The Unification Church has its roots in populist faith. I will explain how the Divine Principle calls for a populist church, how Reverend Moon began as a populist church, and current trends toward popularizing our faith.
The Divine Principle calls for a Populist Church
Principle of Creation
The Principle of Creation explains that churches grow via the populist approach. The process of “realizing the Kingdom in the hearts of believers” is set forth in the Divine Principle explanation of how groups come about and grow:
When the body acts according to the will of the mind, and the mind and body thus engage in give and take action, the individual will live a purposeful life. This individual will then attract like-minded people. As these companions work together productively, their group will grow.1
This passage from the Principle of Creation describes the growth of any group, including a church. We can divide it into four parts. It begins with an individual living a purposeful life with the mind and body united. Everything begins with the unity of mind and body, centered on God. Such a person will attract like-minded people and, given good management sense, they will work together productively and the group will grow. This is the populist model. It describes how True Father began the church. It is Principle 101.
Principle of Restoration
Principle 201 comes from the Principle of Restoration, where we read:
“…the universal tendency to seek out good leaders and righteous friends stems from our innermost desire to come before God through an Abel figure who is closer to God. By uniting with him, we can come closer to God ourselves. The Christian faith teaches us to be meek and humble. By this way of life, we may meet our Abel figure and thus secure the way to go before God.”2
This tells ministers and members to be “good leaders and righteous friends” in order to attract God-seeking people. It also says that we need to meet our Abel figure. I’ve seen many presidents on television, but have I ever met one? No. I’ve heard Billy Graham preach in a stadium, but did I ever meet him? No. Change comes from human touch, human contact. To the new person, the usher whom they meet is more important than the senior pastor in the pulpit. I applaud, therefore, Reverend In Jin Moon’s practice of personally greeting and shaking hands with all members after her worship services.
We need to meet our Abel figure. I’ve seen many presidents on television, but have I ever met one? No. Change comes from human touch, human contact.
Preparation for the Messiah
In its analysis of the late medieval Catholic Church and Protestant Reformation, the Unification movement extols the populist model: a flat organization focused on spiritual experience.3 At first glance, the Divine Principle speaks of the Protestant Reformation in glowing terms. “After the Protestant Reformation, the way was open for people to freely seek God through their own reading of the Bible, without the mediation of the priesthood. People were no longer subjected to the authority of others in their religious life, but could freely seek their own path of faith.”4
The Divine Principle points out that in order for the people to seek God freely, the denominational style Catholic church, including dysfunctional religious rites and bureaucracy, had to flatten and focus on encounter with God. “The people… rebelled against the ritualism and rules of the church which were constraining their free devotion. They fought against the stratified feudal system and papal authority which deprived them of autonomy. …They protested the medieval view that faith required unquestioning obedience to the dictates of the Church in all areas of life, which denied them the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience based on their own reading of the Bible.”5
As a student of the Unification teachings, for much of my life I considered this to be a celebration of the Reformation wrought by Luther and Calvin, but it is not that simple. The Protestant Reformation was a multi-faceted event involving conflict between the magisterial reformers, such as Luther and Calvin, and the free-church radicals. The magisterial side, the Lutheran and Calvinist state churches, maintained the “only one church” point of view, with the church and state united. In that system, all people are legally required to attend the church according to location. Tithing is a tax. Church parish lines and political boundaries are the same. Baptism is tantamount to citizenship in the state and so happens at birth; membership in the church is involuntary. The Protestant mainstream denominations, as well as Roman Catholic and Orthodox bodies, maintain this approach to this day. Each operates a system of parishes, districts and regions.
The Divine Principle praise of Protestantism is not for this denominational church style. The Divine Principle identifies with the other side, the free-church, populist approach. The Divine Principle exalts the house church movement of Pietism, in which believers sought authentic spirituality in small groups. It points to the parish-busting neighborhood movement of John Wesley, who later turned his “Methodist society” study groups into a church. It praises the strongly anti-establishment church leadership of George Fox, who was imprisoned for refusing to bend to any human authority, the new age spiritualism of Swedenborg, and the free-range revivalism that characterized the Great Awakenings.6 Thus the Divine Principle finds God working not through the mainstream churches, Protestant or Catholic, but through the populist trends in Christianity in the “period of preparation for the Messiah.”
The Divine Principle praise of Protestantism is not for the state church style; it clearly calls for the free-church approach.
The Unification Church Started on a Populist Model
Reverend Moon practiced this populist religious style as he planted his churches in Korea. Few young, visionary church leaders attempt to transform old bureaucratic denominational wineskins. Instead they abandon the old wineskins and make new ones. “What makes this reformation radical,” Miller writes, “is that the hope of reforming existing denominational churches has largely been abandoned. Instead, the leaders of these new paradigm churches are starting new movements, unbounded by denominational bureaucracy and the restraint of tradition — except the model of first-century Christianity.”7 This description of the re-invention of Protestantism in the 1970s applies perfectly to Reverend Moon’s ministry of the 1940s and 50s.
When established churches in Korea rejected this young country preacher’s radical call and maintained their traditions and hierarchies, he separated from them. He established a model that resembled first-century Christianity. He did not go out and witness; he focused on his purpose and his teachings, and generated a powerful relationship with the Father in Heaven and desperate heart to care for people on earth. He consistently has sought to establish it by his sending out pioneer missionaries and in the “home church,” “family church” and “break through in the neighborhood” themes.
What he created in the early years exemplified the two characteristics of successful post-modern religious movements. One, it was a flat organization allowing local ownership, not controlled by the western missionaries or Korean hierarchies. Reverend Moon (then called “Teacher”) dressed in casual clothes, took members into the mountains for retreats and recreation, planted rice with members and slept and ate with members. As do all emerging spiritual movements, the group developed its own music, with songs written by the local members. According to Rev. Zin Moon Kim, in the 1960s Reverend Moon resisted his clergy’s pleading for the construction of church buildings.
What Reverend Moon created in the early years exemplified the two characteristics of successful post-modern religious movements.
Two, the church focused on imparting spiritual experience by emphasizing prayer, fasting, street preaching, pioneer evangelism with no cash in hand, and so forth. His worship services featured extended singing repeating the same songs over and over, generating a Pentecostal atmosphere in which people felt electricity. In Reverend Moon’s words, “People who attended called one another shik-ku, or family member. We were intoxicated with love. Anyone who came there could see what I was doing and hear what I was saying. We were connected by an inner cord of love that let us communicate with God.”8 Individuals would be guided spiritually through the streets to the church. Reverend Moon dressed in “laborer’s clothes” and waited in the back of the room unnoticed until coming forward to deliver his message straight out of the Bible. He had no seminary training and did not model his ministry on traditional doctrines or liturgical forms. He fashioned his faith tradition through direct give and take with God and thorough reading of the Bible, while experiencing a life of service to others as a poor student belonging to an oppressed nation.
Reverend Moon once described the ascendance of the Messiah in this way: “…he guides them with God’s character and true love, [and] they will come to understand the true reality of religion and the universe and they will [receive him]. This will happen because all beings in this universe desire to be absorbed into the sphere of a lord of love on earth who is higher than they. Even birds and dogs will go to a village that loves them more and takes care of them. It is the same for all beings.”9 Clearly Reverend Moon’s fundamental model is that of ministry providing direct truth, love and care greater than people can find from other sources.
Home Church is a Populist Model
Through home church, True Father called the membership to create a network of hubs in a pluralistic society without parish lines. Thus the Unification spiritual community was to be a network of locally-generated hubs, each of equal authority. “Now is the time when the period of national level organization is over. If you are a Kim, Kwak or any other clan, you should start hoondokhae first with your own families.”10
Since any number of Blessed couples may live in a given geographical area, with each free to develop their community, this is a pluralistic religious society without parish lines: “the standard of activity is not in the province. It is the leaders of the district and the neighborhood… The problem is how to educate the district and the neighborhood and have it sink in… Everything comes into the district and the neighborhood.”11 This echoes Rev. Moon’s words that “There should be a family in that neighborhood… The mother and father have to believe Heavenly Father absolutely; they have to love sons and daughters like Heavenly Father loves the mother and father. We have to love our neighbors and the nation that is connected…”12 We note the personal ministries of Rev. Hyung Jin Moon and Sun Jin Moon, visiting members in their houses in Japan, sharing meals with them, sleeping in their spare bedrooms.
Since any number of Blessed couples may live in a given geographical area, with each free to develop their community, this is a pluralistic religious society without parish lines.
Churches grow by placing responsibility in the hands of local families and small groups. They are responsible to initiate viable ministries, attract new people, assimilate them, raise them, and liberate and release them as blessed central families. The Witnessing Summit’s terms for the “membership process” are “meet, member, mentor and ministry.” With this responsibility we have the freedom to figure out the best way using our own resources. Church growth theory and practice tells us that there is nothing more effective than this.
Why does decentralization energize a church? One reason is that it enables a local church to cross cultural barriers. But there is another reason. Decentralization is effective because it places responsibility in the hands of people who are on the frontline. This puts church leadership and decision-making with the people actually in touch with the market. It is there that the churches will figure out what really works in bringing their neighbors into communion with God through True Parents. Through a new generation of leadership we see that now coming into place.
Footnotes
Footnotes
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Ibid., p. 31. ↩
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Ibid., p. 194. ↩
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“The first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, call God ‘Father.’ Should their children call Him ‘Grandfather’? They too should call Him ‘Father.’ Why is this so? From the viewpoint of God, the vertical center, all object partners of love are equal.” Sun Myung Moon, “The True Owners in Establishing the Kingdom of Peace and Unity in Heaven and on Earth” (April 10, 2006 - Seoul, Korea). ↩
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EDP, p. 341. ↩
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Ibid., p. 352. ↩
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“The Reformation spawned philosophies and religious teachings which developed a multi-dimensional view of life seeking to realize the God-given, original nature of human beings. …the Abel type view of life guided modern people to seek God in a deeper and more thoughtful way. …opposed the prevailing influence of rationalism in religion and stressed the importance of religious zeal and the inner life. They valued mystical experience over doctrines and rituals. …Pietism, Methodism, Quakerism and communication with the spirit world… in these diverse ways, the Abel-type view of life was maturing to form the democratic world of today.” (EDP 356-7) In contrast, Luther receives scant praise and Calvin is criticized over the predestination issue. ↩
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Miller., p. 11. ↩
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Global Citizen, p. 124. ↩
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Cheon Seong Gyeong, p 200; from a talk on 1978.10.04. ↩
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Rev. Sun Myung Moon, “Our Responsibilities to Establish Cheon Il Guk,” in The Vision and Mission of Cheon Il Guk (Seoul, Korea: Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, 2005), p. 10. ↩
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Ibid., p. 126, 118. ↩
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Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Way of Unification, Part 2, pp. 123-4. ↩