Responses to Questions on
Unificationism on the Internet - Volume 45
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 13:06:58 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Re: Your opinion please
On Wed, 31 Dec 1997, C. Kirkwood wrote:
> Dear Mr. Anderson
> I am interested on what your take is on the Christian Coalition and
> the place religion as a whole might have on the United States
> government.
>
> With great respect,
> C. Kirkwood
Dear Mr. Kirkwood,
I think that religious people should have a central role in guiding the
political process towards the creation of a just, prosperous and
altruistic society. The values upon which our society is based are
inherently religious. The establishment clause of the US Constitution
requires that no religious group be granted favor over any others.
Currently, however, the irreligious seem to have the upper hand by
attempting to exclude religion and religious people by crying for the
separation of church and state.
The Christian Coalition have the same rights as any other group of
citizens to have their views heard and their wishes considered and
acted upon, if deemed by a majority that they are in the common good.
Sincerely,
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net
From damian@unification.net Sat Jan 3 19:45:21 1998
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 19:45:01 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Re: gay issue
On Sat, 3 Jan 1998, lim eng song wrote:
> Dear brother Damian,
> Thank you for sending me speeches on BIF. I would like to know about Father's
> view on homosexuality & same sex marriage. Where can I find the relevant information?
>
> Happy God's day !
Go to my web site listed below, click on "Search" and look up by keyword.
You must know that Rev. Moon strongly disapproves of homosexual
relationships as they are contrary to the ideal and purpose of God.
Sincerely,
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 17:46:56 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Re: letter from an atheist
On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, Eva G wrote:
> Hi, I'm a Danish girl age 15. I'm atheist. I know a girl who is a
> member of your church, and, for the sake of discussion, I've asked her a lot
> of questions and we've had a lot of interesting conversations. However, she
> refuses to answer one question, and I hope you will oblige me.
> Since I do not believe in God, do you think I'm going to go to hell?
> Will I have the chance to go to heaven or what? I'm not going to become
> religious during my lifetime, and according to my own beliefs certainly not
> after death, so... what's in store for me in your opinion?
> Thanks.
>
> Eva
Dear Eva,
God in His goodness has provided a way that even people who do not believe
in Him can enter Heaven. The way to do that is to form a true family with
which God can be happy. If you receive God's blessing on your marriage
through the True Parents, Rev. and Mrs. Moon, then you can enter Heaven
even as an unbeliever. I realize that you are only 15, but when the time
comes, you must pledge to one man to love him always, never to commit
adultery, not to have sex before marriage, and to teach your children the
same. The cornerstone of Heaven is Godly families.
I hope this answers your question.
Sincerely,
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 18:31:08 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Re: letter from an atheist
Hello again Eva,
On Sat, 10 Jan 1998, Eva G wrote:
> Dear Damian Anderson,
>
> Thank you for your prompt reply!
You are most welcome. I am online almost all day. :-)
> >God in His goodness has provided a way that even people who do not believe
> >in Him can enter Heaven. The way to do that is to form a true family with
> >which God can be happy. If you receive God's blessing on your marriage
> >through the True Parents, Rev. and Mrs. Moon, then you can enter Heaven
> >even as an unbeliever. I realize that you are only 15, but when the time
> >comes, you must pledge to one man to love him always, never to commit
> >adultery, not to have sex before marriage, and to teach your children the
> >same. The cornerstone of Heaven is Godly families.
> >
> >I hope this answers your question.
>
> Well, yeah, I suppose, sort of. But what about rape? If I get raped,
> then does that spoil my chances or what? And also, isn't God supposed to
> forgive everything if you repent it? Then what happens if you have sex out
> of wedlock but you sincerely regret it afterwards?
Rape is a crime against you. It is unfortunate, but not your fault.
Avoid it at all costs as it leaves deep emotional wounds in your
character. Women who have been raped are traumatized for life and have
difficulty trusting men and having healthy and freely loving sexual
relationships with their husbands.
> And also, to be direct: I'm not planning on waiting until I'm
> married to have sex - if you've ever been to Scandinavia or Holland, you
> might have noticed how open sex is here. But anyway, then I'll go to hell,
> right? IS there a hell, according the the unification church?
For the teachings of various religions on hell, consult:
Hell
http://www.unification.net/ws/theme044.htm
I believe that there is a hell. It is the state of being where there is
no true love.
There is a consequence to every action. By making sex easily available
to all takers, it diminishes its value. You may like the sections on my
web page:
True Love
http://www.unification.net/truelove/
and
Blesssing and Ideal Family
http://www.unification.net/bif
I also run a mailing list in which I send out texts daily for reading.
Go to the following URL to sign up:
http://www.unification.net/forms/subscribe.html
> To calm any worries you might have now about the destiny of my
> 'soul', I can only offer the consolation that I'm a firm believer in no
> divorce, so at least I agree somewhat. I also dislike adultery, because it's
> often a catalyst leading to divorce. I think divorce should be legal, but
> I'm not going to divorce. I think kids should grow up with a mother and a
> father who love each other. Which is one reason why I'm planning on maybe
> dating and living with (and having sex with) a man for years and years,
> before deciding to have children and get married. Sex to me is not sacred,
> but I rank parenthood as a very important thing. I was born in wedlock, but
> my parents had my two older siblings before getting married. I suppose this
> is not a good thing, according to your beliefs?
> Thanks again.
>
> Eva
Your conscience tells you clearly that to betray the one you love is
wrong. But to have sex with someone without a commitment can break
their heart or yours if you later break up. Better to make a commitment
first. Also, what better thing than to be forever in love with your
first love? Your first love is most precious, and you will never forget
it.
I would not be motivated by whether or not such an action will send me
to Hell, but whether doing an action serves the greatest and noblest
good, and promotes truth, beauty and goodness.
Sincerely,
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 10:39:39 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Re: Education and Marriage
On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, compania wrote:
> Subject: BIF: Education and Marriage
>
>
> Blessing and Ideal Family
> by Reverend Sun Myung Moon
>
> Chapter One
> Part 3
> TRUE MARRIAGE AND TRUE LOVE
> 5. EDUCATION AND MARRIAGE
> Marriage opens the door to human happiness.
>
> ...... . . .Damian, what is this Doctrine to you? Do you realize that it is
> constituted from a perspective of Certainty in which there is no
> Individuality or Free Will, and where Diversity is seen as a problem?
> ...... . . .I'm surprised that a man as educated as yourself would adopt
> such a limited and limiting way of being as this.
>
> --Jahweh, Who's Active in the Milky Way
I believe that love is the starting point of happiness, and the place
for the full expression of love is in the family. The starting point of
a family is marriage, so I don't see a problem with the statement.
There is no limitation to the diversity of the world by suggesting that
marriage is the starting point of happiness, unless you are suggesting
the use of Diversity in the empty popular use to imply "homosexual
friendly". Homosexual marriage has nothing to do with God or anything
that is sacred.
Sincerely,
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 07:37:04 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Re: Can anon get on Unif-Evangelism?
Hello Jeff,
On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, Jeff T wrote:
> Hi Damian
>
> I send this privately but if you want to give me the answer on the list --
> because you think it might be edifying for us all- then that is okay with me.
I will answer on the list. It is a good question.
> Here's some questions which have been ruminating in me for awhile about
> Unif-Evangelism? Do you open up the forum to non-Unificationists? Why do you
> do it? Can our enemies get in?
The simple answer is that I have no easy way of knowing who is a
Unificationist and who is not. Then there are people who do not claim
to be Unificationists who are more favorable to True Parents than those
who do claim to be Unificationists! Can our enemies get in? Yes, they
can. Can they stay in? Yes, as long as they are quiet. Does that bother
me? Not especially. Do you remember back in the 1970s and 1980s how
Father would just assume that members of US government agencies such as
the FBI and CIA were in the audience when he was speaking? He would
even talk to them without knowing necessarily who they were. And there
were those who came as spies but ended up being moved and changed by
True Parents' ideology and actions. So, I don't really mind if
Father's enemies listen to us discussing our theology, as long as they
don't disrupt the group.
> I have seen 'cult1914' -- that was part of his email address -- come in and
> after bad-mouthing Jehovah's he exited. He directed us to an anti-cult
> location on the internet which roasts JWs, Mormons and us.
In the cases where I can find out, I do expel them. In the case of
cult1914@aol.com, one person did the research and found out that he was
tied to groups hostile to our goals, and said so on his web page, then
I expelled him quietly. I could do a Web or Usenet search for each
person to see whether he has a history of writing negative things about
our movement, but that would be a lot of trouble.
> Recently the solomonswisdom or something like that came through. I saw his
> homepage. Very sophisticated page -- a Christian Jew. I am glad to know of
> him and I wish I had time to dialog with him, and to join you over at
> alt.religion.unification, but I barely have time for my Unification list. And
> I love it.
In the case of Solomon's Wisdom, he was a brash evangelist for the
Messianic Jewish position. I don't have a problem with that, but when
he subscribed me to his own mailing list without my permission, and did
that to a whole lot of other people, then I did have a problem with
that. I took him off the list, and I bounced mail from his list to him,
since I was not able to unsubscribe.
When I look back, I was less well behaved on some lists than some of
them have been, but I learned from experience that certain actions are
counter-productive, so I stopped. At one point, I was sending sections
of the World Scripture to a Baptist mailing list and the list owner was
amazingly tolerant. He finally said to me that he had heard the first
new theological idea in a decade when I told him that Christ was a
couple, and that the book of Zechariah predicts the coming of two
anointed ones and not just one. For him, that was a revelation. I
parted the list on friendly terms with him to go on to bigger fishing
ponds.
> I know your point of view because you and I have talked about the way you put
> everything out there, all the laundry to hang in the sun. And I am getting
> used to it and becoming more comfortable with your position.
I believe that in the open free market of ideas, True Parents' ideology
is the best around anywhere ever, so I have no problem with letting
Father's words stand as they are, and not apologizing for Father ever.
Didn't the mottos of the last two years suggest that we be proud of and
love True Parents? That necessarily implies that we are not ashamed of
anything he has ever said or done. At least, it does to me. Even Tyler
Hendricks has been won over to the position of letting Father's words
be put on the Internet, especially after Father made repeated
references recently that he wanted to educate he world about his
teachings through the Internet. As a result, he recently gave
permission for me to get from the UTS archives an electronic copy of
all the speeches ever published in America since 1976. I am in the
process of putting them online right now.
I spoke directly to True Parents on a flight from Kodiak Island,
Alaska, to Anchorage in September 1996, and I told them of the work I
was doing on the Internet, and they were pleased. Mother asked if Rev.
Kwak knew about it. Father told me that he is using the Internet for
distance learning through the University of Bridgeport.
> Neither of these two guys gave their names. I don't like that. For me
> concealing identity is a sign of having something to hide. I just expect a
> name though, I don't expect to know their philosophical position. Concealing
> name means they wish me ill, or they are ill.
There are former members who come back to the church and they may have
reason to be ashamed of their former association with the church,
possibly because of something they did. The church has attracted the
full gamut of people, including prostitutes, homosexuals, homeless
people, alcoholics, drug abusers, wife abusers, child abusers, who may
have made an attempt at church life and then found it was too much, and
gone back to their former life. They may have been ashamed when they
left, but God expects less of those who have less. The people who were
given the most, of whom God expected the most, those with the wealth
of the Christian foundation failed to follow True Parents, so it was
not the best qualified people who responded to the call of Heaven. God
does not reject their heartfelt offering.
> At some point to be on this list do they identify themselves to you? How do
> you know if they are in or out of the Unification Movement? Do you ask? How
> would someone find the list?
I don't ask. If their name is something obviously phony or a prank,
then I don't sign them up. I don't know if they are members, and I
don't ask. Who was a member of the civil rights movement? Did they have
to be card-carrying members of an organization to be sympathizers?
Would that requirement not turn off a lot of people? I am a member of a
movement dedicated to end slavery to sin under the false master Satan.
I have a Unification Church card, but for years I did not use it. The
only place I know where I have ever had need for it is to get in to
Belvedere.
Having read the lives of Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr.,
I feel that our movement has a lot in common with the Abolitionist
movement to end slavery in America. When I was a child, the people in
British history who made me most proud were people like William
Wilberforce who campaigned to end slavery, John Wesley who evangelized
to the miners sitting on his horse and set sacred words to the tunes of
pub songs to popularize them. Then there was Lord Shaftsbury who
campaigned to end child labor in the mines, and start schools for
them. There was Florence Nightingale who ministered to the wounded
soldiers in the Crimean War, a most unladylike thing to do at the
time. In wars up to that time, more soldiers died from disease than
did from battle wounds. I thought at the time that when I grew up, I
wanted to be a reformer just like them, but I didn't know of anything
left to reform. I thought I had missed the golden era of reform! :-)
Little did I know then then I would become part of the greatest
movement the world has ever seen to end suffering.
These people were not members of an organization as such. They were all
evangelical Christians moved to the core by the love of Jesus and
desirous to make his love come alive and be present in the lives of
people. I have little time for nominal Unificationists, just as
Wilberforce decried nominal Christians, that is Christians in name
only. We don't want to be the people who cry "Lord, Lord, did I not do
great things in your name?" and for Him to say "Begone from me, I never
knew you."
I was very much affected by something I read in the Way of God's Will
just yesterday, in which Father says that the judgment will be carried
out by the saints first, (1 Cor 6:2, Matt 19:28) and then by the Lord
who returns. And first of all to be judged, Father says, is the
Unification Church. Once we have been purified and come through the
judgment, then we are able to do the same for others. I suppose the
path leading to the Blessing and the fulfillment of the True Family is
the judgment. The day is coming very soon when the Son of Man will sit
on his throne in glory and judge the whole world. The blessing of 360
Million couples is a sure sign that the day is rapidly approaching. For
those who did not know, I believe the date is set for June 13, 1998.
Correct me if that is not right.
Humanity has been enslaved so long that it knows no other way of
being. I read fairy tales to my kids and I am struck by stories such
as Sleeping Beauty. Because of some deed in the forgotten past, the
whole kingdom of humanity has been put under a spell, so that they are
asleep, unaware that there is another way to live, and waiting for the
prince who will come to make love to the sleeping princess and awaken
all the members of the kingdom. It is a strong Messianic theme, that of
true love awakening humanity from deathly sleep.
People find the list through the Internet. There are lists of lists,
and search engines just to look for mailing lists. Go to the list
search engine:
http://tile.net/lists/
and look up "Unification" and you will find two of my lists.
> Why would "cult1914" and 'solomonswisdom" come on the list? I think they are
> witnessing. Interesting. We evangelistas should try the same thing. I think
> they roam where seekers are and invited them to their center of homepage for a
> little chat and hopefully a lecture.
I have done the same thing. In fact, that is how I first got started
with Internet evangelism, talking to people first on bulleting boards,
then on Internet mailing lists, then on newsgroups and the web. Each
step was an increase in scope and audience. There is an advantage to
this relatively small group on our Internet Evangelism list, since we
are pretty much all people who love True Parents and want to further
the mission of creating the Kingdom of God through their worldwide
ministry.
On the Usenet newsgroups, we have to deal with the constant harping of
the anti-cult crowd who want to bombard us with hatred and doubt and
what about this and that terrible thing that church leader X did, or
Father did. On the mailing list, I try to keep it clear of those
elements so that sincere similarly minded people can discuss how to
further God's providence without interruption. But I don't think we
have anything to hide, so I am not excluding anyone a priori. I will
put someone on probation and review each of their posts if they start
flame wars on the list, but otherwise, I try to keep it as free an
environment as possible. My very worst and bitterest critics have been
nominal Unificationists. They have compared me with Hitler and Stalin
for my policing of this mailing list and other things. The anti-cult
people on alt.religion.unification generally treat me respectfully.
Since the people on the list are a mixed crowd, it may influence how you
speak to one another. That is fine.
> I don't mind if you let them in, but I just like to know. I guess I should
> care if my great secret witnessing How-To-Do-It Strategies are co-opted by
> people who might think they are my enemy. I have to change my mind on this.
Who is my neighbor, who is my enemy? If True Father can go to Kim Il
Sung and shake his hand and give him a bear hug, the same man who three
times tried to kill him, then he has no enemies. If you think you have
enemies, read Father's poem:
Crown of Glory
http://www.unification.net/misc/crown.html
and then think again.
> In the next 4 years they are all going to receive the Blessing and they are
> all going to share the heavenly World with us. I just have to get used to it.
Right! Eat your heart out Satan! :-) And you know, one thing that
touched me deeply in Father's words was when he said that even Satan
grieved when the love of Jesus was gone from the world. Though Satan
reflexively tried to destroy Jesus since Jesus threatened his power,
Satan grieved when such amazing grace was gone from the world. Read the
early speeches of Father's from the 1950s and you will find a wealth of
such deep heart-stirring wisdom.
> ITN
> Jeff Tallakson
Thanks Jeff for the question. I was up after Pledge this morning and
thought I should catch up with my brethren online. :-)
In the great and holy names of our True Parents!
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 08:40:05 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Our ability to love
On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, Sachsan wrote:
> There is much involved with my observation. It especially has to do with the
> state of our movement in its ability to love. I left active involvement with
> the movement for some 15 years in 1976. The point I discovered early in my
> expereince in this association was that to love was to choose to experience
> the worst pain in my life. If one were a masochist one would observe it was
> the most exquisite pain possible. There is so much pain., and it is of such a
> variety that there is no defense against it, not way to control it, no way to
> stop it except to stop loving. That is what I tried to do when i left.
Hi Chris, I just read your post. This was a most honest, articulate and
thought-provoking observation. I had a very touching experience with a
lesbian woman one time in a weekend course I attended. She was a pretty
hispanic woman who hid her femininity behind her mechanic's overalls,
her short hair and her gruff nature. She told me that after meeting me
she had discovered one thing, that she wanted to have a family, because
never before had she met a man that she felt she could love and
respect, since her upbringing had been physically and sexually
abusive. That was touching to me.
Another time, I went fundraising in a lesbian bar, and was violently
thrown out. It felt like the fury of hell.
You have it right, that it is most extremely painful to love. I have
found the book of Martin Luther King's sermons "Strength to Love" most
inspiring, and in line with this, just as Father says:
Oh Master! The pain of loving!
Look at my hands.
Place your hand on my chest.
My heart is bursting, such agony!
But when I loved those who acted against me
I brought victory.
If you have done the same thing,
I will give you the crown of glory.
It is a challenge for all of us to open ourselves fully to love,
especially those who are in pain, which is everyone. So, to choose to
love takes courage. The easier course by far is to become numb and
aloof. But to put your heart in a box means that it experiences
emptiness, and that is worse than the pain of loving.
As far as dealing with the resentment of black people, I was mugged at
gunpoint by a black man in Roxbury in Boston in 1981, while
fundraising. He gave me a black eye and took my money. That same night,
I was mugged a second time by a gang of Irish thugs in South Boston,
and got another black eye and a kicking. I figured that I was an equal
opportunity mugging candidate, and it was not something to do with
race. Well, the black guy seemed to see me as a muggee because I was
white in an all-black neighborhood. The Irish gave me a beating because
I was a Moonie.
While it made me more cautious, I realize that sin is a universal
human condition, and it makes no sense for me to have resentment based
on race. The black people have reason to resent whites for hundreds of
years of slavery, though my ancestors kept no slaves, and did not live
in America. I am an immigrant. Still, we are each the fruit of history
and responsible to dissolve the sin of our ancestry, and I take on
about as much resentment as I can handle, and figure that somehow, if
we all work to resolve sin, it will eventually be vanquished. Thank God
for True Parents who have done the heaviest work.
ITPN,
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 12:19:02 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Re: Sun Myung Moon - your questions
Hello Per,
On Tue, 6 Jan 1998, Per Joergensen wrote:
> Hi Damain................
>
> let me intruduce myself. My name is PER JØRGENSEN and I work at school
> whith at projekt. I've selected Tongil, be cause I think that it is a
> exiting subjekt.
> Now i have some new questions...................
>
> 1. If you don't want to be called a "moonie", then what??
We prefer to be called Unificationists.
> 2. If I understand "the divine principles" correct, all humans are "the
> devils own", but only untill you get married. Then you are save.
> BUT if you are married in a marriage, why arent you save. Your parents
> are, but not you.......why??
Human beings are descended from the fallen blood lineage and must be
reborn into the lineage of God and the True Parents in order to belong
to God. This takes place through the Blessing. You can find more on the
meaning and value of the Blessing at:
http://www.unification.net/bif/bif-3-1.html
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF REBIRTH
> 3. Why is SUN MYUNG MOON´s children already saved.....they are NOT
> married??
Those born of a marriage blessed by God have no need to be saved as
they already belong to God.
> 4. SUN MYUNG MOON is calling himself " The master of reappearence", but
> there was NO "arrival"..........how can SUN MYUNG MOON call himself THE
> MASTER OF REAPPEARENCE...... . there was not a man like him
> before...(not even Jesus)
I don't know where you get this term "Master of Reappearance." You may
be interested though in the speeches referring to the Second Coming
under:
http://www.unification.net/pr-mes/
Proclamation of the Messiah
> 5. What means the word "tongil"??????
It is a Korean word meaning "unification".
Sincerely,
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 14:16:10 -0500 (EST)
From: "Damian J. Anderson"
Subject: Re: Unification logo question
You can find an explanation at:
http://www.unification.net/tradition/tt1-10.html
Sincerely,
Damian Anderson
On Wed, 14 Jan 1998, Rusty Trains wrote:
> Dear Sir,
>
> I have a question considering the unification church. Could you tell me,
> what meanings and backgrounds the symbol of the church (The red circle
> broken at two opposite points with the various lines going towards the
> middle and the sqare in the center. It is on the top of the unification
> home page) has?
> Please answer soon and explain the deeper meanings of this symbol to me!
>
> from
> Sir Rusty Trains.
--
Damian J. Anderson damian@unification.net http://www.unification.net