Those Who Want Change Verses Those Who Want To Keep Things The Way They Are

Hyo Jin Moon September 1, 1991 Belvedere, New York

Today my topic will be, "Those Who Want To Change VS. Those Who Want To Keep Things The Way They Are." Today I want to focus this message on several examples.

Most of you are blessed members. I gather that most of you have children. It is difficult raising children because there are so many things that come into their lives. You as a parent must understand what is right and wrong for your children, because they do not have the ability or the understanding to separate right from wrong. You must separate what is right from what is wrong in your children's lives. That is the responsibility of a parent. It is as simple as that.

Fulfilling that responsibility is not an easy task. Although your children are young, they have minds of their own and it is very difficult to control their lives. Picture yourself taking something your child likes away from him because you feel it will be detrimental to him. Even though your child wants it you have the duty to take it away. You have an obligation to take what is not appropriate away from that child. Is that responsibility easy to fulfill? Those of you who have done that know how difficult it is. It is difficult emotionally and mentally and many times it's difficult physically to sort out the situation so that child can see from your point of view.

Picture yourself trying to take something away from a 300 pound gorilla. You can take something away easily from a child, for example a very harmful, sugar coated candy, easily because you are much stronger than your child. Without even giving an explanation, you can physically take it away. However, when you're dealing with a 300 pound gorilla, which is much stronger than you, obviously the task will be much greater and more difficult. Why am saying this? Simply because my topic today is those who want who want to change things versus those who want to keep things the way they are.

Our responsibility as the Unification Church is to change this world based on Principle. We understand the value of the Principle; we understand why it is important and we understand that what the world has to offer is not correct in terms of God's Providence and Will. It doesn't come near what God expects from mankind. We want to change this world, but it is going to be very difficult without us having the proper strategy, goals and means to make change. It is not as simple as taking candy or a harmful toy away from a child. Compared to taking a toy from a child, taking something from a gorilla is difficult. However, even taking something from a gorilla does not compare to the difficulty of our responsibility to change this world.

One of our staff members at the Manhattan Center brought to me an article. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, American teenagers view television an average of 10,500 hours between seventh grade and twelfth grade. That amount of time is equivalent to a child's' attendance in an academic institution from kindergarten to the end of high school. So, they're actually watching television more than twice the amount of time they're going to school. It averages to five hours every day. You don't have vacation from television. There are no Saturdays or Sundays or weekends. It is consistent viewing day after day. An entire chunk of the child's lifetime, over 10,500 hours, is spent watching television.

And why do they watch? It's not just mere entertainment. For children, the television is a source of information and the source of their livelihood. They gain ideas about how life is and how they should dress, how they should find friends and what kind of friends they should find. They learn what kind of friends are cool and acceptable and what kind are not. They are literally being educated more substantially by the television than by the educational system.

I stand here and look at you, and I consider how you educate your children. You might educate your children when they're young, but what happens to your children when they go out into society and start to mingle with others? They have to go to school. Do we have schools in our church? Do we have our own universities in America? Do we have the educational facilities that we need for our children in the American church? No. It's a very serious point. Your children are growing up. How are