God and True Parents Really Cares About You

In Jin Moon
Jan. 11, 2009
Minneapolis, MN

I’m delighted to be here with you again. What am I supposed to say after an introduction like that? It leaves me quite speechless. But thank you, Rev. Jenkins.

This morning when I got up before Hoon Dok Hae and I had a little time to myself together with our heavenly parent, I was meditating on what can I say to these people, to these brothers and sisters. How can I convey to them how much God really cares about them and how much True Parents care about them? You know, I realized that as a daughter or as a member of the second generation, not only is it my honor and privilege to be representing my parents but it’s also an honor and privilege to be representing my generation of second generation, to say thank you to the first generation for so many years of sacrifice and so many years of absolute devotion to our True Parents and to our Unification Church. And at the same time I hope that as a member of the True Family I can share with this community how much True Parents really, really, really love America and love you.

I am incredibly blessed, I think, in some way, and given this incredible burden to represent America. There’s a lot of work to be done but I know that I have many, many good people working with me on a daily basis, as Rev. Jenkins mentioned, at headquarters. I am excited and inspired and looking forward to all the improvements that we will make in our community, but also looking forward to great new talent that will come from our fold and represent our community, truly the way it should be represented as something great, and something worthy of people’s respect.

Brothers and sisters, I hope that as we start off this New Year we can kind of take this moment to think about the incredible moment in history that we’re living in. You know, when I talk to my Christian minister friends or my fellow Christians all around the world, you know, one of the things that they always say to me is, gosh, I wonder what it would have been like to sit next to Jesus Christ. I wonder what it would have been like just to hear his voice. Or maybe to eat with him, maybe to dine with him. Or maybe to converse with him. I wonder what it would have been like.

I’ve often asked them, what would you do if your wish could come true? I’ve heard many, many Christians and Christian ministers say to me, I would give my right arm. I would give my left arm. I would give anything to be breathing and walking and living at the same time that Jesus Christ walked on earth.

Now brothers and sisters, fast forward 2,000 years, and here we have the first True Parents, who are the fulfillment of everything that Jesus Christ wished for, everything that Heavenly Father wished for Jesus Christ. He is the Second Coming, my father is the Second Coming, and he has found his true bride, our True Mother. And for the first time not only the masculine aspect of our Heavenly Parent but a feminine aspect of our Heavenly Parent is with us today. So how incredible it is for us as human beings to be living at a time when our True Parents are here on earth.

Can you imagine, you know, what the future would say about you? Gosh, I wish I could have been Rev. Jenkins. Gosh, I wish I could have been Dr. Peace Kim, you know. He spoke the same language, came from the same land as Korea. I wonder what it was like for him. I wonder what it was like for Rev. Jenkins. I wonder what it was like for Bishop Kim. I wonder what it was like for Jaga Gavin to not only be living at the same time as True Parents but to have literally been prepared by True Parents to grace this earth by putting his parents together. How incredible would that be?

So you know, for many of the first generation who’ve come this far, following our True Parents’ footsteps, I know that it has been many, many years since you joined, and I know that some of you are a bit grayer, maybe a bit tired, maybe a bit wider even, than when you first walked into a workshop. But I know that you are here because you really love True Parents. And I know that you joined, and you first said, yes to our Heavenly Father and True Parents because you experienced the spark of life. You knew you found something great. You knew you found something new. You knew you found something worth giving your life to, and that is building an ideal family, that is building an ideal home, you know, seeing the world as one united family under God. These are all incredible things.

You know, a lot of the first generation that I see in that audience today were literally backpacking across the country, right? Looking for something. Looking for something that would give meaning to your life, and you joined the Church and you heard the Principle and you were overcome with the Holy Spirit and you were moved to try to build this kingdom. You know, but nowadays the young people are backpacking on the Internet, looking for new religions on the Internet, looking for meaning on the Internet, and that’s why I felt that the most important thing that I need to be working on as the chairwoman of HSA is to really create a whole new presence on the Internet about how we really are as a community.

You know, something that respects you, something that’s worthy to kind of showcase everything that you’re about, something that shows the world that we’re a beautiful community that is thriving and growing. You know, we’re not some kind of this cultish group of people that are just following Rev. and Mrs. Moon because we’ve all been brainwashed, but we are educated, we are thinking, we are capable individuals, professional individuals that have chosen this lifestyle because it’s something good. It’s something worthwhile, and something that is worthy of the experience, the initial experience that you had when you first joined.

You know, even to this day I carry a small sheet of paper with me, and it is a drawing that I did when I first experienced the American Church. I came to this country when I was eight years old, and coming from a culture where everyone has black hair and black eyes, and coming to this new land, where you have blonde hair, blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes, you know, red hair. It was just so beautiful to me, something so new. And to see all these fresh-faced young Americans, so excited about hearing the word of the True Parents, of hearing the words from my father. As a little girl, I said, oh my goodness, this is something really awesome. And then to kind of look into the audience and see your faces, as an eight-year-old girl, and realizing that each of you had this spark in your eyes.

I remember taking out a piece of paper and drawing a tiny smiley face with eyes and then next to it a sparkle. And for me throughout these years -- and I’ve lived in this country for over three decades -- that little rendering of a smiley face and a sparkle next to the eyes has always been kind of a constant reminder of what our American community was, how excited the young people were, how excited you were, and how excited I was as a young girl to be seeing that sparkle in your eyes.

I’ve often wondered, where did the sparkle go? Maybe it’s buried in dust somewhere on the bookshelf, and maybe this is the time when I, coming and approaching the HSA from a woman’s perspective can inspire all of us maybe to do a little bit of dusting, and to say, you know, you guys are like a beautiful, beautiful vase that has grown tired from neglect, maybe that have grown tired because we ourselves didn’t realize how beautiful we are. And it takes something new, it takes somebody new, maybe like a second generation, to come around and say, you are still beautiful and you deserve to be honored, and you deserve to be taken care of, and let me be the first one to dust off those layers of maybe tiredness, of maybe resentment even, and maybe misunderstanding. And then to help you say to yourself, look at what I’ve created. I have a beautiful family. I have second generation, I have sinless children that I can proudly claim as my own.

Even in my own life of faith, you know, I realized that following my True Parents’ way of lifestyle and trying to build an ideal family, I realized that without even thinking so much about what an incredible resource I have, I realized that every time I meet an outside person -- you know, it could be a colleague, it could be a fellow professional -- I realized that they’re always moved when they meet my family. And they always come up and ask me, you know, Tatiana, In Jin, your kids are really different. What is it about them that you did? Did you feed them some kind of a protein drink that we have yet to learn about? Are you feeding them some supra-nutritional stuff? How come they’re so happy? How come they’re so motivated? How come they’re just so comfortable in their own skin?

I say, well, you know, I’ve been following the teachings of Rev. Moon, you know, who happen to be my mom and dad. And my father was called by Jesus Christ to fulfill his mission, to build an ideal family, and basically I’m trying my best to follow the teachings of my father. Unbeknownst to me after all these years, I have five beautiful children, five healthy, beautiful children who love God and who love their grandparents and who honor and respect me every day of my life. I must say that it’s really thanks to our True Parents and to the Divine Principle that they are who they are.

In the course of my interactions with the outside world I realized that, gee, you know, I said to my husband, our children are our best witnessing tools. In a way that’s what I like to call natural witnessing. And when I went around the country and met with different second generation and heard their stories, the stories of Matthew on STF, and his encounter with this one lady who was looking to find Father’s trail near UTS and came upon Matthew and a couple of his friends and asked, where is this Father’s trail? Where can I find it?

Well, not only did Matthew help this lady find Father’s trail, but he did it in such a loving and in such a respectful way that this woman felt like I just had to ask, who are these people? How is it that Matthew is just a teenager, and American teenager but he is so different from the ones that I meet at malls, from the ones that are just hanging around with nothing to do? From ones who are making fun of the elderly people, poking fun. But here you have a group of young people that are respectful toward the elder generation, going out of their way to take care of them with two hands, not just one. Making sure that she’s well taken care of, not just physically but also spiritually. She was so moved. So she had to ask Matthew, who are you people? And Matthew said, well, we are the product of those mass weddings that you saw. And this lady said, mass weddings? Yes, mass weddings of Reverend Moon.

This lady just had to kind of step back and said, Reverend Moon and those mass weddings. You mean those Adolf Hitler type of -- you know, those mansei saying crazy bunch of people, mass wedding Rev. Moon? Brainwashed zombies mass wedding type of people? And Matthew said, yes, those were my parents.

And in that instant this woman realized, wow, Reverend Moon must be a good man if he was the one who blessed these parents, who produced children, young, proud, beautiful Americans like these. That’s natural witnessing at work.

And when people at the UN came across a CARP member, second generation CARP member like Sophia, and she went out of her way to not only make sure that the second generation had a great experience with the UN, but so much so in taking care of people, the supervisor of the whole committee was so inspired by this young, you know, bright and bushy-tailed young American lady that he had to ask, who are you people? And she said, well, do you remember those mass weddings? Do you remember a bunch of young people running around crusading for One Family, One Nation under God back then? Well, those were our parents and we are the product of those mass weddings and here we are. And she said that with so much warmth, a smile on her face, and with so much pride that the supervisor, again, had to kind of step back and say, wow. Rev. Moon must not be such a bad guy after all. And again, that’s the magic of natural witnessing taking place.

You know, brothers and sisters, for so many years we’ve spent so much time in terms of starting different initiatives, right? Different witnessing campaigns and different ways to reach out to people. But you know what? I found that in my own life of faith the most effective way to witness is to raise good families. The most effective way to witness is to substantiate what we’re teaching, what we’re trying to teach the people ourselves by living it, by raising great kids like Sophia and Matthew, by in a way allowing them to represent our faith, allowing them to be the living testament of who we’re all about.

In a way this time is a time in providential history when we should proudly showcase everything that we’re all about. You know, when I think about the olden days in our time in the wilderness, it was truly a time when we were like the wind. You know, we were blowing these people down with our words, with our teachings, you know, get them to the seminars, get them to the workshops, you know. We’re going to teach them the truth. We know the truth. But you know, there are a lot of people out there who also think that they know the truth too. And the young people are a lot smarter than, you know, than before.

They’re a lot more tech savvy in that they’re more familiar with the type of different religions that are available to them than maybe before. Maybe in the ’70s the Eastern religion, the influence of Eastern religion was a new phenomenon. Well, for the young people, they’ve been inundated with different types of Eastern religions over the years, you know. So they’re pretty well versed, and they’re pretty critical as well, too. So not only are they learning to, hoping to find the truth, but they’re hoping to see the truth. They want to see the truth.

So instead of the wind blowing people down with our desire to fervently teach the truth, how wonderful would it be if our community could be like a sunshine upon the world, if we can just start emanating the warmth from within and let the people naturally take off their coats, let the people naturally be drawn to us because we are a wonderful community. You know, you are, we are the world’s best kept secret. Let the people experience through this loving encounter with each and every one of your families, you know, the beautiful families that you’ve struggled to build over the years. And I know, as with most families, and mine too, it’s a work in progress. And I know that when I -- sometimes when I’m in a prayer conversation with our Heavenly Father, I have to laugh because Heavenly Father reminds me, well, all your life you wanted to build an ideal family, so isn’t that what you’re doing?

Sometimes, you know, being a mom and being a wife and being a daughter to our True Parents is not an easy thing. And building an ideal family, I thought, was something almost akin to buying a potted plant, you know, bringing a potted plant holder from the store, buying a package of seeds, you know, and putting the seeds, planting the seeds into this pot. And all I thought was I just have to give it water and sunshine and these children would miraculously grow into this incredible human beings, you know, incredible God-centered men and women. But if you’ve had children, moms and dads in the audience, you know that it takes a little bit more than just water and fresh sunshine, light, and air. It takes a lot of effort, you know.

So when Heavenly Father says to me, you know, be careful what you ask for because you just might get it -- well, I had always hoped for an international blessing and I had always hoped to marry maybe an American. And I got what I wanted. You know, my husband is the only -- the first and the oldest male blessed child born to our community, but he’s also the first American blessed child born to our community. So in a way God did answer my prayers, unbeknownst to me. I was hoping that I would have this incredible ideal family, and in a way sometimes when things between spouses become difficult, you know, there were moments in my life when I said to Heavenly Father, where is this ideal family? And a voice came back to me, saying, well, it is an ideal family. I deal with my family. I deal with my husband. I deal with my children on a daily basis. And in a way Heavenly Father did give me an I-deal family.

And I have to be grateful because God is teaching me in all these mysterious ways of how to be an ideal person. I deal with myself every day, and every day is a new day. And every day when I wake up I make a list of all the things that I would like to accomplish that day, and at the end of the day if I’ve accomplished them, if I’ve held firmly to my commitment, and I thank Heavenly Father for allowing me to deal. I deal with myself.

As I’m dealing with my family, as I’m sure all of you are, I realize that every obstacle or every suffering that Heavenly Father puts in our path is really just an opportunity to grow, and opportunity to deepen our understanding of who we are, an opportunity to deepen our faith each and every day, and for it to be tested and for it to be strengthened. So I always encourage my children, you know, when we’ve had a tough day, let us be grateful because this tough day is helping us or giving us an opportunity to become a stronger family, a stronger building block of this incredible community that we’re building. At the same time I always encourage my children, just as I encourage the second generation of our community, to really be in a position to honor their parents and honor the sacrifices that have gone before.

You know, a lot of the second generation have come up to me and said, you know, In Jin Nim, I really have a hard time looking up to my parents. I said, why? Why is that? They say to me, you know, my world is telling me that the only thing that matters is power, knowledge and money, but these are the things that my parents gave up. And even to this day I would have to say my parents are financial losers. They don’t have much to show for it, and I don’t know if I want to follow in their footsteps, living a life of faith where I’m literally struggling with myself to put bread on the table.

I said, thank you, first of all, for your honesty and for entrusting in me to share your thoughts. I feel really honored that you would speak to me about this. But may I say one thing, and that is, you know, you kind of have to understand the first generation as somebody who joined the Unification Church because they wanted to build an incredible house of God on earth, God’s kingdom on earth. And the first generation, their mission primarily was building the foundation. Their primary mission was like preparing the basement.

If you want to build a tall building, you have to dig just as deep. And in a way the first generation were busy digging, preparing to build this incredible monument, incredible testament to God and our faith. But if we want to build 20 stories, you’ve got to dig 20 stories. And the first generation’s, in a way, life path or a life of sacrifice, or a life of devotion was like building a foundation in order to build a house. They were so deeply entrenched, digging away, that many times the second generation, or maybe even the first generation themselves said, what are we doing? What are we doing just shoveling dirt every day? What are we doing?

But Father and mother asked you, continue, please continue, we’re going to build something wonderful. And on pure faith you kept on digging and you kept on shoveling that dirt. Maybe not realizing how deep, how deep you’ve dug. And then the second generation, maybe not realizing what the parents were doing, but the second generation’s mission really, or a life of faith is to realize and to acknowledge the sacrifice of their parents, in a way thank them for the foundation that they have laid, for everything that they have done, so that we can stand upon the shoulders of the first generation’s sacrifice and start building something really wonderful, to start harvesting all that has been prepared.

Part of the reason why I share the promo DVD about the Manhattan Center with the second generation is to kind of show them. Manhattan Center is just one example of the foundation that your parents, together with my parents, have laid in preparation for your leadership. We have many, many, many different organizations. My father and mother have touched every aspect of life. Just about a month ago I came from a meeting with True World Foods, that my father founded more than 20 years ago. It has grown into a company that’s worth over half a billion dollars.

This is the group that literally feeds all the sushi lovers of America. Think about it. In a way, our community has touched the American people one way or another. And for those who love sushi and for those who have a strong craving for Asian food, my father’s work is already in their body. We’ve physically given them sustenance. Now how wonderful would it be if the second generation of our community can be re-invigorated and re-inspired about how much of a foundation is waiting for them, so that based on the first generation’s physical sustenance of taking care of the American people, why not introduce them to the spiritual sustenance that’s just waiting for them, waiting for you, the second generation, to reach out and touch the American people.

So when I think about this country -- and when my father says that America has been chosen, it’s a God-chosen country, you know, I think of it in many, many different ways. But one way to kind of understand how incredibly powerful, how incredibly providential America is, is to kind of remind myself of my first day in class as an eager Political Science major at college. I remember I had this wonderful professor. His first topic, introduction to political science 101 was the definition of power. And he said to this class of very, very intelligent group, he said, you know, power means the ability to influence.

I’ve often thought about that in my own life of faith. And when I think about America, and when I think about as a God-chosen country, and I think about why God has blessed this country with so many resources and so much opportunity -- in a way God prepared this country because it was prepared to exercise the power, the ability to influence the world. You have Elvis Presley, you have -- and then in Japan you have Elvis Presley wannabe’s, right. The music, the Levi jeans -- who in the world hasn’t heard about Levis jeans?

Who in the world hasn’t heard about McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken? Even when I went to Moscow in the year 2000 they had McDonald’s there, and a couple of years later when I visited they had Starbucks there. They very much love Microsoft and Bill Gates. All these things that came from America, that is literally influencing the world, influencing our children -- can you imagine if America became truly a country of God and started influencing the world with an incredible message of true love, with an incredible message and hope for one family under God?

I know that a lot of the first generation that joined the Church, you joined because you experienced hope for the first time in your life. Many of you came from broken homes, right? And many of you wanted to create this incredibly loving family. You wanted to find a way to have a loving relationship with your spouse. And in a way the Divine Principle gave you hope that you can have that, blessed by God, and you can have incredible children, sinless children. You had hope in your eyes, you had hope in your heart.

And again, can you imagine if America, as the elder son nation, representing the Second Israel, can truly proclaim to the world how incredibly profound it is to say, yes, you can have hope once again; you can have hope in the brotherhood of man, in the fact that yes, we can love each other. Not just co-exist, not just tolerate, but truly love. I often say to blessed couples, can you imagine if your husband -- I can’t imagine my husband turning to me and saying, "In Jin, I love you so much, I love you with all my heart, I want to co-exist with you for the rest of my life."

If he were to say that to me, I would say, "huh? Come again? Honey, try that again. Co-exist with me?" Of if he were to say to me, In Jin, "I love you so much, I just tolerate you every day." Maybe sometimes he does feel like saying that. But if he were to say that to me, it wouldn’t be as inspiring to me as if he were to say, "In Jin, I love you with all my heart and I want to understand you with all my heart, and I want to love you for the rest of my life." It’s really quite different, isn’t it?

When I see stickers that young people put on their bumpers, that say “Co-exist,” with different religious symbols, I said, no, we’ve got to be able to do better than that. So True Parents are saying, yes, we can do better than that. We need to love, we need to take care of each other. Not just put up with each other, co-exist or tolerate. And so if we’re going to be teaching this to the people of the world, what about our community within?

Are we just simply going to co-exist with our Japanese brothers and sisters, our Korean brothers and sisters? Are we just simply going to tolerate the American brothers and sisters? Or are we really going to love each other, just as our True Parents have taught us? Are we really going to care about each other and support each other and not judge each other every day, but to see what words of encouragement we can say to each other every day, so that we can help each other to become better people? Because there is a strength in a community, a strength in numbers, and we should be celebrating it each and every day.

I have to say that every day for me is a day of challenge, and at the same time it’s a day of celebration, when I can see my children every day, and see many hard-working members every day. Their enthusiasm touches me and makes me want to be a better person. When I work with the members, as well as non members, and I have the added responsibility of running the Manhattan Center, I work with these people that are almost like gods for the young people of today. America is undergoing this cult of celebrity, where the movie stars and singers and top entertainers are becoming like gods. They dictate how you should live. They dictate what kind of people you should date. They dictate what kind of music you should be listening to.

I have a couple of friends who are producers of television programs aired on cable nets like MTV and VH1 and I’ve gotten to meet all the different CEOs of different entertainment groups. These are people who literally have it all. They have everything. But they’re always looking for something here, always something empty here. (pointing to her heart.)

And so when I see that young people are looking at these people, hungry to copy their lifestyle and use that as something to aspire to, I would have to say, young people, but these people that you’re looking up to, these people are the ones that are asking me, how come your kids are different? How can I raise my children so that they will respect me when they grow up? How can I raise them so they’re not going to throw curses at me? How can I help them grow up so that they can be a child that thinks about something greater than just themselves? So we’ve had quite a few conversations like this with some of my professional contacts and friends.

This one friend of mine sent me a video clip from CNN and he said, Tatiana, I just wanted to get your feedback on this, so take a look and e-mail me and call me back. When I opened up what he sent me, it was a CNN interview with this young lady, young American lady who had graduated from college, done extremely, extremely well, was looking toward graduate program, and found herself in this situation where she had everything prepared academically, but in terms of the finances she didn’t have enough money to go to graduate school.

Having been inundated with kind of like the cult of celebrity and this understanding that right now she’s part of the millennials, or show-me-the-money generation, she thought, well, hmm, I don’t have money, I want to go to graduate school, I have an incredibly great resume from my college days. What do I do? So this young lady came up with this novel solution and she decided, why not use the Internet to auction off my virginity to the highest bidder? This girl thought, well, yes, when the interviewer was asking her different questions like, why would you do such a thing? Don’t you believe in love, don’t you believe in marriage or something like this? She’s like, oh yes, yes, I, just like all the young little girls in America grew up with fairy tale stories of Cinderella, Snow White, waiting for that knight in shining armor to come and save me and to live happily ever after, amen.

But then she said, in the course of growing up, going through elementary school, then middle school, the kids start kind of experimenting with the opposite sex, and then going to high school where they’re not just experimenting but they’re living it. And then having gone through four years of college, where she literally saw bed-hopping going on in the dorms every day, she basically said, you know what? It seems like my generation doesn’t value what I held on for so long. But if it can solicit a decent price on the Internet, it’s the only thing I have to sell, and it’s the only thing that might give me something to work with in terms of going to a graduate program.

When I saw that clip I called my friend right back and said, good God, how is it that this girl has given up on love? How is it that this girl has given up on the prospect of having a loving family? She’s literally starting to sell her body for money, and she’s giving it a logical twist or an intellectual understanding to herself by saying, well, it just makes sense. I said, well, you know, maybe you should re-think about some of the programming that you’ve done over the years. Because now this person has 14 and 16-year-old daughters. He’s been generating these types of programs for the youth of America. But as a father he’s ultra-protective of his own daughters. He has to come to terms with, ooh, what have I done? Was I really thinking about how these programs are going to affect my daughter when I produce these things? Or was I just thinking about the bonus I was going to get at the end of the year because it was a hit show?

So we had this conversation. We started talking about my father. He started asking me questions about my father and about some of our beliefs. I was saying, you know, what is missing in the millennial show-me-the-money generation are the core values, core God-centered values or moral values that made the founding of America so great. In a way America needs to reclaim its spiritual heritage in order to continue to become great. The spiritual heritage is like the backbone, and everything else is like the flesh. But for the last couple of decades America has been kind of moving around like an amoeba. It has lost its spiritual backbone, lost its vertebrae. And it’s looking. The young people are looking.

The wonderful thing about our community is not just in that do we have a physical representation of God in the masculine and the physical form in the form of True Parents, but we have this wonderful culture of an international community. You have the beautiful aspect of the Eastern culture such as honoring the elder, such as physical manifestation of honoring somebody by basically bowing. And instead of it looking kind of geekish, or kind of weird, if the American people can be informed that this is truly a loving gesture, not something that’s demeaning or degrading. In fact, there’s nothing more beautiful than a spouse who bows to each other before they go to bed because they understand the sanctity of the relationship, they understand the sanctity of what they’re about to partake on a daily basis.

There’s nothing more beautiful than that, a man bowing to his wife, honoring his wife. Not smacking and hitting and abusing, but honoring and respecting that woman. And the same, a wife honoring, bowing to the husband, not hen-pecking, not telling him how horrible he is and how much complaint. But honoring on a daily basis. There’s something beautiful in that. That’s kind of like the groundwork in order for the couples to have even a more enriching experience as husband and wife.

The fact that the children honor the parents, the fact that a younger brother calls the older brother hyung, or the fact that a young brother calls an older sister nuna, and the older brother loving the younger brother respectfully. There’s beauty in that.

Of course we have the Western aspect, the importance of conversation, the importance of camaraderie, the importance of enjoying horizontal relationships, not just the vertical but the horizontal. So that in a family setting not only are the children respectful toward the parents, but sometimes the parents can let their guard down and have incredible fun with the family and talk with the family, which in a strictly Asian culture just doesn’t exist.

In a strictly Asian culture, many husbands and wives never talk to each other. In fact, in my travels across America I came across a Japanese sister who said to me, In Jin Nim, your message about love is so wonderful. Then she was kind of like looking at me with these doe-like eyes, and her husband was sitting right next to her, so I said to the husband, did you tell your wife that you love her? This wife just started crying. The husband said to me, in Japan we don’t express, we don’t verbalize I love you. Of course she knows I love her, but we don’t say it.

I said to this gentleman, you’re from Japan. My father’s from Korea. Korea’s the Adam country, right? There are a lot of people who don’t tell their wives, I love you, there too. But I’ve never met a Korean man who says, I love you, to his wife more than my father. So wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could just say, I love you, to your wife? I saw this man literally struggling. Like after years and years of not verbalizing, maybe feeling but not verbalizing, I -- I -- I -- eh -- eh -- love -- you. It was just such an effort.

But when this brother was able to convey for the first time in their marital relationship -- and they’ve been married for decades -- not just feel but articulate, communicate. This poor wife, she was -- she turned into Niagara Falls. Then he turned into Niagara Falls. It was just one of those things where he’s such a wonderful person, but coming from that culture it’s so difficult to overcome the cultural barrier and to turn to his heavenly daughter, heavenly wife, and say, I love you.

That’s the beauty of our community. When I was going to Divinity school, many people said to me, Rev. Moon, yes, he’s a great evangelical leader and a great regional phenomenon. I’ve often said, no, no, my father’s not a regional phenomenon. He’s a worldwide phenomenon and he’s a worldwide leader because this man, you cannot call a Korean man -- not only does he express to his wife he loves her, he acts on it on stage all the time. He’s constantly kissing my mother. Sometimes Mother has to say, Abba, not now. But constantly trying to pick her up in public. I thought, how wonderful it is to see some public displays of emotion here. From a Korean man. And we’re not talking a 20-year-old. We’re talking he’s almost 90. It’s a totally different generation. Can you imagine a man from his generation being this communicative with his wife, acting upon the feelings that he has for his wife? You cannot call him a Korean man. He is quite a universal man. And a very much progressive thinker.

When I see how he has raised Mother and how truly incredible Mother is for going the course to restore the position of fallen Eve, to reclaim the true position of Eve, the true position of women in our world, and for her to be standing as the true Eve, or the true Mother -- as a daughter there’s nothing more inspiring than that. I’m sure the American sisters in the church have felt like me. Back in the olden days I remember Father used to berate the American sisters, right? You American sisters, peh, peh, peh. Quite a bit of chastisement has been done to the poor American sisters, and I remember watching my father give the Americans a hard time. Thinking, oh, my goodness. And me and my sisters, Ye Jin and Un Jin, we’d be writing notes to each other, they’re getting it real bad today.

At the same time, because we were girls, we were women, we felt everything that you were feeling. And back in those days I had wonderful things called brothers. You know brothers can be quite mischievous and quite cruel, right, when they’re young. They would poke pencils at our butts saying, see, see, women are nothing. Women are object. Bad women. Bad women. And we would literally be sitting there, God, are you watching this? Can you please help us?

But Father, once he started, he would go on. It’s like a bulldozer. Once he starts rolling, he rolled all the American sisters down before he finished. We grew up watching this. I as a daughter often kind of heard the Divine Principle lectures and subject and object and creating an ideal family, and vertical and horizontal, and then kind of look at my parents and saw my father as this charismatic evangelical preacher and leader, and a teacher. And my mom just being silent for so many years.

And I remember reading the Martha and Mary story in the Bible. In a way the history of religion has not been a kind one to women, and many times that story of Martha and Mary has been used to silence women in the church, to silence women in a life of faith. When I was kind of reading that passage, the way I understood it as a girl and as a woman and as a mother was that Mary and Martha, they are preparing the arrival of Jesus to visit in their home. Martha being the frantic one, wants to be sure that everything is prepared well. I can almost visualize the East Garden setting of that particular story, of maybe Martha is Mrs. Dr. Kim, frantically preparing, kitchen sisters, do this, do that, do this, do that. Making sure the water is here, making sure the tablecloth is pristine.

Then Jesus is sitting down, True Father is sitting down, getting ready to address the audience. Then Mary quietly sitting by his side, wanting to listen. And I’ve often kind of visualized resentment of maybe Martha toward Mary, saying -- maybe in her heart, or maybe even verbalizing or articulating, Mary, what are you doing sitting there? Can’t you see I’m busy? Why don’t you help me? What a spoiled child. Maybe this is how Martha felt. Or maybe Martha felt like, why isn’t Mary helping me? It’s so important to take care of Jesus in a correct way. Why doesn’t she get up and help me? Then I’ve often visualized Mary, thinking, I can’t believe I’m in the presence of Jesus Christ. I don’t want to miss a thing. I want to hear every word.

When I look at that picture and see it in the modern day visualized version of Father and East Garden context, I realize that in a way that story is not a story about why a woman should be silent in a life of religion, but it’s really a story about how the heart of attendance is. In a way I very much understood the story of Martha and Mary as something that was profound in that regardless of how many preparations need to take place, the most important thing is to attend Jesus Christ, is to attend our True Parents, and to give our heart. And in a way, when that story was being told, it was to teach us that yes, frantic preparations are wonderful, but what is more important is to come and spend time with our True Parents, spend time and attend True Parents.

I kind of kept my own understanding of the Martha and Mary story in my heart, and over the years I’ve kind of seen True Mother’s course unfold. All those years of True Mother never, never complaining, always uniting, and always being there for Father and Mother, and finally restoring the position of Eve to a position where women can take an active role in the life of faith. It’s an incredibly inspiring thing for me not just as a woman but as a student of religion. It’s an incredible time for us as a faith community.

So I feel like the ability for me to take this position as the chairman of HSA is really because of all those American sisters, you know, who’ve gone before me, who in a way received, who sacrificed. And by going through that berating, prepared the way for True Mother’s victory, and prepared a way to give me an opportunity to do something wonderful for this country. And I think we can. (Applause)

And when I think about why my father gave the American ladies such a tough time, you know, I would have to ask myself the same question. As somebody who has taught college students and high school students, I would have to say, well, as a teacher, when you’re standing in front of a classroom, you tend to be harder on the students that are academically gifted. You tend to challenge them more. You tend to push them more. And I firmly believe that in a way when Father came to America and was giving the American sisters a real tough time, it’s because he saw within you the power to change the world, the ability to influence. He saw within you an educated bunch of young American sisters, very capable, very articulate, very enthusiastic. And so in a way Father was challenging the American sisters -- are you going to be educated, professional, articulate for God? Or for yourself?

I think that’s the reason why my father was so hard on them. I think that’s also the reason why, you know, my parents are just so hard on their own children too. But you know, God works in mysterious ways. Through suffering comes depth and wisdom and new determination. And I know for a fact that because Father was so hard on women, now I have the ability or the opportunity to tickle my father a little bit by telling him, Dad, did you know that I’m really an American woman now?

I came as a resident alien to this country. I was an alien for many, many years, but I just recently became an American citizen, actually last year. So for me to kind of finally become an American citizen and then, you know, very, very soon after that for my father -- to be in this role, I thought I just had to remind my father about all that berating that he did for American sisters, and to say, well, I’m that American sister too, Father. He had a hearty laugh. And he said exactly what I said. It’s because those American sisters were really talented and really prepared. That’s what Father said.

Now I have the added pleasure of not just meeting you again, together with wonderful American brothers too, but I also get to meet your children, and wow, they’re really a great bunch. They have just so much talent. So as a mother coming to this position, I really want to try my best to not only make the Internet a wonderful place for our children to visit, and to find out more and more about their faith and maybe to hear some of your stories, but also to create an educational track for the blessed children so that the American community that has literally been living in the wilderness, going from one event to another, not really being allowed to settle down, to concentrate on our families -- this can be a time when we can do just that. We kind of need to build within. We need to be strong within if we’re going to do any outreach and invite people to our homes, right?

If you have a guest coming over, what do you do? You’ve got to clean up shop, right? You have to make sure your house is in order. You have to make sure it’s clean. You have to make sure it’s prepared, it’s presented well. Well, likewise, before we invite new members or new people to come and hear the truth, our house needs to be in order. It needs to be clean. It needs to be organized. It needs to be dusted so that bright, gleaming spirit that all of you have can shine once again. Just like the beautiful sun, start attracting. Instead of pulling teeth, start attracting people to the beauty of our community.

So I feel like when Father declared the beginning of the Pacific Rim era, and the important role that the women must play, I feel like this is an invitation for the American sisters to come and work together again and to help our brothers, to raise up our brothers, to raise up our families so that they can truly be great examples for the world. I’m hoping that, just as we’ve experienced the most incredible election process in the history of America, electing an African-American to be our next president. I often tell the different districts I go to that the impossibility has become a possibility; and not just a possibility but a reality.

When Martin Luther King was shouting out his “I Have a Dream” speech, I’m sure he was hoping for some day for an African-American president to take the White House. I don’t think he knew it would happen this soon. In fact, one of my dearest friends is an African-American actress. She’s won numerous awards and she’s done incredible things in her career. I remember her sitting next to me. We were at a fund-raiser that Rev. Jenkins briefly mentioned at the Manhattan Center. This was a fund-raiser for the Democratic Party, for Obama. It was actually hailed as the concert of the decade. You had Billy Joel there, you had Bruce Springsteen, you had John Legend, and you had a new up and coming star, her name is Indira. And basically it was $25,000 per seat.

The Hammerstein, the bigger venue at the Manhattan Center, houses 2,400 people, so you can do the math. They raised quite a chunk of change for the Democratic Party, and after that I had a chance to go backstage. It was actually my friend who brought the event to me at the Manhattan Center.. So he’s the one that brought Obama to the Manhattan Center.

Before I went to see Obama on the 16th, I was together with our True Parents in Hawaii, and I asked my father, a friend of mine has brought the Obama fund raising campaign to Manhattan Center and I will be going there to personally greet him, thank you for coming, and to convey whatever you would like me to convey to him. What would you like me to say to Obama?

My father said to me, remind Obama of the spiritual heritage of America and remember where he comes from. And if he remembers God and if he can unite with the work that our Father is doing, then together they can do incredible things for America. So after the event -- it was actually at the event when my actress friend was literally crying. She was Niagara Falls on my right arm here. She said, I just can’t believe, I just can’t believe, in all my years I’m taking part in this process. It’s just so incredible to me. She said, I just cannot believe that a black man is running for the presidency of the United States. She was just weeping the whole time because she was so moved.

So I brought her together with me backstage and approached Obama and his wife Michelle, thanked them for coming to the Manhattan Center and conveyed what Father wanted me to convey. As a representative of my father, I gave my father’s blessing to him by shaking his hand. I asked him to please remember God and your spiritual heritage. Several weeks later he was elected president. So in a way I feel in some way Father blessed Obama to take on this role.

Then I went and also visited Dr. Lowery, who’s a dear friend of mine that I got to know through my work with Religious Freedom Coalition when I was 18 years old, we locked arm in arm and we marched all the way down through Lafayette Park. For some reason he and I kind of had this heartistic connection, and he’s the one who always said to me, you know In Jin, God works in mysterious ways. I always kind of remember the way he spoke, G-o-o-o-o-o-d, holding it a little while longer, works in mysterious ways. That was kind of always ringing in the back of my mind when I was thinking about different things in the course of my life. When I saw Obama being elected, I thought, God works in mysterious ways.

I was able to reconnect with Dr. Lowery after many, many years. He has kind of been a little bit heartsick about our community because sometimes he felt that maybe our community was too extreme right-wing, and maybe they didn’t treat the African-American community very well. I know that even some of the members, when I talk about the Obama phenomenon, they said to me, but he’s a Democrat! I replied, absolutely. But you know, God works through Democrats too, not just Republicans. And it was Father that said we have to start a new movement, called Headwing movement, and he said that many, many years ago.

When I look at Obama, I’m not just looking at him as a Democratic president but I’m looking at him as somebody who has been prepared by God to do incredible work if he can somehow connect with our True Parents and with our community. And I think he can and I think he will. It was Dr. Lowery who was instrumental in anointing Barack Obama towards this race for the White House. Without Dr. Lowery, President-elect Obama would not be president-elect now. President-elect Obama asked Dr. Lowery to give the benediction at the inauguration. So I feel like in a way the jigsaw puzzles are all coming together in one way or another.

Father is utilizing different races, different mediums, to just all kind of come together, to fit that jigsaw puzzle into almost like a platform where True Parents can finally be recognized as the peacemakers of the world. So in a way I feel that we have the Generation X-ers, we have the Ys, the Z’s, and now this generation is calling themselves the millennials, or show-me-the-money generation. Don’t you think the young people can do a step better than show-me-the-money generation?

In a way the young people of today should be a generation of peace. They should be the ones saying, you know, look, the greatest threat to our existence is war of religions, or terrorism. It has already affected -- left its footprint, or fingerprint, in New York City, of all places, 9/11, right? And I watched that horror unfold from my husband’s office building, and I saw these people literally diving to their deaths.

The amount of hatred that must have been in the minds of these people that could do something like this, in the name of religion, in the name of Allah, it just cannot be. And we as young people, instead of just waiting for our politicians to change the world for us, instead of just waiting for our ministers to come together and change the world for us, why not change the world ourselves? It only took one man, one boy who was 16 -- and my son here, Truxton, just turned 16 this morning. My father was his age when Jesus appeared to him and my father finally said, yes, I will do it. It was his age.

From then on this man has never wavered, and this one man, this one boy has changed the world. He has changed each and every one of our lives. So can you imagine, all the young people in this audience -- 16, 14, 15, doesn’t matter how young -- but the change takes place here. But once you change your mind, you can change the world. Once you change yourself, you can change the world. Just like the way my father did.

In a way this is the time when we should call our children not just to sit idle and complain, or to just think about the cult of celebrity, but really get them to start thinking about how do we really accomplish this world of peace? How do we stop people from killing each other? How do we stop people from turning into suicide bombers and blowing other people up? How do we teach people about the sanctity of life, that life is precious? We are a divine representation on earth, and it’s our privilege and honor to live it. How do we show these young people?

I think the answer is in the back of the book. We have our True Parents here with us, they are living and breathing and walking with us. When my father says that he’s going to ascend to heaven in 2013, I’m just hoping and praying that 2013 will be his physical retirement and that he can finally rest, and that the second generation can go forward. But if 2013 is the day that he leaves us, it’s not very many days left. So you know, I feel like the time or the moment when we can proudly proclaim to our future generations, to our posterity, that I lived and walked with Father and Mother is not forever. So this is a precious time, incredibly precious time.

Honor your parents, second generation, and first generation, please encourage the second generation to find their passions, to be not just spiritually excellent but physically excellent. And physically excellent also means not just having great careers but also being proud of who we are.

I know you tired mothers, sometimes it’s really difficult to get in that shower and look good for your children, but please do so because then you can give them a good hug and ship them off in grand style that you deserve. And the mothers, who’ve kind of been, you know, tired and maybe upset at the husband and maybe kind of used food as a comfort. A couple of the American sisters literally kind of joked to me, yeah, a lot of us kind of popped up like this after getting married.

I said, yes, the most wonderful thing about the blessing is that it’s forever, but the worst thing about the blessing is it’s forever and that you take your spouse for granted, and that you stop caring about how you look for each other. Not just internally but also externally. If you truly love someone, you want to honor them, but not just how you are here, but also how you look. You want to smell good for each other.

You want to look attractive to each other. And you want to exercise together so you can be healthy together. Instead of every woman going through what I call the frozen Pillsbury dough-boy effect -- you know those lovely biscuits that we love to serve at dinner along with our lovely entrees, the biscuits that you twist open and it goes pop, right? A lot of sisters have gone that course, literally popped. Over the course of the last couple of decades God, our Heavenly Parent, has experience a lot of popping noises, and it wasn’t popcorn.

This is -- before you attract guests into the home, this is a time when we should think about how we are internally, but also externally, and how we can honor each other on Sunday morning by coming prepared. Not just here, but also externally, wanting to look good for each other because we care, because we want to love.

I think if we can start doing just that, we’re going to be an awesome community because you, we are the best content. We just have to package it in a way that people can understand that you guys and we are the best gift that the world is waiting for.

Please have a lovely Sunday, please have a lovely month. Thank you so much for taking care of us here with your warm hospitality. I look forward to seeing you again, and God bless you.