Respected former heads of state, religious, political and academic leaders who have gathered from around the world, diplomatic representatives, and eminent leaders from Korea.

I would like to begin by congratulating you on the results you have achieved for world peace through the Summit Conference, and I would like to convey deep appreciation for your many expressions of congratulations on this occasion of President Hak Ja Han's and my birthdays. I would like to offer all of this glory to God who has protected us until today.

On this meaningful occasion, I would like to share with you my convictions about realizing a peaceful world. In view of our hope for world peace, there has never been a time when understanding between religions and reconciliation between religious people were more urgent than it is today.

The precious teachings of our religions are the source of the wisdom that has brightened human history. But religious people of all faiths tend to have three weaknesses. One, they are not realistic but are oriented toward the hereafter; two, they can be narrow-minded and sectarian; and three, they can be fanatical. Religious leaders must be able to embrace all people with open minds. The real duty of all religious people is to overcome the lines of division crippling the human race, in particular the walls between religions.

Religions do not exist for the sake of their own success or for the salvation of their believers alone; they exist in order to accomplish the Will of God. Religious people must never be narrow-minded or seek their own gratification. When one lives with a loving heart, all walls are broken down. The great founders of all the religions understood this and tried to accomplish this ideal. God is the origin of true love. Because the generic character of true love unconditionally seeks to live for another, true love always seeks a reciprocal partner.

It is in relation to this point that we can properly understand God's motivation for creation and purpose of creation understood. God brought forth the created world as His reciprocal partner for true love. In all the creation, human beings were set apart as His closest reciprocal partners of love; that is to say, as His children. The first person, Adam, was not just an individual; he was also to have been the origin of the family, tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos of true love. God's ideal of creation was an ideal of harmony and unification in which each person lived for a reciprocal partner in a realm of true love. But before this ideal of true love was realized, the ancestor of humankind disobeyed God during his time of growth to maturity and fell through false love.

Through the fall, trouble began between God and humankind. Confrontations and conflicts ensued between God and Satan, between people and Satan and among people. The fact that there have been many different nations and many conflicts bears witness to this truth. We can find the beginning point of an ideal world only through a movement that is able to overcome and go beyond the origin of these myriad conflicts. The way to resolve conflicts and struggles is altruistic and sacrificial love, that is to say, "life for the sake of others." The realization of the ideal nation of God begins with individuals who think they should love their enemies. The way to win over enemies is not through superior strength. It is only possible through the power of true love which embraces even one's enemies. If you plant soy beans, soy beans grow; if you plant red beans, red beans grow, and if you plant the seeds from red flowers, red flowers blossom. In the same way, if you sow the seeds of Satan which seek revenge, a tree of revenge will grow, and if you sow the seeds of goodness which loves its enemies, a tree of goodness which loves its enemies will grow. If a nation that consists of people who have a mind to love their enemies comes into existence, that nation could become the ideal land that God desires. It could become the ideal model that humankind could follow.

For the last thirty years, without resting, I have been devoting myself completely to solving the problems of America such as the breakdown of the family, sexual immorality, the decadence of youth, the fall of morality, and the decline of Christianity. In spite of my many efforts, Americans, including many Christians, misunderstood me, persecuted me, and even imprisoned me. The negative attitudes and vicious slander against me continued unabated. But I refused to be caught in negative feelings of hatred or resentment, and I have continued to live a life of love in which I gave consistently to those who persecuted me.

Click Here: Read full speech

Go to: Pg. 1

Go to: Pg. 3

Go to: Pg. 4

Go to: Homepage