In 1955, a remarkable witnessing project aimed at attracting many good young people from the top Christian universities in Korea drew the interest of many capable students. But that time was also the beginning of opposition based on misunderstanding. In this installment, Father explains the course of the new movement during the mid-1950s.
If they had obeyed what I was saying at that time, the Ewha University incident would not have happened. Had they stayed quiet, it would have all been all right. Why did they come out like baby spiders from the ground? They were called bad names for what they did. Oh my goodness! I have never seen such a fuss.
When Yang Yoon-yeong was at Ewha University, I asked her not to tell these things to Kim Hwal-lan. I also told her what to say to Maria Park. And yet, she would go to them and tell them everything I had asked her not to say.
That is why you should not give knives or guns to young children! The things you tell someone not to say are always the most exciting.
When I was in Bukhak-dong, she brought Maria Park. She brought this woman, who lived in a place like a palace, to greet me and…. [Laughter] I did not have any social standing.
Also,o when Miss Yang left Ewha University, I told her not to. When I told her that, she said, “What do you mean I shouldn’t leave? I have received such blessings,” and went around talking about it.
She went around blowing her trumpet, so the Christians became angry…. She was so enraptured by the words that she just went around, opening her mouth as though she were singing a song.
But if you look back on those days with a sympathetic heart, even though she was accused and expelled, she stood in the advance guard, they all did…. Yang Yoon-yeong did great service for Heaven.
On hearing my teachings, she temporarily lodged her two children in an orphanage, so determined was she to follow this way. History and Heaven will remember her for that.
The origin of the rumors about the Unification Church
Do you think that Satan will just quietly leave alone the toad (as he might say) who says he is going to unite heaven and earth and build the ideal, the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven? Anyone who believes that would be a total fool.
The best method is to make accusations of all manner of strange things. That is the best strategy. In the beginning, ng they would say, “He is similar to this or that bad person in Christian history.” Or, “He is similar to this person or that person in this church or that lewd church.” Later, “Similar to” becomes “the same as.” All sorts of bad things were unjustly dumped on me.
Once God asked me, “Hey, you, Moon! Do you want to hear Christian ministers praying for you to die?” God is quite humorous, too, you know. I was able to hear their prayers, which were like the sound of trumpets, “This Moon so-and-so should be immediately struck by lightning and killed!” I have heard that kind of thing before. Through that kind of thing, I received incredible persecution.
To this day, there have been all kinds of rumors.
The rumor that we bewitched people
You have heard people say in the past that if you go to the Unification Church, they will use some kind of electrical device or magic, and that you will be completely taken in by Rev. Moon.
What is it that he can take you in with?
Because you have met and long for the absolute true subject partner, because you have met the subject partner who can make your heart feel joy, your mind just wants you to go to see him, whether it be day or night.
If the warm spring comes, and you say to the frozen snow, “Don’t melt!” it will still melt. Even if you sacrificed a cow to Heaven to prevent it, it would still melt. That a higher love attracts you is inevitable. A spring breeze affects men and women equally.
That is why people say that if you go to the Unification Church, you will all be bewitched by some sort of electrical device. It’s true. It is electricity, but it’s the electricity of God’s love.
You can see an electric light and the insulated wire, but you can’t see electricity. If someone comes into contact with invisible electricity, they can die. You cannot see the electric love of God either. You cannot explain love by any theory.
The more you come into contact with it, the more stuck you become; you cannot break away. That’s why the Unification Church has a history of “sticking.” If you go to the Unification Church, you will stick. Maybe there is some kind of sticky rice cake or sticky toffee, if you come here and sit on the floor, then…. [Laughter]
The rumor that we danced naked
At the time of the Ewha incident, there were all sorts of rumors. They said such things as “Everyone dances naked,” “All the women took off their clothes and did this and that,” “The women, all of them lowlifes, swore at me,” [Laughter], and “The Unification Church members dance naked. It is a lewd group.” They have continued to falsely accuse us.
A long time ago, there was a spiritual group that danced naked. Because people started wearing clothes after the Fall, the spiritual world told those people to take off their clothes. Because I knew about such things, I kept quiet even though we were being vilified. False charges were heaped upon us.
Many people accused me of naked dancing. If I had danced naked, I would feel their accusations were justified. I never even saw anyone dance naked, yet I was known as the monster who danced naked.
If the Korean people could be blessed by saying such things about me, I wouldn’t mind if people said them. If Koreans could be blessed through my being cursed, all well and good. I’d accept such curses happily.
I thought, “Do as you will.” The Unification Church will use it as fertilizer to grow. Because we were accused of being so bad, those who lived life just for their enjoyment could not join the church.
Only people who were willing to risk their lives, who thought, “I don’t care if the whole world rejects me, I will go this way whatever the cost,” could join the church. Because we have overcome that kind of opposition, on the day we win the victory, we can push aside all the people who stood against us.
They looked at us disapprovingly, saying, “They’re the group that dances naked, aren’t they?” “They’re the group that does this and that, aren’t they?” It will take many years for that kind of thinking to disappear.
I am a person; my name is Sun Myung Moon, but to this day, the uproar remains, with people saying that I am a heretical monster-a-a—monster destroying churches, a monster destroying the country.
Christians say, “The most important people in our church only have to listen to the Divine Principle, and they leave. If they continue to leave, we will be ruined.” So they say, “The Unification Church is the great Satan, the great Devil!” I have become a leader of devils! [Laughter]
The result of the incidents at the universities
I love the Korean people. I started along this path knowing that although Koreans are the race that should inherit the heavenly law, as long as Korean Christianity refuses to welcome me, Koreans will have to suffer persecution and a lonely, painful path.
In the 1950s, had they waited just six months longer, the sad incidents at Ewha and Yonsei would not have happened. But because the Christians rose in arms…
If Christianity had only joined hands with me at that time, Christianity globally would have already been unified. It would surely have been unified within seven years.
The world would have melted in my hands when I was in my forties. It wasn’t too late even then. It was 1955, ten years later than scheduled, but it wasn’t too late. I could have solved all the problems then….
The expulsions from the universities created an environment that led to my having to go to prison; then, great difficulties arose in God’s providence. Due to the Ewha and Yonsei incidents, the Unification Church was as good as done away with.
I had been labeled a heretic who had nothing to say. I was kicked out into the wilderness. The foundation that God had been preparing for four thousand years was all lost. I had to start again from the beginning.
The Ewha University problem in 1955 was an incident that affected the country.
The nation and the established churches joined hands, and five ministries in the Syngman Rhee administration were mobilized to do away with the Unification Church. But I was triumphant in that battle and secretly established the internal and external foundation for the future of the church.
I gained the victory there and formed a new movement that could replace the Christian foundation that was based on the established churches that had rejected me, as the nation of Korea had also done.
Sun Myung Moon