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Welcome Address to International Leadership Conference
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Your Excellencies. Distinguished delegates from throughout the world. Ambassadors for Peace.
On behalf of the Founders of the Universal Peace Federation, Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, it is my honor and privilege to address you today at the International Leadership Conference of the Global Peace Tour 2009, sponsored by the Universal Peace Federation. The focus of our program is “One Family Under God: A New Vision for Peace in the 21st Century.”
The International Leadership Conference series is an essential part of the mission and work of UPF, guided by a vision of building a world of universal peace that goes beyond barriers of race, religion, nationality and culture.
I hope that each of you will seriously reflect on the content that will be presented over the next couple of days. Please take a leading role in advancing the work of UPF and its mission to establish a new paradigm of leadership and good governance, from the individual level, to the family, civil society, the nation and the world.
In carrying out its mission, UPF works in collaboration with governments, faith-based organizations, NGOs and academic institutions, providing a value-centered and God-centered vision of peace.
We live at time of global crisis. Not only a financial crisis, and not only a crisis of ongoing conflict and violence, but more fundamentally, we face a growing moral and spiritual crisis, and a crisis that undermines the core social institution, the family. Governments, financial institutions, corporations, the United Nations itself, and even many of our religious institutions are in disarray and confusion.
Today, more than ever before, there is a hunger and thirst for new vision and leadership. This hunger and thirst can be found in the heart of any child. It doesn’t matter if they are black or white, red or yellow, Catholic or Protestant, Muslim or Christian, Jew or Gentile. Every human heart longs for peace, and hopes for love, and joy. This is our original nature, given to us by God.
But why is this ideal so difficult to achieve?
Unfortunately, the history of humanity has been one of suffering and conflict. Many of our holy scriptures speak to this point in describing the “Fall of Man.” According to the story of Adam and Eve, God’s ideal of peace was lost within the very first human family. Adam and Eve violated the core principle of true love and grew distant from God. As a result, their children, Cain and Abel, grew up in a family characterized by jealousy, resentment, conflict and spiritual confusion. Adam and Eve watched in horror and shock as their first son, Cain, killed the younger son, Abel.
How do you think God felt as he looked on and observed this horrible breakdown of his ideal of true love and the corruption of the social and moral order within the first family? His heart was broken.
Tragically, this pattern of division and enmity has become the archetype of human history. Struggle and disharmony between men and women and between siblings continues on all levels of human society. We see it in the disharmony, jealousy and conflict that exist between peoples, nations, and religions. This tragic pattern of division continues to bring sorrow to the heart of God, and suffering to humanity.
We can see various examples of the pattern of Cain and Abel struggle within history. For example, in the division between atheism and theism, between materialistic communism and the democratic societies which affirm religion, between free sex and family values, and between conflict-centered approaches to social change and approaches that seek mutual understanding and peaceful reconciliation.
This pattern of division must be overcome. This is the mission of the UPF.
To restore the divided human family, we need true peacemakers; persons who stand as sons and daughters of true love, committed to a life of service to others. There needs to be institutions, including governments, religions, NGOs, and businesses that manifest this same commitment. Such individuals and institutions are described by Rev. Moon as “Abel-like” or “Parental.”
For this reason, he continually calls on each of us, as the members of UPF, to transform ourselves and to become “Abel-like,” living for the sake of others and living in accordance with God’s will. On this foundation, we work to build a global movement for peace, an “Abel UN” or “Parent UN” characterized by “service leadership” and good governance.
It is the mission of the UPF, as an “Abel UN,” to work to reconcile human relationships, and bring races, nations and religions together as members of one universal human family. After all, we all aspire to achieve one goal. That goal is to bring the divided human family back together, to establish a universal realm of peace, unity, freedom, and happiness for all people, to build “one family under God.”
It is this ideal that guides the UPF in its many peace initiatives, in Africa, in the Balkans, in the Middle East, in Northeast Asia, in South Asia, in the Americas, in the South Caucasus, and, in Southeast Asia.
With this end in mind, Father Moon initiated the “one family under God” Blessing movement in 1960, to promote families of true love, families that go beyond barriers of race, religion, nationality and culture. In this way, we work to build one family under God, one family at a time.
Father Moon continually teaches about the importance of true love. It is the basis of his vision of leadership and good governance. I would like to read a passage on true love, taken from his “peace message”
The heavenly kingdom is a world overflowing with God’s true love….[It] is a natural world where all people live for the sake of one another. Antagonism and jealousy cannot be found anywhere in that world. It is a world that is not governed by money, position or power….. [It] is a world filled with the air of true love, where everyone breathes true love. Its life throbs with love, everywhere and all the time. The citizens of that kingdom are all linked together through their common membership in God’s lineage. There, the whole world and all people are connected in an inseparable relationship, like the cells in our bodies. True love, the love that is God’s essence, is Heaven’s only governing power. Accordingly, God also exists for true love.
The United Nations, created in 1945 after World War II, is the premier institution of global governance. And, whereas we can appreciate and respect the mission and work of the UN, we also recognize that it has serious limitations. In particular, the UN is focused too exclusively on political, economic, and secular approaches to peace and development. Its Security Council is plagued by deep-seated divisions among the permanent members.
Most importantly, the UN has adopted an entirely secularist worldview, excluding the spiritual dimension of human experience. It has focused on the principle of national sovereignty as its guiding value, but with little consideration of God or the teachings of our world’s great religions. For that reason, in August of 2000, Father Moon proposed that the UN establish an interreligious council within its system, thereby allowing spiritual leaders, representing billions of people worldwide, to be included in the serious work of resolving conflict and establishing peace in this world.
Father Moon has always wanted to see the United Nations affirm the highest spiritual truths and live for the sake of others, thereby becoming an “Abel UN” or a “Parent UN.” The trademark of an “Abel UN” is not realpolitik or national self interest, but service, cooperation, and the promotion of reconciliation and harmony among religious, racial, and ethnic groups, as well as among nations, building one family under God.
This vision represents a new paradigm of leadership and good governance for our world. It is this vision that has inspired UPF’s Founder to create a number of programs and associations that foster harmony and cooperation among the nations, peoples and faith traditions of our world. UPF, centering on the International Leadership Conferences, stands at the center of that effort, together with many affiliated organizations, including the Family Federation for World Peace, the Women’s Federation for World Peace, the Youth Federation for World Peace, the Mongolian Peoples’ Federation for World Peace, the World Association of NGOs, the Peace Dream Foundation, and many others.
CONCLUSION
UPF is calling for a new paradigm in leadership and good governance. The proposal for an “Abel UN” or “Parent UN” is an outgrowth of this vision.
The characteristics of this “new paradigm” include the affirmation of:
• God as our common origin and the source of our value and dignity;
• the principle of "living for the sake of others";
• the sacred value of marriage and family;
• spiritual and secular perspectives and approaches to peace;
• dialogue, understanding, reconciliation and cooperation among people of all races, religions, nationalities and cultures;
• multi-sectoral collaboration among representatives of governments, inter-governmental organizations, faith-based organizations, the private sector, and civil society.
Let us work together over the next few days to move forward in establishing this new paradigm of leadership and good governance. We invite your help, support, and guidance as we work to build greater cooperation and unity among the peoples, the religions, and the governments of our world.
Let us work together over the next few days to build a “Abel UN” for lasting peace and true human development. Let us each seek to develop our own “Abel like” character, and expand that character and the principles of true love to our families, our communities, our institutions, our nations, and the entire human family.
Thank you very much.