Disclaimer: Sometimes supportive, sometimes critical, this thought provoking blog is a personal exploration and examination of Unification thought (as in Buddhist thought or Christian thought). This blog is not affiliated with any group or organization, it is an expression of my own point-of-view. The goal of this blog is to humbly (I hope) and respectfully offer an alternative voice to partisan political views and activism (right or left) that if not examined could become institutionalized into the church culture causing the exclusion of many that would otherwise find salvation. 

Also the goal is to illustrate through a comparative approach that you cannot have true religious freedom without the separation of church and state. I do wish great success and prosperity to the Unification Church as a "church." The purpose of a religion is to relieve suffering. As we have seen in the news lately and in history, unexamined religious beliefs and passions can lead to terrible, unnecessary and unintended suffering, especially when religion is used for political and secular ends rather than spiritual ones. 

"I'm just a mug and I know it"

- Frank Capra's 1941 classic film "Meet John Doe"

September 2008

Dear Unification Church,

As an American, I appreciate your efforts to win hearts for God and educate the public about the potential dangers of extreme "left-wing" Marxist-Leninism ideology.

However, if I may humbly offer some constructive feedback, it is very important to remember that our own beloved fathers and family members experienced imprisonment, torture, injury and death fighting in World War II against the ideology of fascism (the "right-wing" extreme). My own father was on the USS Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor when it was sunk and hundreds of his shipmates were lost. Millions of innocent civilians overseas also suffered injury and death.

The ideology of fascism (in all of its various forms) has also been responsible for the suffering and death of millions of good people of religious faith throughout history.

Unfortunately, and tragically, out of misguided ignorance, many of these atrocities were perpetrated in the name of God to the damage of the spiritual lives of millions.

At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I think I can safely say that, not just communism, but fascism also, breaks God's heart.

Some awareness of these facts needs to be expressed by the Unification Church, especially in light of the recent church focus on political activism.

I would like to humbly suggest that taking a balanced approach towards educating the members of the Unification Church and the public about the potential dangers of both communism and fascism would go a long way towards winning hearts and minds.

Better yet, it seems to me, that the church needs to be a "church", and return to focusing on the saving of souls (no matter what their political bent), and distance itself from politics and government as much as possible.

Both "liberals" and "conservatives" need compassion and understanding.

I wish the best of success to you in this effort.

Sincerely and Respectfully 

Comparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions. Religion can be defined as the human beliefs and practices regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine.In the field of comparative religion, the main world religions are generally classified as Abrahamic, Indian or Taoic. Areas of study also include creation myths and Humanism. - Wikipedia

Exposition of the Divine Principle Part II Chapter 5 Section 4.3.2 

The Nature of Fascism 

What, then, is fascism? Fascism denies the fundamental values of modern democracy, including respect for the individual and his basic rights, freedoms of speech, the press and association, and the parliamentary system. Race or nationality is the ultimate value, to be upheld by a strong nation-state. Individuals and institutions exist only for the benefit of the state. Under fascism, individuals cannot claim freedom as their inviolable right; they are to sacrifice their freedom in their duty to serve the state. The guiding political principle of fascism holds that all power and authority should be entrusted in one supreme leader rather than distributed among people. The personal will of the leader dictates the governing ideology for the entire nation. Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and the leaders of Japan's militaristic government were dictators of the fascist type.

Exposition of the Divine Principle Part I Chapter 2 Section 6 

The Reason God Did Not Intervene in the Fall of the First Human Ancestors

God, being omniscient and omnipotent, must have known about the deviant acts of the first human ancestors which were leading to their Fall and was surely capable of preventing them from carrying them out. Why, then, did God not intervene to prevent the Fall? This is one of the most important unsolved mysteries of the ages. We can put forward the following three reasons why God did not interfere with the human Fall. 6.1 To Maintain the Absoluteness and Perfection of the Principle of Creation In accordance with the Principle of Creation, God created human beings in His image, with the character and powers of the Creator, intending that they govern over all things as He governs over humankind. However, for human beings to inherit the creative nature of God, they must grow to perfection by fulfilling their portion of responsibility. As explained above, the period of their growth is the realm of God's indirect dominion or the realm of dominion based on accomplishments through the Principle. While people are still in this realm, God does not directly govern them because He wishes to allow them to fulfill their own portion of responsibility. God will govern them directly only after they have reached full maturity. If God were to interfere with human actions during their growing period, it would be tantamount to ignoring the human portion of responsibility. In that case, God would be disregarding His own Principle of Creation, according to which He intends to give human beings His creative nature and raise them to become the lords of creation. If the Principle were ignored, then its absoluteness and perfection would be undermined. Because God is the absolute and perfect Creator, His Principle of Creation must also be absolute and perfect. In summary, in order to preserve the absoluteness and perfection of the Principle of Creation, God did not intervene in the acts that led the human beings to fall.

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.

And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.

— Luke 17:11-23

The Virginia Act For Establishing Religious Freedom 

Thomas Jefferson, 1786

Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporal rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that, therefore, the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to the offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow citizens he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles, on the supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And though we well know this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no powers equal to our own and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law, yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.

http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/vaact.html

If God will not violate the Principle of Creation, neither should the we.

Honoring democracy, religious liberty and the laws separating church and state is compatible with the Bible and the Divine Principle.

We can build the kingdom of God on earth and preserve democracy.

In this age of nuclear weapons and mutual assured destruction if every religion continues to insist on interpreting their teachings literally, historically and politically, rather than poetically, symbolically and spiritually, we are all in big trouble. 

"’Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom’ is based on a Chinese poem (Let one hundred flowers bloom/Let one hundred schools of thought contend) that Mao used in a campaign in the 1950s, calling upon Chinese intellectuals to critique the Revolution from within. They were afraid, but the campaign lasted a year and, at the end, the intellectuals were convinced that Mao wanted to hear their opinions. They questioned the essence of the Revolution. Mao was unhappy with their reactions, and what the intellectuals feared actually happened. They were imprisoned, tortured, and quite a few were killed."

- Alfredo Jaar

The White Rose (German: die Weiße Rose) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign, lasting from June 1942 until February 1943, that called for active opposition to dictator Adolf Hitler's regime.

The six most recognized members of the group were arrested by the Gestapo and beheaded in 1943. The text of their sixth leaflet was smuggled by Helmuth James Graf von Moltke out of Germany through Scandinavia to the United Kingdom, and in July 1943 copies of it were dropped over Germany by Allied planes, retitled "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

Whether left-wing atheistic communism or right-wing theistic fascism, authoritarianism is the same.