The Words of the Durst Family
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The Words of the Durst Family |
The following information was distributed by the Public Affairs Office at the national headquarters of the U.S. Unification Church.
The family, which is the basis for civilization, is under assault. The following statistics illustrate how modern American society is deteriorating from within.
In 1960 25% of all marriages in the U.S. ended in divorce, a figure that would have been shocking 20 years before. By 1977 the divorce rate had risen to 50% for the last five years. Today one out of every two marriages ends in divorce within 6.8 years. The number of divorces reached a record high in 1981, when more than 1.2 million divorces were granted in the U.S.
The increasing number of divorces granted involved more children in broken marriages than ever before. Over 1 million children under 18 years of age were involved in divorces in 1979, more than double the number in 1963, and more than triple that in 1957.
The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect estimates that approximately 1 million children are maltreated by their parents each year. Of these children, as many as 200,000 are physically abused, 100,000 are sexually abused, and the remainder are neglected.
According to law enforcement agency statistics, physical violence occurs more frequently between family members than between strangers.
The 1980 national statistics revealed that forcible rape offenses were up 45% over those of 1976.
The number of consultations for genital herpes infection increased eight-fold from 29,560 in 1966 to 260,891 in 1979.
These frightening statistics reflect that a drastic breakdown in human values is occurring, a breakdown which threatens the survival of society as we know it.
The Reverend Moon and the Unification Church believe that these problems can and must be overcome by locating their source: ignorance of the purpose of love itself.
Our society's distorted view of love as self-centered, ceaselessly promoted by mass media and lived out by millions, has done much to generate the wholesale breakdown so evident today.
We believe the solution lies in the rediscovery that mature love, God's love, is the purpose of life, and must become central to our relationships, our marriages, and ultimately our nations.
The daily practices and attitudes of all Unification Church members revolve around their commitment to this principle of selfless love. To the Unificationist, marriage, or "the Blessing," is central to this process, and is more than just a ceremony. Theologically, the Blessing signifies that the individual has attained the initial stages of a mature state of heart and is qualified, through God's blessing, to unite with one's mate to create a family whose children embody that love naturally.
For the participants, the Blessing is a moment of rebirth, an ultimate encounter with God and one's destiny. This belief in God-centered marriages, families, communities, and nations is basic to all Unification thought and tradition.
One thousand, five hundred forty-eight (1,548) couples were engaged in ceremonies held in May 1979, and December 1980. The following statistics summarize this group of engaged couples that participated in the wedding ceremony:
596 couples are from the same race and the same culture, which represents 37% of these engaged couples.
546 couples are inter-racially and cross-culturally mixed, which represents 35% of these engaged couples. Of these:
75% are Oriental engaged to Caucasian
13% are Black engaged to Caucasian or Oriental
12% are Hispanic engaged to Caucasian or Black
433 couples are cross-culturally mixed but of the same race, which represents 28% of these engaged couples.