The Words of In Jin Moon
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The Words of In Jin Moon |
Good evening brothers and sisters. It is truly a great honor and privilege and some what of a tremendous surprise for In Jin and I to be standing here this evening. I wanted to make one thing clear and that is, her father promoted her, not me. (Laughter) I’m just going to back her up, but she’s got the job.
I first would like to recognize other members of the True Family that are here. You know Father and Mother have been so inspirational in educating their children and in teaching them the importance of education and many years have been spent by all the members of the family educating themselves so they could be better participants in this community that we are building here tonight and around the world.
Starting with the youngest daughter, Jeung Jin Moon, is now a recent admittance to the graduate program at The New School, because they recognize that she has tremendous writing skills and she is going to work towards her masters degree there this fall.
The next youngest daughter is Yeon Jin Moon, she has her graduate degree, pretty much in hand from the London school of film, studying to be a director.
The next brother is Kwon Jin Moon and he is studying acting as well as developing his real estate career in the west coast, as well as pursuing his graduate degree at the Unification Theological Seminary. And of course you all know Dr. Preston Hyun Jin Moon who now serves in the very important task as our True Parents’ eldest son due to some tragedies that we of course are all aware of recently.
He has a tremendous burden, one that he has been carrying now for many years together with brothers and sisters here in the west particularly, but also around the world in expanding the work of Universal Peace Federation and the Global Peace Festivals. He has his undergraduate degree from Columbia University, his graduate degree from Harvard Business School, and his doctorate from Sun Moon University. Could we honor Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon.
I have two Korean friends, Dr. Choi and Dr. Kim and I was telling them about In Jin, about how beautiful she is and how intelligent she is and they said, “You know, James, it’s not good form to brag about your wife.” And I said to them, “But, have you seen my wife?”
In Jin was born in Korea as the second daughter, third child of Rev. and Mrs. Moon, on August 14th, 19 -- (clearing of throat followed by laughter from audience). You see I’m a very well trained husband. She came to America with her family in 1973. My parents were already here so I had met her at that time, together with her brothers and sisters, so I’ve known her since 1973 which is a good many years. She went to high school here in America and in 1984, her father said to her, “I think it’s time for you to get married.” And she said, “No Dad, you promised I could go to college before you got me married.” But he said, “Well I think now is a good time.
Anybody in particular that you want us to consider for you?” And she says, “Dad, you told us not to date, you told us just to focus on studying. Of course I don’t have anybody in mind.” And her parents said, “Okay, then we want to introduce a young man to you,” and she says, “Oh wait, but I do have one condition if you’re going to marry me off now, I will be obedient and respect your wishes and marry anybody that you recommend except for Jin Sung Park.” You could see what that meant for me. I’ve had my work cut out for me for 25 years and I’m still just getting the hang of it.
Soon after we were married in 1984 her father was unjustly incarcerated as most of you know, and she, together with Dr. Lowry and other civil rights leaders from Washington, and Atlanta and around the country, formed the Coalition for Religious Freedom. And just out of high school she was marching arm-in-arm with folks like Dr. Lowry, in Washington D.C. and other cities, speaking out for religious freedom and against religious injustices committed against people like her father, and other religious figures that were being persecuted by an intolerant government. That was the beginning of her career. She has an older brother and an older sister, but somehow, Father had reached down and asked her to take on that responsibility.
There is a stunning front page picture of her and Dr. Lowry and other civil rights leaders in the Washington Post in the summer of 1984. From that very important beginning she went on to go and get an undergraduate degree from Columbia University studying political science and philosophy. I remember when she graduated from Columbia University after 6 years, she said, “You know, honey, it took me 6 years to get a 4 year undergraduate degree.” And I said, “But you’ve had 3 children along the way as well.” That’s quite an accomplishment, 3 children and 4 years of college in 6 years.
But Father has often asked many people to go to the Unification Theological Seminary, it’s a very wonderful school and the only other school that Father wants people to go to besides that one is the Harvard Divinity School. And In Jin set her sights for that, went and got admitted into the Harvard Divinity School for her graduate studies. She studied there and of course, everyone knew this, she was Rev. Moon’s daughter. She was the talk of the school, theologians and religious scholars would ask her things, ask questions about Father; they would say things like, “You know your father is a very, very significant regional religious leader. And she would say, “No, my father’s a world religious leader. Let me explain to you why.”
Something you may not know is that after her first semester of Harvard Divinity School she came home to greet her parents during Christmas time, Father was sitting there in the family room and Father said, “In Jin, In Jin, come here. So what do they teach you at Harvard Divinity School? What are they talking about?” And she said, “Well, Father. The primary question between the men and women and professors at Harvard Divinity School and for the last 6,000 years is the proper relationship between men and women.
Rev. Moon said, “Well, of course, there’s God and man and women and they are equal and together they make a 4-position foundation and they strive to make an ideal family. But men and women are equal.” And In Jin said, “Yes but everyone who studies you as theologians knows that you give all the speeches and Mother sits there besides you.” (Laughter) And then he goes on, “Well Eve fell first, and Adam fell second, and restoration of the fall…” on and on and on. And In Jin said, “Yeah well, that’s just the perception out there. And Father said, “Well maybe we’ll have to do something about that. It’s only inevitable after the original Adam is restored that the original Eve is restored.” Do you know what came out of that talk a few months later? Women’s Federation for World Peace.
After graduating from Harvard Divinity School gave her a title: Chook Sa-Jang. “Chook” as in “Chook-bok” -- the marriage blessing, and “Sa-Jang” -- which basically means chairman. The literal translation is “Chairman of the Blessing.” But if you really think about it, one of the most important functions of any ordained minister of any faith is the blessed people in holy matrimony. And that’s what Rev. Moon was bestowing upon her at that time in ’95. After that he said, “Where are you going?” and she said, “I’m going to take care of my kids. If you want to lead the world and teach them how to build ideal families, Dad, I have to take of my kids first, raise them up, and practice before I preach what it’s like and what it takes to make an ideal family.” So many of you may not have seen her for some time but she spent a tremendous amount of time raising her kids.
Some of you may know this, she home schools the children, educates them at home. Someone once said, “In Jin Nim you do everything so well. How did you know how to do this? I would explain to friends of hers, she, like you, when she was a first time mother, raising her own children, she doesn’t know much more than you do, I got to tell you, we bought every book in the Barnes and Noble about pregnancy when she was pregnant, we have a whole library on them, and she bought every book on child rearing and child education. And she reads voluminously, left to right, A-Z.
As she home schools the children, educates them, and as she teaches them different things, including cooking -- they’re very good cooks -- as they go on to science and languages, she goes on the internet and researches and finds young teachers to assist her, finds tutors to come to our home and supervise, lend their expertise to particular subjects and categories. This is how we are able to show the children’s accomplishments with you and share with you Rex and Ariana playing piano, and Trustin and Paxton’s art work -- and they’ve only been painting with a teacher and with In Jin’s instruction for about a year and a half.
We had our second son, Rexton, and Ariana, start playing the piano like any other parents. In Jin and I both play the piano, so she and I educated them first by ourselves and we saw something developing there, and a very short time later they both won a very big piano competition, several of them in a row. That caused us to have to travel around the world because part of the prizes of these competitions were world tours. We found ourselves in Japan where we have a very large community of first and second generation. In Jin said, “While we’re here in Japan, why don’t we have give and take with the people and I can help support and educate and teach them about excellence in academics and the arts, pursuing a passion in raising yourself up.”
In the video you saw earlier, you saw the first 7 years of Concerts for World Peace and Ideal Families. This year in April 18th, Rex and Ariana were invited back to play Tokyo Philharmonic, so on that occasion we held the 8th annual Youth Concert for World Peace and Ideal Families and there, she also met with many of the brothers and sisters and sold CDs -- she’s a songwriter and singer and she is working on her fifth album. And we raised quite a significant amount for a scholarship program for 2nd generation in Japan. Early this year, part of the room and facility that we are standing in is the vision and inspiration of her oldest brother, Hyo Jin Moon, who tragically passed away on March 17th of this year.
The Moon family has gone through a tremendous difficult year but one of the things that I’ve learned about this family is difficulty and tragedy makes them stronger. It depends their conviction; it depends their commitment to True Parents and to each other to work together to unite with each other and together with the brothers and sisters. A very difficult year.
In the midst of the Moon family’s eldest son passing away earlier this year -- that particular son was the inspiration by which we are sitting in the Manhattan center -- by which the Manhattan Center came to be created. Father bought the Manhattan Center in the mid ’70’s. New York City was going bankrupt. The New Yorker Hotel was nearly condemned and so was this building. They were unused, practically being thrown away.
For $2 million and for $5 million dollars, Father invested very important resources in the early ‘70’s to help New York and to help bring culture and entertainment to New York at the highest level, that was his dream. It continued to lay dormant until In Jin’s eldest brother, Hyo Jin, decided to create the Manhattan Center and also who inspired her Father to allow the New Yorker to turn into a first class hotel in the New York area. So the facility that you stand in was started by her older brother. After passing away, the family had gathered together and In Jin’s father asked her to take over Manhattan Center. This was about four months ago. So she came here. She met with all the employees. She’s created a tremendous bond, she respects them and earned their respect.
In the entertainment world we have seen executives of MTV, VH1, Live Nation, they’re all lining up to come meet her and when they meet her they find that she’s a fascinating woman, a fascinating daughter of our True Parents, graceful and yet quite firm in negotiations. I’ve been by her side for the last three or four months watching her, she keeps an intense schedule, it’s really truly amazing to see her work -- part of what she found here was a diamond in the ruff; something that needed a lot of attention and a lot of love. And she started to put forth a strategy, creating a branding strategy, a marketing strategy, a strategy about how the public perceives the Manhattan Center.
Recently, with Father asking her to take responsibility to HSA-UWC and FFWPU, she has had similar thoughts about why is such a wonderful dad, a wonderful leader like Rev. and Mrs. Moon is misunderstood by the American people? They’re wonderful people, but the marketing, the public relations, the branding is off.
I see executives from companies come to meet the new CEO of Manhattan Center and they find it to be In Jin Moon, and after talking and discussing business and getting to know her, invariably they say, “Oh, by the way, tell me about your Father, Rev. Moon. What does he believe in?” and thirty minutes later, that man is saying, “How come nobody knows this in America? How come this great story about a man of sacrifice and a man of truth and tremendous effort on behalf of God, this country and the world, how come nobody knows this story?”
And she goes on to say, “Perhaps my dad, so focused on the mission, really didn’t care about PR very much.” Part of what In Jin and what other True Children want to do is raise the image of True Parents to where it should be. I think nothing makes True Parents look more wonderful than sons and daughters like these we have in front of us and those we saw on the screen and if they unite and put their minds to it and get the truth out -- I think In Jin wants to make our movement, our fellowship, our community one of the coolest and one of the most exciting communities to belong to.
One of the things that we found here at Manhattan Center is a phrase -- because there was no marketing at Manhattan Center at all for many years -- was that it was the best kept secret of Manhattan. And she said, “Why keep it the best kept secret?” But isn’t our movement the best kept secret in our society today?
Brothers and sisters is it my deepest privilege and honor to introduce to you your new chairman of the Holy Spirit Association and the Federation for World Peace, my wife, In Jin Moon.