A Loving Family Expands to Loving World

The ideal family alone can serve as the building block of the Kingdom of God.

—Sun Myung Moon

What if every human was raised in a godly, ideal home? 

Where brothers and sisters respected each other, mother and father were devoted to another and were the examples of true love? Abuse, fighting and separation did not exist?

We can easily see that this would mature into the Kingdom of Heaven. Such people raised in a family would understand how to love others in the world based on the teachings of exemplary love within their own family.

When they encountered younger people their sisters and brother's age they would treat them just the same. When they encountered the elderly who are their grandparents' age, they would treat them just like their own flesh and blood.

The family is the primary means through which most people learn about love.

Unfortunately, this is also how evil entered the world.

Through the first family of Adam and Eve, thousands of generations later followed in their footsteps. What if Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel were to have followed in God's ways? 

What kind of society would we be born into in this day and age?

In order to cultivate true love over a lifetime, we need to establish loving relationships and family. The family packs a double punch in a life of love more than any other relationship.

The way one was raised in their family trains him or her in love as a child and sibling. This leads them to their own personal growth and maturity. 

Then, each individual based on their upbringing, takes what they learn to cultivate love in a new family with a spouse and children.

All of these experiences come full circle to educate a person in true love.

Many religions and moral traditions equate a loving relationship in the family as a template for a person's relationship with God.

In the Talmud, for instance, it is written, “When a man honors his father and mother, God says, ‘I regard it as though I had dwelt among them and they had honored me” Kiddushin, 30b

Jesus was the first to encourage his followers to think and relate with God as their father.

Confucius said, “Surely proper behavior toward parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness,” Analects 1.2 and “Filial piety is the root of all virtue” Classic of Filial Piety

Hinduism, Shinto, Buddhism, Islam and the traditional Native American and African faiths also echoes this sentiment.

Family life may be seen as a vocation for growing closer to God and allowing Him/Her to manifest and dwell in true love.

A Buddhist master stated that the family is demanding of members responsibilities as any monastery.

From this viewpoint, the family can be a vehicle of holiness and an instrument of salvation.

People within a community of faith refer to one another as 'brothers and sisters' or 'brethren.' Priests lead the members of the Catholic Church and they call him 'Father', and the title of the head of the Catholic Church is the “Holy Father.” 

Such communities are led by nuns who are called 'Sister' and sometimes 'Mother'.

The importance of the family in raising good human beings is corroborated by the findings of social scientists.

Family enhances human and moral development in numerous and positive ways.

Social scientists and policymakers uphold the family as the crucial factor in the physical as well as the mental, emotional, and moral well-being of the children. Therefore, the family is the backbone of social order.

Unfortunately, the status of the family in society in our times have come into question.

Even though times have changed, the fundamental patterns of father, mother and children are still in place showing that the members of the family has basic need for its structure.

Couples live together and raise their children even if they are from previous relationships. Even though there are are the non traditional relationships of same-sex couples, there is still a masculine and feminine role in each relationship. 

Many still want to have their union recognized through a traditional marriage and even adopt children.

Those who do not have a family form surrogate and substitute families. Gangs are joined by youngsters in order to get the same strength and protection they get from the feeling of a family from their 'home boys'.

A convicted criminal leader of the L.A. Crips notorious gang had said in an interview that he turned toward the streets because he did not have a proper family upbringing. 

The same with homeless children, or teenagers of the street, they also form 'families' and band together.

Still, none of these substitutes for the missing qualities in their own homes can fulfill the same benefits as a basic family structure of a father, mother with their biological children.

As far back as our knowledge takes us, anthropologist Margaret Mead affirmed about the centrality of the traditional family, human beings have always lived in families. There is no period where this was not so.

Even though modern society has made proposals for change and there have been actual experiments to dissolve the family or displace the traditional roles, human society still reaffirms their dependence on the family as the basic unit of human living. This is a family with a father, mother and children.

Return for Tomorrow's Post:

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook “Educating for True Love” written by a team of writers to explain the philosophy of Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

Why Do We Struggle With Sin?

People wonder why good people and religious people throughout history have always been persecuted.  For this reason, many people believe that that there is no God at all.

They wonder if God is a good all-powerful God, why does He allow so much suffering in the world.  Why have the major religions in their beginning been persecuted?

Persecution comes so that movement can receive blessings in the end.

It has always been true that under persecution a good person would become stronger. 

On the other hand, a self-centered individual begins to lean toward the evil side.  This is an age-old pattern where leaning toward the bad side, we feel ourselves weakening.  No matter how smart, rich or famous a person is, once he decides to stand apart from the side of goodness, he will begin to weaken.

Then the question is what would cause a person to turn away from the side of goodness?  Why does it seem that the rich people of the world seem to be the scoundrels causing many problems , not the good people?

Once a person veers toward the bad side, it is very hard to return to the good side.

But, if a person resides on the bad side realizes his lowly position and why good people are persecuted, he can go once more toward the way of goodness.

Looking at the situation of good and bad sides, then we must know there are two kinds of  gods to govern either one.

One god propagates goodness and one who multiplies and glorifies evil by helping evil people to prosper.

Does it seem rational to think that these two gods worked together to create the world, or did one become a creation from the other?

This is the very question that man has wondered: is man originally good or created to be both good and bad?  Some say that man was both good and bad while others feel that originally he was bad, but was made to have a choice to overcome evil by getting better and better day by day.

Where this confusion of origin lies, people don't have the tools to know which way to go.

Logically speaking, if a bad god created this world from the beginning, then the world will be bad and the outcome would be bad.  But on the contrary, man was built with a godly conscience that pushes us to want to do good.

This good conscience struggles against the heavy stream of badness in this hellish world.

If the world was built to be evil, then why does our conscience exist which causes so much internal struggle within each one of us?

If a bad god created the world then he would not have had room to create the conscience.

Can we conclude that conscience came into being after man was created or that it was part of man all along?  How do we think that conscience was part of man all the time?  How can conscience be such a strong force all throughout history and where does it come from?

Is it possible for a light source in the darkness to keep shining if it was not powered from another source somewhere else? We have witnessed that the conscience has immense power and is always present within us.

So, can we conclude that the conscience is powered by energy from somewhere outside itself?

We know God, so we feel that our conscience must be powered by energy from God.  We believe that the conscience continues to fight against the evil in history until evil is finally conquered and dispersed.

As long as evil remains in man, it will always confront the ways of goodness and will not freely let it go on its way.

Even though a person lives by the guidance of their conscience, they are still tempted by evil.  How can these two conflicting ideas come to reside inside of man?

The only thing we can surmise is that along the way to man becoming perfected, some accident outside of God occurred which caused man to come to contain two opposing elements.

When we build a machine, we want it to work and function properly to perform its duties.  It is not necessary for every part of a machine to break down for it to stop working.  If even the smallest part stops working, the whole machine will not work.

When we examine a sinful man, we can see that there must be a part missing within each of us that is broken, yet the conscience is intact.

Something else is amiss.  When we look further, we will see that somehow the body has ceased functioning.   Man's conscience is still in its original state, but the body must be repaired to function correctly.

There are three types of people in the world: one who lives absolutely by his conscience, one who sometimes does and sometimes doesn't, and finally the kind of person who only lives for his own profit, and never thinks about the meaning behind things.

If there are two gods, the evil god would dominate the people in the third category, plus oftentimes dominate the people in the second category.  The god of goodness can only have a connection with people in the first category

The third category places emphasizes on the body's desires, while those in the second category follow the standard of conscience which changes according to how good or bad their circumstances are.

A person in the first category however is so conscientious that love is part of his motivation in whatever he does.

The world is a museum of people, good, bad and in-between. 

Satan battles over who gains people in either category.

Satan constantly invades the second and third groups, whereas God works the other way trying to strengthen the conscience of man.

Every competition has rules to obey.  There is no exception for good and evil.  These rules must be kept.  What kind of rule would be the standard to apply to all the situations in the universe?

When we take a grand look at the nations around the world and their laws, we see laws that are created to protect the citizens.  Laws are intended to protect goodness from being invaded.

A man must have true love before he can be a true man. 

Also, before God can be a true God, He also must have true love.  We can only think of a true rule in these terms.  Every person good, bad or in-between claims that they take every action from the base of true love, but how do we recognize true love?

True love likes and embraces everything, whether it is in man's world, God's world, or the world of the universe.

If true love was to become visible and rise just as the sun in the morning, everything would see and admire it and never take their gaze from it.  Even those in the spirit world will fix their eyes upon it.  Would everyone in the world rush to be the first to reach there?

Even true love has order.

Man's body also has an order.  Each limb and organ always appear in the same place.  Likewise, when love appears, those who are closest to being true should go there first.  Then, true man comes closest to true love.

But when true love does not show itself, heaven is empty.  Until a true man and true love appear, the real heaven is empty.

God is trying to broaden His territory.  This was the Principle of Creation though history's direction went in the opposite direction.  Wouldn't it be better to live in a domain of goodness than the current world of sin?  This realm would include everything.  Man is raised up enough to be included here, and all things will come under him, the three great blessings.

According to this godly standard, are you a true man?

If a good god created man, then why weren't we born as a true man?  Why does it take so much effort to become a true man after we are born?

Because something in the process of building the first family went fundamentally wrong with man.

Do you want to become a true man?

The first man and woman did not follow the true way and every person has inherited this tainted bloodline nonstop.  Therefore, man has come to live in the area where God does not dominate.  Man has been trying to overcome the effects of the fall through religion.

Man's fervent desire is to return to the original area where God dwells, but some material is needed to form a safe bridge.

This material is a true man.  Finally, God forms a bridge to enable man to go right into His heart.

It becomes clear when we know the small set of rules that govern all of history, then it no longer appears complicated.  It is less confusing than when the rules work on every level at the same time.

Every man was created with a conscience, and without being told, they know what is right.  Therefore, every person's mind has a purpose for goodness.  This intense feeling that makes you feel that you have to absolutely do something for goodness is almost a religious feeling.

When you first wake up and you see the sun shining in the morning, don't you automatically think that it is going to be a good day?  Also, if you were to meet someone early in the day, then you feel that the day will be a fruitful day.

On the other hand, when you meet a 'bad' person, maybe you feel it will be a fruitless day.

But, a religious man will think that when he meets a bad person that it will bring him luck.  They understand the difficulty and hardship will help you pay indemnity!

A bad man can not continue the true way of life for even one full day, for he would be too tired.  Religious people who follow the true way also become tired, but not discouraged.

It would be like an ordinary person might take a whole life to walk all the way to Washington, but religious people might walk all the way to the Orient in the same time.  Some people might climb 3, 000 feet high, but a religious person may climb a 30, 000 feet more.

Every man, good or bad, powerful or weak, wants to change the world the way he likes it.  

If a person has true love, anything can be done because everything he does is within the law of the universe.  If a person has the goal to reach true love in his life, no matter how long it takes, he still has to reach his destination.

Imagine a room is the entire earth and one person possesses a tiny speck of territory.  If this person has true love, the whole world is his.  Even God desires to posses this true love.  Each human has that desire, but usually people don't know why they have this desire.  It is natural.  The purpose of that desire is to guide them to find true love.

It is a good thing if a person posses this strong desire, because it will carry him up high toward true love.  Without this intense desire to have true love, a man will go wrong.

Desire can either be good or bad.

This point must be clear or one will become confused about which direction they should go.  Confusion in love causes you to lose power.  Nowadays, people are confused by the rules of love and follow all the wrong directions not knowing which way is up.

We need material to build this bridge whether it is all things, man or spirit world.

Each person's life is going toward the direction of love.  This is the providence of history to return humanity's path away from the fall toward God's heavenly direction.  Everything is fashioned to be directed toward this goal.  God also, must go in this direction, but without man's help, God cannot go there.

What does God's true love look like?

Is it God Himself or some object?  The object of God is a true man which He gives and takes with true love.  True God and true man were meant to live together centering on true love.

If God can do as He pleases, why does he make man suffer?  Why does man have to work so hard to mend broken history?

Without true man, God cannot completely fulfill His true love. We have an equal position in this.  God gave us a portion of responsibility in order for man to have a part of creation.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: Persecution is Necessary

This post was rewritten from the speech Persecution and Blessing