The Words of the Dixon Family |
Excerpts from a Speech to Church Leaders at the CAUSA-USA Seminar
For these few minutes we have together this evening I first want to take this opportunity to express my very grateful appreciation to the many of you whom I have met over the past few weeks. I have found that we have made some new friends. We've lost a few friends; in fact, we've lost a few old friends and we've gained some new friends. And that's the way the Lord works, isn't it?
I haven't words to express how much my friendship with Jim Gavin has meant to me, how much my friendship and association with the two greatest freedom fighters in the world today, Rev. [Sun Myung] Moon and Col. Pak, have meant to me. And there are so many, many others that I cannot take time this evening to mention. I haven't words to express my appreciation to so many of you who have really been very close to my heart in the past several weeks since we've been in the fight.
I'm telling you, this is exciting! God is able to do some things that you and I could never do, not in a million years!
I'll be very frank with you. I have never been defeated in my heart. I want you to know that. God knows that I have never been defeated in my heart. But in my head I really didn't think that we could win. I really didn't!... I visited Rev. Moon in Danbury prison last Saturday morning. Now, he may be inside, but I will assure you one thing: He is a free man! I'll assure you of that! And the people that are responsible for putting him there, they are the ones who are in prison.
A Nazi war criminal was caught this week. They found out he was one of the most respected members of the scientific community in the United States of America. He's had to leave the country now -- disgraced, embarrassed publicly! Probably there were members of his family that were not even aware of what this man had done. There are some people in this country who are responsible for putting Rev. Moon in prison, and I will assure you under Almighty God the day will come when they will he exposed publicly. There's no doubt in my mind about that.
My friends, I told you a moment ago that there was a time not long ago when I really didn't think we could win, but that was before I met this crowd. That was before I met Col. Pak and Rev. Moon. That was before I came into this room tonight and felt the excitement in the air and heard your singing. That was before I saw the dedication that I'm seeing in your faces tonight. But I'm telling you -- I am convinced that we're not going to lose -- we're going to win!
I must say tonight that as I stand in your presence I am embarrassed over what I did last Saturday morning. I am embarrassed that I had the privilege of going to Danbury, Connecticut, and visiting your pastor face to face when you could not go. I'm embarrassed that I had the privilege of embracing him as an old friend, though we had never met before, when I'm sure all of you here tonight would give anything in the world to be embraced by your pastor. For two-and-a-half hours it was my privilege to speak to him face to face, to hear his vision for this world, to feel his heartbeat, and to see the vision.
I am embarrassed before you because I knew that although we walked out of that prison and heard the doors close behind us, he had to leave that little waiting room and go back to his room. But I will assure you this evening that I did not leave a defeated man there. I did not leave a broken man in that prison. I did not leave a disappointed man. I did not leave a discouraged man. I left a victorious man! I left a triumphant man! I left a man who has a plan. I left a great freedom fighter -- inside. And I walked out with a great freedom fighter on the outside.
I've left two men in jail over the past two yeas', a pastor in Louisville, Nebraska, by the name of Brother Sileven, and then this past Saturday morning Rev. Moon. And when I left both of them I thought, "...of whom the world is not worthy."
I have a theory, my friends. I do not know whether my theory is true or not, but I believe it is. I believe that when a community or a nation becomes so wicked, so vile, filthy, godforsaken, and conscience-hardened that nothing will touch them, the only way that God can touch their hearts is to reach down in that community and pick out the most righteous of all and cause them to be persecuted publicly. And only then is the conscience of a community pricked.
When a little band of us -- with no influence, no money, and absolutely no resources -- stood in the snows of Nebraska and held on until the world knew that a little preacher in the cornfields of Nebraska was in jail, somehow the conscience of America began to be moved. And now once again your pastor has been put in jail -- persecuted, tormented, lied about, with the entire system arrayed against him.
At last because two good men have gone to jail we have a chance to touch the conscience of this nation of ours and turn back the clock and hurl back the forces of evil and strike a blow for freedom and for God and Christ and the Bible, not only in America, but all over the world. "By faith they subdued kingdoms."
Thank you.