The World Peace ministry of the Reverend and Ms. Sun Myung Moon has struck a very responsive note in the very depths of my soul. That’s because all that I am and all that I hope to be I owe to the mission on which I embarked now some forty five years ago with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the singularly most important man with the most important message for the most violent times in the history of mankind. His message was simply this: "Either we learn to live together as brothers and sisters on this planet or we will perish together as fools." The mission upon which we embarked was and is that of ending the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism and the scourge of poverty.

When all is said and done, there is more said about world peace than is done. I love Father Moon’s ministry in this regard because he seems as determined as was Martin Luther King, Jr. to DO something about world peace. Let me explain what I mean.

I have in recent months made two trips to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as a part of Father Moon’s Interreligious International Federation For World Peace Middle East Initiative. The trips have caused me to stretch my mind back across the chasm of the years to a time when I first embraced the dream of Peace in the Middle East.

It was in the year, 1979. The Honorable Andrew Young, my close associate with Dr. King in the struggle of the 1960s, was our U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He fully understood Dr. King’s passion for world peace. He, like Father Moon, decided to act upon that dream. Andy remembered Martin’s teaching: " We hate one another because we fear one another; we fear one another because we don’t understand one another; and we don’t understand one another because we refuse to communicate with one another."

Ambassador Young acted upon that conviction by talking to the PLO’s observer at the United Nation’s in an effort to get the PLO to lay down its arms and come to the peace table to work out a nonviolent solution to the terrible conflict in the Middle East. For that effort on his part to do something to end the barbarism of the war in that region of the world, he was forced to resign as our UN Ambassador.

I was at the time the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization that Martin Luther King, Jr. had founded and led for the eleven years leading up to his tragic assassination. It was his vehicle for waging our nonviolent struggle for the civil rights of our people in the United States and for peace round the world. Accordingly, I, with his successor as president of SCLC, Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, decided to take up Andy’s quest by going to both Israel to meet with Prime Minister Menochim Begin and to Lebanon where the PLO was headquartered to meet with Chairman Yasser Arafat. Our purpose was to appeal for the "Land for Peace" settlement proposal that had occurred to me after the Six Day War back in 1967. I told the press at that time that "Neither Andy Young or I, nor other members of the SCLC apologize searching for the relevance of Martin Luther King’s policies in the international political arena."

In an effort to demonstrate the balance in our proposal of a "Land For Peace" settlement of the Arab/Israeli dispute, Dr. Lowery and I together with other members of our delegation met with Jewish leaders in New York and with Israel’ s U.N. ambassador, Yehuda Blum. Afterwards, I told reporters that black leaders were "asking both combatants to "declare a moratorium on violence and come to the peace table, each acknowledging for the other what he demands for himself, peace with in the secure borders of a homeland." But the nation and the world were not ready for that kind of solution to the crisis in the Middle East at that time.

I thank God today that, since that time, Presidents George H.W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton and George W. Bush have now embraced the vision. Inspired by the instructive example of what Father Moon is attempting to DO about the vision, it is my view that Jewish, Christian and Muslim spiritual leaders must develop the "Holy Boldness" to lead the nation and the world as never before. It was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s belief that spiritual leaders must be "Head lights" and not "Tail lights;" that we must be "Thermostats" and not " Thermometers." Thermometers merely reflect the temperature in the room; Thermostats set the temperature.

I, therefore, give my unequivocally support to the Middle East Peace Initiative of the Interreligious International Federation For World Peace. Father Moon is right in believing and acting upon the belief of the writer of II Chronicles 7:14 -

"If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves,

and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then

I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and I will heal

their land."

With that faith, let us all press forward in support of Father Moon’s Middle East Peace Initiative. Nothing more is needed, nothing less will suffice. We shall overcome.

From: Pat Arnold [patarnold@dramaqueenworkshop.com] Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 11:29 PM To: Michael Balcomb; darrylggray@yahoo.ca; patarnold@dramaqueenworkshop.com; mginze@adelphia.net; truedad@familyfed.org Cc: MWJENK@aol.com Subject: Re: News Release Update June 26

This is GREAT! I will incorporate it into tomorrow's release, just prior to phoning the media.

Thanks, Michael!

"I see in Reverend Sun Myung Moon the fulfillment of the ideals and vision I first learned from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr," said former long-time DC Congressman Walter Fauntroy today at the Reverend Moon’s "Now Is God’s Time" second tour stop in Washington DC.

Fauntroy, who is also one of Washington DC’s most prominent ministers, was adding his voice to those of hundreds of other clergymen -- Jews, Christians and Muslims alike -- who are supporting Moon’s latest and non-stop evangelical tour of America.

In a whirlwind 4 days that has already taken him to New York and Washington DC, and now moves on to Chicago and Los Angeles Moon is issuing a challenge and an invitation to America, calling for Christians, Muslims and Jews to overcome their differences, promote inter-religious dialogue, encourage interfaith marriage, and work as ‘Ambassadors for Peace’ in the Middle East and the world.

The tour, entitled "Now is God’s Time" began Saturday in New York’s Jacob Javits Convention Center and came Sunday to the new Ronald Reagan building in the nation’s capital. By the time the tour ends Tuesday in Los Angeles, almost 50,000 people are expected to have attended the events, and other communities around the country are scrambling to prepare video links to allow them to participate.

In his 40 minute sermon "God’s Kingdom of Peace is Our Family’s Eternal Home" Moon says that God is expecting the United States to fulfill its destiny as a champion of peace. "Now is God’s Time," says Moon, 85. "He cannot be satisfied with only spiritual progress. I have promised Him that I will bring His children together as one. Heaven cannot tolerate religious and ethnic divisions any longer."

In recent years, Moon’s calls to the nation’s spiritual leaders to work together across the lines of denomination and faith have been gathering momentum. In 2004 alone, he brought more than 11,000 religious and civic leaders to Israel and Palestine as ambassadors for peace, including over 1,300 ordained clergy, and over 2200 from Europe, Asia and Africa.

These goodwill delegates met with Israeli and Arab leaders, offered community service in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Bethlehem, Haifa and other cities, and joined hands and hearts in prayer services, peace walks and other demonstrations of unity and faith. Several smaller groups went into the Gaza to see for themselves firsthand the tragedy of the Palestinian people.

In Washington today, Fauntroy was joined by Apostle Floyd Nelson, leader of the Bibleway mega-church in the district, flanked by Moslem Imam Salahudeen from New Jersey and Rabbi Daniel Waldman from Detroit Michigan, all of who called for a deeper understanding and respect for Moon’s peace initiatives.

Waldman echoed the theme of peace and reconciliation and said "This is the kind of peace that is prophesied to appear when the Messiah comes. In honor of this time, Waldman produced a Shofar and blew a few piercing notes that traditionally announce the presence of the Lord.

In response, more than 1000 clergy gathered to create the American Clergy Leadership Conference, one of the lead sponsors of the current tour. A dozen ACLC ministers and imams are traveling with Moon to each of the four cities to offer their support, prayers and their insight on the objectives of the campaign which are both spiritual and practical.

Dr. Eleazar Glaubach, longtime Jerusalem City Councilor, says the visits are starting to have an effect: "Rev. Moon’s efforts bringing thousands of pilgrims of every faith to Israel have done more to advance peace in just one year than ten years of talking and discussing roadmaps."

Imam Haitham Bundakji, Islamic Center of Orange Country, CA agrees: "Through the efforts of Dr. Sun Myung Moon,’ says Bundakji, "I have come to love Jews and Christians as my brothers and sisters. We are now pursuing the realization of the founding spirit of America that respects all races, faiths and ethnicities."

Moon’s last major speaking tour in the USA was in 2001. He traveled to every state in the Union in just 53 days -- an extraordinary pace for a man in his 80s -- sharing a message of reconciliation and hope with clergy in every state. After 9/11, Moon gathered many of the clergy he met in his travels together with international leaders in New York and shared his vision of a unified family of faiths that would be stronger than the forces of terror.

Perhaps the most visible goal to be announced on the tour is Moon’s call for a "Bridge of Peace" to span the 51 mile Bering Strait between Alaska and the United States, uniting the East and West. In fact, Moon is no stranger to dramatic engineering proposals -- in 1981 he called for a 128 mile link between Japan and Korea, and test drillings and exploratory studies have been underway ever since. "The Peace King Bridge or Tunnel can unite the human family as one community" says Moon.

A number of the clergy seem to agree. George Stallings, Archbishop of the African American Catholic Church based in Washington DC, has been working with the ACLC for the past 4 years and was blessed in marriage by the Rev. & Mrs. Moon to his Japanese wife Sayomi right after the We Will Stand Tour in 2001.

"Rev. Moon has been building bridges all his life," says Stallings, " African-Americans know of his efforts to bring the races and religions of the world together, and we have worked with him here and in the Middle East as Ambassadors of Peace. It comes natural that he would now launch this visionary appeal to physically unite the world in a project that demands peaceful cooperation."

Other ministers say that what attracts them to Moon’s message is his willingness to address the crucial issues of the day, with little pause for consideration of political correctness or diplomatic niceties. "Rev. Moon is hitting on all the spiritual hot buttons of contemporary society, ,including peace in the Middle East, fighting AIDS, marriage and family, interfaith relations, homosexuality, and what is more, he’s never pulled his punches, says Reverend Darryl Gray, pastor of the United Church of Montreal Canada.

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