Claim. The most successful Unification evangelism in America used an introductory method called “conscientious common sense”: presentations that were deliberately simple, humorous, gave the listener nothing to disagree with, and returned constantly to individual responsibility — culminating in opened prayer where listeners met God.
Elaboration. Hendricks recounts the pattern from his own joining (Oct 1972–Jan 1973) and his later participant-observation at Bush Street Center (San Francisco) and Camp Kay (Mendocino County, summer 1980) — see footnote [^34] of value-6-people-need-answers.
The four operational features:
- Simplicity to a fault. No theological prerequisites, no specialized vocabulary, no creedal demands up front.
- Common-ground only. Listener encounters nothing they could possibly disagree with — truth being framed as that which “holds at all times, in all places, in all cultures.”
- Individual responsibility as the persistent return. The reason God can be both loving and allow evil to exist: human freedom and responsibility. Returned to repeatedly across topics.
- Open prayer leading to direct encounter. After intellectual ground was cleared, listeners were opened up for prayer, “and people met God.”
The implied design principle: persuasion is not the goal of the introductory phase. Removing obstacles to direct experience is. This is consistent with evangelism-as-root-of-peace-building (evangelism as enabling encounter, not argument-winning) and with the populist organizational form documented in uc-began-on-populist-organizational-model.
Hendricks’s diagnosis-by-implication: contemporary UC introductory presentations that lead with True Parents doctrine, indemnity history, or hierarchical Divine Principle pedagogy violate this pattern and lose listeners before encounter is possible.
See also. creative-community-project-as-most-successful-uc-evangelism, evangelism-as-root-of-peace-building, populist-church