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Part Four - Family and Society
Chapter 20. Society
11) World Citizenship
The World Seems To Be Moving Inexorably towards unity, yet centrifugal forces threaten to blow it apart. Trends towards globalization in communications, education, transportation and trade are tying nations together into an interdependent network of mutual benefit. Nevertheless, the path to world unity cannot be forged only on the basis of trade. As long as the world agenda is dictated by the dominant economic powers, there will be peoples in the developing world who feel the juggernaut of globalization as a mortal threat. Proud peoples with a glorious history will seek alternative ways to assert their pride of place—the rise of Islamicism being one example. Therefore, economics does not hold the key to world unity. That key, that central element, is religion.
Certainly, religious teachings can be divisive. Yet each religion contains teachings that lift up the ideal of world unity, rooted in God who is the Parent of all humankind. God sees all human beings as His children; therefore the world is destined to be one family. Religious teachings demarcate the path to make this unity a reality, for example Father Moon’s promotion of international, interracial and interfaith marriage.
World Scripture
Consider the family of humankind one. Jinasena, Adipurana (Jainism)
O mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you might know each other [not that you might despise each other]. Verily the most honored among you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous. Qur’an 49.13
All the people of the whole world are equally brothers and sisters. There is no one who is an utter stranger. There is no one who has known the truth of this origin. It is the very cause of the regret of Tsukihi (God). Ofudesaki 13.43-44 (Tenrikyo)
Let all mankind be thy sect. Adi Granth, Japuji 28, M.1, p. 6 (Sikhism) I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world. Socrates (Hellenism)
You are a citizen of the world, and a part of it; not a subservient but a principal part. You are capable of comprehending the divine order, and of considering the connections of things. What then does the character of a citizen promise? To hold no private interest, to deliberate about nothing as a separate individual but, like the hand and foot, which, if they had reason and understood the constitution of nature, would never pursue or desire anything without reference to the whole being. Epictetus, Discourses 2.10 (Hellenism)
When you see the Earth from space, you don’t see any divisions of nation-states there. This may be the symbol of the new mythology to come; this is the country we will celebrate, and these are the people we are one with. Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
From the viewpoint of absolute truth, what we feel and experience in our ordinary daily life is all delusion. Of all the various delusions, the sense of discrimination between oneself and others is the worst form, as it creates nothing but unpleasantness for both sides. If we can realize and meditate on ultimate truth, it will cleanse our impurities of mind and thus eradicate the sense of discrimination. This will help to create true love for one another. Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (Buddhism)
O contending peoples and kindreds of the earth! Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you. Gather ye together, and for the sake of God resolve to root out whatever is the source of contention among you. Then will the effulgence of the world’s great Luminary envelop the whole earth, and its inhabitants become the citizens of one city, and the occupants of one and the same throne. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah 111 (Baha’i Faith)
If love and agreement are manifest in a single family, that family will advance, become illumined and spiritual; but if enmity and hatred exist within it, destruction and dispersion are inevitable. This is likewise true of a city. If those who dwell within it manifest a spirit of accord and fellowship, it will progress steadily and human conditions become brighter, whereas through enmity and strife it will be degraded and its inhabitants scattered. In the same way the people of a nation develop and advance toward civilization and enlightenment through love and accord, and are disintegrated by war and strife. Finally, this is true of humanity itself in the aggregate. When love is realized and the ideal spiritual bonds unite the hearts of men, the whole human race will be uplifted, the world will continually grow more spiritual and radiant, and the happiness and tranquility of mankind be immeasurably increased. Warfare and strife will be uprooted, disagreement and dissension pass away, and Universal Peace unite the nations and peoples of the world. All mankind will dwell together as one family, blend as the waves of one sea, shine as stars of one firmament, and appear as fruits of the same tree. This is the happiness and felicity of humankind. This is the illumination of man, the glory eternal and life everlasting; this is the divine bestowal. ‘Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace (Baha’i Faith)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Everyone longs to live in one unified world that transcends nationality. This longing springs from the inner world of the heart. It calls out from the ideal and heart of true human beings. It is also the heart and hope of God. (115:177, November 10, 1981)
We have to transcend nationalism. A people should emerge whose hearts transcend ethnic loyalties, which loves other peoples more than its own people. (34:337, September 20, 1970)
From this time on, the definition of “my country” will need to expand. Although everyone has their home country where they were born and live, in a larger sense, the entire world that God, our Father, created is “my country.” (219:121, August 28, 1991)
In the events of history, people strive for the sake of their nation. That is the human way of thinking, but how does God think? If God were to say, “I only love America!” then He would be the God of only America. In that case, when it comes time for America to perish, God would also perish. But God never thinks that way. His thoughts are far above human thoughts. He would promote the way of thinking that we ought to live by placing the world’s welfare above the welfare of our nation or our family. (95:53, October 23, 1977)
The reason God established America was for America to save the world. Yet Americans do not know that America must save the world. Only once in world history did a single nation become the center and unify the entire world religiously and culturally. Was that not America, when it occupied the whole world at the end of World War II? President Kennedy understood this, and he encouraged America to help all the struggling nations of the world. (215:200-01, February 17, 1991)
In accordance with my cosmic teaching, we should make the world into one household. A home has a father and a mother; in this household Heaven is our father and the earth is our mother. A home also has brothers and sisters; all human beings are our brothers and sisters. (36:296, December 13, 1970)
We are all part of one world family… This is the significance of the words [from the Family Pledge], “Our family… pledges to build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness.” It is not about my personal freedom, peace, unity and happiness, but rather the freedom, peace, happiness and freedom of everyone in the universal family. The whole world is our family.
When you arrive in heaven, you will not find people separated by national borders. People of all nationalities are assembled together. Are you prepared to live that way? Do you have such a universal viewpoint that you can embrace all people from the past, present and future? (260:191-93, May 8, 1994)
You can enter the Kingdom of Heaven only when you have lived with people of seven different nationalities. (Way of God’s Will 1.8)
Every being is situated in space relative to what is above and below, right and left, front and back. In the family, each person stands in relation to above and below, right and left, and front and back. This same pattern applies to the nation and the world. Thus in the family, each individual should have a loving relationship with parents above and children below, husband on the right and wife on the left, and elder siblings in front and younger siblings in back. Similarly in the nation, each family, beginning with the President, should embrace families from all regions, and then embrace all people of the world, East and West, and North and South, as their brothers and sisters. We are ultimately responsible to create the model in our own family, which can be replicated on every level. (True Family and World Peace, July 18, 1997)
Through this, we can finally build the providential house of God’s desire. That house will be our nation, our world, and our heaven and earth. People of all five races will dwell there. Americans, Germans, French, Italians, British and Japanese—all former enemies—will gather there. Yet despite their past history as enemies, they will be unable to feel any enmity towards each other no matter how hard they try. Love will unite them, as they live for the sake of others. (106:83, December 9, 1979)
A religion which puts its own nation and people first will never be able to realize God’s Will on the world level. We must go beyond our ethnicity and our nation, beyond our national traditions, cultures and social conventions. We must seek a society that embraces all the world’s peoples and a world which can be in accord with God’s Will. For this to happen, all people should be united in heart and live together as one. Unless the religions of the world work decisively to unite their concepts of the good life and the [ideal] world, religion will not endure.
Therefore, as a church, we should not take delight in the idea that our church should be supreme in the world; rather, we should delight in lifting up the world. When we look at the course of history centered on religion, this present age is at a turning point. A concept which puts me first, a concept which puts my family first, my nation first—with such concepts globalism is impossible. (27:179, December 14, 1969)
Human history has been moving toward one unified world. Therefore, anything that limits your purpose to the individual, family, tribe or nation will pass away. (12:45, September 10, 1962)
A new era has begun, the era of Cheon Il Guk, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. All people—in the spirit world and in the physical world, on the right and on the left, and Muslims and Christians—will live together as one family. This is the meaning of Cheon Il Guk. World peace can be realized only when there are no barriers or borders dividing religions.
Our children can build a world of peace through inter-religious and international marriages. When Jews and Muslims have their children marry each other, and when communists and people from the free world have their children marry each other, we will eventually become the members of one family…
We must establish one global family under God. The simplest way to accomplish this is through cross-cultural marriages between Jews and Muslims, and between communists and democrats. For instance, if the children of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the children of South Korean president Roh were to marry each other, the enmity between their two nations would dissipate. Then world peace would radiate outwards from the Korean peninsula.
I, Reverend Moon, am the champion of interreligious, interracial, international marriage. If the United Nations were to invite me to give such marriage blessings to all humanity, it would not take even one week to restore the entire world. I am proclaiming that the solution to the world’s problems is not far away; it is right here. (March 2, 2003)
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