5/2/10

Guest post by a dissident

Wrote you all my two cents, if you’d like it:

I’m writing in as a guest, and as someone who has recently decided to part ways with the UC after a dedicated involvement from age 17-22(ish), two failed “Blessings” (one legal, still, as my spouse and I decide the best way to start the divorce processes), and a “Blessed Child”. I’m not going to give you my name, call me a coward if you want to, but honestly, I want to save myself the trouble of dealing with a shitstorm of people calling either to take me down or “save” me. I’ve been checking in with this blog from time to time, and I find it interesting. It would not sway my beliefs or decisions one way or the other, I am old enough and mature enough to make my own decisions about my life and my system of belief. I also recognize that a lot is based on 1) opinions and criticisms of the writers, and 2) things that I have already heard of, regarding the “True Family” and the Unification Church. I regard this blog in several ways:

1. I think it’s good for the writers of the blog to help reflect and express and reconcile with themselves any tough emotions from parting with a stability they have had their whole life thus far. This has nothing to do with truth or holiness or what spirit world is influencing them. The fact is, it is hard to part ways with something that you have known your whole life.

2. It is good for their peers to critically examine their own faith. In my beliefs, the UC is not guaranteed to be the One and Only Truth. Could it be? Sure, but to believe that, you do need faith in it to make some leaps in logic unaccounted for in Rev. Moon’s words, UC traditions, and Divine Principle Theology. There are gaps, it is not a solid Truth. It is a religion, and I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying there are jumps of faith that one needs to be willing to take. If you examine those gaps and decide that you want to- for whatever reason- take those blind leaps of faith (that every religion requires, not just this one), then good for you. If you don’t, well, then you have to decide if you are okay being half-heartedly in a belief system that demands a lot from your life (for whatever reason, usually convenience), or if you need to do some soul searching to reconcile those gaps, either through strengthening of faith or by refuting it.

3. It’s a resource of all the rumors* that have ever gone around about the UC… in a BLOG. Does Kook Jin have an illegitimate child? I don’t know. Did In Jin have an affair? I don’t know. Did Rev. Moon have children out of wedlock? Yes, that I know. Were they “providential”? I don’t know. If these things were being published somewhere other than tumblr, I would say that news source has a major issue. But it’s a blog. It’s something for the writers to write as they wish and you to take as you wish. If you feel threatened by a blog, well, damn. How insecure are you? There are blogs out there that say a lot of things. If I believed everything blogs said, I would build a bomb shelter in my basement, join Scientology, buy a lot of sex toys, and vote for Sarah Palin in 2012. Maybe the world is ending, maybe Scientology is the true path to enlightenment, maybe I should buy those awesome sex toys, and maybe Sarah Palin would make a great president. Blogs.

What appalls me is the response. Legal actions? Seriously??? If your reputation is so fragile that it cannot handle a blog from tumblr.com, the problem is not in the blog. It’s in your reputation. If you feel so threatened by accusations (NONE OF THEM NEW) written anonymously by former young adult members, you need to figure out why. If you don’t have answers to their accusations, then I suggest you find them and address the issues at hand. Especially for a community as demanding as the UC- to the point of asking people to relinquish their freedom to choose their own life partners, and then pay absurd amounts of money- members have the right to question. Maybe the only answer is, “That is a leap of faith demanded by this religion.” That’s okay. But if that’s the only answer, that’s the only answer. You’re going to lose people with that answer, but that is the truth and non-manipulative.

What IS manipulative is rallying the extremists to seek out and find a bunch of what, 19, 20 year olds, for posting a blog? What does that say about control mechanisms? What does that say about the truth? Legal action against college-aged people who couldn’t afford to hire a legal defense? On what grounds, they gossiped about you on a blog?
Why?

And furthermore:
Would you accuse me now? And for what? Being as objective as I possibly can, without feeling like I am compromising my own beliefs?

Believe what you want, and say what you want, but recognize overreaction for what it is.


Editor’s Note: We really appreciate our viewers reading with a completely open mind. We also applaud you and the others who have written to us. There really is no proper discourse in the UC and this is completely unacceptable.

* We stand by our statements as not baseless gossip, though it has been, but verified and confirmed by several trustworthy sources. Yes, we know that not revealing our sources makes us look incompetent, but we have to keep their identities secret for their sake.