Don't take Sun Myung Moon's translated speeches literally

Chung Hwan Kwak
November 2, 1999

Having worked an editor for the Church under Rev. Kwak, I've been involved in the issue of taking Father's words literally. There are 2 problems with this attitude.

1. The words you and I hear (unless you speak fluent Korean) are not Father's words. They are the words of the translator. I spent some time talking with several Koreans during my tenure as editor. They all said that the translators did not, and could not, translate Father word for word. I did make an attempt during my tenure to have a Korean check the translation.

2. After Father's court case was lost, partially due to quotes from unedited, translated speeches it was decided that the all English language publications would make sure that did not happen again, so translations were edited to remove possibly negative content.

Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak's attitude was that if Father said it, then it should be printed. The Church legal department, many times disagreed. It usually fell to the specific editor to walk the thin line between the accurately quoting the translation and removing negative content.