Two Decades of Dedication and Distinction
In addition to the speech “The Life of Jesus as Seen from God’s Will, and God’s Warning to the Present Age, the Period of the Last Days,” which Father gave at The Washington Times’ 20th Anniversary Banquet, a second speech, “Freedom, Family and Faith: The Role of the Media in the 21st Century”–in which Father expresses many of his thoughts on the founding of the paper–was published in the same booklet distributed at the event. Excerpts appear below.
First, I wish to thank God for bringing us successfully through these twenty years of accomplishment. I also wish to offer my praise to all the employees of The Washington Times for their hard work and dedication. It is through their efforts that the newspaper has achieved its well-deserved reputation for distinction in reporting and excellence. Let’s give them all a big round of applause.
During the Cold War, God placed America in a position to protect worldwide freedom by blocking the attempt by communism to gain world domination. When the Washington Star closed down in 1981, this nation’s capital was left with only one newspaper, the Washington Post. This meant that the capital of the Free World had a limited perspective on news, issues, and policy, which ignored the danger of communism and its threat to the entire world at that time. In the context of God’s will, there needed to be a newspaper that had the philosophical and ideological foundation to encourage and enlighten the people and leaders of America. For months, I waited with the hope that some patriotic Americans would start a newspaper in Washington to provide an alternative voice to the Post. But when it became clear that no one would do so, I decided we had to do it.
Ronald Reagan had been elected president in a landslide vote. Yet while he tried to maintain a strong stand against communist expansion, there was much confusion in Washington over what America’s proper response to the Soviet threat should be. The Washington Times provided leadership through thoughtful commentary and objective news and information to make clear the harsh reality of communist tyranny….
The mission of The Washington Times, however, was not finished with the end of the Cold War. The fall of communism did not automatically lead to world peace. Nor did it mean that the ideal society that God desires would establish itself without any further effort on our part. Accordingly, during The Washington Times’ second decade it had to rise to a new challenge–that of the “Cultural War,” or the fight against the degradation of values.
God desired that America maintain its traditional family and moral values, which had fallen into confusion. Secular humanism and extreme individualism and selfishness were on the rise. As a result, money and material goods have become “gods” to people in terms of their values. This has led to the decline of religion and the rise of secular humanism, which have led to the breakdown of families and rising juvenile delinquency.
We see evidence of this epidemic everywhere, especially among our youth: the AIDS epidemic, increased alcoholism and drug use among young people, teen pregnancies and even murders in schools. These are all symptoms that our society is still very distant from God.
Thus, ten years ago, at the tenth anniversary celebration for the Times, I defined another mission for the media. This is, the need for media to promote ethics and moral values in our society. For its second ten years, I envisioned for The Washington Times the task of contributing to bringing about a moral society. Because a peaceful world is only possible based on the existence of peaceful, ideal families, the Times became a newspaper that helped people understand the importance of strong moral, family values. Even before the term “family values” became a popular phrase, every day of the week the Times was publishing articles highlighting the breakdown in values and what must be done to return to a good, moral society based on family values. The newspaper even began publishing a weekly Family Times section devoted to these issues. Today, family values have become an essential piece of the social fabric in America, even becoming part of the political landscape. We can be proud of The Washington Times contribution that promoted and elevated family values to an essential part of society in America and the world!
The first decade of The Washington Times was marked by its fight for freedom around the world in the midst of the Cold War. The second decade was marked by the Cultural War and the emphasis on building families infused with strong moral values. Now, as we enter the third decade of The Washington Times, this is time to emphasize and support faith, the time to emphasize and support spiritual values that are based on the faith of each individual. We must all understand clearly about God and the spiritual aspect of human life. Freedom at the world level, moral and ethical values at the family level, and faith at the individual level–these are the three great imperatives for our lives and for the media as well….
Our lives are not just eighty or one hundred years on this earth. We are born into this world through our physical parents, but we must know that ultimately God is our Parent. And after we die in this world, we continue to live in the world of the spirit. Is there any person on this earth who can avoid going into the spirit world when they die?
No matter how much money, knowledge or power he or she accumulated on earth, everyone is destined to go into the spirit world eventually. You may have made great efforts on the Earth to accumulate money, knowledge or power, but these will not guarantee your happiness in the spirit world. You would do well to invest effort to learn about the spirit world now, since God and the spirit world are at the roots of our eternal lives. In this sense, the spirit world is our hometown. How can anyone claim to be a true man or a true woman if he or she does not know God and the spirit world?
This is the time when each one of us can set his or her faith compass to God. This is not just Reverend Moon’s teaching, it is the providence of God. As the third component of freedom, family and faith, this individual connection to God stems from the same root as America’s founding tradition. I hope that each of you will also take up this mission of the media as your own and accept faith as the essential part of your character.
