The wedding that never was ยป
by William HainesIn one of his passing comments at the ODP workshop, Reverend Eu said that Father Moon should have married an English lady, and that his wedding should have been arranged by the Queen of England. Obviously that didn’t happen, but it set me to thinking about how it could have happened and why it didn’t happen.
One of the most troubling questions for me has been the allegation that Britain had an important role to play in God’s providence, namely that of the Eve nation, but had somehow failed and thus lost its position. Rev Eu reiterated this – after the Second World War the victorious nations should have ‘connected’ to Father and on that foundation the kingdom of heaven could have been quickly established. However Britain didn’t connect and so ‘failed’. But I have never been able to accept that Britain failed as Britain in my opinion never had the opportunity to succeed under this scenario. Father didn’t, as far as I can tell, ever have any meaningful contact with Britain. I asked Rev Eu about this over lunch and he wasn’t able to shed any light on it either although he did provide some interesting details of Father’s life at this time – Father was one of twelve people who were appointed to a special council to support the first president of Korea, Syngman Rhee. The other eleven were Korean Christians who had been abroad during the Japanese occupation. Father had been recommended by his grandfather who knew Syngman Rhee. Unfortunately the others didn’t like Father and he was ejected from the council.
I think there was a possible way for Father to have met and married a prominent English Christian. In 1902 Britain made an alliance with Japan which enabled Japan to occupy Korea. This was to thwart the ambitions of Russia who also wanted to control Korea. Britain was trying to stop the eastward expansion of the Russian Empire. However, if Britain had been able to make Korea a British protectorate the outcome would have been very different. For example, instead of 40 years of oppression and attempted cultural extermination under Japanese occupation, Korea would have been ruled in an enlightened manner, Christianity would have been encouraged along with a liberal educational system, an uncorrupt civil service, the rule of law and the basic institutions of civil society including a love of freedom. Young scholars from the leading families of the colonies and protectorates of the British empire, such as Nehru and Gandhi, were sent to school in England and often went on to university before returning to their own countries. It is not hard to imagine that Father, coming from a prominent family, would had the opportunity to come here to study at Eton or Harrow. In such a world it would have been easy for Father to have entered the highest social circles and even come into contact with the royal family. One knows that Father, being Father, would have made a very favourable impression and . . . . well the sky would have been the limit. A useful bonus for all of us of course would have been that Father would have learned to speak English fluently. Unfortunately it is hard, given the geo-political circumstances at the time, to imagine how or why Britain would have made Korea a protectorate as Koreans had violently rebuffed all earlier western attempts to make contact.
However, had Father married a prominent English Christian this would have produce a couple which would have naturally embodied and integrated the best of the East and West, it would have meant that the fruit of the Abel-type democracy that developed here: the rule of law, civil society, properly run institutions etc. would have been inherited and become the basis for Chung Il Guk.
Instead our polity is based on a very undeveloped, parochial, non-universal, tribal society. If Father should have married an English woman, but was unable to, we should perhaps recognise that the way things are is not the way God wanted things to be. In which case we should be making more effort in the Unification movement to inherit the Judeo-Christian foundation of Abel-type democracies such as the UK instead of thinking that something is best because it is Korean and that Korean political culture should be at the basis of Chung Il Guk whereas the way things are is, like much else, an accident of history.
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