The Words of the Takami Family
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The Words of the Takami Family |
Dear Brothers and Sisters of District 7,
Some of you may receive an email which was sent this morning: "Let us allow Cheon Il Guk to be in our midst" from Brother Nikolaus Beutl (National Messiah for Andorra) who had attended last Sunday Service and ACLC Prayer Breakfast in Chicago.
Although there are a lot of good quotes from True Parents' words and his idea of loving each other as brothers and sisters is good, however, his message contains a few serious points which I cannot agree with or overlook.
1) Mr. Beutl challenges the authenticity of our church organization and the leadership of the True Children and other leaders. He wrote: "One core problem of our movement lies in members focusing on leaders instead of allowing the Living God to guide their lives directly." If so, I wonder why True Parents still allow us to maintain our church organization and give directions to leaders continuously? Mr. Beutl describes leaders in his letter as if they were almost dictators, but is that really so? The truth is, leaders (such as national leaders, district pastors, state pastors, etc) are there for supporting the completion of True Parents' providence and to help members to fulfill their tribal-messiahship. All the district pastors and church leaders, as far as I know, do not have any intention to manipulate members or steal attention from members for his or her sake.
2) Mr. Beutl also mentioned that our international president Hyung Jin Nim has stated before that our church became a "dead church". I believe that Hyung Jin Nim used the strong word "dead church" to give us an opportunity to repent and start anew. Hyung Jin Nim did not use the word in the context of questioning our church organization and its authority. Here I can see that he has used a twisted interpretation to support his agenda.
3) Mr. Beutl also quoted the mission statement of a local Lovin' Life Ministries that he currently belongs to: "Empower individuals to live by their conscience, make true families which live in service to others and to build a God-centered global community."
Next, he severely criticizes the mission statement and says, "It is a very nice motto but should we not make it a reality by listening to our conscience very sincerely? If this is done then it is impossible to reject initiatives by fellow Unificationists based on narrow-minded concepts and limited understanding, or even the arrogance that I know better and I do not need to listen to my brother or sister."
This morning in his email to church members, he puts a nice, supportive reference to In Jin Nim's ministries in his introduction -- "I prepared the attached reflections in my desire to support achieving the goals which In Jin Nim has set for her mission in America..." To me, this is a great contradiction. On the one hand, he says he wants to support In Jin Nim, but on the other hand, he even goes against the local Lovin' Live Ministries.
A natural question came to my mind immediately: "Why does he need to share this negative comment with the brothers and sisters here in Chicago?"
Today, I inquired with the national HQ and other leaders about him. I have come to know that several weeks ago he caused some troubles in Las Vegas and the LA area with church leadership. Also, he has an intention to travel around to major cities in the US promoting his idea. It looks strange to me because he does not believe in any leaders or organization, just God, True Parents, and each believer only. It seems that he is trying to organize something by traveling around.
I met him at our ACLC prayer breakfast last Tuesday. He looked very kind and gentle, but his email this morning made me feel so sad. I appreciate his tremendous amount of work researching True Parents' word. There are many good points in the beginning but unfortunately his conclusion contains serious mistakes that I cannot overlook.
As your District Pastor, I felt I needed to communicate with brothers and sisters about Mr. Beutl's points, which may lead some of us in the wrong direction.
Thank you very much for your attention.
God Bless you and your family,
Rev. Kazuo Takami
District Pastor