Report on Jin Man Kwak's meetings

Ken Bates
June 24, 2012

Hi to all,

We held meetings with Jin Man Kwak last week in Miami, DC area, and NY.

After the HQ memo from Joshua Cotter that banned Jin Man's talks as "slandering True Parents, True Family and church leaders", there were also memos from some regional directors that strongly urged people not to attend. At one meeting I overheard a faithful, active, tithing member (who is also an independent thinker) who had made the choice to attend the meeting. When he met his regional director there, he was surprised, and immediately said "I'm so surprised to see you here! You just sent out a message that we should not come to this meeting, but now you're attending it yourself! How can that make sense?" When the regional director replied that he "just wanted to hear what's going to be said" this brother asked "Don't you think all the members just wanted to hear as well?" This kind of leadership attitude was prevalent in other meetings as well. The leader treated the members as little children who might get confused or befuddled by Jin Man Kwak's message, but the regional director was the daddy and he could "handle it". It seems that HQ has forgotten that we general members are capable, thinking adults who are able to make our own decisions.

The meetings demonstrated to those who attended that Jin Man has not changed and has not "left True Parents". He expressed his deep passion to fulfill what True Parents vision and lifelong dream is, and challenged all of us to do be more serious about our providential focus. Maybe THIS is what HQ was afraid of letting members see, for if Jin Man has not changed, then maybe Rev. Kwak never changed either, or Hyun Jin Nim himself!

The entire campaign against Hyun Jin Nim presented by the current administration is based on the assumption that he used to be doing the right thing, but then somehow he changed radically and is no longer concerned with doing the right thing anymore. Jin Man explained that this is simply not true. Anyone who knows Hyun Jin Nim or continues to meet with him clearly knows that he has not changed, and he continues to be extremely committed and effective in furthering God's providence.

Here are some quotes from Jin Man:

"Until now I intended to stay silent in hopes to not fuel the flames. But I see that it has left a vacuum where the truth has been missing and instead filled with false versions of Hyun Jin Nim's motivation, heart, and love for Heavenly Father, True Parents, his family and humanity. I cannot stay silent."

"I want us to become that movement full of providential people. I want to see the movement that we once were, full of people passionate to fulfill God's providence even as we were being persecuted fiercely. I don't want us to be a movement focused on maintaining our own institution, focused on uplifting our own denomination, and forgetting our main mission. I want us to be a movement focused on fulfilling our role of Abel, leading this world out of the turmoil it is in today, back to God and back to God's ideal of creation.

I am here, walking this path, because I still believe in that ideal, I still believe this is the mission and path that all Blessed Central Families and those who have been engrafted into True Family should walk. I ask you to do the same."

Thank you,

Ken Bates

Note from Damian Anderson:

Despite the warnings not to attend from Randy Francis [regional director] in DC, he did attend the Jin Man Kwak event in Silver Spring, MD himself. Also in attendance were Michael Jenkins, Michael Marshall, Kevin McCarthy, Susan Fefferman, Larry Moffitt, Mike Leone, Matt Goldberg, Glenn Strait, John and Louise Dickson, Doug Burton, Howard Self, and others I did not know, or forgot to mention. I was there too.

Jin Man Kwak spoke briefly, and then opened up to written questions, and answered all other than those which were repetitive. Evidently, this was done to create an orderly atmosphere.

There was nothing particularly new to me, but the tone was interesting. Jin Man Kwak was earnest and sincere in his effort to portray his faith and the path he is following. Several Unification Church representatives challenged him, but on the whole, people were civil.