The Life of Rev. Dr. Sun Myung MoonJanuary 1920—September 2012

Global Citizen of Peace

Korea, 1935: Sun Myung Moon is a 15-year-old schoolboy living in a small town in the hermit

kingdom of Korea.

Praying for his people and his nation, he encounters Jesus in a vision,

and accepts a calling to do three things:

To unite Christianity and all religions, to heal the divided human family

and to comfort the grieving heart of God.

I have lived my life with just one thought:

I wanted to bring about a world of peace, a world where there are no wars and where all humankind lives in love.

After graduating high school he joined other churches, first as a member then later as a Sunday School teacher.

But when he shared his mission from God, no one listened. In the communist North, he was soon arrested.

For almost 3 years he was in the Heungnam labor camp, where 75% of the men died of

starvation and exhaustion.

The camp and all its surviving prisoners were liberated by UN forces of sixteen nations in the autumn of 1950.

By now virtually all Koreans were now refugees. His small group of early followers had been scattered and lost.

The long years of separation and hardship proved too much for his family, which was tragically broken apart.

He has nothing to eat, and only one set of clothes. With nowhere to live, he builds a mud shack on a lonely hill.

When he says that one day world will come to Korea to learn peace, even his friends think he might be crazy.

A Protestant missionary who hoped to bring Sun Myung Moon into her own

church, but joined him instead.

The place was built of mud and stone; the rain leaked through the roof. Then a young man came in. “Christianity and all religions of the world can be unified,” he said.

But I was suspicious. “You can’t even gather a handful of people,” I thought.

Hyun Shil Kang

Many men would have given up . . .

. . . but he didn’t

Against all the odds, the church began to grow as word spread about the ‘man teaching strange things’ in the shack on a hill.

At the end of the War, he moved to Seoul. When many students from major universities joined him, authorities

were alarmed.

Rev. Moon and others were jailed on charges of ‘draft evasion’ amid sensational media

coverage.

When he was found “not guilty” three months later, the same papers buried the story deep on

an inside page.

Koreans have a saying that a person insulted by others lives a long time.

If I were to live in proportion to the insults I have received, I could live another 100 years. My stomach has been filled, not with food, but with insults.

In 1960, he married Hak Ja Han, the young daughter of an early disciple, and his family began to grow.

Teaching that God’s ideal is realized through the family, he began to bless his followers in marriage.

Despite rumors, misunderstanding and prejudice, the numbers of new couples grew quickly.

The church rapidly spread to major cities, and he would spend most of the year visiting members and preaching.

But in the summer, they would still go back to the country to help rural families plant the rice.

He knew he had to work beyond Korea and began to send out missionaries.

to Japan and the USA, and then to 40 and 120 countries.

The publication of the Divine Principle in English meant that the movement and its message could spread around

the world.

In 1971 he came to America, answering God’s call to help it once again become ‘One nation under God.’

His arrival energized the small group of American disciples that had been created by early missionaries.

With the help of hundreds of new members he began a high-profile campaign, “The Day of Hope.”

Americans have lost the love that they received from God. Unless America recovers its spirit, it has no future.

I came to awaken your spirit and to save America from destruction. Repent! You must repent and return to God.

Though he spoke almost no English, with an interpreter he embarked on a 7-city tour of the

US, starting in New York.

He also invested for the unity of the sciences, the arts, the development of the media, and much more.

Nobel Laureate Sir John Eccles [1903-97]Chairman, International Conference

on the Unity of the Sciences

“I greatly appreciated Rev. Moon’s deep concern for the

present predicament of mankind. He says intellectuals have an

urgent responsibility in the task of rebuilding society, with values

as the supreme guide”.

He declared “God’s Hope for America” in front of 300,000 people at the Washington Monument.

And created the Unification Theological Seminary as a leading interfaith center of learning.

He took time to show the students how to meet God away from their books while fishing or just mending nets.

He started newspapers that exposed communism and secular humanism. Americans took notice.

Gen. Alexander Haig, Supreme Commander of NATO ,1975-79, and US

Secretary of State, 1981-82

“Rev. Moon came to America to launch his

ministry based on our most cherished values. Our religious institutions,

regardless of denomination, must play a pivotal role in

these tasks.”

He never shied away from controversy, urging the United States during the Watergate era to

‘Forgive, love and unite.’

Some saw him as an enemy.

US Congressman Donald Fraser falsely accused the movement of working for the Korean CIA.

Eventually Rev. Moon and others were indicted by a grand jury. He had the choice to leave the country or face trial.

All I did was in order to reestablish the morality of an America that had fallen into degradation and restore it in line with God's will.

But I was accused of not paying my taxes. I was well past my 60th birthday at the time.

He was sent to jail at age 64 for allegedly not paying just $7,000 in taxes, despite having invested millions in the USA.

40 religious groups filed amici briefs, saying that as the head of a church, Rev. Moon was treated

unfairly.

Dr. Morton Kaplan, University of Chicago,

after visiting Rev. Moon in prison

“I know who the real Rev. Moon is. He is a man with an immense heart, a heart with

room to love all human beings, a heart big enough to love sinners who injure him.”

Painfully, that same year the Moons’ second son, Heung Jin, was killed in a car accident at

the age of 17.

Many men would have given up . . .

. . . but he didn’t

By the time he was released, public opinion had

turned in his favor. A U.S. senator concluded:

“Injustice, not justice has been served in the case of

Rev. Sun Myung Moon.”Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Chairman,

Judiciary Subcommittee, United States Senate

Encouraged by many faith leaders who supported him in prison, he worked to end the conflict of communism and democracy.

He sponsored fact-finding tours for Western journalists to visit the USSR, and vice versa.

In 1990, he went to Moscow and began a friendship with President Mikhail and Mrs. Raisa Gorbachev.

“Mr. President, you did a great thing," I told him. "You gave up your post as General Secretary of the Soviet Union, but now you have become the president of peace.

Because of your wisdom and courage, we have the possibility to bring world peace.”

A year later, he returned to Pyongyang after 40 years to reconcile with Kim Il Sung, the man who had once tried to kill him.

Later the Little Angels dancers brought his message of peace and hope to Moscow and Pyongyang.

Many foreigners knew about Korea only as a poor country that had fought a terrible war.

I wanted to show them the beautiful dances of Korea so that they would realize that the Korean people are a people of culture.

When the first Gulf War began, he reached out to Muslim leaders urging them to join with him

to make peace.

As the world was about to be swept up in the vortex of war, I came to the conclusion that Christian and Muslim leaders should meet and stop this conflict.

I immediately began contacting people on the two sides.

The World Peace Blessing ceremonies grew to include people of all races, religions, and nations.

Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon launched the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) on a peace tour with George &

Barbara Bush.

The WFWP’s many service and educational projects are helping make the lives of the world’s children better.

Young people of different religions have been holding interfaith service programs with Religious Youth Service for

25 years.

He rescued the University of Bridgeport from bankruptcy, turning it into a thriving institution with students from around the world.

But then came the 1990s Asian financial crisis threatening many businesses that had previously supported his work.

Properties in South America planned for education and a “peace community” came under arbitrary government investigation.

The challenge of public life placed great stress on the entire family. The Moons lost yet another son in

a tragic accident.

At the age of eighty, many men would have given up

or simply retired. . .

. . . but he didn’t.

He went to the United Nations, saying interfaith unity and cross-cultural marriage are the only true and lasting basis for peace.

He celebrated the World Peace Blessing ceremony with spiritual leaders from many different religions.

He called for a Middle East Peace Initiative and urged the children of Abraham to unite.

Early results have been promising.

He built the Cheongpyeong campus in Korea, a model peace village, with a hospital, schools, and a temple.

And started the Interreligious Peace Sports Festivals as a way to unite young people in peaceful competition.

To help renew the United Nations, he launched the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) in September 2005 in New York.

Then he left on a grueling peace tour of 100 cities in 100 days, spreading the UPF message and inviting others to join its work.

People have studied his peace messages in more than 40 languages.

Father and Mother Moon challenged everyone, from volunteers to Presidents, to help build peace by 2013.

“Rev. Moon’s call for peace through religion is something

of great nuance and profundity. We are deeply

fortunate for the chance to hear him and observe his life-

long struggle for world peace.”

H. E. Abdurrahman Wahid,President of Indonesia,1999-

2001

Three generations of the Moon family visited a further 700 cities on later international peace tours.

Then Ambassadors of Peace took the Peace Tour to 12,000 more locations worldwide.

In June 2006, the Cheon Jeong Goong Peace Palace was opened in Korea, heralding the

coming age of peace.

2007: UPF World Assembly, New York City

Delegates from all the nations of the world were seated by lottery.

Dr. Moon’s keynote address: “The United States and the Future of the United Nations and the World”

He told the UPF Assembly that the 21st Century will be a new era of peace, centered on the Pacific Rim.

2009: Best Selling Autobiography

The overflow crowd at the COEX center in Seoul at the publisher’s party for Global Citizen of Peace

Publication of Global Citizen of Peace

Former Albanian President Alfred Moisiu remarks that the book is “the story of a great love for God.”

Rev. Moon shares some of the stories of his colorful life contained within his best-selling autobiography.

Becoming a Global Citizen of Peace

More than 3000 of Korea’s leading citizens came out to celebrate the book’s publication.

Becoming a Global Citizen of Peace

Peace tour 2011

MADRID: Keynote Address

Throughout my life, I have offered

myself for the liberation of God, the one and only True Parent of

heaven and earth.

Visit to Toledo, Historical Capital

Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in a historic

time of great transition. It is a time for a great

cosmic revolution to change history.

A Stop at Buckingham Palace

Ultimately, the problems afflicting humanity can only

be resolved through the worldview of

One Family under God.

ATHENS KEYNOTE

The moment we enter the spirit world should be a time that we enter a world of joy and victory with the fruits born of our

lives on earth.

Berlin: Tempodrom

This is the time of opening up the era of God’s kingdom, Cheon Il Guk, a time in which we can

return to the heart of the one true God.

London: House of commons/ metropole

A world where all people are equal and

all nations are brothers as “one

family under God” is being created right before your eyes.

Meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria

If we can all shine as we live such glowing lives, there will be no chance for the shadow of sin to

be cast.

We don't know the time when morning becomes noon. Neither do we know the time that evening becomes night.

Though we may not know it, there is clearly heavenly fortune, which the One who created this world uses to conduct His providence.

Father and Mother Moon and their family have always taught that the world of peace –a

kingdom of God– can start to emerge by 2013.

But only with all of our help!

Rest in Peace!

© 2012 Universal Peace Federationwww.upf.org