Unificationist Blueprint

The Unification Church is a young movement. It incorrectly started out in America living a socialist lifestyle as so many young religious movements have done. Like the Pilgrims, Unificationists gave up on socialism and now write (with a few exceptions) glowingly of capitalism and democracy.

When Professor Eileen Barker did her years of research on the church, she wrote in her book, The Making of a Moonie, that when she asked members how they envisioned the ideal world to be organized, no one had any ideas about politics or economics. And nobody cared about these topics either. A few thinkers and intellectuals in the church have written on these topics.

In the following excerpts from articles by American church leaders we will see that the future ideal world will be organized under democracy and free enterprise. I go into politics and economics thoroughly in my book, Ten Keys To Building The Unified Ideal World.

Bruce Casino

Bruce Casino writes in an article in the Unification News, "The earliest members were of necessity very idealistic, spiritually inclined persons. One had to be to believe that God would use a handful of persons to bring a better world. But as the movement involves itself in actual details of kingdom building, more of the practical type of persons will join and the movement will expand rapidly. Increasingly the movement will be more of a movement and less of a church as was Reverend Moon's original idea."

He writes, "As Harvey Cox points out, "Moon offers toil and martyrdom for a world that must be built anew. The mainline churches seem to offer school and career in a world expected to stay pretty much the same."

"Unification Theology is no "pie in the sky after you die" theology. This is a theology which proclaims that God is vitally concerned about the political, economic, social structures and institutions of our society."

Hal McKenzie

Hal McKenzie was the senior editor of The New York Tribune when he wrote an article in the Unification News (September 1984) titled, "Marx Fabricated Capitalist Guilt." He writes, "In Marx's day, the early Industrial Revolution was creating tremendous social dislocation and a great deal of suffering. Writers like Charles Dickens and Upton Sinclair wrote eloquently of the shocking conditions in which workers lived and worked. For Marx, it wasn't enough to simply push for reform. He concluded that only the total eradication of the system and its replacement by communism would do."

"Therefore, in his opus 'Das Kapital,' Marx set out to prove that capitalism was not evil only because of greedy policies, but irredeemably evil due to the nature of the system. If that were so, no reforms could ever work and its annihilation could be justified."

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"And the greatest contrast between privileged elites and the toiling masses is to be found in communist countries."

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"Capitalism manufactures wealth by a give-and-take between commodities' use value to consumers and their profitability to manufacturers. Where this give and take occurs without hindrance, the magic of the marketplace creates the marvels of production and affluence that we take for granted in the capitalist West."

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"The injustices that occur in capitalism result from inequitable distribution of profit, not in creation of profit itself. Over the years, capitalism has been made more equitable by legislation, unions and taxation."

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"Capitalism, rather than being an evil system, is a marvelous tool which when used wisely by humane leaders, can meet all man's material needs. The only revolution needed in capitalism is a moral and ethical one that can direct it towards that purpose."

Richard L. Lewis

Richard Lewis is the editor of the Unification News. He wrote an article (September 1983) praising Warren Brookes's book, The Economy In Mind. This book is an excellent book on how capitalism is spiritual. Lewis correctly sees this and writes a very good review praising the book. He writes, "This book will be of great interest to those who are developing Unification Thought. One of the purposes of Unification Thought is a critique and counter-proposal to Marxist philosophy. However, although Marxism has a well developed economic theory, there is a conspicuous lack of one in Unification Thought. Economy In Mind fits nicely into that gap and should prove a great help in the development of our philosophic system."

"First, and perhaps most important, the basic orientation that Warren Brookes follows in his book aligns with the most basic precept of Divine Principle -- that the mind and spirit are subject and cause, while the body and material are object and effect."

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"Brookes' economic viewpoint creates a solid foundation to critique the wellmeaning social programs of the socialist (in the British sense) state. As the cause of crime is not a bad judicial system, so the cause of poverty is not the money system. The cause of poverty is not a lack of cash, the cure is not cash hand-outs. Brookes sees economic reform as dependent on spiritual reform:

'It was this essential message that permeated the Sermon on the Mount .... if they would search for the individual understanding of God, this understanding and the resulting inspiration would in turn give them all the 'things' they would need. ... I was Moses, for example, who spurned the comparative comfort and security of the Egyptian 'welfare state' (and its bondage) to lead a national tribe out into a cruel and dangerous wilderness . . . even the most basic needs could be met by putting God first -- that faith indeed is real substance.'"

Dr. Tyler Hendrick

Tyler Hendricks wrote an article in the UNews (April '89) titled, "Some Political Implications of the Divine Principle." He writes very strongly for democracy and for America's Constitution. He writes, "For some critics of the goals of the Unification Movement, the Kingdom of God reduces to 'automatic theocracy.' The term does not appear in Divine Principle (DP), the Unification Church's (UC) official teaching. DP gives some rough idea of the political structure of the Kingdom, though more as an aside, and not as a prescription."

Against Political Absolutism

"Let it be clarified that DP and Rev. Moon are opposed to totalitarianism and absolutism. DP speaks against 'totalitarianism (which denies) equality and freedom of individuality,' categorizing it as 'Cain type' and detrimental to the full development of human potential and the accomplishment of God's will (DP 467). If 'Cain-type' throws you off, refer to Augustine's 'city of man:' that is something akin to what we mean by 'Cain-type.' American democracy represented a 'victory over absolutism' for the sake of 'freedom of faith.' DP approves the 'People's Pact, resisting the king (1640)' and the Puritan Revolution, as well as the American Revolution in spirit and ideology."

"Further, DP explicitly terms the separation of powers, 'to decentralize national power and prevent it from being concentrated in a specific individual or organization,' as the basis for 'the structure of the ideal society.'"

The Viewpoint of Spirit

"Divine Principle approves the structure of democracy; it is the spirit of the people which is the problem."

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"The ideal of the Messiah's second advent, which Rev. Moon is pursuing is not to create a new political system, but rather to do all he can to center the present system,democracy, upon God's will (DP 471)."

"'Separation between religion and politics' is to be distinguished from 'separation of church and state.' Rev. Moon stated in the Hatch hearings that he 'fundamentally support(s) the separation between church and state.' Relationship between religion and politics means having a value orientation to the political life of the nation, with the value system based upon religion, which presupposes the existence of God. Do we not refer to the US as 'one nation under God?' Does that not directly implicate a relationship between religion and politics in our country?"