Dedication and Distinction
This week in history, May 17-23:
- The Washington Times celebrated its 25th anniversary (May 17, 2007)
- The U.S. Jury returns the guilty verdict against True Father (May 18, 1982)
- Clergy and Rabbis sign the Jerusalem Declaration (May 18, 2003)
- True Father enters Heungnam Prison (May 20, 1948)
- 118 couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (May 21, 1978)
- True Father concludes the 2011 World Peace Tour in Las Vegas (May 21, 2011)
- Peter Koch departs as the First Missionary to Europe (May 22, 1963)
May 17, 2007
The Washington Times’ 25th Anniversary
Under the theme “A Quarter Century of Dedication and Distinction,” The Washington Times observed its 25th anniversary with a gala event at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. More than 1,100 leading figures in politics, culture, and journalism representing 82 nations took part in the celebration. U.S. President George W. Bush, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, Lady Margaret Thatcher, Polish Prime Minister Jarosaw Kaczynski, and Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa were among those who sent messages of congratulations. Former President George H.W. Bush delivered the keynote address complementing the Times for challenging “what many of us felt was a prevailing liberal bias” and thanked True Father “for his vision in launching this newspaper,” reminding the audience that “without him, there would be no Washington Times.” True Father delivered the Founder’s Address, “A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God’s Will,” which he had originally delivered in Hawaii and, now with True Mother, was delivering worldwide. He noted, “The development of human civilization has completed a circuit of the entire globe and has arrived at the Pacific sphere.” Human history, he declared, “has come to a point in time in the providence at which it should reach completion and fruition through the Pacific Rim region.”
May 18, 1982
U.S. Jury Returns Guilty Verdict against True Father
The cover of Inquisition, by Pulitzer prize-winning author Carlton Sherwood
The Unification Church won a series of court cases in 1982. After several years of struggle, it gained unambiguous legal recognition as a bona fide religion with full tax-emption privileges, public solicitation rights, and access to missionary visas. It also was able to extend civil rights protections to members and successfully press for damages against deprogrammers. However, the church lost the one case that was the most highly publicized, most costly, and that mattered to it the most; this was The United States v. Sun Myung Moon. Tax convictions have been a time-honored way to root out undesirables, and although the review process makes this more difficult to do within the American legal system, there has been a tendency for the politically ambitious to go after unpopular figures. In True Father case, a letter from U.S. Senator Robert Dole to the IRS Commissioner, which called for an audit of the church, led to what Carlton Sherwood termed “the most intensive and extensive criminal tax investigation of any religious figure in U.S. history.”
The odd thing about True Father’s case was that it continued to move forward in the face of so many obstacles. First, the audit of his tax returns for 1973–1975 showed a total liability of $7,300, less than the $2,500 per year required by IRS guidelines for criminal prosecution. Second, three career attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department questioned whether there was any liability at all and signed off on a written memorandum that prosecution was not warranted. Third, the prosecuting attorney had to convene three grand juries before gaining the necessary indictments. Fourth, jury members who, according to the trial judge, met the criteria of being people who “don’t read much, don’t talk much, and don’t know much” had to sift through over 2,000 documentary exhibits and technical argumentation that glazed the eyes of even trained legal observers over. In the end, neither True Father nor the movement was able to stem the government’s determination to gain a conviction. The trial began on April 1, 1982m and lasted approximately six weeks. On May 18, 1982, the jury returned its verdict against True Father.
May 18, 2003
Clergy and Rabbis Sign the Jerusalem Declaration
May 18, 2003, was a momentous day of the first Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) Holy Land Peace Pilgrimage. U.S. clergy awoke early and left their hotel in busses at 5:30 a.m. to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was fortunate they left at this time because at 6:00 a.m. a suicide bomber set off a blast two blocks from the hotel, killing seven people and injuring 22. All traffic was stopped and had the clergy left any later, they would not have been able to pass. From there, they offered a 30-minute service at the site of Golgotha and then traveled a mile or so to the Potter’s Field, also referred to as the Field of Blood, which, according to Matthew 27, the chief priests purchased with the 30 pieces of silver Judas got for betraying Jesus. Pastors lifted a wooden cross, about six feet high, as they marched down a winding road to the Potter’s Field. At the site, ministers placed the cross in a hole previously dug to its exact dimensions by Israeli FFWPU members. They placed a FFWPU flag, “dated and signed by representative leaders,” on top. The ceremony concluded with participants putting “soil on the cross one-by-one, repenting for the false faith” that was “preventing Christianity and Judaism from achieving reconciliation.”
On that foundation, the 135 U.S. clergy met with a similar number of Israeli rabbis as well as ten imams for a day-long “Conference for Jewish and Christian Reconciliation and Harmony.” The highlight of this was the Jerusalem Declaration in which the clergy and rabbis repented “for the dark parts of our past” and sought “a bright future together.” In reality, it was not easy to obtain the signatures. According to one report, “the main rabbi strongly rejected…signing his name.” In addition, “Some rabbis were upset that the declaration would even be considered.” However, in an unscripted moment, a key rabbi stated, “I will sign it if my Moslem brother will sign it with me.” A leading sheik marched forward and “the three brothers collapsed into an embrace.” One observer recounted, “This opened the floodgates and everyone rushed to the front to sign.”
May 20, 1948
True Father Enters Heungnam Prison
After being arrested for the second time in North Korea on February 22, 1948, True Father was charged with being a spy for the South and for disturbing the social order. Some 80 Christian ministers who had lost members to True Father’s group precipitated this action by writing letters to the police. True Father was once again tortured and wrote later, “My body still carries several scars that I received then.” He went on trial on April 7 and was convicted. He wrote in his autobiography, “Many of the most famous ministers in North Korea came to the courtroom and accused me of all manner of crimes.” That day he was taken to Pyongyang Prison where he remained until he was transported to Heungnam on May 20, nearly three months following his arrest. True Father wrote, “I felt indignation and also shamed before heaven. I was tied to a thief so I could not escape. We were taken by a vehicle on a route that took 17 hours. As I looked out the window a powerful feeling of grief welled up inside me. It seemed incredible to me that I would have to travel this winding road along rivers and through valleys as a prisoner.”
May 21, 1978
Holy Marriage Blessing of 118 Couples
On May 21, 1978, in London, True Father with Ye Jin Moon (representing True Mother) blessed 118 couples in holy matrimony. Of the 118 couples, 106 were international; only 12 couples were matched with the same nationality. Most of the Germans present were matched with their age-old enemies, the French. The blessing served to launch International One World Crusade activities in Europe. More than 1200 members gathered in London and, soon after, were augmented by two classes of Unification Theological Seminary students who were pioneering Home Church.
May 21, 2011
True Father Concludes 2011 World Peace Tour in Las Vegas
True Father conducted his final world tour, a World Peace Tour of ten nations in 28 days, traveling 28,000 miles at age 91. He spoke in Seoul, Korea; Madrid, Spain; Rome, Italy; Oslo, Norway; Athens, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; London, England; Geneva, Switzerland; and Berlin, Germany. His final and only U.S. stop was in Las Vegas on May 21. There, he told an international audience of over 3,000 in the Aria City Center that God had great expectations for the long-notorious gaming capital of the world, that it will soon gain a new reputation as a “city of giving.” In support of that, True Parents sponsored a charity slot tournament at the Aria Resort the morning of the event for 300 participants with proceeds from the $500 entry fee going to local charities. True Father envisioned each stop of the tour as an interreligious assembly and representatives of faith bodies were prominent participants.
May 22, 1963
Peter Koch Departs as the First Missionary to Europe
Peter Koch immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1957. In 1959, he began engineering studies in San Francisco where he met and joined the Unification Church in January 1962. He was concerned to reach other foreign students and spent much of September and October 1962 hand-signing letters to 1,900 foreign students at the University of California, Berkeley. He subsequently “felt responsible for my people at home” and determined “to bring the Principle to Europe.” He departed by ship on May 22, 1963, arrived in Holland on June 13, printed 80 copies of the Divine Principle in German, and decided to begin his mission work in Heidelberg, some 225 miles from where he had been staying. He determined to walk rather than take a train, as a condition. However, within 25 miles he developed severe blisters due to defective boots. By the fourth day, blisters extended to his ankles, and all the skin pulled off the flesh of his feet. Wrapping his feet and refusing to stop, he later wrote, “That was certainly my worst experience. I did a 40-day fast once, but it was nothing compared to that 21-day trip to Heidelberg on raw feet. I’ll never forget that. That was my foundation for starting the mission in Germany.” He was a successful missionary, leading the church in Germany until 1969, and in Austria after that. Starting in 1980, he dispatched missionaries to the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania, East Germany, and Albania—all communist countries—as chronicled in the book, Mission Butterfly.
This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of May 17 – 23.
Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, Professor of Church History at the Unification Theological Seminary.