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. The one big exception to their praise of
the free market is in the official Divine Principle book where
the author says that the end of human history will be socialist. We
write more on this in our book Freedom Works that deals with
politics and economics. In a few words our take on this unfortunate
use of the word socialism in the UC's basic book of theology is an
attempt to try to explain how the future ideal world will be a place
where each person has their needs fulfilled. The writer may or not
believe that there will be a precise equality of material goods in
the future utopia like all socialists dream of. We don't know what
exactly the writer (perhaps it was Rev. Kwak) thinks of socialism and
capitalism. We do know that the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will be a
completely free economy and therefore some may have more money than
others,
but no one will be lacking in any way materially or spiritually.
COURAGE TO BE
CAPITALIST
God has worked powerfully through such
intellectuals as Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich
Hayak in their wonderful books on laissez-faire capitalism.
In Intellectuals and Socialism Friedrich Hayak
wrote: "The main lesson which the true liberal must learn from the
success of the socialists is that it was their courage to be Utopian
which gained them the support of the intellectuals and therefore the
influence on public opinion." The UC needs to have the courage to
teach that God's goal in human history is for a Libertarian economy
and Satan taught the false ideology of socialism. It is a grave error
to use the word "socialism" in the UC's Divine Principle. They
should replace the word with "laissez-faire capitalism."
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.
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."
...
"And the greatest contrast between privileged elites and the
toiling masses is to be found in communist countries."
...
"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."
...
"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."
...
"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."
...
"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
Hendricks
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."
...
"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?"
