The United States
The United States is playing a most significant role in the history of God's providence. Just as the evangelism of Jesus--who came to the land of Judah two thousand years ago--bore fruit in Rome, it is understandable that the Unification Principle should have borne fruit in the United States, which can be considered the Rome of the twentieth century. On that basis, it is being disseminated throughout Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, the South Pacific, the former communist bloc (including Russia), and the Middle East.
As early as 1959, Reverend Moon sent the first missionary to the United States and gave her the mission of restoring that nation to God. Now, more than thirty-five years later, the Unification Church's missionary work has built up a substantial foundation.
The history of the church's missionary work in the United States began on January 4, 1959, with the arrival of Missionary Young-oon Kim. As a student at the University of Oregon, she developed the movement centered on the Principle, in Eugene, Oregon, undergoing severe hardship and persecution.
As her expenses increased, Missionary Kim moved from the campus to a member's house in Oak Hill and began to organize and develop activities. She set up a central office together with several members. This center was named the "Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of Christianity."
Later, Missionary Sang-chul Kim, who arrived in the United States on September 18, 1959, took charge of the north-western region. The arrival of Missionary Bo-hi Pak in 1961 meant there were three persons devoting themselves to the restoration of America. On November 16, 1963, a significant date, many members gathered together to commemorate Children's Day.
On that day, missionary Young-oon Kim, who had temporarily assumed the role of president of the movement in the United States, stepped down from that position, and Gordon Ross, a core American member, became the first president of the Unification Church in the United States.
On February 12, 1965, Reverend Moon began his first tour of the United States, visiting forty-eight places in forty-four days. The first Holy Ground in the United States was established near the Ellipse Building behind the White House, and the second on the grassy square to the west of City Hall.
After creating the final Holy Ground in Eugene, Oregon, Reverend Moon met President Eisenhower at historic Gettysburg, where they discussed the new mission of the United States. The June 25, 1965 meeting increased the standing of the Unification Church.
Reverend Moon toured the United States in 1969, and again in 1971, encouraging the members in their faith. On his second tour he spoke to audiences in seven major cities. Film of these Day of Hope speeches was also shown in Korea. From that time on, America began to look at the Unification Church with both amazement and some concern.
On February 28, 1972, Reverend Moon launched the One World Crusade in Los Angeles, to play a central role in the work in America. OWC members visited forty-three cities, traveling some 16,000 miles and causing a stir everywhere they went.
During his speaking tours, Reverend Moon received many plaques of appreciation, honorary citizenships and keys to cities from state governors and city mayors for his efforts to awaken American Christianity to its mission.
It was at that time that the Watergate crisis erupted and dealt a hard blow to American morale. Believing that both the cause and effects of the problem should be solved through forgiveness, love and unity, Reverend Moon placed an advertisement in both the New York
Times and Washington Post, appealing to the conscience of the American people. In the full-page advertisement, Reverend Moon asked America to unite and overcome the crisis wisely under God's guidance notwithstanding the seriousness of the president's crime.
On January 31, 1974, Reverend Moon was invited to the president's breakfast prayer meeting, and encouraged President Nixon, telling him that God loved a leader with conviction and that he should keep his spirits up. However, the American people did not accept Reverend Moon's will and, as a result, social confusion increased. Her defeat in the war against communist Vietnam constituted a pitiful episode in American history.
Reverend Moon was not discouraged, but rather continued to speak out to the American people. Through the Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and Washington Monument rallies, Reverend Moon fully proclaimed his message of "God's Hope for America."At the Washington Monument bicentennial celebration, under the theme, "The God Bless America Festival" a crowd of more than 300,000 gathered (according to international news reports), making it the largest religious gathering in the history of the United States. It was a triumphant expression of the active missionary work members of the Unification Church had been carrying out, and became an important incentive for the establishment of the foundation for worldwide missionary activity.
Because of the success of the event, service, organization, order, and investment have become the axioms of the Unification Church, and the church has achieved a substantial membership worldwide in the years following the pioneering of the North American continent.
The songs of celebration sung by the New Hope Singers a choir comprising international Unification Church members in their national costumes expressing the hope for one world, seem to still ring in my ears.
Since the mid-1960s, universities in the United States, and American society in general, have become a center of anti-American ideology, drug abuse, sexual immorality and violence, and have spread those problems throughout the world. In response to this, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principle was officially established at the University of Columbia in 1973. Reverend Moon appointed church leader Jong-gu "Tiger" Park as the leader of American CARP. Reverend Park expanded the CARP movement to all regions of the United States by leading young people with his unique courage and dedication.
In 1980, CAUSA and New ERA were established centering on distinguished citizens of the United States. Emphasizing the unity and inter-relatedness of the human family, these organizations sought mutual understanding and cooperation among the various religious and cultural traditions of the world.
In 1985, the International Religious Foundation (IRF) established by Reverend Moon sponsored the first Assembly of the World's Religions, attended by about six hundred religious representatives. Leaders representing Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Taoism discussed their concerns regarding world peace and human welfare. From that time on, the Unification movement put down its roots more deeply into all aspects of American society.
The media has a significant influence on public opinion regarding world affairs, and there are thousands of news media organs throughout the United States. The Washington Post was for some time the only major newspaper in Washington, DC, and it represented the decidedly more liberal viewpoint. To counter this, Reverend Moon made a considerable investment to establish a daily newspaper in order that there could be a conservative voice in Washington, and to defend democracy in the United States and worldwide.
This was the Washington Times, which came into being on March 1, 1982. So far the newspaper has had considerable influence on the American government and people. The Washington Times helped prevent South America from succumbing to communism, and established itself as an essential newspaper for the policy formulation of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Moreover, the Spanish-language newspaper Noticias del Mundo, the New York City Tribune and weekly news magazine Insight have been guiding America in the direction of spiritual values. The Paragon House publishing company publishes works dealing with humanity and science. Paragon House now has a consultant editorial committee comprised of prominent scientists and scholars, contributing to the publication of quality books for an international readership.
In 1982, Reverend Moon was involved in the trial of the century. Professor Lawrence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard University, deemed it a "trial by prejudice." Professor Tribe demanded the case be thrown out, and religious groups and other organizations nationwide spoke out in earnest against the injustice. For all of this, on May 14, 1982, the supreme court declined to hear Reverend Moon's appeal, and he was detained in Danbury Prison for thirteen months.
Dr. Mos Durst, then president of the Unification Church in America, called it a day of shame for the United States. Many others, representing diverse spheres of society including clergymen, politicians and journalists declared it a day of national disgrace. Before entering prison, Reverend Moon attended a Senate subcommittee hearing on religious freedom, chaired by Senator Orrin Hatch. Reverend Moon demonstrated an unchanging love toward America, saying: "In the last twelve years, I have done everything I could for America. I have had just one goal in mind: To strengthen the moral fiber of America and enlarge her capacity to fulfill God's Will."
While Reverend Moon was in prison, the whole of America began to stir. Thousands of American ministers filed petitions to the US administration and organized meetings and street demonstrations, intending to share in Reverend Moon's ordeal through a "Common Suffering Fellowship." A street march ended with a candle-lit prayer vigil in front of the White House.This was indeed remarkable as not long before, Christian leaders had been persecuting the Unification Church as a heretical faith. Yet now they were leading a movement to share in Reverend Moon's pain. Moreover, these included prominent figures such as Reverend Ralph Abernathy and Reverend Joseph Lowery, who had worked alongside Reverend Martin Luther King when he was alive.
Gathering such people together, Reverend Moon established an association for clergymen, transcending denominations, and proceeded to sponsor American ministers on pilgrimages to Korea. During their eight-day visit to Korea, they received a series of lectures on the Unification Principle. Over 7,800 ministers visited Korea, an average of two hundred at a time. When they returned to the United States they testified to their own denomination that the Unification Principle is the hope to save America. Reverend Moon demonstrated, by action rather than by words, the principle that we have to go down to the bottom of hell and gain victory in order to make Satan surrender.
After being released from prison, Reverend Moon began to focus the foundation of the Unification Church in the United States towards the reformation of the Communist world. In 1987, he proposed to the Chinese government the establishment of a highway of peace to pass through mainland China. Chinese Premier Deng Xaoping accepted and the peace highway was thus approved. With this momentum, a second project the construction of a car production facility in Heyju, China also received approval. A plan to make the plant the "Detroit of the East" within ten years was formulated. Following this, a number of delegations from Eastern European communist countries visited the United States and came to meet Reverend Moon. It is not surprising that the plans to support countries in the Eastern bloc were developed on the basis of the Unification Church's foundation in the United States, laid over a period of thirty years.
Under the direction of the North America continental director, missionaries sent from Korea have assumed responsibility for the eleven administrative regions in the United States, in which the core membership of the nation plays an important role.
*** The first Christmas at Belvedere ( December 1973 ) *** Reverend Moon with members in Kansas, Missouri,during his tour of 21 cities in the USA *** Members listening to a speech about the Madison Square Garden rally at Belvedere ( September 19, 1974 ) *** A 21-day workshop at the World Mission Center ( November 16, 1980 ) *** Reverend Moon speaking at Belvedere on Day of All Things ( June 1982 ) *** Amercian Christian ministers demonstrating inside a cell-like iron grating after holding a rally for religious freedom (August 9, 1984 ) *** Members demonstrating against drugs in New York, as part of United to Serve America ( May 1992 )
