Rev. Sun Myung Moon:

FAMILY:
The Family as the School of Love and God-Centered Families as the Key to World Peace

The world has ushered in new millennium. Looking towards the future, will the human spirit rise to new heights? Or will the world be dragged down by the conflicts and decadence of the post-Cold War era? According to Reverend Moon, the answer lies in the future of the family, where both goodness and conflict have their roots. Indeed, the ideal family centered on God is the fundamental teaching of Reverend Moon. The importance of family is the principal theme running through both his teachings and his works.

The Family as the School of Love

The family is the school of love. The patterns of behavior established in the family determine the patterns of behavior in society at large. According to Reverend Moon, in a world of God-centered ideal families, lawyers, policemen, courts, military forces and the like will hardly be necessary.

Promoting the values that make for strong families is a central mission of the works of Reverend Moon. This means married couples who practice fidelity, parents who love and care for their children, protecting them and educating them to uphold the highest moral standards and to fulfill their individual talents, and children who love and respect both their parents and their grandparents.

Marriage as a Way to Bring Peace between Enemies

Reverend Moon teaches that the one of the most effective ways to bring world peace is through intermarriage between people of “enemy nations.” Therefore, many Unificationist couples are interracial and international. Among Reverend Moon's greatest accomplishments in peacemaking through marriage are the thousands of Korean/Japanese couples who have wed under his guidance. Japan and Korea have a long and painful history as enemy nations, and these couples have pioneered a new way to solving age-old conflicts by winning the hearts of each other, their in-laws and extended family and being models of the peaceful world to come.

The International Marriage Blessing

The centerpiece of the bi-annual World Culture and Sports Festival is a wedding blessing of thousands of couples, ranging from newlyweds to octogenerians, who pledge before God their commitment to form a family centered on God. In 1992, 30,000 couples from all races and cultures took their vows in the Olympic Stadium in Seoul. Major Marriage Blessings were held in 1997 at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, and in 1998 in Madison Square Garden. In 1999, Seoul’s Olympic Stadium was filled to capacity with 150,000 people, most of them brides and grooms for the Blessing Ceremony.

The Blessing Ceremony

An important initiative of Reverend and Mrs. Moon and a standard feature at many Unificationist events is a marriage “Blessing” toast in which participants partake of wine or juice accompanied by a prayer to establish God-centered families. In this simple ceremony the ideal for a world centered on ideal families is expressed and celebrated.