Keynote Address at Ninth World Culture and Sports Festival
10:00 a.m., Yu Gwan-sun Gymnasium, Cheonan, Korea,
July 10, 2003
Respected present and former heads of state, eminent religious leaders, leaders in various fields from countries around the world, young people representing each major religion, ladies and gentlemen: I sincerely welcome you to the Republic of Korea and the World Culture and Sports Festival 2003.
The Korean Peninsula is my homeland. It is also the place where God will finally conclude His providence of restoration, the providence of salvation.
From when I was a boy, I had amazing spiritual experiences that enabled me to know God and commune with Jesus and other saints. Through profound spiritual experiences, I plumbed the depths of God’s will and heart, and examined the heavenly way and the original path of human life.
Human life does not end with the death of the physical body on earth. In the heavenly world, that is, the spirit world, the saints and sages and also all of our ancestors live as spirit selves, which is a form of human existence that is of a higher order than the physical body. Compared with the fundamental world that God created, that is, the infinite and eternal world, this world of nature where our physical bodies dwell is nothing more than a minute part.
The spirit world is an eternal world, and it is also the fundamental and essential world that is the subject partner to this world of reality. I have invested a great deal of sincerity and dedication into the effort to recover principled communion and linkage between the earthly world and the spirit world, which was severed by the human fall. This has been a truly difficult task that would not have been possible unless the appropriate conditions had been set on earth and in heaven.
Even more amazingly, these messages reported that Moses, Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, the representative figures of the five major religions, gathered in one place to declare that God is the Parent of humankind and that I am the Savior and Messiah of humanity. They affirmed that the Unification Principle is a message of peace for human salvation, and that true love and "living for the sake of others," at a level transcending religion, nationality, and race, will enable humankind to complete the peaceful unity of the cosmos. They further resolved that they would attend the True Parents, and that they would unite in harmony to devote themselves for the sake of God's kingdom and world peace. This took place in the spirit world at the end of 2001.
These events happened in the spirit world as the new millennium was beginning. God’s will in the providence of restoration has been extended through the Old Testament Age, New Testament Age, and Completed Testament Ages, but now I am indemnifying all this completely so as to bring about a final conclusion within the current generation. That is why good spirits in the spirit world centering on the five great saints are testifying to these things and actively cooperating. The spirit world is the fundamental world and in the subject partner position to the physical world, so whatever happens there is sure to have an impact on earth.
Dear participants, the World Culture and Sports Festival did not start from human thinking alone. Its motivation lies in God's Will. The spirit world fully supports it and cooperates with it. It is a celebration to offer the champions of love to God.
I ask you to remember that the good ancestors of all the participants as well as the religious leaders in spirit world are sending you their encouragement from the spirit world. One important mission of religions is to educate people properly about the spirit world. If people knew with certainty about God and spirit world, they would fulfill their divine calling and responsibility with conviction and hope, and through that become whole.
In the present age, many countries are realizing that the security of their nation is not an issue that can be addressed by any country alone. No country is free from international issues such as war, terror, and the threat of nuclear weapons. World leaders agree that harmony and cooperation among religions is necessary for the sake of world peace, and this is even more important following September 11. For the past fifty years, I have warned about the dire threat of conflicts and war among religions, and finally now people are beginning to understand the seriousness of these issues.
Reconciliation and cooperation among religions is a prerequisite to world peace. The important events of the World Culture and Sports Festival are intended to create lasting harmony among religions.
Leaders, particularly religious leaders, must understand the importance of the true love lineage of people and teach this correctly. God’s will in creating the first man and first woman as the ancestors of humankind was that they would each become perfected in true love and bring about a healthy reciprocal ideal as husband and wife, thereby establishing a family centering on God. In this way, their descendants were to have multiplied generation after generation as God’s people.
Our first human ancestors failed to complete the first family that would have been formed through God’s marriage blessing. They fell by creating a bond to Satan’s false love, and were expelled from the Garden of Eden. As a result, they established a family that had no relation to God’s true love. Adam and Eve failed to become God’s son and daughter of goodness, a husband and wife of goodness, and parents of goodness. For this reason, humanity had its origin in false parents and false ancestors, and has multiplied evil descendants by passing on a false lineage.
The first human ancestors failed to pass on God’s true love, true life, and true lineage. Humanity descended from false ancestors and must, by destiny, endeavor with true love to recover the true family that God desires. True love, true life, and true lineage are all important, but among these, true lineage is particularly precious, because it transcends the life span of a single person and connects one generation to another.
You representatives of youth who have gathered transcending nations and religions, you are the most important participants in this festival seeking to bring about a new world of the true love culture of heart. You possess things that are truly precious. You possess those qualities, such as youth, fervor, purity, righteous spirit, and bravery, that are closest to God’s nature. Because of this, God desires to be with you. You should use your open minds to go beyond the barriers of exclusivity, antipathy, conflict, and hatred to set the roots of religious harmony firmly in the ground.
One thing I have practiced and taught through my life is the breaking down of barriers. We must rise above differences of race, religion, and nationality and live together. We are all members of a "one world family living in brotherly heart" centering on God. This must not be a mere slogan or rhetoric; we must actually live this way.
God places His greatest hope in the young university students. We must transcend the consciousness of belonging to an exclusive race, language, religion, country, or culture.
I would like to give you a truly precious teaching today.
Youth in particular need to clearly understand the value of their reproductive organs and treat them as precious. In their original purity, these are organs of love are the center and origin of love, life and lineage. The consummation of love, as well as the conception of new life, is possible only by means of the reproductive organs. Without using them properly, parents cannot pass down their lineage to the next generation. For this reason, the reproductive organ is the most important part of the human body.
Unfortunately, in contemporary society there are far too many instances when they are misused. The current social and cultural environment is beset by the worldwide trend, particularly through movies, music, journalism and the Internet, to mislead people to misuse their reproductive organs. The tide of free sex is ruining countries and breaking apart families; it particularly impacting vulnerable young people. This is a tragic reality. It is time for religious leaders and other leaders of conscience to raise their voices loudly in support of morality.
In every culture, the preciousness of the family must be recovered, and a proper standard of ethics for love relationships between men and women must be established. It is here that we find the reason for the marriage blessing ceremony of true love through True Parents and why a movement of young people for pure love must spread throughout the world in a manner that transcends nations and religions. The precious significance of the inter-religious and international Holy Blessing Ceremony that will be held on July 13th can be found here.
I have encouraged people to participate in marriages blessing that transcend nationality, race, culture, and religion. I particularly promote the exchange marriage blessings between peoples of nations that were formerly enemies. I have done so for Koreans and Japanese, white and black Americans, Christians and Moslems, and Israelis and Palestinians. When this effort becomes universal, think how much it will shorten the path to the world of peace. By practicing love for our enemies, we can make our leadership manifest, tear down the barriers in our minds and bodies, and bring about God’s world of peace in which sincerity and dedication are offered in true love.
Respected world leaders, we have long spoken of the United Nations as the most representative organization for peace. As we can see in the U.N.’s growth from 51 member states to its current 191 over the past 58 years, the internal and external environment of this organization has changed enormously. The U.N. has many accomplishments, but it now faces many challenges both from within and from outside. There are many limitations and problems, including the issues concerning special rights in the Security Council, fairness between powerful and weak countries, the power of imposing compulsory sanctions, and budgetary issues.
If the U.N. in its activities ignores the spirituality and importance of religions, it will bring on itself a fate similar to that of a body without a conscience. In a multipolar world, the U.N. has become a body without a mind, become unable to deal effectively with the problems facing the world, and has lost its impartiality in analyzing world issues, causing it to favor one side over another. If the U.N. continues on this path, it will not achieve the purposes for which it was originally founded, and, far from developing further, may face a crisis that will decide whether it will continue or be forced out of existence.
For the past thirty years, I have watched the United Nations with hope and concern to see whether it would become an organization for true world peace. During the past four years I have taken every opportunity to call for the renewal of the UN. My plan for its renewal is to establish an inter-religious council as a high-ranking body within its structure. The representatives of the Philippines and the United States, with the support of several other countries, are going to submit a proposal based on my plan for the renewal of the United Nations at the 58th General Assembly in September.
I am confident that many countries will cooperate so that the United Nations can become a dynamic organization focused on God to bring about true peace. In the spirit world, the five great saints, Moses, Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, and various other leaders, have resolved to cooperate. Delegates of the inter-religious council, selected within the United Nations, will have the opportunity to accomplish the ideals of the founders of their religions. To do so, they will need character and wisdom that exemplifies true love.
For this purpose, the religions themselves need to walk steadfastly on the path of altruism. If religions cannot do this, the inter-religious council will have no value. Today's world needs religious leaders who practice true love by going beyond denominationalism, extremism and the self-interest of their own religious group.
The following events make up this cultural festival: the international and inter-religious marriage Blessing ceremony, The Inter-religious Youth Sports Festival, The International Peace Conference, the World Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles Convention, and Service for Peace. Each serves the cause of world peace.
I have also built a worldwide foundation in the areas of education and the arts. The Sun Moon Peace King Cup, which had its grand opening on the fifteenth of this month with famous soccer clubs from around the world, also aims to build a peaceful world based on the culture of heart.
During the next few days, under the watchful eyes of the spirit world and broadcast throughout this earthly world, we will reveal to the world our vision for peace, our resolve and our leadership. I am confident that we will inspire, create a common bond and plant a message of hope in the hearts of all people. I pray that God's blessing be with you, your families and the world.