The truth is important not the person proclaiming it

The Age of Judgment and ourselves (2)

Reverend Sun Myung Moon, November 21, 1976, Belvedere, New York, Translator-Bo Hi Pak

The truth is most important, not the person proclaiming it

I went through incredible suffering in Korea. Three governments tried to obliterate our church and the existing churches brought us untold hardship. Yet not only did we survive but we rose above those circumstances and established the international foundation. In Japan, also we went through incredible hardship. At one time, the leading political party tried to eliminate our movement, yet now they see that Japan's only hope to overcome the aggression of communism is Reverend Moon's ideology. America too, will follow the pattern. Please wait just a few more years. America's opinion will change.

Did I come to America to be defeated? Do you think my victory represents only the victory of the yellow race over the white race? Maybe white people would not like that. My victory does not represent one race or one particular nationality, but will transcend race and nationality, creed and language.

What is important is the truth, not who proclaims it. If a white man creates a machine gun and a yellow man creates a machine gun the important question is not who made which weapon but which machine gun is the best. What we need in battle is the most effective weapon. Those who disregard this criterion and stick to certain prejudices will be defeated in battle. is it right to say, "I don't want to eat that grain because a black farmer grew it"? That is wrong. We have to move the world beyond these attitudes.

Now that we have seen victory at the Washington Rally, what is our next goal? The word "Moscow" is actually a shortened form of "must go." That means we must go, right? I am sure the diplomats from communist nations will just collapse in laughter when they hear this. "Reverend Moon, you're out of your mind! You're crazy!" But I am utterly serious. There is an historical foundation and an unseen cause, which compels me to speak.

When I came to America in 1972, I first spoke publicly at Lincoln Center. However, up until the moment that I signed the contract even the Unification Church members could not believe that I was serious about my plan, saying among themselves, "That's ridiculous. People will not come. How can he do such a thing?" People outside our church were even more scornful. On the second Day of Hope tour, I spoke at Carnegie Hall and again we were spoken of as crazy people.

When we moved up to the next stage, Madison Square Garden, people said, "He is really nuts." On September 17, the night before the speech, I had a banquet at the Waldorf Astoria. When we announced that we would like to have prominent Americans come to hear me speak on the following night, people said, ''Reverend Moon, please don't do it. No one will come."

That evening a prominent CBS reporter brought a camera to the waiting room to interview me and said, "Reverend Moon, personally I don't think people will come, but do you think you will be successful tomorrow night?" I said, "Just wait 24 hours more and see with your own eyes. More people than you ever imagined will show up to listen." He said, "Reverend Moon, I don't think that is true. I have experience and my calculations say that only a few people will come." But September 18 proved the CBS computer wrong. I think God has a different kind of computer. He wants to have a decent success and have us move on without further problems. If there had been no rain at Yankee Stadium, we would have had an overwhelming success June 1.

The Washington Monument Rally was originally scheduled for 1977. Having a gigantic international-scale rally in Washington, D.C. only 21⁄2 months after the big event at Yankee Stadium would normally be unthinkable. Any good organizer would say that this was truly a crazy idea, but it is the beauty of the Unification Church that we can conceive a crazy idea that everyone projects as a disaster and then produce a great victory.

Our campaign in Washington was not even in gear for the first 21⁄2 months after Yankee Stadium. The campaign itself was only forty days. Twenty-one days after the countdown started, a report came to me that the most people we could possibly bring was 8,000. When that report was given all the assembled leaders turned pale and felt completely panicky. Then I smiled and stood up, announcing, "After hearing your report I announce to you that the Washington Monument Rally will be an overwhelming success." Everybody was shocked! They did not know how to respond.

The Washington Monument Rally was a very crucial showdown. My rise or fall depended on that one rally. That is why your leaders were very panicky at that point in the campaign. But I know and see invisible things. Regardless of the reports, I knew that it would be an overwhelming success. How did I know? I know another world besides our world of reality. Even though you Unification Church members are but a handful of people, I know there are millions of people working with us in spirit world.

My strategy, is not shaped, by this world alone

My strategy is not an ordinary one. Man's strategy usually considers only the reality of this world, but my strategy depends upon the realities of two worlds. This is why I do not plan my tactics in an office but out on the high sea. There I am dealing with the unseen world. The present power of humans is truly limited. If you depend only on what you see, you are exceedingly limited in what you can do. Knowing that principle has kept me alive this far. By all normal calculations, I would have been dead a long time ago.

The Washington Monument victory was won under countless adverse conditions. Yet even under those circumstances, we could win a victory. Suppose the free world had supported me. I could move on to Moscow in three years with such support. That is not an unrealistic goal. Do you guess that is possible or do you know it as fact?

Our tradition has been established and we can measure the future by the scale of the past. I am not trying to be boastful but I have ability and power. The most important thing though is where my ability and power come from. I have experienced everything. I have tasted every human misery, including the life of a beggar. When I was a laborer, I was the best laborer. I was a factory worker and I have also created factories. I created every aspect of the Unification Church today with my own hands.

I love logic and I have studied science, but more than anything else, I am a searcher for spiritual truth and I have acquired spiritual wisdom. Throughout my entire life, I have slept one fourth of what people usually do. I ate half of what normal people ate. In my entire life in Korea, there was no moment wasted, no recreation and no relaxation. Before taking the departing Japanese members to see a show in Las Vegas I had never experienced such entertainment.

I have experienced the despair of gamblers. I have convinced prostitutes to live a pure life again. I can relate to farmers and blue-collar workers and factory workers because I know how they live, think, and feel. I can also relate to businessmen because I have started businesses. The work the Unification Church is doing in America is not happening by whim. There has been meticulous planning in all my work and now I am reaping the results here in America.

I know the thinking of theologians and scholars. When I first announced the plan to have a Science Conference every year, many members said, "Why waste your energy and money? Scholars are individualists who rarely change their opinions." But the Science Conference has been a success each year and is still expanding.

As a member of the Unification Church, aren't you learning a great deal about life? Many members are on the MFT, which is the very kind of life I lived some years ago. You have chosen this path as your way of life. It was no one else's decision. Since you have chosen to follow my philosophy and my way of life, you must go the same route by facing the same difficulties and experiences. Those who accuse people working in the name of God will be gathered together in one group and those who serve God will form another group. Either group could collapse or be destroyed or go marching on. Which is our way? Will we be dissolved?

Even if we die, we will die in battle, trying to accomplish God's goal. I have no time to pay attention to persecution and I am not bothered by it. I pay as much attention to it as I would to a neighbor's fly coming into my house to visit. Eternal righteousness is on our side. Do you have that kind of conviction?

Why should we work as hard as we do? Because of God. God is almighty, but He has been persecuted and cursed by people who insist that He is dead. Many champions of God have been murdered throughout history yet God has been silent, almost as though He were ineffective and weak. God must almost close His eyes to the reality of this world. Do you know why God cannot show His wrath? If He were ever angry and decided to judge the entire world, not one human soul would remain on earth. No one is now entitled to live above His judgment. If God were to be lenient about that then Satan could justifiably accuse each person. Not one could remain above Satan's accusation.

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