The Internet turns everyone into a publisher.
This is a quote from a speech given in 2001 at the World Media Conference in Tokyo, Japan. I just read excerpts from that speech and another one given in 2002 in America, live on Facebook.
Last weekend Josef and I went to Munich to the Bloom Festival with Mother Moon and two and a half thousand Unificationists. We came from all over Europe and the Middle East.
It was fascinating to meet up with people I had not seen for many years and then even to meet with people I knew whom I had never met in person!
New Age
With the recent developments in Quantum Physics, the astrological predictions of a New Age coming and the consistent predictions of a messianic apparition, it was wonderful to meet up with fellow believers who had gathered to attend the Mother of Peace, Hak Ja Han Moon on this Pentecostal weekend.
There is so much more I could say, but who am I talking to?
I am looking forward to a dialogue, a give and take as I acknowledge that peace is an orchestra. It is the harmony of give and take action between different instruments playing the same tune, but all different parts, in different ways.
Here, I share the texts I just read to you with links to their full texts, freely available without commercial interest.
Role of the media
I am interested in the role of the media and also in the rapid commercialization taking place in so many communication channels.
I believe we should be able to communicate freely regardless of social or economic status. I think I should be able to followup on things that interest me without being hijacked by distracting offers seeking to entice me to buy something I had no intention of getting.
I believe we are in the throes of creating our ideal world according to our own concepts and ideas. So I know it is important to articulate those concepts and ideas. I know there are enough resources for all humankind to take care of one another as one human family.
Resources
However, sometimes it seems the resources most needed are the educational tools and mentoring relationships to enable our spirits to grow mature enough to live a life of love and service, without resorting to exploitation and deception in order to glean profit from unsuspecting customers to fill our own koffers.
Here’s the text of the speeches I read for you:
27. A United Direction for the Media in the New Millennium
January 15, 2001
Keio Plaza Inter-Continental Hotel, Tokyo, Japan 2001 World Media Conference
The world is overflowing with news and information, and at the same time we are witnessing a trend toward the expansion of commercialization. Information and images are being sold on the market as commercial goods. Rather than evaluating the ethical, social and moral influence of these “goods,” their*producers emphasize marketability, that is, what consumers will pay for their information or images. We need a critical eye in order to rightly assess the influence of the information highway. We need to look beyond the external aspects of this era’s amazing development of science and technology and focus on the internal aspects, on what is being, or can be, conveyed through the media.
In the twenty-first century humanity will face problems that are more fundamental and, in some ways, even more dangerous than those of the Cold War era. These problems will no longer involve confrontation between East and West; instead they will be a worldwide conflict of values. In short, there will be a global war between morality and immorality.
Excessive commercialization is already having a negative impact on our basic human dignity. It makes it difficult for God to be with us in our lives. The media is attempting to uphold its own standard of morality by emphasizing justice and fairness. However, those in the media are exposed to the temptation of succumbing to those with authority and power, who control the competitive media market and pursue their own business interests, with no regard for moral values.
Modern communication technology expands our freedom of speech. The Internet turns everyone into a publisher. This may sound strange, but nowadays we have so much freedom of expression that we are drowning in it. Therefore, how we exercise our freedom of expression is a vital issue.
The value and dignity of an individual rise and shine all the more on the stable foundation of a true family. The family is the best place for a man and a woman to learn to respect each other and to live together in harmony. It is there that people learn about true love — which, with respect to family, is the most important factor in life.
Our parents and our brothers and sisters are the primary influences on our perception of values with regard to the world. The family is the first and best school for learning about love. The family is indeed the cornerstone of an ideal society and a peaceful world. That is why the media need to respect and protect the value of the true family.
A society may be affluent and free, and it may create an environment wherein every family can have computers with fiber-optic Internet access. However, if this society cannot prevent the breakdown of its families, it is not a sound society that can bring happiness to its citizens.
The World Media Association, which I founded in 1978, has made efforts to promote freedom of the press in regions where it is suppressed, and has contributed toward the responsible use of that freedom where it is guaranteed. I hope that during this conference you will all participate in coming up with guidelines for the responsible conduct of the media in today’s new environment.
In the information age, no matter where you are, it is possible for you to communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere in the world. However, in order to fulfill God’s Will for you, your nation and the world, you need to have a sense of responsibility about the values your communications convey, and the influence they have in the world. Moreover, you need to be bold in asserting true values in your own life, as an example to others. If you do so, you will return glory to God and bring hope and happiness to humanity.
I expect that your serious efforts at this conference will bear wonderful results. We already have secured the technology necessary for effectively conveying all kinds of news and information to the world. It is my hope that you now will take an interest in the values of the heart and the original nature of true human beings, and connect with God as you make use of this technology.
28. The Life of Jesus from the Perspective of God’s Will and God’s Warning to the Present Age
May 21, 2002, Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington, DC, USA
Twentieth Anniversary of The Washington Times
My final message to America
More than thirty years have passed since I came to America. I have reached the age of eighty-two years, and the time is coming for me to return to my homeland. Before leaving, I would like to clearly convey to America, the nation in the realm of the Second Israel, and to all humankind a message concerning the actual situation of God and the spirit world. This is not just a message given by me as an individual.
Heaven is sending the message that humankind needs to receive in this age. Until now, humankind has been living in a state of ignorance about the Will of Heaven. First, humanity has not known about God, and second, we have not known about the spirit world, where we all must go eventually, whether we like it or not.
As Jesus was bringing to a conclusion four thousand years of history and more than thirty years of his own life, there was only one person who connected with Jesus and attended Jesus as the one who embodied his most fervent hopes, even as he accompanied Jesus on the path of death. That was the thief on the right. The fact that the thief on the right had this position means that he surpassed the disciples. He was superior to Peter.
Although the thief did not know Jesus’ teachings, his heart directed and empowered him to attend Jesus at the moment of death, until he breathed his last. Peter, James and others of the twelve disciples, by contrast, knew Jesus’ teachings and even pledged to become new persons. Ultimately, they were not able to achieve this. You have to know that, for this reason, the thief on the right became a central character in human history, a man who represented the earth and salvaged the future.
Taken from Book 5 Absolute Values and a New World Order of Pyeong Hwa Gyeong 2014: The Holy Scriture of Cheon Il Guk
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