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P. White-Cain: Address to Summit 2022, Session V
Written by Pastor Paula White-Cain, Senior Pastor, City of Destiny Church, USA
Friday, August 12, 2022
Address to Summit 2022 and Leadership Conference,
Seoul, Korea, August 11-15, 2022
Good afternoon. There are so many people to thank. But I just want to recognize all of the staff and the leadership of The Washington Times, which you’ve heard repeatedly how much we appreciate in America. It is truly a light, a beacon. For Mother Moon’s vision, and particularly Dr. Michael Jenkins and his beautiful wife, Minister Reiko. We love you all. Thank you so much, Dr. Moon. We love you. We’re so blessed.
Distinguished leaders, ladies and gentlemen, and all the many wonderful people who are a part of this as we discuss the importance of security and religious liberty and freedom today. It is my heartfelt and deep conviction that every human should have the most basic right, as you’ve heard over and over, of religious liberty. As is often said by President Trump, those rights do not come from government, but they come from God. We recognize that. It was with that spirit and belief as adviser to President Trump, that I led the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which established faith-based offices throughout every cabinet and also every agency. We worked hard to make sure that people of all faiths had a place and a voice in their government.
I was so privileged to work with people like Secretary Michael Pompeo and learn from the absolute best of the best. During that time, we brought Andrew Brunson home from a prison in Turkey. We confronted China on religious persecution and sanctioned the Communists and socialists in Cuba and Venezuela on behalf of religious freedom. With Secretary Pompeo’s leadership, the State Department held the largest human rights event in history for several years in a row, where we would host multiple survivors who would come and tell their stories. We would be in the Oval Office. Many from North Korea were with us. President Trump was the first United States president to host a meeting at the United Nations to protect religious freedom around the world, where he explicitly called upon nations of the world to end religious persecution. We followed up on that event with an executive order advancing international religious freedom that solidifies America’s own commitment to this critical issue by naming it as a foreign policy priority of the United States and promising that we will respect and vigorously promote this freedom.
In January of 2018, the Trump administration took a stand for international religious freedom by placing Pakistan on a special watch list with ten other countries for that particular concern. We protected religious freedom worldwide by increasing funding for programs that aid persecuted religious communities. Additionally, we increased funding to protect religious sites and relics. We directed the Department of Justice to issue guidance on religious liberty to help ensure federal agencies comply with our First Amendment. There are so many other things I can talk about. Our administration under President Trump made possible a new plan for peace in the Korean peninsula through North Korea policies that are unprecedented in United States history.
I say all this because we recognize the importance of strong, solid leadership that is dedicated to protecting religious leaders and freedom and liberties. Unfortunately, in America we are facing some of our own battles, but we are people of hope. We see the good hearts of the American people that stand up against some of the atrocities of leadership. In the first year of the current administration, twelve of our own religious liberty initiatives that we had implemented were rolled back.
I believe that there is a great light still shining, and it is a great honor to stand with people like Dr. Moon and with this Federation. It is this deep conviction to stand for freedom of religion that has driven my life work for 38 years now.
I want to honor specifically and encourage Mother Moon. I have such a deep respect for her, for her great work as a spiritual leader and as the Mother of Peace who loves the Lord and seeks to bring comfort to God’s heart and to all those that are under duress and distress around the world. Mother Moon, thank you for your faith and courage—because it does take courage. The Bible tells us that the Lord has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and of a sound mind.
The best translation of that word, which is really only found there, is that God has not given us a spirit of cowardice. We actually see in the Book of Revelation that all cowards will have their place in the lake of fire and brimstone. And while it can be theologically debated exactly what that is, we do know it’s not a good place. And so I thank God for Mother Moon’s faith and courage. It’s not only moving, but especially having passed through many trials and persecution along with so much misunderstanding, she has stood firm as a beacon of hope and light. We know that peace can only be fully achieved with faith.
Mother Moon, together with her late husband, the Reverend Moon, has led a life of unwavering faith and sacrifice, never vacillating in their commitment to achieve peace through Jesus’ fundamental teaching to love your enemies, for it is the greatest secret to achieving reconciliation and forgiveness. Father and Mother Moon left their homes in North Korea after communism took over.
I’d like to read from Mother Moon’s memoir, The Mother of Peace, about her trip to North Korea with her husband, Reverend Moon. “After years of having our members reach out to North Korea, in mid-November 1991 in the United States, a courier brought us a sealed invitation. We opened it in private. It was addressed to us personally. It stated that Chairman Kim Il-sung was inviting us to visit North Korea. Before setting foot in North Korea, we had to resolve any painful feelings knotted up in our hearts. We had to forgive him, whose regime had hurt the nation and world, not to mention our extended family and ourselves. If we had thought of him only as our enemy, we could not have forgiven him.”
Mother Moon, you are the epitome of Matthew 5, specifically verse nine. And I challenge us all to digest this in the next moment and to ask for these characteristics to be part of our resume, part of our heart, part of our identity and being. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” Speaking to his disciples, Jesus expounds the reality of discipleship lived in the presence and power of the kingdom of God, but within the everyday world, seen and manifested. Blessed is more than just a temporary or circumstantial feeling of happiness. This is a state of well-being in relationship to God. Blessed are the peacemakers, used only here in Matthew, chapter five, verse nine. It is one who bravely declares God’s terms which make someone whole. May the peacemakers rise up. Blessed are the peacemakers, those who promote God’s shalom, total well-being, both personally and communally, for they will receive the ultimate reward of being called the sons of God as they reflect the character of our Heavenly Father.
A world of peace will not come from human-centered thinking. Romans 8:6-7 reminds us: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.” A world of peace will come from a mind and a heart that is connected and surrendered and submitted to the Spirit of God.
We’re admonished in I Peter 3:8-10, “Finally, all of you, be like minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you are called so that you may inherit a blessing.” As Mother Moon has said, and I will repeat, it is our responsibility as people of this age, as we stand united, to correct things and return the world to its original state. That is true reformation.
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