As part of the 100-Campus Tour this March-April, CARP sponsored an essay contest in Michigan. This was the winning entry.

When people are asked about the problems that our society faces, the kind of response they come up with is usually on the lines of a fatalistic pessimism, an almost indifferent attitude towards problems that are obviously perceived to be either marginal to one person's life, or simply overwhelming and impossible to solve. When we listen to the news or read in the newspaper about the violence, the disasters, the wars which plague our world, it is easy to get the impression that we are in a hopeless situation, that we are only headed for worse. It is also easy to barricade ourselves around our narrow world of superficial opinions, around our limited, instinctual understanding of people and events, our prompt, ferocious need to give the blame, to point the finger. Yet the answer is neither in our condescending, self-deceiving attitudes, nor in the narrow reasoning which we use to explain why and how things happen. The answer is not in racism, nationalism, materialism; the answer is not in any of our "isms". The answer is God. How could it or would it be anything else? We pride ourselves on our knowledge, our achievements, on how we look, on what we think, but still we stand naked and helpless in front of the very question: Why? Why do we think? Why do we know? Why do we achieve? Why do we exist? We rely on science and politics to find our answers, but still, buried underneath layers of illusions and deceit, within ourselves the answer is present and well alive: God. The God we sense, the God we need, the God we cannot see but, no matter how firmly we deny, we truly know exists.

In today's world, unfortunately, the inherent good of God's message is fragmented and twisted by factions and religious groups, each with its own God, each claiming the holiness of self and the blasphemous evil nature of the "infidels". Because of this, as I write, people kill each other in the name of their god. As we see in the Middle East, the self-appointed "oppressed" morbidly invoke their god to give them the strength to kill their enemies. People blinded by centuries of violence firmly believe that war is justifiable, that God condones the killing and the blood shed for holy wars and sacred causes. This is when God becomes their god, just a dull reflection of their own miserable self. The Universal God accepts no self and condones no war. He does not receive their blood sacrifices. The believers of all creeds and religions have to break away from their self-centeredness, their tribalism, the crazed logic of violence that does not belong to God. This is the reason why Reverend and Mrs. Moon's effort to bring together people and religions, to reconcile what appears to be irreconcilable, has to be appreciated. The creation of the Inter- Religious Federation for World Peace is one of their commendable, concrete initiatives that go in the right direction. Their message has to be heard because we all need to heal from this madness; it has to be understood because we need to first acknowledge, and then to set aside our differences, coming together as a humanity that lives for and because of the love of God. God is our only answer and His love for us can only bring love among ourselves. As we understand His nature, we also get to understand our true nature as loving creatures of a loving God.

The central point of Reverend and Mrs. Moon's message is the family. Our coming to consciousness has to start from our own family. This appeal has to go beyond the hypocritical and empty call for the so- called family values which some of our politicians often resort to. A sincere commitment to the values of a strong family, as the foundation of a better society, has to come from each of us, in our everyday life, in the little, all-important things that shape our daily living and sharing with our parents, spouse and children. A striking example of positive and concrete attempt to lay the basis of true family values came from the event which took place in 1992 in Korea, where Reverend and Mrs. Moon held a wedding celebration for 30,000 couples, all dedicating themselves to one another, to God and to the world.

The effort of leaders and good-willed people like Reverend and Mrs. Moon is fundamental, but we all have to realize that our problems will not be solved unless everyone feels and acts as one irreplaceable part of the solution, not as an indifferent onlooker. We have seen throughout history that as our technology improves, the world becomes a smaller place. The increasing interdependence of economic interests, environmental concerns and social-ethnic conflicts will soon make it impossible for any of us to simply look away from other people's problems. The problems of others would very soon turn back to haunt ourselves. We see this in the problem of increasing disparity of development between the rich and the poor nations of the world.

The simple yet powerful message of Reverend and Mrs. Moon certainly deserves our respect and attention as a possible solution, and as a truly determined effort to finally bring peace and God into our suffering world.

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