The Words of the Balcomb Family
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The Words of the Balcomb Family |
Washington DC, United States -- Celebrations of publication of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s best-selling autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, continue to take place around the world, with the latest held in Washington DC on October 1st. More than 1500 political, media, and community leaders gathered for the festive occasion. Thanking the audience, Dr. Moon said that the book represented a small account of his life’s work, “still incomplete, to serve and honor God and to bring about His ideal world of peace upon the earth.”
Global Citizen has been on the best-seller lists in Korea for several months. His life story is, in a way, the story of modern Korea, tracking the near-miraculous rise from colonial oppression, civil and cold wars, and emergence on the world stage as a leading force in the modern world.
The book contains many insights into Sun Myung Moon’s youth in what is now North Korea, and his early encounters with the heroes of the underground movement to resist the Japanese occupation, a movement he was later to join while a student in Tokyo. We see something of his character in an unfailing determination in times of great trouble, including multiple imprisonments, torture, and abandonment.
Through it all, however, the tone remains upbeat and hopeful. “I never prayed from weakness or asked God for special help,” he reflects on his time in a North Korean concentration camp. “I only determined all the more that I would comfort Him on behalf of all His suffering children, and that I would never rest until He could see His ideal realized.”
The Washington DC event reserved particular attention for Rev. Moon’s account of coming to the United States in 1971 at a time of moral crisis and confusion for America and how he appealed to Richard Nixon to heal the country at the height of the Watergate crisis, a bold move that set in motion a long trail of political opposition and controversy that has continued until this day.
Nevertheless, Dr. Moon sees a bright future for America and the world. “Humankind is entering a new providential era, a time when the earth will be governed directly by a new heavenly way and new heavenly law.,” he said in his keynote address. “It is the new providential era where we can enter the new Kingdom of Heaven by inheriting God’s standard of heart, based on His original nature.”