2/2/10

God-centered Families: The Pride of the Movement

As we all know, the Movement is very much focused on the family. The legal name of the Movement is “The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification”. Creating God-centered families is the goal of the Movement, and through this we are supposed to be able to create World and Peace and Unification.

Having a good family is something I completely agree with. After all, having good families can only do good things. Nobody has an aim to have a Satan-centered family or a bad family. But the clear focus of creating a fruitful, model family is a very idealistic and a beautiful concept. However, in the movement the principles of a God-centered family are not as clear cut as we would like to think. While doing HDH with my family one day I looked at the pictures of “True Parents” and the “True Family” and also reflected on my own family. It is very normal and basically tradition to have pictures of “True Parents” and the “True Family” all over a Moonie’s house. I looked at the plate my mom put out as an offering for Heung Jin and True Parents, and a family picture hanging from the 80s and a more recent, large portrait hanging. I went through the names and reflected on my knowledge on the True Children.

I know a lot of you guys can agree that it is way too excessive even if he was perhaps the Messiah. I have multiple pictures of them in almost every room in my own house, just like many other Moonie households. I thought to myself, why don’t we have even close to as many pictures of my own close family and extended family? If we are about family, our family portraits should be all over the house. We should have more pictures of our biological family than one we usually have no personal relationship with. I do not even see most of my extended family that often. Most of them I haven’t even seen in years, and I have a quite small extended family. I should know so, so much about these people that I have blood relations with. They are indeed family. Even now I do not fully know my parents and their “life story”. Though we talk and I have a decent relationship with my parents, they are constantly working and trying to make as much money as they can to survive. Balancing their work and their “spiritual lives” are difficult. My parents debate on how much they should be tithing and are making up payments for their recent “Re-Blessing” Ceremony. Plus my mother plans on making a trip to Korea sooner or later and wants to get a lot of liberation done for our ancestors. She spends most of her days working, comes home to cook and clean, stresses about money, sleeps a bit, and restarts her schedule for a day of the same thing. I hardly have time to talk to them and get to know them. The crooked dynamics have prevented the relationships in my family to be functioning the way I desire and I bet the way God desires.

Being a BC in the church I know this is very true and typical amongst many families within the movement. Let’s take some time to think about it. This is something we ought to do for ourselves at least. Everyone should make it a priority to truly love their family and have time for them. How can we love another family without loving our own or love another family more than ours? With that in mind, how can we love another person if we don’t really love ourselves?

It also doesn’t help that most of our parents lead dead-end jobs that make such low money. What makes it even worse is the talk about altruism and living for the sake of others. Well I sure know a lot of Moonies practice it but when it comes to money and the True Family, altruism does not exist. For a family worth a few billion dollars and who received most of it through members’ money, it would only make sense to give some back. If not give it back, why not create charities and donate it to charities/causes? Even if you think they are the perfect family and their father is a Messiah, it doesn’t mean they deserve to live such lavish lifestyles. Especially when it wasn’t their own hard-earned money. Without the movement’s followers’ money, they would not have any of that. Is that palace necessary? Are mansions necessary? Do you not realize the complete opposite of their lives are many followers’ lives. Many live in crappy and cramped houses or apartments. Even worse, these families sometimes have more than a few kids. It is not such a great lifestyle to say the least. Do these things not make you squirm at least a bit? Or are you just gonna go along with everything you’re told because of fear, ignorance, and judgement.

Here are some quotes on Fear for all of you:

“Fear. Deep rotting fear. They were infected by it. Did you see? Fear is a sickness. It will crawl into the soul of anyone who engages it. It has tainted your peace already. I did not raise you to see you live with fear. Strike it from your heart. Do not bring it into our village.” - In the movie Apocalypto

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” - Albert Einstein

Could you be living in fear? The contradiction we live: preaching the message of God-centered families yet leading lives contrary to it. This should cause some feeling in your heart. Are you numb to the pain out of fear of doubt?