Unity and Community

Each religion has a vision of unity—for its own believers. Today we cherish a greater vision of the unity of the whole human race—encompassing people of every race, religion, and nationality. Nevertheless, the principles for forming community remain the same.

Scriptures provide guidance because every religion began as a movement of unity, bringing together disparate groups to join together in a new society around a universal teaching.

Father Moon teaches that this unity has to penetrate every family, for the family is the basis for all greater levels of social unity. Several passages use the metaphor of the human body, whose various organs perform their functions in a coordinated way, to depict the varieties of social roles that should mutually support each other in a harmonious community.

The body depends on the proper functioning of all its parts, from the lowest to the highest. Likewise, in a true community, everyone has a place of honor.

Unity as God’s People and God’s Family

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! Psalm 133.1

The believers indeed are brothers, so set things right between your two brothers, and fear God; haply so you will find mercy. Qur’an 49.10

And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness, and there was no poor among them. Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7.18 (Latter-day Saints)

I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17.20-22

Hold fast, all together, to God’s rope, and be not divided among yourselves. Remember with gratitude God’s favor on you, for you were enemies, and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His grace you became brethren. You were on the brink of the fiery Pit, and He saved you from it. Thus does God make His signs clear to you, that you may be guided. Let there arise out of you one community, inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: those will be prosperous. Be not like those who are divided amongst themselves and fall into disputations after receiving clear signs: for them is a dreadful penalty.55 Qur’an 3.103-5

Meet, speak together, let your minds be of one accord, as the gods of old, being of one mind, accepted their share of the sacrifice. May your counsel be common, your assembly common, common the mind, and the thoughts of these united. A common purpose do I lay before you, and worship with your common oblation. Let your aims be common, and your hearts of one accord, and all of you be of one mind, so you may live well together. Rig Veda 10.191.2-4 (Hinduism)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3.28

Our Essence is not bound to any place; The vigor of our wine is not contained In any bowl; Chinese and Indian Alike the shard that constitutes our jar, Turkish and Syrian alike the clay Forming our body; neither is our heart Of India, or Syria, or Rum, Nor any fatherland do we profess Except Islam. Muhammad Iqbal, The Mysteries of Selflessness (Islam)

All humans are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Christianity)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God’s greatest desire is that all humankind, all five colors, would wish to unite and live together with God eternally. (93:15-16, May 8, 1977)

More than outward agreement, the important thing is to achieve inward unity, unity of heart. (60:34, August 1, 1972)

To accomplish the gigantic task of unification, we need to find a gigantic power. This is none other than the power of supreme love, love that does not become the circumstantial victim of society. Supreme love transcends every national, racial, and cultural barrier.

Ordinary human love is limited; down through history it has shown itself unable to overcome these barriers. Therefore, we must center on the love and heart of God…

People from the East and West rejoice to meet here today because around that axis, the heart of God is linking us together as one. (God’s Will and the World, September 11, 1977)

In the future, four families will live together, sharing the same house. I would like to build condominiums where a Korean family, a Japanese family, an American family and a German family would live together in the same apartment, sharing one living room and one dining room. They would become as one family. This oneness is the way to build the Kingdom of Heaven. (131:244, May 4, 1984)

Imagine two enemy families who have cursed each other throughout their lives, people who would never dream of living together. What would happen if these families joined together by wedding their children in a Holy Marriage Blessing?

A son from one family and a daughter from the other family become husband and wife, love each other, and build a happy home. Would the parents in each family curse their own children?

When their son loves this beautiful daughter of a hated enemy, and she as their daughter-in-law, gives birth to Heaven’s grandchildren as pure and clear as crystal, the grandparents would smile with pleasure. In time the two lineages that were once soaked with enmity will be transformed.

What method other than cross-cultural marriage will empower Whites and Blacks, Jews and Muslims, Orientals and Westerners, and people of all races to live as one human family? The ideal family is the model for living together in peace. The ideal family is the nest where we live and learn to become one.

There we have the foundation of love and respect between parents and children, shared trust and love between husband and wife, and mutual support among siblings.

For this fundamental reason, you should receive the Holy Marriage Blessing from the True Parents and establish Heaven’s tradition of ideal families, even if it means risking your very life. (September 21, 2005)

Unity against a Common Enemy

Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. Matthew 12.25

We must, indeed, all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.56 Benjamin Franklin

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure perma- nently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South. Abraham Lincoln

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.58 Martin Niemöller (Christianity)

My children, war, fear, and disunity have brought you from your villages to this sacred council fire. Facing a common danger, and fearing for the lives of your families, you have yet drifted apart, each tribe thinking and acting only for itself. Remember how I took you from one small band and nursed you into many nations? You must reunite now and act as one. No tribe alone can withstand our savage enemies, who care nothing about the eternal law, who sweep upon us like the storms of winter, spreading death and destruction everywhere. My children, listen well. Remember that you are brothers, that the downfall of one means the downfall of all. You must have one fire, one pipe, one war club.
Tekanawita (Native American Religion)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Today, you and I stand together facing a common destiny… I know to my bones that people who advocate righteousness in this evil world can be eliminated easily if they lack a substantial foundation.

Therefore, professors and students, together with Christians and believers of all religions, should stand together. (129:304, November 25, 1983)

Why did God place Israel as a colony of the evil Roman Empire? It was so the Jews would unite internally around a movement for independence so that they would make the foundation to stand against the Roman Empire.

God often uses a providential strategy of raising a strong enemy to unite His people. If you visit the Catacombs in Rome and see the Christians’ underground dwellings, you can witness how strongly united those Christians were in the face of terrible persecution from Rome.

Like the Jews who faced Roman power, God put the Christians in the same situation in order to make them unite. (105:124-25, October 4, 1979)

Interdependence on the Model of the Human Body

Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. They eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which are more presentable parts do not require. But God has so adjusted the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 1 Corinthians 12.12-26

Abu Musa reported the Prophet as saying, “Believers are to one another like a building whose parts support one another.” He then interlaced his fingers. Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim (Islam)

Beware lest the desires of the flesh and of a corrupt inclination provoke divisions among you. Be ye as the fingers of one hand, the members of one body. Thus counsels you the Pen of Revelation, if ye be of them that believe. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah 72 (Baha’i Faith)

When one finger is sore you do not cut it off. Njak Proverb (African Traditional Religion)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
To create the ideal world, we must have an overall model or blueprint. An important Unification image is that of a mature or perfected person, with mind and body united.

Ideals and purposes spring from the mental and spiritual life of a God-centered person. The nervous system transmits the resulting directives of the mind to the cells and relays information from the body back to the brain.

When this exchange occurs smoothly, we say that the individual is in harmony. The mental and spiritual life of humanity can be likened to the mind of an individual, and the economic and socio-political life of humanity to the body of an individual.

The spiritual ideals, aspirations, and love of God are manifested through religion, around which theology, philosophy, art, and all culture revolve.

Religious leaders and theological and philosophical thinkers, then, function as the central nervous system, transmitting, interpreting, and developing messages from God for the whole body, humanity. (133:272, August 13, 1984)

Blood circulates throughout your whole body, from the head down to the soles of your feet. When that blood that went to the feet comes to the head, can the head say, “Don’t come near me”? In the same way, as we circulate through the entire universe, there cannot be any discrimination between black, white and yellow people.

The parts of the body are variously colored. Are brown eyes prejudiced against black hair? Do white nails say to yellow skin, “You are of a different kind”? There is no way the body can be segregated by color. (91:280, February 27, 1977)

In the human body, the lungs, heart, and stomach maintain harmonious interaction in accord with the directions of the brain, transmitted through the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system.

By analogy, the three branches of government in the ideal world—the legislative, judicial, and executive branches—will interact in harmonious and principled relationships when they follow God’s guidance as conveyed through Christ and people of God.

Just as the four limbs of the body move according to the commands of the brain for the welfare of the individual as a whole, the economic institutions of the ideal world, corresponding to the limbs, will uphold the desire of God and promote the welfare of the entire world.

Just as the liver stores nourishment for the entire body, in the ideal world there will always be a certain reserve to be tapped as needed for the public good. Since every part of the human body has a vertical relationship with the brain, horizontal relationships are naturally established between the different organs to form an integrated organism.

Likewise, in the ideal world, because people’s horizontal relationships with each other are rooted in their vertical relationship with God, they will form one integrated and interdependent society in which they share all their joys and sorrows.

In this society, to hurt someone else will be experienced as hurting one’s own self. Hence, its citizens simply will not want to commit crime. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Preparation 3.2)