True Mother (as Unificationists call Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, wife of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon) recently concluded her world summit tours. The first continental-level event was held in January 2018 in Senegal, Africa, and the last in December in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The hallmark of these summits, as well as programs in Korea, Japan and America, was her proclamation that she is the only begotten daughter of God. She wanted to make this bold statement on the world stage and in front of heads of state and government as well as distinguished leaders in all fields.
Including both the first and last summits, eight sitting presidents, prime ministers and monarchs attended. Additionally, in the audiences were former heads of state and government, deputy prime ministers and vice presidents, government ministers, speakers, members of parliament, elected officials, other high-level dignitaries, along with eminent religious leaders. It was a collective victory for God by us all.
In announcing she is God’s daughter at these summits, True Mother is solving one of the most critical problems of our time. In societies around the world and throughout history, women have been raped, trafficked into prostitution, beaten at home, murdered, unwillingly impregnated, and forced into life-threatening abortions (mostly when the fetus in their womb was known to be female).
The solution to the way we mistreat women will never be fully addressed through the power of police, the number of prisons, the verdicts of courts, more laws, or even the fear of capital punishment. These have been tried but the problem remains unsolved.
The lasting solution is a fundamental change of attitude towards women, incorporated in a new heart and culture. We need something original and innovative; something never thought of or done before.
No woman in history ever proclaimed on a global stage that she was God’s only begotten daughter. No woman ever invested so many resources in making this bold statement. True Mother’s investment of financial and human resources is unparalleled. At the age of 76, she is investing all her energy. For older people, extensive travel, changing time zones to distant locales, and walking through long airport corridors is very difficult.
Her summits are not for the purpose of self-promotion; they are problem-solving on an historical level. Mother Moon is risking her position and the reputation of the worldwide organizations she represents (many she personally founded) to provide a much-needed answer to the critical problems related to changing our attitude towards and treatment of women. Her declaration is a cosmic game-changer.
This is exactly what needs to happen. It is an entirely new approach, a new understanding and attitude towards women, where we begin to honor our daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers in the highest possible way, by acknowledging the divine feminine nature intrinsic in them.
What if husbands thought of their wives as God’s daughters? What if women thought of themselves as the daughters of God? What if brothers controlled themselves — not just to avoid disease or impregnating a woman, but to protect their sisters as the embodiment of the feminine essence of God’s divinity? What if children were raised knowing they and their siblings are sons and daughters of God? Even angels in the spiritual world would benefit from this revolutionary way of thinking initiated here on earth.
Sadly, this mindset and heart did not emerge at the very beginning of human history. Instead we inherited a legacy of selfishness that permeates our sexual thinking and behavior still today. Adam did not see Eve as God’s daughter. Eve did not see herself as the daughter of God. The archangel looked at the first woman as a sex object for personal pleasure and a way to supplant God’s heavenly lineage. This egocentric, sex-centered attitude towards women is not only the origin of our problems historically, but also central to some of the most ubiquitous problems we currently face.
Whether pedophilia in religious institutions, sexual harassment which now has become publicly-known through the #MeToo movement, the free sex movement of the 1960s, the same-sex movement today, or the disintegration of families, at the core of these unsolved social problems is the confusion related to the dignity of women and, correlated to this, the lack of understanding of the proper role of human sexuality. This is at the root of our fallen nature, culture and lineage.
True Mother is not a theologian. She has said so herself. Her declaration as God’s only begotten daughter cannot be understood by dissecting her words. The big picture is that Mother Moon is sharing with us her upbringing, her life as a refugee during the Korean War, her Korean heritage, her motherhood bearing 14 children, and ultimately her victory of being side-by-side with her husband, True Father (Rev. Moon), for 52 years. Her victory of knowing she embodies the feminine divinity of God was her constant internal strength. She is sharing this victory on a global stage, telling each and every person of the inherent value, ultimate purpose, and utmost integrity of womanhood.
In declaring, “I am the only begotten daughter of God,” True Mother is establishing a new benchmark. She is setting the record straight as to the unique position of women based on God’s original principle of creation. In fact, she is also sharing with us the entire history of the providence of restoration. The human fall was the inability to recognize Eve as God’s only begotten daughter. Likewise, the culmination of human history is the advent of God’s first triumphant daughter/sister/wife/mother.
Dr. Moon is addressing what happened at the beginning of human history. Why didn’t Adam, Eve or the Archangel understand Eve’s divinity? From where would they have learned this? Who would have taught them that Eve was God’s begotten daughter? This could only come from God Himself. God knew who Eve was. Adam did not. If the Archangel knew anything about it, he surely did not share that with Eve when she asked about the meaning of the commandment, “Do not eat.” Clearly, no one but God could have taught this concept to our first human ancestors. Then why didn’t God teach that and why didn’t our first human ancestors understand Eve’s value and position?
In True Mother’s recent speeches, it is clear she is emphasizing that selfishness, or a lack of filial heart (hyo-jeong) preceded the misuse of sex. In Vienna, Austria, at the “Peace Starts with Me” rally on April 29, 2018, she said, “when [Adam and Eve] had not fully matured, they developed greed. Due to that, the fallen human beings of today, who have no connection to God, were born.” A year earlier in Bangkok, Thailand, at the international launching of Youth and Students for Peace, she explained that our first human ancestors “… felt and experienced greed before they could become ancestors of humankind. They ended up having self-centered hearts.”
Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon meets with H. E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal, on January 19, 2018 in the Presidential Palace, during the Africa Summit 2018 in Dakar, Senegal.
Most recently during the Asia Pacific Summit 2018 in Nepal on December 1, she again mentioned that “during this process [of the growing period] Adam and Eve became greedy and made the world of today, which has no connection to God.” In other words, greed, self-centered hearts, or lack of hyo-jeong, led to the misuse of love which, in turn, then created the lineage of Satan and disconnected this world from its Creator, God.
In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam the commandment, “Do not eat.” The content was important, but opening up lines of communication between God and His children was more important than the content itself. According to the biblical account, after receiving God’s instruction, Adam did not in any way acknowledge what he received. There was no “10-4” (a reply in walkie-talkie communication meaning “understood”), no question about its meaning, no inquiry for more information, no nothing.
On her part, Eve had questions about the commandment, but she asked the Archangel, not God, and was misled and deceived. There was no communication between God and His daughter. God did not want the conversation to end after giving them the commandment — He wanted it to begin. Sadly, however, neither of our first human ancestors developed a free, open and honest conversation with God. There were many things He wanted to share with them.
In explaining to Adam and Eve why they should not have sex during their growing period, the conversation could have easily and naturally turned to God clarifying that Eve was His daughter. The commandment, therefore, would mean much more than sexual self-control; it would be the beginning of a relationship with God.
God’s commandment to Adam meant he would be entrusted with the protection of God’s daughter. Adam’s responsibility was to keep Eve safe and in this way prepare her for marriage. While she is growing to maturity, Eve would come to recognize (through talking with God) that her position was to be the mother of all humankind. She was to create, along with her husband, God’s lineage on earth.
But this type of education could only come from God, no one else. Because the first human ancestors did not have an ongoing communication with God, they never learned about Eve’s true identity and value. The value of women is not bestowed on them by men or angels. It comes from God alone.
No response means no communication. No communication means no give-and-take action. No give-and-take-action means no energy to keep the commandment and, ultimately, no relationship with God. In this regard, Mother Moon correctly identifies greed, a self-centered heart, or lack of hyo-jeong, as the root of the problem at the beginning of human history. Extreme individualism is also seen as the underlying cause of secularism, family breakdown and social sexual chaos that are rampant today.
Clearly, there was no free-flowing communication between God and the first human ancestors. No lines of communication between God and His children means spiritual death, i.e., no hyo-jeong. The fall was not just sexual; it began with the undocumented “#MeFirst” or “#OnlyMe” movement in the Garden of Eden which destroyed the ideal of creation.
True Mother’s teachings about hyo-jeong, her emphasis on God as our Heavenly Parent, and proclamation of being God’s only begotten daughter are inextricably linked together.
Focusing on the meaning of hyo-jeong, it is more than just how we treat our parents (the traditional concept of filial piety in Confucianism). Filial piety focuses on and is limited to a child’s love and respect for his or her parents. Hyo-jeong, on the other hand, declares that I must not only honor my parents with filial piety, but also honor them in the way I treat my brothers and sisters, by the way I treat my spouse, and in the way parents raise children and grandchildren.
We can almost say that hyo-jeong is filial piety in six relationships: parents and children, brothers and sisters, and husband and wife. Obviously, hyo-jeong goes far beyond and is much deeper than filial piety. This is probably why Dr. Moon felt compelled to coin a new term.
At her advanced age when many people would retire, True Mother is traveling around the world offering a solution to the most serious social problems of our time. In declaring her daughtership to God, she is liberating all women. At the same time, she is educating all men. In essence, she is asking all of us to change our attitudes towards ourselves and, especially, towards women. Both men and women need to understand the true identity of women as the daughters of God.♦
Dr. Robert S. Kittel (UTS Class of 1994) is the international president of Youth and Students for Peace. He received his D. Ed. from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut in 2004, specializing in family-value-based character education and earned his Master of Divinity degree from UTS. Since 1975 he has lived and worked primarily in South Asia, spending 10 years in Nepal, 2007-17.
Photo at top: Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon addresses the Asia Pacific Summit 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Dec. 1.
Applied Unificationism 
Dr. Kittel has written a very good essay; where Unificationism appears to be prophetic in the truest sense of the term: it sheds the light of God’s Providence on very hot and critical issues of our time. His essay opens our own minds. It places the recent statements of True Mother as the only begotten daughter at the very center of the contemporary debate which started with the #MeToo movement.
In other words, this #MeToo movement should not be seen as a secular thing but be connected to the Providence conducted by True Mother. Dr. Kittel provides an eschatological perspective on it. He relates this worldwide movement of the Last Days, which impacts all women everywhere, to what happened to the very first woman in the Last Days. As the Bible says,
“That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. 13:35)
Very creative and cogent commentary from Robert Kittel! A fresh and refreshing perspective on True Mother’s claim to stand as God’s Only Begotten Daughter, a viewpoint that usefully speaks to all of us at the level of the multidimensionality of our own soul. We must move beyond the narrowness of dogmatic theology to be able to authentically address the Heart of God — thank you, Robert, for affirming this understanding!
Thank you, Robert Kittel, for bringing theology down to earth. I have been applauding Mother’s bold declarations without truly appreciating their implications for me in my own life. I’ve even connected the new women’s empowerment movements to the fact that our True Mother is center stage and leading the Providence — just the fact that we see a beautiful daughter of God at the helm of our movement. This must impact our world even without conscious understanding. Now, though, I shall keep in mind the clarity of Mother’s teaching and try to remember also my own true identity.
Thank you, Dr. Kittel. I truly appreciate your article. It is empowering.
“Marriage is not simply a union between a man/woman but a precious ceremony that carries on God’s work of Creation. Marriage is the pathway through which man/woman come together as one, to create life and find a way to true love.”
Still today even in our UM we can see how difficult it is to get through and overcome false concepts inherited from our ancestors. When at the CheonJeong Gung and TM gives words of guidance, 95% of those present are brothers.
Dr. Kittel, this problem will be the last to be solved and then we will enter in the GIC era. May HP help all of us.
This point that Robert Kittel is bringing up again in this article is beginning to resonate with me as it is answering some questions I have had for some time. On one hand, in relationship with our second-generation children — those who don’t have the perfect faith we wish them to have – and on another hand the state of our movement as well.
The point of the scope of what happened in the Garden of Eden, that Dr. Kittel brings up, not being only that Adam and Eve had premature sexual relationships but also not having developed their relationship with God, translates into how important it is for us, Blessed Parents, to do what God has done after the Fall of our first human ancestors. Even though the Bible says that He drove them out of the Garden of Eden, on another hand, it also says that God made them garments of skins and clothed them. We know, from the History of Restoration how much God has cared for us.
Another point that Dr. Kittel’s “discovery” is also bringing up to me is this: The fact that Adam and Eve, being totally pure, messed up that much also helps me to accept that Jesus, True Father and True Mother, even though they are totally pure and even though they do know God’s heart — nevertheless are also people who had the responsibility to figure out the path of being a True Child of God – in a fallen world – and on top of that, the path of solving humanity’s mistakes of the past, and, the path of “teaching us,” those other human beings who are so far from it all.
It is the responsibility of the Messiahs, I would say, to figure out the path of restoration. And Divine Principle content is a witness to what an amazing job Father has done. However, on another hand, I must come to the full resolution in my heart that he too, in the process of figuring this path out, didn’t always take the very best shortest one -– which explains to me why True Parents’ children are where they are at this time and also why, as a movement, we are in the situation we are in at this time –- which is being rectified, hopefully in time, by True Mother and the 430 Tribal Messiahship Providence.
My gratitude to Laurent Ladouce, Kerry Pobanz, Sally Sayre, Chantal-Marie Masuda, and Migliore Gennaro for your comments. I’m humbled by your taking the time to share your heart and thoughts. Let’s keep talking among ourselves, to our children, and especially to our wives (to the men out there). Communication is critical in building healthy relationships.
Excellent article, Robert! This is the best explanation I’ve heard or read about True Mother as God’s only-begotten daughter. I think this explanation has the power to sell in the public marketplace of ideas and as a key philosophical solution for our times. Even people who discount the historical accuracy (or symbolism) of the Garden of Eden story in Genesis will need to pause and consider this argument and solution for peace within the individual, family, society, nation, and world.
Dr. Kittel,
Many thanks for your in depth analysis of the human fall. It surely makes sense and is one way to naturally untangle the mysteries surrounding the fall. By your interpretation, I am now very much looking forward to see the recorded scenes that ultimately led to the fall in the hereafter.
Allow me a few queries on your article:
1. You mention first about the suffering of women by the hands of men in response to True Mothers declaration of the only begotten daughter. In my view, this declaration goes far deeper, meaning men and women are truly equal. Not only equal by secular measures, but by the messianic standard of world salvation, meaning she is equally important in the accomplishment of the will as her husband. This of course does not negate the points you bring up.
2. The issue about greed is something I recall True Father used to speak about when he referred to True Love. Perhaps greed in itself is okay. It is just the direction taken to satisfy greed which is the problem. The first sentence in DP states that everybody seeks happiness. Here already greed can be interpreted as a cause. True Mother does not go into an in depth analysis here, simply because she gives a summary.
Robert,
I thank you for clarifying hyo-jeong and for expanding the definition of hyo-jeong to all six directions. Among these, the relationship most urgently needed for societies is the downward parent-child. After all, the payout for dedicating one’s marriage as an offering to Heavenly Parent is the promise of having children free of vulnerability to evil forces centered on Satan. The future of the world depends on parents — especially those who receive the Marriage Blessing offered by the True Parents — wisely guiding their children’s development. I have identified some principles of true parenting to help children as they grow through stages.
Then, what are these principles? The model downward parent-child relationship, that of Heavenly Parent and the first human ancestors, is described in True Parents’ commenting on the first four chapters of the Hebrew Scriptures. True Mother in Madison Square Garden condensed this as, “God gave Adam and Eve the creation principle for their period of responsibility”. This set the foundation for the further elaboration in the quotations that you supplied. Then, what was the function of this creation principle which they received? Adam and Eve were immature and thus in the realm of receiving God’s dominion indirectly, growing by the power inherent in the principle. (Presumably, their growth was aided by the power of pure love generated by their interactions in accordance with the principle.)
When Eve was about to cross the line and fall, her original mind and conscience created in her foreboding as a warning: the original mind always seeks responsibility, and conscience may be the projection of the force inherent in the creation principle combined with experience. God could have intervened to prevent the fall but did not. One reason He did not was to preserve the human portion of responsibility. Another reason was to uphold human beings’ position as superior to that of angels, the human position having been described earlier as a position of dignity. We can therefore assert two principles of true parenting: one is to respect the dignity of the child at all times (and I believe this applies in all subject-object relationships); another is to give a child as much responsibility as is thought he or she can manage.
That God after the first murder acted to protect Cain from any seeking revenge shows a third principle: true parenting is unconditional. Next, that true parenting is all-transcending is shown in the Bible by God caring for people no matter where they may be — with Jesus, God’s only begotten son, even descending into hell to preach to the damned. Finally, God is shown relating to human beings with increasing intimacy: true parents seek always to maintain and develop intimacy with a child as he or she grows.
To flesh this out, based on my being the son of parents who were educators of children younger than adolescence; my having attended independent progressive-education schools and imbibed their philosophy; discussions with my sister who taught in and became principal of an inner-city preschool; a course in human maturation at Union Theological Seminary; reflections on how we parented and ought to have parented our two sons; and further research, I created a PowerPoint parenting workshop: understanding children as they grow through stages and helping them according to the principles of true parenting, parenting with the heart of hyo-jeong for each child. The PowerPoint workshop simply states the principles of true parenting and then presents strategies for applying them according to a child’s stage of maturation. (The workshop is created as a purely secular presentation and can be tweaked by a presenter to be supported by Unification theology, Christian theology, or, for that matter, for any culture.) It begins with understanding and parenting a very young child and moves through elementary-school age children, adolescent children, and adult children.
Concerning a very young child, the assumption is that every person is born with the fundamental irrepressible desire to give love, helping others (later elaborated by adding “to whatever scope imagined”) with spiritual and physical growth guided by an innate intelligence. Evidence is cited that children even younger than two are empathetic and inclined to altruistic behavior. Parenting strategies to enable the child to be more ready to act on this inclination are presented, including the bonding of a child with an adult often seen in the home, the development of self-confidence, and frustration management. The goal of every child is to become an adult and each child is studying and experimenting with how to achieve this goal.
The presentation shows how certain areas of a child’s life develop stage by stage, including: the mode and content of learning, including of social/societal relationships; the expansion of imagination; modes of relating; intimacy; expansion of creativity; and decision-making. The discussion of some of these, for example, friendships of elementary- school age children, is more detailed than others. The fundamental ethical principle, namely, the principle of dual purpose, is introduced at the start of the section on elementary-school-age children. The workshop’s narration is freely available to anyone with or without references to Unificationist or to Christian tradition.