The Words of the Beutl Family
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The Words of the Beutl Family |
My dear brothers and sisters,
Last year I offered to many members about 200 pages of reflections in connection with deepening our relationship with our Heavenly Father see volume 17 of Sunshine in the Heart www.sunshine-in-the-heart.com/include/S_17.pdf (username: sunshine password: welcome) and some days ago I sent out a mail with the title "Living with the Living God, our Eternal Parent" because it is essential for our life of faith that we invest thoroughly into strengthening our heart to heart connection with our Creator.
Do we recognize God's loving guidance? This question need not only to be answered on a personal level but also we give a clear answer to this question as a community of brothers and sisters who are called to establish the Heavenly tradition.
In this series I would like to have a closer look at what has become a reality centered on the iUnification Meeting House, which has now about 2600 subscribers, the biggest community where international Unificationists meet and share with one another.
Even though I joined this e-group soon after it was founded, I only began offering articles to this community on February 21, 2011 with the theme "Coming closer to our Heavenly Parent", followed by my reflections: "To love others is the origin of the Kingdom of Heaven", "You need them even more than you need the Messiah", "Unite and restore the lost heart of brothers and sisters", "At the heart of the problems of humanity lies the human heart", and "Join on the Bridge -- 100th International Women's Day".
In these letters I emphasized the task of deepening our relationship with God and coming closer together as brothers and sisters while at the same time investing ourselves wholeheartedly into raising up spiritual children, and resolving problems on our common path of restoring the Four Great Realms of heart.
There have only been positive responses to my reflections until March 10, 2011, beginning on February 21, 2011 with the comment: "Very grounded. I like 'this worldly' solutions and strategy, rather than relying on 'other worldly' solutions. Responsibility is right here on earth. I also seem to becoming more and more appreciative of my Christian heritage these days; I find that I can relate to the lessons and ethics of the Christian culture even better than I do the UM culture which seems especially topsy turvy these last few years. As long as I have been a member in the UM it has seldom been a warm place*, but I find warmth in your writing about this young lady Rachel. I find the God that I love through your message about her.
maybe one of the reasons that so many people came and left..... did 30,000 come in the USA before 1981? There were lots of people witnessed to and invited to workshops and lectures etc. So probably. Did the UM have the culture and capacity to retain and embrace them? Probably not."
With this message the theme was already set for what was to be tested in the days that followed: What kind of culture do we have manifested in our church in respect to relating to one another?
Why do I say that this point was tested? Because on God's Day 2011 the Word of God was given in the form of the motto for this year: "When all people on earth have the heart (emotion) of heavenly parents and the harmonious relationships of brotherly (sisterly) love, and have permanently established oneness, then heaven will be established and Cheon Il Guk will be victorious."
This is the version the 2600 members of iUnificationist see whenever they open this Meeting House in the cyberspace, while being reminded of the great importance of brotherly (sisterly) love in our relationships with one another.
This motto was given on February 3, 2011 and 36 (6 times 6) days later the great temptation reached the subscribers of this internet group in the form of a severe accusation against their brother. How would the community react in this extreme situation?
I emphasize the number 6 because it represents the 6th day of creation when God gave His Word (commandment) to his children -- just as well as Satan who offered also his version of the truth. This means that there was a period of 6 times 6 days during which our worldwide membership should have internalized the motto for this year to the extent of embodying the heart of deeply loving relationships among us as true brothers and sisters.
At the end of this period stood the temptation: One person came forward and accused brother Nikolaus of being a liar and of many other things, while on the other hand there had been posted many positive comments about me until then on iUnificationist, which included in response to my first post one person saying: "Thank you for inspiring me and to seek higher understanding. Very profound writing. May God and true Parents Bless you. Continue the writing! Aju"
One sister commented: "This was so beautiful. I would like all our children to study this young girl's life and what she stood for...she is truly an example of the Holy Spirit who comes to comfort us by her unending faith; a faith we all need to keep nourishing ourselves daily by reading God's and/or True Parents word. Thank you for going deeper."
Another subscriber addressed me and the sister quoted above: "To Nikolaus and [name of this sister]: "I just wanted to let you know that I was very touched by this blog. The story of Rachel is truly heart rendering. I haven't followed all of the links yet, but I definitely will. As Mary Jane also commented, I think this is a beautiful story to pass on to our children, (and possibly not only to our children; but to many people): Rachel has the same kind of heart as Jesus -- and of course Jesus touched the heart of millions.
It was very interesting to see the parallels you and Mary Jane write about and have commented on. It does give us much more to think about and reflect upon. I have also read about Tony Yuen from some of your emails: It is very sad when a person has their life taken away at such a young age -- Rachel and Tony both. Two very similar people. Two quite exemplary lives...
They are most definitely very special people. Clearly, both Rachel and Tony were outstanding; and the light they shone out; has truly brightened the world we live in...
Their incredible example, is the treasure and legacy they leave behind, and that is what will live on. And as they grow on in our hearts -- their light can continue to glow on as well... Two everlasting light bulbs....*
Thank you so much, to both of you, for this very inspiring account (and for all that you have written in this blog, Nikolaus -- it has been a great pleasure to read and very informative). I am sure reading this will move many people to again celebrate all life; as well as the lives of these two remarkable individuals: (and others like them): And also to celebrate the living God within us, by 'coming closer to our creator'; being the central theme of your blog. Mansei. WBW. AJU.
From these comments it is clear that I offered a reflection that touched many brothers and sisters and inspired them. In this way I came to stand in the first position of the Top Content section, with my name and photo up to 4 times on the first page of iUnificationist.
In such a situation where my reflections were welcomed and highly appreciated in the iUnificationist Meeting House with many positive comments having been posted in response to my contributions, one person appeared throwing out lies, sending more than a dozen messages within a couple of hours, accusing me repeatedly to be a liar without offering a clear evidence of what I have said.
The behavior of this sister and my subsequent expulsion from iUnificationist led one of the subscribers to send the following letter to the moderator: "Dear Brother [name],
First of all I want to thank You for running this wonderful website. I am truly delighted to have an elder brother who is so very committed to increase the presence of God and True Parents in the internet!
I keep constantly receiving inspiration from the site, but I am presently not contributing material myself. I concluded that the best way for me to support is through donating for the maintenance of the site. I just made a start today with a USD 50 Paypal donation.
To regret to say that I used to regard the iUnificationist website somewhat similarly to Facebook- a free service where I occasionally logged in to receive inspiration. The reason I changed my attitude was the current online debate around brother Nikolaus Beutl. By observing this struggle I have come to understand that iUnificationist is like a piece of Holy land located in cyberspace. I also see now that iUnificationist has the mission to support heavenly culture in the internet, and that it needs the support of its members for achieving this.
As a European member I know Nikolaus Beutl both as a person and as a writer. As a person he is a most warm-hearted brother, one who can console and uplift many hearts. As a writer he is very knowledgeable, accurate and committed. Nikolaus has served our movement in many continents for over 30 years, and in recent years he has began to invest more and more in the cyberspace.
I wouldn't like to see Nikolaus Beutl or anyone else blocked out from the site. Instead I hope that the iUnificationist website could develop as an open resource and forum for all Unificationists. But obviously reaching this goal is not easy. On the one hand there will always be people who advocate that certain people or groups should be excluded. On the other hand some people might misuse the freedom or resources granted to them. Therefore I believe that in order to blossom the site will need some moderation time-to-time. I hope that You as a webmaster are willing to serve in the role of moderator as well and I would like to pledge my continued support for that purpose.
I think that [name of that sister] crossed the line of decent conduct by her public criticism of Nikolaus Beutl for things which have nothing to do with the meeting house. And I definitely think that a member should not be allowed to push other people out from the site.
It is my sincere hope that as a master of this meeting house You keep in your hands the authority to welcome or to block members. I refer here to the basic Divine Principle point about the importance of keeping one's position. If members are allowed to take the place of the moderator, if they are allowed to issue a judgment to other members from their personal viewpoint, it can be very difficult to create a heavenly culture.
My warm regards to you and your loved ones,…"
In the next installments of this series I will go into more depth of what was shared in the more than 70 messages under "Unite and restore the lost heart of brothers and sisters" to point out lessons we can learn from what had become a reality.
* 'Light bulbs': A phrase that In Jin Nim so endearingly uses (so I think I may have borrowed it from her!)."