FOLLOW US
J.C. Hasbun: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Session IV-B
Written by Pastor Juan Carlos Hasbun, Senior Pastor, Kemuel Christian Church; Member, Board of Directors of COICOM, an association of Latin American Christian communicators, El Salvador
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
To begin, respected audience, I want to congratulate Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, Co-Founder of the Universal Peace Federation, on her birthday. We celebrate and thank her life and her legacy, which today more than ever is transmitted through this conference.
The culture of peace and the responsibility of religions is one of the most important issues that we must address at this time. In every society this culture of peace must always seek to reconcile three things:
First, the inherent humanity and spirituality of being human. Religions seek from their foundation, Christianity being the one that I allow myself to share, among others, leading the individual to have a permanent culture of peace with his neighbor. By having that culture of peace with his neighbor, it can change for the better any system that contradicts this through negative human causes. Today more than ever, religion and faith are extremely important. We know that, all over the planet (very different from what some media transmit), the individual, the family, the entire society needs to fill that void of faith. Reconciliation with the Creator is achieved through the proposals of all the ministries and churches that want to develop gifts, abilities and purposes in the human being that can serve what it represents.
The second aspect is that the individual must reconcile his society: a person who has peace with the Creator, a person who establishes a link with his environment through his affiliation of faith, principles and values, has a compass to be able to participate in social interaction, at the political level, at the media level, at the community level. Through this the person is able to not only overcome their own barriers, but also accompany others to overcome theirs. A person involved in faith organizations always has a lot to give, offering hope and opportunities for others. When the individual develops and reaches out to the most vulnerable to help them turn their own dreams into reality through personal, participatory or collective involvement in different movements, it transmits the most important essence that faith establishes, and that is the improvement of the human being. The Bible establishes that there will be poor among us, but it is our mission that they never stay the same, that we always have the criteria to move our generation forward from its limitations and its contradictions.
The Republic of Korea, the place where we are meeting today, is a living example of this situation. In less than half a century, the international interpretation of this Republic has been transformed, thanks to what I stated above, as an example of what this blessed and beautiful nation can do.
Third, how important it is to establish a legacy. We have a young planet—more than 50% of the world’s population is under 25 years of age. I believe that religion, in order to develop a culture of peace, has a great opportunity by being able to work with children, in order to be able to organically create in them principles and values that will support them so that they can develop that culture of peace spontaneously, because they have assimilated it since childhood. Many people may think that religions are in crisis. Personally, I believe that we have always been in crisis. What would become of us if we had never had the opportunity to teach each generation to overcome their difficulties and get ahead with the principles and values that faith establishes. Our great opportunity is to be able to leave this legacy of a culture of peace in this nascent generation, so that they can transmit it to the next generation without pressure and without contradictions.
Distinguished audience, I thank Dr. Charles Yang in advance for this opportunity, but not before acknowledging the work of UPF internationally, especially in my region. Dr. Yang, through his entire team, is permanently developing a cultural project for peace, an approach to Central America, my region, to cement these very important projects that are the work of the Universal Peace Federation, with social, political, cultural and religious institutions.
Thank you so much.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.