Collision with Korean Society

It was the destiny of the Unification Church to begin on the foundation of Christianity. Since Christianity had been lost, we had to establish a religious body that could stand in place of Christianity. The Unification Church thus had to work with those second generation Christians who had been dismissed from the Christian churches' and create a foundation, by having them suffer again to indemnify everything in history as members of the Unification Church. In other words, since Christianity could not fulfill everything based on the historical global standard by breaking down walls between individuals, walls between clans or tribes and barriers between peoples, everyone had become enemies. To make up for this, the Unification Church had to pay the sacrificial price in relation to the spiritual and physical foundations.

In South Korea, as I worked to rebuild the foundation, with the indemnity conditions Heaven had established, the Unification Church developed, moving straight forward. We had to move at the level of the churches and the whole nation rather than at the level of individuals. This was the work of finding the highest-standard Christians centered on the educational institutions. I did this, and there was opposition. But because I had the conditions to form the heavenly side, the first generation was put aside and the second could be won over.

Why did I abandon the first generation? The first generation was already tainted. When I was working to accomplish God's will in South Korea, people from this generation stood against me. So I went to North Korea and before I could return to the South, I had to advance the providence of salvation, always centering on the second generation and not depending on the first, because the foundation was laid by making conditions that Satan presented.

From the time we began our activities on the university campuses of Yonsei and Ewha there was a clash. The government and the Christian churches joined forces and broadened their mobilization to stop our work. So, though I was back in the South, I would have to go to jail again; this was to set the condition of indemnity beyond the individual level, on the level of the family, clan [tribe] and ethnic people.

The whole purpose of the providence in relation to the first generation had been to unify the leaders of Christianity who were the first generation of that time. However, since they took a position absolutely contrary to God's will, a vital movement based on the second generation had to start. This movement's beginnings involved the incidents at Ewha Woman's University and Yonsei University. It did not start from some church. Students of Ewha Woman's University and Yonsei University were its foundation.

The students from these universities were the best representative men and women of this second generation. If God's will had been accomplished there, those universities would have been the center of every organization in the nation. If those from Ewha and Yonsei had restored everything, the children of the congregants of the six large Christian denominations would have joined; we would have instantly won the support of the second generation.

Yonsei and Ewha were like Adam and Eve. These universities were centers of activity for second-generation Christians, both men and women, weren't they? Single men and women were meant to follow me. Young people, I wasn't meant to bring just anyone to save the world.

To climb over a mountain, you must conquer the summit. When you confront Satan, you must settle accounts and separate the blood lineage from Satan, put down new roots on new ground and go on. If this task had been accomplished within the nation, by no the leaf bearing branches from that tree would have expanded and covered the world.

Before meeting the nation's president I went to see the president of Ewha University, Kim Hwal-lan. Didn't she live alone? What I mean is that she was waiting for the Messiah. As for Yonsei University and Ewha University, the first cooperated with the Presbyterian Church and the second with the Methodist church. At that time, Ewha University was connected to President Syngman Rhee's wife through the vice-president of the university, Maria Park. Based on her relationship with Christian missionaries, at that time there was a foundation to be united with the government.

If we could have won over the Western missionaries, and if Kim Hwal-lan and Back Nak-joon could have united and fully accepted the Unification Church, everything would have been realized on earth. If that had come about, I could have reached across to America, with its Christian culture, at one stretch.

Through Syngman Rhee, and based on national support, we could have accomplished as much as we wanted.

Reviving the first generation through the second

To restore the mistakes of the first generation, we had to bring those of the second generation together in unity. Everything depended on the second generation. They were the children of religious people, children of those who went to worship at the Shinto shrines and children of people who did not believe in religion. There were all kinds. Everyone was mixed together. If the second generation had been present and had fully united, and had reversed the mistakes of the first generation, after that rectification we would have gained influence in the nation and church and moved onto the world stage.

If the Unification Church, centered on God's will, had made unity with the second generation and stood in the Abel position, and had completely brought the parents in the Cain position to its side, the parents and the children would have become one Centering on the second generation, I worked to vertically connect Yonsei and Ewha universities with the first generation Christians, a parent -- child relationship.

The first generation Israelites died in the wilderness, but now we are in the realm of God's protection; therefore the first generation does not die, but can enter the land of Canaan along with the second generation. That is the Principle.

In that environment, the incidents at Ewha and Yonsei occurred in Korea because I tried to make that connection.

Christianity and the Syngman Rhee government

Yonsei and Ewha Universities were like a man and woman who had not fallen. If they had become one with Christianity in a parent-child relationship, it would have been the same as a family four-position foundation. Included in this is the formation of individual families, clans seen as families and ethic groups viewed in the same way. If they had been able to unite with the government, based on Christianity, the national level would have been attained. If that had happened, True Parents' ideals would have made a solid start in Korea.

Ewha and Yonsei represented Cain and Abel... We were climbing up backwards, led by the second generation. So by connecting the family level through Dr. Rhee, based on the national level, if they could unite based on the summit of power, they naturally would unite. So I tried to do that... But everyone opposed me. The established churches opposed me.

In order to clean up Satan's world entirely, I had to fight with champions from all different walks of life. We have to meet challenges in order to ascend. We had to challenge ourselves because we were challenged by opposition from the Republic of Korea.

The person I challenged was Dr. Rhee. At that time, Korea was Christian-oriented, and the professors of Ewha University and Yonsei University were at the highest level. I challenged them to listen to me. I also challenged church ministers to listen.

The Christian-led government and the United States

If we could have won over all the students, men and women, at Yonsei and Ewha, Syngman Rhee would have been naturally pulled into things. If this had happened, since Rhee had courage, and had power over General Hodge, if Rhee had stood up and claimed that we could conquer the world through God's will, through this religion and ideal, we could have won over America and there would have been a way to spread out to the world. One great thing about President Rhee was that he argued with General Hodge, defending South Korea's sovereignty, something Koreans wanted, so that the nation would not be swallowed up by the Communist world.

Syngman Rhee had been educated in America and was fully American. His wife was Austrian, and he spoke Korean like an American. He became a symbol of Asia and overrode whatever General Hodge said; he did this while stressing the autonomy of his people. This was somewhat impressive.

When the negotiations for the release of North Korean anticommunist prisoners of war was going on, since the UN was against their being released, Rhee released them all in a single day. This is a historically famous episode. At first, people criticized him for this, but later thought he had done something very good. That was a messianic way of thinking, and history should remember it."

Dismissals and expulsions

(March -- July, 1955)

We set the fire of truth among Ewha and Yonsei students. I said, "These [first generation' people are no good. You second-generation members must light the fire. You must build the path to peace and justice."

The Ewha University incident refers to three hundred and eighty female students being blown by that spring breeze. Eighty of them a day packed up their bags to leave. They left their homes by climbing over the fence, or saying they were going to a public bathhouse... When their parents stopped them from going out, they said, "Why can't I go? If I am not allowed to go out, I would rather die. Kill me."

They did not want to go to school, even if meant they'd die. Even if I smelled bad, or my feet smelled, they thought I smelled like perfume. They didn't want to go to school at all. And when they did go to school, they felt as if they were eating sand... Every day incidents would happen.

One smart lady teacher, Professor Young-oon Kim, who had graduated from a theological seminary and who was teaching in the Department of Christian Social Work at Ewha University, came to investigate the teachings of our church. She listened to the Principle and joined the Unification Church within a week. In an instant, the other professors of Ewha University became completely taken up with this. Some three hundred and eighty students in the dormitory listened to the Principle and were absorbed by it.

Witnessing expands, opposition increases

I caused problems for my country and its people, just quietly sitting here... I grabbed hold of everyone who came to me. If you pray hard, even if spirits attack, the outcome will be good.

People say that I stole the congregations of other churches, but I never did that. In 1954, 1 even said let's not set up a church. People came to listen to the Principle. I told them to return to their own churches, but they didn't want to. If I chased them out of the front door, they would come back through the back door, and if I chased them out of the back door and locked the front gate, they would climb over the fence and come in.

Christians started to hate us. From their perspective, never before had there been an enemy like our church; if a smart person listened to the Principle for just a day, he could change completely within a week.

Korean Christians are renowned worldwide for working hard and for their loyalty to God. But the Unification Church emerged, taking away all the smart people from Christian denominations. This is why at Ewha University, the whole school was turned upside down in two months, and the school put pressure on the students, threatening them with expulsion or other extreme measures. That brought about remarkable, cataclysmic results.

The power behind the university incidents

Wasn't it because all the students of Ewha University and Yonsei University came to us that this group expulsion occurred? How many months did it take? Not even three months. This happened in about two months, within just sixty days.

I wanted to win over Ewha and Yonsei within six months. I came with the confidence that if this could be accomplished, within seven years Christianity would bow before the truth the Unification Church is teaching.

Who caused these incidents at Ewha University and Yonsei University? Christians were at the forefront. The Liberal Party (under Syngman Rhee) played a leading role. It strongly opposed me. Lee Ki-bung, Maria Park... Why didn't Ewha University and Yonsei University listen to what I was saying? They were afraid that I would take over their universities. They thought, "Oh dear, the Christian missions department is supposed to guide the university, but if we listen to what Rev. Moon is saying, our university is going to be led by him!" They would have said that, had it also been the case with Korean church denominations, they would also have ended up being led by me. There was a big fuss. So the expulsions went ahead.

Kim Hwal-lan and Maria Park became the main force and told untruths about me at Gyeongmudae, and, by moving the heads of five government ministries, they tried to get rid of the Unification Church and bury me completely.

If the incidents at Ewha and Yonsei had not happened, everything would have been connected to Gyeongmudae, and the whole of Christianity would have been connected. At that time Young-oon Kim was a professor of religious studies. Since all their main teachers joined the church, wasn't it inevitable that Kim Hwal-lan would oppose us? Even though Young-oon Kim informed them properly, a few people from the established churches opposed us and things turned out the way they did.

If Ewha Woman's University and Yonsei University had been restored, and if they had not opposed me, all of Korean Christianity would have been restored.

Yonsei: 1 professor 2 students; Ewha: 5 professors 14 students

Since Ewha University was receiving support from America with the missionaries in the background, they felt in danger of being absorbed by the activity led by the little known Unification Church. So the countermeasure they took was dismissal. The professors and students involved were given an ultimatum: "Will you choose the university or the Unification Church?"

It was an emergency for the university, because they had to stop a flock of students joining our church. They made them choose between the two. How could they give them such a choice? The university had students whose families belonged to a variety of groups. There were even many children of shamans. So why was the Unification Church barred? This was the work of Satan. They opposed us but then gave in. The president of the university asked everyone to choose between expulsion and the Unification Church. Where in the world does such a law exist?

At that time, five professors resigned and fourteen students were expelled. Nothing like it had ever happened before.

So six intelligent professors" resigned and sixteen students gave up their studies.

Because of this, the Unification Church was persecuted. I remember the pain of being persecuted.

We began our work in 1954, and in 1955 the Ewha University incident occurred and turned the whole country upside down. Didn't people say "Strike down that Moon guy and kill him!"?

I was alone in the world.

A church member's excessive zeal

If they had absolutely obeyed what I was saying at that time, the Ewha University incident would not have happened. Had they stayed quiet, it would have all been all right. Why did they come out like baby spiders from the ground? They were called bad names for what they did. Oh my goodness! I have never seen such a fuss. [Laughter]

When Yang Yoon-yeong was at Ewha University, I told her not to tell these things to Kim Heal-lan. I also told her what to say to Maria Park. And yet she would go to them and tell them everything I had told her not to say. That is why you should not give knives or guns to young children! The things you tell someone not to say are always the most exciting things.

When I was in Bukhak-dong, she brought Maria Park. She brought this woman, who lived in a place like a palace to greet me and... [Laughter] I did not have any social standing.

Also when Miss Yang left Ewha University, I told her not to. When I told her that, she said, "What do you mean I shouldn't leave? I have received such blessings," and went around talking about it. She went around blowing her own trumpet, so the Christians became angry... She was so enraptured by the word that she just went around, opening her mouth as though she were singing a song. But if you look back on those days with a sympathetic heart, even though she was accused and expelled, she stood in the advance guard, they all did... Yang Yoon-yeong did great service for Heaven.

On hearing my teachings, she temporarily lodged her two children in an orphanage, so determined was she to follow this way. History and Heaven will remember her for that.

The origin of the rumors about the Unification Church

Do you think that Satan will just quietly leave alone the toad (as he might say) who says he is going to unite heaven and earth and build the ideal, the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven? Anyone who believes that would be an absolute fool.

The best method is to make accusations of all manner of strange things. That is the best strategy. In the beginning they would say, "He is similar to this or that bad person in Christian history." Or, "He is similar to this person or that person in this church or that lewd church." Later, "Similar to" becomes "the same as." All sorts of bad things were unjustly dumped on me.

Once God asked me, "Hey you, Moon! Do you want to hear Christian ministers praying that you die?" God is quite humorous, too, you know. I was able to hear their prayers, which were like the sound of trumpets, "This Moon should be immediately struck by lightning and killed!" I have heard that kind of thing before. Through that kind of behavior I received incredible persecution.

Satan and his minions have been hurling abuse at me in order to try to stop the realization of the ideal, unified world. That is why the Unification Church has walked along this path, suffering abuse. To this day, there have been all kinds of rumors.

The rumor that we bewitched people

You have heard people say in the past that if you go to the Unification Church, they will use some kind of electrical device or magic and that you will be completely taken in by Rev. Moon. What is it that he can take you in with? Because you have met and long for the absolute true subject partner, because you have met the subject partner who can make your heart feel joy, your mind just wants you to go to see him, whether it be day or night.

If the warm spring comes and you say to the frozen snow, "Don't melt!" it will still melt. Even if you sacrificed a cow to Heaven to prevent it, it would still melt. That a higher love attracts you is inevitable. A spring breeze affects men and women equally. That is why people say that if you go to the Unification Church you will all be bewitched by some sort of electrical device.

Actually, it's true. It is electricity, but it's the electricity of God's love. You can see an electric light and the insulated wire, but you can't see electricity. If people come in contact with this unseen electricity, they might die. You cannot see the electric love of God either. You cannot explain love by any theory.

The more you come into contact with it, the more stuck you become; you cannot break away. That's why the Unification Church has a history of "sticking." If you go to the Unification Church, you will stick. Maybe there is some kind of sticky rice cake or sticky toffee, if you come here and sit on the floor, then... [Laughter]

The rumor that we danced naked

At the time of the Ewha incident, there were all sorts of rumors. They said such things as "Everyone dances naked," "All the women took off their clothes and did this and that," "The women, all of them lowlifes, swore at me," [Laughter] and "The Unification Church members dance naked. It is a lewd group." They kept falsely accusing us.

A long time ago, there was a spiritual group that did dance naked. Because people started wearing clothes after the Fall, the spiritual world had told these people to take off their clothes. Because I knew about such things, I kept quiet even though we were was being vilified. False charges were heaped upon us.

Many people accused me of naked dancing. If I had really danced naked, I would feel their accusations were justified. I never even saw anyone dance naked, yet I was known as the monster who danced naked. If the Korean people could be blessed by saying such things about me, I wouldn't mind if people said them. If Koreans could be blessed through my being cursed, all well and good. I'd accept such curses happily.

I thought, "Do as you want." The Unification Church will use it as fertilizer to grow. Because we were accused of being so bad, those who lived life just for their own enjoyment could not join the church. Only people who were willing to risk their lives, who thought, "I don't care if the whole world rejects me, I will go this way whatever the cost" could join the church. Because we have overcome that kind of opposition, on the day we win the victory, we can push all the people who were against us aside.

They looked at us disapprovingly, saying, That's the group who dances naked, aren't they? They're the group that does this and that, aren't they? It will take many years for that kind of thinking to disappear.

I am a person; my name is Sun Myung Moon, but to this day the uproar remains, with people saying that I am a heretical monster -- a monster destroying churches, a monster destroying the country.

Christians say, "The most important people in our church only have to listen to the Divine Principle and they leave. If they continue to leave, we will be ruined." So they say, "The Unification Church is the great Satan, the great Devil!" I have become the leader of devils! [Laughter]

The result of the incidents at the universities

I love the Korean people. I started along this path knowing that although Koreans are the race that should inherit the heavenly law, as long as Korean Christianity refuses to welcome me, Koreans will have to suffer persecution and a lonely, painful path. In the 1950s, had they waited just six months longer, the sad incidents at Ewha and Yonsei would not have happened. But because the Christians rose up in arms...

If Christianity had only joined hands with me at that time, Christianity globally would have already been unified. It would surely have been unified within seven years. The world would have melted in my hands when I was in my forties. It wasn't too late even then. It was 1955, ten years later than scheduled, but it wasn't too late. I could have solved all the problems then, but...

The expulsions created an environment that led to me having to go to prison and great difficulties arose in God's providence. Due to the Ewha and Yonsei incidents, the Unification Church was as good as done away with. I had been labeled a heretic who had nothing to say. I was kicked out into the wilderness. The foundation that God had been preparing for four thousand years was all lost. I had to start again from the beginning.

The Ewha University problem in 1955 was an incident that affected the country. The nation and the established churches joined hands and five ministries in the Syngman Rhee administration were mobilized to do away with the Unification Church. But I was triumphant in that battle and secretly established the internal and external foundation for the future of the church. I gained the victory there and formed again a new movement that could replace the new Christian foundation that had been based on rejection by the established churches and rejection by the nation of Korea.