Freedom before Peace Part II

Shahram Sedehi
August 4, 2012

Freedom society is concerned about how to bring God's kingdom in the "real world". As Unificationist we are always talking about peace and unity, but I have rarely seen us discuss individual freedom, as we view that as a "Cain" type topic. We usually talk about the collective freedom. We seems to ignore the process of getting to the point where an individual actually makes a choice to join the public purpose. So, Hyung Jin Nim in the sermon is saying, our church almost seemed to him to resemble a communist system.

Well, all this was because, we ignored the fact that before we can have peaceful world, where everyone shares and lives for the sake of others, the world has to go through a period where people make their choices freely whether to choose such a "public" minded world. In that period, people need to be left alone to make their decision, and must not be forced in any form or way or by anybody at all to arrive at any conclusion or action. No laws imposed from the top down or down to top. Everyone simply need to make a conscious decision based on the truth that they are willing to follow.

This almost sound like a period of anarchy, but Hyung Jin Nim reminds us that, it is exactly how God governed the Garden of Eden: No laws, but simply a warning by God, about the inevitable consequences of the fall... No policing angels, no guards, no judges, except one's own conscience.

So as we go the reverse course of the time before the fall, we all need to go through that period. It is the most dangerous period of kingdom building for us as followers of the Divine Principle and True Parents. Before we could simply follow some leader or some Army Captain or Judge, etc., and feel safe about our future! Now all safety nets must be pulled off and we need to rise above it all with our own conscience. This has such deep implications to our spirituality, never seen before.

So God will have to take down the power of all governments of the world, in order to give more power to the individual conscience. Hence the need for owning guns, since violent people will not be stopped by the police anymore and everyone has to defend their own family and tribe. Hence the importance of Tribal Messiahship.

This period of seeming anarchy is necessary, as much as a teenager needs his freedom to rebel, before he can listen to his parents again. As the principle says: Kingdom of heaven is the extension of an ideal Individual, not a government, or collective. I never could understand the practical application of this concept, until now.