True Mother’s Speech at Madison Square Garden
On July 15, people of all religions and backgrounds gathered at Madison Square Garden to hear True Mother’s speech, “Peace Starts With Me.”
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, ambassadors of peace, academic and political leaders, ACLC ministers, Family Federation blessed families and our future leaders in the Youth Federation! Today I will talk to you about the responsibility of this blessed country, America, God’s providence, and America’s mission from the viewpoint of the history of human civilization. When we look at the world today, it is plagued with war, religious conflict, ideological conflict, and natural disasters. When we know of seven million children dying from such unspeakable tragedies, can there be hope for our future?
The religious world is the same. No matter what the reason was or where it began, our destination must be the same. We need to know God. The Creator, God, who is the owner of the original universe, created the world and created a man and a woman to become the first human ancestors. God gave them a special growth period, during which they were to learn how to take responsibility. Heaven’s hope was for Adam and Eve to grow beautifully with absolute love and absolute obedience and to receive God’s blessing to become the true parents of humankind.
Unfortunately, during the growth period, Adam and Eve acquired greed. That is what brought about the state of the human race today. Because the almighty and all-powerful God gave the Principle of Creation to human beings, human beings themselves had to make their own way to victory. Yet, for those unaware of God, inheriting Heaven’s will hasn’t been easy.
God chose the Israelites and tried to achieve his will through them. Throughout the long period of four thousand years, God strove to indemnify [Adam and Eve’s] mistake from the individual level to the societal level. Meanwhile, He promised that He would send a savior, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and he did. However, what happened?
Jesus was born as God’s only son. God created a man and a woman. Since Jesus is a man, he needed to meet a woman. Mary, Zachariah’s family, Judaism, and the Israelites should have prepared for this, but they did not fulfill their responsibilities. Jesus could not fulfill God’s will alone. He had no choice but to die on the cross and in that position he said he would come again. He said he would come and hold the marriage supper of the Lamb. The marriage supper of the Lamb! The history of the Christian Church began with the resurrection of the Holy Spirit and its believers await the returning Lord.
However, in the beginning, the Christian Church suffered from extreme persecution and a lack of understanding. Three hundred years later, Christianity received official recognition in Rome, then in all of Italy, and across the European continent, all the way to Britain, an island nation. Centered on Britain, the surrounding nations began the era of the Atlantic civilization and Christianity spread throughout the world. Yet Christians did not understand Jesus’ essence. They did not fully understand God’s providence and in the end, they retreated. Consequently, today’s modern civilization pursues the development of a material civilization rather than that of a moral civilization.
Meanwhile, in the seventeenth century, King James, England’s king, had the Bible translated into English. This brought about a new religious movement, the representative nation of which is America. Heaven established America as a blessed nation to prepare the foundation for the Lord, who said he would come again. Within the short span of two hundred years, America became one of the world’s most powerful nations. This was possible because it had Heaven’s blessing. Isn’t that so?
However, those in the Christian cultural sphere had a responsibility to prepare [for the returning Lord] but they were not fulfilling that. Jesus said he would come again. He could not become the True Parents of humankind by only coming in the spirit. He needed to come in a physical body. In that case, since he said he would come and hold the marriage supper of the Lamb, the birth of God’s only daughter needed to occur within the Christian cultural sphere.
Heaven began to prepare for the birth of God’s only daughter. Once a people, nation, or central figure fails to fulfill a personal responsibility, God does not use them again. This is because they have incurred indemnity for not fulfilling that personal responsibility. Through history, we know what kind of indemnity others have already been paid. Therefore, Heaven chose the Han people in Asia and in 1943, centered on the foundation of Christianity, God’s only daughter was born.
In 1945, Korea gained liberated [from Japanese occupation] but with it, Korea was soon split into North Korea and South Korean, communistic and democratic, respectively. The North’s communists were ready to invade the South as a single system. At the time, the South’s democrats hadn’t established their own system yet. However, just as God gave a growth period [to Adam and Eve] according to the principle of creation, God’s only daughter, who had already been born, also needed a growth period. Heaven could not leave her in a dangerous area and thus guided her south. After she had made it to the South, the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950. At the time, South Korea had no power to face North Korea; yet, like a miracle, the UN rallied sixteen nations to Korea’s aid and good people bled. Today’s South Korea is the fruit of its democracy.
Throughout all this, Heaven could wait no longer to solve global problems and required True Parents’ manifestation. Hence, the realization of True Parents occurred in 1960. However, the Christian realm did not create an environment for them. True Parents’ every move had to begin from the bottom-up. Thus, they completed the blessing of 430 couples who could represent a people.
In the meantime, America, blessed by Heaven, became sick and in 1972, True Parents came to the United States. Healing and restoring all the problems in America became a priority. Many righteous people and many young people followed Rev. Moon, but politicians who did not understand, tried to chase Rev. Moon out of America. As a result, [True Father] went to prison in Danbury. If it weren’t for True Parents’ mission, no need existed for them to come to America. However, because they were the True Parents, because their mission was to save America and guide the world to God, True Father endured incarceration in Danbury, and for forty years, he shed blood, sweat, and tears for America.
America was supposed to take responsibility as a nation blessed in relation to Heaven’s providence, but it was suffering from so much individualism, family breakdown, and youth issues that one could not bear to look an inch into America’s future. It was also facing the threat of communism. [My husband] believed that the way to save America was the way to save the world; therefore, he told a famous doctor of political science to declare the failure of communism. That was in 1985. What happened? Communism fell five years later. That was not all. True Parents brought three thousand young people from a communist environment, the Soviet Union, to the United States and taught them. As a result, these people were able to protect their nation from the threats of communism. The world is unaware of this. Even without the cooperation of any nation, let alone that of America, True Parents overcame unspeakable and indescribable difficulties. It took more than fifty years to reach where we are today. During that time, the Family Federation has established blessed families in more than a hundred and twenty nations.
Fallen humankind cannot return to God. They need to receive engrafting by the True Parents who among all human beings, achieved victory. That is the blessing, which the Family Federation offers. When this nation and the world is overflowing with these blessed families, God’s dream, humankind’s hope, True Parents’ hope, and the one human family’s hope can become reality.
That day is not far away. True Parents blessed Korea and Japan as the central nations of the providence and America as the eldest-son nation. These three nations need to unite and on the foundation of a revolution in the culture of heart, based on a heart of filial piety, we need to begin the era of the Pacific Rim civilization from Asia. When the footsteps of blessed families and young people of the Youth Federation across the five oceans and six continents become sparks and lights in front of the world, 7.4 billion people will flock as one towards those lights. We need to create such an environment.
A world of genuine freedom, equality, peace, unity, and happiness is not far off. When all of you gathered here today become one with True Parents and practice living for the sake of others with true love toward those around you—your tribe, your church and your nation—we can build a united world with our own hands.
Ladies and gentlemen, here today, I hope that all of you unite with me and become sparks that light up this dark world and guide people to God’s bosom. God Bless America! May this country, blessed by God, truly uphold this statement: May you never forget that essence and become lights in the world with redoubled courage!
Marcus
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God Bless True Parents, God Bless America.
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Kinesha McDaniel
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Can I have the link to this speech in Korean?
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editorial
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Hi Kinesha,
We have emailed you the Korean version of the speech. Did you receive it?
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alejandrina matamoros
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thank you true mother for this wonderfol message, i always leard something from you..your sinceretely Word, touch my feeling , and the most important your Word are Word for all the world, where one day they will understand more about you..we have to keeping this hope.
because you represent the queen from this fiscal Word..i love soo much…from Honduras America Central ..
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Luther Mitchell
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Dear Mother, thank you for your words of encouragement. Once again, I’ve learned a little more about our leader. Please continue to bless me and my bless wife Crystal Mitchell and our shared ministry to feed to homeless. It called “Hope for Tomorrow”, stared by Tonya and Ward Green, who are our spiritual children. Monse!
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Wayne Gilbert Hankins
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This speech challenges Christians in particular to see themselves and history from a very different viewpoint. It also challenges those belonging to Judaism and Islam to see things through a much wider lens. It is something that must be declared to those believing in God because those people can and must make a difference by uniting with God’s central people. There is little time to turn the tide of history. Thank you True Mother for saying it clearly and boldly. Mincing words will never bring the changes we all want.
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Felipe Navarrete
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Dear True Mother
, Thank you for for your heart of peace!
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