Rights and Duties

Tossa Cromwell
October 24, 2009

I believe that a given nation or society develops and prospers when there is a strong duty consciousness. On the other hand, when a given nation or society lacks a duty consciousness, and instead focuses on rights, then it starts to decline and will eventually cease to be. This topic is to analyze and look at rights and duties.

Let's analyze rights and duties from the viewpoint of Father's words. Father teaches us to live for the sake of others. That is the core value of living a life of true love. That is also the way that he lived his life. On the other hand, Father emphasizes sacrifice. Sacrificing oneself for the sake of the family, sacrificing the family for the sake of the tribe, sacrificing the tribe for the sake of the nation, sacrificing the nation for the sake of the world. The world should be sacrificed for the sake of the cosmos (which includes the spiritual and physical worlds) and the cosmos should be sacrificed for the sake of God. Again, Father has lived that way. He has sacrificed his family for the sake of the tribe, which is represented by the Unification Church. He sacrificed the Unification Church for the sake of America. If Korea, America or any other nation had united with him, then he would have sacrificed that nation for the sake of the world. The establishment of Cheon Il Guk has to do with creating a nation that can be sacrificed for the sake of the world. The irony is that everything that Father sacrificed has only gotten more and more powerful and rich (in spiritual and physical ways.)

If we compare this to the basic framework of duties and rights, we can see that duties are related to living for the sake of others and rights have to do with living for the sake of the individual. Father's philosophy and his life suggest that we should focus on fulfilling duties and be willing to give up our "rights."

Next, let's look at duties and rights from God's point of view. Duties, such as filial piety, loyalty and fidelity to one's spouse, are natural duties. They spring as an emotional response to the love and grace given from God. The form the core of the function of the original mind. Our original mind strives to guide us toward fulfilling our duties.

On the other hand, God never gave human beings rights. Rights were created by human beings and claimed by human beings.

Did Jesus live his life trying to get all the things that he had a "right" to? Did Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Socrates or any of the great saints of history do so? No, none of them did so, because rights have nothing to do with God and therefore nothing to do with our original mind. They are a necessary product of the Fall and need to be respected in the fallen world in order to counter the evil within people's minds. Respecting the rights of others amounts to using our conscience to keep us from acting in accordance to our evil mind. But again, according to the Principle, the conscience guides us to what we think is right, which is a set of relative values and virtues. Great saints of history denied their rights in order to find their original minds, which fallen people have become distant from throughout history.

For us to resemble God, we should be willing to deny the rights that are accepted in the fallen world and focus on fulfilling our duties toward God, True Parents, the Unification Church, Cheon Il Guk and the Abel UN.

Then what kind of duties should we consider? What are our duties? What duties do we have toward God and True Parents? Toward the Unification Church? Toward Cheon Il Guk? Toward the Abel UN?

I will not go in detail to outline our duties. I welcome someone else to give it a stab, to which I would respond.

Instead, I would like to introduce a list of duties that I read in a philosophical work by Sir William D. Ross. The short article I'm reading is from a work called "The Right and the Good", copyright 1930.

1. Duties of fidelity -- this is one of two categories of duties that "rest on previous acts of the [individual]." It focuses on duties "resting on a promise or what may fairly be called an implicit promise, such as the implicit understanding not to tell lies which seems to be implied in the act of entering into conversation (at any rate by civilized men), or of writing books that purport to be history and not fiction.

2. Duties of reparation -- these duties rest on previous wrongful acts made by the individual. This is the second of the two categories that rest on previous acts of the individual.

3. Duties of gratitude -- these "rest on previous acts of other men, i.e. services done by them to me."

4. Duties of justice -- these duties "rest on the fact or possibility of a distribution of pleasure or happiness (or the means thereto) which is not in accordance with the merit of the persons concerned; in such cases there arises a duty to upset or prevent such a distribution."

5. Duties of beneficence -- these duties "rest on the mere fact that there are other beings in the world whose condition we can make better in respect of virtue, or of intelligence, or of pleasure."

6. Duties of self-improvement -- these duties "rest on the fact that we can improve our own condition in respect of virtue or of intelligence."

7. Duty of non-maleficence -- this is the duty to not to harm others

Now I will attempt to connect the list of duties I gave above to Father and his life.

First, the duties of fidelity. Those are very central to Father's life, and in fact to God. God created the universe with human beings in mind. He created the universe with an image of human beings. He wanted human beings to experience total joy and happiness through living in the universe he created. What a wonderful universe we have! What a wonderful Heavenly Father, who gave us such a universe! We don't need to share it with any other rational beings. God made the universe for us. It is that promise, that eternal gift that God gave us that keeps him from abandoning humanity. God said to be fruitful, multiply and have dominion. What wonderful blessings! What a wonderful promise from God! There are many instances of promises being made by God to humanity in the Bible. God promised Noah that he would never subject the world to another flood judgment. He promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

The Ten Commandments represent a promise made by human beings to God, and a promise by God to honor those efforts by human beings. The tablets are kept in the Ark of the Covenant, which represents a covenant between God and human beings. How beautiful and loving of God to make such a covenant with his chosen people!

God promised to sent a savior, a messiah, to his chosen people. He fulfilled his promise by sending Jesus. Imagine God's pain when the people who he sent the Messiah to rejected and crucified Jesus! God fulfilled his promise, yet his gift was rejected and killed.

More recently, Father made promises to God, and he is devoting his entire life to fulfill those promises. He never rests or stops devoting himself to the promises he made to God.

These are all examples of this duty.

A basic set of duties that we have as members of the Unification Church, based on a regular promise that we make to God, is in the Family Pledge. The Family Pledge is itself a promise that we make to God, yet it is extremely hard to fulfill. It is more of a prayer, asking God to guide us so that we can fulfill it. It cannot be fulfilled without help from God and the spirit world.

Next, let's look at the second set of duties -- the duties of reparation. This would correspond to paying indemnity for personal sin, although there is a slight difference in the concept of indemnity. Indemnity is paid through reversing the course of the fallen act, in order to bring about restoration. Indemnity is something that is initiated by the spiritual world, and people on the earth have to endure it in order to make a condition to go back to God. I don't believe that human beings on earth pick and choose indemnity conditions, yet they can do good deeds to make up for evil deeds they have committed.

However, the rule or principle is the same. And the more important duty that we have is to first repent to God for our mistakes. After we sincerely repent to God in tears, then we can create a condition for indemnity to be paid (it would be a case of lesser indemnity), and then we can say sorry to whoever we might have wronged.

Duties of gratitude: This is important -- to be grateful to others for what they have done for us. A more fundamental duty is to be grateful to God. Gratitude is an expression of our love for God. "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for letting me learn more about myself today. Thank you for letting me experience such and such an experience today. Thank you for the wonderful creation that you created for human beings."

It goes without saying that we should be grateful to historical figures in the providence of restoration, and to good ancestors and good historical figures in general. They helped to advance God's cause on the earth and in heaven. Among them, Jesus was probably the greatest and True Parents are without question the greatest on the earth today.

Gratitude is really an important duty. When we start to take things for granted, we lose part of our humanity, part of our soul perhaps.

Duties of justice -- the author phrased this well to fit in the context of a democratic society. In reality, doing what the author phrased here is difficult to practice without some amount of political, economic, military or perhaps social or cultural power. Individuals without such criteria may not have many opportunities to fulfill such duties, at least in a larger context. Perhaps, there could be similar situations in smaller contexts, such as in families, companies, neighborhoods, or other social units.

In this context, the duty of justice seems to be the duty to uphold the freedom and equality of persons.

However, when we understand hereditary sin, collective sin and indemnity, and look at the past and present from that point of view, it becomes clear that there is a higher dimension of justice, that of spiritual justice. People endure suffering, injustice, pain, unfair treatment, and all sorts of evil on the earth, but it can all be accepted and turned into indemnity if it is given meaning within the context of a relationship between the suffering individual and God. That is what I see as what Father has done in his life. He went through unspeakable torture, betrayals, pain, suffering, and other evils, but he accepted it all as indemnity for the sake of all humanity. He paid indemnity for the 6000 years of human history. What a hero! What a leader! What a person!

When we think of Father's course, we really cannot ask for justice for ourselves. However, I think it's worth it to keep the justice of others in mind. I think it would be good to strive for justice for others.

I think that the last three duties are obviously good without need of explanation. It's good to remind ourselves that we have these kinds of duties.

I think that many of the duties described here are, at least partially, products of the original mind. They all involve living for the sake of others. If you wonder sometimes, "How can I live for the sake of others?" one of the first steps is building a God-like character, with strong and deep regard for duties.

Our greatest duties, by far, are our duties toward God. Next, are our duties toward True Parents. I'm not sure what would come after that.

But an important thing is that we keep the concept of duty in mind. Father never acts in a way that would go against any of the seven duties outlined above. They are already ingrained parts of his character, so he naturally acts that way. I see it as part of going toward individual perfection, a.k.a unity of mind and body.