Claim. In The Believer’s Responsibility Chapter 1, Hendricks issues a direct internal-critical call: the Unification Church, over a roughly fifteen-year period (mid-1990s through mid-2000s), bestowed the Blessing on “uncounted millions of people” without sincere education and family ministry in place — and “for failure to do so, we need to repent to God, True Parents and all of those people.”
Elaboration. Key passage from clear-differentiation:
“The church will set clear, reasonable standards of morality and membership commitment necessary for people to receive the Blessing based on the Word, and carry out works of love. On the foundation of True Parents’ indemnity and declaration of the heavenly fortune the church over the past fifteen years bestowed the Blessing on uncounted millions of people without sincere education and family ministry in place. For failure to do so, we need to repent to God, True Parents and all of those people.”
Three load-bearing pieces:
- The sacrament has prerequisites. By UC’s own teaching, the Blessing requires foundation — moral standards, membership commitment, education in what the rite engrafts the recipient into.
- UC violated its own prerequisites at scale. The mid-1990s through mid-2000s mass-bestowal — including the 1997 RFK Stadium Blessing and its door-to-door / holy-candy / helicopter innovations — gave the Blessing to millions without that foundation.
- Repentance is the proper response. Not minor course-correction; Hendricks names the failure as requiring repentance to God, True Parents, and the recipients themselves.
Hendricks’s prescribed remedy: improved education and ministry, with the populist-church as the structural form where this discipleship work happens best.
See also. blessing, populist-church, 1997-rfk-blessing-door-to-door-kentucky-innovation