is the greatest gift to America, yet you have been complaining and criticizing. You have to repent for that. We should redetermine ourselves, saying, "The meaning of my life is to rid myself from all bad habits." We have to change, so we have to continue on an indemnity course much more strongly.
How and why has America come to the point of such individualism? Can anyone explain, "Because of this and that reason in history, the American people have gradually become more and more individualistic"? Americans don't know clearly because they are in the midst of it. I can see much better because I am looking from the outside; therefore I can get a much clearer picture,
Take the example of the American family. How many fathers and mothers are there in the average family? Only one set of parents is normal, but now some children have two or three or even more. All children without exception want to live peacefully in the love of one set of parents. They want to grow up that way and they want to pass that on to the next generation. This is the original mind of every child. The child wants to receive attention from his parents and know he is cared for and thought about. The father would embrace the child and at the same time the mother would be there, too. The father and mother would compete to love their child the most. That kind of love is the original human desire. We have the same desire, don't we?
However, in many American homes the child finds himself in a difficult and perplexing position. He wants to be embraced by his father and mother but he cannot be. Why? Because there is a stepmother or stepfather in the family who may not want to bother with him. So the child cannot go to his own parents, he can only dream about a united family and cry at night all alone in his bed. This miserable life is what many American children are experiencing.
Will the future be any better? The future will become more and more grim for such children. They will have stepbrothers and stepsisters who will make the relationship with the parents more and more difficult. The child will feel that he simply does not want to exist because the more time passes, the more difficult life becomes. The present is miserable for him, and he can't even have hope for the future. So where does he turn? The child's mind wants to rest somewhere, so he chooses the wrong place to rest, something against Principle. The boy and girl try to rest upon each other. Of course, this will never work because they do not even know what love is or how original unity should come about. They make more and more mistakes. Love, which should be of utmost importance, becomes the most trivial thing.
Children denied their parents' love cannot go to their brothers and sisters because they all have the same problem. Instead of caring for each other, they find common points of complaint against their parents and their situation, asking unanswerable questions like, "Why did you give birth to me?" They have no foundation on which they can develop. They lost the love of their parents, they lost the love of brothers and sisters, so they take to the road in hopes of finding love on their own. They seek some sort of excitement, even though they know it will not last long and that it is wrong. They cannot help themselves. When a young person has become this way, it is first the responsibility of his parents, as well as the clan and the society. To a great degree, the fault lies in the country itself.
If a lot of people are engaging in illicit love, someone should awaken them saying, "No, what you are doing is wrong." But in this country we find that even such advice is not available anywhere. If something happens in the street, people just walk by. It is incredible. People have no solutions at all. A movement must arise in which individual, parental, and all levels of love are changed. We must apply brakes to what is going on today. When people use drugs, we should say, "No, you must not do that." If they continue to use drugs, we will prevent them physically from doing that. We should give that kind of responsible protection and strong advice. This movement must start in America and reach all levels of society before America can be cured. If a young man goes out on a date with one girl one day and the next day with another, we should tell him it is wrong. His friends should advise him strongly. Only such influence within this country can save things.
Who are the people who can handle this task? Where are the true Moonies today? We could draw a diagram showing the love of God on one side, the worldly way of living on the other, and the boundary line in between. Are we Unification Church members always on the side of God's love, or are we more on the other side, crossing over to do God's work on a part-time basis? We have to reexamine ourselves. Do we think we can change if we are half in, half out of God's side? Do you think God will come to an individual who spends half the time in God's ideal and the other half in the enemy environment?. No, absolutely not. God will never choose to dwell in that individual, so it is really important that Unification Church members start thinking about this. When we move completely over to God's side, God will work along with us. If we don't, God will not work along with us and this country will perish.
A powerful example in human history is the determination manifested by the Japanese people, who had the tradition of cutting their stomach and dying if they could not fulfill their responsibility. Japanese members have come here and worked harder than the American members, and the American members say, "Go ahead, you're better than I." Do you ever wonder how the Japanese do it? Which side of the boundary are the Japanese on, and which side are the Americans on? The Japanese left their country and came here to work for the sake of America. Now the Americans say, "Yes, if they come and work, fine. Go ahead and work. I will just stay home." You should be determined to work harder than they do for the sake of the country.
If the Japanese way of doing things and the American way of doing things conflict, which way is better? Which way should we take after more-the American or the Japanese? The Japanese way is hard. Once they set up a goal they don't think about anything else except getting there. Should the Japanese start to think, "Maybe the individualistic American way is better," and slacken their pace and then take after the Americans? Which side should we follow? We can put this question into different words: should Americans be Japanized or should Japanese be Americanized? There is true and false; two conflicting things can never be right at the same time. If we have to choose one, it should be the Japanese way.
For that matter, are Reverend Moon's way and the Japanese way the same? I always have the same problem with the Japanese: they want to do things their own way, but I say, "No, you should do it this way." However, because they have their own habits, they usually do it their way. The Japanese are having difficulty catching up with Father. They are huffing and puffing. I will never be soft with them; I am very stern with them. If you think I am too stern, I haven't even begun yet.
Our original mind always directs us and that original mind does not want to live in the American family today. Therefore, American young people are turning their eyes to the Orient, especially to the Japanese. They are paying a lot of attention to Japanese men and women. That is a dispensational situation.
Have you ever seen a Japanese tourist group? One leader carries a white flag and everyone follows him, whether there are ten or twenty or a hundred. Sometimes the most aged grandfather will bear the white flag, but later his grandson, a small boy, might have the flag ". If everyone still follows after him - PhDs, ministers, politicians-it doesn't matter. What about Americans? If someone had a leader's flag, they would try to get as far away from him as possible. Let's go to a more realistic matter. If Father has a flag and is going to heaven will we follow, or will we go someplace else? Do you think you can go into heaven by yourself? We have described two very contrasting pictures and they are real, not exaggerated. Which is more dispensational in your eyes: the individualistic American way of doing things, or the Japanese way of following flags?
We just gave one example of Japanese efficiency, but what about building the Kingdom of Heaven? We should follow much better than that. If one person carries a flag, then not only the Japanese but all people of all five colors of skin should follow that leader, shouldn't they? We should not just tag along, but we should participate in going the same way, helping each other. Should you go in a zigzag line or should you go straight? Do you think it is easy for one hundred people to form a straight line? No, the leader is always having to direct people, saying, "You have to come more to the left, you move to the right on the twelfth row." The leader always has to correct the line to make it straight.
Our way is a very difficult and serious way. We cannot afford to make a big mistake. We have to be very careful. We must be aware and we must be really serious about going our way because it is irreversible. We must understand ourselves and the sins we committed since we came into the Church-not before the Church, but since.
For the American family, which is suffering from a terminal illness, we have a miraculous remedy: true love and True Parents. The injection of true love and True Parents is their only hope. That is a strong remedy, but they have to take it because there is no other. In teaching parental love to Americans, you have to have some reference point. Since they have little experience of parental love, let alone the love of True Parents, they have no idea what you are talking about. Some men and women want to stay single and never have children. It is not because they want to go against God's original will, but they simply don't want to commit any more sin by giving birth to a child for whom they can never be responsible. That is actually rather conscientious. They just don't want to follow in the footsteps of the parents they have seen.
When we think about True Parents, we should really jump and open our eyes wide, as if we had been exposed to strong electricity. We have to jump for True Parents. True love is our hope, our only hope, so all our senses should awaken to that. But what are we doing now? We are dwindling. One day we have the realistic feeling of the True Parents, but the next day we cannot feel that parental attraction and love anymore. So we decline in feeling and start to doze. We have to realize where we are today. What hope is there for Americans who have been betrayed by their own parents, betrayed by their own brothers and sisters? Once true family and true love and True Parents have been introduced to them, what more can they ever dream of?
Do you all want to follow the True Parents? Then you have to follow them better than you would follow your own blood relations. When Father says, "Follow the Japanese brothers and sisters because I appoint them as leaders," everybody should do that. When Father says to follow the Japanese, that doesn't mean you have to follow them forever. When I direct you to love the black and the Oriental nations, it is so you will be connected to the love of that world. Can you say, "White people, let's gather together and live separately"? Do you think you would be happy then? No, it doesn't work that way. Do you all want to go to the North Pole? The North Pole is where white people should live if they want to be together because that is their original home. That's true!
Nature is very practical. White people tend to have long noses and small nostrils. Why? That way they can warm up the cold air of their environment. In contrast, black people have larger nostrils and a shorter nasal passage because the warm air can go more quickly to the lungs. White people have come down to the warm areas of the world, claiming that they should be the center of things, but it is not true. This land of America was originally populated by Indians, who are related to Asians, so this is not the white people's country. For this historical reason, the American people should definitely refrain from racial discrimination. They should embrace and love everybody-Orientals and blacks and people of all different colors, or else the future will be more and more grim for white people. Racial war, which the communists are constantly agitating for, is very possible. The colored people, including Orientals, number more than three billion, whereas the white people are less than one billion.
Father may be the center of "yellow power," but there is one thing for sure: Father gathers forces to enlarge peace, to embrace more people. Of course, there is no question that I love American white people, but white people might wish that I would just focus on them. Then they would have no complaints. But Father loves black people and yellow people also. Everybody must get together, isn't that true? That is what God started. If white people want to be loved by God and the universe, then they should first embrace Orientals and blacks as brothers. Then God will accept them. God will never accept them alone. This principle works all over the world.
What is Godism? The teaching of Godism requires loving everybody. We are not divided according to races. Remember the sermon Father gave on the love tribe? What is the love tribe? That is the tribe which can love any race, not just those of the same color. We have to accomplish this on earth because once we get to spirit world, there is no training ground for that. We get separated there if we don't accomplish it on earth. I am nurturing the future leaders of the spirit world by teaching these things to people living on earth. When they go to spirit world, there will be teachers there for the first time.
People in secular society tend to shy away from the most important and crucial problems. Is Harvard serious about the problems of the family? Is Yale or Princeton? No. They say, "There is nothing wrong with free sex, gay rights and such." These are the sorts of positions they take. None of them is saying, "This is seriously wrong. The future of America is at stake." The schools never raise this kind of voice, so who should do that? The kinds of things going on today in this country are abhorred by God. We saw plentiful examples in history, particularly in Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as the Roman Empire-a powerful nation which fell almost overnight. What about America? What is the guarantee that America will not perish like Sodom and Gomorrah and the Roman Empire, when exactly the same things are going on? God will completely wipe it out. Such a nation should be diminished and vanish. Only one family, the heavenly family, should prevail.
Each of us should be proud that we are part of a family whose love is unchanging. How proud we can be if we are a member of the family in which we are becoming God's princes and princesses! We are all working for that, aren't we? The heart of God and the heart of the True Parents embrace all five different races and all different ages-not just young people, but infants and grandparents as well. Everybody. Not only the individual but the whole family wants to rest in that true love. Our original mind is centered on God and, once we are set in the right direction, it works by itself. All individuals, whether white, yellow, or black, want to live in true love and harmony with the world. That's true. No one can change this fact forever.
Father's desire is to embrace all races and then to be embraced. Father will likewise embrace all the rest of the world. Nobody is excluded from this love. Then the Heavenly Kingdom will be established. God and the universe desire this, and history is moving in that direction. We have put everything into this country of America. Japanese and Korean members have come to work here, so America has been given great blessing. Once you realize it, you will feel indebted to me and you will repay me by loving the rest of mankind. I don't want you to repay me directly. You should give what you have received to everybody else.
If Americans can realize how much they have received and can determine to go to less fortunate countries and give them just as much, then a speck of hope will arise in this hopeless world. It is a hope through which a miracle can happen. We should really value ourselves, we Moonies who have no status, no property. Each of us, no matter how small and humble we think we are, is more valuable than anyone else with a high social position.
If I wish to visit the families of the blessed couples, would you all welcome me? After you welcome me, then what? You welcome me in order to receive presents, so to speak. When you receive those presents, you distribute them to the rest of the world. After doing that, what happens? We are raised to the world level, just like God's own position and level.
Some of you Japanese members have been working here for over ten years and now you are kind of tired, aren't you? But Japanese members have a mission to fulfill. Until then they cannot rest and must work harder. The American members have to be pressured even more. Do the American members welcome that? When you do, then the heavenly family will be firmly established in this country and all of us will be part of that. All the wrong things in the American family will be mended. You have to make a strong decision in your mind to march on forever. Amen! God bless you. Let us pray.
