The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) was founded on May 1, 1954. In 1955, True Father embarked upon a remarkable witnessing project aimed at attracting many good young people from the top Christian universities in Korea. Yet things did not unfold smoothly.
Yonsei and Ewha Universities were like a man and a woman who had not fallen. If they had become one with Christianity in a parent–child relationship, it would have been the same as a family four-position foundation.
Included in this is the formation of individual families, clans considered families, and ethnic groups viewed in the same way. If they had been able to unite with the government, based on Christianity, the national level would have been attained. If that had happened, True Parents’ ideals would have made a solid beginning in Korea. To
To clean up Satan’s world entirely, I had to fight with champions from all different walks of life. We have to meet challenges to go upward. We had to challenge ourselves because we were challenged by opposition from the Republic of Korea.
The person I challenged was Dr. Rhee [Korean President Rhee Syngman]. At that time, Korea was Christian-oriented, and the professors of Ewha University and Yonsei University were at the highest level. I challenged them to listen to me. I also challenged church ministers to listen.
If we could have won over all the students, men and women, at Yonsei and Ewha, Syngman Rhee would have been naturally pulled into things. If this had happened, since Rhee had courage, and had power over General Hodge, if Rhee had stood up and claimed that we could conquer the world through God’s will, through this religion and ideal, we could have won over America and there would have been a way to spread out to the world.
Syngman Rhee had been educated in America and was fully American. His wife was Austrian; he spoke Korean like an American. He became a symbol of Asia and overrode whatever General Hodge said; he did this while stressing the autonomy of his people. This was impressive.
When the negotiations for the release of North Korean anti-communist prisoners of war were going on, since the UN was against their being released, Rhee released them all in a single day. This is a historically famous episode.
At first, people criticized him for this, but later thought he had done something excellent. That was a messianic way of thinking, and history should remember it.
Dismissals and expulsions (March–July 1955)
We set the fire of truth among Ewha and Yonsei students. I said, “These [first generation] people are no good. You, second-generation member, must light the fire. You must build the path to peace and justice.”
The Ewha University incident refers to three hundred and eighty female students being blown by that spring breeze. Eighty of them a day packed up their bags to leave.
They left their homes by climbing over the fence, or saying they were going to a public bathhouse…. When their parents stopped them from going out, they said, “Why can’t I go? If I am not allowed to go out, I would rather die. Kill me.”
They did not want to go to school, even if it meant they’d die. Even if I smelled bad, or my feet smelled, they thought I smelled like perfume. They didn’t want to go to school at all. And when they did go to school, they felt as if they were eating sand. Every day, incidents would happen.
One smart lady teacher, Professor Kim Young-oon, who had graduated from a theological seminary and who was teaching in the Department of Christian Social Work at Ewha University, came to investigate the teachings of our church.
She listened to the Principle and joined the Unification Church within a week.
Instantly, the other professors of Ewha University became completely taken up with this. Some three hundred and eighty students in the dormitory listened to the Principle and were absorbed by it.
Witnessing expands, opposition increases
People say that I stole the congregations of other churches, but I never did that. In 1954, I even said, let’s not set up a church. People came to listen to the Principle. I asked them to return to their churches, but they didn’t want to.
If I chased them out of the front door, they would come back through the back door, and if I chased them out of the back door and locked the front gate, they would climb over the fence and come in.
Christians began to dislike us. From their perspective, never before had there been an enemy like our church; if a smart person listened to the Principle for just a day, he could change completely within a week.
Korean Christians are renowned worldwide for working hard and for their loyalty to God. But the Unification Church emerged, taking away all the smart people from Christian denominations.
This is why at Ewha University, the whole school was turned upside down in two months, and the school put pressure on the students, threatening them with expulsion or other extreme measures. That brought about remarkable, cataclysmic results.
The power behind the university incidents
Wasn’t it because all the students of Ewha University and Yonsei University came to us that this group expulsion occurred? How many months did it take? Not even three months. This happened in about two months, within just sixty days.
I wanted to win over Ewha and Yonsei within six months. I came with the confidence that if this could be accomplished, within seven years Christianity would bow before the truth the Unification Church is teaching.
Who caused these incidents at Ewha University and Yonsei University? Christians were at the forefront. The Liberal Party [under Syngman Rhee] played a leading role. It strongly opposed me. Lee Ki-beong, Maria Park…
Why didn’t Ewha University and Yonsei University listen to what I was saying?
They were afraid that I would take over their universities. They thought, “Oh dear, the Christian missions department is supposed to guide the university, but if we listen to what Rev. Moon is saying, our university will be led by him!”
They would have said that, had it also been the case with Korean church denominations, they would also have ended up being led by me. There was a big fuss. So the expulsions went ahead.
Kim Hwal-lan and Maria Park became the main force and told untruths about me at Gyeongmudae, and, by moving the heads of five government ministries, they tried to get rid of the Unification Church and bury me completely.
If the incidents at Ewha and Yonsei had not happened, everything would have been connected to Gyeongmudae, and the whole of Christianity would have been connected. At that time, Kim Young-oon was a professor of religious studies.
Since all their main teachers joined the church, wasn’t it inevitable that Kim Hwal-lan would oppose us?
Even though Kim Young-oon informed them properly, a few people from the established churches opposed you, and things turned out the way they did. If the Ewha and Yonsei universities had been restored, and if they had not opposed me, all of Korean Christianity would have been restored.
Yonsei University: 1 professor, 2 students; Ewha University: 5 professors, 14 students
Since Ewha University was receiving support from America with the missionaries in the background, they felt in danger of being absorbed by the activity led by the little known Unification Church.
So the countermeasure they took was dismissal. The professors and students involved were given an ultimatum: “Will you choose the university or the Unification Church?”
It was an emergency for the university because they had to stop a flock of students from joining our church. They made them choose between the two. How could they give them such a choice? The university had students whose families belonged to various groups.
There were even many children of shamans. So why was the Unification Church barred? This was the work of Satan. They opposed us, then gave in. The president of the university asked everyone to decide between the Unification Church and keeping their place. Where in the world does such a law exist?
At that time, five professors resigned, and fourteen students were expelled. Nothing like it had ever happened before.
So six intelligent professors resigned, and sixteen students gave up their studies.
Because of this, the Unification Church was persecuted. I remember the pain of being persecuted.
We began our work in 1954, and in 1955, the Ewha University incident occurred and turned the whole country upside down. Didn’t people say, “Strike down that Moon guy and kill him!”?
I was alone in the world.
Sun Myung Moon