Dear Leaders and Blessed Central Families,

In the notes of Father's morning message of March 2, Father was quoted as saying, "To unify Korea we must unify church and state. We must establish a political party and then unify church and state."

This interpretation of Father's actual words give a very misleading impression. In western political thought "unity of church and state" conveys the idea of the establishment of an official state religion. From Father's extensive commitment to dialogue and the development of interreligious conferences on peace we see that his teaching always emphasizes the Biblical theme of the prophet "advising" the king. He also teaches that the "prophetic" voice at this time is most clearly heard when there is harmony of the world religions. As with a symphony, every religion has its distinct character, integrity and unique expression. However, when harmonized together on the "key" notes they bring forth the most beautiful inspiration toward understanding and peace. Rev. Moon's thought teaches that essence of God is love for all races, religions, peoples, nations and cultures and that His hope is that all people realize true families that are blessed by God living in harmony and peace on all levels. He teaches that a harmonized and cooperative interreligious body can best communicate and advise the heads of state, assemblies and congresses of the world concerning the realization of such a world of peace based on the family.

Father also emphasizes in his teaching that the government should embody godly values and policies as the natural expression of the religious beliefs of its people. A better translation of Father's words would be "we must harmonize religion and politics." In fact our translator, Mr. Tim Elder, upon careful review, concluded that rendering the thought conveyed on March 2 as the as "unity of Church and state." would have better been expressed as the "Harmony between religion and politics".

Of course, Father opposes the strict "separation of church and state" in the sense that he does not favor a completely secularized, amoral society in which religion is removed from the public square. But by no means does Father wish to "unite the church and state" in the sense of making the Unification Church or any other faith an official state religion. That's why he says the "interreligious" body should "advise" the governmental bodies of the world.

Because the phrase "unite the church and state" can be so easily misused by our opponents to create trouble for our movement, it is important that the previous language be corrected on any public web sites and that members be advised about the need for caution in speaking of the concept of the relation of religion and politics.

The context of a free relationship and cooperation between the religious and political spheres is not narrow. Rev. Moon's teaching and practice is consistent and clear. His respect for the absolute value of all religious traditions and that they are all rooted in the same God is the ground from which his idea of a better relationship between religious and political leaders may be realized.

His concept of religious leaders advising and giving wise counsel to political leaders is not a vision of one religion in control but rather the spirit of the Lord working through the collective consensus of all. The spirit of cooperation between religion and politics is set forth quite well in Rev. Moon's address entitled, "The Path to World Peace in View of God's Will", given at the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace Assembly 2001 The Search for Solutions to Critical Global Problems Global Violence: Crisis and Hope, October 20, 2001, New York, NY

He states as follows:

This gives a better understanding of the concept that Father is putting forward concerning the harmonization of religion and politics.

Sincerely,
Rev. Michael Jenkins

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