In 1988, Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics. I saw this as a potential
festival of peace in my own backyard and had many of our
members from around the world come to Seoul for the event. The
members helped guide the international athletes and officials, cheered
the athletes, served them food, and presented them with mementos
of their visit to Korea. Since China and the Soviet Union were both
participants in the Games, I saw it as an event that could critically alter
the Cold War era. Seeing the Olympic Games as a festival of peace gave
it the potential to create harmony between the communist bloc and
the free world. On the day of the opening ceremony I sat in the general
seating area of Jamsil Main Stadium and watched with great joy.
After the Olympics, I carried on the energy of the Games by founding
the Ilhwa Chunma professional soccer team. The Ilhwa team has
won several championships and built up a strong fan base. We have
since founded the soccer teams Clube Atlético Sorocaba and Centro Esportivo
Nova Esperança (CENE) in Brazil, the home of samba football,
and continue to operate them today. The reason I chose to create soccer
teams is that I enjoy the sport. I have enjoyed sports since I was young,
and for a time I did some boxing and some traditional martial arts. Soccer,
however, is the one sport that I continue to enjoy into my old age. In
my school days I used to run around the schoolyard diligently kicking
the ball, but now I enjoy watching it. When the World Cup was held in
Seoul, I had three television sets set up side by side so that I could watch
all the games. I never missed a game that Korea played.
Soccer is a microcosm of life. No matter how well I might dribble the
ball down the field, if someone from the opposing team who is faster
and more skilled comes along and steals the ball away from me, then
in an instant everything I did until then is for nothing. Also, even if
I might dribble all the way down the field and take a shot at the goal,
if the ball hits the goalpost and bounces back, that’s the end. It’s up to
me to dribble the ball, but it takes more than one person to get the ball
into the goal. I need a teammate like Ji Sung Park, who will assist me at
the critical moment, or someone like Young Pyo Lee, who will adroitly
draw the other team away from me.
The most important person on the team is the manager, who watches
over the entire team from the sidelines. The manager doesn’t run or
score goals, but his power is greater than that of all the players put
together. Similar to a manager who sees things that the players cannot
see and gives signals, God sees things that we cannot see and gives us
signs. If the players follow the manager’s signs well, they will almost
always win. But if the manager sends signs and foolish players either
don’t understand them or ignore them and play according to their own
thinking, the team can only lose.
Soccer is a sport where competition takes place and someone wins or
loses, but it also has the potential for significantly influencing countries
and increasing their cooperation toward peace. I was told that twice as
many people watched the World Cup as watched the Olympics. This
provides an idea of how many people around the world love soccer.
Therefore, just like the Olympics, it has the power to become a force for
harmony between countries, races, religions, and cultures. I see soccer
and peace among countries as potentially powerful partners.
Pelé, who was appointed as Brazil’s Extraordinary Minister for Sport
in 1995, once visited Korea and spent time in the Hannam Dong neighborhood
of Seoul. People remember him as the greatest soccer player
in the world, but the Pelé I met was a peace activist. He wanted to bring
world peace through soccer. When I met him, he laughed as he told
me the story of a game in Africa. He said, “I once played in Gabon in
Africa, but the country was at war then. How do you think we were able
play in a place where bombs were exploding all around? Thankfully,
there was a cease-fire during the time that we played. That’s when I
realized deeply that football was more than just a sport where we kick
a ball around. Football is a means shared by all people in the world
for creating world peace. After that, I decided that I had to carry out a
movement for world peace through football.”
I was so impressed with Pelé in that moment that I firmly grasped his
hand. We live in a competitive society where there is a great deal of stress.
Stress creates tension in our lives and takes away our peace of mind. When
stress accumulates, people can become irritated and sometimes fight each
other. Sports and the arts are examples of things that help us to lower our
levels of stress. These things help us to vent our pent-up urges and bring
humanity together. The reason for my devotion to soccer teams, symphony
orchestras, and ballet companies is that these activities are a means to bring
world peace. Pelé understands this kind of thinking.
Finding ourselves in agreement, Pelé and I created a new competition
of international dimensions called Peace Cup, and tournaments
have been held every two years since 2003. We brought famous soccer
teams from around the world to Korea. A corresponding women’s
tournament called the Peace Queen Cup is held in alternate years. In
the summer of 2009 we held the first men’s tournament outside Korea.
The 2009 competition was held in Spain’s Andalusia region. All profits
from the tournaments are used to support soccer events for children
and youth in developing countries. In particular, we use soccer to help
children with physical disabilities keep their dreams alive.
Working with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
the U.N. refugee agency, we held a soccer tournament for young people
in Liberia. This is a country where fifteen years of tribal warfare has
left its people exhausted. It receives special protection from the United
Nations because of its precipitous drop in population. The children of
this war-torn country gathered together to play soccer and sing songs
of peace. In the process of kicking the ball around, they were learning
skills of teamwork and fair play that are necessary for bringing harmony
between tribes.
The Peace Cup organization also has a goal of building a peace
stadium in the Israel–Palestine–Jordan region, as close as possible to
the Israel–Palestine border. The stadium would be freely available to
all as a peace-building venture. We want to bring famous coaches from
Europe and start a soccer academy for the children in the region. The
adults may want to point guns at each other, but the children will want
to come to the soccer stadium and kick the ball around. People say it is
unrealistic and shake their heads, but we will do this. Already a member
of the Israeli cabinet has said the stadium should be built in the Israeli
area, and a member of the Palestinian cabinet says it should be in the
Palestinian area. I am determined, however, to build it in a way that
connects the two sides. I am not one to be pressured into giving up my
dreams. I have a bullheaded strength of will that I use to pursue dreams
that will lead to a world of peace.
arts
The creation of our ballet company is a perfect example of the same
strength of will. People said it couldn’t be done. We established the Universal
Ballet in 1984. Today more people in Korea are enjoying ballet
than ever before. When we first created our ballet company, Korea was
like a barren wasteland as far as ballet was concerned. Korea now even
has its own world-renowned ballerinas.
Every time I watch ballet, I feel that this must be what art in the
Heavenly Kingdom is like. When a ballerina stands on her toes and
holds her head toward the heavens, this stance strikes me as a perfect
pose for the way we should hold God in awe. It has the look of ardent
desire. In ballet, human beings can use the beautiful body given to them
by God to express their love for Him. It is the highest form of art.
The Universal Ballet began by performing Swan Lake and the Nutcracker
Suite. It has added Don Quixote, Giselle, and its own original
creations Shim Chung and The Love of Chunhyang. It has developed
to the point of being internationally acclaimed. The Universal Ballet
receives invitations from the world’s most famous venues. Its dancers
are credited with adding a uniquely Korean beauty to the energetic
moves of Western ballet. They are praised for the way they harmonize
Eastern and Western styles in their performances. The Universal Ballet
has an academy in Washington, D.C. I also created the New York City
Symphony Orchestra and the New Hope Singers.
The arts enable humankind to reflect the high ideals embodied in
God’s own creative work. God poured His entire heart into human beings
and the world He created, just as artists invest their entire being
into their works. The Book of Genesis makes it seem as though things
came into being simply by God speaking a word, but that is absolutely
not how it was. God invested all His energy into creating the waters and
the land. In the same way, the movements of the ballerinas onstage are
fruits of the creative process that require total investment.
The same thing can be said about soccer. A successful soccer team
will invest its full energies into a ninety-minute game. In making a
single run for the goal, a player will invest every bit of energy that he
can call up, as if his life depended on it. This is similar to what God went
through as He created the world. To pour out everything we have, to
offer ourselves up completely for the sake of one moment in time—this
is how greatness is achieved and how humankind comes to resemble
God.
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