Dear Leaders of Region 12,

Yesterday, Rev. Booker Person (one of the "120") from Chicago was in Seattle as a guest of our prayer luncheon. Rev. Person has been preaching since age 11. He traveled the country as a "boy preacher". About 1-1/2 years ago, he was introduced to our movement by Rev. Elliott of Chicago whom he has known for about 25 years.

Our prayer luncheon was a humble gathering. Rev. Person gave a good talk sharing a bit about his involvement with our movement, gave a little testimony about his trip to Korea (we showed the "Tear Down the Walls" video during lunch before his speech). He strongly supported True Father, saying things like "God has anointed Rev. Moon", or "Rev. Moon knows what time it is and the time is NOW" or "Rev. Moon is on a mission and when you are on a mission from God, you can't worry about your age or anything else, you have to do what God tells you to do" etc. And he encouraged everyone to come to True Father's Speech. The few ministers who were present were inspired and will come and mentioned that they will share this with other ministers.

However, in a private conversation with me (at breakfast), Rev. Person mentioned that we as a movement soon will need to clearly state our or Rev. Moon's position on the subjects that are confusing to many of the ministers and that according to him, the ministers talk about: Does Rev. Moon claim to be the Messiah? What exactly do you mean with terms like "True Father" and "True Parents", etc.

He then said to me: I want to ask you directly, do you belief Rev. Moon is the Messiah? My answer was: Yes, in the sense that Jesus asked us to take up the cross and follow him and Rev. Moon more than anyone else has taken up the cross. Rev. Person cut in and wanted me to be more specific. I then said: If you ask me if Rev. Moon is Jesus - He is not. If you ask me if Rev. Moon is God - he is not. He was satisfied with these answers and moved on to the question of True Parents. Why are we making such a big deal out of that term. He said, he has someone he considers his "Father in the ministry" and he can understand that we see Rev. and Mrs. Moon as our spiritual parents but why proclaim them as the True Parents of Humankind ... My answer to this was that Jesus asked Rev. Moon to live for the sake of all people. When Rev. Moon decided to take responsibility for the salvation of all mankind, he in a sense decided to become the Father of all mankind. Since Rev. and Mrs. Moon are living for the sake of all people of the world, not just for the sake of the Korean people or for the sake of the American people, they took on the responsibility of True Parents for all people of the world. Being a True Parent has to do with taking responsibility for salvation (rebirth) - since Rev. and Mrs. Moon are doing this for the entire world, I and many ministers like Rev. Barrett call them the True Parents of Humankind. Although satisfied to some degree, he still stated that we will need to put our positions in writing like:

Regarding messiahship, Rev. Moon states that he is ... that he is not Rev. Moon believes/does not believe in the virgin birth of the Messiah Rev. Moon believes/does not believe in the rapture of the church, etc., etc.

I have to admit I did not expect and was not prepared for all these questions. I hope and it appeared that God gave me the answers that Rev. Person could here. I just wanted to share this so that you can be better prepared in your conversations with Ministers.

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