The Words of the Weber Family
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The Words of the Weber Family |
After I first heard the Divine Principle many years ago, it took me quite awhile before I signed membership. (See "Memories Of When I First Came To The Unification Church.") During this time before I signed membership, I was trying to decide if the Divine Principle is true. I felt that if True Father is the Messiah, ALL of the Divine Principle has to be true and something that can be applied to our daily lives.
Now, I came from a very fundamental Christian background. So, initially there were large parts of the Principle that I disagreed with. But I tried applying these aspects of the Principle to my life, and I soon discovered that I was starting to agree with them. Still, I was very stubborn about signing membership and joining the Unification Church. This kind of drove members crazy, because I was so actively involved in participating in church activities.
It took a very unusual situation to get me to sign membership. Because I come from a fundamental Christian background, my mother was worried that I was joining a cult. We had very intense discussions about Father and the Divine Principle. So, my mother contacted the minister of our church at home to write a letter to me to talk me into coming back to that church. She then passed the letter from the minister on to me.
When I got the letter, I saw that there were many theological questions that were meant to get me to compare the teachings of the Unification Church with the teachings of our hometown church, and in so doing, to get me to realize how false the Unification Church teachings are.
Well, the letter had the opposite effect! I looked at the questions and said to myself, "The Divine Principle answers these questions!" So, I started writing a letter back to the minister answering each question in great detail. When I was finished, I had a letter that was 30 PAGES LONG! I have never written another letter that long in my entire life!
As I stared in amazement at this letter that I had written, a little voice inside me said, "Why haven't you joined the Unification Church?"
So, I put the letter in an envelope and mailed it back to my mother who was going to send it to our minister. I then went to the church center and signed membership. So, it was our minister's trying to talk me out of joining the Unification Church that actually got me to sign membership! (God always works in unusual ways in my life!)
I never heard back about what my mother or the minister thought about that 30 page letter. But, even though my mother and I continued to disagree about the Divine Principle and Father, both my mother and my stepfather came to love the members of the Unification Church themselves. In the early 70's they visited me in Washington D.C. where I joined, visited the Chicago center near to where they lived in Illinois, and also invited the members of the Chicago Center to visit them and even attend their church. (I think their church had another minister then.)
As for me, it was applying the Divine Principle in my life that led me to accept and love Father. Since the application of the Divine Principle is so important in my life, it led me to begin writing stories based on Principled themes. Early success with these stories in the mid 70's led me to start teaching Sunday School in 1979, and I have been teaching Sunday School wherever my family has lived since then.
I just wanted to share this with all of you. I hope you find this part of the testimony valuable in your experiences.
In my next blog, I will give a testimony about my first experience with Father and how I teach this in my Sunday School classes.
God Bless All Of You.