To Lead Quiet Lives of Faith

Shahram Sedehi
August 8, 2011

"These false rumors began to feed on themselves, and soon they took on a life of their own. Our church suffered from this for more than a year. I did not want the problem to grow out of control like this. I did not want to cause problems. I tried to convince the students and professors to lead simple, quiet lives of faith. I explained that there was no need for them to leave the dormitories and cause such public trouble. But they were adamant. "Why do you tell us not to come here?" they asked. "We wish to receive the same grace as everyone else." In the end, they were forced to leave their schools. I was not comfortable with this."
Excerpt from "Two Universities Expel Students and Professors", The Book: "As A Peace Loving Global Citizen"

In studying Father's Autobiography, I see many examples of an unresolved conflict, where True Father asks his disciples "to lead simple, quiet lives of faith" and yet the disciples refuse and create so many problems for Father!

What does "lead simple, quiet lives of faith" mean? Would Father's reputation be different if we had followed Father in that direction? I say Yes!

All these years, until I read the Autobiography, I thought Father wanted a religion of "march on the streets". That was not his original intention and it is not even now, I believe!

When we joined in (since late early 70's, except in Korea),we had to leave our families, friends, jobs, businesses and universities to move into church centers. And years later we were called to go back to our home, in home church as well as tribal messiah providences. Yet, we had already lost our "sphere of influence", our connections with our family, friends, and colleagues. Thus, our movement had to resort back to "march on the street" campaigns again and again. Yet, how successful have we been as tribal messiahs to support True Parents, after all those "marches"?!

Hence, "lead simple, quiet lives of faith" is the motivator for the In Jin Nim's concept of "natural witnessing" and Hyung Jin Nim's call to us, to become one with True Parent's heart and motivation.