7. I have lived my life with
just one thought:
I wanted to bring about a
world of peace, a world
where there are no wars
and where all humankind
lives in love.
8. After graduating high school he joined other churches,
first as a member then later as a Sunday School
teacher.
9. But when he shared his mission from God, no one
listened. In the communist North, he was soon
arrested.
10. For almost 3 years he was in the Heungnam labor
camp, where 75% of the men died of starvation and
exhaustion.
11. The camp and all its surviving prisoners were liberated
by UN forces of sixteen nations in the autumn of 1950.
12. By now virtually all Koreans were now refugees. His
small group of early followers had been scattered and
lost.
13. The long years of separation and hardship proved too
much for his family, which was tragically broken apart.
14. He has nothing to eat, and only one set of clothes. With
nowhere to live, he builds a mud shack on a lonely hill.
15. When he says that one day world will come to Korea to
learn peace, even his friends think he might be crazy.
16. The place was built of mud and
stone; the rain leaked through the
roof. Then a young man came in.
“Christianity and all religions of the
world can be unified,” he said.
But I was suspicious. “You can‟t
even gather a handful of people,” I
Hyun Shil Kang thought.
A Protestant missionary who hoped to
bring Sun Myung Moon into her own
church, but joined him instead.
19. Against all the odds, the church began to grow as word spread
about the „man teaching strange things‟ in the shack on a hill.
20. At the end of the War, he moved to Seoul. When many
students from major universities joined him, authorities were
alarmed.
21. Rev. Moon and others were jailed on charges of „draft
evasion‟ amid sensational media coverage.
22. When he was found “not guilty” three months later, the
same papers buried the story deep on an inside page.
23. Koreans have a saying that a
person insulted by others
lives a long time.
If I were to live in proportion
to the insults I have received,
I could live another 100 years.
My stomach has been filled,
not with food, but with insults.
24. In 1960, he married Hak Ja Han, the young daughter of
an early disciple, and his family began to grow.
25. Teaching that God‟s ideal is realized through the
family, he began to bless his followers in marriage.
27. The church rapidly spread to major cities, and he
would spend most of the year visiting members and
preaching.
28. But in the summer, they would still go back to the
country to help rural families plant the rice.
29. He knew he had to work beyond Korea and began to
send out missionaries.
30. to Japan and the USA, and then to 40 and 120
countries.
31. The publication of the Divine Principle in English meant that
the movement and its message could spread around the
world.
32. In 1971 he came to America, answering God‟s call
to help it once again become „One nation under God.‟
33. His arrival energized the small group of American
disciples that had been created by early missionaries.
34. With the help of hundreds of new members he began a
high-profile campaign, “The Day of Hope.”
35. Americans have lost the love
that they received from God.
Unless America recovers its
spirit, it has no future.
I came to awaken your spirit
and to save America from
destruction. Repent! You must
repent and return to God.
36. Though he spoke almost no English, with an interpreter he
embarked on a 7-city tour of the US, starting in New York.
37. He also invested for the unity of the sciences, the
arts, the development of the media, and much more.
38. “I greatly appreciated Rev. Moon‟s
deep concern for the present
predicament of mankind. He says
intellectuals have an urgent
responsibility in the task of rebuilding
society, with values as the supreme
Nobel Laureate Sir John Eccles [1903-97] guide.”
Chairman, International Conference
on the Unity of the Sciences
39. He declared “God‟s Hope for America” in front of
300,000 people at the Washington Monument.
40. And created the Unification Theological Seminary as a
leading interfaith center of learning.
41. He took time to show the students how to meet God
away from their books while fishing or just mending nets.
42. He started newspapers that exposed communism and
secular humanism. Americans took notice.
43. “Rev. Moon came to America to
launch his ministry based on
our most cherished values. Our
religious institutions, regardless
of denomination, must play a
pivotal role in these tasks.”
Gen. Alexander Haig,
Supreme Commander of NATO ,1975-79, and US Secretary of
State, 1981-82
44. He never shied away from controversy, urging the
United States during the Watergate era to „Forgive, love
and unite.‟
46. US Congressman Donald Fraser falsely accused the
movement of working for the Korean CIA.
47. Eventually Rev. Moon and others were indicted by a
grand jury. He had the choice to leave the country or
face trial.
48. All I did was in order to
reestablish the morality of an
America that had fallen into
degradation and restore it in
line with God's will.
But I was accused of not
paying my taxes. I was well
past my 60th birthday at the
time.
49. He was sent to jail at age 64 for allegedly not paying just
$7,000 in taxes, despite having invested millions in the USA.
50. 40 religious groups filed amici briefs, saying that as the
head of a church, Rev. Moon was treated unfairly.
51. “I know who the real Rev. Moon is.
He is a man with an immense
heart, a heart with room to love all
human beings, a heart big enough
to love sinners who injure him.”
Dr. Morton Kaplan, University
of Chicago,
after visiting Rev. Moon in
prison
52. Painfully, that same year the Moons‟ second
son, Heung Jin, was killed in a car accident at the age
of 17.
55. By the time he was
released, public opinion had
turned in his favor. A U.S.
senator concluded:
“Injustice, not justice has been
served in the case of Rev. Sun
Myung Moon.”
Senator Orrin G.
Hatch, Chairman,
Judiciary Subcommittee, United
States Senate
56. Encouraged by many faith leaders who supported him in
prison, he worked to end the conflict of communism and
democracy.
58. In 1990, he went to Moscow and began a friendship with
President Mikhail and Mrs. Raisa Gorbachev.
59. “Mr. President, you did a great
thing," I told him. "You gave up
your post as General
Secretary of the Soviet
Union, but now you have
become the president of
peace.
Because of your wisdom and
courage, we have the
possibility to bring world
peace.”
60. A year later, he returned to Pyongyang after 40 years to
reconcile with Kim Il Sung, the man who had once tried to kill
him.
61. Later the Little Angels dancers brought his message of
peace and hope to Moscow and Pyongyang.
62. Many foreigners knew about
Korea only as a poor country
that had fought a terrible war.
I wanted to show them the
beautiful dances of Korea so
that they would realize that
the Korean people are a
people of culture.
63. When the first Gulf War began, he reached out to
Muslim leaders urging them to join with him to make
peace.
64. As the world was about to be
swept up in the vortex of war, I
came to the conclusion that
Christian and Muslim leaders
should meet and stop this
conflict.
I immediately began
contacting people on the two
sides.
65. The World Peace Blessing ceremonies grew to include
people of all races, religions, and nations.
66. Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon launched the Women‟s Federation for
World Peace (WFWP) on a peace tour with George & Barbara
Bush.
67. The WFWP‟s many service and educational projects
are helping make the lives of the world‟s children better.
68. Young people of different religions have been holding
interfaith service programs with Religious Youth Service for
25 years.
69. He rescued the University of Bridgeport from
bankruptcy, turning it into a thriving institution with students
from around the world.
70. But then came the 1990s Asian financial crisis threatening
many businesses that had previously supported his work.
71. Properties in South America planned for education and a
“peace community” came under arbitrary government
investigation.
72. The challenge of public life placed great stress on the
entire family. The Moons lost yet another son in a tragic
accident.
73. At the age of eighty, many men would have given up
or simply retired. . .
84. Father and Mother Moon challenged everyone, from
volunteers to Presidents, to help build peace by 2013.
85. “Rev. Moon‟s call for peace
through religion is something of
great nuance and profundity. We
are deeply fortunate for the
chance to hear him and observe
his life-long struggle for world
peace.”
H. E. Abdurrahman Wahid,
President of Indonesia,1999-2001
86. Three generations of the Moon family visited a further
700 cities on later international peace tours.
87. Then Ambassadors of Peace took the Peace Tour to
12,000 more locations worldwide.
88. In June 2006, the Cheon Jeong Goong Peace Palace
was opened in Korea, heralding the coming age of
peace.
112. If we can all shine as we
live such glowing lives,
there will be no chance
for the shadow of sin to
be cast.
113. We don't know the time
when morning becomes
noon. Neither do we know
the time that evening
becomes night.
Though we may not know
it, there is clearly heavenly
fortune, which the One who
created this world uses to
conduct His providence.
114. Father and Mother Moon and their family have always
taught that the world of peace –a kingdom of God– can
start to emerge by 2013.