“Why Does My Father Have to Go to Jail?”

Even in Danbury prison, I followed my principle of living for the
sake of others. I would wake up early in the morning and clean
places that were dirty. In the cafeteria, others would lean over
their food and either take a nap or chat among themselves, but I kept
my back straight and sat with dignity. When I was given work to do, I
worked harder at it than others did, and I kept an eye out to see how
others were doing. In my spare time, I read the Bible. One prisoner,
seeing how I read the Bible day and night, said to me, “Is that your
Bible? Here’s my Bible. Take a look!” He threw a magazine to me. It was
the pornographic magazine Hustler.
In prison, I was known as a person who worked without talking.
I read books and meditated. After going three months this way, I became
friends with the prisoners and the guards. I became friends with
a person who was on drugs and with the prisoner who had said the
pornographic magazine was his Bible. After a month or two, the prisoners
began to share with me the items they received from outside. Once
we could share our hearts, it was as if spring had come to the inside
of the prison.
Actually, the United States did not really want to send me to prison.
They chose to indict me while I was out of the country on a trip to
Germany, and they would have been satisfied if I had chosen not to
return. They weren’t trying to put me in jail. They were trying to remove
me from the country. I was becoming well known in America, and the
number of people following me was increasing. So they wanted to put
a roadblock in my way. Just as in Korea, I was a thorn in the side of the
established churches. Because I knew this was their purpose, I chose
to return to America and go to jail. I still had things that needed to be
done in America.
I think that going to jail is not a completely bad thing. If I am to get
people who are in the valley of tears to repent, then I must first shed tears.
Unless I first experience such a wretched heart, I cannot get others to
submit themselves to God. Heaven really works in mysterious ways. After
I was imprisoned, seven thousand ministers and other religious leaders
accused the U.S. government of violating religious freedom and began an
effort to save me. Among them was the conservative Rev. Jerry Falwell of
the Southern Baptist Convention and the liberal Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, who
gave the benediction during the inauguration of President Obama. They
stood at the forefront of the effort to save me. Also, my daughter In Jin, a
young girl of 20, marched with them. She stood before some seven thousand
clergy and read a letter that she had written to me in tears.
“Hello, everyone. I am In Jin Moon, the second daughter of Rev.
Sun Myung Moon. On July 20, 1984, it seemed that the end of the
world came to our family. This was the day that my father entered
Danbury prison. I never dreamed that such a thing would happen to
my father—especially in America, a land of the free that my father has
loved and served immensely. My father has worked hard since he came
to America. I have almost never seen him sleep. He rises early in the
morning to pray and work. I have never seen anyone work with greater
dedication to the future of America or to God. Yet, America has placed
my father in Danbury prison. Why does he have to go to Danbury?
He is not concerned about his own suffering. My father’s life has been
dotted with tears and suffering, as he sought to carry out God’s will.
He is now 64 years old. His only crime was that he loved America. Yet,
at this moment, he is either washing dishes in the prison cafeteria or
mopping its floors. Last week, I visited my father and saw him for the
first time in his prison uniform. I cried and cried. My father told me
not to cry for him but to pray for America. He told me to take my anger
and sorrow and transform these into a powerful force that will make
this a truly free country. He said that while he was in prison he would
endure any hardship, bear any injustice, and carry any cross. Freedom
of religion is the basis of all freedoms. I am truly grateful to everyone
here for supporting religious freedom.”
My sentence was reduced by six months for good behavior, and I was
released after serving thirteen months. The day I left prison, a banquet
to celebrate my release was held in Washington, D.C. Seventeen hundred
Christian ministers and Jewish rabbis were gathered and waiting
for me. In my remarks to the gathering, I repeated my position in favor
of transcending religions and denominations. I spoke in a loud voice
to the world at large, feeling no need for concern for the reaction from
those opposed to me.
“God is not a denominationalist. He is not bound by secondary
arguments over doctrine. There are no distinctions over nationality or
race in God’s great parental heart. Neither are there any walls between
nations or cultures there. Even today, God continues to do everything
He can to embrace all the world’s people as His children. America today
suffers from racial issues, issues resulting from the confusion of values
and moral degradation, issues of spiritual drought and the decline of
Christian faith, and the issue of atheistic communism. These are the
reasons I answered the call of God and came to this country. Christianity
today must have a great awakening and come together as one.
Clergy, too, must reexamine the roles that you have been playing until
now and repent. The situation that played out two thousand years ago,
when Jesus came and called on people to repent, is being repeated today.
We must fulfill the important mission that God has given to America.
The situation cannot continue as it is now. There needs to be a new
reformation.”
Once I had been released from prison, there was nothing to hold
me back. I spoke with an even louder voice than before to give a message
of warning to a fallen America. I repeatedly spoke in strong words
that returning to God’s love and morality is the only way to revitalize
America.
I was imprisoned without my having done anything wrong, but
God’s will was there as well. After my release, the people who worked
for my release took turns coming to Korea to learn more about my
work. They came to find out what it was about Reverend Moon’s spirit
that had attracted so many young people in America. On their return
to the United States, 120 of these ministers organized the American
Clergy Leadership Conference.