An int’l meet on ‘The Culture of Peace’ - FROM A DISTANCE by Carmen N. Pedrosa

An invitation that came out of the blue. Well, not quite. We had friends who knew the organizers of the conference. Yoly Hoffman, who represents an affiliate organization of the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP) asked us if we would like to join a conference in London from 29 September to October 2. The conference would discuss the theme "Global Character Education for a Culture of Peace." At the time that was all the information we had to go by. It sounded good and we accepted.

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Ongoing conferences for the renewal of the UN. After the initial contact made by Ms. Hoffman, a formal invitation was sent to both my husband and myself from Chung Hwan Kwak, chairman of the group. The invitation read in part that the IIFWP was a worldwide network of leaders from all fields of experience and expertise who work collaboratively for the sake of world peace, at local, national and international levels. The letter of invitation also informed us that this was not the first conference of the sort. The group had been sponsoring international conferences since its inaugural assembly in July 1999. Prior to the London conference, the IIFWP sponsored Assembly 2000 that prepared a compendium of policy documents for the Millennium Summit and General Assembly of the United Nations. The compendium is entitled "Renewing the United Nations and Building a Culture of Peace" – A Report from the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace Assembly 2000. This was the conference in New York that President Erap attended without First Lady, Loi.

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The Moonies. The seminars explained Chairman Chung Hwan Kwak are dedicated to promoting moral renewal, the strengthening of families, encouraging responsible citizenship, developing a global consciousness and an attitude of living for the sake of others. These goals, he added, are central to the founding vision and ideals of the IIFWP, and have been expressed in the words of its founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Unfortunately, followers of Rev. Moon are pejoratively called the Moonies with implications of a religious cult with bizarre teachings. The Moonies were first publicized in the Philippines because of a mass blessing of Filipinas and Koreans. Some newspaper reports said this was a clever strategy for the illegal immigration of Filipino women into Seoul. I never did follow up what happened to that story.

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Explaining mixed marriages and a tax case. To this day, the group is saddled with an unsavory image in the Philippines as a group that had arranged marriages between Filipinas and Koreans for dubious reasons like evading immigration restrictions. Rev. Moon was also accused in a tax evasion case in the United States. The effect of the publicity from these two occasions had given the group a bad name. However I am told that the mass blessing of mixed marriages has been satisfactorily explained and the tax case in the US was ultimately resolved. Forty religious groups came forward to support Rev. Moon on the tax evasion case covering some US$7,200. Mixed marriages are encouraged by IIWFP as one way of unifying the world. After all, what better way to bring about a peaceful and happy world than through successful mixed marriages and making happy families.

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IIWFP is very mainstream. With such a background in mind, imagine my surprise at what I discovered in London over the weekend. Far from being a dubious or shadowy cult, IIWFP is in fact, very mainstream. It may have been founded by a Korean Presbyterian but since its founding, it has drawn on the support of some of the most important men and women in comtemporary history. Among the speakers in Assembly 2000 in New York for example were Sir Edward Heath, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Senator Robert Dole, former US Senate Majority Leader, Former President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda and former President of Costa Rica Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oscar Arias. In London I met with the former President of Estonia, Prince Mohsin Ali Khan of Hyderabad, Nordov Bolormaa, MP in the Parliament of Mongolia and world famous Zen Master Kosen Nishiyama, professor of Buddhist Studies.

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Rev. Moon has hit on a simple formula for bringing about a world of peace – introduce the peoples of the world to each other. It was that simple. While it is true that he has started with prominent politicians, academics and journalists he hopes to create a core group in each country who will then carry the message throughout the world so that we will ultimately become a family of man. This is not a new idea. But what can be said of IIWFP is that they are actually doing it, actually putting people together in reading and learning sessions about how to live with and love each other. The international seminar, such as the one my husband and I attended in London was a marketplace of ideas, albeit imbued with a profound and lofty goal of ultimately creating a culture of peace. Only then, Rev. Moon teaches, can we hope to have a world of peace. What’s moony about that?

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My e-mail address is: [email protected]