Volume 2 - The Ideal Family and True Love as the Source of Peace [Part 4 of 5]

4. Family Ethics As The Basis For A Civil Society
A. Society Is the Extension of the Family

Reverend Moon teaches that ethical behavior in society is linked to the development of good family relationships on all axes. A person's deep inner morality is formed in the four realms of heart.

When we create bonds of love with many family members, we develop a well-rounded, balanced character and can relate comfortably with many kinds of people. If we are well schooled in love, we treat other people as an extension of our own family. We can respect an old man on the street as our grandfather. We can treat a woman at the cash register as our sister. We can fondly admire boys and girls playing in the schoolyard as our children.

The Family Is the Unit of World Peace

From "God and a United World of Peace, Founder's Address, Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace Convocation, Arlington, Virginia, December 27, 2002.

The basic unit of the world of peace is not the nation; it is the peaceful family. The basic unit is the family formed by a man and a woman who have the character to attend God, a man and woman who have each accomplished harmonious mind-body union and are joined by God in His Holy Blessing.

When these families multiply, they will bring about a world of peaceful tribes, peoples and nations. In God's original ideal, humankind is one family under one God and the cosmos is one family centering on true love. The place of resolution for the problems of the family centering on True Parents is the foundation for the world of peace. In the ideal world of blessed families based on true love, there can be no barriers of nationality, race or religion.

The love between parents and children on the vertical axis can be extended to relationships between superiors and subordinates, such as leaders and followers, employers and employees, teachers and students, heads of government and citizens, and people of different generations.

The pattern of sibling relationships extends to relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers and fellow-citizens of the same generation. Conjugal love between husband and wife opens the husband's heart to the depth of femininity and the wife's heart to the depth of masculinity.

The Root of Peace Is in True Love

From Founder's Address, World Culture and Sports Festival, Seoul, Korea, February 15, 2002.

When a man and a woman who are perfected in true love enter into a husband-wife relationship and bear and raise children, then this family becomes a true family. Peace will automatically be with this family, and it will overflow with happiness.

The children should maintain their sexual purity until they meet the mate with whom their parents match them. After marriage, they must maintain their fidelity to their spouse in the same way as their parents did.

This will extend the true family to the second generation. If the true lineage that is composed of true families extends to the third generation, then God will settle in this family, and the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that has been humanity's long-held, earnest desire will be accomplished.

The expanded version of such a true family is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. This is a world of interdependence, mutual prosperity, universally shared values and mutual love.

This will be a world of peace in which we become brothers and sisters to each other, live together, prosper together and establish a righteous world where we all live for the sake of others. This is the reason that the family is so important. The family is the most precious gift that God has given to humankind.

The family is the basic unit for peace and happiness among humanity and the basic unit for building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

Reverend Moon explains the relationship between dual purposes in our lives. Our innate desire to find value through contributing to a greater good is called the whole purpose, and our desire to maintain and benefit ourselves is called the individual purpose.

Families, communities, nations, and indeed all beings have both purposes: to contribute to a larger whole as well as to benefit the self. Saints and other enlightened and unselfish people realize that serving the whole purpose is the most perfect way to fulfill the individual purpose.

However, many people pursue only their own self-centered individual purposes, thus creating the hell of selfishness and hostile competition that casts a cloud over life in this world.

The interlinking social hierarchy begins when people support their family, which in turn is concerned about the welfare of each of its members. When families contribute to the welfare of their community, the community prospers, offering benefit and protection for its families on which it depends. The same principle can be applied to relations between organizations of citizens and their nation, and relations between nations and the world.

Sharing what we have received with others is the natural way of life. It conforms to the ecology of nature, in which all creatures are constantly giving and receiving in the interconnected web of life. As my family lives for the sake of society, the society prospers and my family shares in its prosperity.

As organizations live for the sake of the nation, the nation prospers and so do all the organizations within it. As the nation lives for the sake of the world, the world's prosperity extends to all nations. This is the great circle of life -- giving and receiving the energy of love.

In a civil society the individual and collective purposes naturally support each other. The whole supports the welfare of its constituent parts, and when these parts prosper they are better able to contribute to the whole.

An overemphasis in either direction can have disastrous consequences. Giving priority to the individual purpose over the whole purpose is one of the main relational problems in marriage and causes many social problems.

Selfish individuals are like cancer cells of a body, sapping the society of its productive energy. If numerous enough, they can cause the downfall of a civilization. Similarly, an overemphasis on whole purpose can lead to oppression and a loss of individual freedom.

B. The Three Subject Roles

Reverend Moon has identified three subject or initiating roles that are learned in the family: parent, teacher and leader. These roles, found originally in God's identity as True Parent, True Teacher and True Owner, set the standard for leadership in society.

Parents have the greatest responsibility and are the natural leaders in the family. They are also natural teachers, by their words and example. The care, investment and sacrifice that are cultivated in the parent's realm of heart form the ethical foundation for all people who are entrusted with a subject role.

True Parent, True Teacher and True Owner

From "God and a United World of Peace, Founder's Address, Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace Convocation, Arlington, Virginia, December 27, 2002.

God created us in His image, as beings whose purpose is to live for the sake of others. It is only by living for the sake of others that people can become central beings, become subject entities of peace and unification, and become the eternal owners of love and ideals.

We can find the path to meet God, our absolute True Parent, True Teacher and True Owner, receive His inheritance, and then ourselves become true parents, true teachers and true owners, only in a life of true love and of living for the sake of others.

On the path of true love, parties overcome conflict and division naturally, harmonizing and uniting the environment. This is not conquest through struggle; instead, it is a path of natural subjugation bringing eternal unification.

Parents are the subjects in the realm of love, teachers are subjects in the realm of truth, and leaders are subjects in the realm of achievement.

Parental love shapes the children's heart and character. The role of teachers is to impart practical knowledge and help their students learn right from wrong. The role of leaders is to create the environment in which people can accomplish things, prosper and achieve their potential.

The roles of parent, teacher and leader are linked together. Business people should show love and concern for their employees and teach them with a parental heart how to be successful.

Teachers create a caring environment in their classroom through their parental heart, guiding their students through their words and example.

Leaders initiate, guide and make plans. Good leaders recognize the impact of their personal example and strive to raise people up through their expression of heart. These standards apply to parents, teachers and leaders at any level.

Each of us is connected with other people in a variety of ways. There are people who look up to us in some kind of subject role, whether it is as a parent, teacher, leader or mentor. As we fulfill these subject roles, we help shape a civil society.